Apple’s platforms boast a huge catalog of productivity apps that not only have a good foundation: they also offer a very neat design that’s a pleasure to work with. We’ve spent years calling this productivity one of the best things about iPhones and Macs.
Now, beyond the most popular apps that we usually recommend, What applications are used by Applesfera editors? In the blacksmith’s house, what material is the spoon made of? Here I reveal the mystery.
The native as useful: the applications of Miguel López and David Bernal
A waiter and David Bernal used the applications that Apple itself offers us: Reminders and calendar. In my case, I use the Calendar to write down all the events and trips that I have both in my personal life and in my work, while I start to take my first steps in the Reminders to write down my tasks classified into projects. .
Until now, I also managed tasks in Calendar, but I decided to try Reminders because it categorizes these tasks better and does not force me to constantly move them if I have a busy day that prevents me to stick to the schedule I had set for myself. The benefits are clear: I don’t have to pay a subscription and the integration is total.
David also mentions another benefit: you can add tasks by dictating them to Siri, including those that repeat on a recurring basis throughout the week or month. All you have to do on a daily basis is check the “Today” section of reminders (something you can even do from Apple Watch) and fill in what’s pending there.
A calendar for everything: Pedro Aznar’s productivity app
Fantastical, the most comprehensive alternative calendar for iPhone, iPad and Mac, is Pedro Aznar’s choice:
The main tool I use for my productivity is Fantastical. I use it because my method of organizing and organizing myself is to put the tasks I have to do on a calendar: not only work, but also personal matters – like dinners, parties, visits family… This allows me to see the voids with a “glance” that I have for a new task, or to rest: a task that I also mark to “reserve” this space for myself. I like Fantastical for its ease of use, design and interface, but it could also use Apple’s Calendar app just fine.”
You can try Fantastical for free, although to use all its functions you must pay a subscription of 3.67 dollars per month (paid annually). You can download Fantastical from the App Store.
Tasks always well classified: Javier Lacort’s productivity apps
Things is my task manager, I write absolutely everything there, separated by domains and projects, both personally and professionally. For someone who isn’t comfortable with an app at these prices, I would recommend Todoist. Even reminders are good at least to start with.
To handle mail, I use Spark. Although the native app has improved in Ventura, for me it still makes a difference. Set aside emails, manage them as tasks, block new senders, mark emails as priority, possibility to add HTML signatures… It convinced me from the first minute, and with its big update this year, even more.
Then there are the notes. I’m in the middle of transitioning from the native app to Craft, which launched a wizard that uses GPT-3 to request almost anything with reference to the texts we manage. I use it both to start creative work and for my own personal, home or business wiki. These are usually notes that I write once, update little, and consult a lot. Craft, due to the design of the app itself and how easily it lets you have fantastic visual organization, in addition to the apps themselves, won me over.
Finally, the calendar. Fantastic use. It might be the weakest link and the one that would cost me the least to give up to use the native app again, but I like it enough to stay there, especially for its widgets and complications for iOS, although that where I use it the most is on macOS.
As you can see, each publisher has its own way of organizing between native and third-party apps. Even artificial intelligence is starting to play a role herewhich can be seen moving from Craft to other applications.
Remember that our way of being productive doesn’t have to be the right way for you: everyone is different and maybe there are some who are better suited to a simple text file to write each task in. If you haven’t already written your tasks down somewhere, this may have inspired you.
Imagen | Win visuals
