10 More Apps to Boost Your Productivity
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the creator revisits the best productivity apps across 10 categories, offering secondary recommendations due to the original video's length. Apps like TickTick for to-do lists, Woven for calendar management, and Trello for project management are highlighted. The script also covers note-taking with OneNote, writing with Typora, habit tracking with Habitify, and time tracking with Timeular. Email management is discussed with Front, team communication with Twist, and cloud syncing with Syncthing. Lastly, Audible is recommended for audiobook enthusiasts, with a special mention of 'Bad Blood' as a top pick.
Takeaways
- ๐ The video script discusses secondary recommendations for productivity apps in various categories that were cut from a previous video due to length.
- ๐๏ธ Todoist was the primary recommendation for to-do list apps, with TickTick highlighted as a feature-rich alternative including a built-in calendar view, Pomodoro timer, and habit tracker.
- ๐ For calendar apps, Google Calendar is the main recommendation, but Woven is introduced as a new app that enhances meeting scheduling with features like polling and event templates.
- ๐ In project management, ClickUp and Notion were previously mentioned, with Trello now added as a third recommendation, utilizing the Kanban methodology and offering a visual way to track project status.
- ๐ Evernote was the top pick for note-taking apps, but OneNote is presented as a strong alternative, especially notable for its free use and ability to embed videos.
- โ๏ธ Scrivener was the initial choice for serious writing apps, with Typora now introduced for its hybrid markdown system and document sidebar for organization.
- ๐ฎ Habitica was the favorite for habit tracking, but for those not keen on its game-like elements, Habitify is suggested for its appealing design and useful tracking features.
- โฑ๏ธ Timeular is a unique time tracking app that pairs with a physical device, offering a hands-on approach to time management compared to digital-only solutions.
- ๐ Front is recommended for email management, especially for team collaboration, with features like shared inboxes and the ability to assign and comment on emails.
- ๐ฃ๏ธ Twist is introduced as an alternative to Slack, focusing on threaded conversations to keep important information organized and accessible.
- ๐ Syncthing is highlighted in the cloud sync category for its decentralized approach, syncing files directly between devices without third-party server involvement.
- ๐ Audible is mentioned not as a productivity app, but as a valuable resource for expanding knowledge through audiobooks, with a special recommendation for 'Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup'.
Q & A
What was the reason for creating a second video on productivity apps?
-The original video was 26 minutes long, which was considered too long for an app roundup. The creator decided to make a second video to provide secondary recommendations that were cut from the first video due to length.
What are the different types of secondary recommendations provided in the video?
-The secondary recommendations include apps that are the second best overall in their category, apps that are personally used by the creator but not for everyone, and apps that are considered cool and deserve a mention.
What is the main feature that differentiates TickTick from Todoist, according to the video?
-TickTick includes a built-in calendar view, a Pomodoro timer, and a habit tracker, which Todoist lacks.
How does Woven improve the meeting scheduling experience on top of Google Calendar?
-Woven integrates with Google Calendar and offers features like polling for time matching, open calendar slots for easy scheduling, and meeting/event templates to streamline the creation of events.
What project management philosophy does Trello use in its design?
-Trello uses the Kanban methodology, which involves organizing tasks into lists that represent different statuses of a project.
Why might someone prefer Trello over Notion, as mentioned in the video?
-Some users might prefer Trello for its ability to easily assign people to cards, assign multiple people to singular cards, and provide a centralized dashboard for assigned tasks, which Notion cannot do as effectively.
What unique feature does OneNote have that Evernote does not, as per the video?
-OneNote allows users to embed videos directly into notes, a feature that Evernote does not offer.
What is the main advantage of Typora over other markdown-based writing apps mentioned in the video?
-Typora offers a hybrid markdown system with a sidebar for document organization, providing a balance between the functionality of apps like Evernote and a real-time markdown formatting experience.
