Useful Productivity Tools

I used to think “I’ll just get rid of my phone and never use it again because the social media apps don’t serve me” I felt shackled by apps that were addictive. Then I realised, there are other apps out there to help you take control of your device and serve your needs. Here is my list of favourite apps that actually IMPROVE my life! Maybe they will help you too :)

1. News Feed Eradicator - Honestly this one is definitely at the top of all my apps. It works especially well in combination with focusmate. I am blocked from all the addictive social media sites, and I have to go through two more steps (extra levels of friction) if I want to access them, and even then, I select how long of a break I want, which I generally select “5 minutes” (including Twitter) and then it gives you all these epic and inspiring quotes.
2. Focus mate - allows you to virtually cowork with people to hold yourself socially accountable to the tasks and schedule that you set.
3. Strava - Keeps me motivated to keep running, through the social element of seeing other people's adventures and getting “kudos” on my own adventures. As well as being able to look back over your year and see how consistent you were with your exercise goals.
   
   I always feel sooo much better when I do plenty of exercise and so I am happy to use any psychological nudges and tricks on myself to make sure it’s a part of my life.
   
   Feel free to follow me on Strava, or if you are nearby, hit me up for a run!
4. Just recently I stumbled across IFTTT and now I have all my text messages accessible in my email inbox, and I can send text messages via email too. This seems great because I can have way less reliance on my phone. All my texts come to my email inbox!
5. Libby - Unlimited free audio and digital books from Virtual Library accounts and sometimes has more content than is available from Audible. You can also link it up to your kindle so you can still read books on an E-reading device.
6. Thought Saver - a shameless plug! Helping you remember your most important ideas and prime your brain to think in the ways you want to.
7. Snipd - let’s you listen to podcasts and then snip sections you are most interested in. It then sends you emails with all the sections you’ve snipped! Great for reminding me to add the content to Thought Saver.
8. GTD in Gmail - I use Gmail as my all-encompassing to-do list! It has every task I need to complete in one place. It’s weirdly stress-reducing because of how simple it is!
9. Canva - I was a little skeptical at first like surely it’s not that much better than PowerPoint/publisher/Gslides etc. Until I created a pitch deck in it within 1 hour from one of their templates and it looked SO good. I thought I hated slide transitions but I realized I hated BAD slide transitions!
10. HeadSpace - helps to provide a low-effort meditation. I don’t need to prepare what I want to meditate on, they provide me with all the guidance I need!
11. Calendly - allows you to let people book meetings with you when you are free. It automatically integrates seamlessly into your calendar and updates time zones according to the person viewing. Feel free to book a time with me!
12. When2meet - When you are always working with coworkers in multiple time zones, it allows you to schedule time from different time zones easily!