Jan. 12, 2021

Top 10 Apps To Keep You Productive Working From Home

#019 - Sometimes, there are more distractions working at home than there are at the office. From non-stop notifications to being right next to your own refrigerator, we need to be intentional with getting work down effectively.

In this episode, we share the top 10 apps we use every day to stay productive at home when working and with family.

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Transcript
Daniel Norton:

Well, it's January 12. Have you failed your New Year's resolution already?

Amanda Norton:

Maybe,

Daniel Norton:

right, if we even made one? Well, I think one thing we can agree on, though, is we would all like to be more productive this year.

Amanda Norton:

Yeah, definitely. Especially if we're going to be home a lot with the pandemic and everything still going on. So

Daniel Norton:

right, likelihood is that everyone's still going to be working from home. I might we're both permanently working from home. Yeah, you know, as far as we can see, but what apps are out there that can help us be productive. And there's a lot, right. So in this episode, we're going to share with you our 10 favorite apps, including a bonus of what keeps us the most productive, especially over this year. Yeah.

Amanda Norton:

So let's get into the episode.

Bumper:

Welcome to working home parents helping you find stability between client calls, and potty training, because we're all figuring this out as we go. And now, your hosts, Amanda and Dan Norton.

Amanda Norton:

So you already know what I'm gonna say, because it's my favorite list that I use every single day. The any list app,

Daniel Norton:

I feel like we mentioned this in like every other

Amanda Norton:

Yeah, I think we're gonna have to start reaching out to get sponsored. I love this any list app, it is something I use daily, like I always mention, one of the things that I'm going to start doing is making a list of chores that I need to complete on this app daily, so that I'm not overwhelmed throughout the week, and I have a little bit of better order in my life with when things can get done. So that's how you could use the app is if you want to get chores done if you want to put your shopping list on there. Your list to get gifts for people. So and we have an even by store we have Okay, when we go to Kinko's, when we get these items, when we go to stop and shop, we get these items. And so you can list every single store that you go to on a regular basis. And you can just document what what apps you want. And you can just write down what items you need from those stores. Because sometimes you go to different stores for different things. So why not have a specific list with that store name, and the items that you usually get there?

Daniel Norton:

Yeah, that's helpful too, because we we paid for the premium, which gives us the family the the family version of it so that we can both share a list. Yes. And that makes it really easy because he could cross it off. So like Amanda can add the, you know, anything that's on the you know, that we need that I would note add, but then I could cross it off from shopping and vice versa. We do it a lot while we're at the stores to like if I'm out shopping, or you're out shopping, and I'm home and I'm like, like we're missing syrup. Like in the moment, we can I can add it to the list without having to like call you and tell you hey, I just added like, it's just added to the list. And it's there, you don't have to worry that you miss my text or something.

Amanda Norton:

It's amazing list.

Daniel Norton:

It's also really good. I'm not going to say the name. Because there's one sitting right next to me, but the Amazon Echo show kind of thing or whatever your Smart Home tech me we did have that smart home tech episode with Craig Williamson is, it's really helpful because we're able to sync any list to it. And while we're like in the kitchen, or we find something that we need, we could just yell the name, you know, whether it's You're the one that use from Apple or for Google or for Amazon, we use the Amazon one. And you could yell that name and then just say add syrup to the list. Yeah. And it'll get and you say what list you want to add it to like I don't even have to say the any list app. I just say add syrup to the Walmart list. Yes. And it just gets added, which is really helpful for me, because then I don't even have to open up my phone. So

Amanda Norton:

how many times do I come home from the store? And you're like, Oh, I forgot this. And then I'm like, well wasn't on the list. And it's like, in that moment, when you think of something, you don't have to always write it down on the phone, ask you know who? To put it on there. I try to like remind you to do that. It's like we're so spoiled now. You know?

