I’ve been bouncing between apps for years—Trello for tasks, Notion for notes, Google Calendar for planning, and a separate journal app. It works, but switching tabs constantly gets old. So when I heard about zaso.ai, a set of six focused AI tools for daily life, I wanted to test whether it could replace that patchwork system as a proper self improvement app. Not a do-everything super app, but six small things each doing one job well. Sounded worth a trial.
I spent a week using zaso exclusively for my morning routine and daily planning. Here’s how it went, step by step.
Starting with the Dashboard
The first thing you see is the Dashboard. It’s not overly flashy—shows a summary of today’s schedule, a few tasks, and a prompt to start a journal entry. I liked that it didn’t throw every feature at me at once. The dashboard is more of a landing zone than a command center, but for a quick morning glance it worked. It pulled in my upcoming tasks from the Planner and Tasks tools, which felt coherent.
One small annoyance: the Dashboard doesn’t let you rearrange modules. I wanted to see my journal streak more prominently, but it was buried at the bottom. Not a dealbreaker, but worth noting.
Daily Planning with the Planner
The Planner is where Daily Planning happens. I set up a recurring morning block: review goals, pick top three tasks, and schedule a short reflection slot. The Planner uses a simple time-blocking view. It’s clean, but you can’t drag events—you have to set start and end times manually. That felt slightly clunky compared to Google Calendar, but for a focused tool it got the job done.
What surprised me: the Planner has a “suggest” button that uses AI to rearrange your day based on energy estimates. I told it I felt low energy after lunch, and it automatically moved deep work to the morning. That’s a nice touch you don’t see in most planners.
Tasks and Workflow Management
For task tracking, the Tasks tool is stripped down: no sub-tasks, no dependencies. Just a list with due dates and priorities. That felt limiting at first. But for a Life Management context—things like “buy groceries,” “call dentist,” “write blog outline”—it’s enough. The tradeoff is you lose the kind of project breakdown you’d get in a full Productivity System like Todoist. But zaso’s Tasks integrates tightly with the Planner, so anything you set as high priority shows up automatically on your Daily Planning screen. That saved me a few clicks.
One hiccup: I created a repeating task for “weekly review,” but it didn’t roll over properly after I marked it incomplete. I had to re-create it. That’s the kind of limitation that makes you question whether it’s ready for heavy use.
Digital Journal and Personal Knowledge
Zaso includes a Digital Journal tool, which I used for evening reflection. It’s simple: a text box, a mood slider, and a prompt like “What went well today?”. The journal entries are saved and searchable. Over a week I built up a small log, and it did feel like a lightweight habit.
The Personal Knowledge tool is basically a note-taking space with AI tagging. I dumped a few ideas for an article, and it automatically generated tags like “productivity,” “writing,” “AI tools.” That was surprisingly useful. It’s not a replacement for a proper knowledge base (lack of linking, no backlinks), but for quick capture it’s fine.
Realistic tradeoffs and cautious thoughts
The biggest tradeoff: zaso’s simplicity is both its strength and its limitation. If you need deep project management or a robust second brain, you’ll outgrow it fast. But for day-to-day Life Management—planning, task tracking, journaling, and keeping a few notes—it covers the basics without feature bloat.
Another thing: the AI suggestions are helpful but not always accurate. The Planner’s energy-based reordering sometimes ignored my fixed appointments (like a 3 PM meeting). So I had to double-check. That’s fine for an early-stage product, but it means you can’t fully trust the automation yet.
I’m also a little unsure about the long-term value. After a week, I felt organized, but not dramatically more productive than my old tool stack. The difference is in friction—fewer apps, less context switching. That counts for something.
Who should try it?
If you’re someone who wants a simple, AI-assisted self improvement app without the overwhelm of a super app, zaso is worth testing. It’s especially good if you already value Daily Planning and Digital Journal habits but struggle to stick with them. The tools are focused, and the AI nudges can help you stay on track.
For now, I’m sticking with it for another month—partly because I want to see how the tasks and Planner handle weekly rhythm, and partly because I just like having fewer tabs open. That might be the best endorsement I can give.
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