Timeboxing is a time management technique where you allocate dedicated time to work on a specific task.
Everyone has limited time and can take up a limited amount of work. A timeboxing tool helps prioritize tasks and schedule time blocks to complete tasks in a focused and efficient manner.
This article aims to guide you in selecting the right timeboxing app and compares them based on features, pros and cons, and pricing.
The article helps you identify features and time-blocking apps that align with your specific needs, work style, and productivity goals.
Disclaimer: The information below is accurate as of February 2nd, 2024
What is the best timeboxing app?
- Toggl Track: Best time blocking and work hours tracking for teams
- Toggl Plan: Best for team resource planning and scheduling
- Sunsama: Best daily planner
- Any.do: Best for task and calendar management
- TickTick: Best for task management and time blocking
- Motion: Best AI schedule planner
- Freedom: Best for focused timeboxing
- Akiflow: Best integrated timeboxing app
- HourStack: Best scheduling and time management tool
- Planyway: Best calendar planning tool for Jira and Trello
1. Toggl Track
Price: Starts at $10/month.
Toggl Track is a time management app for teams. It helps track work hours and create time reports with a user-friendly interface, prioritize tasks, and improve productivity.
It also offers a timeline interface to block dedicated time to work-related activities and project tasks.
What we like
- Toggl Track’s Calendar view feature helps you timebox work with a simple drag-and-drop interface. It also integrates with popular calendar apps, including Google Calendar and Outlook, to import scheduled events from there.
What’s missing
- Toggl Track doesn’t have distraction-blocking features.
Best for
Toggl Track is best for agencies that deliver client work and need a time-blocking app that tracks work hours and improves productivity.
Top features
- Drag and drop timeboxing in a calendar view: Schedule time blocks on your calendar with drag and drop functionality, and log time for these tasks.
- Calendar integrations: Import calendar events to get a clear picture of your available time and bandwidth.
- Pomodoro timer: Available on the desktop, browser extension, and mobile apps, the Pomodoro timer in Toggl Track helps teams work in focused sessions.
- Time estimates: Set task-based estimates, track estimated vs actual hours, and monitor project progress to ensure you stay on track.
- Reporting: Use summary, detailed, or weekly reports to see everyone’s tracked time and productivity, generate timesheets, and spot productivity gaps.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Toggl Plan, Slack, and Google Calendar. Toggl Track also integrates with other 100+ documentation, communication, task management, writing, and project management tools.
Pricing
Toggl Track offers four pricing plans:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Personal use |
| Starter | $10 per user per month | Teams with basic time-tracking needs |
| Premium | $20 per user per month | Teams who need online and offline functionality for tracking time and profitability |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Enterprise teams |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
Top Tip: All Toggl Track plans have a free, 30-day trial of Toggl Track Premium.
2. Toggl Plan
Price: Starts at $9/month
Toggl Plan is a team project scheduling tool that helps you manage time better, improve productivity, plan team capacity, and schedule projects.
With its timelines, you can visualize everyone’s schedule and workload in one place. And block time by scheduling and assigning tasks to team members using a drag-and-drop interface.
What we like
- In Toggl Plan, you can easily see your team’s work schedule and workloads in the Timeline view.
The Team timeline shows each member’s tasks and availability to help you better schedule projects and balance tasks so everyone has the right amount of work.
Other features like color coding, milestones, and zoom levels let you organize and prioritize work for better time management.
What’s missing
- Toggl Plan doesn’t have task dependencies, which may be needed for complex projects.
Best for
Toggl Plan is best for agencies that need a timeboxing app to help them plan team resources and schedule tasks efficiently.
Top features
- Team timelines: A visual overview of what each team member is working on and when. This feature helps visualize each team member’s schedule so you can plan better and assign tasks more realistically.
- Time off planning: A clear overview of who’s available and who is on vacation.
The Time off view helps managers plan projects effectively to meet deadlines.
- Holidays: Turn on national public holidays for each user for a better overview of their availability.
- Recurring tasks: Plan weekly meetings, monthly reporting, or annual reviews more easily with recurring tasks.
- Tags and segments: Organize projects and tasks with segments and tags. Segments organize tasks into swimlanes, and tags filter tasks to prioritize your to-dos.
- Google Calendar import: By importing your Google Calendar events into Toggl Plan, you easily block time for pre-scheduled events and understand the true capacity of your team..
Tool integrations
Integrations include Toggl Track, Slack, and Google Calendar.
