Productivity means something different for everyone. While what counts as a productive day may differ between each individual person, there are some basic principles that can unite just about anybody’s productivity goals. Saving time, streamlining processes, and improving organisation are the best ways to ensure efficiency no matter what your day to day schedule looks like.
With the technological progress of the past two decades, mobile phones mean that practically everyone has access to a virtual assistant sitting in their pockets. The marketplace for apps that seek to increase personal productivity is ever-growing, and a great place to start making time and energy-saving changes to your life. Here is a quick guide to the best apps out there on the market for streamlining your daily activities, getting results, and making the most out of every day!
1. Todoist
Todoist is one of the most simple yet effective takes on the daily to-do list out there. It offers a clear, user-friendly interface that helps people keep track of exactly what they need to get done in a day. It allows users to set deadlines, reminders, and even collaborate with others on projects - so you never miss a target!
2. Google Docs
Google Docs is one of the top tools out there for creating, storing, and sharing documents. Google Docs offers a truly vast range of features from traditional writing, editing, and commenting, with tonnes of extra features that allow users to insert drawings, signatures, and even their documents edit offline.
3. Be Focused
If you’re someone who benefits from routine and structure, Be Focused may be the solution for you. It splits up the day into cycles of 25 minute focus periods and 5 minute breaks, to create a rhythm that is designed to increase focus and productivity.
4. Freedom
Although your phone has the potential to work wonders for your productivity, there are two sides to every coin. Rather than a bastion of productivity, most people find their phones to act as more of a distraction when it comes to their day to day work. Freedom is an app that seeks to mitigate this issue, by blocking all distracting apps and media from your phone for a set time - so you can work in peace.
5. Trello
Trello is one of the most popular content management systems on the market right now, and is used by both private individuals and huge companies to keep track of tasks and increase productivity. Projects are laid out into “cards” and “boards” that show the status and deadline of any given task, allowing users to quickly gain a quick oversight of everything on their agenda.
6. Google Calendar
Google Calendar is already used by many people to keep track of their agendas and make sure they never miss a meeting. What makes Google Calendar stand out from its competitors is its ability to sync data from all your Google activity, and accept invitations from other platforms. With Google Calendar, it’s incredibly easy to centralise all of your meetings and important dates to make sure that nothing slips under the radar.
7. Habitica
Habitica takes a fun new approach to fostering positive habits and productivity. Rather than simply remind you of what you need to get done, Habitica seeks to add a bit of fun to life by making the formation of new habits into a game. All you have to do is input your tasks and goals, create your avatar, and as you reach milestones you will see your character level up and unlock cool new features such as skins, pets, and quests!
8. Brain.fm
Brain.fm is an app that seeks to increase personal well being and productivity through sound. Users can choose from a vast library of sounds designed to aid with everything from focus and workflow, to meditation and sleep.
9. Evernote
Evernote is one of the most popular and well-known of the note-taking platforms available on the app market. Users have the ability to efficiently and easily take notes in meetings and lectures, which can be searched and edited later to make sure that you never miss anything important!
10. Forest
Forest is a cute little productivity app that aims to stop its users from getting distracted. When you begin working, you enter the app and plant a tree. For as long as you are focused, the tree will continue to grow. However, as soon as you get distracted and start checking other apps or websites, the tree will cease to grow. Recently, the app has partnered with the organisation Trees of the Future so you can contribute to actual forests while improving your own productivity!
11. Pocket
Sometimes we have so much that we need to read, it can be hard to keep track of it all. Pocket solves this problem by offering a single service that contains all of the articles or web pages on your to-do list. Available as an app or a browser extension, once you find something you would like to read at a later date, simply add it to your Pocket and you’ll find it saved there, accessible even when you are offline.
12. MindMeister
MindMeister is a digital mind mapping tool that allows users to create clear and attractive visual representations of their brainstorming sessions. MindMeister can be used for jotting down ideas, planning projects, and analysing data - and comes in handy when working on group projects!
Looking to improve your day to day productivity? Try out any one of these apps and watch as you become a master of efficiency!
