Available for all iOS devices, Todoist is a note-taking and organization app that can keep you on top of all your projects—both personal and professional. Its best features are all free to use, including browser extensions, task creation, and interactive boards you can use to organize all your notes. The app is also a powerful drawing and annotation tool, especially with iOS 11’s drag-and-drop and Files app integration for moving PDF files in and out. [ iOS, Mac ] Distraction-free writing.
- Best Productivity App For Mac And Iphone
- Best Productivity App For Ipad
- Mac Productivity Tools
- Best Productivity App For Macbook
Get off email. Stop wasting time in meetings. Work smarter, not harder. You've heard it all before. The advice and mantras all over the internet about making yourself more productive could fill libraries. But there's no one-size-fits-all solution to being more productive. It depends so much on who you are and how you process information, not to mention the details of your work and life.
That's why this list of the best productivity apps is so varied. Some productivity tools help you manage your ever-growing email inbox. Others automate various aspects of your life so you can focus on the work that requires actual thought. With the right productivity apps and services at your fingertips, you can easily improve your workflows and your life.
What Are Your Productivity Goals?
People are obsessed with productivity these days, but few think about what it actually means. In the traditional sense, the phrase 'increasing productivity' means making more money, goods, or both. But being more productive now has a much more personal meaning. Ultimately, it's about achieving goals and making the most of your time.
Your goal could be anything from maximizing profits in a business to getting a nine-to-five job done faster so that you have some mental and physical resources left over to pursue personal interests at home. Some people want to get out of the office faster each day to spend more time with their family. In a broader sense, productive people determine how they want to live and take the necessary steps to make that possible.
What Is Productivity Software?
Productivity software makes your work and personal tasks easier and more efficient to complete. Although office suites and business applications still have a prominent role in our lives, this category of software has expanded far beyond those buttoned-down fields.
Whatever your profession or personal ambitions, the right productivity app will help you reach your deadlines and goals faster and for less money. From browser plugins to services that help you maintain important relationships, productivity apps do it all.
Productivity Apps for Individuals
In this age of DIY solutions and self-reliance, plenty of productivity apps overlap with self-help apps. Time-tracking programs help you identify your work habits and patterns so you can adjust your behaviors for the better. Tools that minimize or prevent distractions let you impose rules on your web surfing behavior, blocking sites that prevent you from getting work done.
Task-management and to-do list apps are also popular. With the ability to share and sync data over the internet, it's easy to make lists of chores for your partner and kids, assigning them tasks anytime, anywhere. Mobile devices are a huge part of the productivity movement and make it easy to stay on top of responsibilities whenever you have natural downtime.
And while we're on the subject of getting lots of things done at once, forget everything you think you know about the perils of multitasking. A growing body of research shows that multitasking, in moderation, makes you more productive, not less. Periods of natural downtime, such as while stuck on a train or at an airport, are perfect multitasking opportunities.
Productivity Apps for Businesses
Of course, plenty of productivity apps exist specifically for the workplace. Project management services, for example, help teams keep track of work and assets, reducing the need for meetings. These platforms also give employees greater visibility into all the moving parts of a project, including who is responsible for what task.
Invoicing and billing solutions—and really all kinds of online business accounting apps—do wonders for productivity, especially for very small business owners and sole proprietors. When you're a one-person shop and time is at a premium, you can't afford to waste time messing around with accounting. You need tools that work efficiently and that get it right the first time, every time, so you can get back to the real work.
And let's not leave out traditional office suites. In our list of apps, we include plenty of suggestions for word-processing programs, spreadsheet apps, and presentation tools as well. The best ones are collaborative, letting multiple people work on the same document simultaneously. Quite a few are free and include a good chunk of cloud storage. We also highlight a few content creation solutions for more specific tasks like writing a novel or creating charts.
Problems and Solutions
At the heart of every great productivity app is a solution to a specific problem. Some look toward efficiency, aiming to take an existing product, such as email, and make it easier to use. Others seek to silence the noise of the net, bolster collaboration, or unite disparate data. Ultimately, however, all the productivity apps in the world won't help you if you don't make a concerted effort to actually get things done.
The software and service on this list are among our favorites for helping anyone be more productive, from office workers to students. It's by no means a comprehensive list, but we hope it provides useful suggestions for your daily tasks as well as introduces you to some hidden gems. Make sure to leave a comment if we missed your favorite app. We keep this list current and might include your entry in the next revision.
Best Productivity App Categories:
Best Apps for Collaboration
Best Apps for Creation
Best Apps for Management
Best Apps for Mobile
Best Apps for Organization
Best Apps for Security and Storage
Best Apps for Social Media
Best Apps for Troubleshooting
Best Apps for Voice & Accessibility
Best Apps for Workflows
Best Productivity Apps for Collaboration
Asana
Free; $119.88 per user per year for Premium
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Workplace tools for collaboration and communication are transforming how teams get work done together, and Asana was among the first to make a real splash. Asana helps teams keep track of what needs to get done and who is doing it. Unlike project management platforms, Asana is capable of handling ongoing work (project management is meant for projects with an end date).
Microsoft Teams
Free; From $5 per user per month
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Microsoft Teams is an excellent messagingplatform for the workplace, with top features such as Office 365 integration and great organization tools. Team members even get audio and video calling options that help reduce the need for unnecessary in-person meetings. Microsoft also recently launched a free version of Microsoft Teams, further cementing it as a worthy alternative to Slack.
Podio
From $9 per user per month
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Podio is a business collaboration and work management platform that's super flexible and customizable. It's a hub where work gets done. You add apps to it, such as those for invoicing or project management, to design an online workspace that meets the needs of your business. The ability to customize the platform by adding the apps you need is Podio's main strength. Podio is one of the most comprehensive productivity tools for small business communication and work management.
Slack
Free; From $8 per user per month
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Slack is a messaging platform for teams, facilitating discussions (and banter) across collaborators who are not necessarily in the same place at the same time. Great search functionality helps you find relevant messages that you may have missed the first time around. Slack can also integrate with a ton of other productivity apps and services.