Pricing
Toggl Plan offers three pricing options with a free 14-day trial:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 per user | Solo users |
| Team | $9 per user per month | Teams who need to meet deadlines and manage resources effectively |
| Business | $15 per user per month | Teams who work with external stakeholders and need seamless reporting features |
3. Sunsama
Price: Starts at $20/month
Sunsama is a daily planning app with timeboxing features.
Other features include guided daily planning, daily calendar view, and daily goals.
What we like
- Sunsama’s daily planning feature helps you plan your everyday tasks clearly and realistically.
If you’ve exceeded your daily number of working hours, Sunsama sends an unrealistic workload notification. This helps you keep your workload balanced and avoid burnout.
What’s missing
- Sunsama provides daily reflections and weekly reviews but doesn’t have more advanced reporting capabilities. Detailed time reports provide useful insights into productivity and work habits.
Best for
Sunsama is best for individuals and some teams needing a daily planner to help them plan and focus on their daily tasks.
Top features
- Daily goal planning: Plan your everyday goals to avoid overwhelm and maintain focus.
- Timeboxing: Timeblock tasks on your daily calendar so you know exactly what you work on and when.
- Daily view: See only today’s tasks so you can focus on urgent work and meet deadlines.
- Focus mode: Get a focused view of the task you’re working on and avoid distractions.
- Calendar sync: Sync your Google or Outlook calendars for better planning and scheduling.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Todoist, ClickUp, and Slack.
Pricing
Sunsama offers one pricing plan:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Subscription | $20 per user per month | Teams who need to plan daily tasks and maintain focus |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
4. Any.do
Price: Starts at $5/month
Any.do is a to-do list and timeboxing app that helps teams and individuals organize their tasks, manage calendar events, and plan daily work.
What we like
- Any.do is available on multiple platforms. You can organize your work and manage your time on mobile, laptop, desktop, tablet, and watch. All your data syncs automatically across all devices.
What’s missing
- Any.do doesn’t have a built-in time tracker to seamlessly track time spent on tasks, get productivity insights, and identify areas for improvement.
Best for
Any.do is best for individuals and teams who need a timeboxing tool that helps them plan and manage their tasks and calendar events.
Top features
- To-do list: Color code to-do’s to set priorities, set due dates, and reminders to stay organized and on track. You can also share your task lists with your team to keep everyone in the loop.
- Reminders: Set one-time, recurring, or location-based reminders to make sure you don’t forget any important task.
- Daily planner: My Day is a private daily planner that helps you plan and manage your tasks and keeps you focused.
- Smart suggestions: Any.do can send personalized suggestions using parameters like due dates and priorities to plan your work for the day.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Gmail, Slack, and Siri.
Pricing
Any.do offers four pricing plans:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | $0 per user | Individuals who need a calendar app with tasks, reminders, and a daily planner |
| Premium | $5 per user per month (billed annually) | Users who need AI-powered features |
| Family | $8 per user per month (billed annually) | Families who need to manage households |
| Teams | $8 per user per month (billed annually) | Teams who need a collaborative workspace, unlimited project boards, and team members |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
5. TickTick
Price: Starts at $3.99/month
TickTick is a timeboxing and productivity app that helps individuals and teams manage tasks, organize their time, and become more productive.
What we like
- With TickTick, you can organize and prioritize your tasks with features like tags, multi-priority, smart lists, and sorting.
You can also drag and drop your tasks in the Calendar to create time blocks and keep track of your work.
What’s missing
- TickTick doesn’t come with built-in time tracking or time reports. Tracked time data can help understand time spending habits and productivity.
Best for
TickTick is best for teams and individuals needing task management and time-blocking tools.
Top features
- Pomo timer: The Pomodoro timer in TickTick lets you work in focused sessions and make the most of your work hours.
- Calendar views: Choose how you want to see specific tasks and events. You have five options: list view, day view, 3-day view, weekly view, and monthly view. The first three are only available on mobile devices.
- Smart lists: Smart lists help you prioritize tasks and organize your workday efficiently. You can access five smart lists in TickTick—Today, Tomorrow, Next 7 Days, Inbox, and Assigned to Me. You can also create custom lists.
- Priorities: You can set four priority task levels in TIckTick, from high to no priority, and make sure you finish key tasks first.
- Task duration: Available as a premium feature, task duration lets you add how much each task takes.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Outlook, Slack, and Gmail.
Pricing
TickTick offers two pricing plans:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | $0 per user | Individuals who need to organize their to-do list |
| Premium | $3.99 per month | Teams who need to track progress, manage tasks, and prioritize |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
6. Motion
Price: Starts at $20/month
Motion is an AI-powered timeboxing app that accelerates task management by intelligently scheduling tasks into your daily routine.