Why might Habitify be preferred over Habitica as a habit tracker, according to the video?
-Habitify has a pleasing visual design and UI, and features like the ability to view streaks and check-in times, which can help users analyze and optimize their routines.
What is unique about Timeular's approach to time tracking, as discussed in the video?
-Timeular uses a physical device with different task faces that users can rotate to track time for different activities, providing a hands-on, non-digital method of time tracking.
How does Front differ from Gmail in terms of team email management, according to the video?
-Front allows for shared inboxes and team collaboration on email responses, enabling team members to answer or assign emails, and improving the efficiency of email management for businesses.
What is the main difference between Slack and Twist in terms of communication style, as per the video?
-Twist focuses on threads as the default mode of communication within channels, promoting a calmer environment and making important information easier to find compared to Slack's real-time chat.
Why might someone choose Syncthing over other cloud sync services like Google Drive, according to the video?
-Syncthing is an open-source solution that syncs files directly between devices without uploading them to a third-party server, appealing to users who prefer to keep their files private and within their own ecosystem.
What is Audible, and how does it relate to productivity and learning, as mentioned in the video?
-Audible is a platform for audiobooks that allows users to listen to books, enhancing productivity by enabling multitasking and continuous learning during daily activities.
What is the current audiobook recommendation provided in the video, and why is it notable?
-The recommended audiobook is 'Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup,' which is notable for its riveting storytelling about the controversial startup Theranos and the fraud allegations it faced.
Outlines
๐ Secondary Productivity App Recommendations
The speaker begins by explaining the purpose of the video, which is to provide secondary recommendations for the best productivity apps in various categories that were not included in a previous video due to length constraints. The secondary recommendations are diverse, including apps that are the second best overall, personal favorites, and unique apps that deserve mention. The video starts with a comparison between Todoist and TickTick for task management, highlighting TickTick's additional features like a built-in calendar view, Pomodoro timer, and habit tracker. The speaker also introduces Woven as a complement to Google Calendar for meeting scheduling, emphasizing its features like polling, open calendar slots, and event templates to streamline the process.
๐ Calendar and Project Management App Alternatives
In this paragraph, the speaker discusses alternatives in the calendar and project management app categories. For project management, Trello is recommended as a tool that uses the Kanban methodology, allowing for easy tracking of project tasks through lists and cards. The speaker contrasts Trello's functionality with Notion, noting that while Notion replaces most of Trello's features, Trello excels in assigning tasks to multiple people and providing a centralized dashboard. The summary also touches on the limitations of Google Calendar for meeting scheduling and how Woven addresses these issues. Additionally, the speaker briefly mentions their personal preference for OneNote over Evernote for note-taking, despite OneNote's lack of automatic sorting features, due to its free cost.
๐ Writing, Habit Tracking, and Time Management Tools
The speaker explores alternatives for serious writing apps, noting that while Scrivener is a top choice, Typora offers a simple yet effective alternative with a hybrid markdown system and a sidebar for document organization. For habit tracking, Habitify is highlighted as a visually appealing option with features that allow users to analyze their habit-checking patterns. In the time tracking category, Timeular is introduced as an active time tracking solution with a physical device that lets users write tasks on its faces and track time effortlessly. The speaker also shares their personal email management tool, Front, which facilitates team collaboration on email responses and includes features like shared inboxes and automation.
๐ฃ๏ธ Team Communication and Cloud Sync Solutions
The speaker discusses alternatives to Slack for team communication, recommending Twist for its threaded communication approach that aims to reduce the information overload associated with real-time chat. Twist, developed by the creators of Todoist, calms the communication process by making threads the primary mode of interaction within channels. For cloud sync, Syncthing is presented as an open-source alternative to mainstream cloud services, syncing files directly between user devices without the use of third-party servers. Lastly, the speaker endorses Audible as a valuable resource for audiobooks, offering a vast library and exclusive originals, and invites viewers to try the service with a free trial and download.
