Apps, apps, and even more apps. There are so many different productivity apps for you and I to choose from.
So today I wanted to take a moment and share with you some of my essential apps, some of the apps that I use every single day. And maybe if I don't use them daily, I use them at the very least four or five times a week.
Google Keep
So let's get things started with my note app of choice, and that is Google Keep. This is where most of my new ideas start out.
This is where I take my notes when I'm in a meeting or if I'm on a phone call. This is usually where things begin their lives, whether it's a checklist that I'm creating, whether I want to annotate an image or something of the like, this is usually where my great ideas and a lot of my poor ideas begin as well, right here in Google Keep.
Trello
But when it comes to actually accomplishing my tasks and managing my personal projects, I'm typically in Trello. I love the visual layout of Trello, that I can drag things easily left, right, and reorder everything in my list.
Of course, I do a lot of collaboration when it comes to using Trello as well, but if I'm not using Trello with others, I'm often using Asana. Asana, a very powerful project management tool.
Asana
Great for collaborating with other team members or people that you're working on a project with. And I get a lot of questions about which is better, Scott? Is Trello better than Asana or do you prefer Asana over Trello?
And my answer is that it really comes down to what you are working on. The type of project that you're working on, along with the type of people that you may be working with.
Whether it's Trello or whether it's Asana, usually on a daily basis I'm in one of these two apps. Now next up I wanna touch on some of my add-ons or some of the extensions that I use on a daily basis.
Boomerang
The first one I wanna talk about is called Boomerang. Now Boomerang is available for both Gmail and Outlook users, and what Boomerang does is it gives your email some super powers.
As we can see in this example here, Boomerang actually gives you some additional buttons and some additional functionality. So for example, you can send your email in the future.
You can also have an email returned to you if the person that you sent it to has not yet replied within a specific timeframe. Boomerang has actually added a lot of additional functionality as well.
Here you can see their respondable feature here, which shows the likelihood that someone is going to actually reply to your email. But at its very basic functionality, I love the ability of following a reply or making sure that someone replies to my email within a specific amount of time.
Assistant
Now the next one on my list is also email related and it is called Assistant.to. And this has become absolutely essential as I'm scheduling meetings with others and trying to find the ideal meeting time.
I absolutely hate having to go back and forth and back and forth, trying to find the best time to meet. You know what I'm talking about.
You wanna set up a meeting with someone so you say, well how about Tuesday and they say no, I can't do Tuesday. Well how about the Wednesday after that? No, I've got a commitment.
Back and forth and back and forth. What Assistant.to does is it allows you to give that other individual available times in your schedule, and then all they have to do is pick which time works for them.
And then a meeting is automatically created. You don't even have to go and create or set up that meeting in an additional email or an additional invitation.
Assistant.to does it all for you. So this has become incredibly powerful for my business.
I love using this application to set up meetings with other individuals. Now the next extension is something that you've probably heard of before and that is called Grammarly.
Grammarly
Now there was a period of time where I was receiving an awful lot of Grammarly advertisements. Especially here on YouTube and I was wondering if my cookies or if my web browsing activity was showing that I was using poor grammar.
So I thought I'd give Grammarly a try and I'm sure glad that I did. Grammarly is an extension for your web browser and what it does is it tracks and takes a look at all the text that you write while you're online.
And if it sees something out of place, and we're talking more than just spelling. Yes, Grammarly does look at spelling, but it specifically looks at grammar to see are you using words in the proper tense, should you have added an apostrophe there or not, and it's been fantastic.
You might be surprised at how good or how poor your grammar is when you are writing online. So it doesn't matter if you're using email, if you're filling out a form, if you're writing in a document online, Grammarly comes into play in all of those areas.
And I've come to rely on it. It's just a great friend to help me write better as I'm doing my work online.
Take a Break
Now next up are two applications that are related to time. The first one is the Scirocco Take a Break timer.
Now this is a desktop timer. This one in particular is only for PC users.
Now I know there's an awful lot of timers available out there if you're looking for something to track your time or just to be a countdown clock for your computer, but to tell you the truth I haven't done a lot of reviews or further research because I've been using take a break for so long, and it just works. It just does exactly what I want it to do.
I can set it for any time length that I want and then I minimize the window. It goes away.
It's not visible in any way. I can focus exclusively on the project or the task that I want to, and when that time is up, this little dialogue box will appear on my screen.
You can add a chime or other visual indicators if you like but just the basic functionality I find is fantastic. So this is a part of my daily routine is making use of the Take a Break timer.
Timer
You can of course do further research and find a timer that works for you or works for your particular system. But this list would not be complete if I didn't mention one other timer, and that's the timer that sits on my phone.
And I don't use anything special. I'm an Android user currently and I'm just using the basic clock app.
I'm just using the timer built in to this app. This isn't even something that you need to go looking for or install something new.
We all have a clock app pre-installed on our phones. It all has a timer function.
And this can be a great way, again, to achieve greater focus. I will often just set the timer for a certain amount of time, put my phone back into my pocket, and then I can focus exclusively on that task or on that conversation, whatever it is I'm doing.
And when my timer goes off I can reevaluate. Should I continue to do this or should I move on to something new?
CardStar
Now, two more apps left in my list. The next one also has to do when I am out and often doing errands, whether I'm shopping or even if I'm checking in at my local library.
This app is called CardStar, and what CardStar does is it stores all of your loyalty cards within your phone. But it does more than just loyalty cards.
Basically any type of card that has a barcode it can capture. So I use this for my parks and recreation card, if I wanna go swimming or use the gym I can use the app and it just scans my barcode.
When I'm at the library I don't only have my own library card, I actually have my entire family's library cards on here. So if I need to check out a book that my wife has placed on hold, she doesn't need to be there physically.
I can just use her library card and check out that book on her behalf. So I love this app because I hate carrying around with me other loyalty cards.
I hate carrying around additional cards that I don't really need to be on me at all times. So CardStar allows me to store that digitally on my phone, and then I can use it whenever I need it.
And the very last app on my list today, some of you may say is not really a productivity app because it's actually an exercise app. But I would disagree that it's not a productivity app.
I think I am much more productive, in fact I know that I am much more productive when I start my day with exercise. And although my exercise of choice is running, if it happens to be pouring rain outside or maybe I'm traveling and I didn't bring my running shoes with me, I'm going to the 7 Minute Workout app.
Now there's actually many different 7 Minute Workout apps available to you, so if you do a search you'll probably find a list of a dozen or so. But yes, it's a very efficient workout because you're taking only seven minutes.
But you actually don't need any other equipment as well. You don't need any dumbbells, you don't need anything special to accomplish these tasks, and yet you will still work up a mild sweat.
No it's not a very intense workout, but you are doing interval training. You're doing your best or you're working your hardest on particular exercises for 30 seconds.
So a great way to start your day, I think it directly impacts the productivity of my day. So there is my list of my 10 essential apps.
I wanna hear from you now. What would you put on your list of essential productivity apps?
What are some apps that you absolutely can't live without? I'd love for you to share that with me and to share it with others in the comments below.
Thank you so much for watching today. If you haven't already subscribed to the Simpletivity channel, I would encourage
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Be sure to give it a like and yes, share with me down below your favorite productivity apps. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
