You know when you have to do so many different things and you have the feeling that time is never enough? You haven’t even had time to wake up and think about what to do when the sun is already setting! OK, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I guess I get the idea, you know what I’m talking about.
Organizing the day is very important to be productive, to complete as many things as possible, and all done well. Having a method of arranging commitments and knowing how to respect them will lead you to notice that you can do many things in the space of an entire day.
How to outline the various commitments, giving them the right importance and dedicating the necessary time to everything? If you’re reading this tutorial, we both know that the solution is sometimes right at your fingertips, or rather, on smartphones.
Today I will show you some apps to organize your day that will surely help you to optimize your time: put them to the test and I assure you that you will not regret it!
Preliminary Information
Whether you just want to organize your day or, on a bigger scale, manage entire projects, keep track of how much time you spend on each activity or make appointments, here is everything that’s right for you. I have prepared a list of applications available for both Android and iOS / iPadOS, with the ability to synchronize data across multiple devices, ideal to meet your needs and requirements.
Always having a to-do list at hand and being able to consult and update it immediately will represent a turning point in your days.
Top Apps to Organize Your Day, Work, and Time
Without further ado, I wish you a good read, and remember: time is precious and should not be wasted! Below are the top productivity apps to help you plan your day.
1. Todoist
Todoist is such a simple and minimal app but, at the same time, extremely functional, considered one of the best on the to-do list. It is very useful for organizing activities immediately, remembering deadlines using dates and reminders, monitoring progress, and creating projects, both individual and collective, to share with your collaborators.
You can use it on all devices, to make it usable at any time thanks to automatic data synchronization.
- Download Todoist app for Android
- Download the Todoist app for iOS/iPad
- Todoist for Windows 10
- Todoist for MacOS
- Todoist for Linux OS
- and, finally, as a plugin for ( Gmail and Outlook ) and an extension for browsers ( Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari ).
If the free version is not enough, two paid packages are available: Premium and Business. Among the differences, there is the number of projects that can be created (up to 80 projects for the free version, up to 300 for the Premium and up to 500 for the Business), the number of collaborators for each project (up to 5 for the free version, up to 25 for Premium and up to 50 for Business).
Instead, only for Premium and Business are added reminders, comments to tasks or projects, uploading files, labels, filters, productivity trends, premium themes, an activity log, and priority assistance.
Finally, features such as role assignment (admin and members), a shared team inbox, and centralized billing are available only for Business users.
The cost of the Premium package is 4 euros/month, or, with an annual payment, of 36 euros (basically 3 euros per month), while the price of the Business package (with a free trial period of 30 days) is 6 euros/month or, with annual payment, of 60 euros (basically 5 euros per month).
Once downloaded, Todoist asks you to sign up (you can sign in with Facebook, or Google account or sign up using email ). As I told you, the app is fluid and intuitive, you just need to press the button with the symbol (+) to add a new activity and, subsequently, write what your goal is.
Furthermore, you can write a specific day of the week, to automatically assign your activity to the preset day using natural language (eg “Sunday dinner with relatives” is entered as a commitment for Sunday).
When you have finished drawing up the to-do list, you can view the various activities by pressing the menu icon (the three horizontal lines) located at the top left.
Here you will find the Inbox menu containing all the activities not carried out (past, today, and the next few days), the Today menu which shows you the activities to be carried out during the day, and the Next 7 days menu which contains all the things to do in the next days. Finally, to check off a completed activity, tap on the circle located to the left of the activity itself.
Sometimes, you may need to group your activities by goals that perhaps involve multiple people, or you may need to separate business from personal activities. Don’t worry: there are Projects made especially for this! To create a new project, click on the menu icon (the three horizontal lines) located at the top left, then click on the Projects button and, finally, on the Add project button.
In the screen that opens, fill in the details of your project, write the Name to be assigned, choose a color and, if the project requires the participation of more people, click on the Add collaborators button. When everything is ready, tap on the arrow icon, located at the top right. Once the creation of the project is complete, press the button with the symbol (+), to start adding activities.
Other functions are visible by pressing the menu icon (the three horizontal lines) located at the top left. As you can see there is the Labels menu (available only for premium and business ), the Filters menu, to see only activities that have a certain filter (eg all activities with a “Priority 1” filter) and, finally, the Settings menu, to change personal data, themes and so on.
Once tried, it will surely become your “pocket planner” for things to do, helping you to organize all your days well!
