Struggling to be productive? It can sometimes be hard to stay top of things in our work lives. I know my life has been super busy since I decided to put more focus on my blog and YouTube channel. Some of these apps have saved me from extra stress by helping me stay in line with everything needed to do.
I have compiled a list of the apps I use to help me stay productive no matter where I am. Of course, these are specific to my work life as an actor, director, ASL interpreter, and influencer. But, there is so much you can do with these apps and you're able to customize it to your own needs. These are apps for writing notes, creating graphics for social media, keeping track of your health, keeping track of your financials, and much more. It's the perfect package of apps to have.
Some of these are paid apps; however, they are one time fees and you can use the app to its full potential.
Note Taking
There are billion and one note taking apps. I have tried quite a few of them and so far my favorite has been GoodNotes. It is a paid app, but I use it a lot so I didn't mind the price.
GoodNotes
When it comes to notating ANYTHING, I love to use GoodNotes. I use it for my monthly, weekly, and daily planner as well as my journaling and anything else I may write. It has a great search engine to search for words in your saved notebooks, even from the stuff you have handwritten. You can add pictures, highlight, erase, use templates, import from files or pictures, and more. I absolutely love this app and use it for everything. I use it mostly on my iPad; however, it is easily accessible through your phone or computer.
Cost: $7.99 one time price
Mood Tracker
I have tried so many apps for tracking my moods and I didn't like any until I came across Daylio.
Daylio
I use Daylio as my mood tracker. I love using Daylio because it is easily customizable to what I want to track. You can add activities or moods or anything really. Anything you want to track is easily added. It gives you a monthly view as well. I would even go as far to say you can use it as a diary or journal. It tells you your statistics per tracked item. For example, you can see what you were doing that has made you sad or happy this month. It even allows you to add a picture and notes to each entry. I believe that for the low price, it is totally worth it.
Cost: $2.99 one time price
Graphics and Pictures
There are so many apps for creating and editing graphics and pictures. With so many good options out there, it can be hard to pick. For graphics, I prefer to use Canva. I do have the pro upgrade, because I use Canva for everything, including the graphics on this post (which most of them you could create for free). When you pay for the pro upgrade on Canva you also get the Canva Stories pro, since the accounts are the same. For Pictures, I believe theres nothing better than Adobe Lightroom. Read below to learn why I choose these apps.
Canva
I use it for all things social media related. It is great and easy to use. Canva has a lot of free options. However, Pro users have access to scheduling posts and seeing those posts on a content calendar.
Cost: Free, but can upgrade to pro for $12.99 a month or $119.99 a year
(Only need to upgrade one account and can use both Canva and Canva stories.)
Canva Stories
I use Canva Stories to help produce better quality stories for my Instagram. However, Canva Stories is great for not only Instagram stories, but also any social media story, like FaceBook or Twitter. You can animate the story to add some flare and make it even more interesting to view. You can add graphics and text to any story post and download easily to your camera roll.
Cost: Free, but can upgrade to pro for $12.99 a month or $119.99 a year
(Only need to upgrade one account and can use both Canva and Canva stories.)
Adobe Lightroom
I use Adobe Lightroom to edit my pictures. You can adjust the picture's lighting and sharpness to create a picture that pops out to the audience. You can create a preset to use on multiple pictures with a quick copy and paste settings. This is great when editing multiple pictures. You can find people who sell Lightroom presets with a google search, if you are also interested in that.
Cost: Free, but can upgrade to premium for $4.99 a month
Audio
When it comes to listening to things, I am pretty picky. It all changes and depends on what I'm doing. If I'm working, I can only do subtle low music but nothing that would distract me, as I'm easily distracted. If I'm driving, I like to jam out to my music or listen to a good book. That's why I started using Audible.
Audible
I use Audible to listen to books while on my longer drives to work. They have some really great books on there, from self-help to business to magic. They categorize everything for easy finding. Audible has so many great books to choose from.
Cost: $14.95 a month for one credit.
All things Google
The good thing about using Google Apps is that everything is linked. Therefore, if you need to buy more storage it will be used for all the Google applications, like Google Sheets and Google Drive.