Being connected to the world all the time is great but it also results in feeding an endless amount of stuff into our brains from the moment we get up. So much so, that many of us tech geeks can’t switch off even in the night. How often have you gone to sleep watching a video review of the latest premium smartphone on your last year’s Android phone and wondered when you’d be able to afford it? We even dream of specs and mobile cases!
While it is fun reading up on all there is on gadgets, the end result of this digital overload is that it starts affecting our daily productivity, which is a shame. Our sleep, our health, our focus, all take a battering.
So in order to help you beat this tiny little problem, here’s a roundup of the best productivity apps in the market. We are looking at apps that target all the important areas of life and work together to give you an all-round boost in productivity, while also improving your focus and peace of mind. After all, everything is interconnected, isn’t it?
Choose your favorite apps from this list, make them a part of your routine, and watch your productivity jump.
StayFocusd
For: Google Chrome
Cost: Free
Quite an apt one to start with. This isn’t so much for your phone as it is for your web browser, to be specific for Google Chrome. StayFocusd is an extension that will reside on your toolbar and keep a track of all the websites that you waste most of your time on.
So the next time you start your day with tall promises of not wasting more than an hour in pointless Internet surfing, do make a point to install this app. It will allocate a certain amount of time to be spent on your favorite (but useless) websites and alert you to when the time is up so that you can stop goofing around and get back to work. And get back to work you will since the sites will now be inaccessible for the rest of the day.
Sounds useful, doesn’t it?
2Do: To do List
For: Android, iOS
Cost: $9.99
Now that you have got your focus right with all things online, you should turn your attention to getting all the important things in your routine sorted. With this app you now have all of your life in literally one place. If you are juggling a hundred things or are simply so caught up in your work that you can’t be bothered to keep track of anything else in your life, this app might just bail you out.
The 2do app for Android and iOS is not simply a list, but a very well put together app that has thought of virtually everything a person does (or wants to do but forgets) and made a provision for it.
It is all of your lists, notes, reminders, notifications, personal favorites, philosophies, and priorities in one place.
It is pricey, but if you don’t mind spending on it, you will gain a lot in return.
Note Anytime
For: Android, iOS, Windows
Cost: $20
From pricey we have gone to pricier, we know, but as the name suggests, there’s absolutely nothing that you cannot scribble down (or draw) with Note Anytime. It converts almost every phone and tablet into a Samsung Note 3 with its wonderful digital note-taking abilities. If you prefer using a stylus over your fingers to enter frequent notes into your phone, or capture interesting bits from blogs and news websites that you read, this app would be well worth your investment.
None of your thoughts will escape now for the want of a medium to capture them, and it doesn’t matter which mobile device you are using for this app to work. We still think that the Note 3 is right up there with its detailed features for note-taking, but if you don’t own the Note you can still access many useful and similar features with this app.
At a price tag of $20 it certainly isn’t cheap, but if you are a voracious reader, serious about your notes, and love to share them across devices and platforms, you will more than milk this app for all its worth. There’s a reason it’s no. 1 in Japan!
MyFitnessPal
For: Android, iOS, Windows
Cost: Free
This inclusion may came as a surprise but you’ll agree that fitness is important, too, right?.
We are of the mind that if you can’t keep your fitness on track then you have got your priorities all wrong. At the very least, you can enter into this app the items you consume on a daily basis – from that cigarette you smoked on your way to work, to the can of Mountain Dew you guzzled down in the evening, to the late night pizza, or the early morning chocolate brownie.
Doing so will not just alert you to all the mindless consumption (there’s that phrase again!) of food and drinks throughout the day, but also shock you into action. Remember, everything that you are feeding your body, you are feeding your brain, too.
The best thing about this app is that they have a humongous database of food, so regardless of which part of the world you come from, you will find a calorie and nutrient breakdown for your daily foods. Also included is the provision for entering how much you worked out in a day (to further shame you into action!).
Om Chanting
For: Android, iOS, Windows
Cost: Free
This meditation app is a personal favorite because it is very simple and very effective. In fact, we find this a much better app than the several of the brain training apps in the market.
All you have to do is plug in your earphones and start the chants whenever you feel frazzled. Only 5 minutes of listening to the chants in peace and quiet will considerably reduce your stress and correct your wavering focus. We recommend listening to the chants in the morning before starting your day, half way during the day, or before going to bed in the night.
Think of meditation as purging your brain of all the endless and mindless stuff that you feed it every day so that it’s refreshed, stronger, and ready to take on the world the next day. You will notice a significant increase in your attention span throughout the day if you make listening to these chants a habit.
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