Mindmap
Keywords
๐กProductivity app
๐กSecondary recommendation
๐กTodoist
๐กTickTick
๐กGoogle Calendar
๐กWoven
๐กProject management
๐กTrello
๐กEvernote
๐กOneNote
๐กHabit tracker
๐กTimeular
๐กFront
๐กTwist
๐กSyncthing
๐กAudible
Highlights
The video provides secondary recommendations for the best productivity apps in 10 different categories.
Todoist is recommended as the primary to-do list app, with TickTick as a full-featured alternative including a calendar view, Pomodoro timer, and habit tracker.
Google Calendar is the main recommendation for the calendar category, with Woven as a new app for easier meeting scheduling.
Woven offers features like polling for meeting times, open calendar slots, and event templates to streamline the scheduling process.
Trello is suggested as a project management app using the Kanban method, with features like lists and cards for task tracking.
Notion is noted as a daily-used app by the speaker that replaces Trello's functionality except for centralized task assignment.
Evernote is the primary note-taking app, with OneNote as a free alternative that allows embedding videos.
OneNote's organization is criticized for lacking automatic sorting features compared to Evernote.
Scrivener is the top recommendation for serious writing apps, with Typora as a simpler alternative featuring a hybrid markdown system.
Habitica is the favorite habit tracker, with Habitify as an alternative for those who prefer a more straightforward design and UI.
Habitify offers features like streak visualization and time-of-day check-in data for habit analysis.
Timeular is introduced as an active time tracking app with a unique physical device for task tracking.
Front is recommended for team email management with features like shared inboxes and automated responses.
Twist is presented as an alternative to Slack, focusing on threaded communication to avoid information overload.
Syncthing is highlighted as an open-source cloud sync solution that doesn't rely on third-party servers.
Audible is mentioned as a valuable resource for audiobooks, with a special recommendation for 'Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup'.
A free 30-day trial of Audible is offered, including one free audiobook and two exclusive Audible originals.
Transcripts
- So last week, I created a video
that listed the best productivity app in my opinion
in each of 10 different categories.
And my original cut of that video
actually had a second feature.
In each of those categories,
I was gonna give you a secondary recommendation
to kind of compliment that first one,
but there was a problem.
With those secondary recommendations,
that video ended up being 26 minutes long,
which we thought was just a bit too long for an app roundup.
So what I'm gonna do in this video
is give you those secondary recommendations.
A lot of people were asking for them in the comments
and I think a lot of them do deserve to be mentioned.
Now, these secondary recommendations aren't all the same.
Some of them I think are legitimately
the second best overall app in that category,
only kind of coming up short to my main recommendation.
Some of them are apps that I don't think are for everyone,
but that I use personally
and I just wanna mention those as well.
And then, finally, some of the apps I'm gonna mention here
are just apps that are cool.
I think they deserve a mention.
So let's get into it, starting, of course,
with the to do list category.
Now in my original video,
I recommended an app called Todoist,
which I personally use every single day,
and the app that I wanna share with you now
is called TickTick, which is very, very similar.
In fact, for some people,
TickTick is gonna be a lot more full-featured
and is gonna be the one they wanna go for.
TickTick includes a built-in calendar view,
which Todoist does not have,
and it also builds in a Pomodoro timer and a pretty basic,
but still nicely functional, habit tracker.
So if you're someone who wants to have your calendar,
your habit tracker, your Pomodoro timer,
and all of your to dos in one place,
then TickTick is probably gonna be the app for you.
That brings us to the calendar category
and this one's gonna be a little bit different
because my overall recommendation, Google Calendar,
is definitely gonna be the play for most people here,
but I want to give a shout out
to a relatively new app called Woven.
And Woven actually integrates with Google Calendar
and kind of lives on top of it
and it would be a nice upgrade
for people who find themselves going to a lot of meetings
and, hence, scheduling a lot of meetings.
