Top 10 Productivity Apps to Make 2020 Your Most Productive Year Yet

Welcome to Part 2 of the Tech Productivity Series

In Part 1, Marvin Diaz and I uncovered why time management is super important to help you crush those 2020 goals.

In Part 2, we want to share some free and paid apps that help you get them productivity boosters on steroids!

Let’s begin.

1. To-Do Apps

Although a lot of folks prefer checklists instead of To-Do apps, it’s a great starting point to get organized (till it becomes overwhelming, but don’t worry we’ll worry about that when we get there.)

Like they say always worry only about the order of magnitude of the problem you’re at. No point worrying about the problems of scale when you wouldn’t move from 0–1.

There are tons of great ones — I prefer ToDoIst or Dynalist (generally work-related) but feel free to use any that you like and start noting down the things you’d rather spend your time on rather than the mindless hours scrolling social media

These days we’re using TickTick — worth a shot. You could check out some others here as well!

2. Spelling checkers

How often do you spell-check the documents/emails you send across? Grammarly is a great plugin that’ll make it easier for you with its auto-suggestions. While the free version is good enough, the paid one is a superpower!

3. Password manager

Can’t tell you how easy this makes things! While the core feature of passwords is now natively available in browsers (Android/Chrome/iOS) — here’s another tip: pre-fill forms and see the speed at which the next few sign ups go. Especially helpful if you’re a product enthusiast like us!

LastPass / 1Password are our go-to ones!

4. Clipboard Managers

How many times do you copy something only to go back and copy it back again? Ditto is an extension to the standard windows clipboard. It saves each item placed on the clipboard allowing you access to any of those items at a later time. Been super-helpful during my research projects!

5. Meditation

Now all of us know that meditation is a powerful tool to help us lead a more fulfilling life but to most of us, meditation is also a very scary concept. While Calm is great at helping you unwind and destress to ensure a great night’s sleep, Headspace can help you bring mindfulness into your busy schedule and everyday life.

6. Time Management and Habit-Forming

We’ve all got our goals at the front of our mind but do you ever realize how we never get down to doing them? There are two distinct elements here that are at work to stop us from better time management — Distraction & Motivation (or a lack of).

Freedom ensures that you remain focussed on the task at hand by blocking out all other websites that might distract you or steal your focus away.

On the other hand, Habitica seeks out to solve the issue by motivating by gamifying your daily tasks and chores. You get to battle dragons, earn in-app coins that you can use to apply to customized rewards like watching your favorite tv show or binging on a box of doughnuts!

7. Focus and Minimalism

If you find it hard to focus on a set of daily tasks because of the clutter of applications constantly bombarding you with information updates, we’ve found the perfect application for you. Indistractable declutters your launch screen so you only see the things that matter to you while

Forest is the perfect cure for all of you PROcrastinators. It not only tracks your productivity virtually but the application also supports real-world reforestation efforts. If you’ve wanted a reason to stop procrastinating, here’s your chance to rid yourself of this habit while also gaining some good karma.

8. Schedule your notifications

The Daywise website puts it aptly — “There are two kinds of people — Those who get pushed around by notifications and those who get notifications on their schedule.”

Scheduling your notification help you live better, work better and most importantly, never miss a meeting with VIPs. Notification fatigue is very real and having notifications sorted according to their importance and relevance can most definitely help with managing and prioritizing your time.

9. Sleep better

If like us, you spent most of your waking hours staring into a screen on your smartphones, tablets, notebooks or televisions, this is the perfect application for you. I’m sure that you’ve read blue light technology and the potential health risks associated with it. Iris serves to restrict or control the amount of blue light that you’re exposed to on your devices and conserve your eyesight.

Using Yeelight bulbs and Teckin smart plugs that work with the SmartLife app are great to set ambient lighting conditions to ensure the right mood at different times during the day. A calming orange light to go with your morning coffee and a warm yellow to help you relax when you get home from work should help you shift between work zones effortlessly.

10. Gratitude journaling

Currently using Presently but there are tons of apps on the market for this. Do give it a try and see how you feel much much better over the next few weeks.

That’s it for this set but we’re planning to add-in a bunch of Professional / Startup / Student Life productivity tools in the next set — stay tuned!

What is something that’s helped you? Let us know and we’ll add it in!