In today’s world of smartphones and innovative technology, any information and convenience is literally right at our fingertips in a matter of nanoseconds. So why are we more stressed out than ever? Gadgets and phone apps are basically designed to make our lives easier, and yet it seems that nothing actually helps us be more efficient and productive.
Maybe you’re spending too much time on social media apps like Instagram and Vine and not utilizing enough resourceful ones . Here are 5 gadgets/apps that, although won’t complete negate your stress, should help to reduce it:
Freedom and Anti-Social
By decreasing the level of your social media activity, you exponentially increase the level of your productivity. What a concept! But we’re all guilty of scrolling mindlessly through Facebook, promising that we’ll only be on there for 5 minutes, and then we look at the clock and five hours has passed. We all want to exercise better self-control and discipline, but we just can’t seem to stop obsessing over Hot Popular Girl’s party pics from last weekend or Cute Guy from Accounting’s cryptic status updates. Thankfully, Freedom and Anti-Social provide exactly what their names entail: freedom from the Internet and anti-sociability from social media websites. Freedom completely disables your Internet for a designated period of time, while Anti-Social blocks your access to social-media websites. Freedom costs $10 and Anti-Social is $15, but those are low prices to pay to gain back hours of your life and productivity.
Evernote
Step aside, Microsoft Word–there’s a better note-taking app in town that’s just as clean and user-friendly, and best of all? It’s free. Evernote organizes your notes neatly into notebooks and has the format of an email, but with all the benefits of any other word processor. You can record notes, post pictures, and export any notes. Best of all, you can sync your notes so that if you have Evernote on another device, you can access your current notes from either at any time.
Uber
Whatever doubts you may have about a car service app, discard them now. Uber is the greatest app to happen to anyone living in a large city that has to deal with public transportation. At one push of a button, a driver is at your location in under 5 minutes in a nice, safe, spacious and clean car. Your credit card is linked to your account so you never have to worry about fumbling for cash or praying that the taxi driver takes debit. The rides are also a little pricier, but well worth the dough. Best of all, Uber frequently offers promo codes that means free rides for you. It’s free to download, and simply requires your Credit card.
RE.minder
RE.minder is another great app to have handy on a device: if you couldn’t tell from its name, it literally sends reminder alerts about anything you tell yourself you have to remember. Afraid you’ll forget to pick up something later? Type it into RE.minder the night before or morning of, and it will alert you at a certain time before you have to do it. As Julien Smith of InOverYourHead.net states, “do not rely on your own brain for memory.” RE.minder will give your memory a break and simply let you know that you have to do something, when you have to do it.
Join.Me
This is one of the coolest apps for young students and/or professionals. It is a meeting app that allows all members in the meeting to see the host’s computer screen, and “phone in” like a Skype call to chat, and also allows private/public chat boxes between the members. It is a great way to conduct a meeting for people who are in different locations and works well on an iPad or a computer.
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Marilyn
December 17, 2013 at 5:35 pm
Hi Lori, Great list, but I’m surprised that you didn’t include a personal information manager or planner app in your list. I’d like to introduce you to our app, LifeTopix. It allows you to manage a wide variety of items in your life — notes, tasks, projects, events, appointments, reminders, fitness, health, etc. — all in one app, which eliminates the need to hop from app to app. It also works with your recommendation, Evernote. You can learn more at our website: http://www.lightarrow.com. Cheers!