Teamwork Projects
Free; from $45 per month for paid accounts
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Teamwork Projects, an Editors' Choice in the project management category (alongside Zoho Projects), is affordable and easy to use. Not all project management platforms are either of those things, much less both. Teamwork Projects actually makes project management quite easy to handle because the interface is self-explanatory. This app's flat-rate pricing for an unlimited users is also a huge plus. For teams that are on the small side, it's an excellent value.
Trello
Free; $119.88 per user per year for Business plan
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Trello is a kanban-style work management app. It helps teams visualize their workflow. In Trello and other kanban apps, you create cards (think of them as sticky notes on a board) and arrange them into columns. Each column can represent whatever you want. You move the notes to different columns as the work progresses or you can design your own ad hoc methods. Trello's charm comes from its simple interface and fun stickers, all of which add a touch of lightness to even the heaviest kinds of work.
Wrike
Free; from $117.60 per user per year for paid plans
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When you need a project management service yesterday, turn to Wrike. Wrike offers a flexible solution for small businesses and enterprises alike that isn't as feature-rich as some other options, but lets you get up and running extremely fast. With plenty of ways to integrate with other apps and services and a quick setup, Wrike is a great project management platform for small businesses.
Zoho Projects
Free; from $25 per user per month for paid accounts
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Zoho Projects has kept pace with the world of project management extremely well, freshening up its look and adding features that all teams need to work collaboratively. It offers a truly free level of service, so you can try it out fully and without any time restrictions before you buy it. Zoho Projects is a great productivity platform with ample add-on tools and services to grow with your team or business.
Best Productivity Apps for Creation
ABBYY FineReader
$199.99
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When you need optical character recognition (OCR) help, that is to say, turning pictures of words into actual typed text, ABBYY FineReader is the number-one tool to use. In the OCR software category, it may be the one and only app worth your money. One amazing efficiency of this app is that it lets you start fine-tuning the results almost instantly, instead of waiting until the app has processed an entire document. While ABBYY FineReader is working on the final pages of a document, you can give it feedback on earlier pages, and that's a boon for your productivity.
Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides
Free
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Google offers an excellent suite of online apps for creating and editing text documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are fully collaborative, meaning two or more people can edit the same file at once. Google Suite also includes its own file-syncing service, letting you work offline.
Grammarly
Free; $29.95 per month
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If you spend all day writing, you are bound to make mistakes from time to time. Office suites have their own spelling and grammar checkers, but Grammarly is unique in that it works most places on the web as well. Additionally, it is better at suggesting stylistic changes based on specific genres of writing. Also, check out Grammarly's excellent mobile keyboard app for Android and iOS.
Lucidchart
Free; from $5.95 per month for paid plans
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Hands down, the best alternative to Microsoft Visio is Lucidchart. With this moderately priced app, you create diagrams for business, educational use, or even personal use. One of its main strengths is its ability to support collaboration, letting more than one person edit a diagram at the same time. An incredible template gallery gives you ideas for charts and diagrams you didn't even know you needed. How about an emergency exit plan, for example? Lucidchart is PCMag's top choice for diagramming apps.
Microsoft Office 2016
From $6.99 per month
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Microsoft's latest edition of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access (all part of Microsoft's Office 2016 suite) are designed to work on touch screens, as well as on desktops and laptops. What that means for mobile users is they get the same app on a mobile device that they get on their computer. More uniformity across devices means less futzing around with a different interface, and that can only help your productivity.
Pages, Numbers, and Keynote
Free
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Apple's office suite comes in the form of three apps that are sold separately, but are included with the purchase of new Macs. The three apps are Pages for word processing, Numbers, an Editors' Choice, for spreadsheets, and Keynote, also an Editors' Choice, for presentations. Each one balances power and features with simplicity and ease of use. For macOS users, they collectively make up an excellent choice for an office suite.
Prezi
From $59.04 per year
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If your ideas don't come across well as a slideshow, stop trying to shoehorn your work into the wrong format. Try Prezi instead. With this presentation app, you create a huge whiteboard of material and move a camera around to highlight different parts. Making presentations with Prezi is more like creating a short film. It also has excellent collaboration features, similar to those found in Google Docs. Prezi is dynamic, and your presentations will be, too.
SmartDraw Cloud
$179.40 per year
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SmartDraw Cloud makes it easier than any other app to quickly create professional-quality diagrams. While its collaboration features aren't as strong as those of Lucidchart, SmartDraw earns top honors for having the largest selection of templates and objects. If you spend a lot of time making diagrams and charts, however, this app is well worth the cost, since you'll have a template (the templates are more like thorough sample documents) for practically everything you'll ever need to create.
Ulysses
$39.99 per year
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Ulysses is an excellent distraction-free writing app for macOS that prioritizes writing above all else, which is exactly what a good writing app should do. It also supports Markdown text and can help you keep track of your writing goals. With Ulysses, you no longer have any excuses for not writing that novel.
Best Productivity Apps for Management
FreshBooks
Free; $14.99 per month
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FreshBooks is the site to beat when it comes to managing and tracking invoices, time, and expenses for businesses that don't need a full-blown double-entry accounting system. It's ideal for owners of small businesses and sole proprietors.
Harvest
$12 per month
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Keeping detailed records of the time you spend on projects is an absolute necessity for freelancers. Harvest is one of the best services you can use to do so. It includes native invoicing and expensing capabilities, as well as support for team management and scheduling.
Toggl
Free
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Toggl is a great tool for freelancers who want to keep track of the time they spend on tasks. Although you can pay for a premium tier, Toggl's free account offers a ton of functionality and is a great option for anyone on a budget. Toggl also works with Zapier and supports all the common platforms.
Best Productivity Apps for Mobile
Any.do
Free; $28.99 per year for Premium
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Any.do is a collaborative task-management app for iOS, Android, and Chrome. It's a beautifully designed to-do app with one unique feature called the Any.do Moment. This feature helps you make a habit of reviewing your daily tasks first thing in the morning, every day, so that you're never caught off guard by surprise meetings, tasks, or other obligations later. Developing a good habit that promotes productivity is extremely difficult, so we commend Any.Do's efforts.
