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Motion App Review: The AI That Finally Tamed My Tasks

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An AI Task Scheduler in an organized calendar format.

Do you ever feel like your to-do list is running you instead of the other way around? Research shows that 76% of employees experience occasional burnout.

That’s why I decided to try Motion, an AI productivity app that acts like a personal assistant for your entire workday. Rather than manually planning each task, Motion automatically schedules, prioritizes, and organizes everything for you so you can focus on the work that actually matters.

In this Motion app review, I’ll discuss the pros and cons, what it is, who it’s best for, and its key features. Then, I’ll show you how I used Motion to schedule, organize projects, and streamline daily tasks with AI.

I’ll finish the article by comparing Motion with my top three alternatives (Miro, ClickUp, and Notion). By the end, you’ll know if Motion is right for you!

Verdict

Overall, Motion is a powerful productivity tool that uses AI to simplify scheduling, task management, and team coordination. While it takes time to learn and lacks a free plan, its automation and integration features make it a strong choice for managing busy schedules and multiple projects.

Pros and Cons

  • An all-in-one tool for calendar, task, and project management
  • The AI scheduling prioritizes tasks to reduce manual planning
  • Syncs with Google, Outlook, and Apple calendars
  • Great for teams with task assignments who want to balance their workload
  • Visual project planning with stages and tracking tools
  • Replaces multiple tools with one to reduce app clutter
  • Mobile app to manage tasks, schedules, and projects on the go
  • 7-day free trial
  • No free plan available
  • Takes time to learn and set up
  • The mobile app has fewer features than the desktop version
  • The interface and features can be overwhelming

What is Motion?

Motion is an AI productivity platform that acts like a personal assistant for your entire workday. Rather than you deciding when to work on tasks, Motion’s AI schedules everything for you automatically based on deadlines, priorities, and your available time.

Motion’s “Happiness Algorithm”

The thing that sets Motion apart is what’s known as their “happiness algorithm.” The core idea is that the AI tries to schedule your work in a way that reduces stress and prevents burnout.

It factors in things like meeting fatigue and the need for deep work blocks. As a result, you’ll notice yourself being far less anxious about your workload.

Motion vs. Traditional Project Management & Productivity Tools

Traditional project management tools make you do the scheduling and prioritization manually. You have to look at your task list, figure out what’s urgent, check your calendar for free time, and squeeze everything in.

Motion flips this completely. You just tell it what needs to get done and by when, and it figures out the rest. The automated scheduling is what makes it fundamentally different.

User Base

Over the years, Motion has experienced significant growth. They have over 1 million users now, which is impressive for a relatively new platform in the productivity space.

Most of those users are remote teams, consultants, and small business owners who are drowning in tasks and meetings. Motion’s marketing has really focused on people who feel like they’re constantly behind and need help getting everything organized.

Who is Motion App Best For?

Here are the types of people Motion is best for:

  • Remote and hybrid teams needing better coordination and visibility of their workload.
  • Small business owners and consultants managing various responsibilities and client interactions.
  • Managers who want to assign tasks with real-time calendar integration and monitor their team to prevent overload.
  • Freelancers and solopreneurs seeking automated task management to stay organized without manual scheduling.
  • Professionals who want to reduce stress and prevent burnout by preserving focused work blocks through AI scheduling.

Overall, Motion is best for busy professionals, teams, freelancers, and business owners who handle many tasks and want to automate their schedule to manage their work.

Motion works for solo entrepreneurs who need to stay on top of their chaos, but it also scales up for entire teams and businesses. It adapts to whatever size you need.

Motion App Key Features

Here are Motion’s key features:

How to Use Motion App

Here’s how I used Motion to automate my schedule, organize projects, and streamline daily tasks with AI:

  1. Sign Up for Motion
  2. Create a Project
  3. Provide Project Details
  4. Create Stages
  5. Assign Tasks
  6. Set Up AI Employees
  7. Add Skills
  8. Connect Calendars
  9. Use the AI Chatbot
  10. Access Your Projects & Tasks
  11. Add an AI Employee
  12. Add a New Skill
  13. Add a Trigger
  14. Add Steps
  15. Add a Workspace

Step 1: Sign Up for Motion

Trying Motion for free.

I started by going to usemotion.com and selecting “Try Motion for free.”

Step 2: Create a Project

Creating a weekly AI news digest with Motion.

After creating my account and starting a new trial, Motion asked for more information about my company and role.

Next, it asked me what upcoming project I would be working on based on my company website. I chose “Develop a Weekly AI News Digest” from the options (you can create a project from scratch if you want).

