Dwight Eisenhower once said "plans are useless; planning is indispensable”. As both a U.S. president and top WWII military commander, Eisenhower had some complicated things to plan.

If your planning is scattered across to-do lists, notepads, email, Slack, and calendars, you need a daily planner app to organize your work. Spending just 10-12 minutes planning your day can save you 2 hours you’d otherwise lose to decision paralysis and context switching. The average person actually wastes 1.96 hours/day in unproductive work – almost 25% of their entire workweek.

So whether you’re strategically deploying troops across Europe or organizing your task details, planning really boils down to three things: 

1. What do you need to get done?
2. Which tasks are highest priority?
3. How much time do you actually have available to do it?

A daily planner app is a productivity tool that helps you organize your tasks and schedule. By automating your planning, you can ruthlessly prioritize your work around what matters most and get more done every week. Here are the 14 best planner apps to help you automate your daily planning this year.

14 best planner apps in 2024

1. Reclaim.ai – for team productivity
2. Todoist – for list planners
3. Trello – for visual planners
4. Google Tasks – for Google user planners
5. Things 3 – for Apple user planners
6. ClickUp – for real-time reporting
7. Habitica – for gamification fans
8. Notion – for note-takers
9. Asana – for busy teams
10. TickTick – for feature-hungry planners
11. TeuxDeux – for minimalists
12. Any.do – for versatile planners
13. Akiflow – for integrations
14. OmniFocus 3 – for GTD (Getting Things Done)

1. Reclaim.ai – for team productivity

Reclaim is an AI calendar planner app that automatically finds the best time for your tasks, habits, meetings, and breaks in your busy schedule. Simply connect your Google Calendar and sync your project management app to automatically block time for all of your tasks in your calendar. The best part is their smart time blocking keeps your schedule flexible for incoming events, conflicts, and priority changes. So if a new high-priority task, urgent meeting, or sick day interrupts your daily plan, Reclaim automatically reschedules your calendar around what’s most urgent to you.

It’s incredibly easy to set up, and you can save up to 40% of your workweek by automating your planning with Reclaim. Loved by busy teams coordinating work, to individuals just looking to better organize and plan their days. Their deep feature set is designed to boost your productivity and also improve your work-life balance – as you can defend more time for heads-down work, protect your schedule from meetings, limit interruptions, and defend personal time from work. They even offer powerful analytics to track where you spend time every week so you can cut time-wasting activities from your schedule. Reclaim is the #1 best daily planner app across the board.

Key features

• Planner: Automate your daily plan with time blocking, time tracking, and prioritized scheduling so you can focus on your most important work.
• Tasks: Auto-schedule your tasks in Google Calendar, by priority, before your due dates (while keeping your schedule flexible for changes).
• Habits: Smart recurring events that schedule at the best time (within a set time window) around your existing events. Hundreds of popular Habit templates available. 
• Smart Meetings: Auto-schedule your recurring meetings at the best time across all attendees' calendars.
• Scheduling Links: Share your availability for meetings with smart high-priority settings to offer more availability for urgent meetings.
• Buffer Time: Auto-schedule breaks and travel time around your calendar events.
• Calendar Sync: Sync multiple calendars to block personal events on your work calendar, and use privacy settings to control how coworkers see your events.
• Slack Status Sync: Auto-sync your Slack status to your calendar to prevent interruptions and context switching.
• No-Meeting Days: Defend time for your team to get stuff done every week.
• Smart Hours: Create and customize smart working, meeting, and personal hours to keep your daily plan within your preferred time windows.
• Time tracking: Analyze how you spend your time across meetings, tasks, habits, breaks, PTO, and hours of overtime worked.
• Integrations: Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Tasks, ClickUp, Asana, Jira, Todoist, Linear, Raycast, Zoom, and Slack

Drawbacks

• Currently only supports Google Calendar (Outlook coming soon).

Reclaim.ai pricing: Free → paid plans start at $8/month

2. Todoist – for list planners

Todoist is a simple task planner app that organizes all your work in one place so you can prioritize, track, and delegate your to-do list. Todoist is great for both team use and personal planning, as you can design and organize quick to-do lists up to multi-faceted projects. 

