There are two kinds of apps in the world: those that distract you from getting your work done and those that help you get it done faster. While most people tend to focus on the former, today I’m talking about the latter.
Because, tell you what, there are so many awesome options out there and you deserve to know about them. So, here are 10 options that’ll make your life easier.
1. Free Up Your Time: TextExpander
This app saves your fingers and your time by letting you create short abbreviations that expand into entire words, phrases, sentences, or even paragraphs.
Available for iOS, Mac, Windows, starting at $7.96/month
2. Share in Seconds: Slash
Slash is a keyboard app that lets you share almost any online content without switching apps. Just tap the slash symbol to pull up a selection of over 20 apps to share from. So whether you’re sending a stress-relieving Giphy GIF or a map to tomorrow’s sales seminar, you can pull it up and send it out to one or all your co-workers within seconds. Yep. You’re that person now. But in a good way.
Available for Android and iOS, free
3. Make Meetings Better: Solid
Meet the app that’ll keep you organized before, during, and after meetings—saving you all the time. OK, not all the time, but Solid does claim you spend seven (seven!) years of your life in meetings. From sending notifications to preparing the agenda to sticking to the schedule to sharing notes after the face, it has you covered for every one-off or recurring meeting you have.
Available for iOS, free
4. Share Your Screen More Easily: ScreenMeet
This app shares your phone screen so you can pass along info, make a presentation, or even train your teammates to use software or apps. Just one perk of this is being able to invite your co-workers to join a ScreenMeet—from any phone or computer—with just one click and no app to install. That’s less time fiddling with video calls, and more time getting work done together.
Available for Android, Mac, Windows, free for attendees and starting at $20/month for hosts
5. Pile On Praise: TapMyBack
TapMyBack gives team members an anonymous and fast way to recognize each other’s good work and get feedback on their own. It includes customizable badges and scoreboards—and who doesn’t love a good badge?
Available for Android, iOS, Windows, Chrome, free (for up to five team members and five badges) and premium accounts
6. Stalk Your Co-workers (the Right Way): LinkedIn Lookup
This new LinkedIn features isn’t as much about the job search as it is about learning more about your current colleagues. Now, you can avoid unnecessarily annoying inquiries and quickly locate the right person in your company to help with your new special project. This means you won’t have to give anyone the third degree about their professional background—and you’ll boost some egos when you ask colleagues to share their expertise.
Available for Android, iOS, web, free
7. Stay Current: Otto Radio
This news app curates the topics that you’re interested in, matches the broadcast length to your commute, and reads stories from articles and podcasts so you can keep your eyes on the road. This means you can stay on top of what matters without having to work too hard to do it.
Available for iOS (and coming for Android), free
8. Schedule Meetings at the Right Time: World Time Buddy
There are few things worse than scheduling a meeting, sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring, then realizing you’re in different time zones. This app simplifies time zone conversion into an obvious-at-a-glance table.
Available for Android, iOS, web, Free
9. Carpool to Work: Ride
Ride coordinates the details of carpooling, including inviting your co-workers, providing you with routing, and helping you make it easy to share the costs. If this sounds up you’re your alley, know that it gets better: You can also consolidate communication and even automate the scheduling with their RideBOT.
Available on Android and iOS, free
10. Get it Right: Anyrun
Anyrun helps you take orders for coffee or lunch for everyone in your office. I know, you’re not an intern anymore. But you’ll only win over co-workers by occasionally offering to be this person.
With one-thumb navigation (since you’ll be juggling those bags of takeout orders), adjustable groups, and one-click and default ordering, this app is perfect for this once thankless task.
Available for iOS, free
So, what are you waiting for? Download one (or all) of these 10 apps and you’ll be making your life easier.