The Apple Watch helps people track their health and fitness, but it can also be a great tool to help people stay productive and get work done. This is especially true for people who get easily distracted by their phone.
Although the Apple Watch comes with simple built-in productivity apps like Reminders and Calendar, it’s worth exploring some third-party apps that are designed to boost productivity by offering additional functionality.
Todoist
Todoist is a great app for managing tasks on your Apple Watch when you don’t want to pull out your iPhone. The app lets you create and manage tasks, organize these tasks into projects, mark them as complete, and also set reminders. You can add tasks via voice command or the keyboard.
The app is great for people who prefer to quickly glance at their wrist instead of pulling out their phone when doing things, like looking at a grocery list at the store or jotting down a quick note or reminder.
You can stay updated on the progress of your tasks for the day straight from your Apple Watch’s face. For instance, you can choose to have your next task or the completed percentage of tasks for the day displayed.
Todoist is free and offers a $4 monthly subscription if you want additional features like custom task reminders, an AI assistant, a calendar layout, and more.
Drafts
Since the Apple Watch doesn’t have a Notes app, Drafts is a good app for those who want a digital notepad without a phone. You can capture notes through voice command, the watchOS Scribble feature, or the keyboard.
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Your drafts inbox syncs from your iPhone and displays the number of drafts you have, while also showing the number of flagged drafts, so you can quickly access important ones.
The app defaults to a blank note to give you a place to quickly enter an idea without interrupting your thought process. You can file notes into a folder to organize your thoughts or just have a free-flowing canvas.
The app is free and offers a $1.99 monthly subscription if you want access to additional functionality, such as themes and the ability to send your emails to the app.
Focus
Focus is a good app for people who want a productivity timer to help them get work done and like to complete tasks one at a time. The app is designed to break down your work time into smaller chunks, which it calls “Focus Sessions.” By working in sessions, you can stay focused on the task at hand before moving on to the next task.
By using your Apple Watch instead of your phone to stay focused, you can minimize distractions. You can quickly glance at your wrist to see how much time is left in your Focus Session and then get right back to work. Focus will also encourage you to take breaks between your sessions.
The app is available for $7.99 per month.
AutoSleep
AutoSleep is one of the most popular Apple Watch apps for tracking your sleep, and that’s for good reason. The app gives you an informative look at your sleep quality, heart rate, sleep consistency, and more. It can help you track the time it takes you to fall asleep and measure the efficiency of your sleep.
AutoSleep shows you all of this data through a clock view with sleep rings to give you a quick overview of your stats in a way that’s similar to your Watch’s Activity Rings. You can see if you’re getting enough sleep or if you need to try to sleep more.
The app also shows you a “readiness” score that estimates how mentally and physically ready you are for the day ahead based on how you slept, which resembles how the Oura Ring’s app tackles the same metric. It can also suggest the best time for you to go to bed to ensure you catch up on sleep.
You can get access to the app for a one-time fee of $5.99.
Streaks
Streaks is a good app for people who want to form good habits and track their progress. Each day that you complete a task, your streak is extended. If you break the chain, your streak resets to zero. You can track up to 24 habits, such as flossing your teeth, practicing a new language, and eating healthy.
The app also lets you track tasks that aren’t meant to occur every day, too. For instance, you may want to set a task of walking to work from Monday to Friday, going to the gym three days a week, or avoiding junk food over the weekend.
A quick glance at your Apple Watch lets you quickly see which tasks you still need to complete for the day, see your progress, and mark tasks as completed.
The app is available for a one-time fee of $5.99.
Fantastical
Fantastical is a great calendar app that can help you stay organized right from your Apple Watch. You can use the app to create events and set reminders that you can view with a quick glance.
The Apple Watch app has three views that you can choose from. The “Up Next” view gives you a quick overview of your next appointment alongside the current weather. The “List” view shows you any events and tasks that you have coming up over the next few days, alongside the expected weather forecast. The “Tasks” view compiles all of your tasks into one view and allows you to check them off with a quick tap.
The app also lets you receive alerts for upcoming events and tasks. If you want this information on your watch face, Fantastical’s Smart Stack widget gives you a quick peek at your calendar.
Fantastical costs $4.99 per month.
Things 3
Things 3 is a great productivity manager that can help you create to-do lists, manage projects, and track progress toward your goals. It can be used to organize your personal, work, financial, and other aspects of your life into special “Areas.”
The app features reminders, a calendar integration, widgets, tags to categorize your to-do lists, and more. Things 3 also lets you automatically repeat to-dos on a schedule you set and has a special place for evening plans under the “This Evening” section.
As the day goes on, you can quickly check off things from your wrist and add new ones on the go.
You can get Things 3 for a one-time payment of $9.99.
Structured
Structured is a simple app that helps you plan your day by combining your calendar, to-do list, habit tacker, reminders, and routines into a single timeline.
You can navigate through your structured timeline on your wrist to see your upcoming tasks and stay on top of your routine without having to pull out your phone. The app lets you store thoughts and quickly capture notes in your Inbox to sort them later. You can also break down bigger projects with “sub-tasks.”
Structured also lets you personalize your different tasks with various icons and colors to visually organize your to-do list. Structured syncs with your Mac, iPhone, and iPad as well.
Structured’s basic features are available for free, but you can pay a $6.49 monthly fee to unlock additional features, such as the ability to use AI to draft and plan tasks.
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