Stay on top of your work with easy task creation, priority levels, favorites, and reminders, along with personalized task views that allow you to filter and label to-do’s across projects. Todoist offers tons of templates to get started, from simple meeting agenda, to onboarding plans, and complex project trackers. Todoist is the #2 planner app due to its simplistic easy-to-use design, collaborative features, and easy goal planning that encourages you to get more done every week.

Key features

• Tasks: Create tasks, subtasks, and recurring tasks and delegate across your team.
• Projects: Organize project tasks by boards to plan and track progress across your team.
• Priority levels: Set priority levels for tasks to sort and organize around your work.
• Reminders: Get alerts on your time-sensitive tasks, comments, and team completions.
• Customizable views: Create personalized task views using boards, labels, filters, and themes to fit your unique style.
• Calendar feed: Visualize your scheduled tasks inside your calendar.
• Comments & files: Collaborate with your team using comments and files across tasks.
• Activity stream: Track, filter, and save views to monitor progress across team members and work items.
• Analytics: Visualize your productivity across tasks and track progress toward goals.
• Integrations: Integrates with almost 100 different apps, including Zapier, IFTTT, and Reclaim.ai.

Drawbacks

• Free plan is very limited and suited more for light single-user organization.
• Todoist’s calendar view doesn’t actually block the time you need for tasks, it only shows full-day events or one-hour blocks on your due date. (But Todoist integrates with Reclaim.ai so you can auto-schedule flexible time for tasks.)
• There’s a bit of a learning curve for new users navigating their many features.

Todoist pricing: Free → paid plans start at $4/month

3. Trello - for visual planners

Trello is a collaborative planning app that uses a Kanban format to help you organize, manage, and visualize your tasks and progress. Customize your view for your perfect planning needs across boards, timelines, tables, calendars, and dashboards to stay on top of your daily tasks. Trello is particularly useful for projects trying to stay as lean as possible – increasing efficiency and minimizing waste by continuously improving processes and eliminating any activities or resources that don't add value.

The Kanban style makes it easy to coordinate projects across stages of completion, and easily visualize what you have left to get done. You can also break down tasks into lists, and build custom workflows to automate project management steps, meetings, or even onboarding for new team members.

Key features

• Tasks: Create individual cards for tasks, ideas, or any pieces of information you want to track.
• Projects: Categorize and organize your tasks by creating different projects or boards.
• Kanban boards: Kanban-style boards visually represent your workflow with customizable columns to track progress of your tasks.
• Custom workflows: Create custom workflows with columns, labels, and automation to fit your unique team needs.
• Views: Offers multiple views, including the classic Kanban board view to track tasks, a calendar view for due dates, and a table view to present structured data.
• Templates: Provides a library of ready-to-use templates for many use cases, including onboarding plans, project management, and weekly meetings.
• Integrations: Integrates with hundreds of popular apps and services, such as Slack, Google Drive, Jira, Hootsuite, Miro, GitHub, and more.

Drawbacks

• The Kanban style may not suit every project, especially if additional project views and reporting features are needed.
• Limitations when it comes to reporting features, such as team insights, time tracking, Gantt charts, and more. 
• The calendar view lacks the ability to flexibly schedule tasks by the amount of time you need.

Trello pricing: Free → paid plans start at $5/month

4. Google Tasks - for Google user planners

Google Tasks is a mobile-first, bare-bones planner app for Google Workspace users that’s designed to help you create and manage a to-do list on the go. It has a relatively simple feature set compared to the other apps on our list, but it is among the best free daily planner apps. Google Tasks is particularly useful for coordinating to-do lists among heavy email users, as you can manage and create tasks right from Gmail, making it perfect for students juggling assignments. 

The major advantage of Google Tasks is its seamless integration with the Google Workspace suite. Users can easily create to-do lists, set reminders, and prioritize tasks without leaving their Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Drive, or a file in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides.