EasilyDo
Free; $4.99 per month for Premium
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EasilyDo is a personal assistant app that automates small tasks for you, everything from posting 'happy birthday' on your friends' Facebook pages on the right day to texting your significant other when you're running late. EasilyDo is very easy to set up and use and comes with a wealth of functionality. For tiny time-eating tasks that you'd rather not get caught up doing, let EasilyDo take the helm.
Microsoft Outlook
Free
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Customizable swipe gestures, an integrated calendar view, and a Focused Inbox feature make Microsoft Outlook one of our favorite mobile email apps for productivity. And despite the app's name, you can pull in email from other accounts, too. Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, iCloud, and IMAP accounts are all supported, in addition to those affiliated with Microsoft Exchange, Outlook.com, and Office 365. The Focused Inbox feature separates personal emails from marketing messages and others that are less pressing. It's quite similar to the Inbox by Gmail app, except that it works on a variety of email accounts, rather than just Gmail.
Pushbullet
$4.99 per month
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iPhone users who also have a Mac know the simple joy of cross-device syncing and sharing with Airdrop and iCloud. But syncing starts to come apart at the seams when you mix and match operating systems. Pushbullet is a mobile app and browser extension that fills in the cracks. It lets you quickly push links, images, addresses plotted in Google Maps, and other information from one device to another in a matter of taps or clicks. It boosts productivity by facilitating sharing across devices and platforms.
SwiftKey Keyboard
Free
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SwiftKey Keyboard is one of PCMag's favorite custom keyboard for Android, though it's also available on iOS. When you install SwiftKey as your default keyboard, you can save typing time by swiping your finger around the keyboard instead of hitting each individual letter. The app's predictive text feature is pretty smart and can tell what you're trying to say, even with sloppy swipes. For answering emails, replying to texts, and writing documents from a mobile phone, it's a great help.
Todoist
Free; $29 per year for Premium
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Todoist is a collaborative to-do app that would be impossible to use to any effect without the companion mobile app (for iPhone and Android). The free version of the app is good for single-person use, but to manage chores in a household or among a team, you'll want Todoist Premium. Assign tasks to others, give them a due date, and get alerted when they're done. We also like that it gives you color-coded spaces for managing certain types of to-dos, such as work, personal, and household.
Best Productivity Apps for Organization
Doodle.com
Free; from $39 per year for paid accounts
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Let's say five people need to find a time and date to meet that works for everyone. You could start an email thread and waste half a day tracking replies, or you could use Doodle.com. Doodle helps you effortlessly set up polls for scheduling. It's free to use, and respondents don't even have to join to add their responses. Doodle cuts down on needless email and streamlines scheduling big time. Paid accounts add some extra features, such as the ability to automatically send reminders before the appointed time and date and an ad-free experience.
Evernote
Free; from $3.99 per month for paid accounts
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Evernote is a wonderful productivity app with a variety of uses, although it lost some formerly dedicated users in 2016 when it drastically raised prices and changed what's included for paid plans. Painful as the price hike may be, no other note-taking and syncing app quite measures up to Evernote. It continues to offer a more efficient and productive experience than its competitors, namely Microsoft OneNote. At its core, Evernote is still an app where you can create and sync all kinds of notes, such as text, voice memos, photos, and more. The paid plans add full-fledged business tools and collaborative features. Excellent search capabilities and OCR on images with text make Evernote indispensable for finding important information quickly.
Free; $44.99 per year for Premium
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SaneBox
From $7 per month
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SaneBox is the best service you'll find for improving your existing email account. For a couple bucks a month, SaneBox goes into your email on the backend and puts into different folders all the messages that are probably not important. It can tell the difference between a 'cold call' email and one from an acquaintance or business associate, although you help SaneBox learn by giving it feedback. Over time, it learns more about who and what is important to you and becomes even more valuable.
X1 Search
$49.95 for app; optional $24.95 per year extra for premium support
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Some people don't see the need for a desktop search utility like X1 Search. They prefer to rely on a carefully maintained, hierarchical folder structure and religiously adhere to it. Those people never lose their keys either. For everyone else, X1 Search is an ideal tool for finding what you need on your computer, from files to emails, with minimal effort and no wasted time.
Best Productivity Apps for Security & Storage
Dashlane
Free
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Dashlane wraps up all your password manager needs into a slick and intuitive interface. In addition to its password sharing and automatic password replacement tools, Dashlane also licenses VPN technology from AnchorFree. Make sure to check out Dashlane's Dark Web scanning capabilities, which helps you determine if and of your accounts have been sold or otherwise compromised.
Dropbox
Free
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Dropbox, like Google Drive and Microosft OneDrive, is a great cloud-based storage service for consumers and enterprises. Dropbox's stand out features are its comprehensive sharing and privlege options. Higher tier business plans also include the ability to track file events and device approvals, which limits file access to a set of pre-approved devices.
Google Drive
Free
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Google Drive is an excellent app for storing and sharing files, including those that you create with Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets. With the Google One storage plans, Google Drive is also a good vlaue if you decide you need more than the 15GB of space that the free account offers. The new Backup and Sync and Drive File Stream applications for consumers and corporations respectively make it easy to keep track of all your files.
IDrive
Free; $59.90 per year for Personal
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You'd be hard-pressed to find an online backup service as full-featured or versatile as IDrive, especially for the price. With this cloud-based syncing and backup service, you can get the most recent version of your files no matter where you are, which means you can be productive no matter where you are, too.
Keeper Password Manager
$29.99 per year
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Keeper Password Manager is a full-featured password manager with a focus on security and a Zero Knowledge policy. It supports high end features, such as two-factor authentication and secure password sharing. Keeper also works on the vast majority of platforms and browsers.
Microsoft OneDrive
Free
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Microsoft OneDrive has gone through many names over the years: SkyDrive, Live Mesh, FolderShare. Whatever you choose to call it, this service makes both your personal and office lives more productive by providing reliable file syncing and online storage. OneDrive includes attractive web and mobile interfaces, with offline capabilities, as well as music streaming, shared desktop-folder syncing, and perhaps most importantly, real-time collaboration in Office. It's a wonderful service no matter how you use it or what you call it.
Best Productivity Apps for Social Media
Hootsuite
Free; from $9.99 per month for paid accounts
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Hootsuite is a social media management system, meaning it's a one-stop shop for updating Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and now Instagram, too. Hootsuite helps keeps social media managers and small business owners productive by giving them high-level tools for scheduling updates to their social network accounts, monitoring replies and feedback, and much more.
Mention
Free; from $299.00 for paid accounts
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The search-and-alert program Mention is a social media and web monitoring tool. Mention actively searches the web and social media sites for key terms you choose, with advanced search criteria available, and in multiple languages. When Mention finds a new mention of your key terms, it alerts you in the app, by email, or via push notification in a mobile app. You can use Mention to follow up on the activity, or, if you're working in a collaborative environment, assign someone else for follow up. If your job is to keep track of online mentions of your company or product online, it's a wonderful productivity app.
Sprout Social
From $99.00 per user per month
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Finding a social media management platform with the right analytics tools for a small to midsize business can take months of expensive trial-and-error exploration. Sprout Social Premium can take the pain out of it. This beautifully designed suite of tools meets all the needs of a tech-savvy marketing pro. It also integrates with Google Analytics. Not only are the dashboard and interface stunningly well-designed, but the thoughtful lineup of partners, networks, and strong analytics tools, combined with straightforward pricing, makes it a PCMag's Editors' Choice.
Sysomos
Starting at $1,000 per month
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Sysomos is an enterprise-grade social media management platform that includes tools for monitoring conversations, keywords, and social trends; identifying and organizing groups of influencers; and using that information to target social audiences. It's one of the strongest platforms for very large businesses and brands at better equipping social media teams to tackle their jobs and be more productive.
Synthesio
Starting at $1,200 per month
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For enterprises, Synthesio is the PCMag Editors' Choice for social media management and tracking. This custom-installed software is designed for social media teams that handle branding and public perception, not just tweets and 'grams. It monitors sentiment worldwide and can report on how the competition is doing, too.
Best Productivity Apps for Troubleshooting
Freshdesk
Free
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If you run a small business, you need a way to keep track of all the technical issues and incidents that are sure to crop up over time. Freshdesk is a highly intuitive system for managing and ultimately resolving these problems. Anyone on the support side may also appreciate Freshdesk's gamification features.
GoToMyPC
$12 per month
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GoToMyPC's easy-to-use interfaces and apps allow you to remotely take control of another person's system. Remote access software is great for productivity, since you don't need to waste time writing or explaining steps; the end user can watch you work directly. GoToMyPC also allows you to drag and drop files across virtual desktops.
Snagit
$49.95
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When Photoshop is overkill for what you need to do with graphics and videos, Snagit is an excellent alternative app. It helps you take screenshots and video recordings, mark them up and add effects, and share them with others. Snagit gets those kinds of jobs done fast and on the cheap. A recently added animated GIF creator makes the app the perfect low-cost solution for bloggers and other online media creators.
TeamViewer
$49.95
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TeamViewer is a security-focused tool that lets you remotely access your own or someone else's computer, amicably, of course. Teamviewer is primarily useful for remote software installations or troubleshooting with off-site users. You can even use its free version to solve all your extended family's technical troubles, without the hassle of trying to explain steps over the phone.
Best Productivity Apps for Voice & Accessibility
Dragon NaturallySpeaking
$99.99 Home; $199.99 Premium
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Dictating reports and controlling your computer with your voice can be a huge productivity booster if you have an app that's smart and extremely intuitive. Dragon NaturallySpeaking is one such app. It's not cheap, but it's the best dictation software on the market. With Dragon, you can start dictating practically any text from day one, such as emails and speeches. Give yourself a few days to master deeper features to control your computer and browser, and you'll be flying through your work.
Duolingo
Free
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Want to learn a new language, but don't have the money or time to take formal classes? Duolingo is your best bet to learn the basics of a new language for free. With clear lesson progression and apps on many platforms, Duolingo makes it easy to pick up some new words or phrases whenever you have a free moment.
Rev
$1 per minute
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Rev is an affordable and highly accurate human transcription service that returns files quickly. Simply upload an audio or video file or submit a URL to get started. Rev also makes it easy to make any changes to the final transcript via its excellent web editor, which integrates accessible playback controls and editing options. You can also use Rev's mobile apps to record and submit orders directly.
Rosetta Stone
$179 per year
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Rosetta Stone is a premier language-learning app for anyone serious about mastering the foundations of a new language, The interface is top notch and features helpful activities and games to guide and. Users can even opt join online tutoring sessions for further instruction.
Best Productivity Apps for Workflows
Do.com
Free
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Very few productivity apps target human behavior itself, but human behavior is the leading cause of bad meetings. Do.com tackles it head-on with an online service for making meetings better. If you hold a lot of meetings or are the assistant for someone who does, Do.com guides you toward better practices. It encourages you to write and distribute an agenda, time your meetings to keep them only as long as they need to be, and archive meeting notes. It also helps you assign follow-up actions and track whether they get done.
IFTTT
Free
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IFTTT(rhymes with 'gift') stands for 'if this, then that.' It's a website and mobile app you use to create custom automations between various online services and devices, and the real beauty is that you don't need to know how to code to use it. For example, using IFTTT's simple interface, you could create this automation: 'If there is an upcoming event on my Google Calendar, then send me a text message reminder with the event name, time, and address.' Another example is: 'If someone tags a photo of me on Facebook, then save a copy of that photo to Dropbox.' IFTTT is very similar to Zapier, but Zapier is a little more focused on supporting business apps, while IFTTT is excellent for personal productivity and smart home hacks.
RescueTime
Free; $9 per month for Premium
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RescueTime does for your productivity what calorie-counting does for weight loss: It brings incredible attention and insight to your actual habits. RescueTime is a time-tracking tool that records the apps you use, websites you visit, and breaks you take while working. This wonderful app does more than just create self-awareness through its reports. It also helps you stay on track while you work, blocking distracting sites and apps when you need to focus, and quantifying your productivity goals, such as spend less than one hour per day in email. It's one of our personal favorite productivity tools, and we highly recommend every student and knowledge worker give it a try.