Daniel Norton:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, if we're gonna speak of a list to my favorite app, that sort of like a list is Trello. So that'd be number two is just the Trello app. I love using Trello. I've used it for a long time, and I definitely use it within my business. But just even getting work done. It's It's similar to the ideas if you write a bunch of sticky notes, right? Yeah, if you were to write like, you know, five different things, each one on a sticky note And then you just basically move that sticky note from list to list. That is basically what Trello is, if you haven't used it before. And there's different ways that you can create it. And you can add in like a lot of descriptive stuff. And you can add comments if you have anyone else on the board with you. But I really like it. And I've been using it in the, I think it's called the Pomodoro method or whatever, where it's like, you have a certain amount of time that you work on something. But then there is the there is a method where it's like you write your to do list, yeah. And then you have a list called doing. And then a list called done. Right, and there's only and all your cards are in the to do list. And you basically want to get them all to the done list. But you can only move one card at a time to the doing list. So you take one card that you write up all your to do list. So I've been doing this like the night before, write up the whole to do list on the on that pair. And then once I sit down, I take a card, move it over, and I start working from there. And I use that in along with that pomodoro method of like sitting down for like 40 minutes, and working just for those 40 minutes and then taking like an 18 or 20 minute break. That's awesome, right? Or you could do it a whole different ways you can do that method in like 25 minutes with a five minute break. And then this, you know, kind of adds up to an hour. And you do that. Or you can do like 15 minutes and 10 minute break whatever works. And the way that I like to use that is with an app called noisily. And oh, I SLI and noisily is an app where you set how long you want to work for and how long you want your break for. And it will play sounds, it doesn't it doesn't play music. It'll play like, sounds like soundscapes, like let's say like a cafe or a like a beach like a beach or and you could create your own too. So like you can add in like a train in the distance. And you can add in leaves, or you can add like an ocean sound or like a lake sound all these different sounds that you can add them all up, and it will play that. And then it'll once you switch to your resting time, it'll give you this little signal and then it'll switch to arresting sounds sounds that aren't this, you know, the same as like the productive sounds like so you could have one that's helps you really be productive. And then another one that helps you relax. So maybe you're working, maybe you have like cafe sounds during your productivity time. Okay, and then during your like 20 minute rest or your 10 minute rest, you have like beach sounds, huh. And that can be really helpful. So I find those to be really helpful for me, even though I think the analyst is good for the listings, these are really helped, I think in the moment really help with productivity,

Amanda Norton:

I think it's a great idea because I listened to Spotify, when I'm and I put my headphones in when I'm just documenting stuff. But then I catch myself like singing along and then it gets a little distracting, you know, so I think that's a good app, instead of just listening to regular, like pop music or whatever, yeah, stuff like that. Okay, number four is every dollar budgeting app. So this is by Dave Ramsey, who is the creator, the owner, the author of Financial Peace University. And this is a great budgeting tool that you could use on your phone, on your iPad on the computer. And it just helps you organize your budget even even better than what you ever even imagined. Because it literally goes through how you spend every dollar. And and I love it. Every dollar has a name is what he teaches. And he teaches you really good strategies to help budget and to help kill debt. So we haven't been very on top of that. But I really think you know, 20 year 2021, we need to get back on track with what we did, or

Daniel Norton:

Yeah, we did really well with it. Yeah, when we first started using it a few years ago, it was really helpful because we got the premium, you got the premium because you could sync your bank accounts to right, which is nice, because you don't have to worry about the transaction. So we're talking about being productive. It's like instead of having to sit down and write all those things out, because for me that would take forever and take away from a ton of things. Having something that you just basically have to set up once. And then it's kind of automated because you just set up and then you know exactly what to spend. So you're not really worrying, like, Oh, am I gonna overspend by this or that, you know, especially right now, if you're tight with money, and you need to, you know, figure out what you can and can't spend money on. It is a really good app even in even in a productivity sense. Just it helps not necessarily automate. But it helps get a little closer to not having to, you know, write every single thing down.

