Remember your school days? Have you ever wondered whether you would have managed to get through school without your daily timetable? Remember the panic when you realise you got the wrong schedule and ended up preparing for a different subject? Our association with to-do lists and planners start at an early age. Almost everybody uses a to-do planner in one form or the other – from a student’s timetable to a CEO’s daily planner. For a long time, notepads and diaries have served as efficient planners. There is nothing like the satisfaction of ticking off against completed tasks. A lot of people still run their lives on a notepad and pen. But as tasks get complicated, and human memory gets shorter, digital productivity apps help to organise your life and work easier and faster. Digital to-do lists go beyond just task listing and help in increasing productivity with efficient time management and task completion.
To help you choose the best productivity app to improve your productivity from the sea of such apps out there, here are some points you can consider before you decide on an app.
- Why do you need the app? Is it just for listing, scheduling or more complex task management?
- Are you looking for a free or paid productivity app?
- Do you use multiple platforms and need to sync between them?
Best Productivity Apps to Improve Your Productivity
Here are some of the best productivity apps to improve productivity and planning to choose from:Time Management Apps
Todoist is a free app and allows you to create tasks, sub-tasks, projects, sub-projects and dependencies according to your requirement. It also has a feature to add deadlines and add colour-coded labels to your tasks and categorise the reminder using a hashtag.
You can also integrate it with over 60 other apps, including Alexa, Dropbox etc. making this an ideal option for a user who wants to combine their workplace and personal to-do list.
The premium version of the app allows you to add up to 300 projects, reminders, Comments & file uploads, Labels & filters and more.
Cost
Premium AUD $4.19 per month or $40.50 per year (Approx)
Taskful is a free app with a unique feature which is its progress bar, which gives you a sense of accomplishment by moving forward as you check off your completed tasks throughout the day. The app allows you to create an inbox which sends email reminders and also syncs with other devices.
It sends encouraging messages to your device to keep you motivated throughout the day. The app also has a feature to keep tracks of the number of steps you walk in a day so you can focus on your work and health goals simultaneously.
Cost
Free
Google Tasks is a free app from Google, which is integrated with Google Calendar, Gmail and other productive Google apps. It consists of a convenient feature which is to add tasks in Gmail without opening a new window on your desktop. This is beneficial when you need to add an email as a task and be reminded later about it.
This app is also accessible for Android and iOS users and allows you to keep track of your tasks on your mobile devices and always stay updated.
Cost
AUD $13.95 (Approx)
Cost
Free
Any.do is a free and very intuitive app. With its drag-and-drop interface, you just need to swipe tasks to mark them complete. It lets you know about all your schedulings for the day by sending a push notification in the morning. You can also delete a task by shaking your phone and add tasks through voice command. It integrates with Alexa and Slack with ease and works well across platforms.
The premium version of Any.do app allows you to colour your tasks, customise themes, on-the-spot alerts, customise recurring tasks, and it also lets you do unlimited attachments and collaborations.
Cost
Premium from AUD $8.36/month (Approx)
If you’d like to have some fun while managing and completing tasks, Habitica helps you do just that. It is a free habit-building app that converts your to-do lists and tasks into a role-playing game.
You level up and buy different weapons by completing tasks off your list. If you ignore or fail to complete the tasks, your character loses powers and health; bringing competitiveness and some fun into the completion of tasks.
Cost
Free
Cost
Free
Cost
Free (In-app purchases)
Focuster
Cost
Starts from AUD $13.95/month (Approx)
Cost
AUD $1.38 (Approx)
Personal Apps
Strides
Cost
Free (In-App Purchases)
Cost
Free (In-App Purchases)
Cost
Free (In-App Purchases)
Cost
Free (In-App Purchases)
Focus Apps
Cost
Premium AUD $9.20 per month (Approx)
Cost
Premium AUD $9.20 per month (Approx)
Cost
Premium AUD $9.20 per month (Approx)
Cost
Premium AUD $9.20 per month (Approx)
Jargon Buster
iOS – Operating system created by Apple Inc. exclusively for its devices.
Android – Mobile operating system, primarily for touchscreen devices like smartphones and tablets.
Article originally published on 26/11/2020
Revised by Merin Jose on 28/06/2021
Added new section: Focus Apps