As a busy professional, you are always swamped with work and often find yourself being pulled in different directions.
You struggle with replying to emails, keeping track of time, scheduling meetings, sharing files, sending follow up messages, deadlines and find it hard to complete simple tasks.
Doing all of these by yourself can be quite overwhelming, but you don’t have to do it all alone.
That is what we have apps for.
Apps are quite serviceable, and with the right ones on your phone, you can go from disorganized to organized in minutes. In this article, we are going to be looking at 27 apps that will make your life easier and help you stay on top of your game.
Note that, every app on this list is equally helpful, but most of them are designed to help out with specific needs and areas. Each app has been categorized to show you where and how it helps.
Let's look at the uses of each of these apps. These are apps that center around teamwork, communication and collaboration and enable you to do all these, using only one platform.
1. Slack
Use Slack to set up channels, projects, and any topic you want for your team. Its features include moving across various channels, private messaging, file sharing, and inviting people to join the app. It has about 1,500 app integrations, with connectors for Google Drive, Trello, and your other online services.
Slack is the ultimate team application, and 10 million other people, strongly agree. It is used globally by organizations and professionals in 150 countries, so if you have a branch in another country, this app is the perfect medium for teams from across branches to stay connected with each other.
79% of business owners agree that Slack improves overall work culture at their organizations because employees use it to bond over serious work as well as casual chats.
600,000 organizations that use Slack, attested to undergoing changes since using it. There has been a 48.6% reduction in mails after introducing Slack since instant messages replaced emails.
Teams agree that work productivity went up to 32% since Slack, mainly because of easy access to documents on integrated apps, no time is wasted searching for files.
Face to face meetings reduced by 25.1% because of group chats on Slack. All you need do is create a group chat, invite members, and start your meeting.
Although helpful, Slack has its downsides. One is that, while it draws workers’ attention to their phones to check for messages, it, in turn, takes away their focus off work. It has been reported by some workers that productivity goes up by 5% when there is a Slack outage because they focus solely on their work rather than check their phones simultaneously.
Price: Free with available premium plans
2.Trello
Trello is a project management app that you can use to set up project boards, add tasks to them, and assign tasks to your team members. Use it to manage abandoned projects, confusion as to who projects were assigned to and stagnation amongst your team. It is easy to use and customizable for a team of any size.
As the project manager, Trello gives you control over a project, allowing you to track each project, mark the incomplete ones which in turn notifies the person it was assigned to, and track the progress stage of every task.
In addition, it can connect to other apps like; Slack, Dropbox, Evernote, etc. and is synced to all your devices. It is globally used by 1 million teams and has over 100 available powerups, few of which are analytic and reporting, automation, board utilities, and communication and collaboration, and lots more.
In Trello, any user can add a powerup, however, the teammates decide, the types of power-ups they can add, what teams can create a powerup and which sources attachments are uploaded from.
Trello is free, but the option to upgrade to business class or Trello enterprise is available. Business-class is for teams with up to 100 members and the enterprise is for larger teams.
Price: Free with premium plans available
3. Asana
With Asana you can create project boards, that help you know who is working on what project and the project status. Some of its features include; list management, co-authoring, quick page loading, searching, filtering, chart notifications, developer extensions, third-party integration, and more.
In Asana, you create workspaces to invite others to work as a team on a project and assign tasks to members of your workspace or guests. The task is shown under different views like completed, incomplete, task by the due dates, tasks by assignees, all tasks, lists, calendars, progress, and files.
Asana can also be used for individual work. The Personal Projects folder is for you to work on your own project, prioritized under ‘My Tasks’ private section.
For free users, the members are limited to 15 per workspace, no limitations to the number of guests and users can leave whenever they want and can be reinvited too.
The team is updated on projects with several conversation threads and when there is a change, followers will receive a notification in My Inbox private sector.
Currently, Asana has more than 2 million active users depending on it for managing and tracking their projects.10,000 premium users, 140,000 companies of different fields and grows up to 10,000 new users every month.
Price: Free with premium plans available.
Teleport is a suite of apps that help people find the best places to work globally based on determinants like the quality of life indicators, salaries, and other factors. Sundial is just one app from the Teleport suite.
Sundial is used to collaborate with your teammates who are in other countries. It allows you to track your their location, working hours and time zones so that you know when they are available, and when they are not.
To make it easy for your team to reach you and vice-versa, you will need to edit your availability on the app, so that they will know what time you prefer to be called and which days you can have a meeting.
