Running a business can be rewarding, there are also some challenges associated with it. You will need to become a lot of things, like a Problem solver, Communicator, Financial whiz. To help you increase your productivity and achieve more in your daily activities, there are some business apps geared at making your life a lot easier.

To save you the time and energy it will require you to find these business apps, we have decided to list them below. We will also show you how and where to get them.

Read Also: How to turn your App into a Business

What Are Productivity Apps?

A mobile productivity app is a software program that allows smartphone, tablet and wearable device users to perform essential day-to-day tasks.

The purpose of these productivity apps is to make mobile device users more efficient wherever they are by allowing them to access functions such as note-taking, email, calendaring, to-do list, and reminder apps, plus word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software.

Mobile productivity apps are optimized for touch-based devices. As advancements in app development have made it easier for users to view and edit files on their devices, more software companies are making desktop productivity applications available as mobile apps.

Microsoft’s Office suite, for instance, is available as a free app download for most iOS, Android, and Windows phones, and tablets, but it requires an Office 365 subscription to get full functionality such as saving documents to OneDrive or SharePoint.

The category of mobile productivity apps also includes cloud storage and file-sharing services such as Dropbox and Google Drive. Those apps allow users to store documents, photos, and videos in the cloud, synchronize that content across different devices, and easily share it with others.

Top Productivity Apps For Android

Boosting productivity through technology is one way to hack your professional life, so making sure your smartphone and tablet are pulling their weight is a no-brainer. Here, we take a look at the best Android productivity apps currently available, helping you to rock your A-game every day. 

1. Spike

Of course, we’re a little biased—but we know that Spike email app will revolutionize the way you work. Our Conversational Email is more like instant messaging than traditional electronic mail, letting you chat with the people who matter most without getting bogged down in endless threads.

You can use Groups to collaborate on projects, Priority Inbox to keep your important mails at the front of your mind, and manage multiple email addresses seamlessly. You can even organize your busy life across all of your email addresses using our unified Calendar—making Spike one of the best Android productivity apps currently around.

2. Todoist

One of the best ways to get organized is to make sure you’re writing everything down in a place you can trust. Todoist makes it onto this list of Android productivity apps for exactly that reason.
 
Todoist is a simple, customizable task manager that allows you to build lists using an intuitive app that synchronizes across all your devices. Todoist is available on the web, Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Android.

If you need a task manager that works on your company Windows computer, but you want to access it on your Android phone while on the go, Todoist is a great way to accomplish that goal.

If you want a way to share a project with your team at work, Todoist supports collaboration, the requesting of feedback, and more. Todoist is free to use, and there are upgrades to add additional features for yourself or your team.

3. Google Drive

Google Workspace is the new name for Google’s productivity suite, and a key part of that is Google Drive. Google Drive is a great productivity tool for Android that is tightly integrated into the operating system of all Android devices. Google Drive is made up of key apps like Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Google Forms.

Google includes 15GB for free with all Gmail accounts, and it’s possible to upgrade to up to 2TB for $20 per month to store more PDFs, documents, and photos.

Google Drive can be accessed on all device types, so it’s easy to work on a document on your Android phone, and then edit it later on a Chromebook. The seamless access with collaboration makes Google Drive one of the best Android apps to organize your iPhone.

4. Evernote

Evernote has been around for many years, and it’s a popular way to stay productive on Android. Evernote allows users to add text, images, audio, and video to a note, and then sync it to all of your other devices.

As one of the best Android productivity apps on the market, it offers plenty of collaborative features and keeps all of your notes handy across multiple devices. Evernote is a welcome tool in the fight against failing memory—as useful in the boardroom as it is on the train home.

Evernote is available for free, and there is a premium option to adds a number of key features.

5. LastPass

LastPass is a lifesaver. It keeps all of your passwords together, providing extra security through a handy password generator, and ensures you’re never locked out of your most important apps.

A top productivity app for use with Android, LastPass means you don’t waste any more of your precious time trying (and failing) to remember the birth date of your third cat, or the year that you first tasted pistachio ice cream.

In fact, you’ll never have to remember another ridiculous password again. Lastpass boosts productivity: Save a password easily and save many seconds every day. A must-have app for productivity in android

If you’ve tried LastPass, and it wasn’t for you, you might check out 1Password for Android as an alternative.

