The advancement of new technology allows us to keep up with the pace of our fast-moving society, developing products on the basis of convenience and speed. By taking advantage of applications that can be downloaded directly onto our smartphones, we can become more productive at work, school or during our daily lives. With smartphone devices as our virtual personal assistant, this is an easy way to make everyday life more valuable and eventful. Here are the best apps that you should download to stay focused and productive.
1. Trello
Do you love making lists as a way of getting things done? Trello is a checklist productivity app that allows you to create lists with ease. Trello gives you the option to colour code your tasks or ‘cards’ to better organise your to-do list. The cards can also be relocated to the order of preference and across to different lists. There are two initial lists titled as ‘doing’ and ‘done’ however can be altered to tailor to your individual needs. The app also allows you to add details to the cards including photos and document attachments.
2. Hey You
Have you ever taken hours waiting in line to take an order at your favourite restaurant? Well say no more to unproductive wait times owing to your new favourite app of 2019. Hey You allows you to discover a variety of restaurants within your area, browse through the menu, order and pay all via the Hey You app. This can save you considerable amount of waiting time where you can arrive to the restaurant with your food made already made to eat!
3. Grammarly
Rather than simply using autocorrect to correct spelling mistakes, Grammarly takes any email, report or social media post to the next level. As a keyboard attachment, Grammarly is a tool that recommends you correct sentence structure, vocabulary and style all while you are typing. This is a quick and easy way to give you a second set of eyes while proofreading and editing your written work on your digital phone.
4. Scanbot
Does your day consist of working with countless physical paper sheets and documents? Scanbot allows you to scan physical paper documents through the camera on your smartphone and convert them into digital copies. The Scanbot app has never made sharing physical documents easier, giving you the ability connect with other cloud storage platforms to prevent file damage or loss.
5. Noisli
Get yourself into the ‘productive zone’ through using sounds that can increase focus and stimulate productivity. Rather than playing mainstream radio music, Noisli is an effective alternative through listening to its controlled and consistent background sounds to keep on task. The sounds available on the Noisli app range from natural sounds such as wind, rain, fire, to the sounds train tracks and white noise.
6. RescueTime
Have you ever wanted to identify and measure which apps you have been using throughout your day? Well, RescueTime does just that, by calculating the time that you have spent on each smartphone app. RescueTime also provides detailed reports identifying the time of day that you have used each specific app as well as determining which apps are productive or not productive.
7. Forest
Perhaps it’s your phone that stands as the reason to the lack of your productiveness. A fun and interesting way to stay on task and reduce your phone use is by using the Forest app. The app compels you to leave your phone open on the Forest app, where every minute contributes to the growth of a virtual tree. However, if you were to leave the Forest to visit a non-productive app, your virtual tree will be automatically killed. The Forest app also partners with real tree-planting organisations where the virtual coins earned in the app can be used to donate to planting real trees.
8. Asana
When working in a team environment, Asana is highly effective for collaborative management of tasks and projects. You and your team members will be able to oversee each other’s tasks, checking what has been completed or currently in the process of completion. Asana allows everyone to keep tabs with each other and stay in productive progress.
9. Google Calendar
Google Calendar is an effective tool that syncs with your Gmail. This allow you to easily manage your Gmail invitations to work meetings, birthdays and other important events. Google Calendar also includes features that allow you to manage your events specific to the day, hour and even minute, as well as create to-do lists directly via the app.
No matter what your schedule is like, being more efficient with your time will enable you with benefits to work smarter and not harder. What apps will you use to boost your productivity and stay focused ?