Key features

• Tasks: Create new tasks quickly, add due dates, and include additional task details.
• Lists: Create multiple task lists to organize your to-dos based on different projects, priorities, or categories.
• Subtasks: Allows you to break down complex tasks into smaller, more manageable subtasks.
• Drag & drop: Reorder tasks and subtasks using a simple drag-and-drop interface.
• Reminders & due dates: Set reminders and due dates for tasks to stay on top of deadlines and important events.
• Notifications: Receive notifications and reminders about upcoming tasks.
• Synchronization: Automatically synchronize tasks across all your devices.
• Integrations: Integrates across various platforms, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Keep, Google Assistant, and Reclaim.ai.

Drawbacks

• Doesn't block time on your schedule when you create a task, only a full-day event reminder the day it’s due. (But you can integrate Reclaim.ai for free to auto-block the time you need for Google Tasks on Google Calendar.)
• The due date in Google Tasks is simply the day the event is scheduled, which may not be sufficient for planning time-intensive projects.

Google Tasks pricing: Free (with a Google account)

5. Things - for Apple user planners

Things is a planner app built for Apple devices that’s designed to help wrangle growing task lists with smooth automations and easy-to-use controls. You can use it on your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and even Apple Watch to monitor and check off tasks on the go. The app is ideal for individual work planning, or as a personal task manager, but not really suited for managers who plan for an entire team.

As an Apple-exclusive app, Things has a huge emphasis on a beautiful and easy-to-use UX/UI that’s loved across their user base. They make it easy to customize your views, set up shortcuts, and even talk to Siri to get new tasks into your list.

Key features

• Tasks: Manage one-off and recurring tasks by creating to-do lists with categories and tags.
• Projects: Organize tasks and sub-tasks into projects, and sort into ‘Upcoming’ or ‘Someday’ task lists.
• Areas: Organize your planning across your different areas of life, to keep work, family, finance, or any other sphere sorted in a neat order.
• Today & upcoming views: Focus on your daily tasks with the dedicated "Today" view, and get a quick overview of tasks scheduled for the coming days or weeks. 
• Synchronization: Sync your tasks across all your devices (iOS, macOS, and watchOS).
• Today widget: Access your daily to-dos from the iOS Today Widget without opening the app.
• Reminders: Set gentle nudges to remind you of upcoming tasks and projects. 
• Siri integration: Use Siri to create new tasks, reminders, or updates using voice commands.
• Magic Plus: Quickly add new to-dos, reminders, or notes without having to switch views or interrupt your workflow.
• Slim Mode: Condense the app's user interface, allowing you to see more tasks at once on the screen.
• Intuitive interface: Boasts a clean and user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate and use.

Drawbacks

• Not a great fit for anyone looking for team planning functionality, as it’s primarily designed for individual use.
• Limited functionality for prioritizing tasks or deadlines beyond manually reordering them in a list.
• Things 3 doesn't actively manage or adjust your schedule.

Things 3 pricing: $9.99 for iPhone & Watch, $19.99 for iPad, $49.99 for Mac (one-time purchase)

6. ClickUp - for real-time reporting

ClickUp is a versatile all-in-one planner app that helps you coordinate team projects across tasks, whiteboards, dashboards, chat, goals, and docs. Primarily designed for team planning, offers a deep feature set to help you stay organized and increase productivity. 

With its user-friendly interface and powerful functionality, ClickUp can really be customized to accomplish anything you want to plan around. Easily create Gantt charts, mind maps, Kanban boards, build automations, and even track your time. This powerful tool is a top contender in the best daily planner apps space.

