10 Minutes to Regain Your Time With These iOS Apps

Smartphones and their apps are often cited amongst the biggest productivity drains known to mankind, but we firmly believe in their power to do good. All you need to do is download the right apps and be very strict about how you spend your time. That means no sneaking onto social media and news websites when you’re meant to be updating a project or adding events to your schedule!

Here are 5 of our favourite iOS productivity apps. Android users, keep an eye out for our top 5 Android productivity apps, coming soon.

Evernote (From Free)

This has featured on every productivity app blog we’ve published, and it will continue to do so unless something drastic happens. Evernote is a virtual notebook in your pocket, enabling you to save photos, web pages, videos, reminders, PDFs, documents and pretty much anything else you can think of. Everything you save can be accessed from the web, desktop or mobile versions of the app, making it incredibly easy to stay on top of things, no matter where you end up working from. The basic version of Evernote is free, with paid options available to those who require increased functionality.

Timeful (Free)

Not only will Timeful help you to keep track of the tasks you need to complete, it will also learn your habits and make suggestions on how to better manage your time. Ideal for those times when you can’t have our expert advice on hand! The more you use Timeful, the more productive it can help you become, so make it one habit you start now.

Wunderlist (Free)

Another favourite of ours, Wunderlist syncs across all of your devices, and allows you to collaborate with other team members or your family but works just as fabulously when you’re working alone.

Things (£6.99)

Much as we are advocates of keeping things as simple as possible, sometimes life is too complicated for a basic to-do list and this is where Things comes into its own.  What we love most is the ease at which it combines powerful features with ease of use. No wasted time!

Day One (£2.99)

If you want to keep a photographic memoir of your days for blogging or website purposes, Day One is an excellent app for the job. Record your life as you go and keep it all in one handy place for when you next need it. Day One lets you sync with Dropbox or iCloud and export your journals as PDF

cushion the impact  provides award winning personal and virtual assistance and customised lifestyle management for hard working and hard living individuals and small business owners.  We know there aren’t enough hours in the day, so let us help you live an organised, efficient, & fulfilling life. Take a deep breath & call us today.  Your personal service awaits!!

Top 5 Android Productivity Apps

Work smarter, not harder! It may be one of those annoying office-speak phrases but it is very relevant to today’s blog. Most of us have smartphones and they often serve as a fantastic procrastination tool. Well, they would be a fantastic tool if procrastination was what we were after, but we’re actually looking to drastically reduce it and embrace productivity! Luckily, with a few tweaks of your smartphone habits, you can transform your procrastination skills into excellent productivity skills. All you need are the right apps.

Back in March we published our top ten iPhone productivity apps – Part 1 and Part 2. Even as an Android user, it’s well worth having a look at those blogs as many of the apps are also available for your operating system.

For now, here are five great Android apps for you to try.

TurboScan (£1.20) 

TurboScan could come in very handy if you work away from your desk a lot. Use your phone or tablet as a scanner and create PDF copies of documents, receipts, notes and anything else you need to keep a record of. Once scanned, you can email the scanned items to yourself or upload them to an online account.

ZenDay (Free) 

Described by the developers as a GPS of your life, ZenDay is a to-do list and organiser with a difference. Floating tasks are automatically rescheduled into spaces in your diary so you don’t need to find the time – the app will do it for you! A truly forward-thinking app.

focus@will (Free/$4 per month) 

Love listening to music as you work? Focus@will contains a playlist devised in collaboration with neuroscientists at UCLA to make you more productive as you listen. There are plenty of genres on offer and scores of songs to help you get into “the Zone”. 100 minutes playtime for free, $4 per month or $35 per year for unlimited use.

RescueTime (Free/$9 per month)

This is perfect for those of us who can’t quite work out where the day has gone. RescueTime runs in the background as you work (on mobile or on desktop), then delivers the truth about your productivity once you’ve finished. See how much time you really spend on each application, website, calls and so on. You can also set daily goals and block certain websites. Free version includes basic features, the full version costs $9 per month or $72 for a year.

YouMail (Free)

Visual voicemail for your smartphone, YouMail lets you check your messages from your computer, meaning it’s no longer a disaster to leave your phone at home. See who left each message at a glance, have your voicemail converted to email, have a disconnected tone played to blocked callers, set up auto-reply text messages to callers, YouMail has it all and more.

cushion the impact  provides award winning personal and virtual assistance and customised lifestyle management for hard working and hard living individuals and small business owners.  We know there aren’t enough hours in the day, so let us help you live an organised, efficient, & fulfilling life. Take a deep breath & call us today.  Your personal service awaits!!