Amanda Norton:

Yes, exactly. I love it. Speaking of money, and budgeting, number five is download your bank app. A lot of us have the opportunity to now deposit checks without going to the bank, but doing it on your phone. So check out your bank's app because you know sometimes you know even With COVID going on, and in just time, in general, we don't have the time to go to the bank stand on that long line, because you know, lines are out the doors with the bank still. And you know, you can deposit a check quickly on your phone, you could take a picture of it or whatever. And we never had access to that before. And when I found out our bank was doing it, it just made it so much easier and more productive for me, instead of spending so much time on the lines at the bank, and then, you know, potentially getting, I don't know, potentially risking something, you know, because you're touching the pad and all yeah, it's just

Daniel Norton:

easier, I think it just adds some help to just saving that time of having to make the run if you do get a check. I mean, so many of us are direct deposit now. And yes, most people are either sending us money on Venmo, or PayPal or something if you were to get a gift, but you do get those those paychecks or if your employer does pay with the paycheck or anything. A lot of times I often forget that we have that opportunity. Yeah. And it's so easy. You just can just take that picture, and then boom, the money's in there. Yeah, it's it's super simple. It's definitely worth the time. And I think it can make it productive to just not have just one less thing to have to go out and get and stand on these ridiculous lines that you depending on what state you live in, or where you live in. You know, it's cold here right now. And so having to stand on a long line outside, potentially, for something you could do on an app? Yes. Does it make sense?

Amanda Norton:

Exactly, exactly. Number six is using Dropbox, the dropbox app, and or Google Drive or both?

Daniel Norton:

Right? Apple has their own storage too. But it's just having some kind of cloud storage, that, you know, when you're trying to be productive from home, having having things on hard drives, or USB sticks, and you could easily lose that stuff. Yes. But you could also drop things right from the phone, straight into the into something like Dropbox or if you're working with a remote team, whether it's your business or your your job. Having something like that is is really easy, but I think it's good for families as well. There are these free versions that have low storage if you don't need much. But you know, I think it's worth getting that extra storage, because especially what if your computer crashes, what if your phone goes out, and you lose all that stuff, at least you have that backup, even just your family photos and videos, and different things like that on some kind of a cloud storage that you can easily restore from, or just keep things there. So that you're not constantly having to fill up, you know, your phone with photos, and then delete them.

Amanda Norton:

Right. That's a good point with the family photos and stuff. Because, you know, a lot of people may have like a family members may have Google Drive or Dropbox and you guys can share a photo album and add pictures to it so that everybody stays connected. You know, some some family members don't have Facebook or any other social media, and they miss out on maybe like the everyday things you're doing. And you know, so this is a good way to stay connected is by downloading pictures and videos of your kids and your time together and all that stuff. So number seven is using My Fitness Pal that has been great to help track our food and our water intake. And that's been a goal for me since the beginning because I'm actually in my cousin's wedding in September, and I would love to lose a few pounds. And I remember when I was losing pounds losing weight for our wedding. And one of the biggest things I did was track my food. And that really helped me to just be more mindful on what I'm eating, and how much I'm eating. And that really helped me lose weight besides going to the gym and all that stuff. Well, it's easier when you don't have kids and you don't you're not married or anything. Everything is easier

Daniel Norton:

to but I use, you know, My Fitness Pal to lose a lot of weight. But now, you know, that was a few years ago now.

Unknown:

Mm hmm. While

Amanda Norton:

when we when we reset my password, because it's been that long people. Um, it said I haven't used it since April 2013. It's like, oh, my goodness

Daniel Norton:

of the app. You weren't really using the app.

Amanda Norton:

You weren't worried and I was more writing down. I thought it would be better. But I actually really enjoyed this because we discovered they do the barcode scanning.

Daniel Norton:

The barcode makes it

Amanda Norton:

easier. So yeah, I

Daniel Norton:

mean, if we're really talking productivity for this app, I mean, one you are tracking your food. So you are remembering to drink water more, you're remembering to eat more healthier food, which keeps you more productive as opposed to the typical things that us parents who work from home eat, which is the cold stuff and trying to get it in while you're doing everything else and easy to snack while you're home. Oh The fridge is so easy. But having that but it's also there's a little tracker in there where you could just snap a picture of the barcode of whatever food you're eating. Obviously you can't do that with like fruit but You know, if you have anything that has a barcode on it, it's a lot easier to just, you know, get that and you don't have to search for it. You just put it right in. Yeah, 123.

