Many of you've been asking, "Scott, what do you have on your phone "and what are some of your favorite apps "on your Android device?" Well today, I'm gonna share with you just that.
Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here, at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.
Google Keep
And today, I want to share with you seven of my favorite apps, seven apps that I use on a daily basis.
Now we're gonna get things started today with surprise, surprise, Keep Notes, formerly known as Google Keep.
Yes, even I'm having a difficult time reminding myself to call it Keep Notes.
But when I have an idea, when I have a thought, I need some place to quickly capture it.
I find that there's very few apps that are quicker at capturing those notes, whether I want to type them in on my thumbs or whether I want to use the recording ability and actually narrate that note, this is the place where I go and do it within Google Keep.
The functionality is very much the same as you would expect on the web version of Google Keep, or sorry, Keep Notes.
Search functionality, everything else looks very very similar, and that's something that I love about some of my used apps.
Trello
So next up, let's go to number two and yeah, this isn't gonna come as a big surprise, but that would be my Trello app, something that I use very very frequently.
What I love about the mobile version of Trello is that it looks and in many ways feels just like the regular version or the web-based version of Trello.
So whether it's the location of things, such as labels, descriptions.
You can add checklists, you can access your attachments.
Everything looks and feels very very similar to Trello, and I can't say the same thing about a lot of other apps.
You know, the drag and drop functionality just like you would expect on your boards within Trello.
When it comes to many other project management tools, I find that they dumb it down too much and it doesn't even feel like the same app.
But not the case when it comes to Trello.
So certainly, a deserving place at number two on my list.
Habit Bowl
Alright, let's explore some more.
The next one I want to share with you I've been using for only about six months, but I absolutely love it and it's called Habit Bull.
It's this purple one here with the bull on the front.
Habit Bull is all about keeping track of your goals and helping you get the data that you need in order to track those goals.
So here I've got an example to share with you here, and it's super simple to use.
You've got a basic calendar here in front of you.
The things that are shaded in green mean the days in which I've accomplished this particular task.
And you can see today's November 21st.
So if I just tap it with my thumb, it's gonna add that green color there letting me know that I have completed that goal whether it's a run, whether it's doing some reading, whatever your goal may be.
If I tap it again, it's gonna change it to pinkish which means I failed on that day.
Now you can choose to use this option or not.
And if I click it one more time, then it gonna disappear as if I didn't click anything at all.
One of the things that I like about Habit Bull compared to many other simple app goal trackers is that I can go back and select dates previously.
I've used goal trackers before which only limit you to the day that you're on.
Perhaps what I like the most is the snapshot data that it gives me.
So here I can see my daily streak progress, but also at the bottom, it gives me some other great averages which is really what I was looking for.
If you look down here at the bottom, you can see my current total, current month, but I love this average per week, for example.
So if you've got a goal to go for a run or exercise three times a week, you can see how you're doing.
Not just look at the calendar and count the number of days, but see if you can maybe up it one week if you're failing in that particular goal the previous week.
The other great thing about Habit Bull is that you can keep not only just multiple habits, but it will keep you a percentage of all your habits as you see here as well.
So again, something that I haven't used quite as long as many of the other apps that you'll see in today's video, but I've really enjoyed using Habit Bull.
Clock
Alright, now the next app on this list is actually something that came stock with my phone.
I'm sure it probably came stock with your Android phone as well, and that is the Clock app.
And I know many of you are probably saying, well Scott, you didn't have to install it. How is this a favorite app of yours?
Well, I use a timer on a regular basis.
So the timer functionality is something that I'm using quite frequently.
Whether I'm focusing on a piece of work for a specific period of time, I'm gonna maybe set it for I don't know 45 minutes or something like that, and start working on a particular task.
But I love that you can add presets.
And down below, I have some of my favorite presets, whether I'm taking a quick break, whether I'm taking a power nap in the afternoon.
So if there are some favorite intervals that you want to use on a regular basis, you can just create those, and that's just a single tab to get you there and then you can start the timer.
Of course, if you're not familiar with your own clock app, I would encourage you to explore it a little bit.
You can obviously set multiple alarms.
Here I have my wake-up schedule for both the weekday and weekend.
Yes, no I'm not just trying to impress anyone, I really do wake up at five in the morning Monday through Friday.
