10 mobile apps to help you work smarter - Viewpoint - careers advice blog Viewpoint careers advice blog

10 mobile apps to help you work smarter - Viewpoint - careers advice blog Smartphones, tablets and wearable devices are having the same game-changing effect on the world of work that personal computers had thirty years ago. Just think of all the different pieces of kit you would have needed to carry around which can now be found on a single device; a telephone, a pager, a camera, a notepad, a calculator, a calendar, a computer, a cassette player, a map â€" the list goes on. The advances in technology over the last couple of decades are quite remarkable, and at this point seem quite limitless â€" there are already ways  you can turn your smartphone into a virtual reality headset.  But it isn’t all fun and games; you can also use your smartphone to help organise and streamline your working life. Levelling the playing field My initial reason for writing this blog was to help the senior residents of my neighbourhood, who lag considerably behind the younger generation when it comes to “problem-solving using digital tools”. Those aged between 16 and 34 ranked second only behind Finland in this category, while older adults aged 45 to 65 ranked 18th out of the 34 countries studied by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), reports The Straits Times. One way by which the senior generations can up-skill themselves is to leverage their experience by combining it with the tools already available to them; specifically mobile apps. As our CEO Alistair Cox writes in a recent LinkedIn Influencer blog, “The trick to boosting productivity lies in creating a symbiotic relationship between your people and the tools and technology you provide them with to best do their jobs”. This is relevant advice for workers of all generations: by fusing your expertise with the available technology, you can become both more competent and more productive. Without further ado then, here are ten apps to help you work smarter: 1. Slack Slack is an instant messaging program which can be used on any device and which allows employees to communicate with one another without the need for texting or emailing. It’s an app which allows you the choice of either communicating with a group (openly or privately) or speaking with a colleague directly. Slack enables you to, “centralize all your notifications, from sales to tech support, social media and more, into one searchable place where your team can discuss and take action on each”. I find Slack particularly useful when conversing with colleagues about a fast-moving project which would only be weighed down by formal email threads. Slack’s place at the top of this list is justified by the fact that, since its release in 2013,the app has amassed over three million daily active users. 2. LastPass LastPass is a password manager which remembers everything for you by securely encrypting all of your passwords in a private account. With cyber-attacks becoming increasingly common, it makes sense to store all of your precious passwords in a safe place â€" only accessible by fingerprint â€" less you risk compromising the business’s security. I, and you probably do to, have so many different personal and business accounts to remember varying passwords for (did this password require a number or special character? Did it have to be a certain length?) that it makes sense to have someone else do all the memorising for you. It’s a wise alternative to writing all your passwords on a piece of paper on your desk or wasting ten minutes every day trying to log into the company project management portal in any case. 3. Evernote Evernote describes itself as, “the productivity app that keeps your projects, ideas, and inspiration handy across all of your digital devices”. This app is useful for recording information (whether that information is in the form of regular text, a photograph, a voice memo and so), which you can then access across all of your devices. Once saved you can either painlessly use the search function to bring up past ‘notes’, or you can share these ‘notes’ with colleagues. I find Evernote particularly useful for filing receipts, which you can do by taking a picture of them and then storing them in your ‘notebook’ for whenever you next need them. It’s also a good way of taking instant notes during a meeting, as the app is sometimes even more intuitive than most word processing programs. 4. RescueTime RescueTime allows you to track your progress and productivity â€" or lack thereof â€" throughout the day. The program runs in the background on your device, and tracks your time spent on various applications and websites, then giving you detailed reports and data on your activity. You can then use this information, as I do, to review whether you’re using your time wisely or not. You will probably find that there is always one more tweak you can make to better streamline your day. 5. Splashtop The concept for Splashtop is simple but highly effective. It’s an app which allows you to access all of the files you have stored on your computer remotely by gaining access to that specific computer, rather than a storage cloud. This is particularly useful when you’re outside of the office and have forgotten to send yourself a file for an important meeting. 6. Google Docs This is perhaps the most widely used app of the ten listed in this blog. It’s the perfect platform for collaboration with colleagues; allowing you to create and edit web-based documents. It’s very simple to use, and means that you no longer have to waste time and inbox space by emailing pesky Word or PowerPoint documents to yourself. 7. UberConference UberConference is an alternative to traditional conference call programs like PalTalk and PowWowNow. This app posits itself as the “stress-free conference call”, as it doesn’t require the user to enter two or three different pins, and it also displays who is talking at all times, thus avoiding crossover conversations. I don’t know for sure that it is the absolute answer to the frustrations that occur on all conference calls, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. 8. Pocket How often do you come across an article that sounds interesting but for which you don’t have time to read right there and then? Pocket allows you to bookmark these articles so you can access them later on when you have a spare moment. It’s a great little program for stockpiling interesting news stories and motivational pieces while on your commute. 9. GoodReader GoodReader is the ultimate PDF management tool. This appgives you the ability to not only to open, edit, annotate and save PDF documents, but also to rearrange pages, extract pages as individual files, import pages from other files and split documents. 10. Mindfulness Daily All of the above apps have been included in this list to help make your working day easier and less stressful, however if you’re still feeling slightly panicked then there’s a specific app for that too. Mindfulness Daily helps you keep your cool through meditation before, after or even during your working day. It allows you to choose specific times of the day when you’d like to practice your meditation, and sends you a notification for when it’s time to begin. It also provides soothing soundtracks, lessons and imagery to help you get in the zone. We all lead busy lives, but making sure that you’re not over-fatigued or stressed out at any time during the day is key to maintaining your productivity and basic competency at work. An app a day keeps unproductivity at bay While more senior generations may benefit most from these mobile apps, as their education (at least here in Singapore) has, in a lot of cases, not sufficiently equipped them for the modern working world, the above tools can really be put to good use by employees of any age. The OECD Director for Education and Skills, Andreas Schleicher, commented in the aforementioned study, “It’s the use of skills that drives productivity, not years of education”, and I have to agree. You can be highly proficient and productive in the workplace without formal academic accreditations, and one way in which you can do this is to give your skillset an extra boost is by making full use of all the tools available to you: one of which is mobile apps. I hope you have found the above advice useful. Here are some other Viewpoint blogs and a SlideShare presentation to help you effectively manage your career: How to improve your work-life balance Are you suffering from career burnout? Its time to make a change What size company is the right fit for you? Common cover letter mistakes How I coped with relocating 11,000 miles for my new job, twice Stop waiting to be recognised Do you know how and when to say no? Share this blog: