Itsycal

A month grid that drops out of the menu bar, with the next few events listed under it.

What it does

Itsycal replaces the menu bar clock with a date you can click. The click opens a month grid and, below it, the agenda for the next few days. Events come from Calendar.app through EventKit, so whatever accounts macOS already syncs — iCloud, Google, Exchange — show up with no second login, and an event can be created from the grid without opening the full app.

The date format is a strftime string, which is the setting that makes it worth installing: the stock clock offers a short list of layouts, Itsycal lets the bar read exactly E d MMM HH:mm or nothing but a date. Apple’s own clock is then turned off in System Settings → Control Centre → Clock Options so the bar is not showing the time twice.

Calendar access is a permission prompt on first launch. Denied, the grid still works as a calendar — it just has no events in it.

Alternative to

Alternative	Type	Trade-off
System Settings → Control Centre → Clock Options	Built in	Date and time, no calendar behind them
Calendar.app	Built in	A window to open, not a glance
Fantastical	Freemium	Natural-language entry, and a whole calendar client
Dato	Paid	Time zones and a one-click join for the next meeting
MeetingBar	Open source	The next meeting in the bar rather than a month