📅All Things Calendars

Introduction

Calendars in Motion are the backbone of how your work and time come together. By connecting your external accounts — Google, Microsoft, or iCloud — Motion pulls in your events, layers them alongside tasks, and helps you plan without juggling multiple apps.

Motion organizes calendars into layers:

• Accounts (e.g., your work Google account, your personal iCloud account)

• My Calendars (specific calendars within an account, such as “Work,” “Personal,” or “Team”)

• Frequently Met With (people you collaborate with most often, to streamline scheduling)

Understanding how these layers fit together makes it easier to manage visibility, set defaults, and avoid conflicts.

At a Glance

• Understand calendar layers: Accounts, My Calendars, and Frequently Met With

• Adjust calendar settings like visibility, default save location, and time zones

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Calendar structure

⭐ A very important concept to understand

Motion uses three calendar layers: Accounts, My Calendars, and Frequently Met With to optimize scheduling. Understanding how each works helps you configure Motion for the most accurate and productive setup.

Calendars in Motion mirror the way external providers (Google, Microsoft, iCloud) are organized — but Motion adds a layer of intelligence to make scheduling smoother.

• Accounts → The top layer. Each connected account (work Google, personal iCloud, etc.) serves as the source of calendars.

• Calendars within accounts → Each account can have multiple calendars (e.g., “Work,” “Personal,” “Holidays”). These are what Motion calls My Calendars once added.

• Frequently Met With → Motion detects teammates and collaborators you meet with often, showing their calendars so you can plan around their availability.

Think of it like this:

• Your Accounts are the foundation.

• Your My Calendars are the calendars you actively manage that affect your availability.

• Your Frequently Met With layer helps you coordinate with others.

💡 Pro tip: If a calendar affects your availability, make sure it’s enabled in My Calendars. If it’s just for visibility, add it under Frequently Met With.

Accounts: Your Primary Calendars

Accounts are the external calendar providers you connect to Motion — Google, Microsoft Outlook, or iCloud. You can set one account as your Main Calendar, which becomes the default host for any events or meetings you schedule in Motion. The main calendar also determines which account Motion uses for uni-directional and bi-directional syncing.

Key difference from My Calendars:

1. Accounts are tied directly to your email identity, so they unify all calendars under that provider.

2. Sub-calendars don’t exist in “Accounts” — they appear under “My Calendars” instead.

Why 'Accounts' Matter:

The Accounts section can hold a variety of calendars, allowing for the option switch main calendars in Motion, if need be. This allows you flexibility when balancing a variety of schedules, ensuring you are always up to date with your scheduling obligations internally in Motion and externally in your main calendar.

Example Scenario:

Emily has two calendars linked to Motion: "[email protected]" (personal) and "[email protected]" (work). She has set "[email protected]" as her main calendar. As a result, all new events will automatically be added to her work calendar by default.

My Calendars: Extending Your Ownership

My Calendars includes everything pulled from your connected accounts, plus any sub-calendars those accounts provide (e.g., “Birthdays” or “Holidays” in Google Calendar). These calendars can’t be set as your main calendar but are still visible and manageable in Motion.

Why 'My Calendars' Matter:

The calendars saved in your My Calendars section are integral as they are the calendars in which an event's free/busy status will directly impact Motion's auto-scheduling.

Example Scenario:

Let’s revisit Emily's calendar configuration. She has her professional calendar, [email protected], set as the main calendar, and her personal calendar, [email protected], in My Calendars.

Emily wants to schedule her family reunion on her personal calendar, even though her work calendar is set as her main calendar. By selecting [email protected] as the host for the family reunion, Emily can keep her work schedule unaffected while managing personal events.

Frequently Met With: Coordinating with Others

Frequently Met With shows calendars that Motion identifies from teammates, colleagues, or clients you collaborate with most. These don’t affect auto-scheduling of your tasks, but they give you quick visibility into availability, making it easier to coordinate meetings without back-and-forth.