2. ATracker
ATracker is a time-tracking app for various daily activities. Very intuitive and simple to use, it also allows you to monitor time trends thanks to the use of the practical bar or pie charts. It is available for Android and iOS / iPadOS in the free version, Pro version (for 3.09 euros for Android and 5.49 euros for iOS), and Premium (with a subscription of 2.89 euros/month or 28.99 euros/year for Android and 2.99 euros/month or 27.49 euros/year for iOS).
The main difference between the various packages is that the Pro version allows you to enter an unlimited number of “tasks” (in the free version the maximum is 5 tasks), allows you to export data in CSV or graphs via email, allows you to customize the app background, removes advertisements, while, only for iOS devices, it becomes compatible with Apple Watch and allows the synchronization of multiple devices (iOS) via Dropbox.
Instead, the Premium version, in addition to what is included in the Pro version, allows access to ATracker via the Web on PC and Mac, allows the synchronization of multiple devices (Android, iOS, and Web), and, finally, allows an unlimited number of numeric or drop-down labels for “tasks”.
Once you have downloaded and installed the app, you will be greeted by a tutorial that illustrates its main features. To create a new task, press the round button with the symbol (+) and fill in all the fields that are requested.
Choose the name of the task, the icon you want to give it, and the color, and add a description. Furthermore, you can activate an alarm by establishing how many hours or minutes it should sound. When you have finished filling in all the fields, click on the Done button located at the top right.
Now you just have to start an activity to do by tapping on it. The same thing applies if you want to stop an activity that is already in progress: just press on the task you want to stop or press on another task to start a different activity by stopping the previous one.
To see the progress of your activities you have a calendar, a history, and two types of graphs available. To view the details of an entire day, press the Calendar button located at the bottom of the screen.
As you can see, the whole day is divided into hours and its purpose is not only to provide a visual reference. In fact, by pressing on a certain time, you can add an activity that you may have forgotten to mark, setting the start and end times.
Also by pressing the History button, located at the bottom of the screen, you can see a summary of your daily activities, alongside, the relative elapsed time. Furthermore, from here you can edit an activity, by pressing on it or delete it, by lightly touching it from right to left and then pressing on the trash can icon.
As the last summary, you have the graphs that you can view by pressing the Report button, also located at the bottom of the screen. In this section, you can choose whether to look at the pie chart, by clicking on the pie chart icon, or the bar chart, by clicking on the bar chart icon (both located at the top left).
3. Goal Meter
Goal Meter is a great app for improving your daily routine, planning your days and, as its name suggests, setting and achieving goals. Its design is well done, and the designs and characters that characterize it make it even more pleasant to use.
Available only for Android devices in the free version or the Premium version, at the price of 4.59 euros, which allows you to add an unlimited number of objectives (in the free version the maximum is 3 objectives), add more drawings and remove advertisements.
Once downloaded and installed, register (you can log in with Facebook, with a Google account, or register using email ).
After that, you can read the tutorial, to understand how to use Goal Meter. First of all, you need to create a new goal: to do this, click on the button with the (+) symbol located at the bottom right, then click on the Add Goal button. Here you will find a list of objectives divided into categories and, each of them is divided into sub-categories.
- Studying – in turn, is divided into Studying Hard, Reading a Book, and Preparing for an Exam.
- Exercise – in turn, is divided into Exercise, Stretching, Running, Walking, Biking, Swimming, Yoga, Climbing, Dancing, Soccer, Rugby, and Skiing.
- Nutrition – in turn, is divided into Breakfast, No Fast Food, Lose Weight, Eat Fruit and Vegetables and Eat Fish.
- Working – in turn, is divided into Working hard, Planning your day, Network relationships, Applying for a new job, Organizing your workplace, and Staying focused at work.
- Health – in turn, is divided into Medical check-ups, Dental check-ups, Meditate, Getting enough sleep, Lunch breaks, and Going on vacation.
- Bad habits to quit – which in turn is divided into Quitting Smoking, Quitting Drugs, Not Watching Too Much TV, and Stopping Pain Relief.
- Money – in turn is divided into Saving, Paying Off Debts, Paying Credit Cards, Paying Off Student Debts, Emergency Funding, and Living on Less Than I Earn.
If you don’t find your goal among those available, in all categories you can create a custom goal. To do this, once you have chosen the objective and the subcategory you prefer, click on the Create objective button, then choose the Name of the objective and define the final objective by giving it a unit of measurement (e.g. how long it takes for the completion of the goal divided into hours or minutes, how far to go to reach a goal by choosing the number of meters or kilometers, the amount of weight for a given goal calculated in grams or kilos, etc.).
When you’ve finished perfecting your goal, press the check button positioned at the top right, to confirm.
