1st Mar, 2024
Time blocking is a clever calendar management system that helps users make the most of the time for personal and work life. With time blocking you can organise time effectively and create a productive system for yourself. Here's our best picks.
Combine tasks, calendar, meeting booking links & task consolidation into one.
Bring tasks from ClickUp, Notion, Gmail, Todoist & more in Akiflow for organizing in one.
Are you struggling to find the perfect way to manage your calendar & time block?
Maybe you have tried different methods for organizing and prioritizing your time to no avail.
Did you know a tiny amount of only 20% of people have their time management under control? You can merge your way out of that statistic by using a method called time blocking.
In this piece, you will find different apps to help with managing your tasks and calendar in one place with the magic of time blocking. Which means setting out a specific time to perform tasks and sticking with it. Let's dive right into this extensive list of calendar and task apps with ways to time-block more effectively.
If you're looking more for solo task apps like Things 3 and Todoist, check out this list.
We won't go too in-depth with time blocking.
Just to recap, time blocking is a method of organizing and managing your calendar to ensure you are spending your time effectively, and to boost productivity.
Now, time blocking is a feature, or tool let's say, used within a lot of calendar applications. It allows you to give more structure to your calendar and a better overview of your tasks and events through color coding.
We have gathered a list of the best apps for time blocking that are combined with calendars and tasks. Giving you an all-in-one productive system for getting things done.
For a quick run-through, we have chosen these three applications to be best for time blocking and calendar management.
Akiflow is a task consolidation tool and calendar application.
This means you can link and integrate your other task applications to see everything that needs to be done in one place. From here you can organize and create time blocks of when you will perform the tasks.
Akiflow is super handy because it means you cannot forget a task that is hidden within yet another task app. They are all there ready for you to assign a time to and to create reminders for. This app is great for those who are inside multiple apps to manage their time and tasks better.
Akiflow uses the time-blocking method to manage and organize your calendar. It's also super easy and anyone can do it. Just drag and drop tasks into a space inside your calendar, and turn them into events to protect time for deep work.
To save more time you can set recurring tasks, this means you can create a daily routine of tasks you need to get done, and only set it up once. You can then organize deeper using smart labels and create time slots to fill with tasks each day quickly.
Akiflow also gives you an upcoming view of tasks, this helps you check and organize your schedule throughout the day with the tasks you have already time blocked. You can then add in important tasks if they pop up.
Learn how to use Akiflow with our beginner's guide.
Motion is more of a calendar scheduling and AI tool, however, it still uses time blocking and may be a good choice for those who enjoy the AI assistance way of living. Motion hasn't got a ton of features, it's mostly based on organizing your time and calendar.
Motion will help you build your schedule based on your activity, and preferences and ensure you fit in all you need to do, without issuing any burnout or overworking. You can also automatically reschedule tasks and track priorities here.
First of all, Motion has something called the Intelligent Calendar. You can open this at the side while working, to help stay on top of tasks too. The calendar is where all your time blocks and AI-assisted scheduling will be. If you like the concept of Motion, but exploring Motion alternatives beyond this, well worth exploring.
Motion uses time blocking to manage the tasks you need to get done. You can manually input tasks this way and Motion can also automatically shuffle things around if you need. You can set time, and add tags and priorities to your tasks to help AI maintain what's important.
AI will learn which tasks you can't compromise on and make sure they are still scheduled before the due date. It will also preserve your time and make sure you aren't fully booked so you can complete tasks. Motion is also a good small team project management tool.
Sunsama is built to help you create a more meaningful and productive schedule. It helps users be more intentional about their daily planning to make sure they work within their means and avoid overdoing it.
You can also pull tasks from other applications to consolidate them all in one place, much like you can with Akiflow. Again this gives you the ability to manage everything you need in one place and one unified calendar.
First, let's run through the main planning section of Sunsama. You have a guided daily planning feature that allows you to create your daily routine and tasks of the day. You can also set goals for your day such as when you want to finish work.
Then we have timeboxing, which allows you to drag and drop tasks from the tasks section into the calendar, giving you a better overview of how you are spending your time. Use color coding to visualize and differentiate between tasks.
You can also use things such as auto-scheduling, which adds tasks to your calendar on your behalf. You can also see analytics to see if you can improve how your time is spent and use Focus mode, to focus.
Routine is for centralizing tasks in one place to help you stay on top of things you need to get done and create a unified space of calendars and tasks all in one. Routine also offers an easy-to-use interface and plenty of task management options.
Connect all your calendars and tasks apps into one space to click and drag tasks, quickly add new tasks, set times, and due dates, add tags, and much more. You can even add notes to tasks to further the experience.
Routine allows you to quickly add and manage tasks in one space. You can use the console and keyboard shortcuts to add tasks with natural language input. These tasks can then be added to your inbox or your calendar.
