Staying Focused: Apps That Boost Productivity
“Those who till their own land have food in plenty, but those who engage in idle pursuits lack sense” (Proverbs 12:11).
By now, you’ve probably already decided and even started on your goals, resolutions, and habits for the new year. You may feel accomplished and driven as we forge on into a new decade.
Unfortunately, many of us know that our momentum will die down eventually. A day may come where we forget about our goals or feel less motivated or focused than we did on January 1.
Here are some apps that will give you the extra boost in productivity and focus, whether it's at work or in your personal life, that you need to keep working toward your goals this year.
Clear
(free)
We all have to-do lists. Some people are able to remember the things on said list, while the rest of us have a stack of post-it notes in addition to a note on our phones, a page in our planner, a note on the refrigerator, and a reminder on Alexa.
Clear isn’t meant to add to the lists but to combine them and keep them in one place. It is a simple list-making app that you can use to organize tasks in order of importance. Since I started using it, I’ve been able to lessen the stacks of post-it notes on my desk. Clearing up the lists I have in my life has allowed me to focus on what is actually on my lists.
Habitify
(free and paid options)
Recently, Catholic Women in Business published on creating habits and the importance of a habit tracker. That’s where Habitify comes in.
Habitify is a no-fuss, simple app to help you keep track of the habits you are trying to implement. You list your habits for the day and check them off once you’ve completed them. It’s as easy as that; sometimes, it’s the simple apps that are the game-changers.
If you prefer a little more visualization for your habit-tracking, try Done. It can help you build and quit habits and uses color-coding and graphs to help you track your progress.
FocusBooster
(free and premium options)
This one is not a phone app but, rather, a desktop app. FocusBooster is a timer that uses the Pomodoro technique, where you work for 25 minutes at a time and take five-minute breaks. This time management framework is meant to improve productivity, and FocusBooster uses it to give you more freedom to ignore the constant notifications and interruptions.
FocusBooster will even record what you work on in your 25 minutes so you can go back and see how productive you really were and where you need to cut down on distractions. It is especially popular with freelancers and other professionals who have to track their time on a regular basis.
Focus@Will
(free trial plus annual subscription)
If you like to listen to music while you work, Focus@Will was made for you. It is a music service that claims to use neuroscience to put your brain in a state that will make you more productive. The music it plays is specific to each user and is tailored throughout the experience.
Focus@Will is perfect for freelancers and remote workers who may need the extra focus boost — or anyone who needs to do a lot of work in a short period of time.
Evernote
(free and premium options)
There are plenty of note-taking apps, but Evernote takes the cake, with its seamless integration with most media formats. You can add photos, audio, sketches, screenshots, files, to-dos, web pages, handwritten notes, and more. The best part is that it’s all searchable.
You can organize Evernote into notebooks, pages, checklists, and to-do lists. It’s also helpful for organizing documents such as business cards or photos of whiteboards. If you take notes on all of your devices, the syncing process makes it easy to always have your notes handy, no matter which device you’re on.
Dashlane
(free and premium options)
This app can be a hard sell for some. The idea of having my passwords saved always made me nervous. However, after being locked out of more than one account on more than one occasion in an effort to have ultra-secure passwords, I decided to do some research and found Dashlane.
There are a lot of password apps out there, and many of them are pretty decent. What drew me to Dashlane was its affordability and the fact that it’s the only password app to have a U.S. patent for its security architecture. If you haven’t adopted a password management system and are looking for one, Dashlane could be for you.
Hopefully, these tools will help you reach your goals and conquer all of your resolutions. What apps are you using for productivity? Let us know in our Facebook group!
Annie Schunior is a copy writer and communications specialist working for the Catholic Church in the city of Detroit. In addition, she does consulting for non-profits and online ministries as well as some freelance writing. Most days, Annie can be found with coffee in hand, toting around her 2 year old son or exploring the beautiful city of Detroit with her family. You can follow her on Instagram at @annie_schuns.