In my
review of the Samsung Galaxy S5 (here, if you missed it) I mention some of the
apps I use to manage me, my family and my business. I've received a few questions about these
apps and so I thought it was a good time to tell you about my favourites. I have all these apps on all my devices – my
iPad, and two Android phones – and almost all of them either downloaded to my laptop, or
accessible online from my laptop.
This has
been the biggest time saver I have ever used. I use Pocket to store everything
that I want to read later - email newsletters, web articles - anything. Pocket gets rid of all the extraneous stuff and keeps only the text and pictures from the web article, making it really easy to read. I can
read them offline and add tags so I can search for the articles I need. Those
that I want to keep I can send to Evernote.
Pocket is on all my devices so that no matter where I am when I find
something I want to keep I can add it to pocket, and I’ve always got something
to read.
Evernote
Evernote is
an amazing organising tool. Similarly to
Pocket, it can store articles and web clips and you can tag them to categorise
them, but Evernote can do a lot more. You
can add notes via audio (record your voice), webcam, screenshots, and
handwritten notes, and even email directly to Evernote; and each note can be
formatted – with checklists, tables etc.
Create a filing system and folders within Evernote to organise your
notes, and tags allow for cross-referencing across different categories. Evernote also has a family of products to help
you do even more with Evernote. I use
Skitch to add notes and marks to photos and screen shots (also great for
PDFs). I also have Penultimate on my
iPad which I use with a stylus when I want to take notes by hand. The pages of writing are automatically saved
to Evernote. Lots of other apps also
work with Evernote – I’ve got the Chrome extension to easily add any web
clipping to Evernote; the Outlook add-in to quickly send an email to Evernote;
JotNot on my iPad which turns it into a scanner with the scanned document sent
straight to Evernote.
Wunderlist
This is my
list manager - all my to do lists; what needs to be done in my business; in my
home, in my life - everything. Items in each list can be given a deadline, and
each item can have its own sub-lists. I can quickly refer to what needs to be
done on a particular day and even print off the list for the day if I need it.
Bitly
Bitly is
one of many sites where you can shorten URLs.
But, by creating an account on Bitly, I’m able to use it for much
more. The URL of each of my blog posts
is copied to Bitly where, not only is the URL shortened, I can view statistics
for each URL, including how many clicks it has received. I also add notes to
each entry with the date each time I share or tweet a particular post (great
for reusing older posts). On my laptop and the iPhone app on my iPad (there's no dedicated iPad app)
Trello
Trello is
where I manage my projects. Each project has a board and within that board I
can break down the project into different stages. Within each stage I add the
tasks to be completed. Each task can be dragged into a different spot - so
important when you suddenly realise you've missed a step. Trello is on my
laptop, iPad and Samsung phone so I can work on a project at any time.
Chimpadeedoo
I use Mail
Chimp to create and manage Techie Mum newsletters. You can sign up to receive the newsletter
from the blog or from my Facebook Page.
But there’s often situations where someone would like to sign up for my
newsletter but there’s not computer available, or not the time. Chimpadeedoo is
a simple app on my iPad and phones that presents a single screen where anyone
can signup for my newsletter, regardless of whether there’s internet
access. It’s linked to my Mail Chimp
account so that once my iPad or phones are able to connect to the internet the
registrations are automatically added to my mailing list. Chimpadeedoo is perfect for an exhibition
where you could have an iPad on the table for anyone to signup to a newsletter
or mailing list (as long as you had a lock on the iPad to prevent someone
running off with it) – the app can be set to not go to sleep so it’s always
visible.
Dropbox
Dropbox is
my favourite for cloud storage. Any
files that I regularly need when I’m away from my computer are stored in
Dropbox, and with Dropbox on my iPad and both phones I can access those files
anywhere. On my computer Dropbox appears
as just another folder so it’s easy to drag a file to it when needed. I have it set up so any photos I take on my
phones or my iPad are automatically saved to Dropbox. That means all my photos are accessible on
every device and it sure makes it easy to transfer them into my photo filing
system on my computer. As I took
screenshots on my iPad and phone for this post they were instantly available on
my laptop to add as I was writing.
Infinote
I use the Infinite app on my iPad when I’m planning a new training session. It’s like a board with lots of different
post-it notes. I create a note for each
topic I want to include in the training and then I can move them around on the
board/screen to get the order right.
What apps are your favourites? I would
love to know what apps you use, so please leave me a comment below and let me know what you use and how
