10 time management apps to help you enhance your life

There’s an app for almost everything, including managing your time. A time management app can be helpful in a world that often feels chaotic and overwhelming to many. Finding ways to seek balance in life may have significant implications for our happiness over time. 

Research suggests the amount of free time we have each day can impact how satisfied we feel with life. Challenges with time can be better solved since technology has enabled the development of several time management tools, including scheduling apps and productivity software. 

Below, we’ve compiled a list of 10 of the best time management apps on the market that may help you get on track and take charge of how you spend your time.

1. Workflow

One of the great things about the iOS app Workflow is its customization features. You may need a time management app that offers a certain level of flexibility to account for the different kinds of projects and tasks you have going on in your life. Workflow syncs up with everything from Uber to YouTube and features over 200 actions that may help you get on track with your projects and assignments.

Workflow has a feature that allows you to send shortcuts to your phone that simultaneously perform a batch of actions. This can reduce the amount of time you would otherwise spend doing the same thing repeatedly to accomplish daily tasks.

2. Clear

Like Workflow, Clear is designed for easy customization and operates on multiple systems (iOS, OS X, and Apple Watch). With Clear, you can set up categories with a specific theme. For example, you can set up tasks related to your job under a Work category and tasks related to college under a School category. 

Clear also makes syncing a breeze, as it ties up automatically with your iCloud and marks off tasks as you accomplish them. The app also sends you reminders and push notifications so you can stay focused on your high-priority tasks.

3. RescueTime

If you often wonder where the days go, RescueTime may be the app for you. It helps track how much time you spend on certain websites so you can see where your time goes through the day. 

RescueTime works on both mobile and desktop formats. The app has a trial period of 14 days, and then you can choose to pay $12 a month or pay $78 for the year and enjoy four months free of charge.

4. Wunderlist

Wunderlist keeps a running to-do list and can be used with multiple people. For example, suppose you're planning a birthday party for one of your family and want to coordinate with others to get the ball rolling. In that case, everyone can sign into the app and see what their responsibilities are and when they're due. 

This may save you the time and headaches of messaging back and forth or finding times to meet up. The teamwork features also make Wunderlist an excellent tool for managing tasks in the workplace.

5. Slack

Slack provides a professional way of connecting with teams. Slack users can use chat rooms, conversation threads, or direct messages and upload their current work to circulate it with the group easily. Plenty of features are available that may make it easier to collaborate on projects together, which can save time by making those group meetings more efficient.

There’s a free version of Slack available. If you want something with more features, you can pay $7.25 a month for the Pro version or $12.50 a month for the Business+ plan. Each tier has extra features that may benefit you and your team based on your needs.

6. Focus@Will

Do you find it difficult to focus when you're trying to study or working on a project and find yourself staring at the same two sentences without understanding what you're reading? Focus@Will can be an excellent option for helping you tune out the world around you by providing background music it determines may best suit your personality type. 

After a few questions, the app matches you to a customized music channel they say has been proven to increase your focus four-fold. You can still choose any of the remaining 50 channels or return to your personalized station designed by Focus@Will to help you be more efficient and productive.

It works on both mobile and desktop, so you can always have your personalized channel with you. You can use Focus@Will for one week for free. Afterward, it’ll cost $7.49 per month.

7. Remember The Milk

Remember The Milk is another fun app for keeping to-do lists in check. It allows you to circulate your lists with others to get tasks done more efficiently and keep everyone in the loop. Plus, you don't have to try to remember everything alone. With an app like Remember the Milk, you can write everything down without worrying about misplacing the paper you wrote on.

8. 30/30

30/30 lets you assign tasks to yourself and estimate how long each activity may take you to complete. Helping you better plan your time is the essence of time management software, and 30/30 can be a great app for that purpose.

30/30 doesn’t operate with the same principle as a calendar, discarding tasks when they go unfinished after the day is over. If you don’t have time to finish a task, or if something comes up where you can’t get it done, you can return to it when you have more time. This can be fantastic for anyone who may need reminders about unfinished things when life happens.

9. Gmail Calendar

If you use Gmail, you may not need to download any new apps because you already have a great one built into your email: Calendar. Gmail's Calendar feature can be highly customizable, sending reminders you can set up for any time, from minutes before an event to days beforehand. You can also set annual reminders, which can be incredibly helpful for special occasions like birthdays.

10. Timely

Rounding out this list is the time management app Timely. Timely might be helpful because it relies on factors other than how long you think a project may take. It’ll monitor how long a project takes you in real time so you can better plan out the time left in your workweek.

As you track your time in Timely, the app gets better at predicting how long specific tasks may take you based on the time you reported they took in the past. This can give you a much more realistic snapshot of how to plan those projects more effectively in the future.

More ways to learn time management skills

Mobile apps can be a fun, easy, and sustainable option for improving time-management skills, but sometimes they aren’t enough. Many people are impacted by other factors that can make managing time and responsibilities challenging. Mental health challenges may affect your ability to focus, follow a consistent routine, or feel prepared to get things done.

Resources like online therapy can offer the support and advice of a mental health professional. A licensed therapist may be able to help you learn what challenges you face regarding time management, how to work with those challenges, and what tools may help you make things easier. Online therapy also lets you join sessions from anywhere, like from the comfort of your home, which can help you save time and money. 

Online therapy has been shown to be a successful treatment option for many people. A recent review of 17 studies found online therapy options are more cost-effective for clients than in-person therapy, equally effective for treating mental health symptoms, and a satisfactory experience for those who sought them out. The tools online therapy can provide may help you take charge of your days and reduce the stress and anxiety around finding enough time to get things done.