Productivity app criteria
What productivity apps am I using most often on my phone?
Let's find out in today's video.
Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.
And in today's video, I'm sharing with you seven apps that I'm using on almost a daily basis.
And bonus, all of them are either 100% free or have a free forever version.
Presentation Timer
So let's dive in with number one, and I'm going to open up here something called Presentation Timer.
Now, don't let the name fool you because I think you can use this for a lot more purposes than just presenting.
But if you do happen to be speaking in front of an audience whether live and in-person, or just virtually just over a Zoom meeting or video conferencing this app can be a lifesaver.
Now, one of the things I love is that it's so simple to use.
You simply pick the time, the duration that you want and then the timer gets going, but it's very, very visual.
And what's so great about this is that it's non-distracting.
Here you can see I've just set up a very simple 30-second test and you can see almost like a sand timer, the blue, is starting to encompass and takeover the entire screen.
Letting me know that it's almost time for me to wrap things up.
But at the very end here you'll see that there's a few different colors which can alert me that I'm getting closer to the end, a little bit of a warning, a bit of a yield light.
And then once I go over, it continues to count this time counting up and flashing a red sign letting me know that, hey, I'm over my duration.
So let me stop this for a second and let me show you some of the settings that we can change here.
So if I go into settings, the number one thing that you're gonna look at here is the theme and intervals and that's right up top here.
So here you can see, you can set it by percentages.
So here are the default colors, you can change them if you like but I've set it that at 80%, 80% of the maximum time that I set, I want it to turn green.
Then at 90%, I want it to turn yellow to give me sort of okay we should probably start wrapping up.
And then with 95% left, I want it to turn red.
Now again, you can change all of these intervals including the colors, depending on your needs, depending on your comfort level when you are presenting.
But keep in mind you can also use this tool for other purposes as well.
So for example, maybe you have a meeting, right?
And it's gonna last an hour.
So let me just take that off there.
We can remove our seconds. You can also click on here as well to enter in your time.
And I'm gonna say start.
So now I've got a one-hour meeting.
I'm still gonna get those reminders, those visual cues.
Now I can just lay this on the side of my desk or if I am giving a presentation I'm standing at a lectern or some other podium, for example, this could be completely hidden.
Only I can see what's going on and letting me know how close I am to ending my presentation.
The other nice bonus with the presentation timer is that you can keep running in the background.
So if you need to go to something else you can go back and the timer is still functioning.
AppBlock
Let's go to number two on my list and that is AppBlock.
And I add this to my list of productivity tools because it really helps me with my focus and staying on track and not being distracted by things such as social media.
So here you can see, I've already set up a profile here, which is called daily usage limit.
And a while back, I found myself spending maybe a little too much time on Reddit.
So I've set up a rule here on my phone that I'm only allowed to spend 30 minutes per day using Reddit.
Now, the nice thing is that it not only applies to the app but it will also apply to the website itself.
So I can't do a workaround and just go to reddit.com, it's gonna apply that limit to both.
Now, let me show you how easy it is to set up.
So when we open up, create a new profile the first thing that we need to do is select what are the conditions going to be?
An Appblock gives us five great options here, time. So for example, maybe I only want to block things during working hours, like prevent me from accessing Facebook between 9:00 and 5:00 for example.
I can block based on location. Maybe when I'm in the office I want to block certain things, or if I want to get away from work, when I'm at home maybe I can block certain things here as well.
You can block by a wifi network. You can block by a usage limit, that's the one that I just showed you a moment ago or you can block by launch content.
This last one I think can be very helpful especially when it comes to something like email.
And if you find yourself checking email far too often you can select that as well.
Now, speaking of focus, number three on my list
Buffer
does have to do with social media but it also helps me prevent checking and having to visit my social media pages in order to post.
And that is Buffer.
Now you may have heard of Buffer before.
You may have heard me talking about Hootsuite in the past, which is a social media manager, a social media scheduler that I've used in the past.
But I've actually started using Buffer more often recently because of its simpler interface.
And that continues here on the mobile tool.
Here, you can see that I've got a number of different posts scheduled to my business Facebook page.
How this helps me with my productivity and focus is that I don't have to log into Facebook in order to post something new or to post something in the future.
I am preventing myself from being distracted by going into those social media profiles whenever I want to post something.
All I need to do is open up Buffer and I can create that new post and you can manage a variety of accounts.
