If you feel like you’re just not making the most of yourwaking hours, you’re not alone. With all the competing demands on our time andenergies, most of us can use a bit of help prioritising our most importantgoals and keeping focused on the steps we need to take to reach these goals.
Happily there are some fabulous apps available for Mac users that can help you do just that.
I’ve created a list of the ten best free apps that will help you jump-start your productivity. All are free, but some inviteyou to upgrade for a fee, in order to access an ad-free or more feature-richversion of the app. For many users, though, the free version will be all youever need to get the job done.
1. Todoist
Without a doubt the first step to boosting your productivityis to get organised, and the best way to do that is to be clear about what yourgoals are and prioritise the tasks you need to execute every day to fulfilthose goals.
The Todoist app is a simple to-do listthat helps you to manage your daily tasks by documenting them, prioritisingthem and adding deadlines or due dates.
Best features:
- add, complete, and reschedule tasks from mobile devices,desktop, browser, email, etc.
- syncs automatically across all your devices
- add sub-tasks, task priorities, sub-projects, and color-codedprojects
- share projects, assign tasks, and add comments to teammembers from within the app
- and more
User SamManns says:
"Love this app. Beautiful, uncluttered interface."
2. Photo Transfer WiFi
If you work with a lot of images, graphics and/or videos, then you know how important it is to be able to access your media quickly and easily on different devices and to be able to share files with colleagues in an instant when necessary.
Photo Transfer WiFi enables you to do just that by making speedy, hassle-free transfers between devices on the same W-iFi.
Best features:
- Simple drag and drop operation
- Import HD videos to Mac from another Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPad Mini, or iPad Pro
- Make your pictures accessible from your Mac to other users on the same WiFi network
- Transfer your single and multiple photos and videos, albums, photos in full resolution
- and more
User David Paine says:
"You put a copy of this on your iPad and a copy on your Mac. You start both programs. They talk to each other. The Mac program sees your iPad and the iPad program sees your Mac.You drag and drop from your Mac into the little program window and transfer is instant, even with a little wavefile sounding of the photo wizzing off to your iPad. Is really amazing. Buy this…you won't regret it."
3. BeFocused
One of the most important factors in living a moreproductive life is being able to focus on one task without distractions for aperiod of time.
BeFocused helps you get tasks doneby breaking up the time you spend working on them into discrete intervals separated by short breaks.
This helps you retain motivation and focus. You can trackyour progress throughout the day, week or any custom period you choose.
Best features:
- fast and easy goal tracking
- customise work interval and break duration
- different alarm sounds
- syncs between Mac and mobile devices
- and more
User ElevatingCreativity says:
"Be Focused allows you to keep track of specific activities that you're engagingin, and how much time you're spending there. It automatically alternatesbetween focus sessions and break sessions. It allows you to specify how muchtime you want to alternate between focus and breaks, and will automaticallyremind you to stay on track. I haven't yet tried the pro version, but just thisfree version does a lot and is very useful."
4. Toggl
Where does the time go? This is a mystery for many of us,but it doesn’t have to be. If you want to understand exactly how you’respending the working hours of a day, then TogglDesktop app is an indispensable tool.
Each time you begin a new task, you enterit in the app. When you’ve completed the task you log out. At the end ofthe day, week, and month you'll have a detailed record of how you’ve spentyour time.
Best features:
- idle detection
- tracking reminder
- task timer
- timeline
- and more
User Lucas2114 says:
"I use Toggl as a freelancer. It’s amazing how good the freeversion is. I tried many apps and this one is perfect. It’s also open-source,which is cool."
5. AudioNote Lite
AudioNote Lite is a brilliant app that will save you timeand energy while improving the quality of the notes you take in meetings,lectures, interviews or study sessions.
The app is essentially a notepad and voice recorder combined.When you hit the record button the app begins recording, and thereafter eachnote that you type acts as a link to the point in the recording that you typedit.
This means that during playback, you don’t have to wastetime searching through the entire recording to find a certain point. Just clickthe note you’ve written and it will take you to the exact point in therecording when you made it.
Best features:
- synchronised note and audio recording
- find important parts of audio instantly just by tapping notes
- ability to insert text, drawing, photo, and highlighter notes
- audio amplifier for recordings made in larger conference rooms
- and more
User Thumper124 says:
"This is one of the best note taking apps I've tried. Iespecially like the recording feature, and the option to type your notesinstead of writing if that is what you prefer. Love this app!!"