To schedule a call on Sundial, simply paste the call URL and once your team is there, bookmark the timezone view. There are also embedded maps that show the locations of each team member and how distributed across the world they are.
If you install and enable location tracking, Sundial will know your location for the team map. For privacy purposes, the app map can show your city, but not your exact address.
Teleport Sundial integrates with other Teleport apps like Teleport startup cities mobile app. If your teammates have this app, all they need to do is open it when they are in a new city and the team will get their new location.
Price: Free
5. Skype
If you and your team don’t work in the same building or are in different countries, you can use Skype to stay in touch with them. It is the perfect app for online conferencing and video call.
It can schedule video meetings, make voice calls and create group chats to aid you to tackle issues with your trusted teammates.
Location is no barrier as Skype has features to make you feel like you are at the same place as your team. With it, you can easily get your team meetings in session by simply sharing a link, collaborate with up to 250 people by; recording meetings, sharing your screen, commenting on powerpoints, use whiteboards to draw and edit together, answer polls and Q&A, and use built-in instant messages to make your meetings productive.
On Skype, you can manage your calling options by using advanced methods such as muting participants and transfer presenter control after sharing your presentation. The amazing Camera features on Skype like auto-cropping and head tracking, help your team focus just on your face when making a video call.
Other features on Skype include; an unlimited number of meetings with up to 10 people without a subscription, uploading powerpoint, set up and join from any device, and custom-built accessories like; certified USB speakerphones, live subtitles, headsets, and HD cameras.
Price: Free video conferencing but charges for phone calls.
6. Google Docs
Google Docs is one of the numerous apps on the G Suite. Designed to let you work on documents, slides and sheets together with your team, by sharing the document link to their email accounts to invite them to work with you at the same time. You can even comment on or edit a particular part of the document together, thereby making collaboration easier.
It has an offline function that if synced, allows you to keep working when you are not connected to the internet, and it saves once you are back online. You don’t have to worry about losing any unsaved work as it automatically saves to your Google drive as you work.
Google Docs is convenient and you can access your files on any of your devices, whether laptop or phone, this option allows you to continue working on the same project at home without having to copy it on a flash drive or send to your email. As long as your email account is logged in, you will get the file.
Price: Free, but GSuite is a premium service.
7. Basecamp
Basecamp is similar to Trello and Asana, in that you can use it to manage multiple projects, to-do lists, message boards, schedules, and shared files. Nevertheless, what makes this app stand out from both of its counterparts is how easy it is to use and its remarkable customer support system.
The App helps you get caught up on things you missed, allows you full control over who sees projects, it is mistake-proof and recovers things you accidentally deleted, documents your progress from beginning to end, collaborate with clients and colleagues, and more.
Over 1,366 companies use Basecamp,8,000,000 projects managed with it, and a strong customer support team that is ready to assist you.
Price: Free with premium plans available.
Apps For Automation
The apps in this category are automated and handle tasks that don’t necessarily require your input. They do the work for you, literally.
8. Zapier
Zapier is an app that rounds off the other apps on your phone and allows you to connect them creatively. It integrates those apps and helps you save time by enabling you to run them solely from the Zapier app.
With it, you can set up “triggers” which are specific actions within the app you choose. Example of a trigger is ordering the Notes app to remind you of a task on your to-do list. Once you have hit a trigger, you can then configure an action you want the app to perform. It could be to post blog entries to social media, backup draft or add events to your calendar.
Zapier is an automated app and any tasks you set up on the other apps with it, can run from 5 to 15 minutes. Basically, you can focus on work and let Zapier do those other things for you. Bonus points if you use up to 250 zaps at a time, you can automate 50,000 tasks.
248 companies and 316 stack share developers, use Zapier and you should too.
Price: Free With Premium Plans Available
9. IFTTT
IFTTT is an acronym for If This Then That. It is an app that helps you connect all of your different apps and devices. How it works is, when you sign up for a free account, you can turn on Applets that helps your apps and devices work together to do things they couldn’t do separately.
For example, with IFTTT you can back up your Instagram photos to Dropbox, use your phone to turn on your television or your lights, use your phone reminder, to remind a Slack channel about a meeting. Its work is to get all your apps to work together as one.
Price: Free
10. Todoist
Todoist is a to-do list app that you can use to set up as many to-do lists as you like. It keeps you on your toes, by reminding you of the tasks you are to do and encourages you to build positive habits through reinforcement and to prioritise goals. It provides you with charts and graphs that track your progress.
Over 5 million grateful people use Todoist, including leaders of leading organizations and they all testify to feeling more in control of their lives.
