1. Apple Notes + Reminders App – Best Free Option for Apple Users
Thanks to incredible integration and feature support, using a built-in app is a smart decision. The combination of Apple Notes and the Reminders app can be a powerful planning tool. Besides creating a checklist on Notes, you can also link related notes, scan documents, and use Smart Folders to segregate/organize your notes.
However, the one thing missing is the reminder facility. And that’s where the reminder app comes into play, wherein you can easily set reminders with alerts. The best part is that you can set reminders for individual notes or parts of the notes.
To do so, open the note (select the text if needed) → Share → Find and select Reminders → Add. Here, tap Details to manage the reminder’s priority and list. And if that’s not enough, both apps effortlessly support iPads with Apple Pencil. Now, aren’t these win-win planner apps?
Price: Free
2. Google Keep – Digital Planner App for Google Lovers
If you’re not completely boxed into Apple’s wall garden, Google Keep is the next best free planner app for iPad and iPhone. All your notes will be synced with your Google account, and you can access it from any device, whether Android, Windows or even the web and Apple Watch.
The app facilitates features like checkboxes (with multiple indentations), reminders, doodling or drawing, color codes and labels for organization, real-time collaboration, etc. And while not as extensive, it also offers Apple Pencil support, including some rich text support.
Now, here comes the decisive factor. Whether a layman or a beginner, you’ll enjoy the simple and minimal user interface. However, if you like to decorate to-do lists, it might be a lost cause. Plus, the home screen might seem cluttered at times.
Price: Free
3. Todoist – A Powerful Agenda App for iPad and iPhone
Todoist is an elegant, sleek, feature-rich, and intuitive planner to organize your professional and personal tasks. It’s a great choice for those who prefer a structured and organized approach to planning. You can create tasks with due dates, labels, and priority levels, ensuring you have a clear overview of your to-do list.
Furthermore, it supports recurring tasks, so you don’t have to jot down your daily, weekly, or monthly tasks. Hands down, the best feature is its powerful everyday language recognition. You can add a task and reminder with a simple statement, like a meditation session at 6:00 am every Saturday.
The app also houses iOS and iPadOS-specific features such as support for Siri, widgets, share extensions, handoff, quick actions, etc. It also integrates with 60+ tools like Gmail, Outlook, Slack, and third-party calendars. Although some features are locked under a subscription fee, the free version is more than sufficient.
Price: Free; Monthly subscription: $4.99 onwards
4. Any.do – Great Organizer for Collaboration
Any.do is another feature-packed iPad planner app that will keep you on top of your tasks and schedule. As an all-in-one app, it can be an organizer, daily planner, task manager, notepad, board for sticky notes, and collaboration tool.
The app offers incredible cross-platform support. You can create recurring tasks, set location reminders, manage sub-tasks, add notes or file attachments, and more. You can also use voice to create reminders or add notes.
You can add items to your list directly from your email. Simply forward it to do@any.do. You can not only share your task list or notes with others but also assign them tasks, chat with them in real time, and check overall progress.
Moreover, it integrates with popular calendar apps, such as Google, Apple, and Outlook Calendar, for seamless time management. Although its free version is limited, you must loosen your wallet to experience the magic of this organizational wizard.
Price: Free; In-app purchases: $2.99 onwards
5. Microsoft To Do – A Simple Planner for Everyone
Microsoft To Do is a natural choice for many professionals and students, especially if their offices and schools incorporate the Microsoft ecosystem. The seamless integration with Outlook and other Microsoft products makes it a comprehensive solution for managing tasks and schedules.
Thanks to its easy-to-approach interface, Microsoft To Do is almost everyone’s cup of tea or coffee. You can create tasks and to-do lists, set due dates, and add notes to keep things well-documented. It also supports one-time or recurring reminders, intuitive task suggestions, and interactive collaboration on lists and tasks.
Furthermore, the ability to categorize tasks into lists, sub-tasks, or projects and personalize them via theme colors or backgrounds helps you organize and prioritize tasks. And if you’re a Microsoft 365 user, all your tasks, calendar events, and emails are easily synced.
Whether you’re managing work-related tasks or personal commitments, Microsoft To Do offers a highly functional, reliable, and integrated solution for your planning needs.
Price: Free
6. Goodnotes 6 – Great Option for iPad With Apple Pencil
Goodnotes 6 is an exceptional planner app tailored for iPad users. Designed to offer a premium experience for students, professionals, and creatives alike, it sports seamless support for the Apple Pencil. You can write and draw with precision and fluidity, closely resembling the experience of pen and paper.
It’s best suited for people who want to enjoy the convenience of digital planning with the bonus of handwriting and sketching. Moreover, Goodnotes offers an extensive range of pen and highlighter options, paper templates, and document organization tools to enhance productivity.
So, whether you’re taking class notes, sketching out designs, or jotting down your daily agenda, this one here can manage it all. Goodnotes is an excellent asset for students. It not only allows you to record audio notes but also to search notes and even AI assistance to summarize, shorten, and edit your text.
Overall, the app offers a seamless blend of technology and traditional methods. Although you might have to spend some $$ to make the most of this app.
Price: Free; Annual subscription: $9.99
7. Notability – Best Planner for Students
If you are creative and want your planner to look aesthetic, Notability could be the app for you. With a strong focus on flexibility and creativity, it’s an excellent choice for those who prefer a highly customizable digital planning experience. Consider this app the perfect blend of a journal and planner, allowing you to create multimedia notes.
