Five Productivity Apps to Kick-Start the New Year

[Yammabot]

I have been looking for a good multi user shopping list app for years and I’ve tried so many. None work well and update on the fly with barcode utilization price matching etc.
My favorite app is remember this. Great photo/notes app.

 

[Populus]

As for a tasks manager app, I could recommend Tasks, the app from Mustafa Yusuf. However, even when I’ve purchased the Tasks Plus subscription, I can’t still recommend the app 100% because of the bugs I’m encountering from time to time. They aren’t critical bugs, but sometimes when you use projects with more than two states (to do and done) the app doesn’t correctly allocate the right status to each app. Sometimes you set it as “doing” and it takes it back to “to do”. Or you mar it as “done” and send it to ”to do”.

I guess one of this days I’ll write to Mr Yusuf and explain him my issues with the graphical interface bugs, because other than that, the app is gorgeous and functional.

My recommendation? Download the app, try it out, even if you have to modify the only project you’re available to play with, and if it works well for you (on your devices), then give it a go to the Plus subscription, as it will unlock the projects to use, instead of being limited to one. I’m against subscriptions myself, so let me tell you he has a lifetime license. But beware of the bugs and glitches.

 

[toobravetosave]

Microsoft Copilot is out now as a standalone app, considering that it offers GPT4 and Image Creation for free, there’s no reason to use ChatGPT Free anymore.

there are plenty of reasons like gpt giving more creative and comprehensive responses

it’s free for a reason

edit: u said feee version of gpt you 100% correct but as for gpt4 the paid version is vastly superior. my bad

 

[ethanwa79]

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[Populus]

there are plenty of reasons like gpt giving more creative and comprehensive responses

it’s free for a reason

edit: u said feee version of gpt you 100% correct but as for gpt4 the paid version is vastly superior. my bad

I use GPT 4 on ChatGPT, and have used Bing Search in the past. And honestly, ChatGPT is way way better app for my purposes. For one, it doesn’t limit your conversation to 20 replies. Also it is much more flexible, and Bing Search app is focused on searching the web, while ChatGPT uses its own “database”. For me, is the best invested subscription I pay.

 

[Populus]

one sec helped me save more than 800 hours from spending on social media this year. 100% recommend to check it out. It’s genius.

This looks interesting, not gonna lie.

Not of much use for me because I no longer have social media, but whenever I reinstall Discord, it could be useful. Although if I want to go into an app, pausing me for a second won’t work with me, sadly. Also, I always prefer native iOS features, in this case, maybe I should give iOS’s Screen Time a shot.

What I want to do, and this is a 2024 resolution, is to fully learn to use and take advantage of the iOS Focus Modes. That way, certain apps won’t be able to disturb me during the times I must be productive.

 

[toobravetosave]

I use GPT 4 on ChatGPT, and have used Bing Search in the past. And honestly, ChatGPT is way way better app for my purposes. For one, it doesn’t limit your conversation to 20 replies. Also it is much more flexible, and Bing Search app is focused on searching the web, while ChatGPT uses its own “database”. For me, is the best invested subscription I pay.

i have a feeling most people just don’t have a good reason to use it so they tend to skew negatively.

but for those of us who have discovered really powerful use cases it’s quite incredible even professionally

 

[triton100]

$150 is a lot of money for the app, in my opinion. There is no option to sign in with Apple and data is kept on their servers.

its a one off payment - so its 150 but for like around 5 years worth at least if not more - so like 30 a year - totally worth it

 

[jujoje]

Fantastical's not my cup of tea (the 'premium' gating offers only a few features that I'd use but blocks just enough to make it annoying to use the free version). That said if it does sound good, Daring Fireball have a 20% off premium offer.

On the productivity app front thought Noteplan might be worth a mention as seems not many people know about it. It combines markdown notes, time blocking / calendaring with reminders all in one app. A bit pricy these days, but a really well thought out app, with a really active developer.

What I want to do, and this is a 2024 resolution, is to fully learn to use and take advantage of the iOS Focus Modes. That way, certain apps won’t be able to disturb me during the times I must be productive.

Just set it up myself, and amazing how much it actually helps; if Safari or Mail aren't on the main screen during work focus, then I just don't open them unless I specifically need to. Kinda stupid, but effective.

 

[Isamilis]

Fantastical's not my cup of tea (the 'premium' gating offers only a few features that I'd use but blocks just enough to make it annoying to use the free version). That said if it does sound good, Daring Fireball have a 20% off premium offer.

