BEST APPS TO GET YOURSELF ORGANISED

There never seems to be enough time to get all our tasks done. With all of the technology available, it’s never been easier to get ourselves organised. There are thousands of apps that claim to get us organised, remember things and complete our ‘to do’ lists. I’m often asked for recommendations of tools or resources to get more organised. Here are some of my favourite apps for business, home and family.

EVERNOTE
Evernote is a great multipurpose app and web account that works across all devices. You can write notes, tasks, to do lists, record voice reminders, scan in whole documents, insert pictures and videos in to notes and then automatically sync those notes across all your devices so the same information is available everywhere you need it. Evernote synchronises all your files by saving them to a cloud service, allowing you access to it from anywhere you have an internet connection.
Evernote also offers a more manageable way to capture and store interesting websites, blogs, text and articles (rather than bookmarking everything) via its ‘web clipper’ function. It offers simple sharing via text message, email, Facebook and Twitter and also offers a place to store PDFs, photos and notes. Folders can also be shared which is another useful function. Whatever you add to Evernote is allocated a Tag for easy searching and retrieval of material in the future. Overall a great app to help you get organised.

WUNDERLIST
Wunderlist is an easy-to-use task manager that lets you manage and share your daily to-do lists. It's very simple to use and if you want, you can add due dates, reminders, recurring tasks, subtasks and extra information for each item. New features include improved notes, sharing and notifications. You can develop your lists through Wunderlist's web application or the app, then it automatically syncs and updates all lists across all devices that the app is on (so all the tasks you’ve listed on your phone will be sent to your tablet or computer).

DROPBOX
Dropbox is a cloud based file hosting service that allows you to store photos, videos and documents, working like any other folder in your computer system. When you sign up, you get a virtual ‘box’ to drag and drop your files into. It's password protected and free with 2GB of storage (subscriptions are available for up to 100GB of storage).

You can access the files from any computer or app-supporting device easily. It has a simple interface, easy uploading and syncing across all accounts. It’s also a great way to share files. Every folder can be shared with other people and every member of a shared folder will be able to add, edit and delete the contents inside but will not be able to access anything outside of that specific folder. This file sharing system is great for groups or teams who need to collaborate amongst each other. There is also a public folder that allows you to share files with non-Dropbox users through the use of a hyperlink. Dropbox is an easy and reliable way to share files amongst friends, family, and work colleagues.

CAMCARD
CamCard is a professional business card reader. It reads and scans business cards, then saves them into your contacts on your phone. You can sort, group and merge your contacts across various devices. You can also email a business card to another business if you want to refer businesses. It’s perfect if you have lots of business cards or attend lots of business networking events. It is fabulous for cutting down on business card clutter.

DRAGON DICTATION
Dragon Dictation is a simple dictation app,  it transcribes whatever you speak with good accuracy. It will write down a note, draft an email, post to Facebook and Twitter, and a few other light tasks, but it doesn't actually store any notes in the app itself. This app is simple to use: tap, speak, and tap when you want to stop recording. The advanced voice recognition software does a great job converting what it hears into text, and you can edit it before you hit save if necessary.

AUDIONOTE
Audionote is a great note taking and recording app. You can record meetings, conferences lectures and interviews. You can take notes, use the pen and highlighter tools to draw graphs, tables and drawings, then sync those notes to the audio recording. The Export tool (on the File menu) lets you save the audio note as a .WAV file so you can access it outside AudioNote. These features are not available in Evernote, so if you’re specifically after a recording app to integrate your own notes and sketches into, this is perfect.

COZI
Cozi is an app and website that lets you organise, plan and manage the whole family’s schedules and activities.  Compatible with most mobile devices, Cozi helps you track and share calendars, to-do lists, and a family journal. You can create a master calendar for the family as well as a colour-coded one for each family member. When you add events, tasks or lists you can add the family member that it relates to. It’s relatively easy to use and if all family members don’t have smartphones, it can be accessed from any web-enabled device via Cozi's website.

