Calendars & Tasks

Perhaps the biggest hurdle any of us have in life is figuring out how to manage the minutia of "stuff" that we schedule and try to remember. Here are some of my favorites that can help keep life running on all cylinders.

• Fantastical 2 for Mac - My favorite calendar

  If you're a Mac user, you'll love this calendar app. It works on your phone and your computer and uses a bit of AI to make your calendar entries. You can simply begin typing an event with details and it will populate everything for you and sync across your calendars effortlessly.

• Keep it organized with Google Keep

  You may already be aware of the bundle of tools that Google makes available to your for free, but have you tried Google Keep? It's a cloud-based note taking and reminder system that allows you to check items off your list, attache images, URLs, and more. They've got a nifty app for it of course, but I keep it open on my workstation all day long and use it for phone calls with clients, friends and family to remember what we talked about and to assign tasks we speak.

• Wunderlist for more features

  A slightly better upgrade to Google Keep, Wunderlist gives you robust personal and professional "to-do" tools for Windows and Mac. You can start with a free account or upgrade to pro for $4.99/month for unlimited storage, tasks, sub-task personalization backgrounds.

• Clobber your tasks with Things

  Lastly, if you're a task fiend then you seek the best. This Apple Design Award Winner is available on Apple software only - your Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad. But you can't go wrong... The thing about this app is that is looks and flows just like your Mac experience. It's beautiful, powerful, and addictively useful. You will pay $49.99 for the desktop app and $9.99 for the iPhone app but I think you'll learn quickly why its my favorite.

Food & Cooking

Another category on the personal end of things that can get a bit crazy at times is home life. Being a Generation X'er and crossing both boundaries, I wouldn't say that technology has made life easier - In fact, its made us all just a little bit crazy. But with this mind, there are some apps that are making the onslaught of information a bit easier to manage. Here are my favs...

• A love affair with Food Network

  There are tons of food and cooking apps out there, but I LOVE the Food Network. After having tried many different ways to store recipes, search for content and share with others, I've finally decided The Food Network has my loyalty. My reason is because of their recipe box. Often times when I'm searching for recipe ideas, I end up on Food Network anyway, so I can store my favorite recipes in my "recipe box". I can also create categories inside my collections, like appetizers, desserts, chicken, beef, pork, soups, salads, etc. - then add my favorite to their category. With video tutorials, grocery instructions and super easy ways to share with others, this has simply become my favorite. You can even build your grocery list here. Boom!

• Mix it up with Cookpad

  In addition to my previous two recommendations, you may want to look at Cookpad. It's a Pinterest style blog layout with people's recipe additions that populate by the minute. It's a less commercialized "real people are cooking this now" type of platform. You can find everybody's grandmother's recipes here.

• Adding in Wine...

  Food & Wine Magazine goes hand-in-hand with my cooking recommendations. I love to cook, so having cooking resources handy are heaven for me! If you subscribe to Food & Wine Magazine, you have access to both print and digital subscriptions, which of course you can access on their app. You can scroll through the pages of the magazine, finding your favorite recipes or wine pairings all on the go or on your kitchen dedicated iPad or tablet!

• Keep track of your wine with Delectable

  Since we talking food.. you probably like wine. This free app is awesome! Everyone has thought to themselves at some point (or maybe even last night), "now what was that wine we loved so much last month?." Now you will always have the answer in your Delectable account. Scan, search, or enter your favorites to remembers or recommendations to try later. This is a MUST HAVE.

Health & Fitness

It's pretty well become common place for Gen Xers and down to use technology to drive their health habits. From gym memberships, to subtle reminders to drink water, there's an app for that. Here are some good ones to consider.

• The world's most popular "stay fit" app

  Fitness apps are a dime a dozen, but some have positioned themselves as the most popular app in the world for a reason. My Fitness Pal has a database of more than 6 million foods so that you can track your diet no matter what you eat. Whether you're trying to lose weight or build some gains, this app will help you meet your personal goals.

• Add workouts into your life the easy way

  And when it comes to fitness, well... it's a New Year's resolution for most of us. That's why Fitnet is a great option - it works around your life and helps to organize your workout time. If you've got five minutes? Then you have time for a Fitnet workout. This is one of the best workout/time organizers and motivators I've seen for people that are not gym addicts.

