Why should we use time blocking apps?
Time blocking is a really simple technique that can help you manage your time better by breaking down your day into smaller chunks, preventing you from feel overwhelmed or burnt out! On days when your to-do list is never ending but you don’t want to fall into the trap of multi-tasking, try Time blocking.
In this blog post, we'll look at the benefits of using a good time blocking app, and we’ll also review some of the best time blocking apps available, including Timely, Google Calendar, and Motion AI.
Read on to learn how about how you can make amazing changes to your productivity and efficiency by using a simple and customizable time blocking app like Timely.
The top 5 time blocking apps
- Google Calendar
- Motion AI
- Plan
- Sunsama
- Timely
What is Time Blocking?
Time blocking is a productivity technique that involves dividing your day into specific blocks of time and assigning tasks to those blocks. It's a way to schedule your day in advance and create a roadmap for your work.
With time blocking, you're essentially setting aside time for specific tasks or activities and ensuring that you make progress on each task within the allotted time.
It helps you schedule your high priority tasks, allowing you to prioritize your tight work deadlines. By setting aside specific time periods for each task, you're less likely to get distracted or procrastinate, and you're more likely to stay on task and get things done.
Time blocking gives you a personalised and clear to-do list, ensuring that you’re being more intentional with how you spend your time!
Time blocking can be done manually, through calendar blocking, or with the help of digital tools such as time blocking apps.What’s great about time blocking is that it’s so flexible! This means it can be customized to fit your needs and preferences without any hassle.
The benefits of using a good time blocking app
Productivity
A good time blocking app can help you with breaking down your day into specific blocks, prioritizing tasks, sending notifications, and providing progress reports. By assigning tasks to these blocks, you can ensure effective time management and focus on important tasks first. Such an app can increase productivity and help achieve goals efficiently.
Ease of use
An interface that’s easy to use is key with apps these days. Thankfully there are plenty of time blocking apps that have a great UI, and allow you to create and manage schedules by dragging tasks into specific time blocks. Also they often feature color-coding and reminders to help you stay focused and productive, without any manual time management.
A calendar and to-do list in one place!
A time blocking app combines your calendar and to-do list for easy scheduling. You can view appointments, meetings, and tasks together, prioritize them, and use reminders to avoid missing deadlines. This increases productivity, organization, and reduces errors in scheduling, which is inevitable when you’re busy at work!
What are the best time blocking apps?
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is a easy app to use for time blocking, especially if you already have a Gmail account, as it has plenty of helpful integrations!
Key Features
Google Calendar’s key features include easy visual scheduling with color-coded events, reminders and notifications, mobile accessibility and integration with other tools like Google Drive, Gmail and Google Meet. Mobile accessibility and integration are particularly useful as they allow you to manage your time blocks on the go, ensuring that you can stay organized even when you're away from your computer.
Pricing
Per month
- Free version with limited features
- The ‘Business Starter’ is $6 per user a month, with a one year commitment
- The most popular ‘Business Standard’ is $12 per user a month, with a one year commitment
Motion AI
Motion AI is a time blocking and project management that you can utilize and personalize based on your work and life needs!
Key features
Using AI, Motion can create a a customizable calendar and act as project manager, task manager or even meeting assistant to help you seamlessly align all your work commitments. Motion also features integrations with a host of apps like Zoom, Salesforce, and Outlook, synchronizing your work life in the most intuitive way possible.
Pricing
Per month
- The ‘Individual’ plan is billed at $19 per month.
- The ‘Team’ plan includes all features from the Individual plan with a bonus of a 40% discount per member, making it $12 a month.
Plan
Plan is a self-described ‘part calendar, part project-manager’, which automates time blocking for you and your team.
Key features
Plan’s team users save on average 15 hours a week of work! The app includes features like work timelines and team feed to allow you to understand what your colleagues and employees are getting on with in the working day.
If you’re interested in the insights side of time blocking, Plan also features a dashboard which lets you understand how many meetings you’ve had each month, and how much time you’re spending on similar activities too!
Pricing
Per month
- Plan is free for teams of 1-4 people! You will also receive a maximum of 2 integrations to use the software which is perfect for smaller organizations.
- The Premium version of Plan costs $6.67 per user a month, with unlimited integrations and enhanced security!
Sunsama
Sunsama is a fantastic time blocking app thanks to its user friendly interface. The app suggests different to-do lists and plots these tasks into your calendar!
Key features
Aside from its intuitive interface, Sunsama is also great for its versatile range of integrations with other apps. Sunsama can be used with Trello, Gmail, Asana, Jira and even Slack. So, it’s super easy to share your daily plan with your teammates and turn their messages into actionable tasks on your own to-do list.
Pricing
Per month
- Sunsama offers a helpful 14-day free trial so you can work out if the app will be beneficial for you.
- After that, there’s an annual subscription billed at $16 per month.
- Or, if you want to take each month at a time, there’s a $20 monthly subscription offer!
Timely
Surprise! We love to use Timely for time blocking as the app lets you quickly plan time blocks ahead for weeks at a time and then track the progress of each time block!
Key Features
The fact that Timely is a time tracking software first means you have access to valuable data on how you use your time, including where you’re most productive throughout the day. Armed with this knowledge, you can time block tougher tasks during productivity peaks, and more shallow work such as email in the productivity troughs.
It provides an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, smart scheduling based on previous activities, and real-time analytics. All of this can help you master the art of time blocking by giving you a greater understanding of how long tasks actually take.
Pricing
Per month
- The Starter package is $11 each month.
- To use the unlimited version of Timely, which includes all features and capacity, you will pay $28 each month.
Yearly discount
- The Starter package drops to just $9 a month.
- The unlimited is also discounted to a fantastic price of $22 a month.
Why should you start time blocking today?
Time blocking is a productivity technique that involves breaking down the day into specific blocks of time and assigning tasks to those blocks! Let’s recap:
- Time blocking apps help enhance productivity, offer an easy-to-use interface, and combine the calendar and to-do list in one place.
- There are so many different time blocking apps that you can choose from! All have unique features that will suit the needs of individuals and organizations, depending on what you are looking for!
- Timely is a great time blocking app due to its AI features, versatility for professionals in all careers and range of customization options.
- Other time blocking apps like Google Calendar, Motion AI, Plan and Sunsama provide you with detailed insights about your working life, and have fantastic integration tools which are perfect for streamlining your work life.
