Make a commitment to get organised, stay organised and streamline your life. A few good apps can get you on the way to uncomplicated, yet productive, living.
Photo credit: John Lamb/Photographer’s Choice RF/Getty Images
Evernote
Organise all the noteworthy things in your life with Evernote. With this app, you can organise, manage and retrieve almost anything — from photos, videos and screenshots, to handwritten notes, receipts and voice memos. With Evernote, you can track and retrieve all your “notes” from all your devices.
Instapaper
You often want to save web content to read later, but then forget about it, or you stress yourself to rush through reading long articles online as soon as you come across them. Put the pleasure back into reading by using Instapaper to save and aggregate all your must-reads into one spot to read later when you really do have the time. You can read through your Instapaper in print, on your computer screen or on your phone.
Simplenote
If you are constantly writing lists for yourself and jotting down ideas so you don’t forget them, then Simplenote is the perfect way to keep these notes in sync across all your devices. It’s available for free and, no matter how big your list of notes gets, this app will make it easy to search for what you’re looking for. The use of tags and pins will keep your notes easily organised and if you want to share or publish your notes, this app makes that simple, too.
Shoeboxed
Get your household paperwork and receipts under control with Shoeboxed. You simply snap a picture of your receipts and then Shoeboxed will categorise, organise and store them. It saves hours on accounting and tax preparation. This free iPhone app even creates and sends expense reports.
FoodSwitch
Taking the time to peruse nutritional information and read the labels on food products can be time-consuming at the best of times, but it’s particularly difficult when you have little kids with you and you’re trying to get in and out in a hurry. With FoodSwitch, you can use your phone camera to scan the barcode of any food product and all the nutritional information will get organised for you with the easy-to-follow traffic light colour labelling system to help rate the product based on total fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar content. Best of all, this app is free.
Any.DO
Remembering what you need to do and actually getting it done are two entirely different things. Any.DO enables you to organise your tasks into categories of your choice, set easy reminders for yourself and, if you don’t manage to get something done, that task will just copy over to the next day. This app will sync across a bunch of different devices and, best of all, it enables you to use voice recording to note down tasks.
Flipboard — which is available (and free) on iPhone, iPad, Android and Kindle Fire — is like having your own personal news magazine populated with stories about topics you love, as well as all the articles and photos your friends are sharing through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social sites.
Photo Manager Pro
Stop wasting time scrolling and hunting for your photos and videos. This management system allows you to create custom-named and coloured folders (and sub-folders), then you can tag and group images however you like. Photo Manager Pro is the perfect way to keep all your photos and videos organised so that you can find them by date, file name, genre, geo-tag, keyword and other filters easily anytime you like. You can share photos and other media privately or through social networks and you can also ensure they are password protected. If you have tons of photos and videos, this app will be the best money you’ve ever spent.
HomeBudget Lite
While there are so many budgeting apps available, HomeBudget is one of the easiest to use. By inputting income and expense items and noting when your bills are due, this app enables you to stay on top of your finances. It even features some simple graphs and pie charts to help give you a better idea of how you’re tracking. HomeBudget also includes a “Family Sync” feature, which allows you to group together all the devices in one household and work within the one budget.
CardMunch
For the alpha businesswoman, a business card reader is a must. With the free CardMunch iPhone/iPad app, you can easily scan and convert business cards into address book contacts. From there, you can even add them as connections on LinkedIn. This app is a terrific networking tool.
GrocerEaze
If you’re looking for a way to track grocery shopping costs while you shop, determine how much your grocery bill will be before you even start shopping or keep track of what you have left in your pantry and what you need more of, then GrocerEaze is going to be your new best friend. And, as if this app wasn’t already a shoe-in for prime position on our phone’s homescreen, it will also suggest recipes based on what you have available to you in your fridge and your pantry.
Menu Planner
Meal planning can make a huge difference in your life. You save money, waste less food and reduce stress of last-minute grocery shopping and meal planning. You can find numerous meal-planning apps out there, but one of our favorites is Menu Planner. This app allows you to create meal plans, import recipes from various websites, keep track of what’s in your pantry, create shopping lists and, of course, plan all your meals.
The Garden Planner
The Garden Planner markets itself as a “personal trainer” for Australian vegetable gardeners and it certainly is. With functionality that takes your local weather into account, it will tell you when the best time for planting certain veg is, when to water and fertilise your garden and when you can expect to have a blossoming crop. With the help of The Garden Planner, your vegetables surviving long enough for you to enjoy eating them is a definite possibility.
Stylebook
They say most of us only wear about 20 per cent of the clothes in our closets. Streamline your wardrobe by using the Stylebook app. Import photos of your actual clothes, create outfits, plan what to wear and get style inspiration from clothes online. It’s a terrific way to manage your wardrobe, create outfits and get the most out of your clothing. If you find you are still not wearing certain pieces after using the Stylebook app, it’s time to go through your closet and start donating.
iRecycle
Make recycling a whole lot easier with iRecycle. This app tells you how and where to recycle just about anything based on your current location or any address, city or postcode. Get all the details on what items can be donated at each location, as well as hours of operation, website details, phone numbers and directions to your nearest recycling spots.
More about apps
Apps to help with weight loss
10 Apps for busy women
Best apps for mums
Leave a Comment