The uneasiness and disappointment that comes from having a lot on your table and yet not having enough time round the clock to get work done?

Quite a number of times, we struggle with tons of activities in our lives that needs our attention. While some are one-time obligations, most are repeated tasks.

Most learners attribute their failure to acheive academic goals to their poor time management. Employees are unproductive at work because of a poor work-life balance. Acheiving life goals with little concentration could be downturned if poor time management persists.

Proficiency in time management is a High in demand skill for anyone who aspires to be a hot-shot entrepreneur, student, employee, and parent.

Likes of Jack Dorsey (Founder, Twitter) , Elon Musk (Founder, Tesla X), Mark Zuckerberg (Founder, Meta), Indra Nooyi (Former CEO, PepsiCo) have been observed to be effective time managers.

To be a genius at time management translates to an individual ability to skillfully plan and utilize their time to accomplish their big goals.

The essence of time management in the first place is to manage (I wouldn't use the word 'eliminate' because can we eliminate distractions really?) distractions and take advantage of time to live our best lives. I bet you know that the 'moguls' I mentioned above are living their best lives.

We've been fed with strategies to better manage our time. It's all over the media, just insert the keyword in your search engine and voila! a stream of sites will pop up. However, what about showing you something easier and fun? Something proven to be more effective for time management.

Technology. Yes, Tech.

I'm sure you didn't even need that much thinking when your read the word 'easier', 'fun' and 'effective'.  No doubt, Technology is our current medium for every day Life and if you are going to thrive in a tech-driven environment, you have to be tech-savvy.

What do I imply? Well, to be productive, focused and balanced, be tech savvy with time management.

App developers are constantly building softwares to help an average human get a seamless experience with time and energy management.

Look around you and you will see a greater % of us with a digital powered device. Consider this. With a device as your accomplice for about 18 hours a day, isn't it smart enough to leverage mobile apps (category - time management) for your productivity at work, school and home?

In this article, I will be recommending 5 softwares to improve productivity and effective time management. These mobile softwares are efficient and effective.


1. Built-In Clock

Sounds Ambiguous?

There's practically one clock and alarm around you but how exactly does it improve productivity? Apart from the traditional clock we have in our homes, there are digital powered forms on your mobile and trust me, it's great for time management.

Your digital clock is designed with the following features - Alarms, Stop Watches, sometimes Focus and Bed-Time Mode (Google-Version).

If you ask me, alarms (on built-in digital clocks) are great features. How do you then utilise one?

    Prioritize your tasks for the day

    Set an alarm for each task with your preferred timing. It's recommended that you measure each task by 1 hour with consistent breaks in between.


    With your alarm, you can set an alert/ringtone that reminds you to move from one task to the next. This way, it's easy to monitor your activities and get things done.

     Some 'Alarms' are integrated with the 'label' sub-feature which makes it great to name your tasks.


If utilised, 'clocks' on your mobile are great digital  software that can help you acheive more.
 

Pomodoro

Pomodoro is a timer designed to help schedule your 'work' and 'activities' in a twenty-five minutes window. As you work, the timer runs and works on screen. This software works better as compared to the built-in clock because it has a simpler interface, it's easy to navigate and actually aims to solve the focus and fatigue challenge. Pomodoro helps you work with focus and provides compulsory breaks in between tasks. If you want to get productive without missing short breaks and fun-time in between, pomodoro is good for you.

However, it's advisable that you activate 'do-not-disturb' or 'Airplane' mode during its running time to avoid distractions so that the app actually works as intended. You can get the App here


Google Calendar

The Google Calendar is an aged product that keeps getting better. This software application solves the problem of planning, scheduling, setting to-do lists, meetings and reminders. I can go on naming the lists of its endless proficiencies. Google Calendar comes as an built-in software for most phones and it's a big deal for effective time management, trust me.

With the launch of the Google Workspace (a merge of all Google Digital products), on-site and remote work just got better! Google-Calendar works so great and for most of us, it's been a dormant software on our phones. Here is a prompt - dust the cobwebs, update the app and start using.

The calendar allows you to schedule and plan your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly tasks, meetings and events in an organised way and without fear of missing out. It's also inundated with a couple of sub-features for personal use and customisation e.g. labels, colours, description, attachment.


All you have to do is own a Google Account, sign in and use - then, you can do more with your available time. Another indispensable feature that comes with this software is its cloud storage function. So you don't have to lose your data (plans and schedules) over a phone malfunction, you can always operate your calendar on a different device.

Since Google Calendar can look a bit sophisticated from the onset, here's a video guide to educate you on how to make the best use of the app.

5 Mobile Apps to Help Your Time Management Skills
4. Digital Wellbeing

This application is also powered by Google and it is a built-in software accompanied with some Android mobile versions. You can get it here or it can be replaced by YourHour which performs the same function.

Effective Time Management has to do with your ability to split various tasks around time and manage distractions. Digital Wellbeing accomplishes this. It's embedded with features that assists in monitoring the time spent on your mobile device, time spent in individual apps and places a timer on each app to limit its usage.

Also, it has a focus mode feature that limits your distracting apps when you are up to some serious work. Sounds good?

This app enables users to place a limit of control and discipline on their time usage. You will be spending little time scrolling through distracting apps like Instagram, Twitter and her counterparts.

The downside however is that users can as well deactivate its functions.

5. Todoist

Although this mobile app comes with in-app purchases, it is a top-rated time and project management tool and comes with some free features. Todoist has about 4.6/5.0 rating on the play store and with this, you can almost conclude that it works perfectly fine.

Apart from its 'planning' functions, it has features that allows you to plan and collaborate with other users on joint tasks. It also assists in task prioritization - with this, you are able to execute top-priority tasks that moves you towards your goals. You can explore and get the app installed here.

With technology, you can be an effective time manager. With effective time management, you would be having a fulfilling personal and work life. It all starts with optimising the softwares that are made available through your mobile devices.