Final 12 months, I lastly made the change to a Mac.
As a marketer by day and enterprise improvement specialist by night time, I take advantage of many alternative instruments to handle my time, observe duties, maintain my inventive juices flowing, keep in contact, automate stuff, and maintain all the pieces good and arranged.
So, I used to be nervous if my typical productiveness apps and instruments, particularly those needing downloads, would work properly on a brand-new Mac. Seems, all of them did. And my productiveness surged.
So, on this piece, I’m sharing the ten finest productiveness apps for Mac with all their options and golden highlights.
Desk of Contents
What are productiveness apps?
Productiveness apps aid you work higher and sooner, releasing up your psychological vitality. Their fundamental purpose is to make you extra targeted and productive at a given second.
In keeping with worker efficiency analysis, productiveness instruments have an extraordinarily optimistic impression on worker efficiency. Those that use them are extra relaxed and obtain higher outcomes.
In essence, productiveness apps assist with process administration, calendar group, note-taking, staff collaboration, and time monitoring. For instance, venture administration instruments fall below this class. They allow you to kind duties into boards, lists, and playing cards, which is tremendous useful for staying on observe.
10 Greatest Productiveness Apps for Mac
1. Todoist
Todoist is a process administration app for organizing duties and tasks. You possibly can create to-do lists, set deadlines, prioritize duties, and collaborate with others.
It’s accessible on browsers, cellular units, and desktop functions. Todoist organizes your tasks with recurring duties, sub-tasks, labels, and filters.
Core Options
- Easy process seize.
- Recurring due dates.
- Well timed reminders.
- Integration with Everhour, Outlook, Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, Trello, and extra.
- Cross-device synchronization.
- Undertaking group inside customizable tasks.
- Versatile views, together with checklist, calendar, and board layouts.
- Collaborative options for sharing duties, assigning roles, and exchanging feedback.
- Prepared-made templates for jumpstarting teamwork.
- Productiveness monitoring for setting targets, monitoring progress, and analyzing traits.
Pricing
- Newbie: Free.
- Professional: $4 per thirty days (billed yearly).
- Enterprise: $6 per member month-to-month (billed yearly).
Tried & Examined: What I Assume
I’ve tried different apps like Microsoft To-Do and Google Duties, however Todoist’s fast keyboard enter for dates, tasks, priorities, and tags satisfied me shortly to modify.
I take advantage of Todoist primarily for 2 issues:
- Scheduling. I really like the simplicity of scheduling with it. For instance, I kind “Each Monday” for a process I do each week. It additionally works for extra particular schedules, like “each three months beginning March 1.”
I simply kind these phrases, and Todoist understands instructions with out additional enter from me.
- Planning. I take advantage of it to plan my each day actions — from work to private ones. On my checklist, you will discover issues like morning yoga, breakfast, writing an article, visiting the dentist, and many others. Plus, Todoist’s customers could make lists with out strict deadlines, akin to purchasing lists. I personally use Notes on my iPhone for that.
And one of many coolest issues about Todoist is the way it works with Alexa.
If I neglect one thing, I simply say, “Alexa, add a brand new assembly tomorrow at 8 am,” and growth, it’s in my Todoist in seconds.
2. Harvest
Harvest is a time-tracking and invoicing software program that manages time and bills. It helps monitor productiveness, analyze venture prices, and streamline billing processes.
It additionally creates detailed experiences to research venture progress and efficiency.
Core Options
- Monitoring hours, tasks, and actions with visible experiences.
- Administration of invoices, bills, and billable objects.
- Integration with common instruments like Asana, Slack, PayPal, and extra.
- Automated reminders and notifications for consistency.
- Actual-time venture budgeting, forecasting, and progress monitoring.
- At-a-glance view of staff workload and useful resource administration.
- Customizable experiences and collaboration instruments for venture administration.
- Cell entry and on-line/offline time monitoring.
- QuickBooks integration for seamless accounting.
- Easy knowledge import/export and web-based deployment.
Pricing
- Free Ceaselessly: $0.
- Harvest Professional: $10.80 per seat month-to-month (billed yearly).
Tried & Examined: What I Assume
I attempted to make use of Harvest for invoicing, and actually, since I’m not huge on accounting and all that numbers stuff (I suppose each inventive individual feels the identical), I discovered it very easy to make use of however stayed with my Google Sheets.
