What’s on My Phone? | Day 7/30

Can you name the first 5 apps on your home screen that you can’t really live without? I should use this list to ditch all the apps cluttering my space for no reason. Thank you Prompt #7. 

1. Trello 

 

A highly visual list tool for project management that combines a simple user interface for personal organization, with powerful flexible features that can be used with large teams.   

Trello uses Kanban method on each board offering a birds-eye overview of all tasks and progress with the connections between them. A Card (a single task) moves from left to right (To Do – Doing – Done lists)

I have been a Trello convert for a long time and I use it to manage all my projects in one place. When writing my articles, I have created a seamless workflow from content idea generation to publishing the finished article on WordPress, all with the help of my favourite Powerup called Butler. My meetings with my accountability partner are held in Trello. 

You can use it to manage your entire life – plan out travels, track your job hunt, save online meal recipes, record your child’s milestones, organize work and home improvement projects, money and personal budgets, or just about anything else. 

Apart from the missing functionality of notebooks and notes, (currently using Evernote specifically for that and the toolbar) there’s nothing Trello cannot do. 

2. Ticktick 

 

Once I’m done breaking down my projects into smaller tasks that require recurring tasks or set reminders or added descriptions, I transfer them to Ticktick. When say I have tried and tested literally every to-do app, I mean it.  And I would always come back to this. 

Ticktick is a simple and effective to-do list and general task manager that helps you organize your life. 

The drag and drop Kanban feature that Trello is renowned for is now on Desktop which means soon the rollout will extend to mobile. It’s gunning for Todoist with every update. The developers always listen to feedback and deploy quick feature implementation. 

MKBHD has been singing the praises of this app and I can attest to how functional and user-friendly it is. 

 

Key Features  

→Great interface with full calendar functionality 

→Subscription to third-party calendars (doesn’t offer 2-way sync with Google Calendar) 

→Ability to track activities and progress 

→The free plan has fewer lists, task counts and habits 

→Flexible customized smart lists 

→Time duration tasks and Reminder for subtasks

→Pomodoro timer which you can bind to your tasks  

→Habit Tracker (they should add a timer and stats here)  

 

3. Canva 

 

Canva is the easiest to use graphic design tool and photo-editing platform with free access to a variety of design layouts. It is used to create custom graphics and high-quality photos. 

It is a very efficient tool that can make think you are a talented graphic designer when you’re just starting out. I use it for website and social media graphics, and to learn illustrations and infographics. 

What sold me was the story told of the CEO Melanie Perkins on the How I built this Podcast who started her Canva journey at 19. She is now 31 and her success and creativity speak for itself. At the time, I was struggling to create an infographic. 

 

Key Features 

→Quick to create and customize graphic designs 

→Easy user interface for beginners and professionals 

→Variety of design layouts and templates to ease the design process 

→Upload feature for fonts and images 

→Drag and drop editor 

→Color code options 

 

 

4. Stitcher 

 

An on-demand app that focuses on providing memorable listener experience for radio shows and podcasts. 

Castbox is usually my substitute for finding Podcasts not in Stitcher’s directory and for the awesome in-audio search. 

They tweaked their design recently which threw me off but I’ve gotten used to it. One major issue I wish they work on is their search function whose filter doesn’t give much. 

 

Key Features 

→Episode search – an in-show search bar when you swipe down a show page (iOS) and on the search bar (Android)

→Custom Playlists for different genres 

→Saved episodes feature for listening later 

→Customized Up Next queue 

→Mark Played feature to keep track of played episodes 

→Sleep Timer 

→Custom seek options 

→Customized Automatic Action When the App Launches

→Variable speed playback feature  

 

 

5. Pocket 

 

A read-it-later app for managing a reading list of articles, videos, images, tweets and web pages that are saved for later enjoyment. You can also listen to the articles instead of reading. 

Besides the rich features Pocket boasts of, I like how it bypasses walled gardens. Hopefully, it stays that way forever. 

 

Key Features 

→Offline reading  

→Highlighting for better understanding  and later use (3 per article on free) 

→Reading time estimates 

→Favorites, archiving and listen features 

→An explore page for pocket recommendations, with a save button 

→Labelled tags for easy discoverability 

→Shared to Me feature for articles shared between Pocket users 

 

» Pocket used to have item counts somewhere in the settings. Need it back. 

 

 

Bonus App – Aldiko 

 

An e-book reader app. This is the only app on my list that doesn’t have web integration. Which, sucks for me. 

I have a ridiculously large number of unread books on my TBR list but Collector’s fallacy doesn’t recognize that.  

 

Key Features 

→A fully customizable reading experience 

→User-friendly – bookmarks, notes and highlights (premium) 

→Internet archive, Offline reading and dictionary lookup 

→Importing your own files, and organizing into tags and collections 

 

»» Special mention to my regular social apps but I can live without them on my phone.