Download Todoist and never forget anything again, keep track of things, complete tasks and enjoy peace of mind.
Price: Free with premium options available
11. Pocket
Every day, we come across interesting content on the internet, which we cannot read immediately because of work. That’s where Pocket comes in.
The Pocket app allows you to download and save content from any page, publication or app to your phone so that you can enjoy them at your leisure time. You can also fill the app with things you wish to learn and take your time to pick the information apart.
There are options to read offline or online.
3 million users who already have information in their Pocket! Join them and never miss your favourite content again.
Price: Free with premium plans available
12. LastPass
Have you noticed that every time you sign up for a new app or page, you are required to put in a username and password? With so many usernames and passwords, for various passwords, sometimes you could forget which one logs into which account.
Mishaps like this are why you need Lastpass. Lastpass is a password manager app that generates secure and unique passwords, store them safely and bring up autofill whenever you want to log into any of your accounts. Additionally, your multiple accounts, including WIFI passwords are stored in your Lastpass account.
No need for you to keep changing your password whenever you forget it, or keep getting locked out or blocked from accounts.
Lastpass keeps 13.5 million users and 47,000 businesses’ passwords safe and it will do the same for you.
Price: Free with premium options
13. Evernote
With Evernote, you can create digital notes, create your calendar, jot down important points, create to-do lists and takedown voice notes. It organises your business expenses, allows you to store notes and files, take screenshots, record audios, backup your notes with media files, share the notebook with other people, and access your stored information from synced devices.
Evernote has 225 million users.
Price: Free with premium plans available.
14. Google Keep
Google Keep is another top-notch note-taking app for people who love Google apps. It lets you sync your notes across your mobile phone, but there is also a Chrome extension available and you can access your notes from Google Docs.
It has reminders, labels that categorize your notes, archive in case you want to push down a note and you can also trash a piece of information if you please. It also has an available theme for customizing.
Google keep hit the half a billion mark in installs, with 500,000 million people, downloading the app on play store.
Price: Free
Time management is paramount when it comes to business. If you don’t manage your time, you can use the time meant for one task to do another. These apps will help you prevent that.
15. Toggl
This time-keeping app monitors the time you actually spend working. With it, you can know how much time you spend on each project and your idle hours. At the end of the day, you calculate and see if you have been managing your time wisely.
You can also use Toggl to know how much your time is worth, by breaking down your hours by projects, clients, and tasks to see what’s making you money and what is holding you back.
Above all, this app helps you make smarter choices, follow a schedule and it works wherever you go.
Price: Free with premium plans available.
16. RescueTime
Just like Toggle, Rescue Time also helps you to focus solely on your work, by calculating how much time you spend working. However, what makes RescueTime different is that it has features that block websites that could pose a distraction to you and you can configure notifications to let you know when you complete a project in good time.
It shows you how much time you are spending and prioritize your tasks so that you focus on urgent ones first.
Join 20 million+ people to take back control of your time with this app.
Price: Free with premium plans available.
17. FocusBooster
FocusBooster is an app that is based on the Pomodoro Technique. Pomodoro technique is when you work diligently on your tasks without distractions, but you take 25 minutes breaks in-between.
Just like Pomodoro, FocusBooster helps you focus on assignments, but it allows you to take short breaks while keeping track of time spent working and time spent on breaks.
It helps you organize your tasks, curb procrastination and stay focused. 200,000 million people use this app to stay productive.
Price: Free with premium plans available.
18. Freedom
Freedom makes sure that you don’t get distracted as you work online, by blocking distracting websites and apps. No more distractions from social media, games and other apps, while working. You can configure it to block specific platforms whenever you start working and sync it across all of your devices.
1,000,000 Freedom users report to gaining an average of 2.5 productive times each day.
Price: Free with premium plans available
At work, you juggle a lot of information and it is easy for you to forget them. These apps will help you store and access information more efficiently.
19. Dropbox
Dropbox frees you from the shackles of walking around with your files, flash drives and hard drives, by simply allowing you to store files in the cloud and share them with your colleagues, clients and boss, thereby making collaboration easier.
Also, If you sync it to your devices, you can also access those files on any device you are using, whether phone or laptop. Storing files on the cloud with Dropbox makes it great for backing up data.
Other of its apps like Dropbox Business gives you options to collaborate on files and control who has access to them, it is currently used by 400,000 teams. And Dropbox paper, allows you to brainstorm ideas with your team.
Dropbox currently has 13.6 million satisfied users, 400 billion content and 1.2 billion files are uploaded to it daily.