Nonetheless, you may profit from monitoring paid/unpaid invoices and sending reminders.
Two issues I favored about its invoicing function:
- It routinely creates invoices from timesheets.
- I can settle for on-line funds by way of PayPal and Stripe.
I additionally tried its time tracker.
In comparison with different trackers, I really like Harvest’s privateness safety. It doesn’t:
- Take screenshots or video recordings of your pc.
- Monitor your chats or messages.
- Monitor which web sites or apps you utilize.
- Enable monitoring of your staff’s location by way of GPS.
Your employer sees your timesheets after you submit them, which is ideal for distant employees. There’s no want to fret if a non-public message pops up throughout a screenshot — Harvest tracks time precisely whereas respecting your privateness. I like it.
3. Monday.com
Monday is a venture administration device for managing duties, bettering collaboration, and growing productiveness. Monday helps product, design, and R&D groups work higher with agile workflows.
Core Options
- Clear interface and easy navigation.
- Customizable workflows.
- Process administration, knowledge visualization, workload monitoring, and different venture administration options.
- AI Assistant provides useful ideas and automation.
- Templates for various industries and sectors.
- Scales with staff dimension — appropriate for companies of all sizes.
- Doc modifying, venture message boards, visitor entry.
- Integrates with Gmail, Slack, Groups, and extra.
- Chart view, customizable dashboards for monitoring progress.
- Stay chat, e mail help, 2FA, IP restriction.
Pricing
- Free: $0 eternally, as much as 2 seats.
- Fundamental: $9 a seat per thirty days (billed yearly).
- Commonplace: $12a seat per thirty days (billed yearly).
- Professional: $19 a seat per thirty days (billed yearly).
- Enterprise: Value accessible upon request.
Tried & Examined: What I Assume
I take advantage of Monday, Asana, and Trello for various tasks. For me, Monday wins by way of flexibility and pricing. On Monday, I observe my workload for the charitable fund District #1, like a head of partnerships.
I opted for a simplified Kanban methodology to arrange and prioritize my duties with “Backlog,” “In progress,” and “Carried out” tabs.
My content material advertising and marketing friends additionally use Monday’s Content material Planning Template. It helps them with all the pieces from brainstorming concepts to scheduling posts — multi functional workspace.
As an example:
- You possibly can schedule content material weeks prematurely, so that you at all times know what’s developing.
- Handle your workload by assigning duties.
- By no means miss a deadline, because of automated reminders.
4. Trello
Trello is one other venture administration device for small groups with boards, lists, and playing cards for organizing duties and tasks. It’s tremendous straightforward to maneuver the playing cards between lists as duties progress. It’s also possible to add descriptions, checklists, due dates, attachments, and feedback to playing cards.
The perfect worth for cash. (Free in your complete staff(!) with restricted options.)
Core Options
- Organizing tasks and duties on boards — Kanban board fashion.
- Visualizing venture timelines for monitoring sprints and targets.
- Planning and scheduling duties with a calendar view.
- Displaying location-based knowledge on an interactive map.
- Coordinating work throughout a number of boards with customized overviews.
- Automating duties and workflows with Butler automation.
- Pre-designed templates.
- Integration with apps like Slack, Miro, Salesforce, and extra.
Pricing
- Free: $0 (free in your complete staff).
- Commonplace: $5 per person a month if billed yearly ($6 billed month-to-month).
- Premium: $10 per person a month if billed yearly ($12.50 billed month-to-month).
- Enterprise: $17.50 per person a month, billed yearly.
Tried & Examined: What I Assume
I used to work primarily on Monday or Asana, however then I met a shopper who prefers Trello for all their tasks. So I gave it a strive. Proper from the beginning, Trello was tremendous straightforward to make use of.
I transfer duties between “Transient prepared,” “Assigned to author,” and many others., with only a few clicks.
Leaving feedback on every card can also be easy, and I like how organized and neat all of it appears on the dashboard.
High options I take advantage of:
- Description. For a short overview of venture particulars to maintain the shopper within the loop.
- Label. In addition to shopper labels, I additionally categorize duties for myself with labels like “Pressing,” “In Progress,” or “Accomplished.”
- Guidelines. I take advantage of checklists to trace the completion of particular duties.
- Attachment. I embody related sources, paperwork, or pictures.
