Best Productivity Apps

When your schedule’s packed, focus can’t be left to chance. The right productivity apps act like an external brain—keeping projects on track, priorities clear, and distractions at bay.

Things

Things is a beautifully designed task manager built for the Apple ecosystem—Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Its clean interface and thoughtful structure make it easy to stay organized without clutter.

• Today & This Evening highlight your most pressing tasks so you always know what to tackle next.
• Upcoming gives a clear week-ahead view, helping you plan without overwhelm.
• Headings let you break large projects into manageable sections.
• Checklists capture the finer details within a task, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
• Magic Plus makes adding new to-dos intuitive from anywhere in the app.
• Quick Find instantly brings you to any to-do you’re searching for
• Many more features can be found in this list!

Notion

Notion functions as an all-in-one hub that brings your team’s knowledge, projects, and documents together in a single, flexible space. Designed for remote work, it emphasizes clarity and long-term knowledge retention—something most chat-based tools can’t offer.

• Replaces multiple tools by combining team wikis, project management boards, and shared documents in one place.
• Long-term memory solves the problem of losing important info in Slack’s message history.
• Embeds your team’s existing tools, creating a seamless workspace without forcing everyone to switch platforms.
• Links multiple databases, making it easy to connect information across projects and keep everything in sync.

Toggl

Toggl is made up of three different programs. Each one aims to streamline a different business process.

• Toggl Plan – Project planning made straightforward.
  Manage projects, plan team workloads, and organize tasks through a clean, intuitive interface.
• Toggl Track – Accurate, cross-platform time tracking.
  Break down hours by project, client, or task, and keep everything synced across devices.
• Toggl Hire – Smarter candidate screening.
  Use the Smart Test feature to filter applicants early, automatically screen by score or tags, and get analytics to refine your hiring process.

Asana

Asana is a flexible, team-oriented platform built to keep projects moving smoothly. It’s well suited for distributed teams, offering a clear structure for organizing tasks, tracking progress, and keeping communication aligned without getting lost in endless email threads.

Key features:

• Task and project tracking with customizable views (list, board, timeline, calendar)
• Automations that handle repetitive steps, freeing teams to focus on higher-value work
• Integrations with tools like Slack, Google Workspace, and Zoom to centralize workflows
• Reporting dashboards for real-time visibility into progress and potential roadblocks

Forest

If you struggle to stay off your phone while working, Forest turns focus into a simple game. Start a timer and “plant a seed.” As you work distraction-free, the seed grows into a tree. Leave the app early, and the tree withers.

It’s a lightweight, visual way to build better focus habits. Plus, through a partnership with Trees for the Future, your in-app activity contributes to planting real trees—adding an environmental incentive to staying on task.

Freedom

Freedom is a powerful website and app blocker that works across Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and Chrome. It lets you block distractions for set periods of time—on one device or all of them at once—so you can focus without interruptions creeping in.

Choosing the Right Tool

Each productivity app serves a different work style. Some emphasize structure and planning, others focus on time tracking, collaboration, or blocking distractions. Most are affordable—or even free—so it’s worth experimenting to find the mix that fits your workflow best.