So, it’s a running joke at work with my colleagues that I LOVE a good iPhone app. There’s definitely a sweet spot in my heart for a piece of technology that can (supposedly) make your life simpler and more efficient. When you are trying to keep tiny humans fed and happy and pursue your career goals… a good app can make all the difference!

Since I’m always finding new apps to love, I wanted to share what I’m using right now, in October 2018. I’m sure I’ll update this along the way with new apps, but ya go!

1. Notion: “the all-in-one workspace” is the tagline, and it couldn’t be more true. I use Notion on my desktop, phone, and iPad to track all management of my blog and podcast. I also have a connected version for work, so I can toggle back and forth between my work to-dos and my personal/podcast to-dos. Notion provides templates for calendars, client relationship management pages, meeting notes, distraction-free writing, and more. I usually draft my blog posts within the desktop app, and then copy and paste over to wordpress!
2. PicTapGo: Among the many things I’m NOT: a photographer. I really appreciate that the new iPhones have really great cameras (I have an iPhone 8 Plus), but usually the lighting in my pics is still not great. I found out about this app from Maghon Taylor (All She Wrote Notes) and love how easy it is to use! It is loaded with one-tap filters and fixes for your pictures, and when you get the picture how you like it, you just save it to your camera roll. Easy!
3. Unfold: I just found out about this app, and it is easily becoming one of my most-used apps. It is solely for preparing Instagram stories (which we all LOVE, right? I do!) and it provides beautiful templates for your stories. Some of the templates are free, and others have a low cost.
4. Pocket: This is a really fun app for saving articles online you want to go back to later. You can install a desktop app and save articles from your internet browser, or you can also download the app to your phone. Either way, you can tag articles when you save them so you can see your articles based on your own set categories.
5. Google Voice: I think Google Voice is one of the greatest apps out there. I have a work cell phone, so for all of my podcast correspondence, I’ve created a Google Voice phone number. If you log into your Google account and search for Google Voice, you’ll see you can create a phone number based on your location (so you can get the area code you want). If someone calls that number, it will ring on your phone. You can also text your contacts within the app from the Google Voice number. It has other neat functions like caller announcement (they have to say their name so you can hear who it is before you decide to answer) and voicemail transcription. The only downside I’ve found is that when I was setting up my number, there were no numbers available for my area code, so I had to use a nearby area code. Not the end of the world, but that was kind of a bummer!

I’d love to hear about your favorite apps right now… what are you using to make your life easier?