The perfect half is that pictures are seen on the board — there is no such thing as a must open a process to see them.
For Mac customers: Proper-click a picture, copy it, then paste it straight into Trello with Cmd+V.
5. Grammarly
Grammarly is my go-to writing assistant for catching grammar errors, punctuation, spelling, readability, and plagiarism.
The perfect factor concerning the app is its real-time ideas and corrections as you kind.
Core Options
- Grammar and spelling checks.
- Punctuation checks — commas, intervals, citation marks, and semicolons.
- Type ideas for enhanced readability.
- Suggestions on sentence construction and readability.
- Synonyms and various phrases for enriching vocabulary.
- Plagiarism detection.
- Browser extension for real-time help.
- Integration with platforms like Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, MS Phrase, Google Docs, Slack, LinkedIn, X, and many others.
- Personalised writing insights.
- AI rewriting.
- Correct citations in APA, MLA, or Chicago fashion.
- Cell keyboard for writing on smartphones and tablets.
Pricing
- Free Plan: $0 per thirty days.
- Premium Plan: $12 per thirty days billed yearly, or $30 per thirty days billed month-to-month (my alternative).
- Enterprise Plan: $15 member per thirty days billed yearly, or $25 member per thirty days billed month-to-month.
- Enterprise Plan: Customized pricing.
Tried & Examined: What I Assume About It
Identical to each different content material author, I like Grammarly. It shortly fixes misspellings, errors, and grammar points. I often use it to shine my articles and write my LinkedIn posts.
It’s one of many high Mac productiveness instruments as a result of it integrates completely with Safari, and its downloaded model works flawlessly as properly.
Whereas Grammarly is extremely useful, I don’t at all times agree with a few of its ideas. They merely don’t match my context or sound awkward. Nonetheless, regardless of these occasional quirks, Grammarly at all times helps me catch errors I overlook, particularly in a rush.
6. Marinara Pomodoro Assistant
I take advantage of the Marinara: Pomodoro Assistant Chrome extension to make the Pomodoro approach simply accessible on my Mac. The app breaks duties into intervals, historically 25 minutes lengthy with quick breaks.
I’m merely in love with this technique for supercharging my productiveness after I wrestle to drag myself collectively and get issues completed. It immediately prompts my focus mode, and I grow to be so within the zone that nothing can distract me.
Core Options
- Progress monitoring for each day, weekly, or customized intervals.
- Work interval length adjustment.
- Variable break durations.
- Auto-start choice for the following timer and world hotkeys.
- Export to CSV, alarm sounds choice, non-obligatory ticking, and startup launch.
- Historical past report.
Pricing
Tried & Examined: What I Assume
I’ve tried numerous Pomodoro apps earlier than, however Marinara Pomodoro Assistant is my favourite. It really works easily with none bugs or crashes. Additionally, the experiences are crystal clear. I simply choose a timeframe and verify working intervals.
7. Evernote
Evernote is an app for taking any sort of notes and maintaining them organized. Use it to put in writing down concepts, save internet pages, and even report audio notes. It really works on units like your telephone and laptop computer, so you may entry your notes from anyplace.
Core Options
- Fast observe creation and entry on any system.
- Incorporation of content material from numerous apps.
- Integration with Google Calendar, Microsoft Groups, Slack, Salesforce, and extra.
- Recording and storing audio notes.
- Turning bodily paperwork into searchable notes.
- Pre-made templates.
- Net clipper — aka direct saving of on-line content material to Evernote.
- Search performance inside PDFs and pictures.
- On the spot entry to steadily used notes by way of shortcuts.
Pricing
- Free: $0 a month.
- Private: $14.99 per thirty days or $129.99 per 12 months.
- Skilled: $17.99 per thirty days or $169.99 per 12 months.
- Groups: $24.99 person per thirty days or $249.99 person per 12 months.
Tried & Examined: What I Assume
I didn’t change to Evernote, however I attempted it for 2 weeks to see if I favored it:
- Including audio materials was superior.
- I favored its integration with Gmail and Google Drive. I may connect recordsdata to notes, ship notes by way of Gmail, and share them with purchasers in seconds.
- Evernote’s OCR function lets me search PDFs shortly.
I’ve nothing towards the app; the explanation I didn’t change is extra private. I’m used to engaged on Monday and making notes in default Mac apps.
