Every year, many of us make the resolution to ramp up our productivity and get better organized and efficient. In other words, we plan to straighten up. With technology, it would seem such a simple thing to do.
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Yet, it isn’t. The problem is, there are so many apps and so many different ways, methods, and varying advice out there on how to clean your email inbox, manage your contacts and files, and on backing up your data.
Then time is spent scribbling to-do lists in disparate locations, tying ribbons around fingers and wrists trying to not forget important things you need to remember and, perhaps, checking email and calendars from different locations.
We looked around for the best apps for straightening out your digital life, and some very efficient Black Enterprise staffers shared their favorite apps for better, more organized digital living. Get started with these apps to clean up your digital (and real life)!:
(Continue, “For Taming Email, Calendar, and Contacts”)
For Taming Email, Calendar, and Contacts: Boxer
(Free; Android)
($4.99; iOS)
Many of us have email accounts all over the place. Boxer is an app that lets you manage email from one interface. It supports email accounts from Gmail, Yahoo, Exchange, iCloud, Office 365, IMAP and POP3. It was a Webby award nominee for Best Mobile Productivity App in 2015. It also integrates with Dropbox, Box, and Evernote.
Boxer will also aggregate your calendars into one “smart calendar†from the above services, as well as your contacts. It’s a great tool for using one app to handle data from multiple sources.
(Continue, “For Note-Taking and List-Making”)
For Note-Taking and List-Making: Evernote
(Free; basic subscription, Android, iOS)
From ‘honey-do’ lists to notes from your last business meeting, Evernote has got you covered. It’s a favorite app of Black Enterprise staffers, but Evernote does even more.
Political Editor Hailey Wallace uses it for research. “I use Evernote for everything, both work and personal. I’m constantly using the Web-Clipping feature to save and organize research for articles I’m working on. I also love the Reminders feature, which allows me to attach due dates to projects so I have a visual of what I need to prioritize throughout the work day, and it automatically syncs to my iPhone, iPad, and Mac Air so I have all of my files with me wherever I go.â€
Evernote is also great for those times its inconvenient to type, because you can add voice notes or just scribble a digital note using a stylus or your fingertip.
(Continue, “For Daily Planning”)
For Daily Planning: Any.do
(Free; iOS, Android, desktop)
Any.do is the app of choice for Black Enterprise’s Digital Audience Developer and Engagement Manager, Kelly Pierre-Louis. “My entire calendar is in here. And it helps keeps me on track with tasks to complete my goals and meet deadlines,†says Pierre-Louis about Any.do.
The app lets you set up daily tasks and will give you reminders when tasks are done. It also uses geo-location reminders. Set a task up to get milk, and a reminder will pop up when you are in front of the supermarket.
(Continue, “For Project Management”)
For Project Management: Asana
(Free for up to 15 users; iOS, Android, desktop)
Sometimes you need a tool with a little more functionality than a daily planner. For example, if you are tackling a project that can last for quite some time, Asana is one of the best project management apps around.
Black Enterprise’s Social Media Manager, Sirita Wright, includes Asana in her arsenal of apps. “I use Asana for project management and Wunderlist for making a list that I end up transferring over to Asana!†she says.
Asana is great for teams working on projects, since they can set up workflows and check off each stage of a project as it’s completed. Projects and tasks can be filtered by due date, the team member to which they are assigned, and notifications are sent to the team as projects are updated.
(Continue, “For File Management”)
For File Management: Dropbox
(Free for up to 2GB of storage; iOS, Android, and desktop)
The entire editorial team at Black Enterprise uses Dropbox. It’s an online locker for files and documents. You can upload just about anything to it. Best of all, you can drop documents into your Dropbox folder on your work PC and access them from a home computer (or one from anywhere in the world). Plus, as you make changes to files, Dropbox synchronizes those changes across any device with which you use Dropbox.
Dropbox is very easy to get started with as it has a very intuitive user interface.
And you don’t have a real learning curve managing documents with it, because the apps you would normally use to work on a document (Microsoft Word, for example, for Word docs) are launched from Dropbox when you open a file to edit.For Backup: Carbonite
($47.99, unlimited backup, per year; iOS, Android, desktop)
You can create the most splendid masterpiece of a document, but if your device crashes and you lose that document, it’s as if it never existed in the first place. Sure, sites such as Dropbox and Box are great for storing and retrieving your files. However, for your most important files, you should never rely on those services as backup solutions. Use an actual backup service.
Carbonite is one of the premier backup services. It provides unlimited cloud backup of data; documents, music, images, and more for $47.99 per year. It’s a modest investment for keeping important data safe.
(Continue, “For Brushing up Skills”)
For Bushing up Skills: Duolingo, Grammarly
Duolingo:
(Free; iOS, Android, Web browser)
Part of many New Year’s resolutions is self-improvement, which also leads to a efficient, productive life. Duolingo is a fantastic app for learning another language and is the go-to language learning app of Black Enterprise’s Executive Managing Editor, Alisa Gumbs. Heading to Cuba this spring, Alisa is using Duolingo on Android for brushing up on her Spanish.
“I like that it uses a variety of methods (such as fill in the blank, multiple choice, match the pairs, identify the picture); that it uses audio and the microphone to
test my speech recognition and pronunciation; and that it regularly makes me go back and strengthen completed categories to keep the vocabulary fresh. Plus, it’s free, it gives me daily reminders to practice, and I can earn points that unlock fun stuff like Spanish pick-up lines. If you’re using it for work instead of play, it lets you ‘test out’ of categories you already know, gives you updates on how fluent you are, and has a badge you can post on your LinkedIn profile.â€Grammarly:
(Free for Basic account; add-on for Word, Outlook, Web browser)
Grammarly is a writing tool that is not just for professional writers, but can be used for business documents and school work. It’s a free add-on to Microsoft Word and Outlook that checks for grammar and spelling errors. There is also a browser extension that will double-check your Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn posts. As you use it, you will marvel at how it’s an effective grammar teacher as well.
(Continue, “For Staying Connected”)
For Staying Connected: Wi-Fi Finder
(Free; iOS, Android)
All of these apps are useful, as long as you have an online connection. You can always catch a 3G or 4G signal. In fact, why even use your cellular data if you can jump on a Wi-Fi public hotspot?
Wi-Fi Finder is an app that scans the area you are in for public Wi-Fi hotspots. Currently, the app tracks over 550,000 free and paid hotspots in over 144 countries.