Pocket Informant - Day Planner with full GTD-style Tasks app review: organize your life

Introduction

We all want to be more organized; it just doesn’t always work out quite how we planned and all those loose sticky notes are definitely not the answer. If you want to take control of the situation once and for all there are certainly a lot of options in the App Store and the built-in calendar app on your iOS device does a pretty decent job as well. The problem is most of these apps can only perform a couple of specific functions so it would be nice to have everything in one app. Pocket Informant - Day Planner with full GTD-style Tasks is an excellent app that attempts to be replace all of your other scheduling apps, although it may be a little too busy for some. There is a free trial version of the Pocket Informant app, but the full version can be purchased from the App Store for $14.99. It’s compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and the iPod touch.

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Comprehensive Scheduling & Note-Taking

There always seems to be a trade-off in scheduling and productivity apps between ease of use and functionality and Pocket Informant is no exception. This app can probably replace just about every app you use for staying organized and on-task. It will help you with your scheduling, list-making, and note-taking all in one app, but it’s not necessarily the easiest app to figure out. They do have a support section on their website, but with everything going on in this app I think they’d really benefit from a walk-through video.

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One thing I thought was a really nice touch in this app was the weather feature. Let’s face it, with the nice weather on its way we’re all hoping to spend more time outside in the sunshine. The Pocket Informant app gives you a mini-weather update right inside the app. If you change your schedule view to week or month you’ll see the little weather symbols for each day: simply tap on the icon to see a full weather report. If you see in your schedule it’s going to rain that day you might want to reschedule your bike ride or trip to the beach. The one thing I really didn’t like about this app was the price tag. Yes, there’s a lot of functionality but you can perform all of these tasks in other apps. I guess it depends on how much you’re willing to pay for the convenience of having everything in one place. The Pocket Informant app will require 41.5 MB of free space on your iOS device

How it Works

When you open this app for the first time you’ll be asked to give the app permission to access your calendar, location, and contacts and if you want to take advantage of everything the app can do its best to accept the requests. After that you’ll enter into the apps monthly calendar view. You can switch this view to an agenda view, day view, week view, column week view, or a yearly view. It pretty much looks like any calendar app you've used in the past and to add an event to your calendar you just tap on the + sign in the top right corner and fill in the parameters of the pop up box. It asks you for the standard things such as a title, start and end times, and whether or not you wish to add an alarm, which is the same sort of stuff you find in any calendar app.

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What makes this app different is that it also has a built in tasks or note taking feature as well as a list making feature. To add one of these items, once again, you tap on the + sign in the top right corner and select it from the menu. Each of these functions is straightforward to use following the basic format you would find in any other similar app. There are so many great features it’s easy to spend an hour or two just figuring everything out.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Includes scheduling, note taking, and task scheduling functions in one place
• Each separate function uses a familiar format
• Includes a built-in weather function

Cons

• Free version is limited to a trial only
• The app can seem a little too complicated with all its functionality
• At $14.99 for the full version it’s a little pricey

Final Words

If you’re not afraid to commit a little time to make your life a lot easier in the long run then you won’t be disappointed with the Pocket Informant - Day Planner with full GTD-style Tasks app. The price tag is a little steep for something you can get for free in other individual apps. If, on the other hand, you’ve had enough of flipping back and forth between apps for different functions, then this is the perfect app for you.