Time is a great healer. With enough perseverance, it isn’t very hard to weather testing times knowing that it will all end one day. Alright, that was downright cheesy. But, it is so very true, isn’t it? Counting down to something spectacular is a great way to channel excitement or to secretly vent your anger.
Being able to see the countdown ticking whenever you want is a great way to stay motivated. And, now we have an app for that! The makers of Working Days Countdown didn’t actually put much effort into naming the app. With a verbose and self explanatory name, I hope they put some effort into making this app a fun one atleast. Let’s go check it out!
Like the article? You should subscribe and follow us on twitter.
Fair and Flat
I hate landing on an empty app. To put it mildly, I’m a power user who revels in discovering and writing about apps. Even after so much time, I feel irritated when there is no sample data in the app when I launch it the first time.
Without sample data, the app looks so empty and even with a simpler workflow, a user might feel that there is a steep learning curve. A couple of quick and dirty sample records offer a quick chance for users to play around. Modern day productivity apps are nailing this concept and it doesn’t feel like it’s such a chore to use them anymore.
Thankfully, a notification alert pointed me in the right direction. The user interface is flat and the white color theme is nice to look at. Liking or disliking the flat user interface is a matter of personal preference. However, for an app in this genre it would have been so awesome if it had skewed towards skeuomorphism (wordplay, yay!).
Time Slicing
I spent a good five minutes thinking about the first time I came across the word “time slicing” in pop culture. I couldn’t exactly place it, so I returned back to creating one in the app as advised.
Creating time slices.
It’s fairly simple to get going with Working Days Countdown. Let’s say that you are so looking forward to that early retirement you have been planning for so long now. It’s almost a year away, and you’ll have to continue in the job for one more year or so. To start tracking this closely, add your workweek information including the office hours in the schedule screen. You can create multiple time slices as long as they don’t overlap with one another.
Setting up a schedule and adding work details.
Now, head over to the Settings screen. To make this whole idea even more fun, add the days you can get off from work — number of vacation days, sick leave and holidays. Throw in your salary and annual increment to the mix.
Gleefully planning that early retirement.
You’re almost done now. Swiftly head over to the Events tab and add the moment you are looking forward to. In a quick spin of the dials, you can start counting down to nirvana (or something else that’s close enough).
The countdown details page is comprehensive and has a lot of details. It needs some scrolling to look all key pieces of information, but it’s impressive considering how little you have to do.
The countdown in its full glory.
I loved how Working Days Countdown split the countdown by the total number of days and the total number of working days. Nothing else excites a working professional except for may be a bonus check!
You aren’t limited to only one countdown.
The app allows you to countdown to multiple events and you can check them all at a glance from the events screen. The number of vacation days is shown with each countdown, however, if you really hate that job of yours, take your time adding it to the vacation calendar. With equal ease, you can mark all upcoming holidays in an exclusive calendar as well.
Final Thoughts
I wish Working Days Countdown was more graphical when it comes representing the numbers. It does a splendid job breaking down key pieces of information down to the last penny you are about make in the duration. Still, without a graph or two, the effect isn’t hard hitting. The current color theme and the lack of graphics isn’t very inspiring to look at, either. That’s a clear downside considering that’s what the app is meant to offer in the first place.
When you accidentally create time slices that overlap already existing ones, you’re promptly warned by the app. Unfortunately, Working Days Countdown crashes down hard immediately after that. It happened a half dozen times in both the schedule and event screens. It was extremely annoying to say the least.
Working Days Countdown brings in a dose of realism to all your expectations. It makes a distant dream far more tangible than it actually is. In my book, that’s quite an achievement and Working Days Countdown gets a couple of bonus points for pulling that off!
     |