Motion: Tasks & AI Scheduling 4+

I have 3 clients. Each of these clients have me work on multiple projects: course creation; content creation; student training, etc. Each of these projects are different priorities with different due dates and some will take longer to complete than others. A couple days ago I found myself with a 5 hour block with no meetings and was so excited to actually get some work done …and had no idea what to do. I’ve also thought Time Blocking was arbitrary and therefore I was resistant. But now, Motion looks at my workload across all my clients, factors in priorities, durations, and due dates and tells me what to work on and I AM HERE FOR IT! It’s taking me a little time to figure out how to “set up” but I’m getting there. (Example: do I need to identify tasks and subtasks, or is it enough to enter the task, estimate the total duration to finish and allow Motion to break that time into chunks? So far the latter is much easier/faster and works for many of my simpler projects). Today, I’m setting up Motion with Siri, so I can add tasks on the fly. I’ve been a customer for like 4 days and I think I’m in love.

OK, let’s not get ahead of ourselves and say there is artificial intelligence in play here. I haven’t seen anything of that sort in my trial time. It looks like there is an algorithm that works based on the constraints that I set(time of day, priority, deadline, duration). It just fills the schedule based on these parameters. An AI, with the new meaning of the paradigm, would change those around against the user’s settings based on previous data. I don’t see any of that except the email-to-task feature (which’s usually a miss, in so many ways). But its existence is cool by itself. So I don’t mind.

As for the mobile app, it’s not as good as the Mac app, and that’s a problem. So the 2 stars is for the mobile app. The Mac app would get maybe 3 or 4. The whole platform would get a solid 3 from me. I plan to get the full year and commit to be a personal user. My only fear is the developers are hoping to switch to the business to business area for bigger customer base and profits, which will probably mean irrelevant features for me on the long run (the whole booking tab is useless to me already). I hope they can find some balance, and at least keep it bug free and usable for the solo users all the time. Because I certainly won’t start a company in the near future based on what my schedule tells me :) and I’ll leave the app for the first reasonable competition on sight if things come to it.

For years I’ve tried so many different task management apps trying to find one that really worked. I was hesitant to try motion at first because of the price but finally gave it a try. It’s AMAZING. An easy to use app that’s brings every aspect of your life together in one tool. Combining the ability to pull together work tasks and family/mom tasks into one place. Add tasks is quick and easy with a low barrier. And easy to prioritize so nothing is missed and lower future priority items aren’t forgotten and come up again at the right time. I have this app open on one computer monitor at all times - it’s my bible with how I run my day. One of my favorite features is the ability to define custom time slots like “work hours”, “in office hours”, “weekend nap time” and buckets that are very specific to me - and then schedule my tasks into those time boxes. Ensures work items are presented at the right time. Updates and new features are constantly being pushed to the phone app and desktop app and always getting better. Biggest fan. ❤️❤️❤️