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Most time blocking apps have some kind of tagging aspect, but Sunsama takes it a little further with what they call contexts and channels. You can flip this around if you want, but either way, it's quick to drag tasks over to your calendar, making it convenient to jot down all your duties for the day and then focus on planning them all out accordingly.Īnother neat feature is the ability to properly categorize all your tasks. There's a task list, sorted by date, and there's a sidebar with a calendar.
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The app wastes no space, and after setting it up, you'll immediately understand how to use it. Sunsama is by far the best-designed app on this list. Integrating your time block planner with your calendar is just the standard, but integration with other apps and tools is a wonderful cherry on top. While the ability to customize features like colors, themes, lists, alerts, and notifications is of varying importance, I chose apps that I felt provided enough flexibility to fit most people's day-to-day needs. The purpose of a time-blocking app should be to simplify, which means being able to find and review your tasks in a central place.Ĭustomization. No one wants to deal with having their projects and to-dos scattered in too many places. Some apps are just downright hard to figure out, so it was essential that my picks had a simple, intuitive interface that was easy to navigate.Ĭalendar and tasks in one place. Being able to sync a calendar with a time blocking planner saves time and helps keep schedules error-free, so this is a must-have.Įase of use.
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Here are the criteria I used to determine the best time blocking software:
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You could just use your calendar app to time block your schedule, or even a sheet of paper, but dedicated time blocking tools make the process a lot easier.
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For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site-we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category.
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Then, you can break those big sections for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday down into specific tasks-daily or weekly, based on your priorities.Īll of our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. You might schedule time blocks for specific tasks around your meetings and other commitments, or you might choose to schedule time specifically for meetings and other commitments.įor example, instead of accepting meeting invites for whenever people send them, you may block off Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for working on tasks and leave Tuesday and Thursday open for people to schedule meetings. You might create your schedule every day when you get to work, at the end of every work day for the next day, or at the beginning of each week for the rest of the week.Īdditionally, you can approach the time blocking method in a couple of different ways. Newport says he dedicates 10-20 minutes every evening to time blocking his schedule for the next day, but when you choose to block your time and create your schedule depends on what works best for you. Time blocking as a time management technique was popularized by Cal Newport, author of Deep Work. Most people's work calendars look like this: Each task you need to complete gets time scheduled on your calendar, so you can make sure you have the bandwidth for every to-do list item. Time blocking is a time management technique where you schedule how you'll spend your time during every minute of every day. Sorted^3 for Apple users (and hyper-scheduling) Whatever your reason for time blocking, one of the time blocking calendars here should speak to you and your needs. That's why I spent several weeks testing dozens of time blocking apps-to figure out which ones were the best for which people. Some apps are geared towards solopreneurs and freelancers, while others are designed for folks who work as part of a corporate team. Some time blocking apps work better for people who are more visual, while others are better for those who need more organization.
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