Raise your hand if you often feel like you're drowning in mental to-do lists, and then just when you feel like you're finally coming up for air, more tasks gets piled on. Anyone?
This overwhelming feeling, coupled with the fact that our phones are practically appendages these days, can make it more than a little challenging to get work done efficiently. Sometimes we all need a little bit of outside help with organization, productivity, and focusing, so ahead, we rounded up the best time management apps for whether you're a student, a freelancer juggling multiple gigs, or just a 9-to-5er without enough hours in the day.
This app helps you manage your time by segmenting your workflow into timed intervals with allotted breaks. You can opt for the standard 25-minute intervals with five-minute breaks — referred to as the Pomodoro Technique, which centers around the idea that we're most productive when we work in 25-minute interruption-free spurts — or you can customize your intervals.
Price: $1.99
Todoist is a handy, no-frills task manager that lets you dump all the random thoughts in your brain with an easy-to-use Quick Add feature and then organizes them into tasks for you. You can color coordinate tasks to better keep track of your daily priorities, assign tasks to other collaborators, and sync your lists with other apps you use. Plus, the app has a clean interface and lets you look at the day at hand or opt for a macro overview of the week.
Price: Free
Our winner for the cutest time management app, Forest lets you plant a tree when you want to focus, which then grows as you stay on task (or withers when you get distracted and inevitably go down an Instagram rabbit hole). The more trees you grow, the lusher your forest becomes. If you want to "see" the animated fruits of your labor, this is the app for you. Also, the app partners with Trees for the Future and plants real-life trees, too.
Price: $1.99
This app emphasizes mindfulness as the key to productivity. It nudges you to be present and get back on track when you veer off, motivates you by tracking your "time well spent," and allows you to lock distracting apps so that you can better unplug. Also, the pastel graphics and illustrations are low-key very soothing.
Price: Free
If big picture stuff feels overwhelming, and you need help breaking things down into manageable steps, Doo will be your new best friend. It shows you one task at a time in the form of a card in a stack (à la Tinder) rather than listing all of your to-dos together, and it's super satisfying to hit Complete once you've finished the task at hand.
Price: $4.99
This app is great for the extreme multitasker. You can create tags, subtasks, and smart lists, easily search through your past tasks, set due dates and reminders, and sort everything to your liking, so that you don't lose track of even the smallest task.
Price: Free
This time management app is great for students — use it like a planner and check out your week at a glance, or opt for the daily view to check on what's next in your schedule. The interface is streamlined and simple, and also keeps track of what you have left to do for each class. Plus, it doubles as a calendar and reminds you when you have class for the day and when assignments are due.
Price: Free
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