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| Photo credit: https://pixabay.com |
“Is it going to rain tomorrow, Siri?” my husband asks. Siri answers, “It doesn’t look like it will rain tomorrow, Hester.”
Sometimes, my husband would play with Siri and he would ask, “Siri, am I handsome?” And Siri would answer,
“I suppose so. For a human.” Or he would ask, “What’s my name, Siri?” And she would answer in her haughtiest voice, “Hester, or that’s what you told me!”
Siri, the Apple virtual assistant, is quite literally that—a personal assistant (well, as long as she understands your English!). She can email for you, text for you, search a place for you, and so many other things. She can even remind you of your appointment!
Siri makes life more convenient and productive for us who use technology. In the same manner, applications (apps), which are downloadable to your iPhone or Android device, makes day-to-day life easier to manage and enables us to produce more out of it. I’d like to share with you some apps that I have found to be of great help:
1. Todoist (https://todoist.com/).
I personally use Todoist for my to-do list. I find it helpful as it even emails me every day on the tasks that I need to accomplish. It integrates well with Gmail as you can download an extension of Todoist in Gmail and you can input all the things you need to do the next day or the next month in your email rather than going to your phone to do it. Then when you’re on the move, you can check your mobile and the same items will be there.
2. Evernote (https://evernote.com/).
Evernote is so helpful because it is the all-around app for me while on the go. I see a recipe leaflet on the supermarket that I hope to use one day. I take a shot of the leaflet on Evernote, file it under my recipe category and it is there for me to return to one day when I’m about to cook. My family is going on holiday to a new place and I read up on several tourist places to see there. I just cut the passages that I like and paste it to Evernote. Then I’m good to go and I don’t have to look to the web when we are on the road. I just check my Evernote. What’s more I can also write on Evernote. I can even coordinate a project with other people through the app.
3. Another app that I find helpful is Tiny Scanner.
You know how it is when you need to file something and wish you have a scanner with you so you can store the document? That is exactly what Tiny Scanner does. It turns your Smartphone into a mini scanner for documents, photos, receipts and other texts then store or email them as PDF files. The good thing about this app is it gives you a choice what size you want to scale the picture you took. You can scale the scanned item into Letter, A4, Legal, A3, A5 or card size (85mm x 55mm). Once you’ve cropped the file into the size that you want, you can then store them. It is a really nifty app to have on your phone.
4. One app that helps in making me productive while surfing the web is Pocket (https:// getpocket.com/).
When I’m researching for an article, I save all the sites I want to read in Pocket and tag them, then when it’s time to do the actual reading, I go back to them. If you have nothing to do, you’re waiting for a ride or for your doctor, or you remember you want to check on that list of must-read books from a website, then you can just go to Pocket.
5. For me and my husband, the You Need a Budget or YNAB app (http://www.youneedabudget.com/) is something we swear to when it comes to budgeting. You pay a certain amount (USD50/year) for it, but it is so worth it. You can test it for 34 days so you can check it out.
I have been budgeting since I was a teenager, and even went through a period when I used a columnar notebook. The good thing about the new YNAB is it is cloud-based. Wherever you are, as long as you have Internet connection, you can input your income or expense. This means you know all the time if you are over your budget or not. In YNAB, you can also set a goal for a specific category and the app will show you what percentage you are to your goal.
The special thing about YNAB are its four simple rules: 1) Give every dollar— or peso, or whatever denomination you’re using—a job; 2) Save for a rainy day; 3) Roll with the punches; and 4) Live on last month’s income.
YNAB really helps us keep to our weekly, monthly and yearly financial goals.
There it is, five apps towards a more productive day! I hope one or two of these will be of help to you. For sure there are so many apps and programs out there. Use what works best for you and make the most out of your day by using them.
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