In today’s busy world, everyone strives to save time. It’s interesting to see how some simple tools can help you a lot in increasing your productivity. Today I’m going to show you some tools I use everyday to increase my productivity. Some are Mac apps, but some are online ones, so if you’re not part of the Mac cult, its okay!
Good Old Fashioned Paper and Pencils
To start, Paper and Pencil. Yes, old school, but it does me good!
Features:
- Can be used as a planner for both school, work and everyday life.
- It’s a hard copy, something that guarantees won’ be destroyed by hard drive failure.
- Paper can be everywhere you are. Can you say the same for your computer?
I like it because: I like to use a combination of my Moleskine notebook and index cards, because everything gets easier to organize. I use my Moleskine as both a school/day planner and a hub for all my to-do lists and important things to remember. (Sometimes even recording Vocabulary words or Polyatomic Ions to memorize)
Next, I use a commercial Mac app called, “The Hit List“; it’s a to-do list maker! It lets me make as many lists, or to-do’s as I need, and I can organize them with tags.
Features
- Manage and create lists for all aspects of your life
- Simple and Sophisticated
- Flexible, and great for any GTD flow.
- Easy to manage with schedules and syncs to iCal
I like it because: It’s great for me, because of its elegant yet usable design, and there is a nice calendar function to mark due dates of specific events. So, basically I can create lists for every aspect of my life in one handy application.
Note: This app came bundled as part of MacHeist 3. A lighter, and free app that does similar things is called, Anxiety. It’s what I used before this.
These next two web apps, GMail and Google Docs help take my data and files with me anywhere, without the need for a USB.
Features
- GMail is customizable, and comes with tons of space that really comes in handy!
- Easy to make files flexible – accessible anywhere on any computer
- Google Docs makes it easy to edit documents without a word processor.
- Great for rough drafts
- Ability to create spreadsheets, presentations and documents – great for school or work
I like it because: GMail and Google Docs work seamlessly together to bring the best of both worlds.
Google Chrome, a web browser created by Google, is amazing!
Features
- Available for many platforms
- Fast, Clean and Simple; Less clutter, more efficiency.
- Extensions for just about anything!
- Built in security, translation, and themes
- Easily arrange tabs, private browsing, navigation + search box
I like it because: When developing websites, it has nifty little features that make everything a whole lot easier. For instance, I can use the “Inspect Element” to inspect various elements on a website, including CSS and JavaScript! Sources are color-coded too! There are also a bunch of extensions available that boosts the design and development process as well. (Not to mention the pretty themes that are available!)
Netvibes, a web app, is a personalized start page that basically houses little modules of the weather, email, twitter, Facebook, Craigslist, etc; all in one homepage!
Features
- A personalized Web experience
- Easy to manage and update social media accounts
- Private and Personal Pages
- Accessible from computers or mobile devices
- More than 180, 000 widgets for a truly unique experience!
I like it because: It really saves me time by seeing important things all at once. What’s also great is that you can have more than one page, a “tab”. The handy google search that’s never far really ties everything together!
DaisyDisk is another hesitated mac app, but is worth the money.
Features
- Helps free up disk space
- Smooth, Easy to use and navigate
- Gives you a new perspective on your files
- Shows you which files and folders are taking up the most space, in nifty, color-coded visualizations
- Built in File Previews
I like it because: I get colorful views on exactly where my space went!
This next mac PrefPane, Geektool takes over your desktop and makes it totally unique. It basically adds text layers, with any kind of information you want, and makes amazing desktop customizations.
Features
- Available for many platforms
- Can show weather, emails, CPU usage, etc.
- Displays in “File, Shell, and Image”
- Powerful and easy to export and share
I like it because: It allowed me to get really creative with the way I wanted to display my information. Here’s a sample of mine.
Note: for Mac only, and I would only recommend to people comfortable with code.
I like iTunes, but I love Grooveshark even more. Grooveshark is a web app for online music streaming, and totally free!
Features
- Browser based – no need to download anything
- Easy to discover new music
- Pretty, easy to use interface with themes
- Can organize music in a library with playlists
I like it because: This totally saves me time dealing with my iPod and iTunes. I also really enjoy this app because its super simple for on the go, and works great in school. The super simple functions are amazing, and very easy to fall in love with.
As Web Designers, we need to accommodate all browsers; pain right? I like to use a free web app called, BrowserShots.
Features
- Uploads screenshots of your websites on different browsers and computers
- Fast, Clean and Simple; Less clutter, more efficiency.
- Lots of options and settings
- Multi platform and browser
I like it because: There are tons of options to choose from, which saves me the trouble of having to run windows on my Mac, or downloading tons of other browsers.
In a recently purchased nanobundle from mac heist, I got my hands on a Mac app called, Flow. It’s FTP that is as easy as using the finder!
Features
- Can connect to “FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, WebDAV, and MobileMe iDisk servers”
- Clean design, easy to use
- Uses QuickLook and syncs with desktop or a remote folder
- Edit directly on server with In-app code editor
I like it because: I enjoy it, because it’s easy to edit files within and outside the program. Otherwise, it’s a great yet simple FTP program. You can even upload files, without having the app open!
I hope you enjoyed this post! Does anybody have their own apps to share?
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