If your time-management is going out of the window, paper work is slowing you down or you just can’t get motivated then we’ve got the solution. Here are our top five apps for a more organised and productive life.
Dropbox: A simple way of backing up documents and photographs. Once you have set up your password protected account you can save documents and photographs to the cloud and access them from any computer or mobile device. Invaluable for a seamless approach to home/school working. The app offers 2GB of data for free, or subscribe for more space. You can also use it to share documents or photographs with friends, family or colleagues.
Smarter Time: Ever get to the end of the day and wonder where the time went? If so then this is the app for you. Smarter Time allows you to record your daily schedule so you can see exactly where the time goes. Eventually it will automatically track what you are doing at certain times – whether you are at work or walking the dog, on the phone or surfing the net. Once you’ve built up a picture of your daily routine the app encourages you to set goals – whether it’s limiting time spent online or spending more time exercising. It’s only available on Android at the moment but check out Time Too for an IoS alternative.
Habit list: Want to turn over a new leaf but struggling to keep motivated? This app lets you log your progress and schedule reminders, whether it’s a monthly date to file paper work or a nudge to drink more water. It even tracks your progress so you can see how successful you have been in keeping up your good intentions. Habit Streak offers a similar service for Android users.
Last pass: You can’t take cyber security too seriously, and having foolproof passwords is essential. However remembering each and every one can be a bit of struggle. But no longer. Last Pass allows you to store all your passwords in one place – so only one password to remember.
Pocket: How many times have you been tempted to read just one more article on the web, only to come up for air half an hour later realising that you have failed, yet again, to make a dent in your to do list. Pocket is the perfect solution allowing you to save any article or web page that catches your eye to read later. You can even save them to read them off line.
Olaf Surtees has been with Penstripe for ten years; what he doesn’t know about teacher planners, student planners, and lesson planners isn’t worth knowing! He’s in charge of creating our blog content, helping teachers and administrators with helpful hints and tips, as well as our socials — see the links below to find out more.
