Planning my days with Structured is one of the most impactful habits I practice. With its unique combination of Calendar events, Reminders to-dos, and custom tasks on a daily timeline, the app helps me stay on top of what I need to do and, more importantly, go into each day confident that I can accomplish what's necessary in a manageable way. The value of that feeling can't be quantified.

One of the very few sticking points I've run into with Structured has been syncing. From the beginning, the app relied on Apple's iCloud backend for keeping tasks in sync across devices. iCloud does a great job of making sure all of the data goes where it's supposed to go, but it is limited in certain ways, too. The big one for me is backgroud syncing. For whatever reason, syncing in the background isn't a built-in feature of CloudKit the way it is in Apple's first-party apps. Because of that, editing my day plan on one device wouldn't automatically update it on another device until the app was actually opened, rendering features like widgets and watch complications much less useful.

All of that is in the past now, though, thanks to Structured Cloud. The Structured team has rolled out their own custom syncing solution in beta as an optional alternative to iCloud syncing. I turned it on as soon as I possibly could, and I've been quite pleased by the change. Signing up was as simple as providing my email address. After entering a one-time code sent to my email, I was signed in and ready to go. Tasks now sync just as seamlessly as they did before, with the added benefit that it all happens in the background without any extra effort on my part.

Where I've noticed this change the most is on my Apple Watch. My main watch face complication is the Structured timeline because I want to be able to quickly glance at my wrist and see what I should be up to and how long I have to until my next task. Because of the quirks of iCloud, I used to manually open the Watch app every day to force a sync and keep my day plan up-to-date. Now, that information is always accurate whether I manually open the app or not. Amazing!

Structured Cloud also sets the stage for future additions like a web version and integration with Structured's Android app. The mixture of Reminders and Calendar data with custom, cross-platform sync is intriguing, and I can't wait to see where the team goes with it.

To be completely honest, this experience has changed the way I think about iCloud. I've often looked at apps that use their own syncing solution and thought, "Why don't they just use iCloud? It's so much simpler and doesn't require me to set up another account." Having seen what Structured Cloud is capable of, I now understand the benefits of looking outside of CloudKit for syncing, though I'm still glad that it's an option for developers.

I'm so impressed by what the Structured team has done here. If you're a user on the fence about trying their new cloud solution, I can say with confidence that it's an improvement and worth switching to. Go for it! And if you're reading this and haven't given Structured a spin yet, you know I'm going to recommend it. I've only written about the app three times now. So here's your opportunity to try it for yourself, new cloud syncing and all. An app's syncing experience is so important, and Structured Cloud gets it right.