5 Best Productivity Apps For 2021
By: Ewan Mcbride
Tags: Self Improvement, Productivity, Entrepreneurship, Business, Self Development

5 Best Productivity Apps For 2021

In this day and age, we are surrounded by technology but sometimes it is not used to its fullest potential. There are so many great ways that devices like phones and iPads can be used to improve your productivity. In almost all app stores there are many productivity apps but knowing which ones are the best and will help you the most can become a challenge. In this article, we are going to look and the 5 best productivity apps that you can use to boost your productivity in 2021!

Photo by Andreas Klassen on Unsplash

1. Notion

Notion is an all in one productivity tool that will fit into almost anyone’s workflow whether you are a student, a business owner or you work a 9–5 job. Notion is the top of our list of productivity apps because it has everything that you could possibly need all in one place and there is a great free plan if you just want to try it out.

Notion has many great tools that can increase your productivity. You may currently have many different productivity apps like a calendar, todo list, note-taking app and many more but Notion has all of these plus more built-in. A notion workspace is fully customisable and comes with many free templates that you can use to get started.

There are way too many features that Notion offers for us to cover in this article but think of it this way. Any productivity apps that you currently use probably have the same functionality that Notion has just all in one space that you can access from any device.

Notion has four different plans that you can choose from:

Personnel — Free Forever

Personnel Pro — $4 per month (Billed Yearly)

Team — $8 Per Month (Billed Yearly)

Enterprise — Custom Pricing

As you can see, Notion is an increasingly cheap productivity app that has all the features that you could possibly need. One thing to watch out for in Notion is that there is a larger learning curve than other platforms because there is so much that you can with it. If you spend a few hours in Notion, you will have no problem getting used to the software and this can therefore become you’re all in one productivity app!

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

2. Microsoft OneNote

OneNote is an excellent note-taking by Microsoft that is 100% free forever so anyone can access it. OneNote is a great productivity app because it is simple and has many useful but simple features that anyone can use. OneNote has a very small learning curve making it great for people who need to quickly set up and integrate an app into their workflow.

I know so many students that like to colour code their notes and OneNote is perfect for those people. They have so many different colours that you can make your notebooks. There are so many different options that they have to design your notes.

Because it is free all you need to get started is a Microsoft account and you are good to go. All your notes are saved and synced to the cloud so you can access them and edit them from all of your devices. If you need to transfer your notes to another program like Word or Google Docs then you can export all your toes to multiple different formats instead of copying and pasting everything.

If you want a simple note-taking app then you have to check out OneNote. Its simple user interfaces and small learning curve allows anyone to create detailed and comprehensive notes. OneNote is one of the best productivity apps because anyone can get started for free and it is packed full of features.

Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash

3. Google Calendar

There is no doubt that you have heard of Google, in fact, you probably use Google as your main search engine. You most likely also have a google account because there is so much that you can do with it. Everyone that has a google account also gets access to Google Calendar which is a great multi-device calendar as well as a great productivity app.

Google Calendar has many features that you can use but if you just want a basic calendar then you can do that. If you need a productivity app that can give you many alerts in advance, be colour coded or have many different settings that can be personalised for each event then Google Calendar is for you.

As well as having a fully-featured calendar, you also get a todo list and goal builder built right in. The reminder section can be very useful but I don’t think that it will become your main reminders app as it doesn’t have enough features. However, the calendar makes up for this as it has everything that you could possibly need.

I have used Google Calendar for the longest time and I can wholeheartedly say that this is probably one of my favourite productivity apps of all time. I really enjoy the way that the app is laid out and I think that this app will work well for anyone whether you are student, business owner or someone who needs an app to become more organised.

The app is free forever and all you need is a Google account. All your events will be synced through the cloud and will immediately appear on all of your devices. This is by far the easiest and simplest calendar that you can use and that is why it is one of the best productivity apps for 2021!

Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

4. Lastpass

Lastpass is an all-in-one product storage solution that is extremely secure and trustworthy. I have been using Lastpass for over 3 years now and I can tell you that it is more than just a password storage solution, it has many extra features that turns this into a productivity app.

The chances are that you are signed up to many different websites and you are also probably using the same password which is very insecure. This can become a problem because while remembering your password isn’t a problem, it means that if your password is leaked then anyone can have access to all of your accounts.

LastPass makes this easy as it has a built-in password generator that will create you a very strong password that will be hard to remember and hard to breach. Lastpass will then store those passwords for you so that you never have to remember a password again!

They also offer a very useful app and extension that will auto-fill passwords for you. If you are on a phone or tablet then it will auto-fill by using your face or fingerprint id and if you are on a computer it will auto-fill without a password or authentication.

Lastpass has many security features that you can use to make your account very secure include 2-factor authentication. If you decide to upgrade to the paid plan you can get more features like dark web monitoring.

I have always used the free version of LastPass but there is a paid version that costs around $50 per year that will get you more security features. I think that for most people will be fine with the free version as the extra features in the premium version are quite advanced so most people won’t use them.

I have put LastPass on this list because it can save you a lot of time and headaches because you don’t have to remember any more passwords and Lastpass will auto-fill passwords for you. This in my opinion makes Lastpass a great productivity app for 2021!

Photo by Micah Williams on Unsplash

5. Google Drive

Google Drive is Google’s all in one cloud storage solution that is not only cheap but also easy to use. Anyone with a Google account gets 15GB of free storage that has no limits on it and if you need more then you can pay a very small amount to get an extra 100GB or all the way up to many terabytes.

Google Drive is a great solution if you are constantly running out of space on your computer or phone because you can keep expanding when you need to and it is backed up to the cloud so you won’t lose your data.

You mainly access this service through your web browser but there is also an app for iOS and android as well as being able to integrate with Windows File Explorer and Mac Finder. It is the most versatile cloud solution because it supports almost all file formats and there are extra add-ons that you can get to improve your overall experience.

Google Drive also works great with all the Google services like Docs and Sheets because it can do things like autosave so you never have to save a document again! You can also make backups of your various different devices if you don’t want to use the standard one that comes with them or if you want an extra backup.

I think that everyone should be using Google Drive because it is very inexpensive and it is packed full of features that anyone can use. No matter who you are I can guarantee that you have a use for Google Drive unless you are already using another cloud storage solution. Because you don’t have to save documents and everything is very easy to access I have put this on this list of the best productivity apps for 2021!

Photo by Elle Cartier on Unsplash

Conclusion

If you are looking to become more productive in 2021 then there are loads of apps that can help you get there. Some apps only do one thing but that one thing could end up saving you a lot of time in the long run.