“3 Favorite Phone Apps…Go!”

This has become my new favorite icebreaker. What we do on our phones says a lot about what’s important to us and the things we enjoy in life. In a world where we all walk around with virtually the same phone everyone uses theirs a little differently.

One of the beauties of smartphones is the ability to connect from the palm of our hands. There’s an app for almost everything out there which can be extremely helpful to our productivity or it can totally derail an otherwise productive day.

What apps make you more productive?

If our phones are truly meant to help us enjoy life and be more productive consider what apps you currently use and how they help you. There are three apps I use constantly every single day.

Inbox

Inbox by Google is my favorite app! I process all my email and reminders using a system called Inbox Zero and this app is built just for that. I love the integration of reminders with my Google Calendar and the user interface is simple and beautiful! I’ve tried dozens of other email apps out there but this one is perfect.

Spotify

I probably listen to music for 6-8 hours everyday. The playlist folders on Spotify allow me to easily organize all my favorite music to easily find something to match my mood or the activity I’m doing. I have folders for working out and running, focusing on writing, falling asleep, and random ones I follow to find new music. I pay $10/month for the commercial-free version and it’s worth every penny for me.

IFTTT

If-This-Than-That is one of the coolest apps I’ve ever used. In a nutshell – it automates things between apps and let’s you build digital shortcuts to things you do often. I use it to populate Evernote with tasks from my calendar and to take quick notes on things I want to remember later through the DO Note app. This helps me do everything from remembering people’s names to reminding me to charge my Fitbit.

What apps kill your productivity?

Sometimes apps that we use often aren’t actually helping us achieve anything in our day. A while back I realized how often I would check things like social media throughout my day without ever really getting much back from that time. For each of us there are probably a handful of apps on our phone that we would be better off without.

Benefits of removing distracting apps.

In an effort to be on my phone less I removed Facebook and Instagram, and have actually removed a web browser completely. (Shocking for a web developer!) After purging my phone of the distracting apps I find that I spend less time on my phone and I’m more engaged with the people around me. The first few days after removing these I found myself checking my phone only to realize there was nothing I really needed to do.

30 day challenge

I’m a big fan of 30-day challenges. Each month I pick something new to try for 30 days and see if it sticks. So here’s the challenge for you:

Pick three apps that you use regularly that distract from your productivity and remove them from your phone for 30 days!

You may miss these apps, or you may discover that you never really needed them on your phone to begin with. I have a feeling after 30 days you will be more productive and more engaged with your surrounding environment because you have less distractions.

What 3 apps do you use most on your phone?

Leave a comment and tell me your three favorite apps and why you like them. One lucky winner will get an iTunes gift card!