Apps can help you organize anything from a meeting to an international business trip, but a crummy app with too many pop-up ads or in-app purchase offers can ruin the experience completely. Even worse, a buggy app can lead to missed appointments and confusion.
Luckily for you, we sifted through some of the most popular Android apps on the market to bring you our nine favorite planning apps for 2018.
Remember the Milk
Remember the Milk is a massive improvement on the old-fashioned to-do list, and the paid version is the perfect organization app for the overextended and forgetful. With this app, you can tap out a to-do list that automatically syncs on all your devices, and even better, you can have the app send you reminders via email, text, Twitter, IM or mobile notification.
This handy app also syncs with Outlook, allows you to break tasks into steps and share your to-do list with other users, and color-code your lists, so you can keep work tasks and personal tasks separate.
Trello
If you're a fan of Kanban boards, Trello is about to become your favorite Android app. The interface is perfect for visual learners. Instead of formatting things in a boring notebook-style list, Trello allows users to create boards and on those boards cards, which can contain checklists and tasks.
Trello also has a collaborative element wherein users can do things like share boards, comment on other people's boards, assign tasks, and even attach files (from Dropbox or Drive). Another major benefit of Trello is the ability to work offline. While you miss comments uploaded during offline time, when you have service again, the app automatically resyncs.
Evernote
It shouldn't come as a surprise to find Evernote on a best app list, especially considering the nearly 1.5 million Android users who already use it. Evernote is, hands down, one of the best organizational tools around.
Not only can you access Evernote from any type of device, you can use it as a collaborative tool, a project management tool, a place for checklists, and a repository for notes and media. Evernote also makes it easy to store your business and personal information in one place, making it ideal for entrepreneurial multitaskers.
TimeTune
TimeTune is a little-known app that's great for establishing an efficient routine but not so much for collaborating or scheduling meetings. The purpose of TimeTune is to help you get the most out of your day.
Rather than linking with specific calendar dates, TimeTune is focused on developing routines, which can be daily, weekly or for a set number of days you predetermine. This type of app is fantastic for people who want to streamline their daily life as well as for those who have irregular schedules or work shifts that change seasonally. TimeTune also offers insights into how you spend your time and allows you to create custom reminders and widgets.
Sectograph
This cool little app probably won't replace your heavy-duty business productivity tools anytime soon, but if you want a quick way to visualize your day, you should give it a try.
Sectograph uses your mobile device's clock widget to project a visual circular chart of everything you have to do, in order, and synced with the time of day. It's great for a quick at-a-glance overview of what you should be doing, how long you'll be doing it, and what you have coming up next.
Day by Day Organizer
This app is free, beautifully designed and excellent for business use. What Day by Day does is sync with Google Calendar and Google Tasks and bring the combined functionality into a single Android-friendly application.
This organizer makes it possible to plan your schedule and maintain to-do lists (with or without due dates) and then view them in different formats across all your devices. There's also a configurable widget layout for the home screen, and optional paid add-ons are available.
Doit.im
This super clean app claims to have more than 6 million users worldwide, and once you check out the interface, you'll wonder why that number isn't even higher. Doit.im is a task management app that allows you to create to-do lists, track the status of tasks, estimate how long tasks will take, and view a dashboard that shows what percentage of tasks are complete, incomplete or deferred.
While it's not a replacement for full-featured project planning software, it's a great tool for regular workweek planning.
INRIX
This free app isn't about planning meetings or making to-do lists, but it can help you plan your daily transportation in an efficient way. INRIX Driver Apps feature advanced real-time traffic navigation that automatically shifts as conditions change.<p>
This app recommends departure times for destinations, provides updates on road conditions and even helps you find an open parking space. INRIX stays informed by gathering crowdsourced data from more than 275 million devices to get the most accurate and up-to-date information possible.
RescueTime
Innovative and clever, RescueTime is a workday planning and productivity app designed to help you maintain an ideal work-life balance. This app runs in the background on any device and then provides you with an analysis (complete with a productivity score) that shows you how you spend your time every day.
RescueTime takes note of how much time you spend on specific applications and websites, and you can log your offline work as well. The reports are clean and easy to understand, and the insight this tool gives you may help you find better ways to schedule your workweek. There is a free and a paid version of this app, and it is available across all types of devices, including laptops and desktops.