By 
Structured is a minimalist timetable app developed by Unorderly GmbH, available on Android, iOS, macOS, and iPadOS. You can subscribe to the app for $2.99 per month, $9.99 per year, or make a one-time purchase for $29.99. There’s also a free version with some limitations. This review focuses on the iPad version, which we purchased with a lifetime license. The Pro version of the app seems consistent across subscription types, but if you’re using a different package and notice any differences, we’d love to hear about them.
The user interface in Structured is clean and simple. The left sidebar includes an inbox where you can store ideas you want to work on. You can hide the sidebar to free up more screen space. At the top, you’ll see your weekly dates, with your day’s timeline below that. The layout is intuitive, making it easy to start using the app. You can customize the app’s color and choose between detailed or minimalist layouts. However, the timeline size stays the same, so it might not be minimalist enough if you prefer a less cluttered view. Is collapsing the timetable to view fewer details important to you?
Creating a new to-do is straightforward, but the large sticker that appears next to your task name can be confusing. The default sticker is set to “@,” which might suggest you need to tag someone or something. While the stickers are cute, it might be better if they didn’t appear until after you’ve created the task. This would streamline the process, but frequent users will likely get used to it. Some might prefer to disable the stickers altogether.
Once you get past the stickers, you can name your task, and the sticker will change accordingly. Structured offers general suggestions when creating tasks, which evolve based on your usage. However, it would be more convenient if the date and time options were located below the task name. While suggestions are nice, you likely already know what you want to add before opening the app. It would be great if we could turn these suggestions off if we don’t find them helpful. Unfortunately, you can only add essential task details after moving to the next screen, which feels like an unnecessary extra step. Adding multiple tasks quickly can become tedious.
In the next window, you can add the time and date for your task. One feature we love is the ability to specify how long a task will take. If you’re unsure, you can set it for the whole day. The app also includes a quick search for time zones, making it faster to find what you need than scrolling through a list. You can save presets for task duration, which speeds up the process when creating new tasks. The preset durations range from one minute to 24 hours, allowing you to plan your entire day. This unique approach to digital planning makes Structured more of a timetable app than a simple to-do list, helping you plan every minute of your day.
You can choose a color for your task from four presets or use a custom color. It would be nice if the app allowed you to replace the default colors with your own preferences. You can also create recurring tasks on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, but the options for monthly repeats are limited. We hope to see more customization options for monthly repeats in the future.
Structured allows you to set alerts for your tasks, with the flexibility to choose when you want to be notified—whether at the start, end, or a few minutes before the task begins. Default alerts are always enabled, which could result in multiple notifications for a single task if you have several alerts set. You can also set custom alerts up to three hours before a task starts, which should be plenty of time to prepare. Subtasks are straightforward and useful for breaking down larger tasks. You can also add basic notes, though they lack formatting options.
As you plan your day, Structured visually displays the duration of each task, including breaks and overlapping times. You can easily rearrange items on your schedule. However, the app only displays one day at a time, which might feel limiting. We think there’s enough screen space to show at least three days. Would you prefer to see multiple days at once, or is a single day view sufficient?
The app shows the number of subtasks for each task, but you have to tap on them to view and interact with them. If a task is short, simply showing the subtask count makes sense, but for longer tasks, it would be better to list the subtasks directly beneath the main task. This would allow you to tick them off as you complete them without needing to open a separate window. It would also be helpful to see notes for tasks when there’s space, rather than just an icon.
When you check off tasks from your schedule, the app dims and strikes them out, but they remain visible on your timetable. This is a great way to track what you’ve completed and what’s left to do.
One of our favorite features is the inbox. Sometimes you have ideas that don’t yet fit into your schedule. You can store them in the inbox on the left sidebar for later use. We wish it were easier to quickly add these ideas to the inbox, as they’re unlikely to be fully formed when they first come to mind. But if they are, you’ll appreciate the detailed options available for them. The inbox is more useful than the suggestions feature, and it would make more sense for the app to show your inbox instead of the same suggestions repeatedly.
Adding an idea from the inbox to your schedule is simple, and making changes to tasks is a breeze. This helps you keep track of important things you want to work on, and we love how accessible the inbox ideas are.
Structured integrates with Apple Calendar and Apple Reminders. You can select which calendars and lists to display in the app. Events from Apple Calendar automatically appear in your daily schedule, as they usually include a date and duration. All-day events are shown at the top of the schedule. If your Apple Reminders tasks don’t have a scheduled time, they go to your inbox. The two-way sync ensures that any progress you make in Structured reflects in Apple Reminders as soon as you check off an item.
Tasks in Structured are less detailed than those in Apple Reminders, so you might need to switch back to Reminders for editing or checking important details like priorities or images. This makes us wonder if heavy users of Apple Reminders would benefit from Structured. Perhaps a quick way to access Reminders from within Structured would help. What do you think? Apple Reminders is likely the best way to quickly add tasks to your Structured inbox, making the two apps work well together. For calendar events, it doesn’t matter which app you use—you can edit Apple Calendar events directly within Structured and save the changes without leaving the app.
AI features are the main reason I’ve moved away from GTD apps for 2024 planning, which I now do in my note-taking app (Noteful) and with digital planners. Structured warns you that using AI features involves sending data to OpenAI servers. However, the developers are committed to protecting your data, and they don’t sell it or track you. You also have control over what happens to your data, which is reassuring for a planning app.
The AI feature in Structured works best if you dictate what you want, but we found typing to be faster and easier to edit. The AI feature helps you quickly create a daily schedule by handling the tedious details, making it an effective assistant. We plan to test this feature more extensively to see how much planning the app can do for you. While our team is usually skeptical about AI tools, this one looks promising, and we hope it becomes a permanent feature, as it’s currently in beta.
Structured also has a focus mode for tasks you’re working on, with a countdown timer showing the remaining time for completion. Some might find this motivating, and it’s especially useful in full-screen mode. You won’t need another app to help you focus and track the time for your tasks. Completed tasks, including all-day events, are struck out and dimmed on the timetable. Structured is fun to use, especially since it supports live activities where you can track your progress without needing to open the app.
The app also supports dark mode, which changes the background to black and the text to white, while keeping other colors the same. It’s a convincing dark mode. You can open the app in multiple instances, which might compensate for its inability to display multiple days at once. If you prefer handwriting, Scribble is supported, so you can handwrite your schedule and notes instead of typing.
The widgets in Structured are another exciting feature. There are three sizes for the timeline widget, so you don’t need to open the app to see your next task. The widget is interactive, allowing you to check off tasks directly from your home screen. The larger widget is more useful, as you can also add tasks from it, which takes you to the app but speeds up the process. The inbox widget is handy for checking off completed tasks from the homepage. Our favorite widget is the task and subtask one, which shows the task you’re currently working on with a countdown, along with a list of subtasks.
Navigating through months in Structured is easy. You can select the month and year you want to view, though this setup might not be ideal if you prefer a yearly view, which is more common in calendar apps. A quick way to return to today’s date after planning future dates would be helpful.
Structured does not sync across devices on different operating systems. You can access your schedule on an iPhone, iPad, and Mac via iCloud syncing, but not on Android. This setup has its pros and cons, depending on your workflow. For privacy reasons, we don’t mind this setup, as it keeps our data on our devices without requiring an account. However, the iPad app only backs up to iCloud Drive. We hope to see more backup options in the future, as it’s
