What is Sunsama?
Sunsama is a Task Management app, but its features set the app apart from its competition. Even if you use other To-Do list apps, you shouldn’t overlook Sunsama, because Sunsama can help you coherently integrate all of your task management apps, calendars, and your workspaces task management app…
And while it integrates all of your work apps, you can still use it as a standalone app and manage your whole daily planning process there.
Sunsama Features
As mentioned, Sunsama can pull tasks from apps that are used for Project Management, and Personal Task Management, and they are:
Todoist
Outlook
Asana
Trello
ClickUp
Gira
Gmail
Github
Slack
Notion
Gitlab
Google Calendar
Shift
Jira
Sunsama also has some more bespoke integrations like Gmail, which can be used to turn email threads into tasks, as well as reply to emails.
Github and Gitlab are also available, which is good for software teams, and developers who regularly work with git repositories of in-house or client code, so you can turn any issue or pull request into a task to act accordingly.
In addition, Sunsama is perfectly capable to function without the need of importing tasks from other apps, and it works phenomenally as a standalone Task Management app. Sunsama’s Approach to Task Management is different from other solutions since other apps don’t take into account variables like the Time needed to complete each task, and where you will fit that task into your work schedule.When you start planning your day, you will assign how much time each task is planned to take, and you will add it to your calendar as blocks that are the size of the planned time.
When you are unable to complete a task for the day, the Sunsama app automatically rolls it over to the next day, but if you don’t complete it in four consecutive days, the task gets moved to a space called “Archive” that contains tasks you haven’t completed yet in the last four days.
And when you place your tasks within your calendar to plan your day, if you have any pre-planned meetings in your Google or Outlook Calendar, they will be already placed in your Sunsama Calendar, so you can plan your day without any overlap between Tasks, and double booking meetings. Your calendars have synced both ways, so you can view your tasks from the Sunsama App or your Google Calendar.
Who is Sunsama for?
Sunsama is made to benefit a large number of people, whether you are a techie or not, you can count on using Sunsama for your task tracking needs, I would consider using Sunsama’s Free Trial if you are:
Overwhelmed with your current Tasks
Looking to Improve your Productivity
Looking to integrate all your Productivity tools together
Looking for a Productivity app with a Simple
A view of your calendar and tasks in one place
It seems like there isn’t a decent calendar app that does this well. As far as mixing simplicity and focus to maximize your daily tasks, Sunsama eliminates the need to toggle between things like your Google Calendar and your task management list.
Toggle between calendar view or task view
It’s pretty safe to say tabbing endlessly is the bane of everyone’s existence (anyone else have 27 tabs open right now?). Sunsama’s dashboard allows you to toggle between calendar and task views with keyboard shortcuts, which is yet another favorite feature.
You don’t even have to worry about not knowing any of them as a beginner either, you can easily bring up a list of all its shortcuts when you can’t recall how to do something. This essentially means less having to go back and forth between mouse and keyboard, which saves time and increases your efficiency. So far, what’s not to like?
Google Calendar and Outlook integrations
Sunsama’s integration with Google Calendar and Outlook makes it easy to pull in scheduled meetings or upcoming calls.
Focus mode puts your to-do list front and center without the tasks and widget overdrive many other planning tools bombard you with.
The daily planning workflow
It helps to think of using Sunsama through a simple three-step planning process:
Capture
Prioritize
Schedule
Capture all your tasks for the day
Sunsama’s daily planning framework allows me to take in information from the latest day to create my upcoming schedule the next day. Once you integrate all your productivity tools, it’s as easy as pulling them up on Sunsama, then dragging and dropping them into your task list for the day.
This includes emails too, which is a salient feature that I use often, especially with messages I know I’ll want to shift my attention to later, but might forget in the email shuffle if I don’t pull it out.
It eases the feeling of worrying about accidentally forgetting an important task because all your tools
are connected to one task prioritization system.