You can use smart scheduling to plan your work and your calendar. Organise tasks with color coding, times, and due dates, and set routines with recurring tasks that will show as time blocks in your calendar.
Throughout the day you can shuffle your time blocks around if a more important task pops up from your inbox, or refer back to your calendar as you work to ensure you stay on track.
TickTick is an all-in-one task management app with a calendar, time management tools, habit tracking, and notes. It can be the only app you need to organize your tasks and time, in a simple and easy-to-use workspace.
You can manage your to-do list, organize your calendar with color coding, time blocking, and recurring tasks, and integrate other calendars to consolidate tasks in one place. TickTick also uses natural language to add tasks quickly.
TickTick offers flexible calendar views, giving you options on how you see your tasks and what's on your schedule. You can also sync your calendar to mobile to access it anywhere. Within the calendar, you can time block and use color coding.
You can also set recurring tasks to time block in the same space every day, this helps with making a routine and blocking out time you want to keep for focus or important things. You can also add tags and notes to your calendar tasks.
TickTick also offers more, such as a Pomodoro Timer to help with time management and tasks. It also has a habit tracker and a place to brainstorm, write notes, or even keep a diary if you want.
Mayday is an AI scheduling Co-Pilot calendar app that helps you manage your time and tasks better. You can perform actions such as auto-scheduling, finding the best times to hold meetings and color-code tasks.
Mayday does use AI and it learns how to schedule your calendar by learning your preferences through patterns of work, ideal times, tasks, and events. This helps with creating a calendar that works for you.
Mayday will suggest the right times based on your current schedule or what it has learned about your schedule over time. From here you can then add in things like due dates and notes and it will add to your calendar.
You can also use Time Windows, this is where you define your availability for certain events and Mayday AI will prioritize these times and help plan your schedule based on this. You can also visually minimize events with FYI to clear space and add smart tags to organize.
With Mayday, you can also sync your calendars to combine tasks and see how much time you have. Use the buffer time tool to create a placeholder section in your calendar to save for tasks or to just take a break.
Morgen is a really beautiful calendar app that allows you to manage your to-dos, tasks, schedules, automation, and time blocking all in one place. You can merge all your calendars and tasks here to have a better overview.
Morgen also supports actions such as scheduling meetings, time blocking by dragging and dropping tasks, using different calendar sets, tags, and more all to create a unified space for managing your calendar.
Morgen uses time blocking to help you plan out your days and weeks. All you have to do is drag in tasks from the sidebar, where all tasks will be consolidated, or from your to-do list and move them to a slot inside the calendar.
You can then use different colors, move tasks around, and add tasks to help categorize tasks. If your calendar consolidation brings in duplicates, Morgen will merge them for you. Of course, you can then set reminders and notifications.
Overall, Morgen has many features to help you manage your calendar with time blocking, colors, and tags. It also combines the use of to-do lists and task management in one streamlined and easy-to-use place.
Reclaim AI is best used for scheduling and working with your team to find the best times to meet and create events. You can manage tasks, and habits and use the planner all in one place. Track time, set focus hours, and more.
In terms of time blocking, you will use the planner feature within Reclaim AI to do this. The Planner can be set up with Google Calendar. From here consolidate tasks, add time blocks, time tracking, and create a schedule.
You can also connect other task management apps such as Slack and Zoom to create a single place to manage tools and your daily plan. You can also automate your plan based on your priorities and what AI deems to be an important time to you.
With time blocking and managing your calendar, you can also manage the tasks list in the sidebar. You can add detail to your tasks such as priority, log your work, add time, and more. Along with this you can track time spent on tasks and completed tasks.
Overall, Reclaim AI is an easy-to-use calendar tool with many added extras for business, collaboration, time tracking, and making sure you have a seamless schedule.
There are a lot of apps in this list for time blocking, so here is a quick breakdown of the best apps for different situations.
If you want to better plan your team schedule or even your own, Reclaim is the best.
There's a few apps on this list that connect other productivity apps well.
Budget conscious people who want something that will offer the power features, we'd recommend having a look at TickTick, as even on premium, you'll pay less than others.
Along with time blocking your calendar, you can also enhance your time management in other ways to make the most of your days and weeks.
Here are a few extra helpful tips:
Once you have figured out methods that work for you, you'll find yourself feeling more motivated and productive throughout the day.
Time blocking is said to be good for those with ADHD or who struggle with managing their time due to other neurological reasons. This is because setting specific time frames for tasks makes things seem more manageable and they have a dedicated time.
Using time blocking also helps you prioritize important tasks, meaning you can at least get one important thing done per day, rather than procrastinating again. It also helps you decide what to do next and saves time there.
If you're hunting for free calendar apps, we've got you covered here.
Combine tasks, calendar, meeting booking links & task consolidation into one.
Bring tasks from ClickUp, Notion, Gmail, Todoist & more in Akiflow for organizing in one.
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