Google Calendar itself doesn't have a whole lot of features
for easily scheduling meetings
and a lot of people who use it
find themselves building these crazy long email chains,
going back and forth,
trying to find times and places that work for them
and the other people who they have to meet with.
Now Woven tries to essentially solve this problem
by offering a few different features.
Number one, there is a polling feature,
which allows people to pick the times
and dates that work for them
and it will kind of match everyone up
and show the best possible time.
There's also the ability to have open calendar slots
on your calendar,
where people can just pencil themselves into your schedule.
And lastly, there are meeting templates,
or I guess event templates,
where if you have a lot of lunch meetings, say,
you can have a template set up
that has an already-set location,
maybe an already-set time, maybe some details.
That way you don't have to spend a bunch of time
putting information into an event.
You can just create it automatically.
All right, let's talk about project management.
Now in my last video, I kinda cheated on this category
and did mention two different apps
because I really like ClickUp but I had to mention Notion,
since it is the project management app
that I use every single day.
So in this one,
you're getting kind of a third recommendation
for project management and that is going to be Trello.
Now Trello is the project management app
that I used before I learned about Notion
and I used it for a really long time,
ever since college actually.
And with Trello,
I was able to work with my business partner, Martin,
to build the last two major design iterations
of the College Info Geek website.
And that's because Trello uses
a project management philosophy
in its design called Kanban.
And in Kanban, you essentially have a bunch of lists
that indicate different statuses of your project,
like to do, doing, on hold, and done,
and then you create cards for every individual task
or facet of a project
and you can move them between the lists
to show at a glance what their status is.
And using this Kanban structure made it really easy for us
to keep track of every little piece of these projects,
which were huge and had, at some times,
hundreds of different pieces.
Now one thing that I do want to note about Trello
is that, at least for my purposes,
I have found that Notion essentially replaces
all of Trello's functionality,
with the exception of being able
to easily assign people to cards,
assign multiple people to singular cards,
and then give people a centralized dashboard
where they can see all the cards they are assigned to
across multiple different boards
and to let them sort those cards by due date.
Notion cannot do that so if you need that functionality,
Trello's definitely a better solution than Notion.
All right, that brings us to apps that let you take notes
and in my original video, I talked about Evernote,
which is the app I've been using
for nearly a decade at this point because I am ancient.
But the other app that I want to recommend in this video
is one that is, I would say,
nearly neck and neck with Evernote
when it comes to features and overall capability
and that is Microsoft's OneNote.
Just like with Evernote,
you can get all kinds of information into OneNote,
audio files, pictures.
You can actually embed videos into OneNote
and that's something that Evernote can't do.
So hey, Evernote team, if you're watching this video,
can we get a video embed feature at some point?
That'd be great.
But one thing that I personally don't like about OneNote
is the way that it organizes information.
You can't automatically sort different notebooks,
or I guess tabs of notebooks, by date modified,
date created, alphabetically.
You can only drag them and sort them manually,
so I kind of like the way that Evernote
gives me these sorting tools.
That being said, OneNote is free
so if Evernote's not your cup of tea, then OneNote might be.
Okay, so let's talk for a bit about serious writing apps.
For those of you who need to do book writing
or really, really longform articles,
what app should you use?
Well, when it comes to comparisons online,
everyone who seems to be into serious writing
or book writing loves to compare Scrivener,
which was my top recommendation in the last video,
to an app called Ulysses.
The only problem with Ulysses,
which I happen to love, by the way,
is that it is Mac and iOS-exclusive
and because of that, I'm not gonna feature it here.
Instead, I'm gonna feature another app that's a lot simpler
but still really, really good called Typora.
Now I've talked in my note taking apps video
about apps that have a, what I call, hybrid markdown system,
where instead of writing in plain text
and then seeing a preview window of all your formatting,
instead your text gets automatically formatted as you write
when using markdown syntax,
such as putting two asterisks on either side of a word
to bold it.