Key features

• Tasks: Create and organize tasks with due dates, priorities, assignees, statuses, and workflows.
• Dashboards: Track real-time progress and surface data-driven insights with fully customizable dashboards.
• Docs: Create docs, wikis, roadmaps, and knowledge bases with embedded bookmarks, tables, and more that connect with your other workflows.
• Whiteboards: Brainstorm, add notes, and flesh out your ideas using a virtual whiteboard to help organize and coordinate your daily planning.
• Mind maps: Easily plan and organize tasks and ideas with Mind Maps' drag-and-drop nodes and workflow mapping features.
• Automations: Select from 100+ Automations to streamline workflows, routine tasks, project handoffs, and more.
• Collaboration & communication: Collaborate using comments, mentions, and notifications.
• Customizable views: Choose from various views, including list, board, calendar, and mind map, and customize your workspace layout.
• Sprint planning: Automate sprint planning, prioritize tasks, assign points, and integrate with GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket.
• Project planning: Gantt charts for visual project planning, create project timelines, and the ability to set dependencies and milestones.
• Time tracking: Track time spent on tasks and projects for accurate productivity insights and generate time reports for analysis.
• Goal setting & OKRs: Set and track objectives and key results (OKRs) for team alignment and progress measurement.
• Mobile app: Access on-the-go with mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.
• Templates: Save time with customizable or pre-made templates for your specific daily planning needs.
• Integrations: Integrates with over 1,000 tools, including Slack, GitHub, Hubspot, Google Drive, and Reclaim.ai.

Drawbacks

• ClickUp’s calendar feature allows you to manually drag-and-drop tasks, but lacks the ability to automatically schedule the amount of time you need before your due date. (But you can integrate ClickUp with Reclaim.ai to auto-schedule flexible time for your tasks.)
• Can be overwhelming for new users due to the extensive range of features, and time-consuming to familiarize yourself with all the functionalities and build our your customizations.
• Certain advanced features (e.g., time tracking, custom fields reporting) only available in higher-tier plans.

ClickUp Pricing: Free → paid plans start at $7/month

7. Habitica - for gamification fans

Habitica, an innovative daily planning app, takes a unique approach to task management by transforming your daily routine into an exciting role-playing game (RPG). Combining the principles of gamification and productivity, Habitica offers a refreshing and engaging way to stay organized, motivated, and on track with your goals. With its intuitive interface and vibrant visuals, this app turns mundane tasks and habits into thrilling quests and challenges.

Their user-friendly mobile and web interface that lets you effortlessly track and manage your habits, daily goals, and to-do list. As you complete tasks, your Avatar will level up and offer new features for you to unlock in the game. These features can include battle armor, magical abilities, mysterious pets, and even quests, providing an exciting and rewarding gameplay experience. You can also team up to battle monsters and earn gold with other users, forming guilds to keep you all accountable to your goals. 

Key features

• Tasks: Create and organize tasks, to-do lists, and habits.
• Gamification features: Gamify your tasks by turning them into in-game activities; completing tasks earns you rewards.
• Avatar customization: Create and customize avatars that level up, gain new abilities, and gear when you complete tasks.
• Daily checklists: Create checklists for recurring tasks or habits.
• Social accountability: Form or join parties and guilds to collaborate with friends to keep you accountable and motivated.
• Rewards & punishments: Earn rewards (like gold and experience points) as you complete tasks and maintain good habits, while neglecting tasks or engaging in bad habits may lead to penalties.
• Mobile & desktop: Available on both mobile devices and desktop platforms.
• Third-party extensions: The app supports third-party extensions and plugins, enhancing its functionality and user experience.
• Developer-friendly: Open API for developers to create custom solutions and further enhance the app's capabilities.

Drawbacks

• Game-like elements can motivate some users, but may not appeal to everyone.
• Might feel distracting or unnecessary for those who prefer a more straightforward and traditional task management system.
• Primarily focuses on habits and daily tasks, so it may not be the best for complex projects or detailed project planning.

Habitica Pricing: Free → $9/month + $3/team member

8. Notion - for note-takers

Notion is a powerful all-in-one productivity app that goes beyond a daily planner. It combines note-taking, task management, database organization, and collaboration features into a single platform. 

Their customizable interface allows you to tailor the app to your specific needs, making it a highly versatile tool that's perfect for both individuals and teams. Packed with powerful features, Notion helps you streamline your work, boost productivity, and keep you on top of your tasks and projects. It doesn't matter if you're a student, a freelancer, or a part of a large organization, Notion is an all-in-one solution that can help you with your daily planning and achieving your goals.

