The 7 Must Have Apps For Work-Life Productivity

As part of my never ending quest to simplify and increase productivity in both my personal and work lives, I have tried out a good number of smartphone apps. Some of them proved to be more useful than others.

Here are the 7 apps I use every day to stay on top of, well, life:

Cozi –Best Family Organizer App

With a family of six, it’s hard to keep track of everyone’s schedules. From soccer practice to doctor appointments and family events, our calendar is jam-packed. My husband used to complain I didn’t tell him about plans ahead of time. Well, now I use Cozi to make sure we’re on top of all of our schedules. I can even share to-do lists and grocery lists with my husband (who does most of the grocery shopping). My favorite feature is the ability to send notifications to my husband’s email, as well as reminders (“Yes honey, I did tell you about going to dinner with my parents this weekend.”) I was also really excited that my kids’ school switched to a Google Calendar this year, which I was able to integrate into our Cozi account.

SWORKIT Lite – Best Fitness App

After making a million excuses for not going to the gym, I decided I needed a better solution for working out. I thought – “There must be an app for me!” That’s how I found SWORKIT. It is a fitness app that allows you to choose what to work out and for how long. Then it takes you through 30 second exercises with an in-app video showing you how to do the exercise. For me, this was perfect. It’s like having a personal trainer… but for free and in the comfort of your own home. No equipment necessary.

GrubHub – Best Food App

I know I should probably list an app that provides great recipes, but this is a post about how I increase my work-life productivity! During my downtime, bike riding with the kids or taking them to the park take precedence over home cooking. Thanks to GrubHub, I can easily order food through the app from one of my neighborhood restaurants and have it delivered right on time for dinner.

Uber – Best Travel App

Uber has changed the way I travel. Living just outside of the city, it was difficult to get a cab. Now, I love that I can call an Uber and have it at my doorstep within minutes. I love that my Uber drivers will ask whether they need to adjust the music or the air conditioning.  Best of all, whether I'm headed to my downtown office or to an evening out with my husband. I love going into the city without worrying about my car and parking!

Evernote – Best Notebook App

I think I could write an entire blog post on the many uses for Evernote. I use it for collaboration with my team by sharing specific project Notebooks, which store my screenshots, clipped webpages, relevant documents, and other notes. I also use it to manage my household by creating Notebooks for all my kids' stuff, which comes mainly in paper form. School stuff. Sports stuff. Doctor stuff. Kids come home with a lot of stuff. I also store things like receipts, flyers, and paper mail (gasp!) that I might need in the future. The tagging and OCR features allow me to quickly pull items when I need them.

Feedly – Best Newsfeed App

As an entrepreneur (and new blogger) I find it important to stay on top of the blog posts and recent news stories related to my industries and interests. Now I use Feedly to find and read content, as well as share it with my readers and followers. It takes a little bit of time to set it up with the right content, but once you do, it’s easy to open the app on your smartphone and flip through headlines, choosing what to read and share. Now I can curate content in between appointments and on the go.  

Trello - Best Workspace App

I recently started using Trello for project management in my business and found it to be a really useful visual tool. I now use Trello to manage my personal projects using the Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity system. I use Lists (Projects, Inbox, Next Actions, Waiting, Maybe) and organize my various projects. I use the app on my smartphone to add to these Lists while I’m on the go. Great blog post idea? Add it to the Inbox. That’s how this post came to be.

Do you have any apps to add to this list? What tools do you use to help manage work and life?