• Round it all out with a food shopping caddy

  If you're using one of the previous two fitness apps, then you likely are concerned about food ingredients. ShopWell allows you to scan barcodes while shopping to get the quick and dirty on what you are buying. You'll see personalized food scores based on your profile and great food alternatives right while you're shopping if you don't like what you see.

• Get good sleep and track it

  I've been using Sleep Cycle for years. It analyzes your sleep, delivering hourly statistics, sleep quality, time in bed, heart rate, steps taken and more. It's amazingly accurate as I've moved from loud downtown areas to quite suburban areas and the results of good night's rest are backed by Sleep Cycle's data. Give it a try - it even slowly wakes you up with non-invasive morning sounds.

• Drink more water...

  Water is life. We need it to do everything and yet we often forget to drink it. My wife uses this simple app to give her reminders to take a sip during her work day so that she's hitting that essential water intake to keep our skin, hair and organs in tip top shape. You'll lose weight naturally to! And oh... It syncs to your technology.

• Apple fan? Wrap it all up with Apple iOS

  Lastly, if you're an Apple user then you're no stranger to it's health app initiatives. You may just need an Apple watch and iPhone, and these apps running daily in order to stay organized. From activity, to mindfulness, to nutrition and sleep - Apple has built it all in and enhances it with software updates all the time. A one-stop shop for Apple Kool-aid drinkers (like me...).

Home & Kids

This next category can get a bit hairy... Digitally organizing your home life can be more treacherous than doing it the old fashion way due to thousands of options that all claim to be the best. So what do you do? Kids, chores, receipts and purchases - it's all so overwhelming. Here's how to lighten the load.

• Manage content and time online with Circle

  This is perhaps the single most important app you'll ever find if you have kids. Circle with Disney helps you understand what your kids are doing online and manage their screen time and content. You can manage every device in your home without installing software on all of them and you can even hit the "pause" button on the internet. If the scariest thing about raising kids for you is the internet, then this one is a must have.

• Homework & student planners

  Kids today are pushed harder in school than every before. Between advanced classes, sports, music, friends, technology, dating, and more - life can be really hard and frustrating for kids of all ages. Homework can "get in the way" of many kids's routines, so finding a way to organize it with reminders, to stay on track is essential is today's app-driven world. myHomework is a great tool to help in this area.

• Organize the whole family with Cozi

  3-time Mom's Choice Award Winner here... If you want something for everyone in the family that knocks down several of the recommendations I've had along the way, then Cozi is for you. You can manage a family calendar, to-do lists, shopping lists and recipes, and family journals. Cozi will even give you your day's agenda at a glance. If you're a family on the go stuff galore happening all the time, just get cozi. You'll love it.

• How about organizing your memberships?

  Rewards cards.. AHHHHH! How many do you have? The shoe store, the sandwhich shop, your gym membership, your auto repair place - I could likely go on forever. Put 'em all in one place. Period. Eliminate the "Kramer key ring" and organize them in one app. Always handy and always up to date. There's several out there, but this one is the most popular.

• Receipts! Organize them with Shoeboxed

  Receipts kill me - literally. If I have the option to email them, I'll always take it but then when you need it, there's some digging through email to be done. This app caters itself to businesses, but I also use it for personal life. Shoeboxed is a fast, easy way to turn receipts into an organized, categorized, online archive. You'll never have to worry when you need to produce a receipt and it's even an IRS-accepted method of submission.

• And...the closet

  If you like to shop, and who does'nt... you've probably caught yourself wondering if what you're looking at in the store will go with what you own? What color was that? Will this go with that? You should probably organize your clothing with a virtual closet. With over 90 tools to manage everything from your favorite outfits to your sizes and style inspirations - you can't go wrong when picking up a quick sale mix-n-match item.

Organizing your travel

Here's another category that can really stress people out. It's hard to imagine what life used to be like with GPS, Google, Siri, and Alexa. It's even tougher to navigate life without them. There's so many travel apps and aids to choose from that I'm overwhelmed myself when trying to find tools to help me in places I've never been. I use only a few and I hope they help you in your journeys.

• Let Google do it for you

  Nothing is better than free and the Google trips app is all of that. You have access to all of Google's resources to help you plan adventurers based on time and your interests. It will even keep track of your tickets, reservations, top spots, etc. Give it a try just because.

• A shameless video plug for Google trips...

  Not that Google needs more love, but this quick video really boils down the scenario in which this app may save the day for you!

