Best Daily Planner Apps for 2023 for Work & Life

Let's help you find the best daily planner app from our collection of productivity tools.

What is a Daily Planner App?

Let's start by explaining the basis of a daily planner app in more detail.

A daily planner app isn't too distant from a to-do list application. Daily planner applications are basically a combination of a to-do list app and a calendar app allowing you to see your tasks alongside your schedule of the day ahead. This is becoming much more popular as people like to see their daily schedule in front of them with a set of to-dos on that list.

So what's the best app for daily scheduling? Well there are a few daily planner applications that we've tried and tested and wanted to go over with you in this feature and how to choose the best daily planner app for you.

Our Top Picks: Daily Planner Apps

Let's explore the options we've picked before we jump into the in-depth explorations. These tools are picked by us for three core factors: reliability, design and features.

• Motion - this is an AI-based daily planner application for optimising your schedule.
• Akiflow - a combination of tasks and calendar for planning the day with other apps too.
• Structured - a simple mobile-friendly week and day planner for lightweight planning.
• Sunsama - a mindful approach to planning your day schedule with assistance.
• Routine - a beautifully designed week planner and rising star in productivity tools.

We've not ranked these tools, but this will give you a good list of daily planner apps to make sure you have the right one for work and life planning.

Best Daily Planner Apps for Planning in 2023

Daily planner applications can help give you mental clarity and an assisting hand on what to work on during the day, with priority management and a calendar window into your day. They come in many shapes and sizes but the most important thing to look for when picking a daily planner application is the needs you have for a productivity tool.

1. Motion: An AI-Assistant for Bookings, Calendar & Tasks

Motion

AI to-do list app designed for busy professional with calendar & meeting planner.

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Best For

Great for team tasks

Availability

Windows

Mac

Web

iOS

Chrome Extension

Pricing

$

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Type of Tool

Project Management SoftwareTo-Do List AppsAI Productivity Tools

Motion is a well-known AI assistant and been growing in popularity in the last few years. Those who have higher budgets and a more "assistant" based approach to task management will look into Motion for helping them re-focus their tasks and calendar.

Motion has a unique experience for planning your schedule by allowing you to add task details including deadlines, priorities, start dates, working time and duration to help assist the AI in making an effective decision to re-schedule, if needed, any of your tasks.

Motion offers a good balance between being a task management app and a project management software, with ClickUp/monday.com type features that allow you to plan your tasks in kanban, table and assign them to other people using Motion for teams.

Other notable features that shout out in Motion are the following:

• Booking scheduler for external parties - automatically updated in calendar if you clash with someone else or an important task lands.
• Conferencing connection to calendar - great way to connect tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams so you never miss a team meeting.
• Workspaces for splitting up projects - you can have multiple workspaces. Great for breaking down different types of workloads.

Is Motion your next daily planner app?

If you're someone who loves the control of machine-learning systems to re-organize your tasks and calendar blocking based on inputs you provide, this could be for you.

Motion looks fantastic, offers a comprehensive task management system and can expand if you are growing a team with a simple, more approachable project management system.

2. Akiflow: The Consolidation Task & Calendar App

Akiflow

A daily planner application combining tasks, calendar and tasks from other apps.

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Best For

Advanced Daily Planner

Availability

Web

iOS

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Android

Pricing

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Type of Tool

To-Do List AppsDaily Planning AppsFreelance Productivity Tools

Akiflow presents a good task and daily planner app for those who want a more "consolidated" approach. Especially popular with those who use tools like ClickUp and Gmail and want to house all their tasks with Akiflow and manage them all in one base.

3. Structured: An iOS-centric, on-the-go, Daily Planner App

Structured

A digital planner to manage tasks, track time and increase productivity.

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Best For

Daily Planning

Availability

Web

iOS

Android

Pricing

$

Type of Tool

To-Do List AppsDaily Planning Apps

Trying to be the base of lightweight daily planning, Structured helps to give your day and week clarity with a more timeline based approach to your daily task management. Despite being a cracking daily planner app for iOS - it also offers a decent MacOS app too.

4. Sunsama: The Most Mindful Daily Planner App?

Sunsama

A daily planner application with a healthy work/life balance front of mind.

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Best For

Managing Your Tasks

Availability

iOS

Mac

Windows

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Pricing

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$

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Type of Tool

Daily Planning AppsTo-Do List AppsFreelance Productivity Tools

Sunsama is a more mindful approach to tasks, with features like "shutdown" allowing you to debrief on your day and then turn off Sunsama. Hand-holding task assistance too, so you can plan your day with more help and even tasks connected to "week objectives" too.

5. Routine: A Crisp, Clean Week & Day Planner

Routine

A daily planner tool for creating tasks and managing schedules, events and more.

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Best For

Calendar Organisation

Availability

iOS

Mac

Windows

Web

Pricing

$

Type of Tool

To-Do List AppsDaily Planning Apps

Routine is a beautiful looking app, currently in private beta, but presents a good way to plan your tasks, calendar and a lighter notes - all in one base. Routine has a feature called "console" which we recommend looking at for quick macOS capturing.

6. Timestripe: A Goal Planning App For Daily Tasks

Timestripe

Manage your life mission with day tasks, week goals and even 5-year objectives.

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Best For

Long Term Goal Planner

Availability

Mac

iOS

Web

Android

Pricing

$

$

Type of Tool

To-Do List AppsDaily Planning Apps

Timestripe is a goal planning application that offers a unique approach to task management and daily planning by offering you a window into the next day, and the next year and even your life time goals. Planning with this in mind changes your approach to goals and daily planning as it helps to align your long-term goals with your short-term.

Benefits of Daily Planner Applications

People are flocking to daily planner applications for more structure in their task management. this is becoming a trend in the market as people want more help with managing a typical work day. Here's a few of the benefits of using a daily planner app:

• More Visual: Projecting tasks into your calendar helps to be more visual.
• Better Looking: Many of the daily planner apps deliver fantastic design and looks.
• Hand Holding: Many of the apps include AI or user journeys to help you better plan.

They normally give you better structure, help & view of your day ahead.

Takeaways: Best Planner Apps for You

Picking from this list might be overwhelming, combine that with the task management apps out there that you have to sift through. I'd recommend

Best All-Round Daily Planner App

Akiflow is another on this list that helps you to plan, but focuses a lot on the combination of calendar and tasks in one hub pulling tasks from other sites too. Matching to things you struggle with will help.

Best Mindful Daily Planner App

Need something more mindful, Sunsama could be practical for setting daily limits on your workload and helping hold your hand during planning the next day.

Best Mobile Daily Planner App

Want something iOS based? Structured presents a smart daily planner that will be better for those on the go.

Best Daily Planner App with AI Technology

We'd recommend looking at what your needs are. If you are time-poor and need something to re-organize your day ahead, Motion is a good tool for that with a AI/machine learning ability to help do that.