To-do app actually schedules your day for you

Timeful uses smart suggestions to manage users' daily tasks for them, recommending the best times for each activity.

Calendar and to-do apps typically provide a functional way to remind users of what needs doing, but they don’t actually stop them from procrastinating anyway. In the past, we’ve seen apps that turn to-do lists into a game, but now Timeful uses smart suggestions to manage users’ daily tasks for them, recommending the best times for each activity.

Those downloading the Timeful app can input three different task types — events, to-dos and habits. Events are activities that have a fixed time schedule and are slotted into users’ plans just like a calendar app. To-dos are tasks that need to get done within a set time, such as clear a work inbox, or clean the car. Timeful users can simply enter in the deadline and the app automatically slots them into the day’s activities at the most appropriate point. Habits are activities that the user wants to do more of but never finds the time, such as exercise. These can be entered with a frequency per week setting and desired time of day, and Timeful fits them when users aren’t too busy.

Each activity is allotted a space on the calendar regardless of whether it’s a planned event or a hopeful gym trip. Timeful uses algorithms to determine the best time of day for each task based on users’ working and sleep hours, daily rhythms, productivity flows and manual preferences. If suggested time slots don’t work out, users can choose to postpone and the app learns when is best for that type of activity.

Created by a behavioral scientist, an artificial intelligence professor and a Stanford PhD candidate, the app helps to manage users’ time more effectively than they might by themselves by giving them deadlines for both business meetings and self-improvement and personal activities.

Watch the video below to learn more about the app:

Available for free on the App Store — with a web version in beta and an Android app on its way — Timeful syncs with most popular calendar apps such as Google Calendar, Microsoft Exchange and Apple iCal. Are there other ways productivity apps can actually make sure we stick to our to-do lists?