A large part of what Earnworthy is all about involves sharing tips, tricks and technology that help us become more productive. In the technology department, apps can be a blessing and a curse.
We can either use apps predominantly to help us improve our lives and our workflow, while getting things done in less time, or we can waste hours upon hours trying to get to the next level in Flappy Bird or whatever the latest game of the month is.
I tend to use my mobile devices primarily to do the former rather than the latter. Every now and then a good game is called for, but to be honest, I’m not a big fan of gaming apps in general.
So if you’re like me and see your smartphone or tablet first and foremost as a productivity tool, you’re in for a treat.
In this post I will share the 10 apps that I consider to be at the core of my personal productivity system. Without these apps, I don’t know how I’d get anything done!
As a quick note, I’m an iOS user, but most of these apps are available on Android as well at the time of this writing (or they are in the works).
Without delay, let’s get right to the apps!
1. Buffer
Social media is a powerful tool when used correctly. Part of that means we need to share the right content at the right time. Buffer is a scheduling tool, that allows us to share posts to Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn at whatever times we choose. We can even set it up to share one item every hour, or two hours, etc. In a nutshell, Buffer is the ideal scheduling tool. Whenever I have an idea for a good tweet for instance, instead of sharing it right away, I can just throw it into my Buffer queue and share it later.
2. Drafts
Drafts is a great way to take notes really fast. I use it as a general idea inbox. What I mean by that is if I have an idea that I want to jot down, I’ll quickly put it in Drafts and then I can forget about it for now. Later in the day, I make sure to go back to Drafts and process all of my recent notes. Drafts makes it easy to push notes to Evernote, Dropbox and a bunch of other apps. It’s just a great way to process ideas, because it is much faster than any other note taking app I’ve used.
3. 1Password
If you’re like me, then you want to keep your passwords as secure as possible. One of the easiest ways to do this is to use a password management system such as 1Password. All you have to do is set up a master password, install some browser extensions and the mobile app and you’re ready to roll. You’ll be able to use very complex passwords on every account you have, without ever having to remember them. 1Password does all the heavy lifting for you. It even syncs flawlessly with Dropbox.
4. Feedly
Feedly is the best RSS reader I have ever used. Nothing else comes close. Without Feedly I’d never be able to stay on top of the 50+ blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Feedly has just become a part of my morning ritual. Wake up, make some coffee and check the latest articles on Feedly to see what I missed. It’s a simple service that works as promised. Nothing more, nothing less. And hey, if you’re going to set up your feedly right now, don’t forget to add Earnworthy to your reading list!
5. Evernote
As David Allen, the creator of the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology remarked, “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” If you think about that for a second, it really makes sense. Our minds are processing tools, not memorization and storage tools. That is exactly the problem Evernote is trying to solve. They want to become your “external brain.” Think of Evernote as a super powerful notebook that is with you wherever you go. Furthermore, you can always find what you’re looking for in an instant. When combined with several of the other apps I’ve mentioned here, Evernote is even more useful. You can’t go wrong by checking it out.
6. Pocket
What do you do when you stumble upon an article or website that you want to read, but you just don’t have the time for it right now? Bookmark it? Write it down? Forget about it entirely? There’s a much better solution. Save it for later. Pocket helps you do just that and they do it better than anyone else. I use Pocket very frequently with Feedly. I’ll scan through my RSS feeds and save whatever articles I want to read later to Pocket. Lately however, I’m beginning to replace my browser bookmarking system almost entirely with Pocket. They have a tagging feature that makes it super easy to find what you’re looking for. And the best part is that Pocket syncs across all of your devices.
7. Dropbox
Who doesn’t know about Dropbox these days? I shouldn’t even have to write anything here. While there are many file syncing services out there now, I haven’t found anything better than Dropbox yet and I don’t think I will. Their service simply works. No questions asked. And now with the ability to have two Dropbox accounts synced to a single device, I can quickly switch between my work and personal files with ease.
8. Things
Things has been my preferred to-do list app for many years now. Unfortunately, they are a little bit slow on coming out with their updates, which is starting to frustrate many loyal customers. Some folks are even jumping ship to newer to-do list startups such as Todoist. I gave Todoist a try for a couple weeks, but their cloud sync just wasn’t cutting it. I ended up going back to Things, which says a lot for their service. Even though they have an outdated UX by today’s standards, their app is stable like none other. Oh, and it works great for those of you using the GTD methodology I mentioned earlier.
9. Fantastical
Let’s face it; The default calendar app on most phones isn’t the best. There, I said it. You know you want to replace it, but what are you going to replace it with? Just a year ago there weren’t very many decent options to choose from when it came to calendar apps. Now however, there are quite a few good ones. But one of the first to come out is still one of the best. I’m talking about Fantastical. If you want to get more out of your calendar app, give Fantastical a try.
10. Boxer
Last but not least we come to an app I use very frequently, because it deals with that thing so many of us get bombarded with: Email. Boxer takes a different approach to email than a regular mail app. By incorporating a unified inbox, swipe gestures, an integrated to-do list, real faces, better labels, and more, Boxer has made processing our inboxes fun…well as fun as it could be. My favorite Boxer feature however is the “Like” button. With just one click you can send a quick message to the sender letting them know that you liked their message. How cool is that? Overall, Boxer helps me save boatloads of time by processing my inbox at lightning speed.
That’s all I have for now. Hopefully you’ve found something on this list that was helpful, or maybe you already knew about all of these great apps. Whatever the case may be, I’d love to hear from you. Did I miss an app that you think would be essential to this list? Tell me about it in the comments section below!
