That’ll Change the Way You Work & Live…
Written by Lily Niu
While there are many people who pride themselves on being naturally organised, others require a little more help to balance their work and personal life.
To-do lists and desk calendars may have evolved into smartphone apps, but out of the hundreds available on the App Store or Google Play, which ones rule the roost in terms of increasing your productivity?
Here are five apps that’ll change the way you work and live for the better!
- IFTTT (iOS and Android)
This free app is arguably the Godfather of all productivity apps. For those who don’t consider themselves as tech-savvy but want to optimise their smartphone’s capability alongside other productivity apps, social media, and even news aggregators; IFTTT goes above and beyond on the functionality scale. “If This, Then That” allows you to do things with your device that you may not have even thought possible. Think “Get an email with your photo when you snap a pic on your iPhone”, “Sync your new Instagram snaps to a Pinterest board”, or “Track your daily Fitbit activity on a Google Spreadsheet.”
- CAMSCANNER (IOS AND ANDROID)
The majority of people now own a smartphone, laptop or tablet, but haven’t quite invested in all the equipment needed to build a bonafide home office. CamScanner allows you to use what you’ve got already in place of a 2-in-1 scanner/printer, making important document-scanning a breeze. This document management app can also rearrange pages, keep or delete selected ones, upload media to cloud storage and even share them to contacts in your address book.
- TRELLO (IOS AND ANDROID)
If ever there was an official hierarchy of to-do list apps, Trello would definitely be at the top. Also available on your desktop, this app lets you create boards to organise everything you’re working on and share them with friends, family and coworkers – basically whoever needs to view your boards. Additionally, you’ll be able to upload media such as pictures and videos as well as other attachments.
- DROPBOX (IOS AND ANDROID)
Sure, you may depend on iCloud or Microsoft OneDrive for online storage, but how comfortable are you with mixing business with pleasure? If you want to store work files that need approval from your coworkers, creating a Dropbox account enables you to share files for collaboration across a secure network.
- POCKET (IOS AND ANDROID)
Whether you’re travelling on the tube, have your phone set to Airplane Mode, or simply don’t have mobile data, Pocket (evolved from Read It Later), lets you save articles and web pages directly to your phone to look through when you’re not online; perfect whenever you’re scouring news articles, coffee in hand first thing in the morning, but you don’t necessarily have time to read them in full.