Amanda Norton:

It's a really good accountability app. That's for sure. Number eight is the Fitbit app. So what I love about the Fitbit, and what drives me crazy at the same time is it buzzes, like, every 30 minutes, and it reminds you to get up, it's a great thing. And sometimes I'll be on the phone with somebody, or I'll be in the middle of typing and it buzzes and I'm like, Okay, okay, I heard you, it's time to get up. So I get up, I stretch, I maybe walk around a little bit, and just even just walking around the living room just to get those steps in because it says like, you have 250 steps to go. And I'm like, what, haha, Okay, I'm gonna go walk around here and walk around there. It's it's like, it's so funny, because I used to get like, Ah, this is annoying. But really, it is the best thing because it really gets the blood, the blood, blood flow moving in your legs, and it gets you to like step away from the computer, or just even get up for a few minutes just to step away from even off the couch. So it's a really good thing to have. I really loved the Fitbit app a lot.

Daniel Norton:

Yeah, and I think there's a lot of different apps too. We just happen to use Fitbit. So that's why we would suggest it. But I'm sure there's a lot of others that have those same kind of capabilities. Yeah. And including like Apple watch or or whatever other smartwatch you wear. I'm sure that can be. But they absolutely the one thing I do want to say from this, these are all apps that we actually use to say that at the beginning is that these are actually apps we use. So that's why we're sharing these particular apps.

Amanda Norton:

Yep. Number nine is the reminders app. So second to the any list app, I would say the reminders app is like number one, the number one things on my priority I use on my phone the most. I probably have like 50 reminders, I have reminders to when to pay my bills, and how much they are. I really document each thing. reminders on when to cut Aiden's nails. I mean, it's ridiculous. But it helps me remember like, okay, it's been a week I need to do it. I have a lot of reminders for every little thing on there, even when to take my break. Because I notice if I because I don't watch the clock 24 seven on my, during the workday. So I even make a reminder on my phone for my 15 minute break in the morning. And then I have one for my afternoon break. Because I can't tell you that the mornings fly the afternoons fly. And then I forget to take my break. And it is such a blessing that I my phone buzzes me and says, okay, It's break time, even for lunch break, you know, because then after my morning break, I am rushing, getting things done. And then boom, it's like two o'clock or one o'clock and I'm taking and it says lunch on my phone for the reminder. Because Time flies if you're not watching it so. So I love the reminders app, I use it 200 times a day, it's great.

Daniel Norton:

I try but I don't get I don't get reminded. But I don't know if it works as well for me with the written like one I have to read. So I like using the name, we shall not name Oh, Echo, Amazon device to actually verbally tell me to remind me to do those, I find that to be really a little more helpful. Obviously, if you're on the go, that doesn't help, although you can tell that app to also remind you on your phone. But that is that's where I think the reminders for me help a little better, then then the written ones because we've tried that for a long time, whether it's even written sticky notes, and I just don't see it.

Unknown:

And who it is,

Amanda Norton:

yeah, I don't know what it is. If it's even if it's my email or reminders, I think this is the type A personality and me but like, I don't like to see things back up like or pile up. I don't like to see my reminders be like, you know, have five reminders that are red and stuff like that. I can't stand that. I don't know, I guess it's a type a I don't know. But so I like to check those off and get them down. You know, even email I like to have zero emails that are like read unread,

Daniel Norton:

