Well, it’s that time of year again: daylight saving time. That time where we all get to pretend we’re time lords and meddle with the fabric of the space-time continuum. Parents of young children and farmers (and anyone with a love of schedules and routine, probably) are counting down the days to this change with apprehension and dread.

We could go on and on about the history of DST as a productivity hack (did you know Benjamin Franklin first proposed the idea in his “An Economical Project” written in 1784 to keep ‘the sluggards’ from using too much candle wax?), and we’re sure you all have opinions on how useful or chaotic this change actually is… but we’re all about being flexible here, and the important thing is that DST exists (for now, at least) and we have to get through it somehow.

Fantastical is here to help

If you have travel time notifications enabled, of course Fantastical will remind you get to that appointment on time, no matter what the clock on your microwave says.

And, while Fantastical can’t help you change the time on your microwave, it can make it easier to schedule things with your European friends while we wait for them to do their own time lord routine later this month.

In Settings > Advanced you will find multiple ways to bend time zones to your will.

Screenshot of Fantastical's Advanced Settings pane showing all of the options for time zone manipulation.

Show second time zone in day and week view adds a second timeline on the right of your calendar so you can visually see the different time zone right on your calendar.

Show favorite time zones with event details puts those time zones right in front of you when you are creating new events. This feature is particularly wonderful if you need to juggle multiple time zones when scheduling meetings.

And time zone override shows you what your schedule will look like in any time zone, whether that’s a preview of what next week’s meeting will look like with the time change or planning ahead for a summer camping trip out west.

For those of us who are frustrated by this timely dance, there is, perhaps, hope on the horizon. It seems as though this discussion crops up every year and nothing comes of it, but the EU and Canada and the United States all have promising legislation in progress. The EU voted in 2019 to scrap the time change, and several Canadian provinces have passed legislation making DST permanent. Last year the US Senate unanimously approved a bill allowing permanent DST in all US States, and the bill was reintroduced to the House on March 6 of this year. If it passes there, this might be the last time we have to dig out the owner’s manual for our microwaves.

For now, you can trust that Fantastical has your back, no matter what time it is where you are.