4 must-have apps to help you stay productive through the day
In an age where we seem to be working 27 hours in a 24-hour day, it’s natural to lose sight of ‘mundane’ things like sleep, food and exercise. The professional world is cultivating a new decree of ‘workaholics’ who live, breathe and eat the air inside their office, in the hopes of making that extra buck, or to be noted for their ‘dedication’ towards their job. Whatever it may be, what this new generation of workaholics doesn’t realise is that overwork doesn’t necessarily translate into productivity.
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For instance, reports indicate that some professionals work lesser hours but get more work done than their overworked counterparts. Ironically, some even suggest that working longer hours can reduce productivity.
We live in the era of the smartphone, and the time is ripe to make full use of this constantly evolving technology. So with the age-old concept of ‘pooling in the hours to earn more dough’ receding into the book of urban legends, here are a few apps to help keep you productive through the day.
Disclaimer: These apps have been selected according to their high ratings and reviews on both Android and iOS platforms.
Android rating - 4.5
iOS rating - 4.5
Did you like making to-do lists the week before the exam as a kid? We know you probably didn’t follow that little piece of yellow stick-on attached to your cupboard. But listing out a schedule comes almost as close to following it. Any.do works as your digital to-do list, one where you can list your schedule, enter reminders and any add additional notes. Not only can you share this list with your contacts, but the app even allows you to ‘assign’ it to them, by syncing it between phone, desktop, web, and tablet. Thus, your list can remain up to date at all times. The best part of the app is its ‘voice feature’ option, which lets you add items to your list by just speaking into your phone. Its advanced features include calendar integration and a cross-platform support for sub-tasks, notes, and even file attachments.
Any.do is a must-have for busy bees who can never keep track of their forever hectic schedules.
Dropbox
Android rating - 4.4
iOS rating - 4
A familiar name, Dropbox acts as the silent protector to your smartphone. It offers a ginormous storage capacity space to save, share, and back up your photos, documents, videos and other files, all of which you can access at any time. Often, important files like project details and presentation slides are too big to be sent across through email or messenger services. Instead of panicking and tearing your hair out whilst eyeing your watch for the looming deadline, you can calmly operate this app to transfer large amounts of data in a reasonably short period. This will save you the trouble of wasted time and unnecessary panic.
Business Calendar Pro
Android rating - 4.6
iOS rating - 4.5
If you are a startup founder, then you will know what it’s like to have your calendars booked all the way into the middle of the next year. You will also know that this itinerary can change unexpectedly at any time. Business Calendar Pro is the answer to keeping track of your ever changing and hectic schedule. Its amazing customisation and task integration features make it easy to manage events effectively. Its multi-select option not only helps you move, copy or delete multiple events simultaneously but also allows you to drag down a certain day’s events to another in case of rescheduling. It truly is like having your own virtual secretary, helping you follow one event to the other through the whole day, thus negating confusion and wasted time over where to go or what to do next.
Wunderlist
Android rating - 4.5
iOS rating - 4.5
Wunderlist is a great app to help you meet your everyday project deadlines, allowing you to create a schedule to meet these deadlines and even share it with your colleagues. This list is available across all connected devices and features a real-time sync feature to be controlled and modified by all participants. Since all of these participants are expected to stick by the schedule or at least work around it, it gives you the push to become more productive than you would be if you were wasting time trying to coordinate with everyone else. Makes you wonder why you didn’t use this app during those infamous group project sessions in college, right?
Of course, measuring one’s productivity levels has always been subjective, but the many users of these different apps can vouch for the fact that it has helped them become the best, productive versions of themselves since they first started using them.
What apps do you use to stay productive? Let us know in the comments below!