Stayfocusd
Free
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Stayfocusd is a browser extension that keeps you productive by blocking distracting websites while you're trying to work. You can set it to block distractions either for set times and dates that you choose (say, 9 to 5, Monday through Friday) or after a certain time limit (e.g., no more than 30 minutes of Facebook per day). It's an extremely simple and free browser extension. And sure, you could get around it by simply using a different browser, but it's still a great tool for helping you with your own self-discipline toward a more productive life.
Strict Workflow
Free
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Any Pomodoro fans out there? In the 1990s, a new method for working called the Pomodoro Technique had people everywhere buying kitchen timers shaped like tomatoes (hence the name) to time 25 minutes of work followed by a short break. With modern technology, of course, it's easier to just install a free browser plugin instead. Strict Workflow is the best one that's loosely based on the Pomodoro Technique. It can also block distracting websites while you're in a work phase. If you like to experiment with new methods of working more productively, snag this app for help.
Zapier
Free; from $20 per month for paid plans
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Zapier lets you create automations between apps and services you use, much the same way IFTTT does. For example, you can use Zapier to set up this kind of automation: 'Every time I write a new blog post on WordPress, save a copy of that document to Dropbox.' The beauty is that you don't need to know a lick of code to do it. Zapier differs from IFTTT in that it offers more connectivity among business apps (think Salesforce, JIRA, and the like), whereas IFTTT is better for personal use and smart home hacks. The two have plenty of overlap, however, and both are Editors' Choice productivity apps.
As Mac users, we’re spoiled when it comes to managing our tasks. There are several cross-platform and web-based task management tools we can use. But, even better, this is a category of apps that are well-represented by Apple developers. In fact, the options are plentiful enough that choosing just one productivity app to use is not easy. And for those of us who naturally focus more on process than outcomes, it can be downright debilitating to land on the best productivity app.
Managing Knowledge Work in 2019
There are a couple of factors to keep in mind when choosing the best productivity app for Apple users. First, thanks to the focus from development teams, this has been a competitive space. Teams like the OmniGroup and Cultured Code have taken turns making the product of choice for many app users, and we’ve all benefited from having more than one option.
Second, how knowledge workers manage their work has had a lot of attention. Since David Allen first published Getting Things Done in 2001, personal productivity became a household term. However, over the past 17 years, there have been numerous other types of “systems” and methods shared online. It turns out that not all knowledge workers care for GTD’s long list of lists and specific processes.
As a result, there are a lot of other styles of tools available to choose from today. Some folks make a case for ditching your task manager and using the calendar instead. Others swear that habits are more important than goals and projects. And no matter what system you use, Pomodoro timers can help maintain your focus and energy levels while you work.
And let’s not forget the resurgence of pen and paper — do you bujo?
Choosing a tool to meet your needs in 2019 requires a level of self-awareness about how you do your best work.
What We’re Looking for in a Task Manager
In many ways, our list of criteria has not changed much since 2014 when we first published our recommendation for this space. A task manager needs to be easy to get our ideas into, it should offer several organizational options, and it needs to be available on all our devices.
However, other considerations have melted into the background. Do we need to look for apps that offer syncing? It’s pretty much a solved problem now and implicit in all our favorite tools.
And although some of the newer alternatives to this space deserve a look, our recommendation will be limited to those tools that are genuinely focused on managing projects and tasks. Here are the criteria we considered in more detail.
- Easy input: no matter what productivity method you practice, getting tasks, reminders, and ideas into your system must be as smooth and frictionless as possible.
- Multiple types of work: a good task manager handles everything from large complex projects, to smaller projects, to single recurring tasks. While how you focus your time may be better suited to using a calendar, we still need a place to document all the required tasks for a specific goal.
- Various methods of view: the best task managers allow the user to configure a view of their tasks that fits their needs. This is a tricky one as we don’t want too much customization, lest we succumb to fiddling. Still, some flexibility is required.
- Flexible organization: not everyone needs tags or folders, but for those who do, it’s usually essential.
- The ability to document: this may be a factor that not all people consider, but documentation is a need in this space. Much of the work we do as knowledge workers requires some related information. If our task management tool allows us to include resources and commentary, that is a vital addition. Otherwise, we need to store all that information in another location.
- Aesthetics: while function is more critical, with two equally capable options, form can play an important factor. We want to want to use our tools!
Contenders for The Best Productivity App
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We considered the following productivity apps when coming up with our recommendation.
- OmniFocus (Mac/iOS): as our previous recommendation, the most powerful of all the GTD-esque Mac apps is at the top of our list. It continues to offer the highest level of customization and power features that many people find essential for their workflows.
- Things 3 (Mac/iPad/iPhone): now in version 3, this continues to be the most aesthetically pleasing task management app for Apple users. The recent redesign not only looks good, but it feels great as well. The subtle animations and clever keyboard navigation are top-notch.
- 2Do (Mac/iOS): another very solid and enjoyable option that is only for Apple users. Unlike other products, 2Do is developed and supported by a very small team. However, it sports a pleasing interface and offers a sweet spot for customization without being too fiddly.
- Todoist (Mac/iOS): the first cross-platform service included, Todoist is a very solid — and very popular — option. Although it started as a web-based service and is not focused solely on Apple users, its feature set and design are good enough that it makes the list.
To be sure, there are plenty of other options. The productivity category of the Mac App Store is full — ridiculously so — but there is a lot to sift through, and not all of it is high quality.
There are also plenty of web-based applications that may suit your needs best (see Asana, Basecamp, Flow, Remember The Milk, or Trello). Many of these are more focused on teams and less on personal productivity. We’re of the opinion that native apps offer the best experience overall. (That said, if one of the native apps offers a web version, we’d classify that as a “bonus” and not a caveat.)
Our Pick for Best Productivity and Task-Management App Is Things 3
After a lot of deliberation, our choice for the best GTD product for Apple users is Things from the team at Cultured Code. The launch of Things 3 in 2017 was a complete rebuild, and it is one of the most pleasing and satisfying pieces of software I’ve ever used. While not as customizable as some of the other options, Things is just so well-designed and hits enough of our criteria that it comes out as our top choice.
However, this is a difficult choice to make. There are really no wrong choices here. While Things is our choice as the best option, you cannot go wrong with any of the contenders. OmniFocus is still a powerful tool that may fit better for those with more complex needs (aka, “power users”). While not quite as powerful as OmniFocus, 2Do offers more flexibility and options than Things wrapped in a nice interface. And Todoist is a very solid option that works well with a team and gives a consistent experience across devices.
All that to say, whatever your preference, you’ll find a solution that fits for you, and Things 3 is the one we’d recommend before all others.
Let’s look at why.
Good Design
While aesthetics were at the bottom of our list of criteria, the look and feel of Things 3 is so good that I want to start there. To be clear, the design of this app goes far beyond how it looks.
Things has always been a pretty app, but Things 3 brought that aspect of being pleasing to another level. It still looks as sharp as can be, but it’s the feel that makes it stand out.
A lot of apps use animations to add cues to their interface; Things makes it buttery smooth. Animations are tricky. When done right, they can add context, give subtle hints about what is possible, and add delight. Done wrong, they scream “gimmick” and corrode the user’s trust. Cultured Code nailed the balance between subtlety, utility, and delight with the interactions included in the latest version of Things.
Things 3’s dark mode is one of the best dark modes available. You can select between a dark mode (which is more of an extremely dark grey mode — very soothing on the eyes at night) and a true black mode, designed specifically for the OLED displays on the latest iPhones. Usually I like true black themes (even on the iPad Pro), but Things’s regular dark mode is stunning.
When we talk about the design, we should also include the navigation of the app itself. Any good Mac app includes keyboard shortcuts that enable the user to be more efficient. Things 3 nails this as well.
Open the app and just start typing. Anywhere. Rather than force you to open the Quick Find modal, Things starts displaying search results when you type anywhere in the app that is not an input. Sure, Quick Find can be invoked with the standard CMD+F, but the designers of Things apparently ask the question of whether the user should have to take that step. Why not just show people what they need immediately?
It’s this kind of careful consideration that makes the experience what it is. A pleasure!
The rest of the application’s navigation is also good. One has to search to find a piece of functionality that is not available via the keyboard.
In fact, Things 3’s keyboard support — especially on the iPad — is trailblazing. You can navigate the entire iPad app with the keyboard — jumping in and out of tasks and their notes, moving between projects, searching for specific tasks, and jumping between your Inbox, Today, or Upcoming views. Plus, these keyboard shortcuts are uniform across both iPad and the Mac, meaning you don’t have to develop special muscle memory for each device you use. On many occasions, I’ve been left wishing Things’s keyboard shortcut support would become the default for all other apps I use on my iPad.
When it comes to design, there is one characteristic of Things that got my attention more than any other. That is…
Project Documentation
When I first gave Things 3 a look, this is the feature that sold me. A long time ago, Things was my first task management tool as a new Mac user, but with the slow development times at Cultured Code and a lack of sync support, I made a move to OmniFocus. For the better part of 5 years, I never gave Things any further consideration.
When I first tried Things 3, something clicked for me. I wrote about it in my initial review:
In all the services I’ve used over the years, there has been a gap between managing the actual tasks and the information that is required to work on those tasks. There always needed to be a secondary piece of software required. That might be apps like Yojimbo or Evernote or Ulysses, or it might be parts of the macOS (files/folders in Finder). Things 3 is the first tool that made me think there was a chance I could handle it all in one place.
And indeed, a project in Things feels very much like a blank document rather than a rigid checklist. There is space for notes and reference information that does not feel like a simple free-form text field that is a second-class citizen in the apps UI.
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Easy Input
Things, as well as many of the apps in this space, do a good job of making it easy to get stuff into it. Using the Quick Entry dialog, you can quickly type a (customizable) shortcut and enter in a new task. Most task management apps offer this feature, but what I like about Things is, again, the usability. The form includes all the necessary fields, while also including excellent support for using just the keyboard.
Even better, with the Things Helper, you can create tasks from a currently selected item in other apps. Using this, Things will include a link back to the original item. Using one master inbox for all your inputs becomes a lot more feasible with this type of functionality.
On iPhone and iPad, Things is increasingly supported by other third-party apps thanks to its behind-the-scenes URL scheme. Our favorite email app for the Mac (and increasingly for iPhone and iPad as well) plays nicely with Things; inside Spark, you can simply swipe an email in your email list to send the entire email message (or just a link) to your Things inbox so you can act on the email as though it were a task.
The Structure of Your Life
One of the aspects of Things that has always been important is how it structures the tasks that make up your life. At the highest level, it uses GTD’s Areas of Responsibility. That allows you to structure your projects, tasks, and checklists according to the various roles you play (project managers, designers, and accountants, but parents, volunteers, coaches as well).
It’s possible to set up a similar structure in other task management tools, but I’ve always appreciated the treatment given to areas in Things. It even gets its own icon!
This approach to the foundational structure in Things makes it easy to focus on one area at a time. So if you’re at work and don’t care to see your chores around the house, you can view a specific area with all its contained projects and miscellaneous tasks.
Further down the structure, each project is also given a nice visual treatment. Again, this concept of a blank document works well. A project can include notes at the top of the “document,” and then you can include its tasks, sub-tasks, and headings.
This allows you to include any background information or reference materials required at the top of the project. From there, you create the tasks required to complete the project. If your project has specific categories of tasks or is broken into segments, Things lets you create headers to add structure to the project itself.
Further, each task can include notes or documentation, and tasks can be recurring or include a checklist. Add it all up, and you get this beautiful document of what needs to be done. You can set this view up to sit on the side of your screen as you plug away.
A Wrinkle In Time
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Another aspect of Things 3 that I admire is the consideration of how to use time. Yes, you can assign a due date for tasks or projects, but you can also specify a time when you want to work on your tasks (but they are not necessarily due). This is how you add items to Today.
What’s great here is that this separates intention from deadlines.
This implementation in Things is very well thought out. If I have a task I want to complete tomorrow, I set that value in the task itself (all from the keyboard, mind you).
But, if a fire breaks out tomorrow and I’m unable to get to this task, it simply rolls over to the next day. Most other task managers would treat this as an overdue item and give you a glaring read badge. Things just shrugs its shoulders and lets you get to it when you’re ready.
This is a far friendlier way of allowing you to address intention when managing your tasks. Due dates are still there for when needed. For me, hard due dates are rare, so the more relaxed approach to time in Things is welcome.
