Hour Blocks: Day Planner 4+

Updated Review - Happy to give the app now 4 stars!

The crash has now been fixed and I can use the app without it crashing my iPhone XR. Also the bug with the events duplicating and appearing in the wrong day has now been addressed with the release 5.1. There are still a few minor bugs and improvements in the interface, which I would like to see. need ironing out.

I will continue to stay in contact with the developer on Twitter and he is generally very responsive.


Original review:

“I would love to like this app, but I can’t... even though there is so much to like about it, it’s clear simple uncluttered interface or the integration with the calendar.

The app is very unstable on my phone and has crashed during every type of operation since it’s installation 3 days ago. On one occasion my whole phone froze and it took me a few work arounds to restart it, as even the buttons were unresponsive.

I had downloaded the app after it was advertised in the App Store and even purchased the Pro version immediately after, as the app seems to be well suited to my current time management needs!

Please get me going on this promising app and I will upgrade my review. “

Developer Response ,

Edited: Thank you for your updated review! I hope I can continue to improve on Hour Blocks as much as I can :)

I very much appreciate that Hour Blocks is something you'd like to enjoy, especially as a Pro user, but are unable to due to crashes. Unfortunately this is a problem that has been going on for some time with iPhone XR/11 users for some reason and the cause is still a mystery to me. The upcoming 4.0 update is better but still a similar story unfortunately.

I urge you to follow me on Twitter @j_t_saeed if you'd like to help me delve deeper into these issues and to stay updated on the status of the app 🙂

AWESOME. Just needs a couple of tweaks!

I’m in love with this app. I have ADHD, and I need something SIMPLE, fast, clean - with my hourly schedule and a to do list in one single app.

The ability to easily add sub blocks to each hourly block is PERFECT. It’s invaluable in helping me remember what I need to do or take or organise for each thing.

I also love that it’s so easy and fast to add items.

The only things I’d like to see added are -

- the ability to see parts of the day that have already passed (maybe greyed out). This way, if I’m running behind or have woken up late, I can still see what I might still need to attend to.

- the ability to repeat or duplicate blocks to the following day / certain days of the week. This would be so helpful in creating things like morning routines, where I need to do the same 5-10 steps every day, etc.

Otherwise this app is fantastic and I plan to use this for many years to come! Thank you so much for creating it!

A good concept for simple task management, but work is required

I really like the idea, and the basic functionality works well. However, there are bugs and obvious missing features:

1) The calendar selector under Settings in the Mac app is buggy: I click the green calendar icon next to a calendar, and it flickers red, then back to green. If I close the app and reopen that panel, they have been deactivated though. The iOS equivalent, with the 'toggle' buttons, works fine.

2) I'm amazed there isn't iCloud sync of blocks. I expected that, if I added a task on the iPad for a particular hour block, it would sync to the Mac, and vice versa. Even iPhone to iPad syncing isn't working for me. (Note I'm on iOS14 and macOS Catalina, if that's relevant).