Table of Contents
- Start with the basics: the most helpful time management techniques
- Manage priorities and teams better: Notion AI
- Track your activity and improve your time management: Timely
- Plan your appointments with AI: Clockwise
- Conclusions and bonus tool
AI systems are now part of our daily lives, with hundreds of tools available. However, many of them do not work as expected, and we end up spending more time testing and setting up multiple applications rather than completing tasks. In this article, we will help you manage your time better by presenting some of the best AI tools for time management.
Start with the basics: the most helpful time management techniques
Before discussing tools, knowing some of the most effective basic productivity and time management techniques is essential. AI tools can help improve management, but they cannot do everything on their own. The first step is to set clear objectives and deadlines from the beginning. Do not start with specific operations. Visualizing the problem from above will make it easier to untangle.
The second step is to manage priorities according to the Eisenhower matrix based on the urgency and relevance of activities and to always make a to-do list to not miss anything and not have to chase last-minute emergencies.
The third step is difficult but essential: learn to do deep work. It is not so much how much you work but how you work. Being able to keep concentration high for a long period has become almost a superpower in the digital age full of stimuli and entertainment at your fingertips. Use, for example, the famous Pomodoro technique to train yourself to perform better. Your private life and your employer will thank you.
Manage priorities and teams better: Notion AI
The first tool we suggest is perhaps the most obvious and popular: Notion. Notion is one of the best freemium management programs available on the market and one of the most widely used and appreciated by users. It is a productivity and project management application that offers a wide range of features to help users organize their activities, take notes, collaborate with colleagues, and manage projects efficiently.
Notion allows you to create and organize notes, tasks, documents, and more in one place, offering a wide range of customizable templates created by users to meet the specificities of individuals and teams. Thanks to its intuitive and customizable user interface, Notion allows you to create pages and organize information in different ways, such as tables, lists, calendars, and more.
Moreover, Notion, through the NotionAI plugin, offers the possibility of adding AI functionalities that allow you to have a real virtual assistant who can help write texts, and blog posts, brainstorm, and especially manage and prioritize activities.
The pros of Notion:
- An intuitive and customizable user interface: allowing you to create pages and organize information in different ways, such as tables, lists, calendars, and more.
- Real-time collaboration: allows users to share pages and documents, leave comments, and collaborate on projects.
- Great community support: there are many video tutorials, guides, and thematic channels that deal with productivity with Notion.
The cons of Notion:
- Although intuitive for new users, Notion can be challenging to understand in some of its most valuable features. You need to spend a little time at the beginning to understand the functioning logic well.
- The free version has limited functionality (adding the AI assistant, for example, costs 7.50€/month)
Regarding prices, Notion offers a free plan with limited features. The Team plan costs €8 per month per user and offers advanced features for teams, the business version costs €14/month. Finally, the Enterprise plan has a custom price and offers advanced features for large organizations.
Track your activity and improve your time management: Timely
The second tool we recommend is Timely. Timely is an AI-powered time-tracking software that automates the tracking of the time spent on activities. With this tool, you can automatically keep a record of all the time you spend in various web and desktop applications, without effort. This includes time spent in documents, meetings, emails, websites, and even video calls, resulting in an accurate daily log of your activities.
Timely integrates project management features that allow you to manage your team, monitor business resources, manage project progress, assign tasks, and perform other planning activities. This enables you to effectively oversee and coordinate all aspects of your projects within a single platform.
Pros of Timely:
- Integration with a wide range of third-party applications
- The AI implementation reduces the likelihood of errors and improves efficiency.
- Intuitive interface
Cons of Timely:
- No free version
- High pricing
Timely does not offer a free version of its software. The pricing for small teams and freelancers starts at $11 per user per month, while the premium version is priced at $20 per user per month. For those who require unlimited features, the cost is $28 per user per month. However, Timely does offer discounts for customers who choose to subscribe to the annual service instead of the monthly plan.
Plan your appointments with AI: Clockwise
The last tool we recommend is Clockwise. Clockwise is a time management application that uses artificial intelligence to optimize meeting scheduling, giving you free time slots in your calendar. The application integrates with the user’s calendar and uses AI algorithms to analyze work habits, suggesting appropriate times and meeting.
Clockwise offers a wide range of features, including the ability to create blocks of free time in the calendar, automatically move meetings to avoid scheduling conflicts, synchronizing contact information and scheduling preferences. Moreover, Clockwise offers collaboration features, such as the ability to share availability with team members and plan group meetings. The tool also integrates with various third-party applications, such as Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Slack, and many others, further simplifying the scheduling process.
Pros of Clockwise:
- Uses artificial intelligence to optimize meeting scheduling and create free time slots in the user’s calendar
- Offers collaboration features for planning group meetings
- Integrates with a wide range of third-party applications
Cons of Clockwise:
- Lack of integrated project management features
- It is not possible to fully customize the scheduling settings
Clockwise free version offers good tools, but it is possible to upgrade to Teams and Business versions respectively at $6.75 and $11.50 per month.
Conclusions and bonus tool
Learning to manage time better is one of the most requested soft skills in the job market and one of the skills that best helps you manage your work-life balance, and with the help of AI, it is always easier to apply the motto “work smartly not hardly”.
Before leaving you, the last tool we recommend helps you optimize time more than manage it. Endel is an application that uses artificial intelligence to generate music customized to help you concentrate or relax in moments of stress. The application uses machine learning algorithms to analyze your habits, stress levels, and musical preferences, generating custom sounds that improve your mental and physical well-being.
Remember that AI is a powerful ally, it gives you back time and helps you enjoy your work.
AI Evangelist and Marketing specialist for Neodata