Tags
Most task managers give you the option to use tags. In 2017, tags feel a little like Linux — we’re always waiting for them to get the attention they deserve. Yet I (and believe many other Apple users) never seem to get around to using them. Not in the file system, and not in my main applications.
However, I really like the way Things handles tags. Of course, adding a tag to a task or project is quite easy (like OmniFocus and our other contenders), but it’s the treatment of tags in the structure of Things that works so well.
The basic structure of Things is as mentioned above. You create high-level Areas of Responsibility or high-level projects to Things. From there, areas can include multiple projects and tasks. In this way, Things operates a lot like folders on your file system.
Tags are how you can view tasks across the different areas and projects in your life. You can view any given tag by using the high-level keyboard-based navigation. Simply start typing the name of a tag and then select it from the search modal. The result is a view that looks like a project.
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Except it can include tasks that are located in different projects, grouped by area. Since there is little ability to create custom views in Things (more on that below), this ability to view tags allows you the most flexibility. You can even filter your list of tagged tasks by other tags. So meta.
What Could Improve
Things is not perfect, and it’s not for everybody. Compared to some of the other options, a lot of people will find it too rigid. Whereas a tool like OmniFocus allows you to configure things in a myriad of ways, Things only gives you a minimal set of options.
Nowhere is this more apparent than creating custom views. Where OmniFocus or 2Do allow you to build highly customized and specific views for your tasks, Things has almost no options at all. If you like to focus on one day at a time, the Today view is a good option. But if you want to look at all items set for Today that only apply to your job, then you’ll have to use tags in order show / hide sets of tasks.
The same is true for viewing an entire area of your life. If you view an area that includes projects and single tasks, you cannot see all the tasks for the entire area. All tasks for a specific project can only be viewed by clicking into the project itself. Once you do that, you’re down a level and lose the high-level view.
Apart from the lack of customization (which, I should add, some people would see as a positive feature), there are a few other missing features in Things. First, the lack of Markdown support or any other formatting is a bummer. The way Things treats your projects like a document is one of the biggest attractions of this app, so it’s surprising that there are no options for writing more readable content. How much more useful would the notes be if you could add headers, bold or italicize text, or even include file attachments? The best option I’m aware of is to use an app like Bear to store note attachments for each of your tasks.
As well, other apps in this category provide options that some folks will not want to be without:
- Tasks in an area or project are not connected to one another and there is no option to make them sequential: you tackle one at a time in any order. For projects that require tasks be completed in a specific order, this can be problematic (especially for teams).
- On that last note, there are no collaboration features of any kind. It’s task management for individuals.
- Again, there is no ability to attach a file to a task. Things does support URL schemes for macOS and iOS, but that usage must also be supported by the external app. So Mail.app will provide a link, but Ulysses does not. Files in Finder will include a link, but if that file is moved, the link is not updated. So the usage here is limited.
- Things does not support located-based features, such as reminders.
All things considered, these are small items that do not take away enough from Things. It’s the most enjoyable way for Apple users to manage their work. Period.
iPhone and iPad Apps
One last item to mention is the different versions of the product. Apple users in 2017 are people using more than one device. How does Things shape up on an iPad or iPhone compared to the desktop? That’s an important question to answer because of the multi-device reality of our day.
Personally, I downsized to two devices over the last three years. Where I used to use all three options, I currently only use a phone and a laptop. And in my usage, Things is perfect. Where the desktop app allows me to see what I need as I go through my day and throw new stuff into the inbox for later processing, the iPhone app is a wonderful experience for planning.
My morning or evening quiet times start with meditation and prayer but often end in review and planning. Things on my phone gives me a very nice view using Areas, Projects, and tags. And where the keyboard navigation is spot on in macOS, the touch-based navigation (and accompanying animations) on iOS are just as good. And so too is the support for drag and drop. Things is above all else a very smooth feeling app.
Drag and drop in Things for iPad works a bit differently than in OmniFocus for iPad. OmniFocus was one of the first iPad apps to support drag and drop, where you could drag multiple lines of text in from a notes app like Bear and each line becomes its own task. Things, however, takes the dragged text and inserts the text as a note inside a new task.
Which method you prefer will really depend on how you work. It’s very easy to create project templates for OmniFocus that can be dragged and dropped in — simply type out each task as a new line inside a text document and save that document somewhere accessible on your iPad. Then, drag in your tasks and you have a pre-determined list of tasks.
Things requires an extra step to create a task using drag and drop on the iPad, but the app assumes you’re bringing in background information from a different app and want to summarize that information as the task name. For those looking to use Things as an increasingly complex task manager, this may be the superior form of drag and drop implementation.
Runner-Up: OmniFocus
As part of the upgrade to version 3, OmniFocus 3 has changed in many ways — and for the better. If you were using version 2, there have been very few changes that would force you to change your workflows and setups, but many ways you could likely enhance them. For those new to OmniFocus 3, it is the same, extremely powerful, task manager with even more flexibility than before.
Capture
OmniFocus has many ways to capture tasks — from quick entry and services on the Mac, to the share sheet and 3D Touch on iOS — and of course you can use AppleScript, URL Schemes, and Shortcuts too. Naturally, there are also buttons to add new (inbox) tasks inside the app. With the customizable inspector on iOS, you can really set it up to meet your needs. OmniFocus is also integrated into many other apps, which means you can easily capture from a whole host of applications including Drafts, Airmail, Spark, and more! On the Mac, OmniFocus has a powerful quick capture window, allowing you to add one or more tasks, along with tags, dates, notes, and projects as you get on with your work.
Structure
OmniFocus will let you configure your system however you like. You can keep it simple with just a few projects as lists, or make it more granular with folders and setting your projects to parallel, sequential, or single action. One feature that sets OmniFocus apart from other task managers is infinite depth. A project contains actions, but by adding sub-tasks to those (which can also contain sub tasks, and so on) you can create a very complex hierarchy of tasks should you need it.