I love the fact
that I can just easily put in these formatting commands
and have my text be formatted and allow me to see
how it's actually going to look as I write.
Now there are a lot of apps that do this,
including iA Writer and Byword,
but why I love Typora over those apps
is that you get this nice sidebar
with all of your different documents.
So you get a little bit of the functionality
you get in an app like Evernote,
not quite as much, but some of it,
but you also get that beautiful
hybrid markdown system as well.
All right, so we are now over to habit trackers
and like I said in my original video,
my favorite habit tracker is Habitica,
but a lot of people find Habitica
to be a little bit too much.
They're not super into the video game-y elements of it
and, well, I really can't blame them.
It's not for everyone.
And, luckily, there are a lot of other apps out there
that can fit the bill if Habitica isn't your cup of tea.
The one that I want to feature here is called Habitify.
Out of all the habit trackers that I've tested in the past,
and I have tested a lot, I found Habitify
to have the most pleasing visual design and UI.
And in addition, it has some really cool features,
such as the ability to see your streaks
and to see the time of day
that you typically check in for each habit.
And being able to see that data can actually be very useful
because you might be able to make tweaks
to your daily routines or the times at which you do things
based on when you find yourself doing things in the past.
Now, time tracking is another category
where I kind of, sort of cheated in my original video
because I did have two different recommendations,
so those are recommendations for active time tracking
and passive time tracking.
So my next recommendation for time tracking
is going to sit squarely in that active category
and it's kind of an odd one.
It's called Timeular and it actually has a physical device
that goes along with the app.
So this is something that I've been meaning to test
and I'm gonna do a full review on it at some point.
But I gave it to my friend Martin to use for a few weeks
and he said that he actually liked this better
than other time tracking solutions
and I've seen the same opinions
from other people online that I follow.
So, essentially, Timeular is an app
that pairs with this little diamond-shaped
plastic device here and on the diamond,
you can actually write different tasks on each face.
And then when you have the diamond on the desk
with a flat side on the desk,
whatever face is facing up
is going to be tracked actively in the app.
And then when you want to stop tracking,
you can either switch to something else
or you could put it in its holder
and it'll just stand up like this.
This gives you an actual physical device
for tracking your time
and a lot of people seem to like that better
than having to remember to go into a specific window
or website to start and stop their time tracking.
So if that's something that seems interesting to you,
you might want to check this out.
And that brings us to email.
Like I said in the last video,
Gmail is my main recommendation for most people
but I actually do not use Gmail,
so I'm gonna tell you what the app
that I use for email these days.
It's called Front and the main benefit of this app
is that it allows you to work with a team on your emails.
In Front, you can create shared inboxes.
You can have multiple email addresses come in
to these shared inboxes.
You can actually have other sources,
like social media accounts, come in as well,
but I mainly just use email.
And then you can have team members
answer your emails for you or assign them to you.
So the way that I use Front
is essentially I have a shared email inbox
for my [email protected] email address
and my assistant goes through
and answers most of those emails.
Now if she has a question,
there's actually a comment area at the bottom
of every email thread where she can tag me
and ask how she should process it or get some details
or ask any other questions that she might have.
And then I can respond and over time,
she gets better and better
at answering different types of emails.
And if there's something that I do have to answer,
then she can simply assign it to me
and I see it in my own personal inbox.
There're also lots of rules and integrations
and automations that you can do with Front.
But I do have to say, Front is not cheap,
I think we pay $60 a month for it,
so you really have to get to a point in your business
where it really makes sense
for team members to be answering emails,
instead of just one person.
But if that's you, Front can be really, really nice.
Speaking of teams, we are now over to team chat
and in the last video, I talked about Slack.
Today I'm going to feature an app
that is sort of the antithesis to Slack,
or an answer to some of the problems with Slack,
and that's an app called Twist.