Price: Free with premium plans available.
20. Google Drive
Google Drive is also part of Google’s GSuite. It stores all sorts of information from movies, to files, songs, pictures, and even Whatsapp messages are backed up on it. It has the capacity to store old information dated to years back, including new ones and categorizes them for you.
What’s more, is that it stores files shared with you by other people and has amazing storage capacity.
Price: Free with additional space available for purchase.
Social media management can be demanding, time-consuming and it can be hard to go from an app to another app posting and tracking performance. These apps can do all that for you, while you relax.
21. Buffer
Buffer gives you a general dashboard that connects to all the social media platforms you added to it. It supports, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and other similar platforms.
From the comfort of your general Buffer dashboard, you can publish posts, schedule posts, reply to comments and track the performance of your publications and page interactions.
Use Buffer to grow your brand and build your audience, plan and collaborate with your team. Last year, 1,415,697 users created new accounts on Buffer.
Price: Free with premium plans available.
22. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is your go-to social media handler and assistant that you can count on it to improve your online presence. It does everything from posting to scheduling, to managing your page for you. It keeps tabs on all your social media platform, making sure all your posts are scheduled accordingly and that your page drives enough traffic.
Over 16 million users trust this app.
Price: Free with premium options available.
Meeting other professionals and clients don’t have to be tedious and difficult. Just use these apps.
23. LinkedIn
Let’s be honest, you can’t be serious about networking, searching for a job or looking for hire, if you don’t have LinkedIn on your phone, where you can easily access it. It is the app to be on and that’s where 80% of the world’s population is.
LinkedIn has over 630 million users and 260 million active users.
It has 48.3% active users, that’s 100 million people you should be targeting every day and those active users are looking for content, which means they may be interested in what you are sharing.
90 million LinkedIn users are senior-level influencers and 63 million are in decision making positions. It is the most-second used the app by fortune 500 companies which mean, logging on there regularly means you can meet your ideal clients and coworkers.
87 million millennials out of 2 billion in the world, are on Linkedin and out of that 87, 11 million are in decision making positions.
And in case you were still wondering why it should be on your phone, know that 63 million unique mobile phone users are on Linkedin. Just more people for you to meet, exchange ideas with, and also go into partnership with.
Price: Free with premium options available.
24. Meetup
Meetup is an application that lets you meet people with the same tastes, interests and preferences as you create groups, as well as meet and hang out with them. It is a terrific social application that lets you connect with like-minded individuals, whether for social or business purposes.
Just choose what you like and find people who like the same things as you do, then create a community with them and go for events. You can also join more than one community.
Price: Free to sign up, but charges 15$ per month for organizers.
25. Opportunity
Opportunity is a business network app that searches for opportunities for you, based on your preferences, to help you grow your business, advance your career, create relationship and more. Opportunity generates sales for businesses, identifies qualified candidates for hiring managers, finds employment opportunities for job seekers, connects people who want to network based on shared interests and even connects professionals who wish to date, other professionals.
Price: Free with premium plans available.
Apps That Help You Scan And Send Documents
26. CamScanner
200 million people, chose this app as their go-to Scanner. Camscanner is for when you don’t have access to a scanner, but you need to scan a document.
Simply pull out your phone and take a picture of what you want to send, with the scanner or select the file from your phone gallery or document.
You can resize files and send as pdf or jpeg format. CamScanner is also handy for scanning pictures and passports too.
It has auto-enhance image quality, cropping, background and rotation features.
Price: Free with premium options available.
27. Scanner Pro
With the Scanner Pro app, you can do a lot to transform your regular document into a professional digitized version of it. Scan every type of document and even books to PDF format, fast and easy with multiple page PDF.
It has an ios in-built camera that takes clear pictures, edits the documents to give it a perfect finish. It has an optical character recognition that allows you to extract texts from scans, as well as copy and select phrases and paragraphs. Scanner pro automatically saves the scanned document to your Dropbox and deletes it from your phone’s internal storage. You can also store and organize documents on the Scanner pro, for easy access to them later. Files can be sent as PDf or JPEG to cloud, Dropbox, google drive, emails, export to photos, open in other 3rd party applications, print out and even fax them.
Price: $4.99, only available for iOS.
Conclusion:
The secret to productivity is not to be busy but to do more in less time. The apps listed in this article is a must app for professionals who want to achieve more in their life. And if you are struggling with being productive at work, you can check out this infographic on how you can increase your productivity in the workplace.
Now over to you? Which of these apps is your favorite and why?
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