Written by Jackson Pearce Student engineer and creator of TalonTodo
The slow part of a planner is the form. Title, class, date, time, and then a save button, for every reading a professor mentioned on the way out the door. By the third field, the reading is no longer in your head.
TalonTodo takes the sentence instead. "Bio reading Thursday at 9pm" can carry the class, the day, and the time. The free plan includes that entry along with 10 active classes and reminders. Try a sentence at app.talontodo.com/register.
Sentences that are worth typing
Use a class name you have already created, a day or a date, and a time if you want a reminder that is not midnight.
- "Essay draft Friday at 5" for a paper that needs a daytime deadline, not "end of Friday" as a feeling.
- "Problem set 3 tomorrow 11pm" when tomorrow is unambiguous and you want the night reminder.
- "Chem lab report October 18" when the syllabus names a calendar date.
- "Group slides next Wednesday" for work that also belongs on a shared list. The group itself is A Group Project Planner for Students.
If the parse is wrong, the task is still editable. The point is to get the item onto the list while you remember it, then fix a field, not to retype the form from scratch.
What this does not replace
A sentence is not a syllabus import. It will not read a PDF and invent every deadline. You still add the work you know about, which is the list in A Free Assignment Tracker for Students.
Todoist is known for the same kind of typing on a general task list. Their free Beginner plan is still 5 personal projects, 5 people per project, and 7 days of history, checked 10 October 2026 on Todoist's usage limits. Natural language does not remove those caps. If that is the limit you hit, A Todoist Alternative Built for Students is the comparison.
A week of entries, not a setup project
Add classes once. After that, the capture should be one line at the end of lecture. Turn reminders on so a time in the sentence is allowed to notify you. The 1-hour and 1-day windows are part of the free plan.
If you want the wider map of free planners, it is The Best Free Student Planner Apps in 2026.
About the author Jackson Pearce is a student engineer and the creator of TalonTodo, a productivity app designed to help students manage projects, deadlines, and daily tasks more effectively.