Key features

• Flexible workspace: Create and organize various elements, such as notes, to-do lists, projects, wikis, databases, and more, in a customizable workspace.
• Blocks-based structure: Add different content blocks like text, images, tables, videos, and code snippets that can be fully customized and arranged.
• Cross-platform support: Available on multiple platforms, including web browsers, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
• Templates: Wide range of pre-designed templates for tasks like project management, meeting notes, habit tracking, and more.
• Nested pages & subpages: Create nested pages and subpages to organize your content hierarchically.
• Database & tables: Create databases with customizable properties for storing and managing structured data like CRM, task lists, or inventories.
• Tags & filters: Add tags to your content and use filters to quickly find and group related information.
• Kanban boards & calendars: Supports Kanban-style boards and calendar views for project tracking and scheduling tasks.
• Notion AI: Access AI right in Notion to automate tedious tasks, fix spelling and grammar, translate text, edit your voice and tone, and re-write technical jargon.
• Integrations: Integrates almost 100 apps and tools such as Figma, Slack, GitHub, Google Drive, Zoom, and more.

Drawbacks

• Abundance of features and customization options can be overwhelming for new users.
• Their user interface can be complex, especially for users accustomed to simpler task management apps.
• Mobile app experience may not be as optimized as the desktop version.
• Calendar tool is limited to accurately and flexibly planning out time for tasks.

Notion Pricing: Free → paid plans start at $8/month

9. Asana - for busy teams

Asana is a robust and intuitive daily planner app and task management tool designed to help individuals and teams manage tasks, projects, and workflows effectively. With its user-friendly interface and powerful features, Asana is a go-to choice for individuals, small businesses, and large enterprises alike.

Easily create tasks, assign them to others, set deadlines, and track progress as a team. Asana also provides a variety of views such as a list, board, calendar, and timeline, which can help you visualize your tasks and schedule. It’s also designed to help you stay organized with prioritization settings to sort your tasks, as well as reminders to make sure you don’t fall behind in a project. Their recurring tasks are also super helpful for keeping up with the routines you need to prioritize regularly.

Key features

• Tasks: Create and assign tasks to team members, set due dates, prioritize, and track progress in real-time.
• Task dependencies: Set task dependencies to establish relationships between tasks.
• Project organization: Group tasks into projects to keep related work together and maintain a structured workflow.
• Views: Visualize project schedules and dependencies using the timeline view, Kanban-style boards, or calendars.
• File sharing & attachments: Upload and share files directly within tasks.
• Team collaboration: Facilitate communication by commenting on tasks, mentioning teammates, and having threaded conversations.
• Custom fields: Add custom fields to tasks or projects for personalized information tracking and organization.
• Workload management: Track team members' workloads for a balanced distribution of tasks and prevent overloading.
• Progress tracking & reporting: Generate reports to monitor project progress and team performance and identify potential bottlenecks.
• Mobile accessibility: Access on mobile devices to stay connected and manage tasks on the go.
• Automation: Set up rules and automation to streamline repetitive tasks and actions.
• Integrations: Integrates with +100 apps such as Slack, Google Drive, Microsoft Office, Reclaim.ai, and more.

Drawbacks

• Some users may find the learning curve steep for setting up complex workflows or using advanced features like custom fields or rules.
• The free plan provides basic features, but advanced functionalities like custom templates, timeline view, and advanced reporting are available in the paid plans.
• The cost of the paid plans may be a consideration for individuals or small teams with budget constraints.
• Calendar tool requires a lot of manual work to plan out tasks. (However, Asana integrates with Reclaim.ai so you can automatically block the amount of time you need for tasks before your due date.)

Asana Pricing: Free → paid plans start at $10.99/month

10. TickTick - for feature-hungry planners

TickTick is a feature-rich and intuitive daily planner app that offers a wide array of tools to help individuals stay organized and boost productivity. With its sleek design and seamless user experience, TickTick stands out from other apps as an adaptable choice for managing tasks and schedules effectively.

It offers many useful daily planning features, such as task scheduling, reminders, team collaboration, calendar integrations, and more. With TickTick, you can create projects, assign tasks to team members, set due dates and priorities, and track progress in real-time. It also has a built-in Pomodoro timer to help you focus on your work and take regular breaks.

