Technology is a double-sided blade in one big way. It can make you way more productive or it can do the exact opposite. Only one outcome is certain: Your productivity levels won’t stay the same. Here’s how to counteract your endless social media feeds and addictive YouTube rabbit holes with a few apps that are all designed to tip your attention span towards living its best life.
The Basics
Here’s a quick look at the essential apps that everyone should know about, particularly the less efficient among us (you know who you are).
Evernote — take notes, sync them across all your platforms.
Pocket — save links all over the internet, read them all in this app later.
Slack — chat with team members or friends.
1Password — keep all your passwords in one place
Productivity at Work
Scanbot — quickly scan documents and keep them together
Dropbox and Google Drive — create and upload files, share them easily.
Newton — collect all your email accounts into one spot and handle them in the most productive way: At once.
Join.me — this online meeting tool helps with the worst work problem: Lengthy meetings.
Doodle — and when you’re planning out those meetings beforehand, just use this app to make sure everyone gets on the same page as quickly as possible.
Productivity at Home
Todoist — the only to-do list app you need.
Mindfulness, Headspace — meditation apps to help you slow down and destress
Blinkist — speed-reading app to help you learn more quickly. And possibly pick up some of that stress you just lost with your meditation app.
IFTTT — this meta-app will connect two seemingly unrelated services. It’s great for streamlining your social media posts if you want to, say, autopost all the Instagram pics you hit “like” on to Twitter. More info here.
Buffer — speaking of social media streamlining, this application can help you plan out and schedule a ton of posts in advance.
Sleepytime — when you’re ready to turn in for this night, turn to this site to let you know what your personal sleep cycle is, and when you should wake up.