Productivity apps that transforms your life (part-2)

Chapter 3

Other Quirky Productivity Apps to Check Out

If you love gaming or are easily bored, here's some good news for you: you can now up your efficiency with gamified productivity apps!

Gamification looks to become the latest trend in the realm of productivity apps, with more and more of them coming out almost every day. If you find traditional organization apps and to-do lists tedious and boring, a gamified app is ideal for you.

Here are three innovative and quirky apps that will add a bit of fun to your daily routine while still helping you work more productively.

Epic Win

This is one aptly-named app. It is truly epic. Never have to-do lists been easier and more fun to get through! This app will actually get you excited about working hard and well.

How it works: You get to play with a character that you can level up as you complete tasks on your to-do list. Your goal is to battle the evil forces of unproductivity by finishing tasks quickly and efficiently.

With each task you finish, the app announces your glorious victory with fanfare and some great graphics and sound effects.

Special features: The most appealing feature has got to be the awesome graphics and sound effects.

Price: $2.99

Smarty Pig Finance App

This is an app that helps you be more efficient in your finances. This innovative tool helps you organize and achieve your personal finance goals.

How it works: The user specifies an item that they want to save up for. This becomes the "savings goal". The app automatically deducts an amount of money from their bank account each month and places it in the "piggy bank".

Users can see the progress bar as they move towards having enough savings to buy the item. It's a simple and fun way to save. You simply set your goal and forget it, letting the app manage the savings process for you.

Doable

If you are a statistics geek, this app is a must-have. Rather than gameplay, you get to interact with stats.

Doable is an engaging productivity tracker that gives you stats about your performance as you are doing a certain task, allowing you to strive harder to break your personal record.

How it works: Users input a specific goal and the tasks they need to do to complete the goal. Doable will start tracking your performance and tell you how you did on each task of the goal.

Special features: The app will help you prioritize tasks based on which ones you are late on.

Price: $0.99

Habit RPG

This app is a dream come true for RPG addicts. It helps build good productivity habits while the user engages in fantasy world gameplay.

How it works: The user chooses and customizes one of the available "smart task lists" that are designed to enforce better working habits.

Each time you complete a task, you are rewarded with coins, points and magic items that you can use to build up your character.

Special features: You get to customize your character's look and equip it with items you have won or bought. You also get to engage in a variety of fun quests.

The best feature is the Habits List where you get to develop small productivity habits and get rewards and benefits when you have mastered them.

Price: This computer app is free with ads. The ad-free version costs $5 per month

Let's be honest. We can all do with a little fun when we're working hard. If these types of apps resonate with you, google them for more details or search for other types of gamified apps.

 Chapter 4
Proven Productivity Tips That Work Great with Apps

Productivity apps will make your life a lot easier but they are not miracle cures for everything. Consider the following productivity tips that along with a productivity app can really make a difference in your efficiency.

Avoid The Cold

A study conducted at Cornell University found that employees who worked in a cold environment were less productive. Simply put, when you’re cold, your productivity drops along with the temperature.

If you work at home, simply make sure the temperature is warm enough when you are doing important tasks. In an office where you have no control over the thermostat, consider a small portable heater that you can place near your desk.

Frankly, we didn’t really need a study to tell us that nobody can be very productive with icy fingers and toes!

Create A Counterintuitive Goal

Let's say you're a real estate agent. Simply set yourself an unrealistic goal, such as making a sale on every single lead you get this month. In the normal world, that's near-impossible – but it can actually make you more productive!

Research has shown that counterintuitive goal-setting actually motivates your brain to achieve the goal, impossible as it may be. In the process, your brain focuses harder and tries to come up with innovative ideas to help you achieve your goal.

Amazingly, you will become more efficient, focused and productive because your brain perceives that it is helping you work towards your impossible goal.

Be Prepared For Interruptions

Interruptions and distractions are a part of life. The key is to expect them and work around them as calmly and efficiently as you can.

Creating a mini-crisis or drama will just make things more chaotic. Just work around interruptions as best you can and learn to be a little flexible.

Plants Boost Productivity

Studies have shown that people who have a green plant or two in their workspace tend to get less stressed and have better overall wellbeing. If you don’t already have a plant in your office, consider buying one to test this theory. Just make sure the plant is low-maintenance.

Don’t Multitask

Our brains are not super-computers, nor does multitasking necessarily mean we are more productive. It has been scientifically proven that when we focus on one thing, we do it better - it's just sheer common sense as well. It's no surprise then, that studies show that multitasking actually hinders productivity.

Focusing completely on just one task at a time will ensure that you do it better and decreases the likelihood of having to repeat it. This is the case for being more productive by doing less!

Schedule "Dreaded" Tasks Early In The Day

Whatever the nature of our work, we all have those dreaded tasks that can't be avoided. However, what many of us do is put them off as much as we can – as if they're going to go away!

Get those tasks done and out of the way as early as possible. Ideally, they should be the first thing that you do in the morning when your energy and focus are at their peak.

Try this and see how relieved and liberated you will feel. Now, you can whizz through the rest of your day more productively rather than dragging your feet to avoid the dreaded work.

Learn To Say No

This is one of the biggest stressbusters and productivity boosters there is. Teach yourself to firmly and politely decline to take on work or engage in activities you know you don’t have time for. If you take on more than you can chew because you are too embarrassed to say no, don’t expect your productivity to be anything but mediocre – and your stress levels to soar.

Conclusion

In today's world, the majority of us are digitally savvy to some degree. It makes sense to make use of what the latest technology has to offer if we want to become more productive.

Productivity apps are one of those innovative solutions – and there is one out there for every need and niche.

Short of actually doing your work for you, a productivity app can help you with almost everything else. It can organize your schedule, remind you of important meetings and events, help you manage projects, make customized to-do lists and much more. Scanning documents, sharing work and managing email has never been easier.

Consider trying some of the apps recommended in this articles. Most of them are free or cost next to nothing so you've got nothing to lose – but so much to gain.

So, what does the future hold? More innovative, specialized and customized productivity apps. And who knows? We might actually see a productivity app that helps manage all your other productivity apps!