When you start working your way towards a new goal, you’re pretty enthusiastic about it. Maybe you got a new job or you started a new project. Maybe you just got back from an awesome vacation and you promised you’d do better at work, so you can afford another vacation pretty soon.
But you soon slide back into your good-old procrastination habits. You want to do better. But you waste hours watching Instagram stories, wishing you could live your life as productively as the influencers you follow.
You know what? YOU CAN!
You haven’t achieved your peak at work productivity? It’s okay. There’s always something positive about the space for growth. You can take steps towards improvement, and apps can support that process.
If you were keeping a distance from the best productivity apps, it’s time to face the reality: some of them are pretty useful. Using the right app at the right time will help you save time and achieve better results.
But what are the top productivity apps? We’ll list 7 of them!
7 Top Productivity Apps to Use
1. Setapp
What does productivity mean, really? It means using your resources (time and money, in particular) in the most effective way. You want to complete more work in less time, and you want to get better return for a lower budget. Setapp helps you be more productive regarding money, but the apps in it help with the time-based productivity.
This is a platform that gives you access to a collection of apps. It works on the SaaS (software as a service) principle. You pay a monthly subscription of $9.99 and you get access to all the apps across categories. If you paid for all apps in the Productivity category, for example, you’d spend hundreds of dollars. Thanks to Setapp, you can access their unlimited versions for a small monthly fee.
These are only a few of the best productivity apps for Mac that you can use through Setapp: Timing, Pagico, GoodTask, Workspaces, Unclutter, and Focus. You can cover all your productivity needs through a single subscription.
2. Wunderlist
Lists are a powerful thing. When you have plans in your head, you’re motivated but you give yourself space to procrastinate. When you write them down and you plan action steps towards the goals, you have a realistic strategy. It should involve a timeframe, too.
Such a list will increase productivity at work by making you accountable. When you look at the entries at the end of the day and you realize you haven’t achieved all goals, you’ll transfer them for tomorrow. The same thing will happen the next day. But as you keep checking the list, you’ll become more responsible towards it.
Wunderlist is one of the best productivity apps based on the to-do principle. You can make personal and professional lists, and you’ll get notifications for important tasks.
3. WriteRoom
Does your work involve a lot of writing? In that case, you’re prone to distractions more when compared to people who do field work. The doctor can’t procrastinate a lot; a patient gets in and they have to handle them. A writer uses a computer connected to the Internet, which lures them with more distractions than we could ever list. Notifications are popping up from all over the place. WriteRoom will silence them all.
This is a distraction-free writing app. You see nothing but a blank background and your text on it. No icons to take your attention away from the text. Nothing. Just you and your work.
4. Harvest
How much do you earn through your earn and how much of it do you spend? Harvest is an app that combines financial and work productivity in one. It’s a time-tracking app that lets you see how exactly you’re spending the 24 hours you get in a day.
But you can also track the expenses. Both of these features can be expanded to team level. You can use Harvest to manage the work of all team members and the expenses across the entire project.
5. FitNotes
Wait what? We were talking about top productivity apps for work. What does fitness have to do with this? – A lot!
Allow me to explain. When you focus on being more efficient on your work, you’ll want to cover all daily tasks no matter what. That’s a good thing, to some extent. But if you catch yourself taking your work home and working way beyond normal hours, you’ve got a problem. This is a very common issue among freelancers, who earn more when they do more work. Such attitude will quickly lead you to a burnout. It’s not healthy. You may earn more money, but you’ll lose your sanity.
You need time for your mind and body on a daily basis. Regular fitness activity is an absolute must! Your personal productivity is just as important as your professional productivity. FitNotes will keep you accountable. By entering the details of your daily fitness activity, you’ll stay motivated to keep it up.
6. Trello
Setting priorities – that’s the most efficient way of becoming more productive. When you have too many tasks on your list and you can’t complete them all in a day, you’ll have to organize them according to importance. You’ll focus on priorities first and you’ll schedule the other tasks for later. You’ll still complete them by the deadline, but they won’t affect your efficiency on other tasks.
Trello is an app that lets you set priorities and break down the tasks into actionable steps. It’s a great tool for teamwork! You can assign tasks between members and get updates on their completion.
7. Strides
Do you know what’s preventing you from becoming more productive? – Your bad habits. You like to sleep in, so you skip exercising in the morning. You’re slow with the work because you like to check Instagram too often. You don’t get enough sleep because you love watching TV shows late at night. Those bad habits undermine your success. It’s time to start working on them.
Strides is a great app for tracking habits. You set goals that revolve around developing good habits instead of practicing your bad ones. Your Dashboards shows the progress you make, and it keeps your daily goals in one place. It gives you charts that show your success rates. That’s the feature that motivates most people to get better.
Did You Choose the Best Productivity Apps for Your Needs?
Different productivity apps will address different needs, so you’ll probably need to start using a few. Did you already recognize the ones you like? The list above covers most aspects of your productivity, so it’s a good starting point.
Most of these apps offer you a trial period. You can check them out first, so you’ll pay only if you like them. That’s being productive!
James Dorian is a technical copywriter. He is a tech geek who knows a lot about modern apps that will make your work more productive. James reads tons of online blogs on technology, business, and ways to become a real pro in our modern world of innovations.