6. Evernote
Evernote is all about being organised, and where it really excels is in enablingusers to make notes in a variety of formats, including text, sketches,photos, audio, video, PDFs and web clippings etc. and then organise those notes insearchable notebooks and checklists that can be automatically synced betweena computer and various mobile devices.
Best features:
- everything you store in Evernote is searchable including pictures and annotatedimages
- share, discuss and collaborate with others all in one app
- gather, capture and store every thoughts and ideas
- clip and organise content from the web
- and more
User madman420 says:
"The Mac version of Evernote keeps getting better. I lovethat I can drag multiple files onto the dock icon in order to create multiplenotes with the files attached to each note, and I also appreciate being able toopen multiple Evernote windows. This, combined with the flexible workflow toolsand features like reminders, tagging, PDF mark-up, OCR search, syncednotebooks, offline notebooks, local notebooks, and easy collaboration make itthe ultimate, indispensible tool for managing my life and business."
7. Bear
If you're ooking for a great digital notebook that you can use forjotting notes, crafting longer pieces, writing code snippets or sketching, thencheck out Bear.
It's a beautiful, flexiblewriting app that allows you to create many different types of notes and access themacross devices.
Best features:
- focus mode helps you concentrate
- ability to link notes to each other
- ability to use hashtags to quickly find and organize notes
- Smart Data Recognition of elements like links, emails,addresses, colours, etc.
- and more
User CompSciProf says:
"There are three main reasons why I love this app: 1) You ownyour data, meaning it is not stored in some proprietary format. Along withthis, you can export your data and backup your data very easily. 2) App is iOSand MacOS only. The advantage here is the development team can focus on oneplatform instead of trying to fit their app into each platform. 3) The app iseasy to use and very intuitive. Instead of focusing on creating folders orcreating tags, Bear takes care of that for you by creating the tag structuredynamically based on the content of the notes. With the latest updates, thedevelopment team does a great job of balancing features while avoiding bloat."
8. Skitch
Skitch is one of those apps that once you start using, you’ll wonder how youlived without it for so long.
An add-on for Evernote that can also be usedindependently, Skitch helps users to use screenshots, PDFs or images from yourhard drive, mark them up with various notes, comments and diagrams and sendthem to colleagues in an instant.
Best features:
- send marked-up documents and images via social, email, SMS and more
- multiple users can mark up one document or image usingdifferent coloured text
- can be accessed across devices
- and more
User mcgskisays:
"I’ve been a Skitch user since it arrived as an add-on forEvernote. I’ve come to rely on it many of my work and personal workflows. Forexample, at work I’ve used it to take screenshots, annotate these screenshots,and embed them into Evernote notes for use as simple and quick How To forclients."
9. Text2Speech
Text2Speech is a free app thatreads aloud any text copied into the app’s text load window.
You can change the speaking rate or thespeaking voice, as well as pause or stop the program at any point.
Great features
- supports over 20 languages
- can select additional voices from Apple’s System Preference
- and more
User Raven3-3g says:
"I’m working on a research paper where I need many sourcesfrom academic articles and this app is saving me a lot of time. I’m better ableto take notes on my readings and I can have the app narrate to me a lot fasterthan I’m able to read silently. This is still an amazing app. Very muchworthwhile to have."
10. OneDrive
Cloud storage has become very popular and very competitivelately. One of the reasons why is that it frees us up from endless drives andthe problems associated with them. It also allows us to access our data fromany device and makes sharing documents and collaborating with colleagues far easier.
OneDrive givesyou free online storage for your files, so you can access them from your Macand any other devices you use.
Best features:
- access your OneDrive files directly from the Finder
- work with your OneDrive files even when you’re offline. Yourchanges will sync automatically the next time you’re online
- add several files or folders to OneDrive at a time by draggingthem to the OneDrive folder
- easily open, edit and create docs and other files inOneDrive
- and more
User Simon Beech says:
"I’ve used a range of cloud saving apps but OneDrive has beenthe most reliable and easiest to use. The quick link between my iPhone and Machas saved me countless times in interviews, meetings and presentations where Iwould normally have to resort to a USB memory stick."
Conclusion
Well there you have it, the ten best free Mac apps to jump-startyour productivity currently found in the App Store.
Of course, there are manyothers I couldn’t cover in this article, so if you have a favourite that Ihaven’t mentioned, please drop a mention in the comments.