What we like
- Motion’s auto-scheduling feature plans and organizes your work based on priority, deadlines, duration, and working hours.
It also automatically blocks tasks and focus time on your calendar, and re-schedules tasks when unexpected events happen.
What’s missing
- Motion doesn’t generate time reports that can help you analyze productivity and work habits.
Best for
Motion is best for individuals who need an AI schedule planner that builds their daily schedule, manages their calendar, and prioritizes work.
Top features
- Task manager: Create recurring tasks to streamline your workflows and keep distractions away with a screen banner. Motion also reprioritizes tasks for you when changes occur.
- Automatic time blocks: Motion automatically blocks tasks on your calendar to keep work organized and improve productivity.
- Calendar management: Motion’s Intelligent Calendar schedules all your tasks, meetings, and to-do lists and sends alerts when you have too many activities.
- AI scheduling: Motion’s AI software prioritizes tasks and schedules them on your calendar based on your meetings, work hours, and projects.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Google Calendar, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier.
Pricing
Motion offers two pricing plans:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Team plan | $20 per user per month | Teams who need time management and automated planning features |
| Individual | $34 per month | Individuals who need task management and AI scheduling |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
7. Freedom
Price: Starts at $8.99/month
Freedom is a timeboxing app that also helps individuals avoid distractions and focus on their work by blocking websites and apps.
What we like
- Freedom helps you keep distractions away by blocking apps and websites when you work in focused sessions.
It also syncs your blocked apps and websites on multiple platforms like Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, and Chrome.
What’s missing
- Freedom doesn’t have task management features that help teams prioritize, schedule, and manage work.
Best for
Freedom is best for individuals who need an app and website blocker to help them work in focused timeboxing sessions.
Top features
- Blocklists: Create custom blocklists with the websites and apps you want to block. Or block all websites and add exceptions for the ones you need.
- Advance scheduling: Schedule sessions to begin automatically and create recurring sessions for repeated tasks.
- Locked mode: When enabled, this feature doesn’t let you end a Freedom session to keep you focused.
- Ambient sounds: Working with ambient noise in the background can enhance your focus and productivity.
Tool integrations
Freedom doesn’t have any tool integrations.
Pricing
Freedom offers two pricing plans:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Premium | $8.99 per month | Teams who need time blocking and scheduling features |
| Forever | $99.50 (billed once) | Teams who need time blocking and scheduling features and don’t want to pay monthly for them |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
8. Akiflow
Price: Starts at $34/month
Akiflow is a timeboxing app that helps teams boost their productivity, manage their tasks, and plan their calendar and schedules in one place.
What we like
- You can block time slots for your tasks by dragging and dropping them on your calendar. Akiflow automatically locks scheduled tasks in your calendar to avoid overbooking.
You can also bring all your tasks to Akiflow through its multiple tool integrations.
What’s missing
- Akiflow’s mobile app is currently available as a Beta version and doesn’t work as well as the desktop app, according to some users.
Best for
Akiflow is best for individuals who need a timeboxing app that integrates with many third-party apps so they can manage all tasks in one place.
Top features
- Time blocking: Drag and drop tasks on your calendar to block time slots and organize your schedule.
- Notifications: Create custom notifications for important tasks and meetings. Keep all your notifications in the Tray Menu on your desktop so you always know what’s next.
- Focus Mode: When turned on, Focus Mode removes all distractions and hides your to-do list and calendar.
- Rituals: The Daily Planning and Daily Shutdown rituals help you plan your schedule and review daily performance.
- Inbox calendar: Integrate tasks from all your integrations, sync your calendars, and manage your schedule and tasks in one unified view.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Google Calendar, Notion, and Todoist. Akiflow also integrates with Zapier and IFTTT for 1000 tool integrations.
Pricing
Akiflow offers one pricing plan:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Plan | $34 per month | Teams who need time blocking, task management, and scheduling features |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
9. HourStack
Price: Starts at $12/month
HourStack is time management software with time tracking, scheduling, and task management features.
What we like
- HourStack lets you easily schedule tasks by dragging and dropping them into your visual calendar and editing them easily.
The unified individual and team views also simplify scheduling by providing clear visibility into workloads.
What’s missing
- HourStack doesn’t have a feature that blocks websites or apps to avoid distractions.
Best for
HourStack is best for teams and individuals who need a time management and scheduling tool to help them improve productivity and plan projects.
Top features
- Task management: Add and edit tasks and subtasks in a list, board, or calendar view using drag and drop.
