The 7 Best Time Management Apps (2023 Rankings)

Are you feeling stressed out? Missing deadlines? Do you have little Post-It notes everywhere that remind you of various appointments, deadlines, or deliverables?

The best time management apps can help you take control of your time and increase productivity. From scheduling tools to task lists, the top time management apps will help you stay organized and on track no matter how hectic the day gets.

As the saying goes: “Time Is Money.”

Often, how you structure your day defines your daily success: you are either in control of your schedule, or the schedule will rule you, leaving you spinning, out of control, running behind on deadlines, and making you feel flustered and stressed out.

In fact, research shows that organized individuals are more relaxed and confident about their future and more competent and positive in their mindset.

Whether you are a student who wants to keep all their assignments and extra-curricular activities in place; an educator who juggles teaching, home commitments, and external deadlines; a professional who needs help managing their tasks and calendars at work; or just someone who wants to maximize their time, time management apps can help you better manage your day.

We’ve reviewed the top 7 time management apps to share with you some of the top tools on the market that will help you master your day, keep you organized, and allow you to use your time wisely.

 

What are the Best Time Management Apps?

Here are our picks for the top time management apps worth trying in 2023…

 

1. Evernote

Evernote is an excellent fit for anyone who organizes their life with the help of Post-It© notes everywhere.

Evernote is a digital note-taking app that offers an attractive and simple user interface that’s very intuitive to use, making it a good fit for anyone who would like to “hit the ground running” with organizing their notes and tasks without a ton of set-up.

The premium features can be a bit more complex with set-up and use, so make sure you evaluate the “effort vs. benefit” factor on the pricier premium features. You can always try out the app for free to see if you like the layout and upgrade when you are ready to expand your use to the more sophisticated tools, like assigning tasks to team members.

As a student, you can organize your assignments, store all your homework research, prioritize your tasks for the day, take pictures and notes while you study, keep them in one spot, and more.

As a professional, you can juggle your work and personal schedule in one place, categorize tasks, and even assign tasks to others when using Evernote in team mode.

Click here to try Evernote for free.

Key Features & Benefits

• The intuitive user interface makes it easy to get started
• Great for capturing, storing, and organizing notes
• All notes are fully searchable, and you can use filters to find what you’re looking for
• Solid task management system
• Integrates with other third-party apps, such as Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Slack, or Microsoft Teams, which helps with syncing schedules and team collaboration
• Calendar and Tasks to stay organized
• Document Scanning and Web Clipper to help you organize your notes and references
• Option to automate workflows (premium)

Pricing

Evernote pricing is as follows:

The FREE plan offers note-taking for personal use, as well as

• up to 60 GB monthly upload
• up to 25 GB note size storage
• up to 3 widgets on the home page

Pricing for premium features and additional storage

$8.99/month or $79.99/year for the premium personal plan

• $10.99/month or $109.99/year for the premium professional plan
• $14.99/user/month (minimum 2 users) for the team plan

Click here to try Evernote for free.

 

2. ToDoist

Whether you use ToDoist for your own organization and time management or for team collaboration and schedule syncing, this app performs well for both scenarios.

ToDoist allows you to add tasks in seconds, as well as create recurring tasks. This is great for anyone who wants to add recurring meetings or soccer practice.

You can also build a task hierarchy with sub-tasks for more complex assignments so that you don’t forget all the adjoining tasks that need to be completed for a project.

You can organize your tasks by categories or priorities, which helps you develop habits of being more organized.

You can also create project storyboards, and delegate tasks to your team, as well.

Most students will be able to use the free version of ToDoist; however, educators might really prefer the Pro version due to added storage and collaboration features.

Key Features & Benefits

• Intuitive layout
• Scalable: from task management to project collaboration
• Task delegation
• Project storyboards with Kanban-style cards
• Organize with labels, filters, and themes
• Email and file integration

Pricing

FREE: $0 for 5 projects, 5 collaborators, 5 MB file upload, 3 filters, 1-week activity history)

Pricing for premium features and additional storage

• Pro: $5/month or $48/year for 300 projects, 25 collaborators, 100 MB file upload, 150 filters, and other Pro features, such as auto backups
• Business: $8/month or $72/year for all Pro features plus 500 active projects/member, 50 people/project, admin and member roles, team inbox, and team billing

 

3. Google Calendar

A Google Calendar is very easy to set up and use, and that’s why it’s a widely used tool for organizing, scheduling, and tracking appointments, tasks, and events. All you need is to set up a Gmail account, and you will receive access to your Google Calendar.

This tool is basically your paper calendar and task list, combined, in overdrive. It’s accessible from anywhere and encourages collaboration by allowing you to schedule meetings, delegate tasks, set up virtual collaboration hangouts, color-code your assignments (by project or priority), and so much more.

For students, this is a perfect tool to structure the day, keep track of assignments and extra-curricular events throughout the week, as well as collaborating with teammates on a project.

For educators, the Google Calendar is a powerful one-stop-hub for their daily schedule, to check ahead for weekly assignments, to assign projects or deadlines to students, or to schedule meetings with students or parents.

Key Features & Benefits

• Streamlined and widely accessible
• Well-laid out
• Easy to use
• Complete integration with all Google products (Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets etc.)
• Sync across different Google Calendars
• Ability to create and schedule Google Hangout for meetings
• Automatic Reminders and Automatic Events

Pricing

FREE with a Google account (basic calendar features)

Pricing for premium features and additional storage

• Business Starter: $6/user/month
• Business Standard: $8/user/month
• Business Plus: $12/user/month

 

4. Focus Booster

Focus Booster is built on the Pomodoro time management and focus technique, which basically says that you choose a task, and work on it without interruptions or distractions for 25 minutes non-stop.

