Some of the most popular apps available today are productivity apps.
This surge of popularity has led to hundreds upon hundreds of different apps. All of which claim to boost your productivity.
However, there lies the irony: If you fall into the pit of endless app downloads. You’ll spend entire days switching between apps and organizational tactics, without actually getting anything productive done.
While using a productivity app for everything you do may not help you become truly productive. There are a few apps that seem to have more success than others.
In truth, question of whether or not productivity apps help a person actually become productive heavily depends on individual.
Some people love them, some people think they’re simply a waste of time and phone space.
However focusing on a few key and highly rated productivity apps. That flow well with each other can potentially help boost your productivity.
First, you’ve got to give them a shot yourself to see which ones work for you.
What Types of Productivity Apps You Should Focus On
We recommend using 4 apps at once, at the very most.
Any more will make your day more complicated than it needs to be. You’ll spend more time switching between apps and mindsets than you will actually getting the work done.
So, we think anyone looking to boost productivity should focus on these 5 productivity apps:
Depending on your specific project or goal, some of these apps may be not of much use. or you may require more apps such as a business productivity apps for keeping track of finances.
However, for a solid foundation, we believe these four categories work great.
It’s time to set sails on your clutter-free work life!
The Productivity Apps That Can Actually Produce Productive Results
As we mentioned, there are a lot of productivity apps these days. That claim to work magic on your personal and professional life.
Not only are a lot of app designers, but there’s a lot of demand for these apps as well.
These days, people are looking towards technology to help boost their efficiency and they want to see results now.
There are only a few that manage this well, and we’ve listed these apps under each suggested category.
1. Project Management Solution App
One of the most important productivity apps to have if you want to boost. Your focus and organize your workflow is a project management helper.
This type of apps helps you document and organize projects and tasks along with any information relating to item.
They also typically include any resources you may come across. Will help you track progress on each of your tasks.
A quality and well-oiled project management app works as a central location. Where you can check in on all of your projects, whether they’re group or personal projects.
Being able to check on the progress of items and actions helps people become more productive.
Because you’re giving yourself the ability to become more aware of what’s happening and what needs to be done. What stage all your tasks are at and when and how to take the next, essential step.
While there are lots of apps out there that fit this profile, we love Trello. This app helps you organize, set up, schedule and focus on tasks in order to reach your goal. Its layout includes slick and easy to use “boards” and “cards” that allow you to track progress efficiently.
2. Time Tracker App
Now that you have an app to manage your projects and track their progress. You need a way to help and your team manage the amount of time you spend on specific task.
This is extremely important for analyzing projects’ overall time count. Then if you’re working with a team it helps each team member. Understand how much time they should be taking on a given project.
While you don’t actually need an app to track your time, they do come in handy sometimes.
However, if you couldn’t be bothered to add another app onto your phone. Something that you could very easily do yourself, don’t sweat it.
Keeping an eye on clock, tracking how much time you spend on the project, will work just as well. Additionally, you could use the Pomodoro Technique to help divide your time efficiently (a technique that has been proven to work exceptionally well).
If you’re set on a time tracking app. However, we recommend using Toggle for your time tracking needs.
3. An Integration Platform App
While this sounds a bit intimidating, an integration platform app is one of the best productivity apps used today.
This service allows your apps to connect with each other and perform tasks automatically which you would usually do yourself.
We’d recommend using Zapier, however IFTTT is another great tool for creating simple and personal automations such as saving email attachments to your Google Drive – to syncing your calendars.
Try to think of it like this:
You have a task that’s performed every day in the same way, at the same time. This can seem extremely daunting after a while. An integration platform automates these tasks, so you don’t have to do them yourself.
In order to work an automation system, figure out which two apps you want to link together and then come up with the task you’d like them to perform with each other.
For instance, “if “this” happens in this app, then I want “that” to happen in the other app.”
Insert these directions into Zapier, link your accounts and you have yourself a fully automated, slick and carefree integration platform app.
4. Inbox for Emails
It’s safe to say that the majority of people reading this has a Gmail account.
If you do, you’ll be able to save yourself a heck of a lot of time by using Inbox by Gmail. This system offers a fast and easy way to handle your emails and saves you lots of time sorting out all your messages.
One of the best ways to stop distracting yourself at work is by reducing the amount of time spent playing around in your inbox.
Inbox by Gmail is a task manager of sorts that automatically gathers emails into specific categories. This helps remove emails that are in those categories from your main inbox, which provides you more time to work and stay on track.
Using Inbox also allows you to archive emails with a swift gesture on mobile, which will likely bring on sighs of relief for those of you who hate manually deleting messages after messages.
A Look at the Big Picture
The best type of productivity app should help an employee focus on what they want to achieve.
When dealing with time management apps, for example, a quality time tracking app should allow the user to focus on the task at hand, not the minutes.
By thinking about priorities as opposed to what you actually end up doing throughout the day, they’re often not the same thing.
Any app or technology that focuses on the priority approach is therefore the most effective you can find.
Setting these priorities demands a significant amount of offline brainstorming about what’s important a day, a week or a year from now.
If you’re looking for an app that replaces conversations and brainstorming sessions with your team or employees about goals, planning work and deadlines, you’re probably taking the wrong approach.
While apps can perform incredible tasks and help you with a range of different roles and responsibilities to make things a bit smoother and sometimes even more enjoyable on a day-to-day basis, they can’t prioritize your business.
It’s up to the human to make decisions on how they want their business to run, how they want it to be in the future and what should be the most important task to focus on at the moment.
After all, some things need to stay sacred, void of technology reliance.
But while you’re at it, planning your goals on an old-fashioned pad and paper or through hearty conversation, a trusty app or two can help make the road to conquering your dreams a bit smoother.
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