6. Tide

Boosting productivity is definitely not about driving yourself into an early grave through overwork. Remember, the goal is to work smarter, so factoring in regular breaks will help you concentrate and be more efficient during the periods that you are working.

Tide uses the Pomodoro Technique, breaking down your day into intense 25-minute intervals separated by short breaks. Tide is especially effective at helping you concentrate, using ambient noise generators that can be customized to your frame of mind.

7. CamScanner

Much more than a document scanner, CamScanner is a must-have productivity app for Android users. Whether it’s a two-page brochure or a 10,000-word white paper, CamScanner allows you to scan, store and sync real-world documents across devices using your phone camera.

You can extract text from images, make annotations and other edits in your digital documents, and secure important documents with a passcode. You can also easily share digital docs with others for easy collaboration—the perfect tool for anyone still working with paper documents.

8. IFTTT

Not so much an Android productivity app, as a collection of “applets” that allow your productivity apps to communicate with each other. Applets are conditional statements that trigger actions when certain changes occur within specified apps.

For instance, you could set IFTTT to automatically create to-do lists from emails you pin, you can sync files from Google Drive to another cloud storage provider as you add them, you can even automatically log the amount of time you spend at the office using the GPS on your phone.

It links with more than 600 apps and you can create your own applets to let them all speak to each other—it’s the ultimate productivity app for the app addict!

9. Grammarly

If you were in college for the age of mobility, you are certainly jealous that students get to use an app like Grammarly today. Grammarly is one of the best online grammar and spelling checker software. The software goes beyond any traditional tools used in the past.

It not only fixes spelling errors but also highlights mistakes that are often overlooked by other tools. This AI-powered tool is a handy add on to Android and Chrome. If you have to write for your job, it’ll speed up the process of editing so you can move to the next task much quicker.

10. Pocket

There are so many great articles and videos that most people want to watch, but there almost isn’t enough time in the day. Pocket, from Mozilla, lets you save articles for later, so you have a quick spot to come back to when you are ready. On the Android app, it even saves them offline so you can take time when you’re on a plane to fly through your “to read” que.

Best Productivity Apps For Students

As a university student, time management is not only an essential skill to find success in your academics, but it also allows you to make time for other passions, and to take care of yourself and your mental health.

Thankfully, there are some great apps out there to help you maximize your productivity

1. Forest

iOS, Android, Chrome extension || Free for Android or $2.79 on iOS

This app takes on a creative approach to help you stay focused. Whenever you want to start a study session, you plant a tree in your in-app “forest”.

As you work, the tree will begin to grow, but if you pick up your phone and leave the app, your tree dies! You can collect and add more trees to your forest the more you focus. The company even plants real trees in dozens of countries! It’s a win-win situation for you and the Earth.

2. Motion

Chrome extension || Free for Personal Plan

As a university student, you’ll be using laptops A LOT, and if you’re using the internet to work and take notes, well – I hate to break it to you but distractions are aplenty in your browser as well. Motion’s free plan will block distracting sites like Facebook and YouTube (or gives you 1 minute to quickly check what you need). You’ll also receive a report on how much of your time online is productive or distracted.

3. Cold Turkey

MacOS, Windows (Works on all web browsers) || Free for Basic Plan

If you still find yourself getting distracted, this one’s for you. I’ve used this app in my browser and let me tell you – it works. Cold Turkey will allow you to start a timer, during which distracting websites will be blocked entirely. 

Until the timer stops, there’s no way to unblock the sites and no turning back. You can even block the entire internet if you need to. Other apps have a way around website blocks, but not this one. Talk about tough love.

4. Google Calendar

Web application, iOS, Android || Free

Google Calendar is classic, simple, practical, and by far the most used app by all my peers. It allows you to organize all your classes, events, extracurriculars, and assignment deadlines across your phone and computer. With its clean interface, you can easily see commitments throughout your day, week and month.

Set up reminders before events or for to-dos so you’ll never forget anything. Say goodbye to missed deadlines and forgotten meetings, and hello to organized student life!

5. Microsoft To Do

Web application, iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows || Free

As a University of Waterloo student, you have access to all the Microsoft 365 apps at your fingertips, for free. Using Microsoft To Do, you can start each day with a clean outlook on the tasks you need to do, across all your devices.