After your 25-minute timer goes off, you take a 5-minute break, and repeat this process up to 3 times. After that, take a 30-minute break, if the task is still not completed, and resume the 25-minute focus segment(s).

Although this concept might seem extremely simple, it requires the user to make deliberate choices with task prioritizing, as well as with self-discipline and focus. In today’s age of endless distractions, focusing on a single task without checking social media or email constantly is a huge positive skill to leverage.

A study done by UC Irvine found that each distraction costs an individual approximately 23 minutes to get back on track; that’s a lot of wasted time.

Both students and educators can benefit from this app equally, since the approach will be the same regardless of task types. Whether it’s homework, a research project, or correcting essays, you will manage your time in a more effective way, and with that, gain time you would have wasted in the past.

Key Features & Benefits

• Simple and effective
• Affordable and versatile
• Consistent use, great for habit-forming
• Pomodoro timer
• Display of daily tasks (check off completed ones for motivation)
• Productivity tracker to evaluate effectiveness and progress
• Can be used individually, as well as for teams (as part of group culture for time management)

Pricing

FREE for up to 20 Pomodoro sessions per month, a simple Pomodoro timer, a time tracker, and productivity reporting

$4.99 for unlimited Pomodoro sessions, all FREE features, plus CSV data export (for analytics in Excel), client management, and revenue tracking

 

5. Asana

Although Asana is a more pricey tool when it comes to time management, it is a comprehensive and sophisticated solution to help you get and stay organized and productive.

In most education settings, whether you are a student or an educator, the free Asana account provides you with all the necessary tools to set up your prioritized task list, keep track of your deadlines, and schedule your day.

With the free Asana account, you can even collaborate with up to 15 team members, which means you could use it for school project team collaboration, or for homework help study groups. Asana has tools to help you with every aspect of time management, from simple goal setting and personal time tracking to project collaboration.

Key Features & Benefits

• Board project view
• Task lists
• Collaboration with team members (assigning tasks and scheduling meetings)
• Unlimited storage (100 MB per file)
• Due dates assignments
• Document management (integration with Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box)
• Time tracking
• Kanban project boards
• Gantt chart timelines
• Cloud-based
• Available as iOS and Android apps
• Over 100 free integrations with other platforms

Pricing

FREE for single personal use

Pricing for premium collaboration features and additional storage

• Premium: $10.99/month (includes Workflow Builder, Forms, unlimited free guests, Admin Console, private teams, and projects)
• Business: $24.99/month (includes Portfolios, Goals, Approvals, Custom Rules Builder, etc.)

 

6. Remember the Milk

Remember the Milk is an interactive task list that integrates with other platforms so that you can quickly add a task to your list, to be reminded of it at a later time, either via email, text, or even Twitter.

You can customize your lists by categories or color-code task groups easily for visual tracking.

Larger projects can be broken down into sub-tasks, with a due date and a category so that you don’t drop the ball on anything.

You can share tasks with others, and send them a reminder. You can also attach files to your tasks, such as adding supporting research files to your next science assignment.

Remember the Milk helps you to stay accountable, as well, with 50 different search operators that flag tasks you might have delayed too many times.

Key Features & Benefits

• Easy to use
• Collaboration tools
• Fully searchable tasks (Search Wizard)
• Smart lists
• Themes
• Available on most platforms, such as Mac, Windows, Apple products, Linux, and Android
• Accessible even offline
• Integration with Google Calendar, Gmail, Twitter, Evernote, Microsoft Office etc.
• Add a task by telling Siri or Alexa
• MilkScript (template and script code customization)

Pricing

FREE option

Pro account: $39.99/year (unlimited sharing, color tags, advanced sorting, Apple Watch integration etc.)

 

7. Coach.me Habit Tracker

The Coach.me Habit Tracker is a great tool to help you start and build healthy time management habits. This app is based on the premise that consistency over time will help you develop your everyday tasks into habits, since research shows that it takes anywhere between 21-66 days to develop a new habit.

The visual layout is great at keeping you on track, motivated, and accountable. You can use this app for any habit that you want to cultivate, whether you want to be better at keeping a focused study time, going to bed on time to get enough sleep, or to exercise, and live a healthier life. Simply add a daily task that contributes to a bigger goal and check it off on a daily basis: for example, if your goal is to get an “A” on your next math test, daily 25 minute Pomodoro study sessions will help you achieve that goal.

The app is free, and there is an option to hire a personal habit coach who will help you get organized and keep you accountable when it comes to your habits.

Source: https://support.coach.me/article/45-getting-started

Key Features & Benefits

• Great for consistency and healthy habit-forming
• Easy to get started
• Intuitive and user-friendly interface
• Accountability
• Accessible via Android, Apple devices, and Web

Pricing

FREE app

Paid coaching service features: $25+/week for personal coaching access

 

A Final Word on the Best Time Management Apps

There are many ways to improve your time management skills, and to get more organized.

Your everyday activities are a summary of your daily achievements, which, when organized, prioritized, and directed toward your bigger goals, can make a significant impact on your personal and professional progress.

If you are looking for tools that help you level up your time management skills, make sure you pick an app that will help you get and stay organized, be consistent, and help you build time management habits that will change your life for the better over time.

We also encourage everyone to check out the online course “Time Management for Boosting Productivity”. With this online time management class, you can learn the best strategies for getting the most out of your day, and start achieving more in less time.

We hope that our list of the best time management apps will help you get organized, be more productive, and reach your goals faster!