Calendar-first planners are having a moment—and for good reason. Most teams don’t struggle to collect tasks; they struggle to sequence them realistically on a calendar and then protect that plan from meetings, pings, and fire drills. Three apps lead the pack for individuals and small teams who want a dependable day planner: Sunsama, Motion, and Akiflow. They all combine tasks + calendar, but their philosophies differ: Sunsama emphasizes intentional rituals, Motion auto-schedules aggressively, and Akiflow is a command-bar for ruthless triage. This guide compares them in depth and gives you a concrete workflow you can implement today.
What problem these tools actually solve
- Overcommitment: To-do apps accumulate “someday tasks.” Calendar blockers force trade-offs.
- Context switching: If tasks and events live in separate tools, you plan twice and trust neither.
- Meeting creep: Unbounded invites eat the same time you planned for deep work.
- Review debt: Without daily/weekly rituals, plans drift and stress builds.
A good daily planning OS integrates capture → plan → execute → review in one surface, with honest time estimates and protection for your best hours.
The quick take (when each tool wins)
- Sunsama — Best for people who want a calm ritual and gentle constraints. You manually set a daily workload target, drag tasks onto the calendar, and write a short reflection each day. It discourages overstuffing and makes you feel the trade-offs.
- Motion — Best for people who want the machine to plan for them. You set task durations, deadlines, and priorities; Motion schedules blocks automatically and re-plans when conflicts appear. Great for dynamic days, but it can feel pushy without guardrails.
- Akiflow — Best for triage-heavy professionals (PMs, leads, founders) drowning in inputs. It pulls email, Slack, and task inboxes into one command-bar, then lets you schedule, snooze, label, and route lightning-fast to your calendar.
If you value ritual and reflection → Sunsama.
If you value automation and re-planning → Motion.
If you value capture speed and keyboard flow → Akiflow.
A shared workflow you’ll implement (works in all three)
- Capture: pipe tasks and requests from email/Slack/PM tools into your planner inbox.
- Triage: delete 30–50% in seconds; label the rest (impact, project), estimate durations (15–120 minutes).
- Plan: place no more than 4–6 hours of focused work on the calendar; cluster meetings into windows.
- Execute: work from the Today view only; avoid re-sorting during the day.
- Review: journal 3 bullets (wins, risks, adjustments); reschedule leftovers intentionally.
Below you’ll find the step-by-step for each app with concrete settings.
Sunsama: ritual-first planning that keeps you honest
Core idea: you “pull” a realistic set of tasks into Today, estimate them, and drag them into calendar blocks. Sunsama shows a “planned hours” total so you don’t overfill.
Setup (30 minutes)
- Connect Google/Microsoft Calendar and your task sources (Todoist/Asana/Trello/Jira, plus email and Slack).
- Channels: create 5–8 categories that match your work (e.g., Product, Growth, Ops, Admin, Personal).
- Daily target: set a workload cap (e.g., 5h of focused tasks).
- Focus windows: block recurring morning/afternoon slots where you prefer deep work.
- Weekly objectives: add 3 top outcomes; Sunsama will prompt you to align daily pulls to these.
Daily planning ritual (10–15 minutes)
- Inbox review: archive non-work items; assign channels; estimate durations (15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120).
- Pull into Today until you reach ~80% of your daily target—leave buffer for inevitable surprises.
- Drag to calendar: place deep work in your best energy hours; cluster collaboration around it.
- Add a short intention at the top (“Ship API pagination; prep investor update”).
- Start a focus timer on the first block; Sunsama will nudge you between sessions.
Weekly review (30 minutes)
- Sweep leftovers: push or drop; don’t carry ghost tasks.
- Roll up accomplishments: Sunsama’s weekly digest becomes your status update.
- Adjust targets: if you routinely hit only 60% of plan, reduce daily cap or inflate estimates by 25%.
Automation tips
- Pipe Slack message → task via the Sunsama Slack app.
- Enable calendar conflict detection so meetings can’t overwrite deep work silently.
- Pair with Readwise/Notion for a Friday reflection page using the weekly digest.
Watchouts
- Sunsama avoids auto-scheduling by design; if you want the app to reschedule for you, you’ll prefer Motion.
- Estimating honestly is the discipline; err long at first.
Motion: auto-schedule engine for volatile calendars
Core idea: you input tasks with priority, deadline, and duration; Motion’s AI packs them into your calendar, moving blocks when meetings appear and nudging you when you’re falling behind.
Setup (35–45 minutes)
- Connect all work/personal calendars; set working hours and no-meeting windows (e.g., 9–11 and 2–4 deep work).
- Task defaults: duration increments (25/50 minutes), buffer between tasks (5–10 minutes), and max daily focus hours (e.g., 4).
- Auto-scheduling rules:
- Priorities: P0 urgent, P1 important, P2 normal.
- Deadlines: hard vs soft (allow Motion to push soft ones).
- Recurring tasks: weekly reviews, reporting, 1:1 prep.
- Meeting scheduler: publish two links (15-min triage; 30-min sync) restricted to meeting windows with buffers.
Working in Motion
- Inbox to tasks: add from web/mobile or via email; include
#project, duration (45m,1h), due date, and priority. - Let Motion place blocks. If you drag a block manually, Motion respects it unless a hard conflict hits; mark manual blocks as fixed for critical work.
- Constraints: set tasks to “must be morning” or “chunked” if they require consecutive blocks.
- Re-planning: when a meeting is added/cancelled, Motion recalculates; check the timeline each morning and after lunch.
Team features (optional)
- Projects: group tasks and set shared priorities; see aggregate progress.
- Workload view: capacity by person to avoid overloading.
