10 Apps to Help You Manage Your Life
This guest post is written by Cassie from All Out Blog:
Let’s face it: we’re busy. We are mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, sisters and brothers, and aunts and uncles, all of which can add up to an awful lot of family obligations. Add full-time employment on top of all of those family obligations and there isn’t much time left for anything else. In today’s hectic lifestyle just keeping up with everyday activities and to-do lists can be overwhelming. Luckily for us, there’s an app for that! Quite a few apps actually and sorting through all those apps to find the most useful can be overwhelming in and of itself, so to make the process simple here is a list of 10 must have apps for simplifying your life:
FreeTime – Time is the one thing we never have enough of and it can feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished. While this app can’t give you more time, it can help you to manage the time that you do have. The FreeTime app takes the guesswork out of time management by keeping track of users’ schedules and presenting them with a breakdown of their free hours and minutes, which makes finding time to pencil in meetings or appointments a cinch.
Pocketlife Calendar – This app is a must have for busy moms and those with a busy family life. If you like your life to be super organized, then this is the calendar for you. The app features custom alerts, the ability to share your calendar with friends and family, the ability to import your own photos into the calendar, 7 custom customizable views, and so much more. With Pocketlife in your corner you can be sure not to miss a thing.
MedCoach – MedCoach is an app that will remind you when it is time for you to take your medicines. This is especially helpful for those of the sandwich generation who may find themselves responsible for overseeing the care of several different family members at once. Along with reminding you when medications should be taken, the app also keeps a log of medication history (helpful at doctor’s appointments) and even connects to your pharmacy when it is time for a refill. Learn more about MedCoach in the NannyTax blog post 4 Handy Apps for the Sandwich Generation!
Moneywiz – When juggling a hectic schedule, keeping up with the household bills and budget can be a pain. That’s where Moneywiz comes in. With this app you can import your accounts and build a custom budget. The best part? The app will send you alerts when you are in danger of going over budget in one of your categories and it has cloud syncing across all of your devices so you and your spouse can stay on the same page (and within your spending limits).
CareZone – Ideal for sandwich generationers who are sharing the care of elderly parents with siblings, CareZone offers a range of features to help you sync the care of a loved one with others. Users of the app can invite other helpers to sync with them and then are able to share task lists, a journal with the ability to upload photos, medication logs, and even recorded messages. This app has everything you need to keep everyone involved in the care of a family member on track.
RescueTime – We’ve all had those moments when we’ve wondered how it can be that we worked all day and yet got so little accomplished. RescueTime is an app that keeps track of how users are using their time so that they can measure (and hopefully improve) their productivity. The app can be installed on all of your devices, including your work desktop computer, where it will keep track of everything you do on those devices. At the end of each week the app gives a productivity rating and even tells you at what times of the day you are the most and least productive.
Remember The Milk – This to-do list app does exactly what its name implies: it helps you remember to pick up that carton of milk on the way home. You can sync the app with all of your devices so your list is always handy. You can also set priorities for your tasks, mark items complete as you do them, and even set it to send you a tweet to remind you of an upcoming task.
Grocery IQ – Every busy mom knows that when it comes to buying food for the family, a grocery list is key. Grocery IQ is your everyday grocery list on steroids. With this app not only can you make yourself a handy list, but the app uses its database of items to show whoever is doing the shopping a picture of the item so that they are sure to get the right thing. You can even customize the app to recognize which items are on which aisle so your list is organized by aisle, making your trip to the store quick and easy. The app also boasts a barcode scan feature, voice search, a store locator, and an extensive coupon database.
BigOven – A grocery list is useful but before making one will need to first plan your menu and that’s where BigOven is useful. With BigOven you can create meal plans up to months in advance. You can even use it to plan for snacks and those leftovers can be put to good use with BigOven’s Leftover Wizard which helps you make new meals out of just three ingredients. With its database of over 170,000 recipes, BigOven takes the guesswork out of what is for dinner tonight.
Keepy – One thing all mothers can agree on is that their kids grow up much too fast. Keepy can help you keep track of all those childhood memories by preserving children’s artwork, schoolwork, report cards, photos, and other keepsakes in a digital timeline. You can even add voice or text to each memory and share them on a private list with family and friends.
Sometimes it can seem like technology is taking over our lives, but when put to good use much of that technology can help to coordinate and simply our very hectic schedules. As an added bonus the majority of the apps on this list can be downloaded for free and offer interactive websites where you can change settings, download updates and new features, access extended databases, and even contact the app’s customer service team with inquiries.
About the Author:
Cassie is a work at home wife and mom to one. She is also a pediatric, labor and delivery, and women’s health nurse. She has a big heart and cannot resit helping others. In her spare time she loves writing and sharing her knowledge with others on her blog at http://www.alloutblog.net.