Nowadays, technology has its upsides and downsides. On the one hand, I personally feel like we are all too glued to our phones and other devices. But on the other hand, these technologies benefit us greatly when they allow us to connect to others, all over the world. Another great benefit is that technology can allow us to lead more productive and efficient lives, if used correctly. Here are my top five favorite iPhone productivity apps that help me to lead a more organized and efficient lifestyle!
1. Reminders
Reminders is a to do list app that is included on all new iPhones in conjunction with their Calendar app. While this is just a simple standard to do list app, it is what I prefer for keeping track of my list of things to do every day. Before I go to bed each night, I compile a list of everything I want to accomplish the following day: from mundane tasks like laundry and going to the bank, to specific blog posts that I want to research, photograph, and/or write that day. It is not necessarily the app itself that is important, but the act of making the list itself. It allows me to formulate a game plan for each day, and then check things off as I complete them. This is the key to how I am able to accomplish so many things in a day: I know exactly what I need to do each day (and therefore how much time I have to spare fooling around on Pinterest or Facebook!).
2. Paprika
I have already touted the merits of the Paprika Recipe Manager app in my weekly meal planning post, so I won’t dwell on this one. But seriously, this app saves me so much time. Each week it takes me less than 30 minutes to plan our meals and compile a grocery list of ingredients we need to purchase for that week on my Paprika app for my Macbook computer. Then, the app syncs with my phone and I don’t need to take anything else with me to the grocery store except my wallet. It is such a timesaver!
Click here to purchase and download the Paprika Recipe Manager for Mac.
Click here to purchase and download the Paprika Recipe Manager for Windows.
Click here to purchase and download the Paprika Recipe Manager for other devices, including iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle, and Nook.
3. Mint
Mint makes it so easy to keep accurate tabs on all of your financial information, and the Mint iPhone app is no exception. This money manager allows you to track all of your credit cards, debit cards, checking and savings accounts, and other financial assets and debts with one easy to use app. You can even set up budgets so you can see when you are approaching the maximum for your budget that month for a given category. Mint’s alerts are another reason I love this app: you can set up alerts to notify you if you are over your budget limit or if you have upcoming bills that need to be paid. The best part is that all of this information is just a few clicks away on my phone, wherever I am!
Click here to download Mint for iPhone.
4. Dropbox
The Dropbox app is another vital one for me. Keeping select important files on my Dropbox account (such as all of our wedding files and all of my files for school) allows me to access this important information wherever I need to, for example, when we are meeting with wedding vendors and I need to recall how much we budgeted for videography. Instead of lugging around my wedding binder or laptop, I just look up the information I need through this app.
Click here to open a new Dropbox account.
Click here to download the Dropbox app for iPhone.
5. FitBit
The age of pedometers on our waistbands has been replaced by iPhone apps like Health and wristbands like the Fitbit fitness trackers. As these devices have become more popular, even workplaces are starting to latch onto the idea that they can help to empower their employees to improve their health and therefore hopefully reduce healthcare costs. I, for one, am loving my Fitbit and I love my Fitbit app which shows me values like how many steps I have taken so far today, how many floors I have climbed, and how well I slept last night, among other things. My Fitbit app is something I use every day because it helps me to track how I am doing. My goal is to have all of those little bars turn green by the end of the day! Do I walk more because of it? Yes. Do I love going to Disney World because the competitive person inside me can end up with close to 30,000 steps a day just from walking around the parks? Also, yes. As an alternative for those not interested in wearing something on their wrist constantly, the iPhone now comes with a Health app, which also acts as a fitness tracker. The only downside is that you must have your iPhone on you at all times to accurately track your steps and activity.
Click here to visit the Fitbit website.
Click here to download the Fitbit app for iPhone.
Now it’s your turn: which iPhone app do you consider to be most important for your day to day functioning? Let me know in the comments below!
iphone apps organization productivity apps
