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16 Apps and Tools to Keep You Productive and Sane

Editor’s note: Staying sane while working has never been more challenging and necessary. We’re bringing back this 2018 article to help.

I committed to evaluating my personal tech stack (yeah, I know that’s an odd collection of words, but you’ll see what I mean). My workload felt out of control. My goal was to be more intentional about finding worthwhile shortcuts and workarounds, as well as trying to make life simpler – an undertaking I jokingly call Clare 2.0.

How do super creative and productive people get through the daily grind of meetings, deadlines, and emails, yet still manage to preserve their creative energy? They, in part, optimize technology. This post focuses on the tools I’ve tested on my journey toward a more productive life.

How do super creative and productive people get through the workday? Check out these 16 tools from @clare_mcd. #productivity #wfh Click To Tweet

Work-related apps and tools

Airtable

Airtable has proved amazingly useful for editorial calendar planning, mostly because it’s an insanely elegant combination of spreadsheet and database. While on the surface it seems like a spreadsheet, you can program columns/cells to hold pre-defined tags, checklists, and even files. (Free and paid versions; I use free)

Mixmax

Mixmax is a Gmail extension that automates many of the tasks I did manually. For example, I can send a dozen possible meeting times to someone via email, and when the recipient chooses one of the times presented, it automatically sends us both an invitation. I also use Mixmax to set up email triggers, embed surveys and polls into an email, and write editorial due date reminders to be sent in the future. (Free and paid versions; I use paid)

FollowUp.CC

FollowUp.CC is a Chrome extension in the same category of tools as Mixmax, but with a singular focus: setting reminders. Use it to set a reminder bookmark for a webpage you want to revisit over the weekend, to remind yourself to follow up on an email, or even to snooze an email in your inbox for hours or days.

The FollowUp.CC app sits in a pane at the right of your screen, always ready to record reminders, and even using artificial intelligence to guess when an email merits a reminder. It’s a useful tool but given the decent amount of overlap with Mixmax features (e.g., email tracking and scheduling), I’m not sure I’ll stick with it. (Paid version only)

Asana

Asana helps me manage tasks and deadlines across projects and teams – my single source of truth for what I need to do on any given day. (Paid version only)

.@Asana project management tool is my single source of truth for what I need to do that day, says @clare_mcd. #productivity Click To Tweet

Evernote

Evernote is an oldie but goodie. On a tip from journalist-turned-marketer Cameron Conaway, I’ve started using it to keep track of articles and links useful for upcoming content or projects. Setting up a reasonable folder system is essential to make Evernote work well. (Free and paid; I use paid)

Use @evernote to keep track of articles and links for upcoming #content or projects, says @clare_mcd. #tools #productivity Click To Tweet

Emergent Task Planner

Emergent Task Planner is my favorite low-tech tool from the suite put together by my friend Dave Seah that I cannot live without. I order the ETP pads, which are made with a nice, thick paper and custom inks, from Amazon and use one page per day to organize myself when I arrive at my desk. The ETP forces you to think clearly about what is realistically possible in one day and to map out how you plan to accomplish each task. (The ETP isn’t a new tool for me. I’ve been using it for years.) (Free and paid; I use paid.) 

TIP: Writing my daily plan before I open email helps me focus on what is realistic and necessary. I like to start with a blank sheet of paper (ETP) rather than staring at a cluttered online to-do list. Each day you begin fresh.

Use @daveseah's #EmergentTaskPlanner #tool to write your daily plan BEFORE you open emails, advises @clare_mcd. #productivity Click To Tweet

Auto Text Expander

Auto Text Expander is one of those tools I never knew I needed until I got into the swing of it. Use it to auto-populate text you write repeatedly. Examples? Typing dial-in instructions. Writing the company boilerplate. Describing what I’m looking for in a freelance writer. Each blurb of text has a matching abbreviation you choose; type that abbreviation into Gmail and the app auto-populates your prepackaged text. (For example, when I type “#FCC,” it populates dial-in instructions and when I type #Yo, it drops in a short paragraph about the details of my business.) (Free)

IFTTT

IFTTT, or If This Then That, helps you align different apps to automate key tasks. For example, I use it to save the receipts received in my Gmail into a folder without having to manually tag them. And you don’t have to be a programming whiz to figure it out. Browse the IFTTT library to use applets others have already made. (Free)

