How many times have you grumbled to yourself, “There just aren’t enough hours in the day!?” If you’re like every other human being out there, you probably mutter this soliloquy at your desk a few times a week.
While we can’t make the days grow longer and cut down on your to-do’s, we can suggest some really cool, free apps that can make your life a bit easier to manage. Forgot to pay your phone bill? Lost your password? Accidentally ignore that important work email? Well, there are apps for that.
Here are 10 of our favorite apps to simplify your daily life.
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Remember the Milk: First of all, how cute is that name? When you're married to a British guy with a slightly disturbing addiction to tea and biscuits, you can NEVER, EVER forget the milk! Remember the Milk helps you do just that: remember the milk, to pick up your kid from practice, call to make a hair appointment, and so forth.
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Key Ring: Is your keychain or wallet weighed down with reward cards and gift cards? Key Ring allows you to scan in all of your rewards and gift cards in your phone rather than toting them around in your wallet or purse. If you have a membership to a gym or other business, you can scan that card into the app, too.
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Evernote: Evernote is the be-all and end-all of apps. Evernote lets you record conversations, keep notes, store ideas and more. Plus, it synchronizes with most other smart devices and works with a ton of other apps.
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Unroll Me and Mailbox: We don’t know about y’all, but our personal emails quickly clog up with discounts for this and updates for that. Then there are all the newsletters you subscribe to but you just instantly hit delete. What about the emails you receive while on the go and just can’t respond to them right away? Unroll Me combines all your frequent emails, like social media notification emails, newsletters, and emails about sales at your favorite stores, into one daily digest. To better organize your emails and prioritize them, we like Mailbox. With the swipe of your finger, you can place a “snooze” on messages that don’t demand an immediate response, and they will automatically reappear in your inbox later. It also integrates with the Dropbox app.
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Check: This award-winning financial app offers easy bill and account management. It links all your accounts, credit cards, bills, and subscriptions together. What’s so awesome about it is that you can pay all your bills from this one platform. It’s just like pressing the Easy Button.
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Waze: Waze has been around for a while, but I just discovered this past weekend. When driving back to Amarillo from Louisiana, I usually bypass Dallas to avoid traffic jams. Well, not this time. Google Maps rerouted me and took me right through downtown Dallas to avoid wrecks and heavy traffic. Waze, which integrates with Google Maps, detects wrecks and congestion. Waze users can kindly inform motorists of accidents, speed traps, construction, and more in real-time, giving other drivers the option to change routes.
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Trello: I don’t know what ROI Online would do without Trello. Based on the Japanese Kanban method, this task management tool utilizes virtual cards you can move, delete, and archive. Its lists have lists that you can use for to-do’s, tasks, assignments, etc. You can also share the cards, add users, and have notifications sent to you. It's also super convenient for planning events like weddings with tons of details and deadlines.
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Pocket: Originally called Read it Later, Pocket saves articles, videos, and other web content to read, well, later. You can access Pocket on any device, and you don’t even need an internet connection to catch up on your reading.
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RedLaser: For bargain shoppers, you can’t beat RedLaser. Scan a product’s barcode from the store (or search) and the comparison shopping app will search a database of millions of stores and products to help you find the best prices, coupons, and more.
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Dashlane: Does anyone else struggle to remember all their passwords? You can’t just use your childhood pet’s name and your birthday month for all your accounts anymore. Passwords must be complex, unique, and strong in order to best protect yourself from identity theft. And, you really should change them on a regular basis. So, how the heck are you supposed to keep up with all the random characters and acronyms you came up with months ago? Enter a password manager. Dashlane is one of the best. For the ultimate security, it uses AES-256 encryption, which encrypts data from your master password, and you have the option of adding a two-factor authentication.
There are millions of apps available. As of Sept. 2014, there are 1,300,00 apps available in the iTunes store, and more are developed every day (just 800 existed in July 2008). With so many similar apps on the market, it’s difficult to determine which is the best. But know that you don’t have to dole out a whopping $.99 to get a good one. As you can see, there are so many amazing, free apps out there that can help you better delegate your daily tasks and organize your life.
