If you’ve ever failed to complete important tasks during times you were supposed to be productive, you’re not alone. You can try task management apps, which generally enable you to organize lists of things you need to do at some point in the future in one place. But they won’t work long-term if your lists tend to sprawl and cause additional stress about upcoming responsibilities. Planner apps are different—they primarily help you focus on the days ahead.
Planner Apps vs. To-Do Apps
The solution to task overload isn’t new. For decades, office workers have carried planners around to, well, plan their day. The idea is that, for every day, you simply write down what you need to do and when. That’s it.
Now, planners are fully digital, splitting the difference between calendar and to-do list apps. The former is merely an empty canvas that might include meetings and the like, while the latter typically collects all your tasks without requiring details about their time commitments. Some advanced to-do list apps do allow you to specify due dates for tasks, but planner apps do a better job of focusing your attention on the near term. The best ones force you to assign tasks to specific time slots. If a time slot is full, well, sorry, you can’t add another task. When your planner is full, your day is full. Anything left over moves on to the next day.
I tested four different planner services to help you find one that suits your work habits. And further down, I even highlight some first-party options for Apple and Google users. Ultimately, you won’t know which works for you until you try them regularly, so don’t be afraid to test them all.
1. Moleskine Planner: A Slick Choice From a Well-Known Brand
Moleskine Planner is perhaps the most intuitive and visually appealing option on this list, though it’s exclusive to Apple devices. And yes, this is the same Moleskine that’s renowned for its physical planners and notebooks. The company brings its characteristic flair and texture to the digital experience.
The app opens up to the Day view, but there’s also a Weekly option. Simply navigate to a particular day, tap the Plus button, and start adding tasks. The ease of this process is delightfully smooth and stands out compared with all the other similar apps I’ve tried throughout my decade-plus career as a tech writer.
Moleskine Planner (Credit: Moleskine/PCMag)
Next, you add a title to the task and use a slider to choose a time slot (similar to how you would trim a clip in a video editing app). You can configure tasks to show up in a linked calendar, and the app supports task lists and subtasks, too.
The Today section offers a Timeline view if you prefer a more calendar-like interface, but the default Blocks view works better for organizing tasks. Tasks you add appear in an attractive list, and you can check them off as you go through your day.
The free version of Moleskine Planner provides basic planner features, but if you want to add subtasks, connect your calendar, or use task lists, you have to upgrade to the Premium edition for $4.99 per month or $24.99 per year.
2. Structured: A Day Planner That Goes Deep
Structured is a day planner with a timeline interface. It offers apps for desktop (macOS) and mobile (Android and iOS) platforms, as well as the web. Structured’s interface is lively, with auto-updating icons that match your tasks and pastel colors. The app targets people who want to catalog every single thing they do in a day, even encouraging you to add your wake-up time, morning routine, and wind-down. You can always just ignore that part; I usually do.
Structured (Credit: Structure/PCMag)
The app’s process for adding tasks involves two screens and can feel a bit labor-intensive. You can choose the time and duration from a slider to streamline things a bit. Once you add a task, the app remembers it and can therefore replicate it quickly. Structured’s AI speeds things up even more. You can dictate your plans for the day, and the app will generate tasks with proper titles, timings, and icons. More often than not, the app gets things right; when it misses certain words, you can effortlessly edit the tasks it creates.
A basic triage system is available, too. You can dump all the tasks you need to do into an Inbox until you are ready to add them to your planner. If you set up the integration with Apple’s Reminders app, all of your unfinished tasks appear in the Inbox.
You can use Structured’s basic daily planning features for free. But if you want to unlock Structured’s AI, integrations with the Reminders app and other calendars, and recurring tasks, you have to upgrade to Structured Pro for $2.99 per month or $19.99 per year.
Get Our Best Stories!
Your Daily Dose of Our Top Tech News
By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy
Policy.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
3. TeuxDeux: A Triage Center for All Your Tasks
TeuxDeux is a hip, minimalist planner app that works best in a web browser, though mobile apps are available for Android and iOS. It doesn’t focus on timeboxing like Moleskine Planner, but rather organizing each day of the week in a way that’s not overwhelming. You can’t even set start times or end times if you want; TeuxDeux is all about triage.