Key features

• Tasks: Create one-time and recurring tasks with due dates, priorities, and durations to stay on top of your to-do list.
• Reminders: Set task reminders to never miss important deadlines or events.
• Lists & projects: Organize tasks into different lists or projects based on categories or themes.
• Tags: Categorize tasks with tags for easy filtering and sorting.
• Priority levels: Assign priority levels to tasks to focus on what matters most.
• Smart date parsing: Enter due dates and reminders to automatically parse information into a reminder.
• Collaboration: Assign tasks, set up notifications, and use a shared list to sync to-dos and collaborate with your team.
• Achievement scores & statistics: Raise your achievement score after creating tasks, completing tasks, focusing, and habit tracking.
• Cross-platform sync: Access and manage your tasks across devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
• Pomodoro timer: Built-in timer for 25-minute work sessions followed by 5-minute breaks.
• Integrations: Integrates with nearly a dozen tools and apps, such as Slack, Gmail, Outlook, and Amazon Alexa.

Drawbacks

• Some advanced functionalities like calendar integration, custom Smart Lists, and calendar widgets require a subscription.
• Limited options for integrating with other third-party apps and services.

TickTick Pricing: Free → paid plans start at $3.99/month

11. TeuxDeux - for minimalists

TeuxDeux is a simple and elegant daily planner app designed to help you organize your tasks and stay on top of your schedule, without the overwhelm. With its minimalist design and intuitive features, TeuxDeux offers a straightforward and focused approach to task management.

Designed more for a single user vs. a team, you can easily create daily to-do lists, schedule tasks for future dates, and set reminders for important deadlines. It also allows you to organize your tasks into categories and move them around as your priorities change. TeuxDeux also has a built-in calendar view that lets you see your tasks in a monthly view, making it easy to stay ahead on your daily planning.

Key features

• Clean & minimalist interface: Offers a clean and straightforward user interface for easy navigation and focus on tasks.
• Daily & weekly views: Provides daily and weekly views to plan their daily tasks and organize their entire week.
• Drag & drop functionality: Rearrange tasks by dragging and dropping them to prioritize and reschedule as needed.
• Recurring tasks: Set tasks to repeat daily, weekly, or monthly for regular or ongoing responsibilities.
• "Someday" list: Place tasks you want to do, but aren’t ready to schedule, in the "Someday" list to keep the primary task list clutter-free.
• Customizable reminders: Customize your reminders, and choose if and when you receive your daily to-do list in your inbox.
• Mobile app: Available as a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices.

Drawbacks

• Simplicity may be a limitation for users who require more advanced features or project management capabilities.
• May not be suitable for complex projects or extensive collaboration.

TeuxDeux Pricing: Free → paid plans start at $4/month

‍12. Any.do - for versatile planners

Any.do is a planner app designed for busy teams to stay organized in their project management. Easily create customized workflows, collaborate on tasks, and chat with your team to stay on track of your daily work and monitor progress towards your goals.

Available on almost all mobile, web, and wearable devices, Any.do allows you to work on-the-go and integrate popular communications and project management apps to seamlessly collaborate with your team. With a variety of features such as to-do lists, tasks, projects, daily planners, calendars, reminders, and more, Any.do is one of the most versatile daily planning apps on our list. They also offer over 100 templates to fast-track your planning around all aspects of your organization.

Key features

• Tasks: Create and organize tasks and to-do lists with due dates, reminders, assignees, tags, notes, subtasks, and attachments.
• Projects: Manage all your projects, track progress, assign tasks, and coordinate across your team with custom workflows.
• Planner: Prioritize your daily plan with smart suggestions of what to focus on across both personal and work tasks.
• Calendar: View all your tasks in a daily, weekly, and monthly calendar view.
• Chat & collaboration: Chat with, mention, and collaborate with team members and relevant stakeholders right in the app.
• Reminders: Stay focused and efficient throughout your day with one-time, recurring, and location reminders.
• Imports: Import data to your to-do lists, backup your lists, or share your data with other services.
• Integrations: Whatsapp, Gmail, Slack, Siri, and Zapier.

