1. Free Productivity Apps
2. Best Productivity Apps For Mac Os X

Jul 04, 2020 The best Mac apps for 2020 By Mark Coppock July 4, 2020 If you’ve heard the phrase, “Once you go Mac, you never go back,” you know it holds true. Jul 08, 2020  Serene is a macOS app that enhances your productivity by helping you with ways to shield yourself from distractions. It basically blocks the apps and websites on your device that you don’t want to open while working, thus giving you a distraction-free environment to work and be more productive. Best Mac apps for security and productivity in 2020: Parallels, Backblaze, and more. A selection of the best performance, security, and productivity apps and utilities to help you get the most.

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Agile project management expert, Fred Wilson, recommends the Best Calendar Apps to boost your productivity in 2020 in this article.

Getting things done in a timely manner depends on the way you plan your day. If you feel like missing out on different scheduled tasks, perhaps a To Do List app can render help. On the same note, some people keep a notebook for their checklist items, while others just rely on their memory (which is not recommended at all).

The use of calendar applications is the main reason that keeps your day organized and supercharge your level of productivity. As the age-old expression goes: ‘Time is money’, you must leverage various technology-based solutions to make the most out of your time and stop the delays in your work schedule.

Calendar apps can help to schedule events, tasks, meetings, and customer calls in advance to gain control over your work. Many people have switched to calendar tools but still, some users don’t use calendar apps on a daily basis. They find calendar applications hard to use. Besides, the cost and a lack of functionality factor can also be intimidating derivatives at users’ end.

There are a lot of calendar apps available in the digital space – Which one to choose to fulfill your needs? That is an important question. This article will help you to decide which calendar application best fits your needs as a manager, entrepreneur, business person, and freelancer.

Different Criteria to Choose the Best Calendar App

Usually, these are the factors we look for when choosing the best calendar application:

Free Productivity Apps

This factor is very important to choose the best calendar app available, and it is considered as the main yardstick on which we rated different applications.

People, who usually experience a busy work schedule, need to choose the application that is easy to use. You don’t need to read long manuals on how to use the calendar applications. The application usage process should be self-explanatory – so much so that even an amateur could use it.

In that context, get software that provides basic templates on how to use the app for different industries and different professionals.

This one is obvious. Choose the calendar app that provides the greatest number of feature sets and functionality. However, you need to check if the given features in the calendar application are of use to you.

There are a lot of calendar apps available in the market right now. So, you need to choose wisely which features matter to you and help in organizing your work schedule in the desired manner. The main feature that is necessary for the best calendar app is the ability to share and give other people access to your schedule.

You should choose a calendar application that doesn’t burden your pocket. This way, you can use it for a longer time period. It serves no benefit if you start using one calendar application with the greatest number of features, and end up leaving it because it didn’t have the value factor going on.

It is your job to choose the best calendar application for your personal use and for your team. Let’s dive in and see the best calendar apps review.

Here are the 13 best calendar apps to supercharge your daily productivity.

nTask is one of the best calendar app that streamlines tasks, activities, projects, issues, and risks on a beautifully integrated in-app calendar. It provides end-to-end tasks and workflow management, hence enabling you to become productive like never before.

There is a huge number of calendar features and functionality available in nTask, with compatibility on different devices such as iOS and Android apps.

nTask gives you the control you need to manage your meetings, events, and tasks on your calendar. As you schedule a meeting using the nTask calendar app, the organizer can control which attendees to invite and who can make additions to the meeting items.

These meeting items are, but not limited to meeting agenda, follow-up actions, discussion points, and meeting attendees, etc.

The user experience of the nTask application will help you to start the calendar and scheduling process with ease. The user interface of the nTask helps you to get the calendar app understanding in just a few minutes.

It provides many other tools that help in managing tasks, projects, meetings, time tracking, issue management, and risk management which is an additional benefit given to supercharge your workflow management with the help of a calendar.

Download: Web | Android | iOS

Key Features

Here is the list of nTask calendar app features:

• Create a meeting agenda
• Set start and end time for meeting duration
• Real-time task update
• Task timer
• Link to task or project
• Recurring meeting
• Discussion points
• Set follow-up actions
• Set date with just a click
• Invite members and meeting attendees
• Share minutes of meeting and other materials with anyone
• Send calendar and meeting invites to unlimited team members for FREE
• Audio and video call features (coming soon)
• Team Collaboration on your tasks and schedule

Pricing

• nTask offers a Forever FREEplan for creating unlimited tasks, meetings and calendar invites.

• nTask is the best FREE calendar app

  You can manage all your tasks, schedules, meetings and workflow on nTask. Signup Now!
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The best thing about Google Calendar is that you can create multiple calendars in one app with your Gmail or Google account. Google Calendar integrates with every other application available in the cloud (SaaS) and the desktop market.

It is the official (default) calendar for the Android phones and other Android devices. Many people think that there is nothing special about the Google Calendar app is it is for FREE on Android devices. The app gives ease of use like no other apps available. It is ranked number 2 on our list because it is super easy to use and gives hundreds of integrations.

Download: Web | Android | iOS | Chrome Extension

Key Features

• Different color pallets
• G Suite and hundred other integrations
• Linked with emails
• iOS and Android apps
• Easy calendar invite
• Events from Gmail accounts are added automatically.
• Smart title and text suggestions

Price

• Google Calendar can be used for FREE with a Google account.

Source

Microsoft Outlook Calendar is the scheduling functionality available for Outlook users that can integrate your contacts, emails and other Outlook event features. With Outlook Calendar, you can create events, appointments, group schedules and organize your meetings.

It works as a personal task manager with simple to use UI. You can send the calendar to anyone in your team who can view and manage their schedules or subscribe to one another’s calendar to get real-time updates.

Outlook Calendar can be used in iOS and Android devices. The Mac version of the Outlook is not so handy (because it is Windows Friendly app), but Microsoft is working to make it better. This calendar tool can make you productive if you are a Windows lover and work more on desktop apps.

The Free version of Outlook can fulfill your basic needs like drag and drop options to create a meeting or a task, and sending a meeting request. You can subscribe to the Pro version of Microsoft Office to get more functionalities.

Download: Web | Android | iOS | Windows | Mac

Key Features

• Create events, and appointments
• Organize meetings
• Group schedules
• Overlay view
• Calendar view with Emails
• Send calendar invites
• Ability to subscribe to Internet Calendar
• Manage other’s calendar

Pricing

• Free plan
• Paid plan starting from $5.99 per month with Office 365 for desktop apps

Source

This one is a favorite for Apple product users on Mac or iOS. Apple Calendar is the default calendar app on all Apple devices and helps you to update your schedule on iPhone, Mac, iCloud and iPad. It has a clean and simple user interface to let you focus on your upcoming events and get organized with its calendar app.

It adds integration on several other iOS apps with drag and drops functionality. You can create new events, edit titles and descriptions, set location, create a note, set reminders and invite meeting members all in one apple device.

Download: Web | Mac | iOS

Key Features

• Manage multiple accounts in one calendar
• Change color code
• Invite people and get invited on other’s calendar
• Integrate event map by adding the location
• Include travel time to the event location
• Invite team and family members
• Integrate with Google

Pricing

• Free on Mac and iOS devices.

Any.do (Previously called ‘Cal Calendar’) is a calendar app that is available on nearly all the devices you can think of. It is available on Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Web, Siri, Amazon, Windows Desktop, Slack, Chrome and Firefox extensions, and wearable gears.

It works as an all-in-one application to manage your goals, tasks, notes, reminders, and schedule. Any.do can help stay on top of the loop with its elegant calendar app. It gives location-based reminders and real-time notifications on your schedule.

Just like Apple Calendar, you can add the travel time to location-based events with Any.do. You can set custom colors to your special events or appointments to not get drowned in a clutter.

Download: Web | Android | iOS | iPad | Mac | Windows

Key Features

• Daily planner
• Reminders
• Checklist items
• Color the tasks
• Location-based reminders
• Attachments
• Recurring tasks
• Share, delegate and chat with the team on a calendar
• Customized theme

Pricing

• Free plan
• Paid plans: Starting at $5.99 per month (billed annually)

Fantastical is a cool calendar app by Flexibits. If you are looking for the best paid calendar app for iOS and Mac then this app will fulfill all your needs. It is nice to have a calendar app for Apple products, but you can also download it for the desktop as well.

It is an easy to use calendar app with a colorful view that gives you more controls. You can quickly add events to your calendar from the menu bar with the event details and enables you to see the agenda items for your set event. In the event details, you can add links, invitees, notes, and location. You can integrate it with other Apple apps such as Safari and Maps.

Fantastical app can fetch the location directly from your event details and adds to your event. You can localize your Fantastical app into six available languages.

Download: iOS | Mac | Apple Watch | Desktop

Key Features:

• File attachments
• Ability to set light and dark app mode
• Check contact availability
• Propose multiple event times
• Templates: You can add most frequently used events and tasks
• Plan and schedule tasks
• See weather conditions for your set event dates
• Integrates with other popular calendar services
• Get time zone support

Pricing:

• Billed monthly: $4.99/month
• Billed yearly: $3.33/month

Thunderbird is one of the best free Linux calendar apps. This tool is also used for emails and gives the calendar functionality. You can get the Thunderbird from the add on and also directly use it from the app. It gives you a tab for tasks, email, and calendar. You can easily use it for team communication, management, and appointment scheduling.

The Thunderbird Lightning gives you a calendar tab where you can view the complete summary of all the events in your schedule. It also shows the events planned for the future. You can easily search for your events with the time filters and built-in categories for the client calls, birthday, special events, etc. It is the best choice for Linux users and can be downloaded for Windows.

Download: Web | Windows

Key Features:

• Manage multiple calendars
• Create a to-do list
• Subscribe to public events
• Invite friends for the event
• Synchronize with your emails

Pricing:

• Available for FREE.

If you are looking for a calendar app that can work on multiple applications, then 24me will be your option. It works as a mobile assistant which delivers a unified interface for appointment booking, meetings, notes, and your tasks.

You can easily synchronize your Outlook, Yahoo!, iCloud and Google Calendar to have one view for all your other apps. You can also integrate other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Also, you can integrate your banking apps with 24me. 24me can make your hectic routine calmer and smoother.

Download: Web | Android | iOS

Key Features:

• Multiple calendar view
• Sync with all devices
• Set personal reminders
• Create to-do items
• Create notes
• Smart alerts for notifications
• Ability to set conference calls

Pricing:

• Free plan
• Paid plan starting at $4.99

It is the best calendar app for teachers and students. Scheduling the course work is really important for both students and teachers to finish work on time. The educational sector needs are a bit different than the corporate sector, so using a dedicated calendar app for students and teachers helps the people in this field.

The students in universities usually follows a semester system based on yearly quarter. With such apps, they can easily schedule their studies and course work making them more productive. My Study Life has made it easier for educationists and students to get more done with calendar apps. It is available on Android, iOS, and web. You can set the lesson plans, log assignments, keep track of exams and create a task to do with ease.

Download: Web | Android | iOS | Chrome Extension

Key Features:

• Manage schedules and timetables
• Create tasks
• Track your tasks
• Set reminders
• Sync with all devices
• Manage classes
• Store exams

Pricing:

• Free

TimeTree is one of the best calendar apps used for team collaboration. When you create a new calendar on TimeTree the application will ask you the purpose of the calendar such as; for work, relationship, group, friends and family or personal calendar. It gives the capability to add comments and start a discussion on the calendar plan. You can easily share your calendar schedule with others as well.

With the help of TimeTree you can create multiple calendars to display your events on the overlay and gives a complete view of your schedule. Moreover, you can choose different colors with the help of color codes and import other’s calendars as well.

Best Productivity Apps For Mac Os X

Download: Web | Android | iOS

Key Features:

• Multiple calendars with sharing capability
• Set details of the plan with comments and images
• Set a plan to be used later with the ‘Keep’ tab
• Activity feed

Pricing:

• Free signup

Looking for a calendar app for your family? Then Cozi will fulfill your needs to book your family schedules. Family schedules are difficult to manage and have many conflicting appointments. It is designed for families that are quite busy and find it hard to get time for them. You can consolidate different calendars in one view, create checklists, shopping list and set the schedules.

Cozi lets you create the main calendar and you can share it with anyone you want within your friends and family. Each participant in the calendar schedule is given a different color so it is easy to identify the responsibilities. Moreover, you can collaborate with your family as well with Cozi in-built messenger.

Download: Web | Android | iOS

Key Feature:

• Plan activities and events in one place
• Create and share to-do list, and grocery list
• Use it from mobile devices
• Recipe and meal planner
• Family journal

Pricing:

• Free plan
• Paid plan: Starting from $29.99/year

Woven is number 12 in our best calendar apps list. The Woven app helps you to manage your time efficiently by bring all your personal, work, and family calendar in one place. Woven gives you the power to control your calendar with smart features such as scheduling links, templates, tags, analytics, insights, group polls, and calendar sharing.

You can easily sync your Woven calendar with multiple accounts like Gmail and Outlook. This gives liveliness to your calendar scheduling activity and helps you focus on your deliverables. Woven is working on to improve their app background with more widgets and also gives a dark mode view with smart fields.

The group poll feature gives an edge to Woven app, which is not offered by other calendar applications, where you can ask others for the best time for a meeting and share the availability with your colleagues.

Download: Web | Android | iOS | Mac | Windows

Key Features:

• Smart time finding
• Built-in group polls
• Time analytics
• iOS device integration
• Smart templates
• Availability sharing
• Scheduling link

Pricing:

• Free to use

BusyCal 3 is a third-party iOS and macOS calendar app for Apple lovers. It was founded in 2007 by Dave Riggle and John Chaffee. It is a flexible calendar application that help you save your daily time scheduling your work and events. It gives multiple calendar views in terms of List views, Days, Weeks, Months, and Year. You can set your calendar and gives it a view that fits your needs by setting custom colors, font style, and time format.

It gives you the ability to manage your to-dos in BusyCal 3 and assign a date or time to them. You can easily view and edit the calendar details in the information panel. Moreover, you can use smart filters to organize and look for your desired task or schedule, and save the searches.

Download: iOS | Mac

Key Features:

• Sync and share calendar
• Customizable view
• Block travel time
• Integrated to-do’s
• Natural language input
• Smart filters
• Information panel

Pricing:

• $4.99 for iOS app
• $49.99 for MacOS (30-Days Free Trial Available)

Conclusion:

You may want to get productive with calendar apps, but nobody wants to spend long hours tweaking around with minor level intricacies. You need to choose a specific calendar app that allows you to create repeat/recurring tasks and/or events.

Furthermore, if you have knowledge about a good calendar app that deserves to be listed in this review let us know at fwilson@ntaskmanager.com

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As we discussed in our recent post looking at 10 common remote work challenges, maximising productivity is one of the biggest challenges people face – both inside and outside of the office. Workplace productivity is obviously important to any business but it’s also something that directly impacts the work-life balance of individuals.

Achieving productivity can be particularly difficult for remote workers or people working from home.

We’ve previously looked at the best apps for working from home and remote teams working from multiple locations. And, in this article, we’re taking a slightly different angle by looking at the best productivity apps for macOS specifically. Whether you’re working in the office, as part of a distributed team or a solo freelancer, these apps will help you maximise productivity and get more done during the working day.

Best productivity apps for macOS

Before we start looking at individual apps, here’s a quick summary of what we’ll be covering in this article. To avoid repetition, I’ve chosen ten apps that all serve a different purpose, rather than ten project management apps, for example, that all basically do the same thing.

The idea is that you can use all ten of these apps and they’ll all help you boost productivity by solving different problems. So here’s a quick look at the tool I’ll be talking about in this article:

1. Serene: Cut out distractions, stay focused on the task at hand and get things done faster.
2. Calendar: Manage all of your calendars and events in one place, arrange meetings without dozens of emails.
3. Trello: A simple task management tool that makes projects easier for remote teams to complete.
4. Taskade: A project management tool that helps collaborative teams work together on tasks.
5. Teamweek: Free project planning for small teams with an affordable option for multiple teams.
6. Toggl: Time tasks, get things done faster, track team productivity and make sure you’re charging enough for the time it takes to complete projects.
7. Dameware Remote Everywhere: Advanced remote access that allows technicians to access any registered device from any location.
8. Slack: Team communication, the way it should be for remote workers.
9. Notion: Keep all your docs databases, tasks, and project resources in one place.
10. Spark: A distraction-free, collaborative email experience to keep teams focused and help them complete tasks quicker.

Naturally, all of these apps are available on macOS and some of them are available on other platforms, too. I’ve created this list with freelance and remote workers in mind, those who need to work with a team or other team members in another location. So, while most of these tools will help you increase your personal productivity, there’s also a heavy emphasis on boosting productivity as a collective part of a team.

#1: Serene

Free

Serene is a free app for macOS designed for remote workers and teams. You define a single goal for each day, which can be broken down into multiple tasks, and block out distractions. Numerous studies show that multitasking kills productivity and Serene gives you all the tools you need to stay on track with the task at hand. As the team behind Serene says, “Multi-tasking is a myth. Single-tasking is a superpower.”

Key features

• Website blocker: Block websites that distract you, such as social media and news websites.
• App blocker: You can also block apps that take your attention away from work – social apps, your email app and anything else getting in the way.
• Distraction-free sessions: Work in 20-60 minute sessions with regular breaks to maximise productivity.
• Session timer: Shows you how much time you have left to complete tasks, giving you a motivation boost towards the end of each session.
• To-do lists: Manage tasks and make sure everything gets done by the right team member.
• Day planner: Define your goal for the day, set your tasks and get stuff done.
• Focus music: Play background music to help you keep your focus.
• Phone silencer: Automatically put your phone on silent mobile while working to avoid unnecessary distractions.

Once you set your goal for the day, you create your lists of sessions to get there and choose how long to set for each session. Then you click “Go Serene” and the app will start your sessions while automatically blocking distractions while each session runs.

There’s also a browser extension that blocks distracting websites and displays a reminder of what you should be doing if you try to access them.

Serene is a relatively new app (still in the beta stage) but you can request an invitation to try it out here.

#2: Calendar

Free version available, paid versions from $10/mo

While Google Calendar is a great free digital calendar, it doesn’t provide some of the advanced features remote workers typically need. A more feature-rich alternative is the aptly named Calendar, which connects all of your calendars into a single interface.

Key features

• One calendar: Calendar integrates with all of your calendars (Google Calendar, Outlook, etc.) to keep everything in one place.
• Synced events: Create events in Calendar or create them in your other calendar apps – they’ll always be synced.
• Easy scheduling: Schedule team meetings without the usual email back and forths.
• Analytics: Calendar provides analytics reports to help you boost productivity.
• Meeting transcriptions: Automatic transcripts of your meetings.

Aside from integrating all of your calendar apps, Calendar’s star feature is the way it handles meetings. Instead of arranging video chats or other meetings with dizzying emails between multiple team members, Calendar allows anyone to choose and book meeting times during your availability hours while ensuring there are no conflicts with existing meetings or tasks.

#3: Trello (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android & web)

Free version, Business Class version $9.99/mo per user

Trello is a simple, easy-to-use project management app for collaborative teams. The platform is based on the Kanban board philosophy, a visual layout that originates from Japan, which you can see below. Essentially, tasks are added and organised on “to-do,” “going” and “done” satuses, which helps teams keep track of progress. Tasks can be grouped into boards (the entire view above) and cards, which can contain multiple tasks in themselves. Individual tasks can be assigned to groups or team members with deadlines and checklists.

Key features

• Project management: Trello is a simple, easy-to-use project management app for collaborative teams.
• To-do lists: Create to-do lists, add due dates, assign them to people and manage tasks as they’re completed.
• Trello boards: Dashboards where you can create and manage lists of cards containing tasks and to-do lists.
• Work with anyone: Invite anyone from around the world to help you make things happen.
• Instant messaging: Talk to team members in real-time to discuss tasks.

Trello’s instant messaging makes it easy for teams to communicate and collaborate from anywhere and team members can join for free, although they’ll be limited to one board. Prices remain affordable on every paid package, though.

#4: Taskade

Free version, paid versions from $7/mo

Taskade is a project management and collaboration tool for small teams. It takes the to-do list concept turns it into a visual platform for tracking the progress of tasks and projects. While Trello is limited to Kanban board view, Taskade allows you to toggle multiple views in one click so you can see exactly how things are coming along.

Key features

• Project management: Project and task management features with multiple views for team members to keep track of progress.
• Live collaboration: Edit projects in real-time and communicate via live chat.
• Team calendar: Keep track of tasks across multiple teams and workspaces.
• Team roadmap: Plan and manage projects by visually assigning tasks and setting deadlines.

Taskade also gives you live messaging and video calls for better collaboration between remote team members. While the team roadmap system makes it easy to assign tasks to team members and manage team projects.

The other key feature Taskade provides is a team calendar where tasks assigned to each team member appear for everyone to see. This is important in terms of managing schedules, assigning tasks and keeping track of workloads.

#5: Teamweek

Free version, Premium version $8/mo per user

Teamweek is a relatively simple project management tool that provides a global view of the tasks team members are working on. Essentially, it’s very similar to the team calendar feature in Taskade but it provides more visual information and the drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to rearrange tasks.

Key features

• Task management: Break tasks down into smaller sub-tasks, then check each item off the list after it’s complete.
• Projects view: Keep track of projects with an overview of progress.
• Teams view: Keep track of how team members are getting on by viewing individual workflows.
• Timeline sharing: Keep your clients informed by sharing the project roadmap with them.

There are two different views available with Teamweek. First, you can view schedules at the project level to see what everyone’s up to specific projects. Then you have the teams view, which allows you to view the entire schedule for teams, regardless of which projects they’re currently working on.

As I say, Teamweek is a very simple tool but it’s great at what it does. It’s also free for up to five users and highly-affordable for larger teams.

#6: Toggl

Premium version $18/mo per user

Toggl is a time tracking app that runs in the background to track how long you’re spending on tasks. The tool was originally designed to help freelancers keep track of how much time they were really spending on projects to make sure they invoice correctly and hit their profit targets. However, the app has expanded into a tool for collaborative teams over the years. Its data visualisations help you compare profits against time spent on tasks and labour costs so you can see which projects and clients are most profitable.

Key features

• Time tracking: See how much time you (or others) are taking to get things done.
• Boost profits: Check you’re charging enough for the time it takes to complete projects.
• Reports: See how productive you’re being and how profitable your time with Toggl reports.
• Cross-platform: Toggl’s wonderfully designed apps work across just about every operating system and online so you can access it wherever you need, whenever you need it.

You can also see how much time team members are spending on individual tasks to monitor productivity and see if anyone’s taking on too much/too little work. Toggl offers excellent cross-platform support meaning team members on every device/OS can access and use the app. It’s a relatively straightforward app without any real learning curve and its excellent interface means team members can either download the app or log in to the website and start Toggling.

#7: Dameware Remote Everywhere

Prices start from £290, one-off fee

Dameware Remote Everywhere is a fully-featured IT support tool that allows technicians to access any machine registered to your account remotely. So, if you run into any technical issues, support can access your machines – no matter where you are – and get things back in order for you.

Key features

• Secure remote control: Give technicians access to team members’ devices from anywhere.
• Remote IT support: Provide support to remote workers anywhere and allow remote technicians to do their job from anywhere.
• Mobile remote support: Technicians can provide support using their iOS and Android devices.
• Access sleeping and ‘off’ devices: Gain access to devices remotely, even when they’re sleeping or turned off.

Perhaps you’re having technical issues with a piece of software you need to use or there’s a problem with one of your accounts. You may have simply forgotten your access details or could be having problems specific to your device. Dameware Remote Anywhere makes your devices accessible to support teams so they can jump in and get things sorted for you.

Prices start from a one-off £290 fee but that’s not as expensive as it sounds when you compare it to the ongoing cost of subscription-based software.

#8: Slack

Free version, paid options from £5.25/mo per user

Slack is a massaging platform designed for teams and it’s the ideal communication tools for remote workers. Instant messaging is organised into channels, which team members can join and leave, as needed, so nobody receives messages or notifications irrelevant to them. Team members can also chat outside of main topics in separate threads which prevents these messages from interfering with the most project-centric conversations.

Key features

• Instant messaging: Live communication between every team member for seamless collaboration.
• Statuses: Users can set availability statuses to focus on individual tasks as needed.
• File sharing: Drag-and-drop file sharing for PDFs, images, videos and other common files types.
• Voice & video calls: Voice and video calls directly from within Slack.
• Screen sharing: Allows team members to show their work to others in real-time for stronger collaboration.

Now, the key things to understand about Slack as a remote worker is the pricing policy. You can use Slack for free, which allows you to create a single workspace for small teams while paid versions start from £5.25/month per active user. Ideally, your business (or the company you work for) will pay for a team version of Slack to provide everyone with a fully-collaborative workspace. However, the free version of Slack means small teams within a business can use the tool between themselves to improve their workflow. This can improve collaboration within office environments but the real benefit of Slack is for remote workers who need to collaborate with team members in other locations – one of the most common problems cited by remote workers.

#9: Notion

Free version, paid versions from $4/mo

Notion calls itself your team’s long-term memory and it acts as a kind of collaborative alternative to Evernote. Notion also calls itself “the missing half of Slack” which it integrates with perfectly to create a single location for all the resources important to your team – for example, important documentation, guidelines, etc.

Multitude’s aim is to replace a multitude of separate productivity apps with a single platform.

Key features

• Notes & Docs: Create and share documents, notes and media files.
• Team Wiki: Create a central knowledge base of essential info and guidelines for all team members.
• Project management: Highly customizable Kanban boards and calendars that adapt to your work.
• Files sharing: Designed for focused writing, easy editing, and rich media
• Live collaboration: Work on tasks together in real-time.

So, instead of using Google Docs and Evernote, you can use Notion to basically achieve the same thing. Likewise, you can also use its task and project management features in place of tools like Trello. Then, you have the spreadsheets and databases which aim to replace the likes of Excel and Google Sheets.

If you’re tired of using a dozen different productivity tools, Notion aims to provide a single platform that replaces half a dozen separate apps. I’m not saying Notion is necessarily as good as all of those individual apps combined but you gain convenience by not having to switch between different apps and you could well save some money while you’re at it.

#10: Spark (Mac, iOS, Android)

Free version, $6.39/mo (per user) for Premium

Spark is an intelligent email client that prevents your inbox from being a productivity killer and turns it into an asset. Its Smart Inbox automatically categorises your emails from every account assigned to it, allowing you to filter out the emails that don’t matter and prioritise the ones that do.

You can also snooze specific emails for later, assign emails to team members, chat with team members, share drafts, set reminders for follow-ups and schedule emails to send them later.

Key features

• Smart inbox: Clean up your inbox, find any email with “Smart Search” and snooze emails that don’t need your attention right now.
• Smart notifications: Only receive notifications for the emails that really matter.
• Assign emails: Assign emails to team members so the right person is always managing tasks.
• Team email: Private team comments, shared drafts, template replies and instant chat for collaborative teams.
• Send emails later: Schedule emails to send them when people are most likely to read them.
• Reminders: Get reminders to follow up on important emails at the right time.

With Spark, multiple team members can even work on the same email at the same time while communicating via instant messaging on the platform. This means there are no more emails to clients, saying “I’ve CC’d James and he’ll explain that technical issue we talked about earlier”. All the key details can be included in emails by the right person without any confusion or inaccuracy.

Don’t let the tools get in your way

In the digital age, it seems like the number of apps we need to use to get the day’s work done is constantly increasing. The problem with this is, the more apps you bring into your workflow, the more potential there is for complexity, poor experiences or a lack of integration to get in the way of productivity.

This is why it’s so important to choose the right software, tools that enable you to achieve more without adding unnecessary barriers in the way of progress.

The good news is productivity apps are a big thing in business software right now and there are plenty of tools on the market to help you overcome issues getting in the way of your workflow. At the same time, integration between apps is constantly improving and the average user experience is getting better all the time.

This means that, with some smart software choices, you can easily build a toolkit that breaks down productivity barriers and enables you to achieve more in a shorter time-frame. Hopefully, this article will help you get there and you can get more tips by checking out the other productivity articles on our blog.