You have your phone within reach at all times for a reason – you actually can not live without it. You can do a lot with your phone these days. So much that actually calling people on it is probably the feature you use the least. Texting, checking emails, surfing the net, listening to music, playing highly addictive games that kill way more time than you’d like to admit. But there are apps that don’t just take up space on your home screen. Apps that you will actually use on a daily basis, and will hopefully make your life easier. Here are 10 Smart Phone apps that will kick your level of productivity into high gear. Maybe you will even have a few minutes left over at the end of the day to get a little candy crushing in.
Trying to coordinate between a bunch of different people can be time consuming. It isn’t convenient to have to switch to multiple conversations to tell everyone the same thing. WhatsApp lets you have group conversations, and every message is free, even international messages, when you are connected to WiFi. Other similar apps are eBuddy, andYahoo! Messenger, among others.
Dropbox
Say you are out at a dinner meeting and you need to show a client a document. Instead of saving it directly on your phone, you can save it to Dropbox, which is an internet-based file hosting service, and open it with your Smart Phone app. Saving everything to Dropbox eliminates the need to meticulously plan ahead exactly what files you will need and when. You will have them all, wherever you go.
QR Scanner
Those little square, squiggly codes that are on everything nowadays? You need an app to scan them to get the full benefit. The QR Scanner app will easily scan every code you come across. Some bring you to a website where you can enter a contest (because if you don’t do it right away, you will forget) and some will take you directly to the place online where you can buy a product you just saw an ad for. What could be easier?
Mailtracker
Everyone hates waiting around for someone to email them back about something urgent. Now, with Apple’s Mailtracker app you can actually see if someone read your email yet, and how long they had it open. This may seem seem a little cyber-stalkerish, but at least now you won’t have to debate whether to email them again, or just press call on that thing attached to your hand – your phone.
Focus Lock
If you use an Android, and find yourself getting distracted by all those un-important push notifications, this is the perfect app when you need to buckle down and get stuff done. You can select certain apps to “lock down” and set a timer for when you are allowed to use them again. No more sports scores, no more Facebook notifications, just the basics. At least for as long as you want.
ETA
You probably know the general amount of time it takes you to get to the places you go every day, factoring in a little leeway for traffic and construction delays. But what about when you have an appointment across town, or you are meeting friends for dinner in their hood? This app will use current traffic data to spit out the exact amount of time you will need to get to your desired destination. You will never be late again. Well, at least not because of traffic.
Full
Everyone should have goals that are separate from work, and Full will help you organize and keep track of those too. For example, you could be trying to run 15 miles over a set amount of time, or finish a book before your next book club meeting. Seeing the progress towards your goal will help motivate you to finish, because no one likes seeing their failures staring back at them from their phone screen.
Zite
A magazine tailored to your specific interests, Zite brings together your viewing, liking, and sharing activity on all social media channels, blogs, websites to create a unique feed just for you. The more you use it, the better it understand your preferences, and it is easy to share articles, etc. directly from the app. The best part is the app looks like a real magazine, but curated especially for you.
Due
With all the things on your to-do list racing through your mind all day, you are bound to forget something. So create a reminder that will pop up later, telling you to send that email, or get to that meeting, or you know, eat lunch. The trick is to actually do what the reminder tells you, instead of putting it off until later. If you are a snooze button pusher, this app may not do you any good.
HootSuite
There are too many social media networks for our own good these days, but you can pretend you only have one with HootSuite. The social media “dashboard” will allow you to post an update once and have it upload to all the accounts you want it to. Perfect for the writer who needs to promote themselves on a daily basis. Can’t miss a single follower!