Being a student involves balancing assignments, clubs, errands, and everyday tasks, so this app can help you get each task finished. If a task requires multiple steps, you can add subtasks under each one! When you’re done, enjoy the satisfaction of checking it off.

6. Microsoft OneNote

Web application, iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows || Free

OneNote is an essential digital notebook that you’ll find many Waterloo students using. Create separate notebooks for different subjects, which can be organized into sections, and further into pages. Highlight important ideas, record voice notes, make handwritten notes and doodles and type out your lecture notes. OneNote’s flexibility, power, and paper-like look make it perfect for any student.

7. Portal

Web application, iOS, Android || Free

Once you arrive on campus, Portal will become your go-to app for everything Waterloo. Portal is connected to your Waterloo userid for the most personalized experience as a Waterloo student. View your class information, grades, exam schedule, deadlines, and calculate the grades you need.

If you’re a new Warrior, the campus map will be your new best friend. The map also displays places to get food and available classrooms for you to study in. You can also see your meal plan and flex dollars balance, campus life updates, and other important news as a Warrior! Downloading Portal is definitely a no-brainer.

Best iOS Productivity Apps

We’ve put together a list of 10 best productivity apps for iPhone to provide you with an all-in-one resource for you.

1. OmniFocus

This app is, while pricey, considered to be one of the (if not the) most robust and full-featured productivity apps on the market.

2. Forest

Train yourself to put your phone down and stay focused on the task at hand by playing with this planting game. It’s fun and will help you achieve more.

3. PocketLife Calendar

This calendar app is specifically designed to be stylish and super easy to use. You can organize your life easily with different modern features.

4. ToDoist

This app keeps track of everything – from simple errands to your most important projects – so you can get it all done and enjoy more peace of mind along the way.

5. Calendars 5

This calendar app focuses on events that help you to keep track of upcoming events and tasks easily. It has everything you need to organize, track, and complete your to-dos.

6. Clear – Tasks, Reminders & To-Do Lists

A fun and innovative list-making app that relies on swiping and pinching to make things happen. Clear created a lot of buzzes when it launched, and might be the perfect to-do list gateway app for many.

7. Due

A robust reminders app that lets you store and maintain reminders of all types. It’s replaced Reminders for me when it comes to the basics, and it’s worth a look if you want to keep the mundane stuff out of your head and cluttering your mind.

8. Productive

With this app, you can plan your habits with an easy-to-use interface, schedule habits for any time of the day, set smart reminders for each time of the day, and stay on track with useful feedback. This app is perfect for anyone who wants to build a habit that sticks.

9. Habitica: Gamified Taskmanager

You can complete tasks and build habits in a more fun way with this app. Input your Habits, your Daily goals, and your To-Do list, and then create a custom avatar. Check off tasks to level up your avatar and unlock features such as armor, pets, skills, and even quests.

10. Streaks

This app follows the model of the popular “don’t break the chain method” in that you use the app to track how you are doing in the pursuit of your goal. Great for goal-setting — and an easy and elegant interface to boot.

Business Productivity Apps

Note that some of these apps are free, while others might require a paid subscription. Even if they are paid, you will find out that they are worth every penny. Here they are:

QUICKBOOKS

As a business, managing your finance is one the factors that will keep you operating for a long time. For this reason, the first 2 apps will focus on help you manage your finances. The first app is Quickbook.

QuickBooks’ account software helps you maintain your business and gives a feeling of your organization’s general financial wellbeing.

You can utilize QuickBooks to follow your business’ deals and costs; see financial statements, for example, profit and loss reports; pay your employees and vendors; track unpaid invoices; augment your tax deductions; and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

QuickBooks associates with a large number of accounts — including your business bank account, credit cards, PayPal and Square — and transfers information from these sources flawlessly.

It likewise simplifies doing your business tax, as it tracks costs and lets you transfer photographs of receipts from your smartphone. With QuickBooks Online, you can get to QuickBooks on your iPhone, iPad, Android telephone or Android tablet.

Wave

Wave is the next finance app we will look at. Wave is an accounting software designed for small businesses, independent contractors and sole proprietors with nine or fewer employees.