FOODSWITCH
FoodSwitch allows you to take a more organised approach to assessing the nutritional value of the food you’re buying. It allows you to scan the barcode of packaged foods (using your phone or tablet) to receive nutritional information using the traffic light colour coded labelling criteria (measuring total fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt). It has different modes, FoodSwitch classic can be used for everyone looking to make generally healthier food choices, SaltSwitch mode designed to help people looking specifically to lower their salt intake and GlutenSwitch mode which helps people living with coeliac disease or gluten intolerance.
Currently FoodSwitch covers over 28,500 products that are stocked in the major Australian supermarkets.

SHOPSHOP
The simplicity of this shopping list app is one of the reasons I love it so much. You simply enter the name and quantity of each item that you need to buy to create your list. Once you’ve chosen the item, you simply tap on it in the list to put a line through it. Tap on it again, and the item is removed (or you can remove them all at the end of your shop). The app also remembers previous items that you’ve had on your shopping list so it can do smart suggestions as you type. On the downside, ShopShop supports only one shopping list at a time, which you can't save for later use either.

MY FITNESS PAL
My Fitness Pal you can track your calories, record your meals and snacks and log your exercise. You can set goals for yourself, track what you are consuming, and log your exercise. It’ll tell you how many calories you are eating, what percentage of your daily needs are being met or exceeded, and what you need to do to meet your personal goals. It makes staying healthy a quick and easy experience.

POCKET
Pocket is an organisational tool that allows you to save links and read them later. It’s a short-term bookmarking app that syncs across all of your devices. With it, you can put lengthy articles or videos away and queue them up for reading and watching later, no matter where you are. Great for saving interesting websites, articles, recipes, photo or news to read later. It archives whatever pages, videos, or images you saw, and saves it for offline reading later on. It sorts everything you saved into categories called ‘Highlights’, so it’s easy to find what you’ve saved. It also saves and sorts articles by length which is great based on how much time you have to read.

HOMEBUDGET WITH SYNC
Homebudget with Sync allows you to track expenses, income and bills in order to budget effectively. By viewing and tracking expenses on charts and graphs, you can easily analyse expenses and see where savings can be made. The app allows you to sync with other family members within your household, allowing one streamlined account of income and outgoings. There are various categories allowing you to create, edit and delete categories and sub-categories, so it's possible to customise the app to your own specifications. You can set up bill reminders, recurring transactions and manage multiple accounts. You can track your performance against your budget using reporting tools, illustrated with line, bar and pie charts and schedule bills and reminders. Great functionality, brightly coloured and easy to use.

FLIPBOARD
Beautifully designed, Flipboard is a free app that brings all of your news together in one place, creating a personalised magazine from internet content. It takes stories and information and reformats them into pages of text and images, so you can flip through them by swiping up and down. Fill Flipboard with the things you like to read, from blogs to publications, and save articles to read later. It creates a single place to enjoy, browse, comment on and share all the news, photos and updates that matter to you. You can also integrate all of your social media accounts into it so you can read them all from one place. This app is also very appealing visually.

PACKING PRO
This app has many different options to help you keep track of what you need for any trip. It has a master list of items that people normally take on trips, and also allows you to create a master family packing list that can then be sorted by each member — husband, wife, son, daughter, even pet. The packing categories in this app are very extensive. Packing Pro makes it simple and easy for you to pack without any frustration. And, unlike similar apps, this one not only has a pre-trip to-do list, but also one for mid-trip (buy local SIM card, confirm air ticket) and post-trip (recharge digital camera, reset phone message).

PET MASTER PRO
This app is the ultimate organiser to keep track of your pets’ health and important details.
Features include personal details (names, birthday, registration, microchip, type/breed), allergies (stores name, severity and notes), photo album, identification tracking (registration, microchip number) and insurance information. It can also track any medications your pet has to take (name, dosage and the start/end date) and manage appointments for vaccinations or grooming. There is no limit to the number of pets you may add.


There are so many different options out there to help you get more organised. Sometimes it’s a matter of trial and error to see what works best and how effective it is for you.