Motion

Motion is the AI-powered calendar + task manager built for professionals drowning in meetings and tasks, founded in 2019 by Harry Qi (ex-Google product) and Omid Rooholfada in California. The pitch: stop manually scheduling your day. Motion's AI engine automatically schedules your tasks around your meetings, prioritises based on deadlines, reschedules when meetings shift, and adjusts your calendar in real-time as life happens. Backed by $13M+ from Sequoia Capital + SignalFire, it's grown rapidly with founders + sales leaders + executives as the early adopter base. What makes Motion different from regular task managers is the auto-scheduling engine. You input tasks with deadlines and time estimates ('Write Q4 strategy doc, 4 hours, due Friday'). Motion automatically places that work onto your calendar in available time slots, working around your meetings. When a meeting gets scheduled, Motion automatically reshuffles your task blocks. When you miss a deadline, Motion suggests adjustments. The result is a self-organising calendar that handles the cognitive load of 'when am I going to do everything I committed to?' The core feature set: • **AI auto-scheduling** — input tasks with duration + deadline; Motion places them on your calendar automatically • **Real-time recalculation** — meetings change, Motion reshuffles tasks. Deadlines slip, Motion replans. • **Calendar integration** — Google Calendar + Outlook bidirectional sync • **Project management** — projects with milestones, dependencies, team assignment • **Meeting scheduler** — Calendly-style scheduling page with AI-aware availability • **Workspaces + teams** — shared projects with auto-distributed task allocation across team members • **AI assistant** — natural language task input ('block 2 hours tomorrow for deep work'), meeting prep, follow-ups • **Time tracking** — track actual time spent vs estimates, refine future estimates • **Mobile apps** — iOS + Android with quick task capture • **Integrations** — Zoom, Slack, Notion, Linear, Asana (limited but growing) • **Personal vs work modes** — separate calendars for life + work For founders + executives + sales leaders the use cases: • **Founder time management** — when you have 50 things to do and 20 meetings/week, Motion handles allocation • **Sales reps + business development** — prospecting blocks auto-scheduled around customer meetings • **Engineering managers** — deep work blocks protected from constant calendar invasions • **Consultants + agency leads** — client work auto-allocated, time tracking feeds billing • **Anyone with significant meeting volume + complex task lists** — the canonical Motion user • **Remote teams with timezone complexity** — Motion's scheduling accounts for timezone realities • **Project management for small teams** — auto-distributed task allocation across team members The pricing is on the higher end for productivity tools — Motion's value prop is the AI engine, and it's priced accordingly. Individual at $19/month (annual) is the standard tier. Team at $12/user/month (annual, minimum 2 users) adds shared workspaces + team scheduling. Pro at $34/month (recently introduced) adds advanced AI features + heavier usage limits. No free tier — only a 7-day free trial. The pricing is meaningfully more than competitors like Sunsama ($16/month) and Akiflow ($10/month). Where Motion wins clearly: the AI auto-scheduling engine genuinely works and handles cognitive load that other tools push back on you; real-time recalculation as meetings change is unique; the founder + executive user base means the product is built for high-velocity professionals; integration with calendar is native and reliable. Where it loses: pricing at $19/month is high for what's essentially a task + calendar app; the AI is good but not magical — you still need to input task estimates accurately and revise when wrong; competing tools (Reclaim, Sunsama, Akiflow) have caught up on core functionality at lower prices; the team features are less mature than Asana/Linear/ClickUp. My take: Motion is the right call for high-velocity professionals (founders, sales leaders, executives) whose calendar volume + task complexity makes manual scheduling impractical. For these users, $19/month is easily worth it — the cognitive load saving is real. For lighter users with manageable schedules, cheaper alternatives (Reclaim, Sunsama) cover most of the value. The 'no free tier' positioning means you have to commit before knowing if it'll work for your workflow — the 7-day trial is genuinely the only way to evaluate. If you're consistently overwhelmed by 'when am I going to do everything?', Motion is worth the trial.