Wave lets you track sales and expenses, oversee invoices and client payments, pay employees, filter receipts and create accounting reports. The organization additionally offers free personal finance software to help entrepreneurs deal with their accounts on a single spot.

Wave is perfect with Mac and PCs, and its versatile invoicing and receipt scanning application is accessible on iOS and Android devices.

Communication is very important in the daily running of your business. Some apps are available to help you manage your contacts, organize and conduct meetings with employee and vendors.

SLACK

Slack instant messaging platform help you to organize your teams conversation into separate private or public channels or send a direct message. File sharing is also made easy with its easy to drag, drop and share images, PDFs and other files right in the chat.

Slack automatically indexes and archives any message, notification or file, and there’s no limit to how many users your business can add.

SKYPE

Videoconferencing is one of the features that helps aid communication between employees and other individuals in the company. Slack has been one of the leading app taking care of videoconferencing over the year. It has remained effective and popular, with more than 10 million reviews on Google Play.

Some interesting features on Skype includes get up to 25 people together on a call; transmit video, photos and files of any size; share your computer screen; and send text or voice messages. You can use Skype with Amazon Alexa devices.

ADDAPPT

Addappt is aimed at helping you manage your contacts,When your business contacts, friends and family update their contact information, the changes automatically extend to your phone, provided your contacts also use Addappt. It also helps to organize contacts into groups and send messages via the app.

Now that your finances and communication are taken care of, lets look at the next challenge you might have, Time Management. Fortunately for you, there are some app built just for you. These apps helps to organize your schedule and stay focused on the most important tasks at hand. Here are some of them

RESCUETIME

RescueTime automatically tracks time you’ve spent on applications and sites and sends you itemized reports based on your action, giving you an exact image of how you went through your day.

You can set alarms to inform you when you’ve invested a specific measure of energy in an activity, like social networking or reading the news, and block distracting websites. It works for Mac, PC, Android and Linux.

TRIPIT

TripIt unites your traveling plans into a single, schedule that you can access whenever and on any device, paying little attention to the website you use to purchase your ticket.

Clients forward their travel emails to TripIt, and the application takes it from that point. You can likewise check flight times and delays, discover directions to the air terminal and view climate forecasts

PAYPAL HERE

Now let us figure out how to help you make payments, and the first app that comes to mind is Paypal Here. Because of the creation of Square into the payment market, Paypal decided to creating an app that lets businesses attach PayPal’s card reader to a tablet or other device and use it as a portable register. The PayPal Here app is ideal for businesses that need to get paid on the go.

SQUARE

Square was made with small businesses such as food trucks, beauty salons and retail shops in mind. The feature that helps more is the small, portable card reader that attaches to a phone or another mobile device to take fast, convenient payments.

Apart from the portable card reader, Square also provides a point-of-sale system called Square Register for businesses with a brick-and-mortar store. Square’s point-of-sale app is compatible with iOS and Android devices.

MAILCHIMP

The next app we are going to talk about helps to take care of your emails, It is called Mailchimp. It
helps you build and manage your mailing lists and easily create and send newsletters.

You can also build and customize email templates and view performance reports about your emails. This information can help you send your customers more relevant emails.

Best Productivity App For Windows 10

Some productivity tools help you manage your ever-growing email inbox. Others automatically do rote tasks for you, letting you focus on the work that only you can do. With the right productivity apps and services at your fingertips, you can improve your workflows and your life.

1. Evernote

Free; from $7.99 per month for paid accounts

Evernote is a note-taking app with a variety of uses. You can keep important ideas in it, anything from a list of recommended books to your personal catalog of recipes. With Evernote, you can capture notes by writing, recording audio, taking photos, uploading PDFs, sketching digitally, and more.

One of Evernote’s selling features is that when you search for a word or phrase, the app looks not only in your text but also for pictures of the words in images. That means, if you snap a picture of a For Sale sign and later search for “sale,” Evernote will find it.

Paying account holders can search PDFs and other uploaded documents from instances of words as well. Although we’ve listed Evernote as a “personal productivity” app rather than one for collaboration, you certainly can use it with a group to share notes and collectively create and edit them.

