Being productive in this time and age has to be a conscious decision with an even more conscious and intentional approach because if you don’t give productivity your focus, you’ll likely drift through time not knowing exactly where your time is going or what you’re using it for.Being a:
– Princess of God (that’s my first a d foremost role and identity- I am a Child of God),
-a wife (who aims at and delights to be an absolutely phenomenal wife in every respect as God gives me grace),
-a mom ( of boys who wants to raise her kids for the kingdom),
– a career person ( and anytime I say this, pride, a type of pride I can’t describe wells up on my inside. I guess. No, scratch that! I know I love the path God has chosen for me
– A woman in ministry ( or maybe I should say, a woman on assignment
– An author, speaker and writer ( what’s the difference anyway between author and writer anyway?)With me having to play all these roles, my schedule can get really busy and tight and if I’m not very focused on making my day productive, I could miss it at some point. Now, while I don’t claim that I get it 100% all the time, planning and structuring my life and time has helped me achieve more than I could have ever achieved, if I just let things run auto or by default.A key part of maximizing my day and achieving optimum productivity is the use of apps. For someone who wasn’t technology savvy, I’ve discovered that technology can literally be a lifesaver if you know how to use it. For me, it’s been a time saver and life enhancer and in this mail, I want to share my top 7 productivity apps with you. These are applications that have literally made life easy for me, helping me to combine all my roles and almost making me appear like a superwoman.
1) My Bible App – YouVersion: This is premium and number one for me because life is first spiritual. I especially love this Bible app because of it’s convenience and usefulness. It has a whole lot of translations of the Bible and it’s easy for me compare different translations with just a click. Another amazing feature is the numerous devotionals that are on the app. There is practically no challenge or life issue that you won’t find a devotional for; and the devotionals are by seasoned authors. The app is simply amazing..and free.
2) YouTube App: This is the second top app for me and is rightly so because it’s my second inspiration hub. After the Bible, the YouTube comes next for videos and various audio messages ranging from Christian teachings to Inspirational podcasts and audio books. And there is practically no one you can’t find on YouTube. Most of your favourite inspiring teachers and personalities are on YouTube, dishing out amazing stuff that has helped make them who they are today. Through my YouTube app, I get my daily dose of inspiration. My current crave is Steven Furtick for phenomenal bible messages; Terri Savelle Foy for Inspirational podcasts and John Maxwell for Audio books.
3) Clock Timer: Everyday has 24 hours, just 24 hours. So it means that i would have to be conscious how I spend my time because every time spent or wasted, is gone. I love to use timers for what I do because it helps me be productive and I use the pomodoro technique. What this basically means is that I set a timer for say 30 minutes to read for example and for the 30 minutes, I focus and execute that reading. There is a source of urgency and in that time, I cut out distractions and I dive into what I’m reading with absolute concentration. This means I get more done than I would have if I was reading with no sense of urgency and time control. It’s a really effective technique that I use for just about anything I do and my timer app helps me to achieve that.
4) TimeTune app: I’m a routines person. Routines are another set of time-savers, more like they help your productivity soar. If you have goals, you should have a daily structure that can help help you build a life that will enable you fulfill your goals. Things you do daily like pray, exercise, listen to podcasts and/or messages, say your confessions etc. But the challenge is having to write this every time and maybe missing out on it because I forgot. That’s where TimeTune comes in. With time tune, I can schedule all my routines from Sunday to Saturday and the app reminds me of the next thing to do when the time comes and it can remind me 5 minutes or 2 minutes or right on time, depending on when I set it. And it also doubles as my alarm as it wakes me up from sleep, to pray! This app is amazing.
5) Google Browser – fondly called Google University. Most of us have this app on our phones but we don’t put it to good use. See, there is almost nothing you can’t find good information about, on the ‘Google University’. Now as with all general information, whatever information you get from Google has to be curated and the more delicate and sensitive the information is, the more work you have to do to curate it so you are sure it’s as authentic as it can be. But Google can be the first port of call to get information for whatever step you need to take next. I know there are other similar browser apps but I love Google for it’s simplicity and UI (User Interface) and UX (User eXperience).
6)E-Book Reader – Media365 reader: I love books. Readers are leaders and anything that makes reading convenient for me is a major. These days, ebooks are topping the charts for preferable book formats and I happen to be part of the wagon who prefer screen reads to hard copy. I love hard copies especially because I can mark and make notes but the inconvenience of carrying hard copies around is gradually getting high. I still have hard copies; alot of them but I’m really easing into ecopies and my app for ebook reader is Media365 reader. I know there are other apps but I love this for it’s convenience ( lol. I just realized that the word ‘convenience’ has consistently popped up in this post. I guess it means a lot to me when it comes to technology especially because I am not exactly technology savvy, as least not like an IT person, so I don’t like anything that will give me headache). Another feature of the Media 365 app that I love is that I can shop for books for free on the app. And the books are divided by category so that I can go to straight to the section of the books I need. Another amazing one even though I haven’t used it so I can’t say for sure how it works, is that you can publish your books for free, there. I guess I’ll be publishing my first novel on the platform.
7) Jotter Pad: Being a creative means that ideas can hit me anywhere, anytime. And sometimes, the beauty of words written occurs because the writer captured them at that point in time when the inspiration hit. If you miss out on that moment when the lightening strikes, you might find it difficult to capture it exactly the way it came to you, at first. And since our mobile phones happens to almost always be with us these days, it only makes sense that it also becomes a tool for collecting ideas when they strike. For me, Jotterpad does the magic. Besides being convenient (again!), Jotterpad has organization. I can organize my thoughts in different sheets and put them in different folders. And I can access everything at some clicks. It’s simply amazing. There are others I use like the Writer+ app but I’ll just talk about this for now. Send me a mail if you want to know the others that I use.
8) Google Notes.(Keep Notes) : This transcribes voice notes to texts and I use it in sync with Jotterpad. When spoken clearly and crisply, it can translate your words to an accuracy that is near 70% and that takes the major work off writing for me as all I have to do is edit, correct and add some finishing touches. I’ve only used it for non-fiction transcripts though, haven’t tried out fiction especially because of all the grammatical structure that comes with fiction stories.
That’s it.
I actually do have a couple of other apps like the one I use for my exercise and video works and I intend to explore some more especially in the area of finance and budgeting so I can share with you guys as time goes on.For you, which of this have you used before and/or what are your thoughts about them?Let’s discuss below
Yours Truly
Aijay Ufomadu
