Looking to avoid distractions and getting more productive at work?
You’re definitely not alone. As the line between work and leisure becomes more and more blurring, employees, freelancers and creators are now struggling to do more work and avoid distractions.
Social media is now more convergent with our lifestyles and endless mobile notifications are now the norm. So, how do you navigate these distractions?
Well, in this post, we’ll highlight a few smart apps you can use to create work-engaging activities that could translate to higher productivity at work.
Let’s take a look at them.
Notion
With Notion, creators and small teams access a digital workplace to carry out all work tasks and collaboration in one place.
It is perfect for digital workers looking to simplify their workflow into a minimal project management base, with custom dashboards and task syncing.
It is regarded as a tool perfectly designed to help workers create a personalized productivity system that is flexible with their work demands.
Todoist
Todoist is a popular choice for digital project managers and digital creators looking to boost their productivity.
With Todoist, creators can simplify tasks into small targets and set to-do reminders to fulfill them. This flexibility could help them manage project goals more effectively.
More so, Todoist is syncable with many other digital tools that creators use, such as Google Calendar, Slack, and Trello, which helps users quickly fulfill tasks without distractions.
Trello
Trello is one of the top apps for visual management of projects and collaboration. With Trello boards and cards, creators can track, collaborate, comment, and contribute to projects, such as marketing campaigns or content publishing.
It is regarded as one of the most effective tools for visually managing tasks and transparency between teams.
ClickUp
Clickup is regarded as an all-in-one productivity app that combines a host of digital work tools in one place to simplify workflow, reduce clutter, and enhance productivity.
Solo creators and small teams can leverage clickup’s unified dashboard to manage tasks, workflows, and consolidate project management in one place.
RescueTime
RescueTime is a productivity tool that helps creators improve focus and ensure efficient time management for work and projects.
With RescueTime, you can track digital time usage, create focus sessions, and analyze time-based deliverables.
The tool has a mobile app, which creators can use to gain more awareness of their time, work habits, and productivity on the go.
Evernote
Evernote is a content curation and organization tool that helps creators gather and curate information for content creation.
With Evernote, creators can take notes, record, clip, scan, and even transcribe content for later use.
More so, it integrates with Gmail and Google Drive, which helps simplify information gathering across multiple devices to improve workflow.
This could also be an ideal tool for small teams to organize large volumes of information and collaborate on content creation.
Forest
Forest helps users to stay focused on the most important things via gamified focus sessions.
It encourages creators to declutter and avoid digital distractions while being motivated to finish initiated tasks at hand.
All a user has to do is set a countdown timer for a task and keep the Forest app open while completing the task.
For every task completed, a virtual tree is planted on the app representing the user’s streak. The more tasks completed by a user, the more virtual trees are planted(streaks), which could then become a sort of digital forest.
This has proven to have a profound impact on a user’s productivity and ability to concentrate, which means, more work done.
Slack
Slack isn’t just a communication tool for teams. It could serve as a unifying platform for team collaboration, file sharing, and integrations that could boost productivity.
Users could now also leverage AI agents to get more information, organize data, and streamline workflows.
This could boost productivity and help creators maintain focus for team projects and collaborations.
Google Workspace
Google Workspace serves as a unified platform for teams to achieve productivity via a suite of tools such as Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Meet.
This could simplify real-time collaboration for distributed teams and remote workers looking to share and access files across devices — a recipe for avoiding digital clutter.
With Google Workspace now enabling AI-powered capabilities and automation, creators are able to automate workflows and speed up digital creation time by performing tasks such as:
- Convert drafts to podcast-styled overviews
- Auto edit and refine content drafts
- Auto summarize files and take notes from calls and audio files
- Analyze trends and create intuitive charts,
- Generate video clips using Google’s Veo 2 model
Asana
Asana helps teams create structured project management and collaborate on workflows.
With features for communication, timeline tracking, work delegation, and progress updates, project teams could minimize repetitive tasks while focusing on leveraging their synergy to boost productivity.
The SaaS platform has also introduced AI-powered features for teams to automate workflows and get even more work done.
FAQs on Apps for Boosting Productivity at Work
Which productivity app is best for beginners?
Most of the apps listed here are beginner-friendly, but you can try out Todoist and Notion for task management due to their simple interfaces.
Can these apps work offline?
Many of them can be used offline, but will require internet connection to sync data. So, you could use apps like Evernote to access notes and files but will need an Internet connection to sync updated information to the system.
Are these tools suitable for freelancers?
Of course, many of these apps such as ClickUp, Google Workspace, and Trello can be used by freelancers to manage both personal and client-based tasks.
Are these productivity apps free?
Many of them offer a limited free version for users who want to test out a few features, however, you will need the paid premium version for professional use such as accessing integrations and automation.