8. Slack
Slack is a well-liked messaging platform for communication inside groups and organizations. It permits file sharing, automation with Google Analytics (and extra!), and organizing conversations into channels. Slack goals to streamline communication and cut back reliance on e mail.
Core Options
- On the spot messaging for fast communication.
- Integration with 2,600+ apps akin to Jira, Google Calendar, HubSpot, Google Drive, and extra.
- Voice and video calls.
- Doc sharing and storage.
- Workflow automation for streamlining duties.
- Collaborative brainstorming house with Canvas.
- Superior search performance for locating previous conversations and recordsdata.
- Knowledge exports for all messages.
Pricing
- Free: $0 a month.
- Professional Plan: $7.25 per thirty days billed yearly or $8.75 per thirty days billed month-to-month.
- Skilled: $12.50 per thirty days billed yearly or $15 per thirty days billed month-to-month.
- Enterprise Grid: Customized pricing.
Tried & Examined: What I Assume
Slack is my best choice amongst communication apps. Switching between chats, channels, contacts, and workspaces is only a click on away.
My favourite components in each Slack neighborhood are channels akin to #bulletins and fewer work-related issues like birthdays, celebrations, and sharing random pictures from the staff.
That’s the very first thing I verify at any time when I leap into a brand new Slack workspace. 🙂
And, as somebody who enjoys structuring and making messages simpler to learn, I like Slack’s nice formatting options in chat (daring, italic, numbered, and bullet lists).
9. Monosnap
Monosnap is for taking, modifying, and sharing annotated screenshots with the flexibility to blur delicate info.
Core Options
- Screencast recording with spotlight capabilities.
- Annotating screenshots with pens, textual content, arrows, and shapes.
- Versatile display screen seize choices: full display screen, a part of the display screen, or chosen window.
- Immediately share screenshots.
- Customizable hotkeys for fast entry.
- Delayed screenshots for exact timing.
- Blur delicate info to take care of privateness.
Pricing
- Free Plan: $0.
- Non-Business Plan: $2.50 a month (billed yearly) or $3 a month (billed month-to-month).
- Business Plan: $5 a person per thirty days (billed yearly) or $10 a person per thirty days (billed month-to-month).
Tried & Examined: What I Assume
After I received my Mac, I switched from ShareX, which I used on my Home windows, to Monosnap after a dozen tried-and-failed apps. Different apps got here with poor UX or lacked crucial options like blurring.
10. Calendly
Calendly is a well-liked device for scheduling appointments. You possibly can share your accessible occasions by way of a personalised reserving web page with out the back-and-forth of emails.
It syncs with calendars akin to Google Calendar, Outlook, or iCloud and supplies a personalised hyperlink for reserving a time slot.
Core Options
- Shareable hyperlinks to guide appointments straight.
- Alerts and notifications.
- Appointment and occasion administration.
- Automated and group scheduling.
- Customizable options — branding, varieties, experiences, and templates.
- Rescheduling.
- Integration with HubSpot, Google Calendar, Zoom, Microsoft Groups, and many others.
- Computerized time zone conversion.
- Detailed knowledge on bookings, conversion charges, and different metrics for efficiency monitoring and optimization.
Pricing
- Free: $0 a month.
- Commonplace: $10 a seat per thirty days.
- Groups: $16 a seat per thirty days.
- Enterprise: Customized pricing.
Tried & Examined: What I Assume
With Calendly, I’ve designated three occasion sorts to keep away from back-and-forth emailing:
- For venture replace conferences with my purchasers.
- For preliminary interviews with potential companions.
- For consultations with people enthusiastic about content material writing or enterprise improvement.
My two further factors go to the mixing with Google Calendar and Google Meet.
Additionally, I really like how Calendly routinely adjusts time zones. Since I work with purchasers and companions from each Europe and the US, this function is gold.
What’s the perfect productiveness app?
Every of those 10 apps serves its objective completely, however my three favs are:
- Monday.com. Good for organizing my workflows and monitoring progress.
- Marinara Pomodoro Assistant. Helps me take work sprints and keep targeted with the Pomodoro timer.
- Grammarly. Improves my writing and catches errors in actual time.
Whereas I’m at all times open to making an attempt out extra Mac productiveness apps, these three will keep on my checklist for a very long time.
P.S. As soon as I put some new instruments to the take a look at, I’ll share my insights and expertise with you.