I finally found a setting that works for me. On Events I found that 30 minutes before to be just the right amount of time to be notified whether I’m at home, my home office, at the office or even on the go. For All Day Events I decided to set my alert to 1 day before. On my settings it reads as 1 day before (9 AM).. I’m not completely sure where it gets the 9 AM from and how to tweak that but it works for my needs. Lastly, for Birthdays I set it to alert me 2 days before. I figured 2 days notification would give me just enough time to send a card or gift or coordinate a get together and what not.
For the check boxes at the bottom I checked them all as they all seem like nice features to have enabled. I like getting notified when it’s time to leave. I like all calendar messages to show up in Notification Center. And having invitation messages in Notification Center makes it easier to accept or decline. In short, I find that those 3 settings improved my workflow and did not cause any distraction. I’m sure this will vary among users so it’s best to try it out and then start un-checking settings or even tweaking your alerts as you see fit. These are just what I find comfortable at the moment.
And if you have several account, think about if you want to set up that same settings for those too. To keep things simple and consistent – I opted to apply the same settings for all my other accounts.
What settings do you like to use and why?