On the productivity app front thought Noteplan might be worth a mention as seems not many people know about it. It combines markdown notes, time blocking / calendaring with reminders all in one app. A bit pricy these days, but a really well thought out app, with a really active developer.



Just set it up myself, and amazing how much it actually helps; if Safari or Mail aren't on the main screen during work focus, then I just don't open them unless I specifically need to. Kinda stupid, but effective.

$100 per annum for managing daily activities, notes & calendar is quite expensive (subjectively).

 

[dampfnudel]

I used to have Fantastical, until they moved all of the most interesting features to the premium subscription. I have no problem paying for premium, and do for many apps. But the price for the Fantastical premium subscription was too high (for me) given the benefits.

Yeah, that’s one thing that gets me with many app subscriptions. With the amount they charge, it often doesn’t seem worth it with the features they offer over the free versions, especially if some of those features were previously part of the free version. I guess I have subscription fatigue and that’s probably why I currently only have one app subscription.

 

[boss.king]

Am I the only one that uses the Apple Reminders and Apple Calendars? I used Fantastical in the past, but they turned into a subscription based app despite having paid for the full version already. I don't trust 3rd party apps anymore.

I’ve slowly been migrating back to stock Apple apps wherever possible. Notes and Reminders are now on my home screen. I still can’t fully move to Calendar or Mail yet, but I’m looking into it.

 

[Will Co]

I use both Apple reminders and calendars as meets my needs. My only request is for better integration e.g. reminders to show up in calendar. That is what I most miss from not using Fantastical.

Oh yes please. Isn’t it obvious that we want to see Reminders in our Calendar. But Apple don’t provide…

 

[Apple_Robert]

I am surpised no one has recommended Craft, yet. It is one of the most polished, easy to use, and easy to look at Note taking app. And, it has decent PKM capabilities for those who don’t need the power PKM capabilities of Obsidian.

Probably because it is mainly geared towards the Corporate side and offers very little for the average individual.

 

[jujoje]

Notes and Reminders are now on my home screen.

Apple Notes is really excellent these days; use it for all the official docs and stuff that I have to keep and it's got a great balance of features and ease of use. Can't seem to get reminders to stick though; great functionality but something about how it organises and displays things just puts me off.

Bought Things 3 about 6 years ago and still enjoying its non-subscription pricing and regular updates. I think I bought Things (1?) in an actual Apple Store back in the day Really hope they don't move to subscription for the mythical Things 4

Probably because it is mainly geared towards the Corporate side and offers very little for the average individual.

Have to agree here. Actually picked up a Craft license in the Black Friday sale, and regret it somewhat. Feature wise it feels like they're doing an Evernote and chasing corporate users at the expense of the individuals. The other drawback is that everything is block based, which means you can create pretty looking notes, but I find the actual note taking experience rather poor. Went back to Bear; less pretty, but much faster and uses iCloud for syncing. Who knows one day they might even have a web version.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Apple Notes is really excellent these days; use it for all the official docs and stuff that I have to keep and it's got a great balance of features and ease of use. Can't seem to get reminders to stick though; great functionality but something about how it organises and displays things just puts me off.

Bought Things 3 about 6 years ago and still enjoying its non-subscription pricing and regular updates. I think I bought Things (1?) in an actual Apple Store back in the day Really hope they don't move to subscription for the mythical Things 4


Have to agree here. Actually picked up a Craft license in the Black Friday sale, and regret it somewhat. Feature wise it feels like they're doing an Evernote and chasing corporate users at the expense of the individuals. The other drawback is that everything is block based, which means you can create pretty looking notes, but I find the actual note taking experience rather poor. Went back to Bear; less pretty, but much faster and uses iCloud for syncing. Who knows one day they might even have a web version.

I too have Things that I bought not long before version 3 was released. I haven't used it as much as I used to. With many of the stock apps setting more refined and practical in daily use, I have found myself using them more, just like you with Apple Notes.

My biggest problem with Things 3 and other apps like it, is that they are way too convoluted. I realize Things, Craft, and others are highly touted by the YT influencers and I eleven that that is because said people get compensated to pimp the products on their channel. If a supposed 'to do' app take numerous steps to accomplish what I can do with a stock app, I am going to be reticent to use the third party app for long due to the friction. Several of the apps mentioned are not intuitive and a user shouldn't have to struggle for hours inside the learning curve, because the developers tried to get too fancy and be all things to all people.

 

[boss.king]

Apple Notes is really excellent these days; use it for all the official docs and stuff that I have to keep and it's got a great balance of features and ease of use. Can't seem to get reminders to stick though; great functionality but something about how it organises and displays things just puts me off.

Yeah, the UX for Reminders could use some work. I find it can be a pain when I want to set actual reminders with alerts etc, but I mostly just use it for a shared to do list and shared shopping list with my wife, and for that it’s been fine.

I hope if Apple does the whole LLM thing they give all their apps better recognition for natural dates and interpreting/fleshing out shorthand notes and reminders into better filled out entries.

 

[FelineTech]

I used to be a Things and Fantastical user. As of iOS 17, I’ve completely moved to Apple Calendar app and Reminders app. I’ve used some automation scripts in Shortcuts to solve one Reminders limitation, but otherwise both apps work great. All of the data is end-to-end encrypted when Advanced Data Protection is enabled.

 

[ksj1]

For M series Mac's, LM Studio to run local language models from huggingface.com

 

[jujoje]

I realize Things, Craft, and others are highly touted by the YT influencers and I eleven that that is because said people get compensated to pimp the products on their channel.

I think this is certainly the case for some of them; the other is that productivity videos gets the clicks. Totally agree about to simplicity. Some apps like seem to be more for people who like tweaking their productivity systems than anything else. I'm sure people find them useful, but they're way beyond my relatively simple needs (I'd argue that Things and Bear are at the relatively simple end of the spectrum, certainly compared to Omnifocus, Obsidian and the like).

Yeah, the UX for Reminders could use some work. I find it can be a pain when I want to set actual reminders with alerts etc, but I mostly just use it for a shared to do list and shared shopping list with my wife, and for that it’s been fine.

I hope if Apple does the whole LLM thing they give all their apps better recognition for natural dates and interpreting/fleshing out shorthand notes and reminders into better filled out entries.

Reckon that Reminders has more features than Things these days, and the interface is struggling a bit to keep up.

Natural language recognition for reminders and calendars would be great, particularly if other apps could also use it (find the current implementation in Calendar and Reminders a bit fragile). I tried the AI summarisation/rewriting in Craft and have yet to get anything useful out of it.

 

[marmiteturkey]

My productivity setup after years of finessing:
Things
Fantastical
Bear
Apple notes
Reminders
Apple Mail

And a load of office365 due to client commitments. I think this is as simple as I can make it without introducing more friction.

 

[ipedro]

You forgot “Reminders”. Stick with me for a second. I’ve used Things since it launched in iPhone OS 2.0 with the App Store. I love it. But I noticed recently how far Reminders has come, pretty much matching everything I use Things for, plus it’s native and works seamlessly with Siri and all Apple devices.
It took a bit of unlearning some of the workarounds Things has to do to sync Siri, Reminders and Calendar but the longer I use Reminders, the less likely I’m to go back to Things. Have a second look if you wrote it off in previous years.

 

[toobravetosave]

Oh yes please. Isn’t it obvious that we want to see Reminders in our Calendar. But Apple don’t provide…

this has confused me for the longest time and basically stops me from using reminders....

managing these productivity apps has become intensive and annoying

 

[Populus]

You forgot “Reminders”. Stick with me for a second. I’ve used Things since it launched in iPhone OS 2.0 with the App Store. I love it. But I noticed recently how far Reminders has come, pretty much matching everything I use Things for, plus it’s native and works seamlessly with Siri and all Apple devices.
It took a bit of unlearning some of the workarounds Things has to do to sync Siri, Reminders and Calendar but the longer I use Reminders, the less likely I’m to go back to Things. Have a second look if you wrote it off in previous years.

Just curious, do you heavily use the “scheduled” list? Or do you evenly distribute tasks over all your lists? Do you place the activity on the Calendar app right after scheduling the reminder? It would be nice some kind of integration between Remainders and Calendar apps…

I have to admit that I’m using Remainders and Calendar iOS apps more and more for the last couple of years, but I still use the Tasks app, for more specific and detailed workflows.

 

[Apple_Robert]

You forgot “Reminders”. Stick with me for a second. I’ve used Things since it launched in iPhone OS 2.0 with the App Store. I love it. But I noticed recently how far Reminders has come, pretty much matching everything I use Things for, plus it’s native and works seamlessly with Siri and all Apple devices.
It took a bit of unlearning some of the workarounds Things has to do to sync Siri, Reminders and Calendar but the longer I use Reminders, the less likely I’m to go back to Things. Have a second look if you wrote it off in previous years.

The free version of Fantastical will allow you to integrate Apple Reminders. I know it's not a stock solution but, it may work for some here.

Calendar 366 also integrates Reminders with a Calendar. It is a great app with a small one-time fee.