It’s a weekday morning and you’re headed to an important doctor’s appointment. As you prepared for the workweek, you made sure to write down the appointment date and time in your trusty paper planner. As you begin your trip to the appointment, you receive a frantic call from your colleague asking why you haven’t arrived at the office yet. Your assistant used a scheduling app that morning to check your availability and booked you in for a last-minute meeting. Your team’s collaborative planning tool showed that you were available, and now you’ll have to explain why your old-school routine for keeping track of work and personal commitments has failed you again.
Finding the best organization tool can be a challenge. If you’re used to using an old-school planner or scribbling dates on your paper calendar to stay on top of things, it’s time to make the switch to a digital alternative.
- Why should you use a digital daily planner tool?
- 11 digital daily planner tools to try
- Free planner template
Why should you use a digital daily planner tool?
It’s simple: organization is directly linked to productivity. The modern workplace is all about digitizing processes to save money and make everyone’s work more efficient. Using a digital daily planner tool will help you prioritize tasks, more easily see your calendar and to-dos, and have you stressing less about planning out your affairs.
Let’s discuss some of the best digital daily planners that will help you achieve your goals.
Stay focused and organized
Organize and prioritize your tasks with private streams so you start every day feeling calm and motivated. Try a tool like Fellow!
11 digital daily planner tools to try
1Fellow
Features:
Fellow’s Streams feature acts as a digital notepad to help you compile important ideas, personal to-do lists, and objectives and key results (OKRs). With Streams you can plan out your week, record career milestones, track company objectives, and collaborate on projects with your team. You can also prioritize tasks and track progress as you work towards your personal goals, keeping you focused throughout the process.
Pricing:
- Free – $0/month (for teams of up to 10 people)
- Pro – $6/month (per user for teams of up to 50 people)
- Business – custom pricing (for organizations that need a hub for all of their meetings)
- Entreprise – custom pricing (for companies looking to implement a holistic management system)
2Trello
Features:
Trello is a one-stop shop to plan your life and work. This easy-to-use tool provides an array of templates that can help you meet all of your daily planning needs. It uses the “kanban” board approach to help you visualize individual tasks and assign dashboards with cards that show important details for each action item. In addition to helping you create to-do lists, Trello is a project management tool that can help your team collaborate in a meaningful way.
Pricing:
- Free – $0/month
- Standard – $5/month (per user when billed annually)
- Premium – $10/month (per user when billed annually)
- Enterprise – $17.50/month (per user when billed annually)
3Things 3
Features:
Things 3 is a product for Apple (sorry Android and PC users) that can help you tackle complex projects in addition to prioritizing and organizing your work tasks. Using this app, you can manage your projects, plan your day-to-day, and make real progress towards your goals. The app is broken down into four key features: your to-dos, your projects, your areas, and your plan.
Pricing:
- iPhone application – $10
- iPad application – $20
- Mac application – $50 (with a 15-day free trial)
4nTask
Features:
Using nTask, you can: create to-do lists to identify what needs to be completed, use “kanban” boards to organize specific tasks, and manage meetings with your team. Put simply, this tool helps you keep track of everything on your plate by simplifying the planning process. For daily tasks, you can set task statuses and priorities, set planned and actual due dates, add multiple assignees, and attached documents with task comments and feedback.
Pricing:
- Basic – $0/month
- Premium – $3/month (per user)
- Business – $8/month (per user)
- Enterprise – custom pricing tailored to your business’ needs
5ZenDay
Features:
Bring zen to your day with ZenDay, a mobile app for Android with a handful of unique features. Using this app, you can choose to focus on one task or see an overview of your entire day. You can also: add debrief notes on previous tasks to view and evaluate your progress, sync your to-do list with all of your digital calendars, and colour code tasks.
Pricing:
- Free to download (in-app products ranging from $2.90 to $19.99 per upgrade)
6Fantastical
Features:
Fantastical is a scheduling app for iOS that you can use to schedule personal to-dos, events with your coworkers, or at-home affairs with your family. The app offers a full calendar window with day, week, month, quarter, and year views, and offers the unique ability to automatically recognize the location of your event and suggest invitees. Based on your location, the app can show you the most relevant calendar overview so you avoid scheduling conflicts and can enjoy stress-free downtime.
Pricing:
- Free to download (in-app purchases not included)
7Notion
Features:
Schedule tasks, create project plans and notes, and organize documents and presentations with Notion. You can use the tool alone or invite your teammates to collaborate with your workspace. The tool features a simple design you can customize to craft the dashboard, website, doc, or system that you need to succeed. Additionally, it features thousands of community-made templates, events, and integrations so you never run out of planning resources.
Pricing:
- Personal – $0/month
- Personal Pro – $4/month
- Team – $8/month
- Enterprise – custom pricing tailored to your business needs
8Todoist
Features:
Todoist wants you to achieve more every day with a personalized to-do list. The app features natural language recognition and recurring dates that allow you to fill in your to-do lists in seconds. It automatically sorts your lists into categories labeled ‘today’ and ‘upcoming,’ and allows you to custom filter your view so you can focus on what’s important.
Pricing:
- Free – $0/month
- Pro – $4/month (per user when billed annually)
- Business – $6/month (per user when billed annually)
9Google Calendar
Features:
It’s the digital calendar you may already know and love! The Google Calendar app provides a nice overview of your daily, weekly, and monthly meetings, appointments, and other commitments. Using the app for desktop, Android, or iOS, you can create a to-do list that lives next to your calendar, stay up to date on new tasks and meeting invitations, and receive an agenda email each morning with a summary of your day.
Pricing:
- Free – $0/month
- Business – $5/month (per user)
- Enterprise – corporate pricing tailored to your business needs
10Microsoft Outlook
Features:
If you only use Microsoft Outlook for email, you’re missing out. The tool is also excellent for scheduling, sharing calendars, and managing tasks effectively. You can integrate the platform with other planner and project management apps for a clear overview of your entire day, while easily accessing your Microsoft files and creating a priority inbox to make your work life easier.
Pricing:
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic – $7.70/month (per user)
- Microsoft 265 Apps for business – $11.00/month (per user)
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard – $16.00/month (per user)
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium – $28.20/month (per user)
11Any.do
Features:
If you want a simple app to create to-do lists or set recurring and location-based reminders, try Any.do online, or as an app for iOS or Android. Access the tool on your phone, laptop, tablet, or smartwatch. You can even streamline your grocery shopping experience with the platform’s smart grocery list!
Pricing:
- Basic – $0/month
- 1 month – $5.99/month (billed monthly per user)
- 6 months – $4.49/month (billed bi-annually per user)
- 12 months – $2.99/month (billed annually per user)
Free planner template
Empowerment through organization
You wake up on a Monday morning with a busy workday ahead. Instead of scrambling to remember what you have on the go, you grab your cup of tea and head to the kitchen table to quietly eat your breakfast while you check your digital daily planner tool of choice. Lucky for you, your calendar is up to date, your to-do list has been prepped for the day, and your colleagues are able to see when you’re available next to meet. It’s going to be a good day!
With organization comes empowerment. Don’t get so caught up in your work that you forget to set yourself up for success. Ditch the paper agenda today and use a daily planner tool to prepare for tomorrow.
