5 productivity apps worth paying for
There are thousands of useful apps on the iOS app store and thankfully, many of them are free.
Many of us are conditioned to scoff at the apps in the repulsively high price range of $0.99. A dollar? For an app? No thanks, I’ll just go buy a $4 cup of coffee and inhale it in 20 minutes.
This mindset prevents us from enjoying some seriously great mobile apps that can help us become more productive at home, work or on-the-go.
After taking a look at recent offerings on the app store we break down five productivity apps worth paying for. If you can get over sticker shock quickly read on to learn more about these amazing iOS apps.
Forest ($1.99)
You like watching things grow, don’t you? What about watching things die? Not so much.
Forest is marketed as a cure for technology addition, starting users off with a small seedling that will blossom into a beautiful tree you can add to your forest. Trees only grow if you don’t leave the app. After 30 minutes of focus without doing ANYHING else on your phone your tree will be fully grown. If you even think about checking into Twitter your tree dies. This makes you very sad.
Forest helps keep you focused on everything else in life besides your phone – and rewards users with summary statistics detailing your productivity and a forest to showcase the fruits of your labor. Seasonal trees and in-app purchases are available as well.
Streaks ($3.99)
Streaks is marketed as a to-do app that helps you build good habits. It won an Apple Designs Award this year as well – helping justify it’s $3.99 price tag. Streaks also offers an Apple Watch app as well.
Streaks lets users set up a check list – for instance, reminding you to walk so many steps, eat a healthy meal, read, walk the dog, brush your teeth or take a photo to encapsulate the day. If you’re scatterbrained, Streaks can definitely help.
Workflow: Powerful Automation Made Simple ($2.99)
An Apple Design Award Winner from 2015, Workflow can help automate your iPhone and create workflow processes to make your phone operate much more efficiently.
Workflow has almost infinite potential, allowing users to create a domino effect by using hundreds of prompts keeping everyday users on their toes and always discovering new ways to take advantage of the apps enormous power.
LastPass Premium ($12 Annual Subscription)
While it’s free to download the LastPass app, the subscription service at $12 per year takes the app to the next level. LastPass securely stores and categories your account passwords integrating with virtually every profile you may use online. It also has a unique password generator feature, allowing users to create hard-to-crack passwords meeting a variety of length requirements, while copying and saving the generated password to apply to your accounts. LastPass utilizes Apple’s Touch ID feature to ensure your passwords are all hidden behind as secure of a wall as possible.
Evernote Premium ($69.99 Annual Subscription)
Evernote is an essential app that can be downloaded for free, but is $70 for a yearlong subscription to its highest tier product worth it?
Premium allows users 10 GB of uploads per month and the ability to sync across all devices you may own. What’s included in the Premium package over the base plan is the ability to access notebooks offline, forward emails into Evernote, search for text in PDF and office docs, annotate PDFs, scan and digitize business cards, present notes in a single click, browse note history and see related notes and content.
This plan isn’t for everyday notetaking, but certainly has advantages for super users.