Best 20 Apps for Planning by Day (Not Boards)

Kanban boards are great for visualizing work, but they often break down when your real challenge is daily execution: What am I doing today? In what order? And when?

Day-planning apps solve this by focusing on dates, daily agendas, and time, instead of columns and cards. If you prefer planning your work by day, this list is for you.

1) Self-Manager.net — built specifically for planning by day

Self-Manager is a date-centric task and project management app designed around daily execution, not boards.

Instead of asking you to move cards between columns, it asks a simpler and more realistic question: On which day will this actually be done?

Why Self-Manager works so well for day planning:

• Tasks and tables are assigned directly to specific days
• You plan today, tomorrow, this week, instead of managing abstract states
• Daily execution connects naturally to weekly, monthly, and quarterly reviews
• Lightweight collaboration without forcing board workflows
• AI helps with summaries and reviews, reducing daily admin work

If your productivity starts with "What does today look like?", this is exactly the problem Self-Manager is built to solve.

2) Sunsama

A guided daily planning app that helps you consciously choose what to work on each day. It encourages realistic scheduling and promotes work-life balance through structured daily planning rituals.

3) Akiflow

A calendar-focused planner that combines tasks and meetings into a single daily timeline. Strong emphasis on time blocking and managing busy, meeting-heavy days.

4) TickTick

A flexible task manager with support for daily views, habits, and calendar layouts. Works well for people who want structure without committing to boards.

5) Todoist

Primarily a task manager, but with calendar layouts it can be used for day planning by visually arranging tasks into daily schedules.

6) Microsoft To Do

Designed around simplicity, with the "My Day" feature encouraging a daily reset and focus on what matters today rather than long backlogs.

7) NotePlan

Blends daily notes, tasks, and calendar events into one workspace. Well-suited for people who plan their day through writing and reflection.

8) Structured

A visually oriented day planner that shows tasks and events in a chronological timeline, making it easy to see how your day flows hour by hour.

9) Sorted³

A schedule-based planner that automatically organizes tasks into a daily timeline, helping users turn a task list into a realistic daily plan.

10) Morgen

Acts as a daily planning cockpit by unifying multiple calendars and tasks into one place, useful for people managing several schedules at once.

11) Routine

Combines daily planning with documentation and notes, offering a more "work operating system" feel rather than a simple to-do list.

12) Motion

Uses AI to continuously schedule and reschedule tasks across your day, adjusting plans as priorities and meetings change.

13) Reclaim.ai

Focuses on protecting focus time by intelligently fitting tasks, habits, and routines into your existing calendar schedule.

14) Any.do

Offers a daily planning experience through its "My Day" view, helping users pull the most important tasks into today's focus.

15) Fantastical

A calendar-first app with integrated task support and fast natural-language input, ideal if daily planning starts from your calendar.

16) Amazing Marvin

Highly customizable productivity tool that can be configured for day-first planning, appealing to users who like to fine-tune their system.

17) Google Calendar + Tasks

Tasks can be scheduled directly into calendar time blocks, turning abstract to-dos into concrete daily commitments.

18) Apple Reminders

A minimal approach to day planning, where the Today smart list surfaces what's due now without added complexity.

19) Microsoft Outlook + To Do

Integrates calendar events and daily tasks into a single planning view, suitable for people already deep in the Microsoft ecosystem.

20) Twos

A lightweight capture-focused app for notes, tasks, and reminders, useful for turning quick thoughts into simple daily plans.

Final thoughts

If boards feel disconnected from real life, day-planning apps offer a more honest approach: plan what you can realistically do today, then repeat.

If you want a system that:

• starts with the day,
• scales to weeks, months, and quarters,
• and doesn't force you into boards,

Self-Manager is designed exactly for that workflow.