Here you can see on the left-hand side I've got both a Facebook page, my LinkedIn profile and my Instagram profile all linked up to my account meaning I can post different things to different social media channels, or if I want I can post the exact same thing to all of those channels as well.
Not only is this helping me create a bit more thoughtful content because I can just open this up wherever I am and schedule a post but I don't have to worry about being distracted and being sucked down a rabbit hole by logging in and actually browsing and swiping through one of those social media profiles.
Now my next favorite productivity app
Adobe Scan
helps me to stay paperless so that whenever I receive a receipt or a paper document, I can convert that easily to either an image or a PDF and then file it away or send it off to where I need it to be.
So in this example, I'm taking a look at Adobe Scan.
Now I know there's a number of different scanners out there. I just find that Adobe Scan happens to be one of the best ones out there.
So here I've got a receipt and I wanna be able to convert this cause maybe I need to file it away.
As you can see, I've got relatively low light and I don't even have to press anything.
It is capturing that receipt for me, it's finding the edges, it's going to adjust it.
So it actually looks like a piece of paper in just a second.
I'm gonna say continue here.
And what we're gonna do now is open up this document. I just wanna show you how great looking this receipt looks, even though we had relatively low light.
So this has already transformed it.
It looks almost identical to my paper receipt that I have standing next to me here.
Now, what I can do is I can rename it up top here if I need to, or I can save it as a PDF.
Now at this stage, what I can do is I can share it to a variety of different apps, I could text it to someone, I can email it to myself, I can send it directly to Google drive.
So many different things that I can use here directly from Adobe Scan.
So if you're looking for something that is quick, easy and free to use, make sure you check out Adobe Scan.
Keep Notes
Now next up on my list is something that I use much more frequently on my phone than I usually do on my desktop and that is Keep Notes.
Keep Notes continues to be my go-to note-taking tool especially if I wanna keep track of something really, really quick.
So here you can see I've shared a few different lists here with my wife, so you can collaborate with other individuals but I've got some other things here down below as well.
So I can keep those quick notes and quickly reference them and search them when necessary.
The reason why I continue to use Keep Notes even though there are a number of other tools that are much more fully featured, have many more bells and whistles is because it's fast.
And when I'm on the go I wanna be able to take a note very very fast. Just by hitting that plus button, we are immediately brought into the note.
I don't have to give it a title.
I like that it already places the cursor there in the note field.
However, if I am wanting to take a more detailed note
Notion
with a lot more information, maybe branch out and brainstorm and start a new project, I am going into Notion.
Now Notion is something that I have used and toyed around with for a number of years but recently I've been using it much more frequently and primarily for its simple database and table tools.
So here, for example, I've got a work page called ski gear rental ratings.
I'm looking to buy some new ski gear.
And so I've been testing out some things at my local ski shop.
And the great thing is that I can create a very simple table here where I have the date and when I took out these rentals I can click on the pictures that I took so I can remember specific details about the boots and the ski size, etc, ski length.
And then I can add up my ratings here to see, you know, what did I think or add some simple notes.
It's a great tool for this purpose.
Here's another quick one I'll show you here about restaurant reviews that my family and I have been using.
We recently moved and so we're trying to find out a few different pizza places that we can rely on.
So we are just sort of adding up and creating our own ratings in this simple table here.
When did we last order?
What were our notes and so forth?
And it can even do simple averages such as the average cost of the meal.
And when was the last time that we ordered out?
So if you're looking for something to create these very simple yet powerful tables and branching out a project, Notion may be the tool for you.
Google Podcasts
Last but not least on my list today has to do with learning.
Because if you wanna work at your productive best you need to be listening to helpful educational content.
And for me, I simply use Google Podcasts.
Now Google Podcasts is the place that I go to search for all of my podcasts.
I know there's a lot of places you can go to manage all of the things that you're listening to and all the things that you're subscribing to, but the great thing I find about Google Podcasts is that it is quick, fast, and easy and the search capability is very, very powerful as well.
Once again, it may not have all the bells and whistles of some of the other podcast services out there, but I want to get in and start listening to something or continue to start listening to something as soon as I possibly can.
So that's why my choice is Google Podcasts.
Now I would love to hear from you next.
What are some of your favorite productivity tools and apps when it comes to your Android device?
Be sure to let me know in the comments down below.
Thank you so much for watching today's video.
Remember to subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel and remember being productive does not need to be difficult.
In fact, it's very simple.