2. Microsoft OneNote

Free

Microsoft OneNote is a note-taking app that can sync up with other Microsoft products. While it’s similar to Evernote in its core concept, OneNote has a totally different layout. Each page for notes is more like pasteboard than a word processing document.

You can slap text, images, and other assets onto the page and move them around at will. If you use Microsoft OneDrive for storage or Outlook for email and calendaring, then OneNote is a natural choice because it has tight ties to both those programs.

For students, OneNote has some special features related to mathematics. It also has some neat features if you use it to record an audio lecture while also taking notes. When you play back the lecture, your notes reappear as if in sync with the audio.

3. RescueTime

Free; $9 per month or $72 per year for Premium

RescueTime does for your productivity what calorie-counting does for weight loss: It brings attention and insight to your actual habits. And you can’t change your habits unless you know what they are. RescueTime is a time-tracking tool that records the apps you use, websites you visit, and the breaks you take while working.

That way, you can see exactly how you spent your time on the computer. RescueTime also classifies each app and website you use into five productivity ratings, which you can change: 1) very productive, 2) productive, 3) neutral, 4) distracting, and 5) very distracting. It also categorizes them by type, such as communication and scheduling, social networking, entertainment, design and composition, and so forth.

Again, you can change the classifications to reflect how you work. RescueTime can also block distracting sites when you need to focus, and help you set goals for what you want to get done. It’s one of our personal favorite productivity tools.

4. SaneBox

From $7 per month

SaneBox is the best service you’ll find for improving your existing email account. For a couple bucks a month, SaneBox goes into your email on the backend and puts messages that probably aren’t important into different folders that aren’t your inbox. How does it perform this magic?

It figures out the difference between a “cold call” email and one from an acquaintance or business associate by looking at whether they’re in your address book and other details. You also teach SaneBox by giving it feedback. Over time, it can be pretty smart when it comes to deciding who and what is important to you. That way, you do less inbox triaging, which means you can focus on more important work.

5. Strict Workflow

Free

Any Pomodoro fans out there? In the 1990s, a new method for working called the Pomodoro Technique had people everywhere buying kitchen timers shaped like tomatoes (hence the name) to time 25 minutes of work followed by a short break.

With modern technology, it’s easier to just install a free browser plugin instead. Strict Workflow is the best one that’s loosely based on the Pomodoro Technique. It can also block distracting websites while you’re in a work phase. If you like to experiment with new methods of working more productively, snag this app for help.

6. SwiftKey Keyboard

Free

SwiftKey Keyboard, owned by Microsoft, is a custom keyboard for Android and iOS that lets you type by swiping your finger around the keypad rather than pressing each letter one at a time.

The app’s predictive text feature is pretty smart and can tell what you’re trying to say, even with sloppy swipes. The keyboard supports more than 500 languages. For answering emails, replying to texts, and writing documents from a mobile phone, it’s a great helper.

Top 10 Productivity Tools

In today’s fast-paced and busy world, we are increasingly depending on tools to boost our productivity . Sometimes we juggle with so many tasks and responsibilities that it becomes difficult to stay on task. So, thankfully, there are apps and services that can help you by sticking to your goals.

Productivity tools are tailored to different lifestyles and different interests. We will go over some of the highly recommended services that help with optimizing your time and effort.

1. Wrike

Wrike is an employee communication platform used by more than 20,000 companies across 140 countries. Keep your remote teams connected on one unified platform. Notify team members of important updates with @mentions and add extra details using custom fields.

Collaborate in real-time with a live editor and share timeline updates in team calendars. Integrate Wrike with your favorite messaging apps to create new communication channels and keep employees in the loop. Work as one with Wrike.

2. Google Drive

Google Drive (along with Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets) makes it easy to share and edit an array of files. Team members can even chat and share notes from within a document. It’s free, awesome, and not worth missing out on.

3. LastPass

LastPass provides a modern miracle for users who are sick and tired of constantly struggling to remember passwords (and subsequently resetting most of them every time they log in). LastPass remembers all your passwords, like an angel Jiminy Cricket.

One LastPass can be used across several devices, storing various passwords in your vault and auditing your passwords in order to help you create better, more secure passwords (since you no longer have to remember KLBTU6@34).