Why It Matters:

The Frequently Met With section provides a streamlined way to manage collaboration. By integrating shared calendars into Motion, you can easily display your colleagues schedule against your own to find time to meet or collaborate with them, without any impact on your own calendar’s scheduling.

This feature improves scheduling efficiency with collaborators and colleagues and helps you avoid potential scheduling conflicts when trying to coordinate with multiple participants.

Example Scenario:

Emily works with a colleague named Jill, who has shared her calendar, [email protected] with Emily. Emily saved Jill’s calendar under her Frequently Met With calendars allowing Emily to seamlessly view Jill's availability.

When Emily plans a meeting, she can toggle on Jill's calendar to displays Jill’s schedule and check for times of availability; ensuring she chooses a time when Jill is free to meet. Additionally, saving Jill’s calendar in the Frequently Met With section will not impact Emily's existing auto-scheduled tasks and events.

How do I connect Google Calendar to Motion

How do I connect Google Calendar to Motion?

1. First, make sure you’re logged into your Motion account at app.usemotion.com or using the Desktop app. (Need the desktop app? See instructions here.)

2. At the top left of the screen, click the Settings icon.

3. Then, click on Calendars.

4. Under the Accounts section, click Add Account.

5. Select Add Google Calendar.

6. Motion will ask for permissions so it can access your calendar events.

7. You’ll be redirected to a Google sign-in screen—log in with your Google account.

8. Google will confirm that you’d like to give Motion permissions.

9. Click Allow.

10. Your Google Calendar is now linked!

How do I connect Microsoft Outlook to Motion

How do I connect Microsoft Outlook to Motion?

1. First, make sure you’re logged into your Motion account at app.usemotion.com or using the Desktop app. (Need the desktop app? See instructions here.)

2. At the top left of the screen, click the Settings icon.

3. Then, click on Calendars.

4. Under the Accounts section, click Add Account.

5. Select Add Outlook Calendar

6. Motion will ask for permissions so it can access your calendar events.

7. You’ll be redirected to a Microsoft sign-in screen—log in with your Microsoft account.

8. Microsoft will confirm that you’d like to give Motion permissions.

9. Click Accept.

10. Your Microsoft Calendar is now linked!

How do I connect iCloud calendar to Motion

How do I connect iCloud Calendar to Motion?

To add an iCloud calendar, first create an app-specific password in iCloud:

1. Sign into your Apple ID here.

2. Click "App-Specific" passwords.

3. Generate an app-specific password.

4. Add your password name, then click Create

5. Copy the app-specific password.

Once your app-specific password has been created, click Next.

1. Go to your settings, and select Add account

2. Click on Add iCloud calendar

3. Enter your iCloud email address

4. Enter your app-specific password

5. Click Connect

Add iCloud calendar walkthrough

App-specific password creation walkthrough

Adjust calendar settings - Visibility, Defaults, and time zones

Adjust Calendar Settings — Visibility, Defaults, and Time Zones

Once your calendars are connected, you can fine-tune how Motion uses them. These settings ensure your schedule reflects the right commitments without unnecessary clutter.

Visibility

• In My Calendars, toggle calendars on or off to control which ones affect your availability.

• Example: Keep “Work” and “Personal” on, but hide “Holidays” if you don’t want those blocking time.

Default Save Location

• Set your Main Calendar as the default place where new events are saved.

• Example: If you host most meetings from your work Google account, make that your default.

• Tasks are still managed in Motion, but events follow your chosen calendar.

Time Zones

• Motion uses the time zone you set in your calendar settings.

• Important: Motion does not auto-switch your time zone when you travel. If you change time zones, you’ll need to update it manually.

• Motion will detect when you’ve entered another time zone and remind you to switch.

💡 Pro tip: Keep only the calendars that impact your availability visible. This keeps your calendar uncluttered and makes Motion’s scheduling smarter.