Drawbacks

• Can feel complicated for users looking for simpler daily planning apps.
• Free plan is very limited for users needing a daily planning app for work.
• While they support viewing your tasks in your calendar, you can’t auto-schedule or flexibly reschedule tasks around your availability at an ideal time, which can leave your calendar jammed up with rigid time blocks and make you unavailable to collaborate with your team.

Any.do pricing: Free → paid plans start at $3/month

13. Akiflow - for integrations

Akiflow is a calendar planner app that allows you to drag-and-drop tasks into your schedule. Easily create new tasks, and view them next to your calendar to block time for the work you need to get done.

Keep your daily plan organized with quick task actions to prioritize and snooze items on your list, and work without interruption through their offline mode. Akiflow also allows you to share your availability to book new meetings, and integrate popular work tools like email, Slack, and project management apps to manage your tasks all in one place.

Key features

• Time blocking: Break down your day by the work you need to get done with drag-and-drop time blocking from your task list to your calendar.
• Notifications: Get alerts on upcoming meetings and tasks, and view your daily schedule from your top desktop bar.
• Focus Mode: Hide your task list and calendar and turn off all distractions with Focus Mode.
• Inbox & Calendar: Collect your tasks from all your integrations to a task inbox and organize them in one place before moving them to your calendar.
• Rituals: Keep track of your daily performance and planning with the Daily Planning and Daily Shutdown rituals.
• Command Bar: Quickly create, edit, and time block tasks and events using Command Bar shortcuts. 
• Share Availability: Share your availability through bookable links to schedule meetings.
• Integrations: Slack, Gmail, Notion, Asana, ClickUp, Zoom, Google Calendar, Trello, Todoist, Jira, and Github. 

Drawbacks

• Very expensive compared to other daily planning apps.
• Initial setup and learning curve may feel steep for some users looking for a more straightforward daily planning tool. 
• No automated, prioritized, or flexible time-blocking features for their calendar, requiring you to manually drag-and-drop tasks to get them scheduled This makes it less realistic to use as you need to stay available for your team, and if they can’t find a time with you, you’re stuck doing a lot of manual reshuffling to clear tasks on your calendar.

Akiflow pricing: Free → paid plans start at $8.33/month

14. OmniFocus 3 - for GTD (Getting Things Done) 

OmniFocus 3 is a powerful task management planner for Mac that helps busy professionals stay organized and prioritize their tasks. The app allows you to customize your task lists and projects, assign tags and perspectives, quickly enter tasks, and batch edit. 

OmniFocus 3 was designed according to the "Getting Things Done" productivity methodology and keeps track of your priorities so you always know what to work on next. Seamlessly designed for Apple devices, you can keep track of your work from anywhere and get notifications when it’s time to switch priorities.

Key features

• Tasks: Create and organize tasks with due dates, notifications, tags, notes, and attachments.
• Projects: Organize your actions into projects, and group related projects into folders.
• Quick entry: Easily add new actions with a customizable keyboard shortcut.
• Encrypted syncing: Keep your data consistent and secure across all your devices with cloud-based encrypted syncing. 
• Tags: Assign tags such as location, person, energy level, and priority to any action.
• Notes: Attach long notes, graphics, and audio files to your actions.
• Forecast: Display your upcoming tasks and events in chronological order and plan ahead by tapping on a specific day.
• Notifications: Receive notifications when an action is due, deferred, or tagged with your current location.

Drawbacks

• Does not support any collaborative features.
• Fairly expensive compared to other options.
• There’s no calendar feature for daily planning, which limits you to just working off your task lists. This makes it difficult to really estimate how much you can get done in a day against your schedule availability.

Omnifocus 3 pricing: Free → paid plans start at $9.99/month

The best planner app = more focus, less chaos 📝

Every week it seems to be the same thing – we pledge to be conscientious and get stuff done to make like Buffett and Gates. But before you know it, new tasks and meetings drop in and blow up your daily plan.

It’s time to automate your planning so you can spend more time being productive every day. The best planner apps make it easy to manage your schedule, collaborate with your colleagues, and effectively prioritize your energy around what matters most.