One of its standout features is its robust support for handwriting and sketching, especially for Apple Pencil users. Besides planning their days, students and professionals can also use it for taking class notes, annotating documents, and creating detailed plans.
Like Apple’s Freeform, Notability offers an infinite digital canvas. Plus, it seamlessly supports features like iPad multitasking, drag-and-drop, annotating PDFs, images, etc., audio recording in sync with note-taking, and more.
In summary, Notability is a powerful, creative, and flexible digital planner that excels in its note-taking capabilities, albeit at a steep price.
Price: Free; Monthly subscription: $4.99 onwards
8. Habitica – Best Daily Planner for Forming Habits
Task management can be a pain and sometimes can make you more anxious than at ease. However, if you’re up for some fun and need extra motivation, Habitica can help. It gamifies task management by turning your daily routine into an RPG-style game.
With Habitica, you create an avatar and set goals, just like you would in a role-playing game. The best part is that completing your real-world tasks, whether work-related, personal, or educational, earns you rewards and experience points.
And you’re not alone. You can collaborate with other users and participate in engaging challenges and quests that involve completing your daily tasks. The app allows you to set up different types of tasks, including habits, dailies, and to-dos. Dailies are tasks you must complete daily, and to-dos are one-time tasks.
Habitica’s unique concept is particularly helpful for individuals who thrive on challenges and rewards. It turns daily productivity into an engaging adventure. The company offers a web and mobile app, allowing users to access their gamified planner across platforms.
Price: Free; In-app purchases: $0.99 onwards
9. Evernote – Easy to Use Digital Planner App
Evernote is a well-established and versatile note-taking and organization app that doubles as a robust planner for iPhone and iPad users. At its core, Evernote excels at capturing and organizing notes.
You can effortlessly create notes, clip web pages, add images and tags, and create a hierarchical structure. Most importantly, you can set task reminders so you’re on schedule. Its USP is its powerful search functionality, allowing you to locate notes and tasks, including handwritten notes or scanned documents, quickly.
Furthermore, the app offers cross-device compatibility, ensuring your planner and notes are accessible across devices. It’s also a popular choice for document and file storage, allowing you to keep attachments, PDFs, and other important files in a centralized location connected to your tasks and notes.
Evernote’s rich features make it a well-rounded choice for keeping your digital life organized. While the paid plan has some amazing perks, the free version is also pretty great.
Price: Free; In-app purchases: $6.99 onwards
Tip: Can’t decide which note-taking app is better for you? Check out this detailed comparison between Apple Notes and Evernote.
10. Things 3 – Feature-Packed Daily Planner app
As the name suggests, if you have things to do, Things might be the route you want to take. Crafted for effortless task management, it boasts a minimalistic, elegant design, user-friendly interface, and intuitive approach. The uncluttered layout allows you to create, organize, and manage tasks with remarkable ease.
Just add to-do items, set due dates, and organize them into projects or areas of focus. It incorporates all the basic features you’ll need, like reminders, repeaters, calendar integration, tags, quick find, share extension, and widgets. Additionally, it houses some special features like Mail to Things, This Evening (easy overview), and Magic Plus (drag + and add to-dos).
The best part is that the app doesn’t attempt to multitask. It just concentrates on one task, i.e., to keep you on top of your to-do list. And does it so perfectly, that you can multitask like a pro. And even though it’s a paid app, its elegant simplicity and thoughtfully crafted features are worth the expense.
However, having separate apps for iPhone and iPad with significantly different price points might put off some users.
Price: $9.99 for iPhone and $19.99 for iPad
11. TickTick – An All-In-One App for To-do Lists
TickTick is a robust, versatile, and highly customizable planner app. One of its standout features is its natural language input. It makes task creation a breeze. Simply type or speak task descriptions in plain language, and the app will automatically convert them into tasks with due dates.
You can also manually create to-do items, set due dates, and assign them to specific lists or projects. But that’s not it; the app also offers features like recurring tasks, priority levels, and tags, making it easy to categorize and manage your tasks effectively. This flexibility enables you to be organized, whether work, personal tasks, or hobbies.
Moreover, you are also privy to Siri support, a Pomodoro timer, habit tracking, instant time and location reminders, quick search, adding tasks via email, and batch editing tasks. On top of it all, TickTick maintains a simple and uncluttered interface. Overall, TickTick is an adaptable and efficient planner and a worthy Things 3 alternative if you want one.
Price: Free; Premium subscription: $3.99 onwards
Tip: Still confused? Maybe this guide comparing Microsoft To Do and TickTick might help.
How to Choose the Best Daily Planner App
Everyone has different needs, working styles, and motivations. So, what’s great for someone else might not be the best fit for you. Selecting the right app is pretty important, and here are a few pointers to help you decide.
- Platform Compatibility – Is the app available on all your devices, and most importantly, does it offer cloud sync?
- Features – A fancy feature might feel great while reading the description, but do you really need that feature? Make a rough list of features you’d like and select an app accordingly.
- Specialized needs – Depending upon your needs, there might be some features you absolutely need, like collaboration, real-time updates, recurring reminders, tags, indentations, etc. So, keep that in mind.
- User interface – Some thrive in chaos, while others need minimalism. And for an app that you’ll access multiple times a day, looks matter. So, observe the screenshots before you hit download.
- Ease of use and customization – The planner apps are not overly complicated; it’s all about your personal preferences. Explore a few options to see what interests you.
- Price – Freemium vs. premium is an obvious consideration. You’ll have to understand what you need and if you’re ok with the price that it comes at. Additionally, you can always start with the free alternative and proceed accordingly
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