Nine to five jobs are most commonly attributed to daytime workers. The job schedule is fixed so you have lesser worries about remembering your shifts at work. As for shift workers, following a flexible schedule is a must. You must be ready and willing to work at different shifts regardless of what your circumstances are. Speaking of which, Shift Work Schedule is an app that is specifically intended for those who usually work on shifts.

What Is It and What Does It Do

Main Functionality

Shift Work Schedule is a free calendar and work shift schedule management application for Android. This app features a simple yet elegant calendar that you can use to show your work shift pattern. Furthermore, Shift Work Schedule offers its own list of work shift patterns that you can immediately use. If, in case, your work shift doesn’t fall on any of those patterns, you can set a custom shift pattern and use it instead of the pre-loaded shift work patterns. Apart from this, this app also supports custom calendar backgrounds.

Pros

• Easy to use
• Fluid, stable and responsive UI
• Clean calendar view
• Features a pre-loaded list of work shift patterns – ex. 5 days at work, 2 days off; day shift-night-shift-day-off or 1 day at work, 1 day off
• You can set a custom work shift pattern
• Supports custom calendar backgrounds – you can use any photo or image from your device as your calendar background
• You can change the first day of the week to Sunday, Monday, etc.
• You can customize the date, month and shift colors
• There’s an option for showing week numbers
• There’s a search bar that you can use to jump to a specific date or month
• Configurable settings and options

Cons

• The app lacks a widget
• You cannot opt for a larger calendar view (needs more viewing layouts)
• You cannot create more than one custom shift patterns with labels

Discussion

The way how Shift Work Schedule works is rather simple. Upon launching the app, it will immediately take you to its main screen where you can view your work shift calendar.

Your work shift calendar will show you the current month. It will also highlight the current date. When using the app for the first time, it won’t show you any shifts so you have to configure your work shifts first. To do so, tap the “Menu” icon on the top-right corner of the main screen then go to “Settings” then choose “Shift Pattern List”.

There, you will see a list of the app’s pre-loaded work shift patterns. Some of the app’s available shifts are as follows:

• 1 day at work, 1 day off
• 1 day at work, 2 days off
• 1 day at work, 3 days off
• Day shift-Night shift-day off
• 5 days at work, 2 days off
• 2 days, 2 evenings, 2 nights, 4 off
• 3 days, 3 off, 3 nights, 3 off
• and a whole lot more…

If you can’t find a shift that would best fit your schedule at work, you can opt to create your custom work shift pattern.

Anyways, just choose the shift that matches your work schedule then go back to the calendar. After which, select a date (preferably the day when your work shift starts) and then click on it. You will then be asked to “show shifts starting from that day”. Just click “Ok” and there, you’ll see that your work shift calendar has been updated with your corresponding shifts.

It should also be noted that every shift category (ex. day, evening, night and off) has a corresponding color. If you want, you can change these colors by updating the app’s “Color Preferences” section. Apart from this, you can also choose to set a different day for the “First day of the week”. The app will also allow you to use a custom photo as your calendar background.

All in all, I find Shift Work Schedule very easy and convenient to use. Although it took me some time to fully understand how to create a custom shift pattern, I managed to get things done by referring to the app’s “Help” section. It’s just a bummer that it lacks a home screen widget. You cannot also create more than one custom shift pattern. There’s also no way for you to make the app’s calendar a bit larger. It would be great if these features would be added in the app’s future versions.

Conclusion and Download Link

I like Shift Work Schedule mainly because it’s simple and straightforward. Plus, it can really help you monitor and manage your work shifts. It has its own share of downsides but don’t let that stop you. If you are finding it difficult to remember your ever-changing work shifts, then go ahead and give this app a try.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 1.5.1

Requires: Android 4.0 and up

Download size: 335KB

Shift Work Schedule on Play Store