you know, I want to see how many emails we get so up in the 100 1000s it's gonna work for you so I can I can help you go through them and throw some away or answer whatever email that is like months worth going through that backlog. Well, but speaking of reminders, one thing that we do always need to get reminded about is when we have meetings, yeah, right, like reminding of having meetings or when to schedule meetings. And so I think our number 10 and this is one that I use literally every week is the calendly calendly. And that is super helpful because especially when you're communicating with people in different time zones or around the world, and it's like, Hey, are you available at This time and what that what is that in your time zone or even in your own time zone? It's like trying to figure out a meeting time. It's like, Oh, I'm available now. Oh, when are you available? Can you do three hours? No, but can can you do it in five hours? and What time was that? Again? When are we meeting? Where are we meeting? You know, is it gonna be on zoom? Are we going to FaceTime? Or are we just doing a phone call whatever, it can be very confusing, overwhelming, it's easy to forget, the calendly app makes life so easy, is you and we actually use this for booking our guests on the show is you scheduled times that you're available, you put in available times that you know that you're available for meetings, and how long those type meetings are. And then you send that to the people you're going to have meetings with. And they booked themselves on time that you're already available, you don't have to go back and forth to like five different emails, you don't have to set like, make sure that you got the time zones, correct, right, because that's definitely happened. And you can also set the destination. In fact, I've got it because I use the even just the basic premium, it's like $8 a month or something. And you could sync up, zoom right to it. And it'll automatically create a zoom meeting for you that all you have to do is open up zoom and hit start. And you get set custom reminders. So you can have emails that are sent to both like you and the guests that are sent at different times leading up to it. So they could remind them a day before an hour before 10 minute before. I mean, you could send a whole bunch of them, you could even send follow up emails afterwards, asking them about the meeting. And I'd be all automated, right? And there's things like that there is even if you pay for the high premium, like text message reminders that this meeting is coming up. So there's I think it's really helpful. I think it's useful in a lot of different cases, not just even your own business. But like if you needed to set up meetings with other people. Or if you're planning family meetings and gatherings instead of having a mass text where you're trying to everybody find it. It's like, hey, let's book one time, here's this time and just Book Yourself. So they automatically get the reminders. They automatically get that this is not sponsored by calendly. But I'd definitely be open for this. We definitely use it all the time. But I see you could tell I really like there's a lot of these apps, right? There's a lot of these different scheduling ones out there. There's other free ones, too. I just like calendly I like the way it is. And I think it's affordable.

Amanda Norton:

Yeah, definitely. Well, the last bonus tip suggestion, whatever you want to call it. Yeah. would be that do not disturb.

Daniel Norton:

Yeah, it's not quite an app. But But yeah, do not disturb on your phone.

Amanda Norton:

Yeah, do not disturb on your phone.

Daniel Norton:

Yeah. That's, you know, it is on Apple at least. So putting on Do not disturb it right times or having it set, I think is a really valuable productivity tip.

Amanda Norton:

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Because in that, even that, what does he call it pommeau, Lomo,

Unknown:

pomodoro pomodoro.

Amanda Norton:

Even during that method, that time that you need just to not have any interruptions, you can put on that noisily app and you can work hard and put your Do Not Disturb. So it's a great setting to put on so that you don't have that interference when you are going through that method of 40, banging out 45 minutes of work, or that 25 minutes of work before you take your break. So it's a great setting to put on. I use it throughout the nighttime, so I don't get calls or texts, or I don't I don't wake up to hearing all of that throughout the night. But what I do like the Do Not Disturb is you can set it so that if a person is calling you over and over again, like it's an emergency, it will allow that phone call to be heard. I

Daniel Norton:

think they have to call twice in a row within a certain amount of time. Nice. Yeah. But yeah, I think it's helpful. Especially I mean, we I use it at night as well. But if you know that you're busy working a certain time, every single day, you could even have that set to automatically go at those times and not even need to think and then or just setting it when you're when you're working because I think we are in a very distracted time in the world. And it's anything to limit the amount of distractions we have. And notifications are just crazy. Yes. So anything to cut those down during your productivity time is important. So even though it's not an app, we thought we'd throw it in as a bonus.

Amanda Norton:

Yes. Well, that was Episode 19. Okay, wow, almost 20

Daniel Norton:

to 20. So yeah, we would love to know, like, what apps do you think are really good for productivity of working at home? Let us know, at working on parents on Instagram. And we would love to hear from you. Send us a voice message at working home parents.com and let us know what you would like to hear on this podcast. We may even feature it and we would just love to hear your voice love to hear you know why you started listening to us or any of that and what questions do you have? What topics Would you like to see us cover? Send us a voice message on our website. You can see a little mic phone button, it'll say, voice message right there. But if you want transcriptions, or show notes from this episode, you can go to working home parents.com slash 19. And that's where you'll find the transcription of this episode.

Amanda Norton:

Thank you everyone for listening. And if you haven't already, remember to hit subscribe on your favorite podcast app. We'll catch you in the next episode.

Bumper:

Thank you for listening to working home parents find show notes links mentioned and more at working home parents.com