Make Tech Easier: 6 Amazing Note-Taking Alternatives to Evernote. “Evernote has become an industry leader in note-taking apps. However, it is not everyone’s cup of tea and has a few severe limitations. If you are looking for an Evernote alternative that offers all of the same features (or more), check out these fantastic note-taking apps that all serve as alternatives to Evernote.”
MakeUseOf: How to Create a Digital Planner in Google Sheets. “Organizing your daily tasks and schedules can be simplified with a digital planner. Thankfully, you don’t need to pay for a specialized app or wrestle with an overly complicated program—Google Sheets can get the job done. Creating a digital planner in Google Sheets is both easy and straightforward. Whether you’re mapping out personal or work-related tasks, it’s got all the features you need to get organized and stay on top of your responsibilities.”
MakeUseOf: 13 Google Calendar Hacks to Boost Your Productivity. “It’s more likely than not that you’ve used Google Calendar at least once, whether someone sent you a meeting invite or you just ended up using it because it comes with your device. While Google Calendar is a pretty straightforward app when it comes to scheduling, it comes with several amazing features and integrations that can help boost your productivity and improve your overall efficiency. Here’s a list of some of the best ones below.”
How-To Geek: The Best Free Pomodoro Timers and Apps to Boost Productivity. “The Pomodoro Technique can be used to cut down on procrastination by scheduling work and break periods throughout the day. While any old timer will do, dedicated timer apps make it easier to get started and stick with it.”
Mashable: 7 creative ways to organize your mobile apps. “With thousands of apps at our fingertips, they can quickly overcrowd our screens. Apps are designed to improve our lives and make us more efficient, but trying to find them in a mishmash collection of colorful icons can be time consuming. Solve this problem by taking 15 minutes to clean out the jumble of app clutter, and find a homescreen organizational structure that works for you. After all, no one wants to be an app hoarder. Here are seven creative ways to arrange your smartphone apps.”
The Verge: Microsoft Lists is now available for everyone on iOS, Android, and the web. “Microsoft’s task management app, Microsoft Lists, is now available for everyone to use. Launched in 2020, Microsoft Lists was originally limited to just business and enterprise users, before a limited preview for consumers last year. Microsoft is now letting anyone with a Microsoft Account access this free version of Microsoft Lists through iOS and Android apps and on the web.”
MakeUseOf: The 7 Best Apps to Track Your Daily Activities. “Finding ways to enhance productivity and make the most of every moment is paramount in today’s world. One of the best strategies you can apply to optimize your daily routine is activity tracking. Analyzing your time welcomes many benefits for your personal growth and time management goals. You can identify and replace unhelpful habits with more productive ones by tracking your daily activities. Make better use of your time using these everyday activity-tracking apps.”
Fast Company: Chrome’s sidebar apps are the best new productivity feature no one’s talking about. “Back in May, Google added a brilliant new feature to Chrome, and almost everyone appears to have missed it. It’s called the Side Panel API, and it allows Chrome extensions to run as miniature apps in the browser’s sidebar. Several extensions have used this feature to add vertical tabs in Chrome, while other have added things like a ChatGPT sidebar or a persistent scratchpad for notes.”
Engadget: Google Keep is finally adding version history. “Google Keep, the company’s note-taking app, is getting a long-overdue feature that unfortunately doesn’t seem fully baked. Google is adding a version history function, which could save you from having to manually retype a lot of text that you mistakenly deleted.” I like Google Keep but I never started using it seriously because I half-assumed Google would kill it off.
Lifehacker: Use Text Expanders to Email More Efficiently. “We all waste a lot of time writing out emails. Many of these emails say the same basic thing, too, when you’re following up on something, sending an introduction, or emailing a process explanation—and it can be mind-numbing to type it all out over and over again. But you actually don’t need to repeat common messages all the time, nor do you need to frequently copy and paste: Instead, try a text expander to quickly send out pre-defined paragraphs and get your day moving faster. You have a few different options, but in general, they work the same way: You type one word to trigger the insertion of another, pre-written sequence of words.”
Lifehacker: Shortwave Is the Spiritual Successor to Google’s Inbox. “Enter: Shortwave, a relatively new email app from ex-Google designers. As reviewed by The Verge, Shortwave instantly evokes the experience of using Inbox, down to the UI. The biggest similarity, and the one feature former Inbox users are likely to be excited by, is its use of bundles to group similar emails together.”
Hongkiat: Integromat vs. Zapier: Features, Prices, Pros & Cons (2023). “Connecting unrelated applications, making them work together, and automating several manual processes sounds like a lot of work for people, especially for those who have no coding knowledge. But thankfully, tools like Integromat and Zapier exist. These platforms enable users to connect applications easily with minimal coding involved and, in many cases, none at all. This article is for decision makers who want to streamline and optimize their processes. If you’re here, most likely, you’ll benefit from either of these two.”
Lifehacker: The Best Way to Bulk Export Your Apple Notes. “Apple Notes is among the best free note-taking apps out there, but it doesn’t make it easy to export notes in bulk. Whether you’re thinking of switching to another app—such as Obsidian, which has better support for Android and Windows—or just considering backing up all your notes, you’re going to need a bulk export tool to handle the job.”
MakeUseOf: How to Organize Your Projects With Trello. “As useful as they are, sometimes the to-do list apps on your phone just won’t cut it. In the search for personal productivity apps, a key thing to remember is that project management software, like Trello, is not only for teams in offices. You can use it to manage your personal stuff too.”
Chrome Unboxed: Google Tasks officially freed from its side bar prison, can now be used standalone on the web. “In line with Google’s efforts to merge Reminders into Tasks, its web-based Assistant Reminders landing page evolved into a central hub for to-dos saved to your account. Recently, this page has undergone further transformation and now mirrors the aesthetics of the Google Tasks app and sidebar, logo and all!”
