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 are easily distracted by their phone.
Although the Apple Watch has simple built-in productivity apps like Reminders and Calendar, it’s worth exploring some third-party apps 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 take out your iPhone. The app allows you to create and manage tasks, organize these tasks into projects, mark them as complete and also set reminders. You can add tasks via voice commands or the keyboard.
The app is perfect for people who prefer to take a quick 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 whole day right from your Apple Watch. For example, you can choose to display your next task or the percentage of tasks completed for the day.
Todoist is free and offers a monthly subscription of $4 if you want additional features like custom task reminders, AI assistant, 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 notebook without a phone. You can jot down notes using voice commands, watchOS’ Scribble feature, or the keyboard.
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Your drafts inbox syncs from your iPhone and shows the number of drafts you have, while also showing the number of marked 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 in a folder to organize your thoughts or just have a free-flowing canvas.
The app is free and offers a monthly subscription of $1.99 if you want access to additional features such as themes and the ability to send your emails in the app.
Focus
Focus is a good app for people who want a productivity timer to help them get their 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, 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 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 to fall asleep and measure your sleep efficiency.
AutoSleep shows you all this data through a clock view with sleep bells to give you a quick overview of your stats in a similar way to your watch’s activity rings. You can see if you are getting enough sleep or if you should try to sleep more.
The app also shows you a “readiness” score that estimates how mentally and physically ready you are for the next day based on how you slept, which is similar to how Oura Ring’s app approaches the same metric. It can also suggest the best time to go to bed to ensure you get enough sleep.
You can access the app for a one-time fee of $5.99.
Rows
Rows is a good app for people who want to form good habits and track their progress. Every day you complete a task, your streak is extended. If you break the chain, your streak is reset to zero. You can track up to 24 habits, such as flossing your teeth, learning a new language, and eating healthy.
The app also lets you track tasks that aren’t meant to be done daily. For example, you might want to set a goal to go to work Monday through Friday, go to the gym three days a week, or avoid junk food on the weekend.
A quick glance at your Apple Watch lets you quickly see what tasks you still have to complete for the day, see your progress, and mark tasks as complete.
The app is available for a one-time fee of $5.99.
Fantastic
Fantastic 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 see at a glance.
The Apple Watch app has three views you can choose from. The Upcoming view gives you a quick overview of your next appointment alongside the current weather. The List view shows you any events and tasks you have coming up in the next few days, along with the expected weather forecast. The Tasks view brings all your tasks together in one view and lets you check them with a quick tap.
The app also allows you to receive notifications of upcoming events and tasks. If you want that information on your watch face, Fantasical’s Smart Stack widget gives you a quick glance at your calendar.
Fantastic cost of $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 towards your goals. It can be used to organize personal, work, financial and other aspects of your life into special ‘areas’.
The app features reminders, calendar integration, widgets, tags to categorize your to-do lists, and more. Things 3 also lets you automatically repeat tasks on a schedule you set, and has a special place for evening plans in the “Tonight” section.
As the day goes by, you can quickly check 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 adjuster, reminders and routines into a single schedule.
You can navigate the structured schedule on your wrist to see your upcoming tasks and stay on top of your routine without having to take out your phone. The app lets you save thoughts and quickly jot down notes in your Inbox to sort through later. You can also break down larger projects with “sub-tasks”.
Structured also allows you to personalize your various tasks with different icons and colors to visually organize your task list. Built-in sync with your Mac, iPhone and iPad too.
Structured’s core features are available for free, but you can pay a monthly fee of $6.49 to unlock additional features, such as the ability to use artificial intelligence for writing and planning assignments.