Recommended by Lifehacker, CNet, and with a straight 5-star rating from PC Magazine, it’s safe to say that LastPass keeps you safe. LastPass uses multifactor authentication for your single master password, helping all your data stay all aboard.

4. RescueTime

Rescue Time is a similar concept to Toggl, but offers more advanced features.

Rescue Time can be installed on your computer and will track what programs and websites you spend the most time on. It’s a pretty incredible tool, showing not only where you’re spending your time, but also what hours are your least/most productive, along with your best and worst days of the week (and month).

The Premium upgrade lets you block out distracting sites and offers even more filters. Still, the free version packs an impressive amount of insight. Try Rescue Time and see how you can make yourself more productive!

5. ToggI Track

It is an ultimate time-saver app and is insanely simple to use. Toggl’s time tracker is built for speed and drives a stake in the heart of timesheets. This time tracking software can integrate tens of other tools to increase its functionality.

Top features:

• Instant overview of your billable time and team progress
• Offline time tracking and mobile functionalities
• Reports directly delivered to managers

6. Slack

It is the perfect team collaboration software that unifies your entire team communications. It integrates with the apps you use every day such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box to name a few.

Top features:

• Chat and team communication
• Set up reminders
• Highlight words to be notified as they appear in a conversation

7. Asana

Asana markets itself as a team productivity tool, helping everyone stay on-task and organized. You might find it to be a more complicated version of a handwritten list. Probably not all that useful for solo workers, but if you’re on a team, Asana will help you keep all projects and tasks in one spot, assigning various users different jobs.

Read Also: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Bitcoin

Asana is free to start, then you’ll pay $21/month for 5 team members, with the cost increasing as you add more team members.

8. Evernote

Evernote is a handy and versatile app that can save notes (audio and text), organize photos, set reminders, and upload attachments, all synced across your various desktop and mobile devices. Plus, Evernote’s bookmarklet makes it easy to clip web articles and store them for later reading. If you’re constantly jumping devices, this one is for you.

9. Trello

Trello is a cute, relatively simple and handy way to stay organized. It looks a lot like a Pinterest board, but instead of being totally photo-centric, Trello lets you add lists, labels, and tasks that you can drag, drop, and play with at your leisure.

While it’s nothing revolutionary, it could be just the thing for visual organizers and serves as a nice alternative to covering your monitor in post-it notes.

10. Todoist

If you’re looking for the best to-do list app, one that works on all your devices, tracks your productivity, and lets you geek out on organizing and analyzing your life, Todoist is it. Todoist makes apps for all major devices and platforms, and it couldn’t be easier to use.

There’s a free version, which is very good, though the Premium level is absolutely the way to go. If you need an app to organize your tasks, either by yourself or in collaboration with others, Todoist will keep you happy and productive.

Finally

Here are some general productivity tips to get you going.

• Learn Keyboard Shortcuts. Shortcuts can save you oodles of time, so if you spent many an hour in Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop, take the time to learn major shortcuts. Soon they’ll become part of your muscle memory and you’ll wonder how you ever got on without them!
• Clean Up That Computer. If you’re like me, then you’re a total tab monster, your desktop is covered in screenshots, and your computer rarely shuts down completely. All these semi-small issues amount to one big problem for your poor struggling computer. Tidy things up, empty the trash once in a while and let the tuckered little thing sleep at night. A faster computer means a faster you, so don’t neglect the simple fixes.
• Old School Lists. Despite all the awesome tools we covered here today, there is something unique about writing down a good old-fashioned list. The physical aspect of handwriting a task list (and crossing out those to-dos) can be quite cathartic. Not everything needs to be digitized, my friends.
• Don’t Burn Yourself Out. Contrary to what corporate may think, you just can’t be a productive machine 9-5 all day, every day. Our brains don’t work that way, and trying to activate robot mode will only hamper you in the long run. Humans actually achieve their maximum productivity when they’re happy and getting plenty of downtime throughout the day. Read up on the Pomodoro Technique and make sure you are building regular respites in your day so you don’t fry your circuits.
• Be Realistic About Time Management. Structuring your day into time blocks is a great way to go into a new day feeling confident. However, being unrealistic about how long it will take you to finish that e-mail newsletter won’t do you any favors. Give yourself plenty of time to get tasks done (and include breaks!)