Setting Schedules: Life Planner and Daily Routine

I want to make the most productive use of my time, but it can be difficult to be productive when I have the luxury of free time. When there's a day off, it's easy to let the time get away from me; early on, when the entire day is ahead of me, it can be overwhelming, and there isn't the sense of urgency that might motivate me to do something fun or rewarding. Then, when my time is nearly up, it is easy to become either frantic or defeated, and feel unable to get anything done at all.

I've tried various methods of time management and scheduling, including using a few iPhone apps that are designed to help you schedule your day. When I know that I'll have a dedicated period of free time, it can be helpful to plan it out ahead of time. It forces me to think about what I might be able to accomplish, realistically, when I have some time to myself. Just as importantly, it helps motivate me to get started on a particular task rather than dragging my feet and hoping there will be time for it later. I find that it takes less willpower to work on a project if it is already on a schedule and I am being "forced" to do it, because there is less to keep me in line or make me feel obligated when my schedule is open-ended.

Two similar scheduling apps are Life Planner and Daily Routine. I have been using Daily Routine for some time, now, but decided to try Life Planner since its circular interface looked interesting and the program might make it easier to visualize my day. While I ultimately preferred Daily Routine, both are worth checking out.

To use Life Planner, you just tap on an empty portion of the circle, and fill out what you plan on doing during a particular time slot. You can make recurring schedules, or you can create plans on a day-to-day basis. There is also a way to look at things in a list format.

You can manage different events or activities in various ways, and can choose to set an alarm when it's time to switch from one activity to another. Obviously, I don't always follow the plans to the letter, and it could potentially be rude and annoying if I tried to do it, but it does make me more aware of the passage of time and what I need to do to get something accomplished.

For me, the biggest downside of Life Planner is the interface; it is less intuitive than I would like, and, in practice, the circular format is not as easy to read, especially when it comes to activities that take less than one hour. At the present time, the app is unable to integrate with my calendar, which also makes it less useful than it might otherwise be.

Daily Routine uses a list interface. While Life Planner has users name each particular event as it appears in the schedule, Daily Routine requires users to create different activity types (Meals, Work, Sleep), and to designate icons, colors, and default amounts of time to correspond with those activities.

After compiling a list with the basic activities, you can create a routine by inserting an activity and, if necessary, modifying the time or adding a custom note with details about the specific activity you have planned. The app arranges activities in a list format, although it is visually clear how long the activities will take relative to one another. Like the Life Planner app, Daily Routine allows you to choose whether you want an alarm or sound to play when you've finished with an activity.

I find that it's a bit easier to create a schedule with the Daily Routine app, because the app itself works more intuitively, and because having common activities pre-programmed makes it easier to add these activities to the schedule on a day-to-day basis. Daily Routine has recently included integration with calendars, as well, making it that much easier to create a schedule around planned activities.

Still, while I might personally prefer one app over the other, both apps are very useful, and serve the purpose of encouraging users to set, and stick to, a schedule. On those days when I've planned the schedule, and made an effort to conform to it, I inevitably get a lot more accomplished, even though I almost inevitably deviate from the original plan. Having the day planned out makes me more aware of the passage of time, and makes me want to put the free time that I do have to better use.