Having recently paid a rather large sum of money to replace the iPhone that fell victim to my late night shenanigans, I have vowed to start taking full advantage of my smartphone. In the past, I paid no mind to the “productivity” apps that some of my nerdier colleagues seemed to rave about every chance they’d get. However, having tried some of them, I can report that a few have actually made me a (slightly) more organized man. Go figure.
Humin
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found myself scrolling through my entire phone address book searching in vain for that girl I met downtown just a few nights before. Typically in a state of “mental impairment” when I ask for most girls’ numbers, I’m generally at a loss the next day when I try to recall names. I’ve even Google searched (on more than one occasion) “how to view recently added contacts.” I still haven’t found a way to do this without Humin. In essence, this app attempts to add “context” to the contacts in your life. By appending information such as creation date, frequency of correspondence, and geographic location, Humin offers unprecedented abilities to search through and make sense of your contacts. It can even recommend contacts you may want to reach out to when you travel to different cities. So, download this app and you can finally stop asking who’s kickin’ it in H-Town this weekend on Facebook.
With the amount of content online, I’m constantly forgetting about cool articles I didn’t get a chance to read when speeding through my twitter feed. Introducing Pocket: the app that lets you collect articles, videos, recipes, websites and online content for you to consume at a later date. Now you can save all those interesting pieces you had to pass up during work because your boss wandered dangerously close to your cubicle. With your pocket account, you can view your saved articles on any device. Everything in the app is also accessible offline, making it perfect for long bus rides or getting stuck in an elevator.
Evernote
I started using Evernote a few years ago because it made it insanely easy to access my notes across different devices. But if you’re still only using Evernote to store your notes in the cloud, you’re selling yourself short. In the short time that I’ve had it on my phone, Evernote has expanded its functionality immensely. Today, Evernote seems to do everything, yet maintains its easy to use user interface and navigation. From setting reminders, to writing notes on images, to sharing notes with others via Apple’s airdrop, this app is making a valiant effort to make me an organized person. If you haven’t already, you should give it a try. Trust me, you’ll love it.
Swipes
Sure, there are a bunch of pretty good task list apps out there. But few manage to transcend to the level of an actual daily planner. The winner of Evernote’s start up competition last fall, Swipe seeks to aggregate all of your task lists, reminders, and even important bits of info from your email inbox into one easy to use interface. From there, you can prioritize what needs to get done and plan your day. It keeps up with you during the day, allowing you to continually re-adjust your plans according to how much you do (or don’t) get done.
Mint
Many of you will probably recognize Intuit as the accounting software juggernaut behind Quickbooks and TurboTax. In 2009, they acquired the web-based personal accounting service, Mint, and have subsequently beefed up its versatility and functionality. After you connect it to your respective financial institution, this app goes to work organizing your transaction history into pre-defined expense categories. It does take a bit of time investment in the beginning to map many of the smaller merchants you tend to shop with frequently, but you only have to do this once for each merchant. After that, Mint will recommend monthly budgets for your main expense categories that you can adjust at your leisure. You’ll be surprised how much you can save when you set budgets for things like “Fast Food” and “Bars and Alcohol.”
