When it comes to productivity, apps can be both our friend and foe. Sometimes, it can feel as though you’re in a minefield of potential distraction, with a constant chorus of ‘ping!’ demanding your attention. We’re all guilty of reaching for mindlessly reaching for our phones every time we’re even slightly bored with a task, somehow ending up on our cousin’s boyfriend’s best friend’s Instagram account three hours later.
But thankfully, there are now also plenty of amazing apps that can help you eliminate distractions from these other apps (oh, we’ve reached full inception) and maximise your productivity. From supercharged to-do lists to programs that help you conquer your inbox, read on for the 6 best productivity apps to get sh*t done in 2019.
The 6 best productivity apps:
Adios
Email is easily one of the biggest killers of productivity. Even if you don’t have notifications set up for your email, it can still be majorly distraction checking your inbox every 20 minutes for ‘important’ emails (let’s be honest, nothing is ever really that urgent). This genius app helps eliminate email distraction by only allowing emails to pop into your inbox at set times per day. Oh, and don’t worry, you can set exceptions for the people who actually are important—like your boss or major clients.
Check out Adios.
Coach.me
If you feel like you need a life coach to help keep you accountable to your goals and projects but can’t afford to shell out thousands, Coach.me is the app for you. The free version allows you to pick your goal (for example, learning a new language or starting that blog), then set up daily habits within that goal. You can also join communities that will give you ‘props’ when you tick off that habit. For around $15 per week, you can also hire a real, human coach who will message you each day to see how you went with your habits and offer words of encouragement. Yep, it’s literally like having a life coach in your pocket.
Check out Coach.me.
Blinkist
If one of your goals for 2019 is to read more self-development books, Blinkist is going to be your new best friend. It allows you to read (or listen to) the core messages of more than 2500+ non-fiction books in just 15 minutes. So, one day you could digest the key takeaways from The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, the next, Arianna Huffington’s The Sleep Revolution. Talk about efficient! It starts from $4.99 per month.
Check out Blinkist.
Shift
Yes, it would be nice to eliminate all distractions from our working days. But the truth is, most of us do have apps and programs we need to use each day to do our job. Shift eliminates the time wasted by jumping between these apps by keeping them together in one interface. You can manage multiple email accounts, Slack, Whatsapp, Facebook, Asana and more, all from one simple desktop app. There are both free and paid versions, depending on how many programs you need to use.
Check out Shift.
Habitica
Here’s a fun one! Habitica takes your daily to-do lists and habits and turns them into a game, competing against 3 million other players. Each time you check off tasks you earn points (or punishments if you didn’t!). As you level up your avatar, you unlock new features like battle armour, pets, magic skills, and even quests. It’s perfect for people who are motivated by a little healthy competition.
Check out Habitica.
SaneBox
Does your inbox get flooded by useless trash you never read, like that store newsletter you signed up to 5 years ago to get a discount? SaneBox is a mail plug-in that uses AI to determine which type of emails you never read or reply to, then filter them out of your inbox. These then appear in a digest, which you can bulk delete or set to reappear in your inbox later. The more you use the app, the better it gets at picking up which emails are important to you. It’s an absolute game-changer!
Download Sanebox.