Prioritize what’s important or urgent
Next, I prioritize my tasks by order or either importance or urgency. This step is crucial in making sure I spend my time on tasks that’ll move the needle instead of wasting hours away on semi-important emails.
With drag and drop features, prioritizing my newly created task list for each day becomes easy.
Schedule (but don’t overdo it)
I’m guilty of overscheduling my day and being too ambitious about what I’ll get done in a given time frame. Sunsama was built with overworking and burnout in mind and has “checkpoints” in place to stay away from overdoing it.
It lets you:
Set a specific amount of time for each task
Cleanly set subtasks under main tasks
Automate a recurring start and end time each day (and reminds you when it’s getting close to that time)
Reflect on the work you’ve done in a week
It also lets me use an hourly schedule if I want to time block the day. I usually take advantage of this feature if I have more meetings than usual and I need to watch the time closely. Sunsama pulls up the hourly schedule right beside your task list so there’s no tedious switching between pages involved.
The weekly review
While I’m guilty of overscheduling, I’m guilty of forgetting about all the tasks I finished throughout the week. I know I’m not alone in this. Sunsama’s methodic framework leads you into a review session you get to schedule at the end of the week so you can visualize how you did.
At the end of each week I can see what I spent the most time on, where I missed the mark, and what was standing in the way of certain projects. At a glance, detailed time charts show me the true story of how my week actually went.
I don’t always pay a ton of attention to the weekly review, but when I do want to learn about specifics and my productivity level, it’s there whenever I need it.
Sunsama’s pricing
Here’s where some users might get hung up. Sunsama now costs $20 (up from $10 a month a while back) for access to every one of its features. Depending on what your goals are, the price might not matter all that much once you test the ease of using Sunsama.
Sunsama’s pricing model is straightforward, which is something you don’t see in the SaaS space often. However, you can try it out for free for 14 days without any credit card commitments to make sure it meets your needs.
3 Sunsama alternatives
My review of Sunsama as a tool wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t at least consider alternative task management software options. They’re out there. Some even continue to add new features. But the question is how useful are they to you?
Here are a few of my favorites that might answer that question for you: You’ll notice each of them already integrates with Sunsama (though when I picked them it wasn’t on purpose).
Todoist
Todoist is great, you can start using it for free, but it has its limits just like any other app out there. Depending on how you plan and manage your tasks best, it can be useful to you if you’re collaborating a lot with team members.
I use Todoist and Sunsama in tandem and take the best each tool has to offer to create my own system. It’s the best way I’m able to create a system that molds to my daily and weekly needs without sacrificing efficiency.
Google Workspace
Yes, Google Workspace is the OG of the internet. It’s also easier on your pocket since you can use it for free. If you cobble a few tools together, you can pretty much get something like Sunsama up and running.
The question is, do you want to and is it worth it?
ClickUp
ClickUp has named itself the everything tool. Which is fair, in a lot of ways it certainly is. But that’s what can also make it cluttered to use. Not to mention there’s a learning curve involved in the initial stages of adoption.
If that’s your cup of tea, then ClickUp can be a solid alternative to Sunsama. You can build anything from personal task trackers to forms or even highly detailed project management systems whether it’s for personal use or to manage a whole team.
One thing’s for sure though, ClickUp competes with Sunsama on price. You can start using it for free or upgrade to paid features starting at $5.
Sunsama as a daily planning app
If you haven’t been able to tell, it’s a hard yes for me if you ask me about using Sunsama as a productivity app. It seamlessly became a part of my daily routine, whether I’m dealing with a packed day or it’s one of those rare days with zero meetings.
I like to think of Sunsama as the productivity tool that walks you through a daily story molded to your needs. It approaches productivity by walking you through a flexible framework that makes sense instead of senselessly throwing a pile of optimized “productivity” tools at you.
It is simple to use and simple to incorporate into your regular workflow thanks to interfaces with important productivity and project management applications.
Yet language is only so powerful. You must take it for a test drive.
You too can try Sunsama free for two weeks here.
Comments