Contacts Sync for Gmail

Contacts Sync for Gmail (for iPhones) is a tool with which I have a love-hate relationship. Yes, Contacts Sync for Gmail does merge all your contacts across multiple platforms and devices so that you can see them all in G-contacts. The problem is it somehow linked me to a bunch of people on Messenger that I don’t need to connect with. (Paid)

Focus@Will

Focus@Will offers “scientifically engineered music proven to increase focus and reduce distractions.” It’s a tool written about in Chief Content Officer magazine years ago. (I wish I could remember who recommended it.) I stopped paying the monthly subscription about two years ago when I thought I had found a few similar channels on Pandora. Not so. I resubscribed after missing the flow state Focus@Will helps me achieve. And I’ve noticed the difference in the intervening time. (Paid)

RescueTime

RescueTime has a lot of features I don’t use because they overlap with other apps I prefer. But the one saving quality of this app is my weekly email that tells me how well I behaved while sitting at my computer. (And it can get ugly.) Look at my screen cap and you’ll see that the week in question was much more productive than the one before it. (To be fair, I took some vacation time the week prior.) Even better, you can dive into analytics and see where you’re blowing your time. (I spent nearly 11 hours on email. Wow.) (Paid and free; I use free)

TIP: Always add apps one at a time to your toolkit, particularly plug-ins or add-ons designed to function as an appendage to existing apps like Chrome, Google Drive, or Gmail.

If you add more than one at a time and there’s a problem, you may not understand which one it is. (I have found Gmail plug-ins to be the buggiest of all, including those sanctioned by Google and accessible in your Gmail settings menu.)

Always add apps one at a time to your toolkit, particularly plug-ins or add-ons designed to function as an appendage to existing apps like @googlechrome, @Google Drive, or @Gmail, says @clare_mcd. Click To Tweet

Personal apps and tools

The following apps aren’t exactly professional tools, but they help me to keep my head clear and focused by supporting good habits and keeping the less productive ones at bay.

InsightTimer

InsightTimer is a daily meditation that helps me to focus my energy and let go of stress. I’ve tried a lot of meditation apps, including the wildly popular app called Headspace, but my favorite is InsightTimer. It has a vast collection of guided meditations, as well as meditative music to put you in the zone. (Free + in-app purchases)

.@InsightTimer is a daily meditation that helps me to focus my energy and let go of stress, says @clare_mcd. Click To Tweet

Stitcher

Stitcher is a great resource for podcasts. Have a mindless task you’re putting off? Plug into a great podcast and crank that dreaded chore out. Listening to podcasts helps me to complete the stuff I hate to do most (paying bills, washing dishes, folding laundry). (Free or paid)

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: And if you want our Stitcher recommendation, we pick CMI’s Weekly Wrap podcast. Get 30 minutes of inspiration and insight from Content Marketing Institute’s Chief Strategy Advisor Robert Rose every Friday.

Alarmed

Alarmed (for Apple products) is an app for GPS-based reminders. Set up Alarmed so that your phone reminds you to complete a specific task when you reach a designated location. (For what it’s worth, I’ve heard that Google Keep does something similar, but I’ve never used it.) Alarmed also has all the basic features of a to-do list and reminder app. (Free and paid)

Block Site

Block Site forces you to have self-control in ignoring distractions. Perhaps you have a Reddit problem or mindlessly check in on Facebook during the day? Block Site lets you block URLs permanently or during specified hours. On busy days I shut down all social media using Block Site. (What you’ll find mildly shocking when you do this is the extent to which your fingers will type a URL — almost as a tic — before your simian brain has registered it.) (Free + in-app purchases)

Apple Watch

Apple Watch has saved me on several occasions. I have a problem of hyper-focus. I fall so deep down the hole of concentration that I forget everything around me. (I have on multiple occasions forgotten to pick up my young children from school — a badge of shame.) The watch buzzes my wrist when an important meeting or event is upcoming. And when I lose my phone inside my home/office (not an unusual event), the watch helps me locate it. (Paid)

Am I really Clare 2.0? Actually, yes, even if modestly so. Some apps and tools offer small improvements, while others are significant. The tools that have made the biggest difference since adoption are: Airtable, Mixmax, Asana, Emergent Task Planner from David Seah, and the Apple Watch.

And if you’re really not into improving productivity, there’s always Boss Detector. It uses a motion detector on your computer camera to automatically minimize all time-wasting activities on your screen when someone walks up behind you and to push your real work to the foreground.

Carry on.

No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. What productivity or sanity tools are you using? Feel free to include in the comments. (And it’s OK if the tool is from your company.) 

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute