Years ago, one of the criticisms lobbed at the Mac platform was that when it comes to software, there just isn't much out there.
Any Mac user will know that that stopped being true a long time ago, but in the last five or six years especially, the Mac as a platform has undergone a sort of software renaissance. Not only are the big mainstream programs available for the Mac (with the exception of games, where Windows still consistently rules the roost), but independent software developers have put out some of the most spectacular software available for any platform — much of it only available for the Mac.
I'm always trying to juggle lots of different projects and looking for the best ways to make my time and my work as efficient as possible, so I love productivity applications. I don't quite have a GTD obsession, but I'm close.
- $1.99 app store fee After you start getting your life more organized, you may find that you still have trouble with procrastinating. Procaster is an app that helps procrastinators get back on track by offering helpful suggestions to diagnose the cause of your distraction and help you continue with the next step of your task.
- Best Productivity Apps for Mac. We pick 15 best productivity apps for Mac in this post. Install them, based on the nature of your work, which will help you to improve efficiency in all related fields. Full Contact is one of the best free productivity apps for Mac for contact management.
- It’s one of the best productivity apps that you should immediately add to your phone. Built for teams of all sizes and industries, ClickUp’s fully customizable and proprietary features make it a must-have for team members that want to keep everything from design to development in one organized place.
For the Mac addicts and newcomers alike, I've compiled twenty of my favorite Mac productivity applications. This list is by no-means exhaustive, so chime in with your favorites in the comments!
Task Management
The App Store has a huge selection of productivity software, but which will really help you get stuff done? These are the best iPhone & iPad apps to organise your life By Dominic Preston, Tech.
One of the most common types of productivity applications is the task manager. This is an app that can do anything from storing notes, integrating your calendar and to-do lists and popping up reminders and linking information. For many users seeking productivity bliss, the task management app is their productivity hub. The Mac has some great options, but here are 3 of the strongest (verified against an informal poll of my Twitter followers):
Things ($49.95) — Cultured Code's Things was easily the top choice on my Twitter followers' lists of 'best Mac productivity app.' Not only is the interface gorgeous (it won a 2009 Apple Design Award), the app is both simple and powerful.
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Not only can you manage all your tasks on the desktop, the fantastic Things iPhone app is a great way to keep track of your tasks while on the go, as well as a fantastic portable task manager and to-do list.
The Hit List ($49.95) — After Things, The Hit List won my impromptu Twitter poll. Like things, The Hit List is elegant, but powerful. If you participated in MacHeist this year, you got a copy of The Hit List, and as a task-manager, this is one of my favorites. It syncs with iCal, makes it easy to add lists and tasks, as well as attaching and organizing notes onto certain items, and it has an interface that is uncluttered and easy to use.
The Hit List doesn't have an iPhone app, though one is in the works.
OmniFocus ($79.95) — OmniFocus has been around for a long time, so of the three applications, it's probably the most feature-rich. As a result, it also has the biggest learning curve — but if you are a strict GTD-devotee, it might just be the app for you. You can assign tasks via e-mail and OmniFocus will watch your inbox and automatically add tasks you send yourself to your OmniFocus inbox.
OmniFocus syncs with iCal and also has a great iPhone application for syncing, creating and managing tasks on the go. Download app zapper mac.
All three of these apps offer a free-trial period, so play around with them and then choose what works best for your workflow.
Information Organizers
Shawn Blanc calls these kinds of applications 'anything buckets' and I have to agree. Although you can use information organizers as task managers, they really excel at collecting and collating lots of different types of information for different projects.
So, you can have a way to store all the files associated with a project, all the pictures and the contact information of your co-workers, all in a way that is taggable and searchable.
Bento ($49) — Bento is from the FileMaker, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple, Inc., so the interface and features of Bento naturally match and work with those of native Mac applications. Bento describes itself as a personal database program, and that's true.
You can attach e-mail content directly to a Bento box, just by dragging and dropping, it automatically syncs and can integrate with your iCal and CalDAV calendars. You can also use it with Excel spreadsheets to view and search items and terms more easily. What's more, there's an excellent Bento iPhone app that works both independently and in conjunction with the original application.
Yojimbo ($39) — Yojimbo 2.0 was recently released and the application has gained some new features, but it remains pretty much the same tried and true information organizer. Drag information into Yojimbo and tag it — it's searchable in Spotlight, you can find it in Yojimbo, and if you want to take the information or files out of Yojimbo, you just drag it out.
Calendars and Address Books
Although Google integration for calendars and address book entries is built-into Mac OS X Leopard and improved with Mac OS X Snow Leopard, managing your calendars and address books across systems (or keeping them updated both in Google and on your Mac) can still be a challenge. For instance, when you sync Google calendars with your Mac, many times they are only read-only, and you only have the option to sync five calendars at a time — a real bummer if you have lots and lots of calendars. Additionally, the systems don't always work together as well as they should.
Fortunately, there are a couple of great Mac apps that do the trick.
BusyCal ($40) — The successor in many ways to the fantastic BusySync, BusyCal is like iCal on steroids (BusyMac calls it 'iCal Pro'). BusyCal lets you share your iCal calendars across a LAN (great for business users) and also lets you sync with Google Calendar (including the ability to edit Google Calendar events), without Google/Apple's 5 calendar limitation and with the ability to sync with more than one device. If you just use OS X and you want to sync a calendar with both your iPhone and say a BlackBerry or another phone, you can't — BusyCal lets you do this sort of syncing.
You also get the option to add weather reports, notes, graphics and other media into your iCal view. Very, very nice.
Spanning Sync ($25 one-year subscription, $65 to buy) — Spanning Sync does much of what BusySync does, but with the addition of Google Address book syncing too. OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard can be set to sync with your Google Address book, but as a former BlackBerry user, I quickly found the problem with this: if you are using another mobile phone (or want to sync multiple Google accounts), the whole thing breaks.
Spanning Sync also works really well with Google Apps and makes sharing with multiple Google Apps users a breeze. If you want an easy way to do over-the-air syncing with your mobile phone, iPhone and other computers, Spanning Sync is something you should definitely check out.
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Twitter/Chat/IM
Many of us spend much of our day communicating with colleagues over Twitter, IM or in apps like Campfire: here are some of my favorite productivity apps for communication.
Tweetdeck (Free) — Even if Adobe Air does have its pitfalls for Mac users (high memory usage, high crash-rate for apps), Tweetdeck is one of the most powerful Twitter apps for the power Twitter user. Granted, for some people, Twitter is actually a productivity killer, but if you rely on keeping up with social media news and trends for your job, Twitter is essential, and Tweetdeck is definitely powerful.
Twitterrific (Free, $14.95 ad-free) — One of the very first Twitter clients, Twitterrific's icon is still often associated with Twitter itself. Twitterrific is available in a free ad-supported version or in an ad-free version for $14.95. Although the feature set is a bit sparse in comparison to some of the newer apps, this is still one of the sexiest OS X apps and it is a great option for users who want to keep up, but don't want to have their lives overtaken with Twitter.
Tweetie (Free, $19.95 ad-free) — The iPhone app was so popular, Atebits was bombarded with requests to make a Mac Twitter client. The result: Tweetie for Mac is one of the best Twitter apps for the user who wants something that doesn't overtake their screen, but still provides options like search, multiple account support and the ability to follow/unfollow in app.
Propane ($20) — 37Signals' Campfire is a great way for groups to communicate. Think of it as an always-on chatroom, with the ability to share files, search through transcripts, create sub-rooms and directly address users. It's fantastic, and like all 37Signals apps, designed to run in the browser.
However, if you are a heavy Campfire user, you know that sometimes the browser option isn't always best. You're forced to dedicate a certain size of a window to Campfire, you have to always have a browser window open (which can be bad when installing apps that insist all browsers be closed — I'm looking at you Adobe!), plus if your browser crashes, your Campfire session goes with it and you have to re-login.
For any Mac user who uses Campfire on a daily basis, I highly recommend Propane. More than just a single-site browser, it's a well designed app that makes searching, adding in files, viewing files and using Campfire a joy. You can set your Growl settings for certain alerts or extended alerts, you can drag and drop images or videos directly from Safari into Propane and adding other files is just as easy.
Text Tools
Text-expansion was built into Mac OS X Snow Leopard but at a very low level. Full fledged-text expansion applications make it much easier to type more in less time. Don't believe me? Read David Pogue's text-expansion workflow to see a totally hardcore implementation.
TextExpander ($29) — TextExpander is one of the big names in the text-expansion space, and for good reason — it's scriptable, adaptable and compact. Many of the features in TextExpander are also available in the other programs, but one standout is built-in scripts for bit.ly and digg short urls. Just copy a link, type in '/bitly' and voila, the shortened version of the URL in your clipboard is inserted. This is great when working with Twitter applications.
The recently launched TextExpander Touch brings your expansions to your iPhone or iPod touch.
Typinator ($29) — Typinator is very similar to TextExpander and is also scriptable to attach certain commands to certain programs. You can also add snippet-libraries for CSS, HTML and auto-correct rules for even more productivity.
TypeIt4Me ($27) — TypeIt4Me has been around since 1989 (!) and even has an iPhone app. It has lots of great-looking features and a long legacy. Of the three, TypeIt4Me is the only one that can use Mac OS X's built-in auto-correct (though the other two have auto-correct snippet libraries).
Working With the Web
These are some of my favorite productivity apps when working with the web.
Evernote (Free, Premium $5 month/$45 a year) — Because it is cross-platform in nature and available on a slew of mobile devices, Evernote is a very popular service. You can store photos, notes, bookmarks, sketches, video files, voice notes, pretty much anything you want, and then pull those notes up from the web, or an app on your Mac or PC or on your phone.
LittleSnapper ($35) — Admittedly, this app is more for people who take tons and tons of screenshots or need to grab images from elements of a web page. Because I take so many screenshots or web shots a week, LittleSnapper is a lifesaver to me. It's basically like iPhoto for your screen snaps, so you can collect and tag shots from your desktop or from the web, crop them, and add annotations in the app, and then export them out to be used on the web, or upload them to Realmac's Ember service.
What I love about LittleSnapper is that I can select specific DOM elements from a webpage. This is great when you just want to get a certain snippet of the page. It's also great because you can open your snaps directly in Photoshop or whatever image editor you use, for additional refinements.
The Ember service is great for users who like to share their collections or images all over the web.
1Password ($39.95) — One of the first applications I install on any new Mac (or after any fresh install) is 1Password. Quite simply, my life is better because of this app. It stores all your passwords across web browsers, makes it easy to create tough, secure passwords and then you can just login by selecting 'fill with 1Password' from the context menu of your favorite web browser.
My passwords used to always be the same, which is dumb — 1Password makes it easy to not only create new passwords that are secure, but to keep them in a secure database for the times I inevitably forget what they are. 1Password is about to launch its PasswordAnywhere feature so you can access your passwords securely from across the web, no matter what type of computer you are using.
1Password can also store you software licenses, which is a nice touch.
Application Launchers
So you have Finder, you have the OS X Dock, but what if you want to quickly launch a certain app with just a few key commands? What if you want to automatically search Google with just the flick of a wrist? For that, you need an application launcher.
Quicksilver (Free) — Quicksilver is an app that is near and dear to many Mac productivity geeks' hearts. Unfortunately, the app is also more or less abandonware (yes, yes, it's open source now, but so little has been done to keep it updated, or more importantly to keep the add-ons that made it so great updated, that it's basically dead). Still, for users on Tiger (or Leopard without many needs for add-ons, Snow Leopard support is iffy at best), this is the app for you. The array of plugins developed for Quicksilver over the years is one of the reasons so many users still cite this as one of their top productivity apps.
The developer of Quicksilver is now working on the Google Quick Search Box for Google, so maybe we'll see a return of sorts in the future.
LaunchBar ($35) — Until then, Leopard and Snow Leopard users with the need for a good Quicksilver-like utility need to take a look at LaunchBar. With LaunchBar 5 (still in beta, but nearing release), the app has become everything Quicksilver was, and more. Easy application launching, a built-in clipboard history, the ability to perform calculations from the Quicksilver bar, the ability to search google, open web pages and more — all from your keyboard.
Carpal tunnel be damned, LaunchBar is awesome!
Miscellaneous
Here are a couple of tools to round-out your productivity toolkit.
Dropbox (Basic 2GB account Free, 50GB account, $10 a month, 100GB account $20 a month) — Dropbox is one of those deceptively simple concepts that just gets better the more you use it. You sign up for a free 2GB storage account that you can access across machines and with other users. What makes Dropbox so brilliant — and better than other disk-storage services — is that it is integrated perfectly with the OS X Finder. You can easily add a file or folder to your Dropbox account and make changes to your Dropbox files locally and watch as they instantly update online.
One of my favorite uses for Dropbox is with my encrypted 1Password keychain. This way, I can share my 1Password files with my Mac mini in the living room and on my MacBook in my office, without having to manually sync anything. The file is in a shared dropbox between those two computers so changes on one automatically update on the other.
Xmarks (Free) — Formerly known as Foxmarks, Xmarks is a wonderful way to keep your browser bookmarks in sync and updated across both browsers and computers. A plugin is available for Firefox and Internet Explorer, and a special preference pane is available for Safari.
What I like about Xmarks is that I can assign different browser profiles and usage profiles. So if I have some bookmarks I only want to sync with Firefox, I can do that — if I want some bookmarks only to sync on work-related machines, I can do that. It's a brilliant way to keep your bookmarks managed.
Freedom (Free) — Sometimes the Internet is more of a distraction than it is a productivity aid. For those times, the best solution is just to unplug. Freedom will turn off your Mac's networking card for up to 8 hours, so you can get what you need to get done done, without the distraction of Facebook, Twitter and the latest viral videos.
Obviously, as a web writer, this doesn't really work for me during the work week, but it's great for when I'm on a deadline — like trying to finish an article of 20+ Mac productivity tools!
Your Favorites
I've only scratched the service with Mac productivity apps, what are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments!
Executing on Plans/ May 14, 2020 / Emily Chioconi
The constant need to feel productive can be overwhelming and stressful, especially when you have so much to do. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be this way – you can simplify the way you work!
Instead of worrying about how much you’re getting done, you can streamline your workload and make it more manageable. We’ve searched for the best Mac apps that make staying productive easy, painless and, most importantly, simple!
Focus improvement apps
Simply put, focus is your ability to think. Without focus, you won’t be effective in your work – if you’re not concentrating on the right things or are distracted, you won’t be able to get work done. If you’re not producing the quality of work you need to be successful, you’re putting yourself and your business at a standstill. Focus is everything!
HazeOver
HazeOver literally dims distractions on your desktop by only highlighting the front window that you’re working on. You don’t have to worry about closing or minimizing other windows, apps, or notifications while you’re trying to focus.
HazeOver still works for dimming windows when you’re using Dark Mode, and you can choose to dim different windows on different screens if you’re using more than one monitor.
?Price: $3.99
⬇️Download:The App Store
Focus Booster
Focus Booster uses the Pomodoro Technique time management methodology of working in short bursts followed by taking a short break to help you be the most productive. The technique recommends 25-minute sessions with a 5-minute break after the first three sessions and a 20-minute break after the fourth session.
You can use both the Pomodoro timer and Pomodoro sessions, and the app also comes with time tracking for clients, revenue tracking, productivity reporting to analyze where your time goes, and options for customization!
?Price: Free, $2.99/month or $4.99/month
⬇️Download:Focus Booster
Hubstaff
Hubstaff is a time tracking app that’s designed to help users get a better understanding of how they work. It allows you to accurately track the time you spend on different tasks and projects through an intuitive interface.
Hubstaff offers several productivity monitoring features. It can track the apps that you used and the websites you visited while you were tracking time, as well as how long you spent on them. On top of that, the app calculates an activity rate based on input from your keyboard and mouse. This will give you clear insight into which kinds of tasks you perform better in as well as when your most productive hours are.
Daily journal mac app. ?Price: Ranges from free to $20/month
⬇️Download:Hubstaff
1Focus
1Focus helps you disable access to tempting apps and websites that are prone to distract you. If you just can’t resist checking Facebook or spending half an hour looking for the perfect playlist on Spotify, this app can help! Give your willpower a break and focus on one task at a time.
1Focus even lets you block specific parts of a website, URL keywords, and the option set up recurring blocks throughout the week to keep you focused. A simple yet effective way to remove obstacles and get more done.
?Price: Free or $1.99/month or $9.99/year
⬇️Download:The App Store
Dewo
Dewo comes from the concept of Deep Work, created by Cal Newport, who defines it as: “activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limits.” With this in mind, Dewo acts as a personal assistant to keep you focused. Dewo understands when you reach deep work, and will automatically silence app push notifications and trigger ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode on chat apps.
Dewo even learns what distracts you by tracking your web and desktop activity – from context switching to your most unproductive apps. With these insights, it makes active suggestions to improve the way you work, helping you set up for regular deep work!
?Price: Free
⬇️Download:Dewo and iOS App Store
Task and project management apps
Keeping track of the little details, things to do, and little steps can seem daunting when it’s all in your head or on scraps of paper. It can feel like your productivity is slipping away when you can’t get everything done. Using checklists, tracking, and streamlining will help you get things under control so nothing will slip through the cracks.
Things
Things is a personal task manager that helps you achieve your goals. It lets you list and manage the things you have on your to-do list, all with a beautiful design.
Things shows you today’s to-dos, along with the evening and the upcoming week. You can choose to include both your personal and work calendars and even create projects to group tasks together. You can view the progress of your projects at a glance, and use reminders, search, and checklists to keep everything on track!
?Price: $49.99
⬇️Download: The App Store
Daylite
Daylite combines the power of a CRM, Project Management app, and Lead Management app – all into one. It’s the perfect CRM for small business! Instead of juggling a bunch of different apps, simplify your life with Daylite. You can take care of your tasks while managing leads, clients, and projects – all in one place.
Everything is organized and shared with your team which helps you save time and increase productivity. You can collaborate with your team by delegating tasks and projects, integrate with thousands of other tools, and Daylite’s unique linking feature allows you to virtually paper clip things together for a history of all your interactions and work. Daylite was made for small businesses in mind and is a native Apple app, so you can even work offline!
?Price: $29/month
⬇️Download: Daylite
Evernote
Evernote is more than just a note app. You can capture ideas and inspiration from anywhere and manage tasks and deadlines with ease.
Evernote lets you share ideas with anyone, like meeting notes, web pages, projects, and to-do lists. You can capture ideas with voice, images, and work with your team across devices. It also has note templates, document scanning, and the option to save articles and screenshots. You can even integrate it with your other favourite apps!
?Price: Ranges from free to $14.99/month
⬇️Download: The App Store
OmniFocus
OmniFocus is a task management software that helps you focus on the right tasks at the right time. Capture tasks anywhere, sync across devices, and hit deadlines, no matter where you are!
With OmniFocus, use projects to organize tasks naturally, and then add tags to organize across projects. Easily enter tasks when you’re on the go, and process them when you have time. Tap the Forecast view – which shows both tasks and calendar events – to get a handle on your day. Use the Review perspective to keep your projects and tasks on track.
?Price: Ranges from $49.99 – $99.99
⬇️Download: OmniFocus
Mind mapping apps
When putting together a process for your business like your customer journey or sales process, you can map out any complex steps visually. A mind map is a way to represent tasks, words, concepts, or ideas linked to and built around a central concept so you can create a framework around your main idea.
Go to Users & Groups. Stop apps running in background mac.
Lucidchart
Lucidchart helps your mind mapping whether you’re creating simple flowcharts or complex diagrams. It comes with templates to help you get started and allows you to link to other live data you may be working with, like spreadsheets. It even integrates with other tools your team uses, like Slack, G Suite, GitHub, Atlassian, and more!
Lucidchart is especially great for teams because it lets you collaborate in real-time. You can use a group chat to talk while you work, turn your diagrams into presentations, and it comes with change and history management.
?Price: Free or ranges from $7.95/month to $27.00/month
⬇️Download: The App Store
MindMaster
Best Productivity Apps For Windows 10
MindMaster is a versatile, user-friendly, and professional mind mapping tool. Available on multiple platforms, including PC, tablet, mobile, and web, you can create mind maps and access them from each platform.
MindMaster gives you several different structures to use for your diagrams as well as themes and clipart. You can add notes, links, and relationships and boundaries. MindMaster is another great mind mapping tool for teams with its Brainstorming Mode that lets you conduct brainstorming sessions with your team. Simply record ideas as your brainstorm and later drag them to their location to generate a mind map of your session.
?Price: Ranges from $49/year to $149/year
⬇️Download: MindMaster
MindMaple Pro
MindMaple gives you an intuitive way to organize and prioritize information for brainstorming, project management, idea sharing, problem-solving, and more. MindMaple makes it just like drawing in a notebook so you can map things out creatively without any rules.
With MindMaple, you can import photos, link to files, folders, and email addresses, and even use clipart. You can expand on topics with subtopics, prioritize tasks and track their progress, and create relationships and boundaries between each idea.
?Price: $13.99
⬇️Download: The App Store
Document and security management apps
Files and documents can be a large part of any business, and security is paramount. Keeping your documents safe and your processes secure helps you build trust with your clients. It also makes running your business smoother!
PDF Reader Pro
PDF Reader Pro is an all-in-one PDF office to read, annotate, edit, convert, create, fill in forms, and sign PDFs. With its comprehensive list of features like free templates and watermarks, if PDF files are a big part of your business, you can’t go without this app.
What really makes PDF Reader Pro essential is its Optical Character Recognition(OCR) capability. This helps recognize characters in images or scanned PDF files into editable characters, so that you can search, correct, and copy the text easily. Digitizing physical documents has never been simpler. You can try it out free for 7 days and even get an educational discount!
?Price: $59.99 or $79.99
⬇️Download: The App Store
Hazel
Hazel is a powerful automation app that automatically organizes the files on your Mac’s hard drive. It provides deep support for OS X technologies, leveraging everything your system has to offer!
Hazel watches the folders you tell it to and organizes the files according to a set of rules you create. It can automatically file your documents into the right folder, rename your documents with more useful names, trash files you no longer need and keep your desktop clear of clutter.
?Price: Ranges from $32.00 to $49.00
⬇️Download: Hazel
1Password
1Password is a password manager that saves all of your passwords and lets you log in to websites with a single click. All you have to do is remember your master password and leave the rest to 1Password.
You can also store things like notes, credit cards and banking information, passports, drivers licenses, and documents. You can share passwords securely with your team, generate strong passwords, and use their automatic form filler to sign in to websites with one click using your username and password.
?Price: Ranges from $2.99 to $7.99
⬇️Download: 1Password
Communication and collaboration apps
Communication is crucial when it comes to running your business. Working in silos makes everyone’s work more difficult to get done. No matter where your team is, you need to be able to chat, collaborate, and work together seamlessly.
Slack
Slack is a collaboration hub that can replace email to help you and your team work together seamlessly. It’s designed to support the way people naturally work together, so you can collaborate with people online as efficiently as you do face-to-face.
Slack lets you organize conversations, search your history, add several different integrations with other apps, and you can even make calls!
?Price: Ranges from $6.67/month to $12.50/month
⬇️Download: The App Store
Zoom
Zoom is a video communications app with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars.
You can use Zoom to virtually meet with others, either by video, audio-only or both, all while using live chats as well. You can share your screen, run webinars with interaction options, and even record those sessions to view or share later.
?Price: Ranges from free to $27.00/month
⬇️Download: Zoom
Franz
Franz is a messaging app that combines chat and messaging services into one application. Franz currently supports Slack, WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Google Hangouts, GroupMe, Skype and many more.
Too many messages in too many places are frustrating. Franz supports several chat services, can be used on multiple devices and supports teams for work and personal options. Franz even has an extensive plugin architecture that allows you to add and create unlimited services to adapt to your needs
?Price: Free or $4.99/month
⬇️Download: Franz
Organization apps
Windows and tabs and apps, oh my! When you’re busy, a cluttered desktop makes things more difficult. Context switching between apps or looking for things you’re working on slows you down and adds to the stress. In fact, using the correct organizational tools can improve time management by 38%!
Magnet
Magnet organizes your workspace and brings order to your desktop. Having multiple windows aligned neatly side by side eliminates app switching and greatly enhances multitasking.
Activated by dragging, customizable keyboard shortcuts or the menu bar, Magnet declutters your screen by snapping windows into organized tiles. These tiles can be fullscreen, halves, quarters or thirds. Up to six external displays are supported, so the potential combinations are endless!
?Price: $2.99
⬇️Download: The App Store
Shift
Shift works by streamlining your accounts, apps, and workflows so you can stop switching apps and constantly logging in and out!
You can connect all of your email accounts and your favourite web apps and tools to Shift. Then, you can customize your workstation. Shift supports multiple apps and extensions like Facebook, Slack, 1Password, and more. You can browse the web, search across all of your tools, and even work with teams to collaborate seamlessly.
?Price: Ranges from free to $99.99/year
⬇️Download: Shift
Fluid
Fluid is simple – it lets you create an actual Mac App out of any web application. Instead of having several tabs open with your most-used websites, turn them into apps!
Creating a Fluid App out of your favourite website is easy. Enter the website’s URL, provide a name, and choose an icon. Click “Create” and within seconds your chosen website has a permanent home on your Mac as a real Mac application that appears in your Dock!
?Price: Free or $5.00
⬇️Download: Fluid
Pocket lets you save articles, videos, and stories from any publication, page or app. Curate your own space filled with everything you can’t wait to learn!
There is an endless amount of interesting things to read and watch online. With Pocket, you can save them all for when you actually have the time you view them. You can use Pocket on any device, even offline. You can save an article or video in several ways, like email, one click on your browser, or with any of the integrations Pocket supports, like Twitter, Reddit, Zapier, and more!
?Price: Ranges from free to $44.99/year
⬇️Download: The App Store
Bartender
Bartender is a simple app that lets you organize your menu bar icons or even hide them completely!
You can hide icons, rearrange them, and show hidden items with a click or keyboard shortcut. You can also have icons show you when they get an app update. With Bartender, you can even search apps directly through the menubar for easy access!
?Price: $15.00
⬇️Download: Bartender
Time tracking apps
Where did the time go? Now you can actually find out! Time is something we all want more of, but since we can’t have that, we can instead focus on spending it wisely. Once you learn how to prioritize and focus, you won’t have to stress about always running out of time.
Timing
Timing records your time automatically so you can see how you spent your time and how productive you were.
Timing doesn’t need you to start or stop a timer. It shows you exactly what you did at any given time, including which app, document or website you were using. The timeline even shows when you worked on what, making smart suggestions to record hours of time. You can drag and drop activities to categorize them, include meetings and calendar events for billing, and use your dashboard to understand where your time is spent.
?Price: Ranges from $3.50/month to $8.00/month
⬇️Download: Timing
f.lux
f.lux is another simple app that makes a big difference. It makes the colour of your computer’s display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day. If you’re not the biggest fan of Dark Mode, f.lux is for you!
During the day, computer screens look good – they’re designed to look like the sun. But, at 9 PM, 10 PM, or 3 AM, you probably shouldn’t be looking at the sun. f.lux makes your computer screen look like the room you’re in, all the time. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again. Tell f.lux what kind of lighting you have, and where you live. Then forget about it. f.lux will do the rest, automatically!
?Price: Free
Best Productivity Apps Iphone
⬇️Download: Flux
Billings Pro
Billings Pro helps you create professional invoices and track time, expenses, and payments from your Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Create professional invoices, use flexible billing options that include time, project, expense, product, service, or flat rate, and send estimates and statements. You can easily identify overdue clients and outstanding invoices and even run comprehensive reports that help you understand your business.
?Price: $5.00/month or $8.25/month
Mac App Store Download
⬇️Download: The App Store
CheatSheet
CheatSheet is a very simple yet extremely handy app. With a quick command, you can see a list of keyboard shortcuts for any app you’re using!
Just hold the ⌘ key a bit longer to get a list of all the active shortcuts for your current application – stop wasting time with clicks! Once you go shortcuts, you never go back.
?Price: Free
⬇️Download: CheatSheet
Automation apps
Automation is a huge time saver, making routine tasks quicker or simplifying complex workflows. It can help reduce errors, free up you or your team to work on other tasks, and ultimately make your business more efficient.
Alfred
Alfred boosts your efficiency with hotkeys, keywords, text expansion and more. Search your Mac and the web, and be more productive with custom actions to control your Mac.
Alfred helps you do so much, it’s hard to list it all! It’s similar to using the Spotlight Search on your Mac but much more powerful. To name a few, you can link hotkeys, keywords and actions together to create your own workflows. Launch applications and find files on your Mac or on the web – Alfred learns how you use your Mac and prioritizes results. Use the Clipboard History to locate any text, image or file you copied earlier and paste it again. Create your own snippets and type a short abbreviation to auto-expand them into a full-text snippet. The possibilities are endless!
?Price: Free or $45.00
⬇️Download: Alfred
Text Expander
Text Expander lets you quickly insert “snippets” – email addresses, signatures, form letters, images – as you type, using a simple keyboard shortcut or custom abbreviations. No more typos and copy/paste – you won’t believe how much time you save!
Going beyond simple text replacement, you can also personalize messages you frequently send with custom fields and powerful automation. You can even share your snippets across teams, keeping everyone consistent and more productive!
?Price: Ranges from $3.33/month to $7.96/month
⬇️Download: Text Expander
Keyboard Maestro
With Keyboard Maestro, you can automate applications or web sites, text or images, simple or complex, on command or scheduled. You can automate virtually anything!
With so many possible actions that you can combine together, you can automate almost any task, like launching applications, typing your email address, filling out a form, downloading reports – the list is endless! Make your Mac and its applications behave the way you want. Launch applications and have the windows arranged your way. Have other applications quit when you launch an application. Have your Mac set itself up at 8:00 each morning. It’s your Mac, with Keyboard Maestro you are in control!
?Price: $36.00
⬇️Download: Keyboard Maestro
BetterTouchTool
BetterTouchTool is a feature-packed app that allows you to customize various input devices on your Mac like your trackpad.
Along with your trackpad, you can customize the Touch Bar, Siri, Apple Remote, Mouse buttons, and more! You can use any of the supported input devices and choose from a large and always growing list of actions to automate almost any task. Actions can even be chained to handle complicated workflows! Use gestures for things like taking and editing a screenshot, turning the volume down, or opening documents with specific apps!
?Price: Ranges from $8.00 to $20.00
⬇️Download: BetterTouchTool
Being productive doesn’t have to be about how much you can get done in a day. Instead, make it about simplifying your processes. Whether it’s just a tedious task or a large part of your workflow, removing obstacles will give you the freedom to get more done without working non-stop! Did we miss any of your favourite productivity apps? Let us know in the comments!
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