In the event you’re something like me, then you definitely may need gone by means of your fair proportion of job administration or to-do checklist apps. I’ve tried all of them, from easy to-do checklist managers in my notes app all the way in which to the large hitters like Monday, Todist, Asana, ClickUp & Notion. All of them did what I wanted them to do, however there was all the time one thing that made me cease utilizing them, whether or not it was simply providing an excessive amount of or not sufficient.
My job administration wants
For my private use case, I wanted a job administration app that might do the next:
- Set challenge goals with (tender) deadlines; I like to maneuver my deadlines on occasion
- Sync with my calendars
- Have the properties of a SCRUM board so I can transfer tasks from stage to stage
- Have the ability to handle skilled and private duties
- Simple to arrange and never a chore to make use of
Previous job administration apps
I attempted to make use of the common Apple Notes app to begin, however after just a few duties, it received extraordinarily messy. Apple Notes is nice for grocery lists, or perhaps a brief checklist. However as an overarching to-do app, it was not sufficient for me.
So I went to the large gamers. I attempted all of them. I attempted Asana, Notion, ClickUp, Todoist, and Monday, however all of them have been both lacking one thing, took too lengthy to arrange, or have been simply doing an excessive amount of for me. These companies tried to make it so that you run your whole life on there and never simply act as a job supervisor or challenge administration software program. Monday was the one service that I caught with for some time, however on the finish of the day, it nonetheless felt like work or an added step that I used to be making myself take
Sunsama & their strategy
A pal of mine instructed me about Sunsama virtually a yr in the past and mentioned that I ought to give it a strive. It was a calendar-first centered guided each day planner. The important thing phrase right here is “guided” – it virtually appears like a each day train, however I’ll clarify extra in a bit.
Once you join Sunsama’s free trial (use the hyperlink for 30 days as a substitute of 14!), you get taken by means of a fantastically curated intro and setup course of.
It begins off by asking which planners you may have used previously, and it’ll checklist off the entire companies that I beforehand talked about and extra. All of the companies and apps talked about truly built-in properly with Sunsama, so for those who nonetheless wish to use Asana as you migrate over to Sunsama, then they’ll simply work collectively. However as soon as you choose your integrations, that is the place the guided side comes into play.
The Sunsama “train”
The remainder of the setup course of appears like a morning yoga session. It would ask you if you prefer to plan your day and set it as a routine; the thought is to take 5-10 minutes each morning to plan your day. You might be then instructed to plan your each day objectives, then mirror on what you completed the day prior to this, and pay attention to what you intend to perform the next day. Every part with a really constructive connotation, which is what brings me again to this each morning. It’s virtually like a respiration train earlier than taking over the day.
Utilizing Sunsama as my job supervisor
As soon as you might be arrange you get introduced into your dashboard view, and from right here, it’s very simple. You create your duties, assign them a deadline, assign the size of time you anticipate engaged on it and start to assault your duties within the order you see match. The UI is a pleasure to make use of; it’s very self-explanatory on the floor degree, but in addition has some intricacies which might be there to assist.
On the left, you may have your calendar view along with your particular channels which you could customise. Within the heart is your Mon-Fri view of all of the duties it is advisable get completed and to the far proper is your integrations toolbar. Every part works with the plus button on the highest of every day after which you possibly can click on and drag duties all through your week. So in case you are not completed with one thing, you simply transfer it to the subsequent day.
Notable options
Some final options to say are the integrations, in fact. You possibly can simply combine with the entire third get together companies and what works nice is that each job or e-mail may be simply dragged into your Sunsama calendar. As you possibly can see within the picture beneath, there’s a little Gmail icon on every job that got here from my mail integration.
You may as well simply create totally different channels which you could assign to sure duties. I exploit three predominant channels – 9to5 YouTube, 9to5’s web site, and private. This manner I can hold my duties as organized as potential.
Wrap-up
As I discussed, Sunsama has was this morning train that I do Monday to Friday. I sip my espresso, login, see what I completed, and see what I’ve arising; it’s a easy and visible method of getting work completed. I’m somebody that struggled mightily with group, job administration, and all the pieces in between, and Sunsama has helped drastically in preserving me centered on the duty at hand. And, it jogs my memory on the finish of the day to get off the pc and go get pleasure from time with my household, which is all we work for anyway!
What do you employ to handle your duties? Do you employ your native notes app? Do you employ one thing like Sunsama? Or do you retain all the pieces memorized in your head like I used to assume I may do? Let me know within the feedback!
FTC: We use revenue incomes auto affiliate hyperlinks. Extra.
Take a look at 9to5Mac on YouTube for extra Apple information: