Hour Blocks: Day Planner Reviews

by Meadowian

I just downloaded HourBlocks , and within minutes, it became evident that I could not use it. HourBlocks opens, and you can scroll to different areas of the page. However, it all goes wrong once you do anything that requires a separate window to open. The window never closes, and the only way to get out of it is to Force Quit. I tried it five times with the same result.

What a DISAPPOINTMENT!! I’m glad I only lost $1.99

I'm glad I only spent $1.99. What a disappointment!!

by Tuna Fan

I like the concept of HourBlocks but a key feature & function is not working. If the time a task needs to be changed, I tap & hold an entry but it won’t allow me to move to a different time block. IPhone 7+ (12.4).

While HourBlocks is appealingly simple & uncluttered in its interface, there are annoying defaults (capitalization & symbol assigned to events) that could easily be editable by the user.

by Ffgsy

Great start but it’s missing is key features.
Tons a room for needed growth.

It’s a middle schooler trying to play in the big leagues.

I like the general set up, the look, and general idea of how it works. Great start.

You wont be able to find past schedule items so if you forget game over no moving it.

Wanna move a schedule to a different time or day?

Forget about it, not gonna happen.

Wanna move a to do list to a scheduled time tomorrow? Nope impossible. Search past schedules or to do lists? No no no, I was it right why is it so they don’t want you to do that. Too helpful.

Schedule something at 10:30 instead or 10:00? Nope impossible. You dont get to do thing unless it’s on the hour.

It doesn’t link to your calendar although I guess half points because your calendar links to HourBlocks.

by Vic Norman

all this is is a list of to-dos disguised as hours. GUI reflects this. difficult to navigate, edit. “blocks”, which are just a segmented list are impossible to edit. and you can’t move them around. Honestly I don’t know what this is, but it’s not for me.

by Fiera92

HourBlocks is too simple. It gives me no control. I can’t set a task for :30. Only by the hour (7:00). I can’t plan multiple days in a row. And there is no way to easily read something that’s long. HourBlocks is the equivalent of a to-do list on a sticky note without the power to put actual start times.

by JNHohol

I was hopeful this would be a great app to help with time blocking. I saw it promoted on iMore and while it looks pretty clean, what you see is what you get. In other words, there isn’t much functionality beyond what you see. Drag and drop isn’t a feature which the developer explains in his blog but nonetheless leaves me feeling let down. It integrates my other iCloud calendars but it doesn’t schedule around them. It shows the events but I still have empty spaces in the Hour Blocks section of the schedule. I would think HourBlocks would recognize scheduled events and not leave ‘empty’ spaces when I have events. I see a lot of potential with HourBlocks but it’s not very usable for my in its current state. I’m not trying to be negative but I do want to be honest for others looking for an app that takes advantages of all the iOS API’s and feature sets. HourBlocks misses the mark and since there is no ‘trial’ or any real video of actual usage of the interface, you might find it wasn’t the best usage of you money to find out how it works.

by Seanismac

Great concept behind HourBlocks . Easy way to organize yourself. There are some things that make it less effective than it should be:

· Save new hour block categories.

· Add the ability to customize these new categories with a set of icons.

· Save sub blocks. For sub blocks that reoccurr often, having to type them out over and over becomes a pain.

· Option to integrate with other reminder apps like the stock iOS reminders app or Fantastical. Don't like apps living in their own separate space.

· Further integration between hour blocks and To Do list where a to do can be integrated inside an hour block as a sub block.

I think these recommendations just might make it a must own iOS app!

by MaviCar2011

I love HourBlocks because it breaks your day in hours. I just wish the blocks were bigger so that everything you wrote would be displayed for that particular time block and the sub blocks would be displayed as well. It would be easier to view.

by Kit Trashensky

This is a great idea and solution. I have to find an alternative because I’m not able to edit as easily as I’d like.
Hopefully I’m missing it, but there should be a way to display previous time blocks. Not being able to see the earlier times really hampers my usage.

If you could swipe to switch between days, too, that would be so much easier.

by Curlygirly110

I love how simple HourBlocks is. It’s easy to use and easy to find stuff on it. But I wish there were setting options that allow you to change the time in time ta to 15 or 30 minutes instead of just one hour.

by Roses24

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make a setting to allow me to see the sub-blocks from past hour blocks! This will mean the difference between me being able to use HourBlocks and not.

It would also be good to be able to save and repeat entire hour blocks, including sub-blocks, but that’s not as crucial for me.

by KJDJMARR

HourBlocks is what I’ve been looking for to schedule and organize my day. It’s so easy to use. Is there a way to get reminders on my phone and/ or Apple Watch before each event?

Thanks for your quick response. I was so excited to try it out. Unfortunately, after several attempts to tap on an hour block to schedule a reminder, I was unsuccessful. My only choices were “edit”, “clear” or “cancel “. I don’t know what I am doing wrong. I have iPhone 7. I look forward to your response. Thanks!

Thanks again. It works fine.

by Ems296

This is a fantastic app and a great idea. I only wish that it would sink back to my Google calendar. Maybe I’m just nervous and cannot figure the feature out so if the developer reads this post please tell me how to make it work. Otherwise it is an incredibly simple idea with a simple and easy to use interface that makes blocking out time on your calendar is very doable. I enjoy this much more than going into the calendar on Google or even going into another app to manage my calendar, and having to fill out 1 million different fields just to block time or could get work done.

by Shpoz

Its a really nice tool, i use it to write down my day log by the hour, time stamp the Sub Entries. If there was a feature to export my entries it would get a 5 star :) Doesn't have to be some fancy export just a feature to export the entries as a txt file. Could you please consider this feature ? Its a nice interface to reflect at a particular day on my ipad, while the majority of the entries come from the Mac.

by A5expected

UX needs for 5 stars

1. Allow custom presets. If I need a recommendation suggestion it would be something I preset.

2. Allow Notes. Both in to-do and hour blocks.

3. On the given day, allow earlier hours to be seen. Right now you can't see anything previous to the current hour.

4. Drag and reorder blocks. Make it faster to reorder block order.

There might be a few more additions to make this the perfect app out there, but honestly just these 4 things would make everything better. Ideas like a tagging system and weekly/monthly overview would be cool but isn't a must have for me. I personally use HourBlocks to remind me what I worked on so that I can do my weekly client timesheets faster.

by Mariahb444

I really like this simple app for a year now. Id like to suggest a way to break task into specific times, and add recuring task daily.

by Mou Moni

Hi. Just downloaded HourBlocks - looks like just what I need. My day however starts before 6am- is there any way of changing the start time? It really should allow for all the 24 hours in the day.

by Mohammad Amin 7

Hello, I’m super satisfied with the experience I’ve had with HourBlocks so far. BUT! We need something else. Please please add DARK MODE.
You’re app is so bright in night and it’s hard to work with it in low light (at night). We need DARK MODE PLEASE.
Love ya!

by Hessshheyr

This is a great app, I can't wait until it becomes more customizable and new functionality is added, so I could incorprate it into my workflow.

by Riptide360

Do you have to check your calendar to block time for an appointment? HourBlocks makes it easy to do so. If you run a business and need to book appointments with clients this is a super easier and it integrates with Apple or Google’s calendar.

Only improvement I would recommend to the developer is when you go to look at a date (choosing calendar icon) you use the word “save” instead of “go” or “look.”

by Emoji Crabfish

Best scheduling app I’ve found. I love the simplicity for planning out your day each morning, only thing I think would improve it is a feature to cross off each hour you complete. Great app.