The app market is saturated with tools promising to turn our productivity around. But all too often they just add to our administrative burden – taking time and attention away from the work that matters.
Since so much of our tech is latent with distraction, we need to become smarter about the tools we work with. But we also need to expand our understanding of "productivity". It's no longer sufficient to think of it in terms of “organization” and “prioritization” alone - technology that supports our wellbeing ultimately can strengthen our performance.
So, where do you start? What apps will actually help you do your best work and unlock your potential? Mixing new tools with established favourites, here's our rundown of the best productivity apps to try in 2022.
Locking focus
HazeOver - for spotlighted concentration
HazeOver literally lets you focus on one thing at a time, dissolving the need to minimize, close or hide windows as you navigate around your desktop. Essentially, the tool works by focusing on one tab or window on each monitor, helping you stay present on one thing at a time and really focus.
StayFocusd - for staying focused!
A useful tool when abstinence is your best cure – especially if you’re guilty of pointless social media checking, or can’t resist replying to a Facebook message. Serving as a handy, customizable Google Chrome extension, it enhances concentration by reducing noisy distractions and limiting the time you spend on unproductive websites.
Moment (iOS and Android) - for staying present
Using three key strategies - Measure, Coach and Disconnect - Moment is an indispensable app to help you understand your own relationship with your phone. Through guided sessions, app usage tracking, bootcamp courses and screen-free time blocks, you can cull poor digital behaviors and be more present in your life.
Pushbullet - for custom notifications
Pushbullet is all about keeping notifications productive. It connects across multiple devices and ubiquitously customizes your notifications to make sure you only see what you’ve defined as valuable. You can also opt in for SMS updates, check-in on missed calls on your desktop, and quickly drag and drop files between devices without having to email them to yourself.
Measuring performance
Timely - for tracking everything you work on automatically
Timely holds a mirror up to the way you work. Aside from helping you understand your overall performance, Timely shows you exactly how long you spend on different tasks. By tracking all the apps you use on web and desktop, it also helps highlight workflow bottlenecks, intrusive apps and unproductive behaviors. It’s mobile apps also offer the ability to track your GPS location, providing the full picture of what you actually do each day.
Screen Time (iOS) – for keeping iOS interactions productive
Serving as another incredibly diligent and effective productivity booster, Screen Time allows you to set blocked periods such as sleep, communication or tasks to curb distractions and help to stick to a schedule. You can also set blocks on specific sites or apps to squash the temptation of going on social media and aimlessly scroll your newsfeed.
Digital Wellbeing (Android) – for a healthier relationship with your Android
Digital Wellbeing helps you critique and improve your relationship with your Android devices. Through the app, you can read tips and understand specific tools the suite offers to help improve better “digital wellbeing” – something we all need to take a lot more seriously.
Structuring & organizing
Todoist - for quantifiable checklists
Todoist is like the PA you’ve never had, shouldering the burden of task organization by breaking work into neat checkpoints. From there, you can segment your task list into subcategories, people or time (or all of these), and obtain a much more explicit overview of what’s coming up. Download it as a web app, extension, or iOS/Android app.
Scanbot - for image capturing and uploading
Scanbot removes the duplication of effort that comes with converting analogue files into digital ones. It translates analogue materials like hand-written notes, magazine articles, books and presentation print-outs into digital formats for easy annotation. Its AI then fine-tunes your images –straightening documents and applying filters to improve legibility.
Alation - for enterprise cataloging
Chiefly aimed at enterprises and distributed companies who work across massive data sets, Alation helps everyone find the data they need to collaborate. It’s a simple way to index all your company’s data knowledge – ideal if you’re handling cataloging and auto-inventories, or want to overhaul your analytic productivity.
Staying mindful
Headspace - for quieting your mind
Guiding you through effective, easy-to-learn exercises and meditations, Headspace helps quieten your mind and creates a designated space for downtime. From walking you through specific exercises to offering an archive of handy mental health awareness tips, this really is your go-to for reducing stress and staying mindful.
Brain FM - for productivity-enhancing sound
If you struggle picking the right music to work to, try Brain FM. Used by over 150,000 people, it offers a science-first, purpose-driven approach to background music – picking sounds that compliment your cognitive focus. Using a technique called “strong neural phase locking”, it promises to create an ambiance conducive to the way you work.
Wysa - for mental health support
While it’s no substitute for professional clinical support, Wysa is an solid mental health resource. It helps tackle over 50 mental health issues, using AI chatbot to talk you through problems and create a practical exercise-kit for dealing with them. Backed by evidence-based therapy methods, it supports you through rough periods using anxiety-fighting techniques like meditation, talking and diary-writing.
Automating low-value work
Dashlane - for password management
Strong passwords are essential to workplace security – but they can make accessing and sharing tools across the company very difficult. Getting locked out of an account because you can’t remember your complicated password happens ridiculously often. Dashlane saves you the trouble by configuring strong passwords and saving them in one secure place for quick and easy access.
Otter - for sharing and centralizing communications
Using 'Ambient Voice Intelligence', Otter is able to translate spoken word into sharable, written text – particularly useful when it comes to minute taking. It listens to meeting conversations and uses AI to recognize individual speakers, quickly surfacing related documents in response to key phrases. By generating smart notes that collate audio, text and images, it massively reduces post-meeting follow up communications.
Zapier – integrations between web apps
Zapier completely automates the manual burden of moving information between your different work tools. You can create as many “Zaps” as you like to pull data effortlessly between your apps. Along the way, Zapier suggests process improvements to help you solve issues outside of data transfer.
