Are you looking to increase your productivity? There are literally thousands of choices, so it can be difficult to make the right choice.
Here mentioned are the nine top productivity apps that will help you do more work in less time. These apps are not the most popular, but they could be new ones you haven’t tried. This article will discuss the best productivity apps every freelancer, small business owner, and enterprise should have in the next year.
What are productivity apps?
Productivity is personal when it comes down to an individual. Depending on the scope of your work and the workflow you use, certain techniques may work better than others. The best and most efficient way to increase productivity is to have the right tools and productivity apps in your arsenal.
There are many ways to get productive with productivity apps. This list includes apps that allow you to take notes, collaborate with others in real-time, and more.
We’re going to be reviewing the top productivity apps available today. We will also help you with the benefits and disadvantages of each app so that you can make the right choice.
If you are wondering if productivity apps really work, we have good news! Although it is easy to become overwhelmed by all the productivity apps out there, you really only need one or two to reap the benefits.
Some software comes with a free version, while others require you to have a credit card. No matter which option you choose, we want to help you realize the return on your investment in one of this software.
Top Productivity Apps
Let’s dive into the top productivity apps available to make 2022 the best year yet!
1. Trello
Trello is a project management tool that aces task management. You can organize your projects into cards (also called Kanban board). This allows you to quickly see what’s been done, who is working on what tasks, and when due dates will be. These cards resemble digital sticky notes. Every team member together or individually can collaborate on projects. Zapier and Salesforce are just two of the many web apps you can integrate.
Trello works best for small teams who don’t require extensive team reporting, customer support on weekends, or wikis (webpages) for the whole company. The noteworthy feature that helps increase your productivity by automating your workflow is Butler. It will analyze your actions and recommend automation to help you eliminate the tedious setup every week.
Key features:
- You can easily drag and drop cards to see who is doing what.
- You can add various details to one card such as comments and priorities, and attachments.
- Sync Slack with Outlook, Gmail, Salesforce, Jira, and many other integrations.
Pros:
- Customizable Kanban boards
- Detail cards with information on deadlines, priorities, and completion status.
- The interface that is visually appealing and intuitive
Cons:
- Trello can feel overwhelming if there are too many subtasks. This is where a more advanced project management tool such as Notion or click comes in.
2. Todoist
Without a to-do app, we couldn’t publish our article on the best productivity apps. It’s a task manager and to-do list for freelancers, and small businesses. You don’t need a paper list of to-dos instead, you can store it in the cloud. This allows you to keep track of your due dates on any device: mobile, laptop, desktop or iPad.
Key Features:
- Simple interface — Get a clear view of the tasks that need to be done today and in the coming days using color-coded due dates
- You can add unlimited details to a task list item.
- Todoist can provide progress reports. You can set the number of tasks that you want to complete each day and Todoist will notify you when you have reached your goal.
- Todoist will let you know if you have too many tasks scheduled in one day. This will encourage you to change your priorities.
Pros:
- It offers a simple, minimalistic user interface.
- Integrates with calendar apps such as Slack or Google Calendar to ensure you don’t miss any important due dates.
- Natural language processing will complete details when you enter certain keywords.
- It is compatible with Mac, Windows, and Android.
Cons:
- Todoist offers paid versions with more advanced features. However, this platform is still best for personal use or freelancers or small businesses that have simple workflows.
3. QuickScan App
Easy document scanning and storage app. This app is useful for students, professionals, business owners, and freelance workers. This QuickScan app is useful for scanning documents and using a phone camera. It features a beautiful UI and many useful features. QuickScan, an online document scanner that is easy to use, can help you make your office paperless.
Relevance for remote work productivity: Remote teams may use QuickScan App in order to scan PDFs and share them quickly with other members of the team. The app is free to install and additional features can be purchased in-app for free
Key Features:
- OCR PDF to Text Conversion feature allows you to scan anything and convert it into text. This makes it easy to search for the word you need in long scanned documents.
- Multilingual scanning app available in French, German, Hindi, etc
- Preset Filter removes shadows from images
- Supports multiple page scanning into a single file
- Data security is guaranteed by an in-built security feature
- Edit and Annotate — E signatures stamps highlighting text, etc
Pros
- Application for lightweight
- It’s easy to share scanned documents using iCloud, Drive, and Email.
- Cloud-storage makes it easy to access documents from anywhere in the world.
- In-app document editing
- Optimized to produce high-quality scan outputs
- High-speed document scanner
Cons:
- Paid versions are a bit more expensive
- AI cannot automatically transfer contacts from Business Cards. Can scan the Business card to edit contacts.
4. Evernote
Evernote is a popular note-taking app that can help you increase your productivity. It is open to all professionals.
Let’s face it, notes can become overwhelming if you just look at a wall full of text. Evernote allows you to find your “productivity happy spot” by using more features than their note-taking tool. You can make your interface more appealing and less overwhelming with additional features such as their task list, pinned notes option, and calendar tool.
What you could also do is, assign due dates, mark important notes and create reminders from your notes. And, also upload screenshots and even save whole web pages without ads.
Key features:
- You can create and assign tasks using the notes that you take. This ensures that no information is lost, unlike in physical notebooks.
- Integrates with Google Calendar and Google Drive, Slack. Gmail.