Tags
One of the headline features for OmniFocus 3 is tags. Every task and project can have an unlimited number of tags assigned to it, giving you a very flexible way to view your tasks as needed. Tags can also have a status such as on hold, which is ideal for a dependent task, or dropped if those tasks should all disappear. Tags can also be nested so you can have People as a main tag and Josh, David, and Michaela inside of People if you want. Tags are useful on their own by letting you see all the things you’re waiting on, or all the things Josh is tagged on, but you can combine this and more with custom perspectives.
Perspectives
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Hand in hand with the tags comes perspectives. After all, what good does it do to categorize your tasks if you can’t find them? Custom perspectives are a pro feature in OmniFocus, but they’re most definitely worth it. You can craft a series of rules and nest them if necessary. This lets you view a list of all of your available projects ordered by due date, or tasks tagged with errand but not supermarket. You can also set custom icons and colors for each perspective, allowing you to represent your tasks in an iconic fashion. As perspectives can be starred to show in the sidebar on macOS, or added to the toolbar, these icons make sense. On iOS, the perspectives are shown in the home area of the app, so they’re at most one long press on the back button away from wherever you are in the app.
Notifications
Notifications are an important part of every task management system, and OmniFocus has lots of choices for notifications. You can set it to notify you by default for all defer dates and/or due dates of tasks, and also modify these on a per task basis. On top of this, for each task you can add extra notifications such as Latest Start, so if you have an estimated time set for a task it will notify you that amount of time before the due date to get it done. You can add notifications relative to the due date of a task, so if you want a heads up two days before something is due you can have that happen without needing to set a fake due date — and if you use this with a repeating task, those notifications will repeat with each instance of it.
The last option is for completely custom notifications at fixed times and dates. This is extremely useful for projects that have a due date far enough away in the future where you might forget about it, and you want a reminder to work on a particular action on a specific date without setting a fake due date. While you can use notifications at specific dates and times on repeating tasks or projects, they will disappear in the next repeat.
Review
Review is ingrained into Getting Things Done with the idea being that you should review all of your active projects on a regular basis, typically weekly. OmniFocus has the review feature built in, and by default projects come up for review weekly. Review doesn’t have notifications nor does it prod you or force you to do it, so if you don’t need review you can ignore it entirely. On the Mac, you just see a little colored stripe next to the review perspective in the sidebar if one or more project is due for review, and on iOS you see how many items are in the Review perspective. On the Mac, you can un-star it to remove it from the sidebar, and on iOS you can move it right to the bottom of all of your other perspectives.
Reviewing a project is simple. You’re presented with the whole project and all remaining actions. At this point you can add any other actions that come to mind, complete any you have done, and delete those you won’t do — as well as add or modify due and defer dates and tags. From the project inspector, both in the review mode and everywhere else, you can modify the review frequency. This means for some projects you can set them to come up once a year for review, others once a month, and some even as often as every day. Once you’ve completed your review, you mark the project as reviewed, and it will disappear from the review section until the next time it should show up.
You can also use the pro feature, Focus, on the Mac to restrict what you see in the review section. This is really useful for those of us who like to use one system to manage both personal and professional obligations. You can select folders, or a range of projects, focus on them, then go to the review section and only the subset of that selection which is eligible for review will appear.
Aesthetics
Looks aren’t everything, and, perhaps more importantly, what makes an app look good varies from person to person. I am not a fan of massive amounts of whitespace in a productivity app. I prefer to have as many tasks, projects, and other information displayed as possible. I feel that OmniFocus strikes a nice balance between showing you all of the information you need, whilst not overwhelming you.
With version 3, OmniGroup removed the fiddly custom theming in favor of being able to offer light and dark themes that can switch automatically with the system colors on macOS Mojave. Inside of the light theme, you can also choose to have a dark sidebar, which naturally focuses your eyes on the tasks in the outline area. There are two sections of the sidebar: the perspective icons that are always visible (and you can choose which perspectives, including the defaults, to show) and the second area offers more information, such as lists of projects, tasks, or a calendar view in Forecast. If you choose, you can collapse the sidebar. In the center, you have the outline view, where your folders, projects, and tasks are shown. Pro licence owners can set this to show these items with either column view or the default fluid view which is reminiscent of iOS. On the right, you have the inspector, which allows you to edit whichever items you have selected.
OmniFocus for iOS looks somewhat different depending on if you’re using an iPhone or iPad. The former is limited to a single view at a time — be that the home menu, the outline, or the inspector. On iPad, you can see all three at once in full-screen landscape mode, or unpin the menu and the inspector if you want just the outline view with your tasks and projects.
Other Options for Consideration
If you just need a place to store your projects and tasks, but want a little more customization than Things offers, there are a few other options to check out as well.
Todoist
Todoist is a major player in the GTD arena and is the only major player to be available on macOS, Windows, iOS, Chrome, and Android. Todoist is one of the fastest GTD apps as well, as it includes natural language parsing for quick input of tasks. Todoist has been designed to work with many automation and integration services, including (but not limited to) Dropbox, Google Maps, Workflow, Zapier, a range of email clients, and 1Password. And lastly, we love how the Karma system works to keep you motivated and completing tasks throughout the year (not to mention the incredible report Todoist generates and sends you when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st).
Where we feel Todoist falls short is in its design and its differing approach to making your GTD list feel more human. Todoist doesn’t offer the same design chops as Things 3, nor does it provide a view of your calendar. Further, Todoist uses differing levels of priorities to differentiate tasks, while Things chooses to split your tasks into “Today” and “Evening” groups instead. While you can emulate these views in Todoist through the use of custom filters, it’s not nearly as intuitive as the beautiful execution in Things.
2Do
Like Things, 2Do sports a more pleasing interface than OmniFocus or Todoist. But where Things is more simplistic and includes carefully considered constraints, 2Do offers the ability to tweak what you see in the app and how you use it. It’s similar to OmniFocus in that regard, but with a nicer looking UI. If OmniFocus is the second choice for the power users, 2Do is the second best choice for everyone else.
Conclusion
Sometimes I imagine going back in time to visit the 2007 version of myself and showing off the task management software of 2019. What a stark difference!
No matter your method of productivity, Apple users can find a service that fits their tastes. Things is currently the best of the bunch and we’re happy to recommend it. Two or three years from now? Who knows, but we’re looking forward to seeing what the amazing community of developers can do by then.