5 Apps to Maximize Your Productivity

Mastering the art of productivity can be tricky — one slip on Friday and you feel like you’ve undone an entire week’s worth of work. Luckily, there are a myriad of apps on the market to help boost both your output and efficiency.

Any.do (Android | iOS)

When a project seems overwhelming, start by breaking everything down into bite-sized tasks and make a to-do list. And when it comes to to-do lists, Any.do is heads above the rest. Any.do lets you throw your work projects, family activities, and personal tasks into one convenient place — and then handle them like a boss.

You can share your lists with family, friends, and colleagues to delegate tasks and promote teamwork. You can also set reminders and repeating tasks. Pair all this with the Any.do moment — a feature that encourages you to review your daily tasks — and you can tackle anything.

Dropbox (Android | iOS)

Dropbox is easily one of the best online storage tools available. Files, documents, photos, and other data that you can save on your computer and then access anywhere, from any device. And, much like Google Docs, you can work on files with teammates in real time — without emailing back and forth.

Evernote (Android | iOS)

Any list of productivity apps would be incomplete without Evernote; it’s pretty much the quintessential app. The list of things Evernote can do is almost endless, but here’s a few of the most important. You can:

• Save PDFs, documents, notes from client conversations, etc. to specific client notebooks and tag them accordingly.
• Do client research by creating a note and adding project photos, bulleted plans, tables for client contact information, recorded conversations, and follow-up checklists.
• Save bank statements, expense reports, and even use Evernote’s optical character recognition (OCR) to take photos of receipts that are instantly searchable. A quick note on OCR — you will need a high quality camera to make the most of this Evernote feature, such as the 12-megapixel camera on the iPhone 6s.
• Share notebooks with your team and collaborate without resorting to email.

The Evernote app is constantly being updated to work with a variety of apps, operating systems, and hardware — check Evernote’s App Center and news page to learn more.

Google Docs Suite

If you’re a Google Drive user, you’ll want to be able to access your files on the go. This can be done with the Google Drive app — but you’ll have to download the Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps to edit them or create new files.

Free to use, with documents created not counting against your overall storage allotment in Google, it’s no brainer. Plus, unlike Microsoft’s office apps, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides don’t require an annual subscription.

Google Docs (Android | iOS)

Google Sheets (Android | iOS)

Google Slides (Android | iOS)

Pocket (Android | iOS)

It’s not fun having to make the choice between reading an interesting article and getting your work done. Thankfully, the folks at Pocket are looking out for us. Pocket is an offline reading tool that allows you save articles and web pages to the cloud for later reading. It even removes all the clutter from articles and allows you to adjust text settings for easier reading.

Amping up your productivity isn’t always easy, but at least you don’t have to do it alone. Hop over to your app store and download a few of these happy helpers and set out on your way to a better work day.

Liz Greene is a dog loving, beard envying, pop culture geek from the beautiful city of trees, Boise, Idaho. You can catch up with her latest misadventures on Instant Lo or follow her on Twitter @LizVGreene.