In the middle of the holidays, it's often a dead calm at the office. Many of your colleagues have gone sunbathing and your inbox seems quite empty.
This period is ideal for preparing for the start of the school year.
We sort through our files, tidy our desk and delete a good number of emails that are now useless. A little cleaning that won't hurt our productivity when we go back to school.
And it is also thanks to your smartphone that you can be more productive on a daily basis. You still need to have installed these eight essential applications.
Note-taking apps
An idea that comes to mind, a phone number, an email address or important information: you have to write it down! Yes, but with what?
Keep, Google's minimalist and efficient app
Keep is a very simple and effective application. A home screen aggregates all the notes you have produced. It is possible to insert To-do lists. You can also associate a note with a reminder. Practical!
Evernote: A classic
Evernote has made note-taking and information recording its specialty. The app allows you to organize your notes into notebooks. The label system is also a good way to organize your various documents.
Apps for planning
Whether it's a professional or personal appointment, it's sometimes difficult to keep track of things. You may even forget an appointment or arrive late. Forget this situation and start planning efficiently!
Any.do Cal: A Clean Calendar
A sleek design and handy features: Any.do Cal has everything you need to forget about Google Calendar. The app is of course compatible with your Google account.
The idea of Any.do Cal is to present your day-to-day schedule in a clean and readable way to start the day calmly.
Download Any.do Cal for Android
Trello: The Master of To-do Lists
A To-do list application but also much more. Trello allows you to create boards that contain lists in which you insert cards. To these you can assign a deadline, a label, a To-do list, links, documents, etc.
A board can be shared to assign tasks to each other. Convenient!
Apps for storing
There are some documents that we would like to always have with us. For that, we need a file management application in the "cloud".
Dropbox: A classic for storage
Everyone knows Dropbox, one of the first players in online file storage. Here, sync your files and folders to find them from the Dropbox app.
Google Drive: Edit your files online
With Google Drive, it is possible to store files but also to create them directly online.
A Google Doc, for example, is a text file that can be edited from anywhere because it is stored directly online. It can also be shared between multiple participants.
Download Google Drive for Android
Apps for exchanging
Emails are often a chore: we receive dozens of them every day and we often leave them lying around in our inbox. It's not easy to see clearly in this situation. Try to remedy this with alternatives.
Mailbox: Getting closer to zero messaging
A neat and well thought out app to manage emails intelligently.
You can use the "snooze" feature to postpone an email. If you are not available to process it when it is received, set it to be sent later in the day or week.
This way you can be sure you won't forget it, but it won't clutter your inbox for days!
Download Mailbox for Android (now integrated with Dropbox)
The alternative to email: Slack
What's better than instant messaging to get rid of emails? Adopt Slack!
The app allows you to manage your communications in “channels”: the equivalent of a discussion group that you can share with one or more people.
This instant messaging is widely used in business to limit the use of email.
Being more productive for the start of the school year: let’s get started now
The holidays are a great time to start testing out some of its apps. If you like them, you'll be familiar with them when things get back to full swing in September.
In the meantime, don't forget to enjoy the last days of summer 😉
Article updated on January 6, 2025 by Byothe
Hello,
Storing files will finally be available on iOS 11 with the choice between local or cloud storage. It works pretty well (in Beta).
8 apps to be more productive this back to school – https://t.co/3uF61XsYId via @Byothe https://t.co/fYIAWMzw90 (via @Byothe)