TeuxDeux (Credit: TeuxDeux/PCMag)
The website opens to a weekly view, but you can switch to a day or three-day view from the bottom toolbar. It’s possible to add tasks to any day of the week. Adding tasks to any of the customizable lists at the bottom (such as Brain Dump and Grocery) doesn’t associate them with a particular day, but you can do that afterward. You check tasks off as you complete them. The ones you don’t finish follow you to the next day. I recommend limiting each day to around three tasks, especially if they are time-consuming. Moving tasks around is as simple as dragging and dropping, and the platform supports Markdown for adding links and formatting.
TeuxDeux doesn’t have a free plan. You have to sign up for a $4-per-month or $36-per-year subscription once your initial seven-day trial expires.
4. Tweek: A Modern, Straightforward Task Manager
You can think of Tweek as the more straightforward cousin of TeuxDeux, with a less artsy and more legible typeface. It’s available on the web and iOS (the Android app is no longer in production). The interface opens to a weekly planner view, with the sole focus on helping you plot each day. It’s a great option for visual thinkers. You can either dump tasks into the Someday list below the main section, or start filling up your week. Add tasks, and move on. Or you can add notes and subtasks if you wish. Dragging and dropping tasks is simple.
Recommended by Our Editors
Tweek (Credit: Tweek/PCMag)
Instead of using priority flags or tags, you add colors to individual tasks. The free version offers basic color options, while the Premium plan adds a lot more. With color coding, you can help yourself pick out what’s truly important during a week at a glance. Tweek’s Print feature is another hidden gem. Once you plan your week with the right colors and tasks, the app can generate a one-page, printable, visually appealing PDF.
If you only want to use it as a weekly planner, Tweek’s free plan is perfectly suitable. The Premium plan, which costs $5.99 per month or $50 per year, adds support for attachments, custom colors, a monthly view, reminders, subtasks, and themes.
If all you really want is to see your tasks in your calendar app, you can get away with first-party options from Apple and Google, though these require a bit of setup.
Apple’s Reminders and Calendar apps now work seamlessly together. You can choose to show your to-dos in Calendar with the proper date and time, and check them off (this also works with third-party apps like Fantastical). And when you add a new event in Calendar, you can switch to the Reminder tab to add a reminder with a due date and time, which appears in both.
Apple Reminders (Credit: Apple/PCMag)
Google’s ecosystem offers something similar. Simply go to Google Calendar and enable the Tasks calendar from the sidebar. Now, every task with an associated time and date will appear in your Google Calendar. Checking off tasks and adding reminders from the calendar interface works much as it does in Apple’s ecosystem. Tasks can include a description and a destination for the task list, and they respect your default reminder notification settings.
Google Tasks (Credit: Google/PCMag)
Compared with dedicated planner apps, one limitation is that tasks you create via Apple’s Reminders or Google’s Tasks services show up only at the start time. It’s technically possible to specify how long a task will take via the Google Calendar interface, but Moleskine Planner and Structured make this much more convenient.
Plan for the Long Haul
With most of the planner apps above, you don’t need to completely give up on the concept of to-do lists. Several offer a section where you can dump tasks until you figure out when to schedule them. Still, if that’s primarily the way you feel productive, you might actually be better off with a dedicated task management app, such as Asana or Todoist. Sometimes, simpler options, such as OmniFocus and TickTick, can be even more effective.
For most people, I think the Moleskine Planner is the best option, thanks to its ease of use, focus on day and weekly views, and visual simplicity. If you enjoy structure and want to see every single task or action of a day in one view, go for the Structured app. You will also likely get a lot of value from simply dictating tasks. Both apps lean into time scheduling, which is one of the primary strengths of planner apps. Finally, if you mostly work from your computer and want to see your weekly plan all at once, choose Tweek or TeuxDeux. Whatever app you pick, make sure to thoroughly vet how well it adapts to your personal and professional routines.
About Our Expert
Khamosh Pathak
Contributor
Experience
I’m a content specialist with more than a decade of experience creating technology content. My passion is crafting easy-to-read guides, helpful content, blog posts, and explainers that make sense to everyone, not just techies. I have written for popular technology websites including MakeUseOf, How-To Geek, and Lifehacker. I also write guides for technical automation that are easy for anyone to understand.
Read Full Bio
:strip_icc()/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_08fbf48bc0524877943fe86e43087e7a/internal_photos/bs/2025/K/z/grZnnSRsKlAyLF2LFRsg/rosie-and-jack.jpg?w=1024&resize=1024,1024&ssl=1 "Esses são os 15 filmes de maior bilheteria dos anos 90")
&w=1024&resize=1024,1024&ssl=1 "Epic Games não traz Red Dead 2 de graça, mas libera três jogos com 100% de desconto")