Step 3: Provide Project Details

Providing deeatils about a project for Motion.

Motion automatically generated details about my project, which I could change if I wanted to. I clicked “Continue.”

Step 4: Create Stages

A project generated with Motion divided into stages.

Immediately, Motion began generating my project. It divided it into stages for me:

  1. Research
  2. Writing
  3. Editing
  4. Distribution

Step 5: Assign Tasks

Assigning tasks to team members in Motion.

Next, I was asked to assign tasks to my team members (Content Curator, Writer, and Editor).

I only had myself to assign each role, but I could also label them as “Unassigned” or invite a new team member to fill the role.

After assigning people to my roles, my first project was created! Motion also saved it as a template to be reused for future projects.

Step 6: Set Up AI Employees

Setting up AI Employees with Motion.

Last but not least, I set up my AI Employees. The AI Employees will help me handle repetitive tasks to focus on creative and meaningful work.

For example:

  • Executive Assistant
  • Sales Representative
  • Customer Support Specialist
  • Recruiter
  • Project Manager
  • Researcher
  • Marketing Associate

Step 7: Add Skills

Adding skills to a project in Motion.

Motion also offered skills for my project that I could add or skip.

For example, the Email Assistant automatically organizes your inbox, highlights key messages, and drafts replies. It saves hours by letting AI manage routine emails.

Step 8: Connect Calendars

Connecting calendars in Motion.

After adding my skills, Motion asked if I wanted to connect my calendars.

I’d recommend doing so because Motion pulls in all your existing meetings, which means the AI scheduling assistant knows exactly when you’re actually free. You’ll never double-book yourself again.

Step 9: Use the AI Chatbot

Asking the Motion AI chatbot what I should work on next.

Once everything was in place, I was taken to Motion’s AI Chatbot.

I could get things done faster by creating a new chat and asking it questions like, “What should I work on next?” or “Create a personalized Motion onboarding plan.”

I went with “What should I work on next?” to see what it would say.

Asking Motion what I should work on and getting an answer through the AI chatbot.

In seconds, Motion gave me a clear, prioritized list of tasks based on my deadlines, priorities, and available time. I found it especially helpful how it gave me a duration for each task, so I could see exactly how long my day would take and where I might need to adjust.

Motion made planning feel effortless, turning what used to be a guessing game into a well-structured schedule I could actually stick to.

A list of features in the Motion App.

On the left, I had access to the following:

  • Inbox: Your central hub for notifications, updates, and alerts across tasks, projects, and AI more so you never miss important updates or messages.​
  • AI Agenda: Organizes upcoming tasks to optimize your daily planning.​
  • Calendar: Displays scheduled tasks, meetings, and events, and automatically fills open slots.​​
  • Projects & Tasks: Organizes your workload into stages with individual tasks​​
  • AI Meeting Notes: Records and summarizes meeting insights.​

Step 10: Access Your Projects & Tasks

Tasks and projects in the Motion App.

I headed over to my “Projects & Tasks” tab. This was where I could access the stages Motion generated for me.

Viewing one of the tasks in the Motion App more in-depth.

Once again, I loved how specific each stage was. You don’t just add a task to complete. Motion specifies the duration, deadline, and priority level.

This information is what allows Motion to auto-schedule your tasks into your calendar. It finds time slots for you based on when things are due and how important they are.

Step 11: Add an AI Employee

Adding a new AI Employee to Motion.

Next, I took a look at my AI Employees. At the bottom, I selected “Add AI Employee.”

Adding an AI Employee for customer service to Motion.

Motion presented different AI Employees I could add:

I chose the AI Customer Support Specialist.

Step 12: Add a New Skill

Selecting one of the AI Employees to add a new skill or view activities in Motion.

Immediately, my AI Customer Support Specialist was added to my list of AI Employees. When selecting him, I could view his skills, activities, or add a new custom skill.

Step 13: Add a Trigger

Choosing a trigger for an AI Employee.

Adding a skill manually to my AI Employee was pretty straightforward. I first had to choose a trigger.

Triggers define when the AI Employee takes action, like starting a task at a set time or when I manually activate it.

Step 14: Add Steps

Adding steps when creating a new skill for an AI Employee on Motion.

Once I picked a trigger, I linked it to an action/step (e.g., creating a doc, a Motion task, or a calendar event).

Step 15: Add a Workspace

Creating a new workspace with Motion App.

The project management features in Motion are also solid. On the left, I hit the “+” Next to “Workspaces” to create workspaces for different areas of my life.

Creating a new workspace in the Motion App.

