Powerful, Smart and Free Productivity Apps for Your Smartphone
Free productivity apps offer many ways to get organized and increase efficiency. Check out the list of the best apps and bring your productivity to the next level.
New habits are often hard to develop and adopt, and sometimes special tools are required that prevent you from giving up. Mobile apps are a great help for those who are working on their productivity: they offer many ways to get organized and increase efficiency at work, from creating detailed lists and timesheets to a gamified self-improvement process. We prepared a list of free productivity apps that help you improve focus, capture your ideas, and analyze your performance, and more.
1. actiTIME (iOS, Android)
actiTIME is a time-tracking app that helps you keep record of your time expenses and analyze your productivity. The mobile app works as an additional tool for the desktop account and allows you to track work and leave time, see your time-track for any period in a chart with breakdown by categories, and manage your work process. As for time-tracking methods, the app allows manual entry and automatic calculation of time expenses with a timer.
An app that helps develop good habits and learn new skills. It was inspired by Jerry Seinfield’s productivity secret: hang a big calendar on a wall and put marks over each day when you do your task: studying, exercising, playing guitar, drinking more water, etc. Schedule habits and goals for the next day, month or year, set up reminders so you don’t forget to work on your goal, and track your progress in a calendar view. If you need to use your data in any other program, you can export it to Google Drive, Dropbox or a local storage.
If you feel that your self-improvement efforts are turning into a boring routine activity, gamifying this process will definitely help. In this app you can create a virtual copy of yourself, develop new skills, track your progress in tasks and bind them to characteristics. For example, workouts can contribute to strength or stamina, reading to wisdom or charisma, etc. The app has a reward system, so you receive gold for each accomplished task and buy rewards with it.
4. Loop (Android)
An advanced habit tracker: set up long-term goals, configure schedules and reminders, and see statistics of your personal growth. Habit score is a valuable feature: Loop calculates the strength of your habits on the basis of repetition frequency. Every repetition makes the habits stronger and every missed day decreases the strength of the habit, so several missed days can easily destroy the entire progress. Detailed analytics allow you to see your daily and overall progress and achieving your goals faster.
TimeTune is a scheduling app for everyone who wants to improve their productivity and efficiency. It helps in work, studies, and daily to-dos. Create activities, categorize them with icons and tags, and set up reminders. TimeTune calculates time distribution statistics that help reveal time leaks and improve your time management. The app allows to create custom routines and share them with others, which is helpful for instructors, doctors, etc.
6. Glympse (Android, iOS, Windows Mobile)
A productivity app you probably never thought of: it allows sharing your location with colleagues or family. Send a Glympse to let them know your arrival time, request a Glympse from a colleague who is always coming in late, or create a Glympse group for a reunion. A really helpful tool for coordinating field service employees, informing customers you’re running late when stuck in traffic, or communicating with friends and family when travelling.
This app is designed for capturing new ideas visually – writing, drawing, sketching, inserting photos, and organizing all elements on the page. The app is great for sketching, planning, scheduling, brainstorming, creating mindmaps – everything you do when working on a new idea. The basic version of the app is free; in the paid Plus edition, several additional features are available, such as full color palette, additional fonts, notebooks with unlimited pages, etc.
30/30 is the suggested work cycle: 30 minutes of focus on one task and 30 minutes of break. This time constraint increases your concentration, and breaks work as a reward for the performed work. This way, you get more done as you don’t waste time on distractions. What’s more, switching to an unrelated activity helps find a solution for the previous task. Simple and efficient, this app helps you improve your focusing habits and spend less time on getting things done.
9. Nirvana (iOS, Android)
Nirvana is a task manager available for mobile devices and the Web. It is cloud-based, so the data is always synced between all your devices. The app has a range of powerful features: areas of action, checklists, scheduled tasks, tagging, focus lists. With Nirvana, you can turn your emails into actions without copying and pasting every detail – just forward them to your Nirvana account.
10. Nozbe (iOS, Android)
Nozbe is a task management app that helps stay organized even in a hectic environment. Create tasks, prioritize them, set deadlines, and organize them into projects to structure your work. The app offers collaboration functionality, so you can work on your tasks with colleagues and friends. Integration options allow you to use data and files from Evernote, Google Drive, Microsoft Office, and Dropbox. Single-user accounts with 5 active projects are free, other options involve service fees.
11. Flow (iOS)
Flow is a mobile task management and communication tool for teams. With Flow Tasks, keep all tasks in one place and stay up-to-date on your colleagues’ work progress. Integrate it with Flow Chat (it’s also free) to have all tasks, deadlines and discussions live in one tool. Manage your team’s work process quickly and easily from anywhere, and know what’s happening without overmanagement.