And Twist was actually made by the people who make Todoist
and they developed this app
as kind of a response to Slack's realtime chat nature.
They felt, as many people do,
that the whole realtime chat nature of Slack
makes people kind of feel like they're missing out
and it can also make really important information
get buried in threads of kind of just inane conversation.
So instead of just having channels
with a realtime chat happening within each channel,
Twist has threads.
And I will say, Slack does have threads as well,
but, again, those threads get buried.
It's not very easy to find them.
With Twist, it's a lot calmer.
There are channels
but then the default mode of communication
within every channel is a thread.
And that brings us to our final category on this list,
which is cloud sync, that category of apps
that keeps your files synced and up-to-date
across all of your devices,
which I think is a really, really useful thing to have.
Now, I could recommend
one of the mainstream competitors to Google Drive,
which was my main recommendation in that previous video,
like Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, iCloud,
but I want to feature different instead.
I want to point your attention
to something called Syncthing.
Now Syncthing is unique in this space
because it doesn't actually sync your files
to a third-party server.
It's simply an app
that runs on each of your different computers
and keeps your files synced on those computers
and those computers alone.
So if you're the kind of person
who doesn't want to be uploading your files
to a third-party company's server,
you just want to keep your stuff on your devices
and your devices alone,
then Syncthing might be something to look into.
And to boot, it is open source.
Now there is one final app that I do want to mention here,
even though it is not strictly a productivity app,
but it is an app that I've been using for years
and it has definitely helped me to expand my horizons
and to keep learning on a daily basis and that is Audible.
Audible is the best place in the world
to get your hands on audiobooks,
which I listen to almost every single day.
And Audible, again, is the best place to get them
because they have an unmatched library
with all the best sellers, tons of obscure titles,
and basically anything you're gonna want.
If you want biographies, they've got it.
If you want sci-fi titles, they've got it.
And if you want my recommendation for this month,
which is Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies
In A Silicon Valley Startup, they have that as well.
And I'm recommending this audiobook
because it's just probably the audiobook
that I enjoyed listening to the most in recent months.
This is the story of Theranos,
which was a startup in Silicon Valley
that had a lot of controversy and fraud
and tons of allegations brought up against it.
And I just found the audiobook absolutely riveting.
And it also spawned a bunch of other ones
that I wanted to listen to as well.
And the best part is that you can start listening
to this audiobook, or any other audiobook of your choosing,
by going over to audible.com/thomas
or by texting Thomas to 500-500 on your phone.
Doing that is gonna get you a free 30-day trial
of Audible service
that comes with one free audiobook download
from their entire library,
you can choose whatever you want,
and it also gets you two Audible originals
that you cannot get anywhere else.
Then once you're a member, you get a credit each month
for one new audiobook from that library,
plus two more Audible originals each and every month
and access to a huge library
of workout and meditation programs.
Plus if you decide to quit at any time,
you get to keep your library of audiobooks forever.
They never go away.
So once again, to get that free 30-day trial of Audible,
one free audiobook download of your choosing
and two Audible originals that you can't get anywhere else,
go over to audible.com/thomas
or text Thomas to 500-500 on your phone.
Big thanks, as always, to Audible for sponsoring this video
and being a big supporter of my channel
and thank you as well for watching.
If you enjoyed this video, get subscribed right there,
hit that like button, and also click right there
to get a free copy of my book on how to earn better grades,
if you haven't done so already.
Last but not least,
you can find a couple more videos on this channel
right here and right here
and I will see you in the next one.
Browse More Related Video
Best To-Do list Apps of 2024: New and Updated
20 Android Apps I CAN'T Live Without in 2024!
Best To-Do App 2024 (Todoist vs TickTick vs Superlist vs Notion vs Motion)
The Magical Apps That Changed My Life
The Top 10 Best AI Studying Tools 2024
My Ultimate Productivity Tool & An Updated Workflow for 2024: Plan with Me in NotePlan
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)