1. Notion (Free up to 1,000 'blocks')
Notion combines every aspect of note-taking and puts it all together in one easy-to-use platform. It enables you to create calendars, tables, embed links, formulate schedules, and make to-do lists, amongst many other different functions.
The best part is that Notion is almost entirely free for personal use. That is, up to 1,000 blocks (blocks are just single pieces of content added to a page), you won’t need to pay a penny. Thereafter, subscriptions cost as little as $4 per month.
2. Brief
Brief enables users to assign tasks to different team members and track their completion. That way, you can oversee everything that needs to be done without wasting time sifting through emails.
Moreover, Brief offers its own communication system, wherein team members can speak via video, text chats, and share files through ‘Team Hubs’.
Whether you’re the manager of a large-scale company, a smaller team, or even just working as a freelancer, Brief streamlines the process, giving back valuable time that would otherwise be wasted on admin.
3. Forest
The aim of Forest is to motivate users to plant as many trees as possible whilst also encouraging focused productivity. It prevents you from being able to exit the app and becoming distracted by social media and other apps.
The best part, though, is that Forest actually teams up with organizations in real life that work to plant trees as you continue to use the app.
Users earn virtual coins inside the app-based on how many trees they plant. Those coins are then used to plant actual trees, enabling you to support the environment whilst minimizing procrastination.
4. Freedom
Freedom allows users to block websites of their choosing from being accessed during a pre-determined period of time.
If you’re working on a project that’ll take you thirty minutes, for instance, you can disable websites like Twitter and YouTube during that timeframe using Freedom, preventing them from being accessed.
As a result, remaining on task becomes a lot easier, since distractions are kept to a minimum.
5. Unroll
Whether it’s newsletter signups, corporate emails, or unwanted junk that’s found its way into your inbox, unsubscribing from hundreds of different mailing lists can take a lot of time. Unroll allows users to unsubscribe from those lists within seconds via an easy-to-use interface.
Moreover, if you’d prefer to stay subscribed to some of your mailing lists but could do without the spam, Unroll lets you add those emails to a ‘Rollup’.
The Rollup is a once-daily digest of your chosen subscriptions. Instead of coming through as separate letters and clogging your inbox, the subscriptions you add to your Rollup will show up in one email. Opening your Rollup will allow you to read the emails contained within it, preventing them from stacking up and distracting you from important messages.