But an app that I wanted to include on this list just because I do actually use it so frequently.
Stow Card
Alright, next up that keeps me productive when it comes to my daily tasks, not necessarily with my business, but especially when I'm out and perhaps I'm shopping or needing access to a loyalty card, I use Stocard.
That's up here in the top left hand corner.
Now I only have a few things here.
You can see that I've got a couple of library cards and then I've got a grocery store loyalty card here as well.
So if you hate collecting so many different cards with you and would rather just have that barcode, would rather just have that available to you here, yes I guess some of you may have access to my library now if you know this card, but hopefully you don't know my library location.
Anyhow, what Stocard does, it allows you to quickly and easily take a picture of your loyalty cards and it will grab that barcode so anything, absolutely anything that has a barcode, you can grab and then just scan it at the store.
Here you'll see that I actually have myself and my wife's library card because you know sometimes she puts things on hold and she'd like me to pick it up for her.
But I can't do that without her card. Well now I've always got her card with me.
You may have the same thing if you have children's library cards or you have other membership cards related to your family or maybe even members of your business.
So Stocard, I am barely scratching the surface with the features that are available here, but even for the small number of cards, I find it very very valuable.
Speech Timer
Now the next one is very particular to my business and the type of work of which I'm engaged in, and that is giving speeches.
Giving either keynote speeches or perhaps delivering a workshop, and that's the one just below Stocard called Speech Timer.
Now this is a very very simple app, but it's something that I use not only live when I'm a delivering a speech or running a live workshop, but it's something that I'll use to practice as well.
In fact, if any of you have joined me on a Ask Scott Anything live webinar or perhaps you've been a participant in a productivity bootcamp, I actually use this timer beside me as well to keep me on track.
So very basic.
Let me give you a quick snapshot here.
You see at the top of the screen, we've got green, yellow, red.
So you get to determine when do you want the timer turned to green which often means you've met the minimum amount of time, or maybe that's your first warning.
Yellow, letting you know that hey, you better start wrapping things up here. You're getting near the end.
And then red, in terms of when you really need to wrap things up here.
I don't think I have a very short example here.
I'm not gonna be talking for a full minute further on this, but if I just hit the start button, you'll see that it's gonna stay in this mode, but once it reaches that one minute mark because that's what I've set in this particular example, the entire screen will turn green.
And then yellow and red at the upcoming intervals.
This is really really valuable to me because when I'm live in a large conference room or something like that, I can easily see this.
Even if I'm several feet away from the podium or perhaps the platform that I'm delivering my speech from.
So even if it's in a meeting for example, this is something that you could use beside you if you so wish.
And of course you can program all these different intervals if you want below.
Stretching Exercise
Alright, last but not least, I did want to include something directly related to health, and in this case, exercise.
I've got an app that I use every morning called Stretching Exercises, and this is something that keeps me really honest and true with my stretching, making sure that I don't pull a limb, making sure that I still do those stretches, especially after my run.
So Stretching Exercises not only will it keep a simple report of what you've done and allow you to keep track of your goals, but I love that it has these preset stretching exercises, right.
So it's got everything from some morning warmups or a sleepy time stretch to this one here, this post run cool down is actually the one that I use most often after my runs.
It's got a number of other selections or stretching playlists that you can pull down and run through as a part of your day.
So just showing you very quickly here, this is my post run cool down, and I haven't put this together, they put it together for me.
So it's only five minutes, 12 different stretches, and it goes through.
Most of them are 30 to 20 seconds.
They show you how to do it.
There's even audio guides so I don't have to be looking at the screen if I'm lying on the floor doing one of these stretches.
But something that, again, if I didn't have an app, if I didn't have a tool like this with me, some days I would just say, ah, I don't really need to stretch.
But of course no matter what type of exercise you're involved in, you do need to stretch.
And so an app like this really really helps me out.
Conclusion
Alright, well there you have it. Seven of my favorite apps for Android.
I'll include a link to all of them down below so if you'd like to install or try them out yourself, you can do so.
But I'd love to hear from you next. What are your favorite apps?
What are the favorite tools on your phone, whether it's Android or iOS, that you absolutely can't live without?
Be sure to share them down below in the comments.
Thank you again for watching.
I hope you subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel, and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
