Time 2 is an app that can work with your to-do list to help you stay productive.
One of the principles I keep trying to remember is “Parkinson’s law”. It goes “work expands to fill the amount of time allotted to it”. So if you have one hour to do something, it will take one hour. If you have two hours, it will take two hours.
There are limits to this principle, but I’ve found it to generally be true. With that in mind, I’ve tried tricks to help “game” myself to get work done quickly and effectively. With that in mind, Time 2 is a new app that can help you use “Parkinson’s law” to help get through work.
What Is Time 2
Time 2 is basically like a todo application with a time element built in. You input a task and set an amount of time you expect it to take. Then you can start the timer. This gives you some self-created limits to get through a task. You can use this to give yourself a time limit and pressure to get through work. This helps you limit the time you spend on unimportant work and free up time for more important work.
The Good
Time 2 has a few great features which can help you stay effective. This includes repeating tasks and adding reminders. This is great for a task like “checking email” which you may want to limit to only 15 minutes every morning. For me, I’ve set up a repeating task for planning my classes on certain days which can help me limit those activities.
The interface is also really well done with simple controls of tapping activities to start, using a floating button to add a new task and a menu button which opens further options.
You can also see how many tasks you’ve completed, your predicted time and your actual time is taken.
The Bad
I don’t think there is anything bad about time 2 but there are some features I’d love to see added (some easier than others). Firstly, I’d love to be able to import tasks from another task management app. Time doesn’t have all the settings for something like projects or contexts which makes it a poor choice for larger project planning, unlike a more specific time management application. Adding an import option would make it much easier to add tasks that you’ve planned.
I’d also like to see some more detailed breakdown of how accurately I predict my time. For example, a chart which shows how much time I predicted I’d need, and how much I went over or under.
Alternative
Since I experimented with Time 2 I decided that I might try tracking my time in a few other ways as I had in the past. This included using a “logbook” and using the app “Toggl” to track my time. When I used Toggl I noticed the same immediate boost to my focus as I wanted to push through tasks as quickly as possible, helping overcome Parkinson’s law.
As such, a regular time tracking app might be a suitable replacement for time 2.
Wrapping Up
Time 2 isn’t a task management app, but I think of it as more of a daily planning tool and system to help motivate you and get you to stick to time limits. It can work well with your other task management tools and for only $0.99, it is a real bargain.
Design: 5
Features: 4
Performance: 5
Value for Money: 4.5
Time supports iOS.
You can find Time here.
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