And a App-y New Year

Four apps to enhance productivity in 2023

By Katrina McDowell on Dec 19, 2022 in Technology

It’s the end of the year, and you are starting to feel sluggish. Scrolling social media endlessly or putting off tasks are everyday bad habits that society picks up in December. Why not start now with some New Years’ resolutions and download some productivity apps that can help get you out of that slump? We’ve done some research and found a few apps that can help. Here are four apps to increase productivity for the end of the year and the start of next year:

1. Todoist App (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Chrome, Safari, Firefox). Todoist is a task management tool that promises to make complex to-do lists manageable. This app is for individuals, helping you track your tasks and ensure nothing gets forgotten.

Key features of Todoist include task management, prioritizing tasks, project goals, and reports. Todoist offers a slick, cross-platform interface that makes it quick and easy to manage functions if you struggle to keep on top of your to-do list.

2. Trello App (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and web). Trello is like Todoist, except it is for collaborative teams. Tasks are added and organized on “to-do,” “going,” and “done” statuses, which helps teams keep track of progress. Tasks can be grouped into boards and cards, which contain multiple functions in themselves. Individual duties can be assigned to groups or team members with deadlines and checklists.

Key features of Trello include project management, to-do lists, Trello boards, working with anyone, and instant messaging. Instant messaging makes it easy for teams to communicate and collaborate, especially in today’s world of working from home.

3, Zapier App (Windows, Mac, iOS, Andriod, and web). Zapier is a simple automation tool that can save teams vast amounts of time on repetitive tasks and switching between different apps. Zapier sends data between apps like Trello and Outlook, so emails are automatically sent out when anything changes in Trello. Add all these automations together, and your team will collectively spend much less time on menial tasks to focus on more critical ones.

Key features of Zapier include the integration of apps, automation of tasks, and custom automation. Zapier is a very gentle introduction to business automation, but it can impact the day-to-day tasks that often slow down collaborative teams.

4. Forest (iOS and Android). This is more of a quirky app to keep you from scrolling social media all day. It is designed, so you stop spending so much time on your phone and/or tablet. Forest essentially gamifies downtime away from your mobile devices. When you want to focus, you plant a “tree,” and the more time you spend away from your smart device, the more it grows. Spend enough time away from your phone to produce an entire forest. The best perk of this app is that you can earn virtual coins by staying focused on your tasks and use them to grow real-life trees from the app.

Forest key features include productivity, gamification, and growing actual trees. Forest not only increases a bit of fun into productivity but also helps you make the world a better place while improving your workflow. So far, Forest has planted over a million trees!

We hope these apps have given you some inspiration so you can get your productivity game up. These are here to help productivity and not add stress to completing everything on your to-do lists.