Top 10 Must-Have Apps for Increased Productivity

Introduction

In today’s fast-paced world, staying productive is more important than ever. With so many distractions and things competing for our attention, it’s crucial to have tools that help us focus, manage our time, and work more efficiently.

Luckily, there are some fantastic apps available that can significantly boost productivity. I’ve tested and used hundreds of options to find the top 10 must-have apps that I believe are essential for anyone looking to get more done each day.

These apps help me focus, stay organized, collaborate with others, and build habits that set me up for success. I use them daily to get the most out of my time and energy. Any professional, student, entrepreneur, or busy person needs to check out these game-changing productivity apps.

1. Todoist

Todoist is my top choice for task management and staying organized. I rely on it to keep all my tasks and projects in one place so I don’t forget anything important.

Key features:

• Add tasks with due dates and set reminders
• Organize tasks into projects and sections
• Prioritize tasks with priorities like urgent, high, or low
• Collaborate and delegate tasks to others
• Available as a mobile app and web app

I love how flexible and powerful Todoist is. It helps me break down big projects, set due dates, and stay on top of everything on my plate so I don’t get overwhelmed. The apps and integrations with other tools are fantastic too.

2. Forest

Forest is the best app for beating distractions and staying focused while working. It uses gamification to incentivize you to put your phone down and focus.

How it works:

• Set a timer for 25 minutes and start growing a tree
• If you leave the app, your tree dies. But if you stay focused, your tree fully grows.
• Over time, you build a virtual forest with all your grown trees

I’ve used Forest for years to keep myself focused while writing, reading, or doing deep work. Growing and collecting trees is rewarding and helps me avoid scrolling social media or news. The social competition features help me stay motivated too.

3. RescueTime

RescueTime helps you analyze how you spend your time and set goals to change habits. It runs in the background on your devices and tracks where your time goes.

Key features:

• See your daily and weekly time usage reports
• Set goals to spend more time on focused work
• Limit distracting websites and apps
• Get alerts when spending too much time on unproductive sites

The reports RescueTime sends me about my activity are eye-opening. I’ve used them to realize just how much time I waste some days and then set goals to reduce distractions. It’s fantastic for creating positive, productive habits long-term.

4. Trello

For collaborating with teams and managing complex projects, Trello is an invaluable app. It makes projects extremely easy to organize and understand.

How it works:

• Create digital boards for each project
• Add lists of tasks and move them through workflow stages
• Assign tasks, add due dates, attach files, and comment
• See an overview of the whole project on one board

Trello transforms how my team communicates and organizes work. I wish I had started using it sooner. The flexibility allows us to manage all types of projects, from simple checklists to multi-stage products involving dozens of people.

5. Focus@Will

Focus@Will provides personalized, AI-powered music designed to boost concentration. It’s the best background music for working I’ve found.

Key features:

• Take a test to generate a profile of your focus needs
• Receive instrumental music playlists tailored to your needs
• Music changes dynamically to keep you engaged
• Available on the web or mobile apps

I can’t work without my Focus@Will playlists. They help me tune out distractions and zone in when I need to focus intensely, whether writing, reading, or working on projects. It’s become an essential part of my workflow.

6. Freedom

Freedom is the nuclear option for blocking distractions and resisting the urge to procrastinate. It completely locks you out of the internet or certain websites for a set period of time.

How it works:

• Add sites like social media, news, or forums to your blocked list
• Set a time period to lock yourself out of those sites
• The apps and extensions make it impossible to access blocked sites

When I really need to focus, I use Freedom to keep myself away from my biggest distraction traps like Twitter. Knowing I have no access forces me to remain on task. Their phone app integration is helpful for avoiding phone distractions too.

7. Otter.ai

For collaborating with others remotely, Otter.ai has been a gamechanger. It generates transcriptions from voice conversations and records meetings.

Key features:

• Voice conversations or meetings are transcribed in real-time with great accuracy
• Transcripts are shareable, searchable, and editable
• Integrates with apps like Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, and more

Rather than trying to take copious notes in meetings, I use Otter to record and transcribe everything for me. It frees me up to focus on the conversation and capture all key details that I can reference later. It’s great for collaboration.

8. Loop Habit Tracker

Loop Habit Tracker helps build consistently positive habits and break bad ones. You track progress on habits you want to build like reading before bed.

Key features:

• Add any habit you want to build or break
• Track how consistently you complete them each day
• Set reminders to complete habits
• View simple visual progress reports

I’ve built so many great daily habits like journaling using Loop. The reminders and visible progress tracking motivate me to stick with positive habits long-term until they become automatic. It integrates with my calendar too.

9. Pocket

Pocket helps me save articles, videos, and links for later reading. I use it daily so I can stay focused instead of getting distracted by interesting content.

Key features:

• One-click saving of any article, page, or video
• Syncs across all devices
• Tags for organizing saved content
• Text-to-speech for listening to articles later

Pocket has transformed my reading habits. No longer do I lose time clicking on links that divert me. I save everything to Pocket and catch up on reading later when I have free time. It makes me more intentional about reading.

10. Google Calendar

Lastly, I rely heavily on Google Calendar to manage my schedule. I use it for:

• Scheduling tasks, meetings, and events
• Blocking out time for priorities and deep work
• Viewing everything in one place
• Integration with other apps and calendar sharing

Google Calendar allows me to plan out my days and weeks to ensure I’m spending time on what matters most. The reminders and notifications help me stay on schedule and focused as well. It’s an indispensable scheduling tool.

Conclusion

Staying productive in today’s distracted world is challenging. However, equipping yourself with powerful productivity apps makes it much easier to work efficiently and focus.

Apps like Todoist, Forest, Trello, Freedom, and Google Calendar are essential tools that help structure my days, manage projects, mitigate distractions, and collaborate with others. They enable me to get the important work done consistently.

If you’re looking to significantly increase your productivity and focus, try out some of these game-changing apps. They can help transform how you work and set you up for success each day. The investment is well worth the time savings and productivity gains you’ll experience.