People’s definition of productivity has changed over the years. Technology has advanced, and there is new software you can use to measure productivity, including some free productivity apps for your employees to find balance and get efficient time use.
The App Store can be overwhelming, and finding the right productivity app for you can feel like hunting for treasure. In this article, we give you a starting point to help you discover the best free productivity apps. We’ll introduce you to various apps, including task trackers, distraction stoppers, and calendars.
Whether you’re someone who works from home juggling deadlines, a parent balancing housework with the kids, or a student going through the learning phase, these productivity apps are going to open your horizon to a new level of productivity.
Let’s take your work efficiency to another level by exploring the best free productivity apps for iPhone in more detail.
18 Best Free Productivity Apps for iPhone
Here are some of the best free productivity apps for iPhone that you can use for your business or company.
1. Todoist
Todoist is a mobile app for task management. The application is known for its natural language processing feature, which makes it quick to include tasks or activities. Todoist comes as a mobile application or web app, which makes it easy to manage your to-do list whether you’re at work, home, or on the go.
One of the best features of Todoist is that it has a built-in productivity tracker called Karma. Karma measures a worker’s productivity and offers rewards for completed tasks. You can also create project templates for quick setup, recurring tasks, and set priorities on this app.
2. Nook Calendar
Nook is a calendar app to modify your schedule. It has a clean and user-free interface. The app is also known for its emphasis on user privacy. The Nook productivity app does not sell user data or disturb your screen with ads, which makes it a great option, especially if you are conscious about privacy.
Nook has a free version with a variety of features, including a built-in scheduling tool, so you don’t need to pay for the premium plan to use it. However, the catch is that you need Google Calendar to get started. The calendar schedule includes days, weeks, months, and years. In addition, individuals can tag events to make them easier to discover.
3. Forest
Forest is a free Android productivity app that takes a unique approach to solving one of the biggest problems for getting things done: distractions. The less distracted you are, the more productive you will be.
Smartphones are irresistible to most people and are a major source of distraction when working. It can be tempting to pick up your phone to check for messages or post notifications. With the Forest app, users plant virtual trees that grow when they have a productive day.
You earn points according to your productivity, and the company will also plant a real tree to represent your productivity in real-time.
Forest also has a Pomodoro timer to track time while you get productive and grow your trees. The moment you open your phone, your Forest app tree dies. The app offers different species of trees you can grow, collect, and even share with friends.
If you need something to help you with desktop distractions, you can use the Forest Chrome Extension to block websites and keep you focused.
4. TickTick
TickTick is a task management app. Its functions include a Pomodoro timer and habit tracker all in one package. The app uses natural language voice inputs so you can easily include important dates and reminders for your tasks. It also has a smart list as one of its basic features. This works by automatically sorting tasks according to their due time.
Unfortunately, this productivity app does not include calendars to set up schedules and reminders. The advanced features solve the problem of task creation on the app. It also provides support when you need to focus. The TickTick time app also provides white noises to help remove distracting sounds.
5. Toggl Track
Toggl Track is an efficient time-tracking app that makes your work easier with browser extensions and integrations. The strength of this app lies in its ability to track time. It makes it easy to start, stop, and log your tasks and also provides detailed reports you can use for reference.
These reports allow you to see where you’re spending your time and help you find ways to improve to enhance your productivity. Toggl Track offers an auto-tracker that tracks your work based on inputted keywords and a timeline that logs your activities. This is a suitable tool for freelancers.
6. Briefly
Briefly is an AI assistant that individuals or companies use to take meeting minutes. Successful meetings and efficient follow-ups lead to improved productivity. Since there is an AI to take minutes, users can easily fall back to the meeting’s details later. The app is completely free, and you can connect it to your Google Meet account for more ease.
Once you sign up on Briefly, the app actively listens to any meetings you have. It also transcribes the conversation and identifies important takeaways from the meeting or call. This app helps users to improve their workflow, write follow-up reviews, and be more active in meetings.
7. Guidde
Guidde is a productivity app that is similar to Loom, that records your screen activity and creates videos for internal and external use. This app has productivity tools that allow you to create interactive and comprehensive guides that can be shared with other members of your team.
This is an excellent teaching tool that makes it easier for new hires to quickly get accustomed to their work. You can attach additional images and videos to guides on the app, embed guides on other websites, make them public or private, and make a library of guides to refer to for repetitive tasks.
8. Zcal
Zcal is a favorite productivity app when it comes to scheduling meetings. It’s quite popular and even rivals Calendly in the App Store. The app is especially suitable for Zoom users, as it connects with Zoom to make meeting schedules and joining meetings easier.
Some other features of this free productivity app include one-click meeting scheduling and personalized meeting URLs. The app also provides many options for designing booking links. You can record a video, make a GIF, or send a standard booking link using Zcal.
Adding a personal touch can sometimes be the thing that makes a difference in your productivity. If you want to make your invites more personal and catchy, Zcal is a great productivity app for you. It’s free, and you do not need a premium plan to enjoy the app on your mobile device.
9. Trello
Trello is an easygoing and effective productivity management tool for collaborative teamwork. With this productivity tool, you can categorize the work you do daily by the level of progress you’ve made using Kanban boards. Trello helps users organize, share, and manage different everyday tasks among members.
Users can create cards and lists to represent tasks on boards. Team members can also contribute by dropping comments, checklists, attachments, and due dates. The collaborative features of this app promote communication and transparency during team tasks.