Hitting “+” opened a window where I named my new workspace and added members. You can create a workspace for work projects, personal things, and side hustles.

That’s the basics on how you can start using Motion to automate your schedule, organize projects, and streamline daily tasks with AI. Once everything is set up, Motion runs quietly in the background, planning your day, assigning priorities, and managing workflows, so you can stay focused on meaningful work instead of juggling logistics.

Overall, Motion made setting up my projects and schedule surprisingly easy. AI did most of the heavy lifting by organizing my time, prioritizing my tasks, and keeping my day running smoothly without the usual stress of planning.

Top 3 Motion App Alternatives

Here are the best Motion alternatives I’d recommend:

Miro

The first Motion alternative I’d recommend is Miro. It’s a visual collaboration tool that helps teams move from ideas to results quickly. It offers 7,000+ templates, integrates with 250+ apps, and is used by over 100 million people across 250,000 companies.

On the one hand, Miro emphasizes visual collaboration with whiteboarding, diagramming, and brainstorming features. Meanwhile, Motion uses AI to automate scheduling, tasks, and projects for busy professionals and remote teams managing deadlines.

Choose Motion if you want AI to handle scheduling, workload balance, and calendar management. Otherwise, go with Miro for visual collaboration, brainstorming tools, and lots of templates and integrations.

ClickUp

The next Motion alternative I’d recommend is ClickUp. It’s an all-in-one productivity app that combines project management, chat, and scheduling for individuals and teams who want everything in one place.

ClickUp offers a powerful set of tools: chat, real-time document editing, instant meetings, a personal planner, and an AI notetaker for meetings. It also delivers excellent security with 99.99% uptime, 24/7 support, and full compliance with major data standards.

Meanwhile, Motion is a highly intelligent AI auto-scheduler. It automatically plans tasks, meetings, and work blocks into your calendar, making prioritization effortless.

For an all-in-one tool that includes project management features and team chat, choose ClickUp. For automated scheduling and workload optimization, choose Motion.​

Notion

The final Motion alternative I’d recommend is Notion. It’s a popular workspace for notes, tasks, databases, and projects with plenty of customization and collaboration features. Teams and individuals can easily create interconnected documents with built-in databases, Kanban boards, calendars, and more.

While Motion and Notion support task and project management, they differ in key ways. Notion is a flexible, modular system with a blank canvas for building custom workflows, databases, and rich note-taking. Meanwhile, Motion is a calendar-focused AI tool that automates task prioritization and scheduling to work more efficiently.

Choose Motion for automatic AI scheduling and task prioritization. Otherwise, choose Notion for a flexible workspace with notes, project management, and team collaboration.

Or you can use both tools together! Many people use Notion for planning, while using Motion to handle task execution and scheduling.

Read my Notion review or visit Notion!

Motion App Review: The Right Tool For You?

Overall, Motion felt like having an intelligent personal assistant built into my workflow. It handled the mental load of deciding what to do and when to free up my focus for creative work.

The AI scheduling alone was a game-changer. It turned my chaotic to-do list into a realistic daily plan I could actually follow.

However, Motion isn’t for everyone. If you prefer manually managing every detail or visual brainstorming, one of these tools may suit you better:

  • Miro is best for creative teams and collaborators who thrive on visual brainstorming, whiteboarding, and idea mapping.
  • ClickUp is best for teams that want an all-in-one productivity suite with built-in chat, docs, meetings, and project management.
  • Notion is best for those who prefer customizable workspaces for notes and team collaboration.

But if you’re like me (juggling multiple projects and craving more control in your day), Motion is absolutely worth trying.

Thanks for reading my Motion app review! I hope you found it helpful.

Motion offers a 7-day free trial for the paid plans. Try it for yourself and see how you like it!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Motion better than Google Calendar?

Motion outperforms Google Calendar with AI that automatically schedules and prioritizes tasks to optimize the workday. Meanwhile, Google Calendar is a free, simple calendar that works seamlessly with other Google apps.

How secure is the Motion app with my data?

Motion uses strong security measures, including data encryption, SOC 2 Type II compliance, and audits, to keep your data safe.

What is the Motion app for?

The Motion app is an AI workspace that combines tasks, projects, calendars, and collaboration to help individuals and teams stay productive by automating scheduling and priorities.

Does the Motion app have a free version?

No, the Motion app does not have a free version; it offers a 7-day free trial, but after that, a paid subscription is required to continue using the service.

Janine Heinrichs is a Content Creator and Designer helping creatives streamline their workflow with the best design tools, resources, and inspiration. Find her at janinedesignsdaily.com.