Ready Time
You know what you need to do. Ready Time tells you when.
Brili is the closest thing to Ready Time that anyone has built. Routines are made of small steps with a duration on each, and a routine can be scheduled from its end time, so the app works out when the whole thing has to start. When someone asks for an app that does the backward math, this is usually the one they get pointed at, and the recommendation is a fair one.
The difference shows up when you fall behind. Brili holds the end time and shortens what is left, compressing the remaining steps so the routine still finishes when it said it would. That is a reasonable choice for a routine you want to end on time. It is a harder one when the steps are real: a fifteen minute drive does not become an eleven minute drive because the app reallocated it.
Ready Time works backward from your deadline the same way, then leaves your durations alone. Every step keeps the length you gave it, gets a start time, and gets an alert at that start time. If you fall behind, the times you missed are still on the screen, so you can see what slipped and choose what to drop.
Most plans only ever happen once, and that is all a plan has to be here. A single appointment next Thursday is built the same way a weekday morning is. Repeating is something you switch on for the ones that come round again.
| Ready Time | Brili | |
|---|---|---|
| The core idea | Backward from your deadline to every start time | Routines that can be scheduled from an end time |
| Tells you when to start | Yes, an alert per step | Yes, worked out from the routine's end time |
| When you fall behind | Your times stay put, so you can see what slipped | Remaining steps shorten to protect the end time |
| Repeating plans | Yes (one-time unlock) | The default shape; routines recur |
| Gamification | None | Awards, rewards, and routine history |
| Pricing model | Free; one-time unlock. No subscription | Free trial, then subscription only |
| Account | No account | A Brili account |
| Sync | iCloud, through your own Apple ID | Through your Brili account |
| Platforms | iPhone & iPad | iPhone, iPad, Android |
Brili is the bigger app, with family and adult versions, a much larger feature set, and an Android build that Ready Time does not have. Ready Time has been in the App Store since 2018 doing the backward math and little else, free, with a one-time unlock for the extras.
It is also the app people find when they go looking for this. In one request thread, someone described wanting to enter an arrival time and subtract the drive, the parking, and the walk in from the lot. Brili was the answer they got, and their follow-up question went unanswered: does it work for a one-time event that is not a routine? That gap is most of the reason this page exists.
Stay if routines are the point. The step cards, the visual clock, and the reward system are built to be lived in daily, and the family version gives you something to hand a kid, which Ready Time has no answer for. On Android there is no choice to make here at all.
Switch if you want the plan to keep telling you the truth when the morning goes sideways, or if a subscription is more than you want to carry for this one job.
Waking up is a different problem with a different app. See Ready Time vs. Alarmy, or browse all comparisons.
“I get so tired of counting backward to when I should start my task. This app is the solution.”— App Store review
Ready Time
You know what you need to do. Ready Time tells you when.
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