- Time tracking: Track time on desktop or mobile and use tracked time data to create reports and understand your team’s time habits.
- Reporting: Get daily, weekly, and monthly reports on employee data like total hours worked or completed tasks.
- Scheduling: Get unified individual or team views to visualize your tasks or see what the whole team is working on.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Google Calendar, Google Chrome, and Asana.
Pricing
HourStack offers two pricing plans:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | $12 per month | For individuals who need task management, time tracking, and scheduling |
| Team | $15 per member per month | For teams who need team scheduling, time tracking, and reporting |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
10. Planyway
Price: Starts at $6/month
Planyway is a team calendar and timeline tool for project planning and time management.
Integrated with Trello and Jira, Planyway provides a visual overview of tasks, deadlines, and team workload. At the time of writing this article, it’s GitHub integration is at an early-access stage.
What we like
- Planyway’s integration with Trello and Jira offers drag-and-drop functionality and easy rescheduling.
You can also track projects on the timeline view, time block tasks, plan workloads, track time, and sync your calendars to keep all tasks and deadlines in one place.
What’s missing
- Users say Planyway is not user-friendly on mobile devices.
Best for
Planyway is best for teams and individuals who need a calendar planning tool for Jira and Trello.
Top features
- Checklists: Organize your workflows with checklists and make big tasks more manageable.
- Milestones: Add milestones in the Timeline or Calendar view and keep up with the deadlines.
- Time tracking: See time entries in the list or calendar view, use filters to see specific time data, and log time in Trello cards.
- iCalendar integration: Add your calendars to Planyway or export your boards to an external calendar.
Tool integrations
Integrations include Google Calendar, iCalendar, and Outlook Calendar.
Pricing
Planyway offers three pricing plans:
| Plan | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 per user | Individuals with basic time management needs |
| Business | $6 per user per month | Individuals and teams who need a time tracking app, multi-board views, and scheduling |
| Enterprise | Contact Planyway | Enterprise teams |
Visit the pricing page for more information.
Best timeboxing apps: Quick comparison
Here’s a quick overview of our top timeboxing apps:
| Tool | G2 | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toggl Track | 4.5 | Time blocking and work hours tracking for teams | From $10 per user per month |
| Toggl Plan | 4.3 | Team resource planning and scheduling | From $9 per user per month |
| Sunsama | n/a | Daily planning | From $20 per user per month |
| Any.do | 4.1 | Task and calendar management | From $5 per user per month |
| TickTick | 4.5 | Task management and time blocking | From $3.99 per month |
| Motion | 4.3 | AI scheduling and planning | From $20 per user per month |
| Freedom | 4.8 | Focused timeboxing | From $8.99 per month |
| Akiflow | 5.0 | Integrated timeboxing | From $34 per month |
| HourStack | 4.4 | Time management and scheduling | From $12 per month |
| Planyway | 4.4 | Calendar planning in Jira and Trello | From $6 per user per month |
How do I choose the best time app for timeboxing?
To pick the right timeboxing app, ask yourself some questions to make sure the tool matches your needs and lifestyle:
- What are my primary goals for using a timeboxing app? Do I need it for myself or my team?
- Do I need it for complex project management or simple daily task organization?
- What features are most important to me?
- Do I prefer a simple, minimalist design or a more feature-rich interface?
- Is ease of use more important than having a wide range of functionalities?
- How important is cross-platform compatibility?
Answering these questions will help you narrow down your options and choose a timeboxing app that aligns with your needs and productivity goals.
Boost productivity with timeboxing with the right software
Now that you know some key features and benefits of the timeboxing software in our list, it might be time to try some of them out.
By signing in for a free Toggl Track account, you get to discover in practice how it can help you:
- Manage time better and stay focused
- Prioritize tasks and schedule realistically
- Avoid distractions and improve productivity
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The most common questions about timeboxing apps are:
What is a timeboxing app?
A timeboxing app is a productivity tool that helps individuals and teams allocate specific time slots, or “boxes,” for tasks and activities.
Timeboxing is a time management technique where you divide tasks into fixed time intervals to improve focus and productivity within these set durations.
What key features should I look for in a timeboxing app?
Features to look for in a timeboxing app are task prioritization and management, reminders, calendar views, progress tracking, time tracking, and time reports.
What are the benefits of using timeboxing tools?
Timeboxing tools boost productivity, enhance focus, and improve time management by breaking tasks into manageable intervals. They also improve task prioritization and reduce stress by providing clear time limits.
Work tools to elevate your productivity – apps for incredibly simple time tracking and effective project planning.