To a goal you can add various tasks necessary to achieve it: to do this, press again on the button with the symbol (+) located at the bottom right. This time press the button Add Task, choose the name of your routine, it indicates the days of the week, select a goal created earlier, to assign the task to that particular objective and, if you prefer, you can choose a time to start and end for the task you are creating. When everything is ready, press the button with the check symbol located at the top right, to confirm.
To view everything, click on the menu icon (the three horizontal lines) located at the top left and then click on the Things to do button if you want to see all your tasks; instead, press the Routine button if you want to see your daily routine, while to view the list of all the objectives to be achieved or graphically check your progress, press the Objectives and Report buttons respectively.
Download the Goal Meter App for Android
4. Doodle
Doodle is an app for arranging appointments with other people, ideal for finding the best time or day for any type of event. If you are planning meetings, business meetings, or, why not, even more simply a party or a barbecue, this is the app for you.
Available for Android and iOS / iPadOS in a free version, in the Starter version at the price of 3.50 euros/month, in the Pro version at the price of 5 euros/month, in the Team version at the price of 25 euros/month, for 5 users ( 50 euros/month for 10 users and 100 euros/month for 20 users) and, finally, in versionEnterprise, for organizations that need greater customization, control and assistance with a price to be determined together with the app managers.
The Starter package allows you to remove advertisements, synchronize meetings on calendars, add deadlines and reminders, request email, telephone, and address of participants, monitor invitations to meetings (e.g. who has viewed and has not yet given an answer) and allows you to connect Doodle with more than 1,000 apps to automate tasks.
The Pro package, in addition to everything included in the Starter package, allows you to add your logo and branding, choose a custom URL, and allow you to create 1: 1 Doodle meetings (faster organization between two people).
The Team package is designed for groups of people (from a minimum of 5 users to a maximum of 20) and, in addition to all the features of the Pro package, it adds priority assistance, management of multiple users and a Doodle Bot to automatically schedule meetings.
Finally, the Enterprise package, in addition to all the previous functions, adds unique ad-hoc functions, custom billing, and legal terms, a dedicated success manager, a guaranteed response time from the support (within 6 hours) and allows authentication unique with your company credentials.
Once downloaded and installed, Doodle welcomes you with some explanatory slides, after which it asks you to sign up (you can log in with Facebook, with a Google account, or register using email ). Once this is done, you need to create a survey: then press the button with the symbol (+) located at the bottom right and proceed following the instructions on the screen.
There are two types of polls you can take: if you want to organize an event giving attendees the option to choose from several available days, press the Find a date button. In the screen that opens, then choose the Title of your survey, select the dates to be made available and, if you prefer, you can establish a place, add notes to the survey and change its settings such as, for example, making the survey hidden by guaranteeing the anonymity of the names and votes of the participants, or give the possibility of only one vote per participant.
When your survey is complete, click on the Create button located at the top right and invite participants (via WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS, Email, or by copying the link of your event).
If, on the other hand, you want to create a survey where participants have to choose between various options, press the button with the symbol (+) located at the bottom right and then tap the Make a choice button. Here you can choose the title of your survey, add various choice options and, as before, optionally choose a place, add notes and customize settings. When you have perfected your survey, click on the Create button, located at the top right, and invite participants.
To view the summary of your polls, click on the menu icon (the three horizontal lines) located at the top left and then click on the Polls button. Fast and straightforward, Doodle makes organizing appointments a breeze.
Other Apps to Organize Your Day
In addition to the applications I showed you earlier, there are many other useful ones to organize the day. Here, then, is another list of apps to take a look at.
- Things 3 ( iOS ): is a task manager suitable for every need that allows you, simply and intuitively, to organize the things to do during the day, plan your future programs, make plans, and achieve your goals.
- TimeTune ( Android ): targeted to increase productivity and improve daily or weekly routine. It allows complete customization of each activity, and each notification, in short, everything can have the look you prefer.
- Wunderlist ( Android / iOS ): a well-organized to-do list, excellent for drawing up to-do lists visible on all your synchronized devices (smartphones, tablets, and computers). You can share your activities, attach photos or PDFs, and start conversations about your to-do lists.
- Microsoft To-Do ( Android / iOS: increase productivity and plan your days. The name is certainly a guarantee the app is often updated, fixed, and expanded. You can customize your lists and your tasks, as well as synchronize your activities between Outlook and To Do.
SEE ALSO: Best Loan Apps for Instant Loan
What is your best to-do app?
Hi! Thank you for such a comprehensive list! With the right tools, our progress increases significantly. Therefore I take my time to discover different tools and look for the most convenient ones for my professional growth. So it’s great to know that there are so many great tools out there, and I’m excited to explore them later!