Pros:
- It offers a visually appealing interface for users.
- Color-coded labels enable you to keep track of your thoughts and deadlines
- Sign up using your email address at work
- Available on Android and Apple devices
Cons
- It can be overwhelming if you are a beginner at it.
- Task-creating and widget-adding are only available to those who subscribe to their paid plan.
5. RescueTime
Distracted by notifications is not a new phenomenon, even though we are now living in a world where remote workers are the norm.. Depending on the layout of your workspace, your Windows or macOS may be more distracting than your iPhone. As per Statistics, employees are interrupted on average every three minutes and five seconds. This amounts to six hours of lost productivity due to distractions.
RescueTime is your rescue. RescueTime is a self-described “revolutionary productivity assistant” that will help you stay more productive, focused, and motivated throughout your work hours. The time management platform appears to be very user-friendly when it comes down to staying on track with your to-do lists.
RescueTime’s intuitive interface makes it easy to set up your workflow. It also features a daily Focus Work Goal, a smart coaching feature that allows you to analyze your meeting schedule, and summaries at the end of each day.
Key features:
- RescueTime can help you create a daily Focus Work goal by accessing your meeting schedule.
- Smart coaching — It analyzes your focus, meeting schedule and gives you reminders to help keep you on track with your daily to-do list.
- Focus Sessions — You can use one of these sessions to block certain websites or notifications
- RescueTime Insights analyzes your mobile apps and sites that are most distracting to you and allows you to block them
Pros:
- It works well with Linux, Macs, and PCs, enabling browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox.
- Tracks your online and offline trends, and blocks notifications that could distract you when asked.
Cons:
- Although you can turn it off, some people might find offline tracking intrusive to privacy.
- The iPhone app also requires that you turn on your GPS. This seems unnecessary to us and could be a waste of our battery.
6. Notion
While companies are still trying to figure out how to balance having employees at work and working from home, project managing tools are essential. Notion project management tools are like walking up to your coworker’s desk and giving them updates on projects. Notion allows you to receive status updates, share files with your team members, create task management checklists, and much more.
Key features:
- You can now connect all your projects and teams in Notion.
- You can create your own workflow using their drag-and-drop feature.
- Pre-made templates — In Notion, you can access thousands of community-made events and templates so that you don’t have to spend time creating your own.
- You can use their thousands of integration options, including LastPass and Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, LastPass, Slack, and many more.
Pros:
- You can cut down on back-and-forth emailing by organizing your notes and documents in a way that is most convenient for you and your team.
- Cross-platform compatibility with Mac and Windows desktop apps, as well as a mobile app for iOS or Android
Cons:
- It can take time and effort to create a custom workspace, especially if you are looking for team collaboration.
- It’s hard to find the exact page or file you are looking for. The navigation options need to be improved.
7. Toggl
How will you know if you have improved your productivity if you don’t have a way to measure it? Toggl Track makes it easy to measure productivity. Toggl Track is a time-tracking app that automatically tracks your use of each app and browser window. It integrates with over 100 workflow apps and has a reporting feature.
Toggl Track allows up to five users to use the majority of its features free.
Pros
- You will see a significant improvement in productivity and employee time management.
- It’s also great for project tracking and management. This will ensure that all projects arrive on time.
- Toggl will provide detailed reports to help you identify the reasons why projects take longer than expected.
Cons
- Toggl may not be the best choice if you’re looking for a comprehensive piece of software with a broad range of features beyond time tracking. Toggl does not offer to schedule or invoice.
- It is more expensive than most other time-tracking apps on the marketplace.
8. ClickUp
ClickUp is a leader in productivity apps, with enterprise users that include Google and IBM. ClickUp’s goal is to be “One app that replaces them all”.It is a contender for the title of best productivity app with its many integrations with other apps, such as task management, document management, real-time chat, and 24/7 live support.
Pros
- It helps project teams plan, visualize and manage their plans using multiple views.
- It can be customized so agile software developers teams have access to the platform for bug tracking and sprint management.
- They can also create Scrum dashboards, view the progress of different agile charts, and even make changes. Developers can collaborate on code and automate a sprint point process, highlight syntax, integrate natively with Git, and collaborate on code.
Cons
- Too many ClickUp functions and customization options.
- UI design needs to be improved. Users often wonder about the purpose of the empty spaces and panes.
- The text is too small and the colors are not bright enough to provide proper contrast.
9. Ayoa
Do you ever feel like your mind has become so cluttered that it is impossible to find your way? This app combines task management with mind mapping. You can break down large tasks and then plot them on an AI-powered mindmap. Anyone is ideal for small and busy teams and individuals. It includes all the project management platform features from sharing, deadlines, and task prioritization.
Pros
- The great feature set, elaborate shortcuts (quickly entering data), great options to use visual indicators like icons, numbers, etc
- Has the ability to export data and a pleasing visual appearance. It also allows for easy file management. This makes it very simple to organize multiple mind maps.
Cons
- Cloud option has been replaced by it — this does not support the most features of iMindMap yet.
- It can be difficult to zoom in and maintain an overview conclusion
Key Takeaways
The first step in using a productivity tool is to find out what you are looking for and how you like to work. Maybe you need support with team collaboration. You can identify your needs to help you select the best productivity app.