Fear of long term project stoping from starting the project. Planning, estimating and reorganizing your schedule is also an important skill for a motion designer. Too many tools will not help you do your job better, but using some of them is important. Later you will find the best option or combination for yourself, but take this list as a consideration for your future experimenting. Don't be afraid, just learn little by litlle and later it will uncover best sides of well organized project.
Good luck!
Google Calendar
Basic standard tool. But in this post it will be central figure due to integration with other planning tools. I'm using android mobile, so it'll be easier to cover time management topic with my own experience by choosing google services rather than iPhone / iOS inventory. Google Calendar is not ideal, but it's improving little by little, so at least it's not so complicated with GUI as it was before. So give it another try if you had not really positive experience with it previously.
Reclaim.ai
Massive time management AI tool (available free plan)
Sync and optimize your activity with this time planning multi-tool. It processes all calendar data, emails, time tracking, projects, habits. A lot things that are usually turning around you in various applications and needs your time to organize. So, reclaim.ai is trying to understand this, reorganize and optimize every project each time you adding new tasks in the google calendar plus other useful things.
It needs time to understand how it works, but they've created videos and a guide that are clarifying how it works and it's just needed to spend time firstly to save much more time later.
3 Habits to use on the free plan. It's locking your necessary habit tasks and puts them in free windows inbetween other tasks, that are always variable. 3 Habits daily it's quite a lot. Especially if you're just starting to learn something - you have to focus on it. 3 New activities at the same time I think it's enough. Later you will put them on a constant basis, and you'll be able to replace learnt habits with new ones, which will be defended - reserved with this tool.
Additionally it helps with team projects, and makes scheduling convenient for team members. For example if you have a Zoom video call with someone and overlaping other task - it will be automatically rescheduled in a convenient way for both.
It's synced with many other tools. But they're not organizing your REAL everyday calendar. They're just a sources of tasks, projects, events, etc. But your final day timeline has to be organized somehow. Here's an example.
Asana
Free plan available for tasks, unlimited cloud space for files, synchronization, integration with other apps, like Adobe Ceative Coud, Google Drive, Gmail and Calendar, Figma, Slack, Notion, Zoom, Miro, Reclaim and many more to check for a constant future growth. Usually convenient for small and mid sized teams. And major necessary toolset is available on a paid plan but for personal usage is pretty sweet option. Just to be familiar with main features of Asana, if someone will invite you into the project with a team that uses it. Relatively easy to learn interface, convenient mobile app. Good to go free and fast to setup option for tracking project's edits with a client.
Notion
Implemented Free Beta Notion AI content creation before ChatGPT provided public access. Again many tools for integration and importing-exporting to many formats and apps for Free. Mobile access to your content, tasks, drafts and files synced.
Created tasks in Notion > Pushed into Google calendar with Zapier integration> Organized with priorities with Reclaim
Fast and for free!
Zapier
You can also enhance the Google Calendar+reclaim.ai with commands to adjust the task to be planned in range of dates, depending on type of the task whether it's work task or personal, after some day for example, with duration and priority.
Something like this
write a post (for 4h due Friday not before Tuesday type personal)
It will reserve time for this task somewhere in-between Tuesday and Friday, not in working hours, not on Monday. Very convenient way of "coding" your schedule without actual interaction with the calendar.
More about it here
Clockwise.ai
Judy Tsuei
Tough but unfortunately available for Google company accounts (not personal)(+free plan). Also can be integrated with Slack, Asana. And can Create and plan 1:1 meetings, useful for fast arranging directly from Slack.
Zoom AI Companion
Paid ($15) but if you will check how things turned for the last couple of years, and when Zoom have become typically one universal app for most meetings, it looks like an obvious decision to use their AI for organizing calendar events and calls according to previous chats, calls and other materials. Meeting summaries, assistance with drafting messages, it all supports you work flow and helps build more detailed plan for work. Additionally for this plan provides other cool features like integrations with other apps - Instant meeting recaps, transcripts, recordings, and automated real-time tools.
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