- Shared scheduling: pooled availability for customer calls.
Automation tips
- Use Zapier/Make: when a GitHub/Jira issue is labeled
P1, create a Motion task with a default estimate and link back. - Time defense: create a rule that blocks 15 minutes pre-meeting for prep and 10 minutes post for notes.
Watchouts
- Motion can feel “bossy.” Use soft deadlines generously, and set daily focus hour caps so it doesn’t pack 7 hours of deep work you’ll never do.
- If you hate your plan changing mid-day, pin your top two blocks by hand.
Akiflow: command-bar triage + fast scheduling
Core idea: Akiflow pulls tasks from email, Slack, Jira, Asana, Trello, Notion, and calendar into one inbox. You triage with keyboard shortcuts, then schedule or snooze items to time blocks on your calendar.
Setup (30 minutes)
- Integrations: connect email (Gmail/Outlook), Slack, and your PM tool(s).
- Labels: keep 6–10 max (Project names +
@deep,@review,@quick). - Shortcuts: memorize
a(add),s(schedule),;(snooze),l(label),d(duration),/(search). - Ritual templates: create Morning Planning and Evening Shutdown checklists inside Akiflow.
Daily flow (8–12 minutes for triage)
- Empty inbox: if an item takes ≤2 minutes, do it; else schedule to a slot or snooze with a clear day/time.
- Batch by label: schedule all
@deepfirst into your best hours; sprinkle@quickaround meetings. - Protect anchors: block “email triage” and “review” windows so capture doesn’t spill over.
- Command-bar for speed:
s 10:30drops a block at 10:30;d 45sets 45 minutes;tom 2pmschedules tomorrow at 2.
Automation tips
- Slack to task: hit the Akiflow shortcut on any message; it captures the link + context.
- Rules: “Emails from CEO → label @review + schedule next morning window.”
- Quick capture: global shortcut
⌘⌥Kto create tasks without leaving your current app.
Watchouts
- Akiflow won’t auto-replan like Motion; if your day changes, multi-select blocks and bulk move using the command-bar.
- Be disciplined about labels; if you don’t filter by them, delete them.
Integrations & recipes (works with all three)
- Task manager → planner: When a task is created in Asana/Linear/Trello, create a planner task with a default estimate and a link. Map
PriorityandDue date. - Email triage: Star/label in Gmail → create a task with subject line and thread link; auto-assign label
@email. - Docs: Paste the working doc link into the event description so you can open it from your calendar in one click.
- Slack digest: At 17:00, post a brief “Plan for tomorrow” to
#teamwith your top 3 blocks (Zapier → read planner’s next-day events, format, post).
A decision matrix
- You need calm structure, a “done for the day” feeling, and journaling → Sunsama.
- You want the machine to juggle deadlines and reschedule automatically → Motion.
- You triage dozens of inputs and live on the keyboard → Akiflow.
Hybrid options: Some teams use Sunsama for planning and keep Motion off; others use Motion for auto-packing and Akiflow for capture. If you mix, designate one tool as the calendar writer to avoid dueling edits.
Metrics that keep the system honest
Track these weekly (a simple Google Sheet is enough):
- Plan accuracy = planned focus hours vs completed focus hours (target 80%+).
- Focus ratio = deep-work hours / total work hours (ICs: 35–50%; managers: 20–35%).
- Meeting hours: trend down or stable; replace status meetings with async updates.
- Carryover: % of tasks pushed from Today to tomorrow (keep <30%).
- Win rate: # of “Big 3” weekly outcomes achieved (aim for 2–3).
Use the numbers to adjust estimates, daily caps, and meeting windows—not to beat yourself up.
A two-week rollout plan
Days 1–2 — Choose & connect
Pick one app (trial all three, but commit quickly). Connect calendars, email, Slack, and your PM tool. Create labels/channels and your daily cap.
Days 3–4 — Meeting windows & anchors
Block two meeting windows/day and 2–4 deep-work blocks. Turn on speedy meetings (25/50 min) in Google Calendar and add 10-minute buffers.
Days 5–7 — Real week, gentle rules
Plan each morning in 10 minutes. Limit Today to 4–6 hours of blocks. After each block, jot a one-line note in the event. End the day with a 3-bullet shutdown.
Days 8–10 — Integrations & automations
Add one intake (email → task) and one handoff (planner → PM tool). If using Motion, set hard vs soft deadlines and caps; if Sunsama, refine channels and weekly objectives; if Akiflow, add two keyboard rules.
Days 11–12 — Review & tune
Check plan accuracy and focus ratio; adjust estimates and daily cap. Prune labels/channels you didn’t use. Consolidate or cancel one recurring meeting.
Days 13–14 — Team norms
Publish a 1-page “How we plan” (meeting windows, buffers, two scheduling links, response times). Encourage Friday demo clips instead of status meetings.
Common pitfalls (and quick fixes)
- Overstuffed days → Set a daily cap and stop when you hit 80%. Leave buffer.
- Blocks get trampled by meetings → Add a shared No-Meeting Morning and auto-decline outside windows.
- Estimates are fantasy → Inflate by 25% for two weeks; refine later.
- Too many labels/channels → If you didn’t use it this week, delete it.
- Plan shatters by noon → Re-plan at lunch. Protect just two critical blocks in the afternoon.
Final thoughts
Sunsama, Motion, and Akiflow share a goal—make time reflect priorities—but they approach it differently: ritual, automation, and triage. Pick the one that matches your temperament and the volatility of your days, then commit to a simple cadence: plan in the morning, work from Today, review in the evening, tune each week. Within two weeks you’ll feel the difference: fewer broken promises to yourself, more finished outcomes, and a calendar that finally tells the truth.