“Where did the time go? There aren’t enough hours in the day! I can’t get a minute to myself!” If you find yourself routinely thinking any or all of those phrases, it might be time for some scheduling support.
Fast Company has compiled a list of new, free apps that can help with wrangling work hours:
1. Get a virtual assistant—The artificially intelligent X.ai (web) service is equal parts helpful and efficient when it comes to cross-calendar cat herding. When emailing about a potential meeting, just copy the virtual assistant app’s email on your messages, and it will mark your calendar and confirm the meeting time with the other parties via email.
2. Resourceful routing—If you’ve got several stops to make while taking care of errands, load them into RoadWarrior Route Planner (Android, iOS, web). The app leverages traffic data and your destinations’ business hours to ensure your multistop adventure is mapped out as efficiently as possible. It can be used with your favorite mapping app once you hit the road.
3. Inbox organization—Microsoft has released a new SMS Organizer (Android) for non-iPhones that uses machine learning to make sense of your text messages, organizing them into appropriate categories (personal, transactions, promotions, or starred) and automatically reminds you of upcoming events like travel, bills due, reservations, and various appointments.
4. Pause email—Keep email out of your inbox for a set period of time with the descriptively named Free Pause Gmail (Chrome). Compatible with Gmail and Google’s Chrome web browser, the free extension adds a big, red “Pause Inbox” button to the Gmail interface that, when pressed, lets you stop the flow of email in increments between five minutes and 24 hours.
Read the full story for more technical tricks to help with time management.