10. Zapier
Zapier is a productivity optimization app that is best known for its unique way of automating workflows and integrating several web apps without needing to be a coding expert. The app serves as a bridge that connects different apps, allowing them to communicate and work together easily.
The Zapier productivity app serves as an automation tool that saves the user’s time and effort. Instead of having to switch between different productivity apps, you can have everything in one place. It provides a streamlined experience and automatically integrates your most-used apps. This is perfect for people who work on their devices.
11. Clockify
Clockify is one of the best free productivity apps to showcase how much time you’ve spent working on a project. It’s a productivity software that tracks time and records the time spent performing an activity or task. The app allows you to log the hours spent on specific tasks or activities which provides valuable insights into how you allocate your time during the workday.
Individuals, teams, and businesses use Clockify to monitor their productivity and track work hours. It also helps to gain a better understanding of how you can manage your time. The app is useful for employees who play management roles to help them review the activities of their members.
12. Slack
Slack is a communication tool that users can utilize to pass information across diverse channels in a less complicated way. This is a productivity app that helps primarily to prevent information loss.
Unlike sending emails to communicate with team members, Slack organizes your messages based on tasks and projects, which allows other team members to only participate in conversations that are relevant to them.
The Slack network provides a hub for team members to send direct messages, share files, create channels for different topics, and integrate with third-party apps for seamless connection. You can also make voice or video calls using Slack to improve your communication experience.
13. nTask
nTask is an advanced and functional task management app that meets the requirements of team members who need a space to organize and manage tasks. Organizing tasks together helps to boost productivity.
For a seamless connection, you can integrate the nTask app with Zoom, Outlook Calendar, Zapier, and Google Calendar. This project management software utilizes multiple features that make it easy to use without having to switch to other apps.
14. MindMeister
MindMeister is a productivity app ideal for visualizing your ideas and sharing them with other remote team members for a collective evaluation. It’s a useful collaboration tool that can help you document your thought process and ideas.
With this app, you can map out useful ideas you have through slides and have your colleagues share their views on the task. That way, you get a more general view of your task or activity. This productivity app is perfect if you need to get creative and work with multiple people.
15. Notion
Notion is a multi-purpose app for taking notes and performing simple task management functions. Note-taking is an effective way to reflect on one’s work and this app helps users note down important thoughts and tasks for future reference.
Notion is considered a generalized workspace app because it has high multi-functionality compared to other productivity apps. Unlike many note-taking apps that have a simple and unoriginal structure, Notion gives you the freedom to organize your business plan, notes, or tasks how you want them.
16. Tide
Tide is a productivity app that is especially useful for enhancing concentration and maintaining a steady work pace. It uses the Pomodoro technique that helps your mind stay focused. A focused mind is more productive than an unfocused one.
Using the Tide app, you can create soundscapes that help to better your attention span and keep you productive throughout the day. This app also boosts your self-discipline as you have to stay away from distractions until the time you set it up, which helps you stay focused until you complete your tasks.
17. Serene
Serene is quite similar to Tide, as it helps your mind stay focused on the task or activity at hand. It’s useful for freelancers or anyone who works remotely because Serene helps you set up the tasks you have for the day while keeping your mind calm and soothed.
Using this app can help you stay productive during working hours. It takes a unique, soothing approach when it comes to helping you organize and accomplish your work tasks. You can set a goal daily on this app and subdivide it into different tasks so that you won’t feel overwhelmed.
18. RescueTime
RescueTime, as the name implies, is a productivity app that helps you save time on tasks. It’s one of the many free productivity apps that help people solve the problem of wasted time. With this app, you can manage your time effectively so you can complete your tasks promptly.
This app keeps you in control of time-conscious activities. Therefore, any time being used to work will be used productively. The RescueTime app features a dashboard to track your daily, weekly, or monthly time tasks. You can also turn on notification settings for every activity you complete.
How To Identify A Good Productivity App
There are numerous free productivity apps you can choose from, depending on your needs. Here are some characteristics you can use to identify a good productivity app.
Versatility
Some productivity apps offer an incredible range of features for you to be able to manage your activities in one place. Productivity apps should be able to handle different tasks at once, from note-taking to time-watching and project management.
User-Friendliness
Another thing to consider is the interface of the app. Is it easy to navigate? Productivity tools should enhance productivity, not reduce it. A good productivity app should be easy to use, especially for beginners. When you open the app, the design should be intuitive and simple to navigate.
Compatibility Across Platforms
Compatibility across platforms is another feature to consider in a productivity app. Before selecting a productivity app, determine if it can work seamlessly across different platforms, devices, and operating systems. Nobody wants to get a productivity app that won’t be compatible with their device.
Syncing Capabilities
The last major factor to consider when selecting one of the best free productivity apps is its syncing ability. Always find out if the app you are getting can sync automatically in case you want to use another device. That way, any changes you make on one device will automatically reflect across all connected devices.
Conclusion
The best free productivity apps for iPhones come with a range of functions and tools. The top 18 productivity apps in this article provide a diverse range of features designed to help users stay organized, focused, and at their best. These apps perform task management, time tracking, mind mapping, to-do lists, and other functions to help keep productivity levels high.
Staying productive requires dedication and conviction and productivity apps help people achieve more with their time. However, how effectively it works is entirely up to you. Suppose you experience difficulty staying focused at work or being productive. In that case, read books on productivity or learn more about it on our page.