• Step it up with Tripit

  Another travel organizer that is very popular is Tripit. This app organizes your trips, reservations, and itineraries like Google Trip but adds the element of flight purchase, alternative flight recommendations, seat upgrades, and more. TripIt also organizes master itineraries for you and even lets' you share them to other people. Tripit does have a free version, but you'll get the differences over Google Trip with Tripit pro at $49 for the year.

• Add in some destination guides with Travel + Leisure

  I subscribe to Travel + Leisure (just like Food & Wine) from Time Inc. This app puts in-depth destination guides right in your hands. Use this app for inspiration, or to create custom itineraries. Simply select your hotels, favorite restaurants, shops, bars, and things to do, and let the T+L Travel Guide map them out: you won’t waste any time figuring out how to get from point A to point B.

• Don't forget unbiased destination reviews

  Lastly, my absolute favorite (which i I use in combination with the rest) is Trip Advisor. I've used Trip Advisor much like Yelp! It contains thousands of real reviews from people that have taken the time to actually tell you how their experience went - not just one-line good or bad reviews with a star rating. You can add photos, even book trips here but more importantly you can keep a world map of the places you've been, the places you want to go, and places that have become your favorites. And whenever I write a comprehensive review, the property manage always replies. If you don't already use Trip Advisor - get it.

• Lastly, pick an airline and live by it

  I know, I know... all these apps help you find low airfare and go more places cheaper. However, finding an airline you love has longterm payoffs. I happen to love Delta. Their planes are new and nice, the staff is great and my experience has always been top-notch. But more importantly, when it comes to staying organized the Delta app is the best in the industry. You can create comprehensive profiles, add buddy travelers, add your global entry and TSA pre-check numbers for automatic printing on your tickets, manage your itinerary and even get inflight information. Quite frankly, Delta is the King of the skies when it comes to organizing your travel digitally. If you have Delta's card through American Express you can earn miles faster, get free luggage check and more.

Lastly, some essentials for organization

We could spend another 30 minutes diving into business specific tools to help organize your time and life but the goal here is to keep this high-level and useful for just about anyone. So here are a few more apps that help streamline and organize your life and save time. Use them well.

• Save it for later with pocket

  I don't know about you, but if you sit in front of your computer for a living (or even just for fun), you probably have dozens of broswer tabs open and reminders to look at things you've found on your way. Ultimately this slows down your machine as it consumes bandwidth. It can over load your mind, not knowing where to start the day. Introduce Pocket. Just save it for later with this free and awesome too. Web pages, videos, article and more - just save it for later and come back when you're ready. It won't get lost.

• Track your time with Toggl

  The ultimate in organizing your digital life. Toggl is one of many time trackers, but I happen to use this one. Have you ever wondered why a project doesn't get done on time, or where your day goes when Facebook suddenly pops up? Get a grip on your time tracking with this free tool. You'll be amazed at where the time goes and you may even upgrade it to use it for completing your project or billing clients.

• Create workflows on iOS to simply life

  If you're someone who has been irritated that iOS does not have a file system necessarily, then Workflow is for you. Speed up your tasks and employ powerful automations through drag and drop combinations for actions on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch.

• Track and organize with Airtable

  You've probably never heard of Airtable and might already be using Google Docs. Airtable is speadsheet tool with the power of a database. You can create anything you want, link to other records and even attach files. You can invite collaborators, time stamp entries, and more. And, its all for free until your storage needs grow. Whether you're organizing business needs, project management, lead trackers or you simply want a more efficient way of tracking your home inventories and personal collections - Airtable is amazing. Try it.

• Keep finances straight with Wave

  If you're business owner, or run a side business from your house, or even if you simply have multiple banking/credit solutions, I have a great tool for you. Wave is completely free to use and you can bring in just about all the data you need. If you're selling anything at all, this is a great place to keep it all organized with estimates, invoices, online payment tools, bank and app integrations, tax tools, reports and more. You can even onboard 1009 contractors and manage it through Wave. It's a great alternative to Quickbooks.

• Organize visually with Bublup

  Lastly, if you spend any time on the internet at all, then you've been overloaded by the amount of resources available for organization. What if you could put everything you want to save - images, files, videos, links - in one place that you can access anywhere you have internet? Enter Bublup. AND once you organize everything you want, you can "roll" up your topics to share with anyone you want on an organized, beautiful journey. Organization (and sharing!) made simple.

Meet The Author

• Sammy J. Koza

  Sammy is web-site designer, local search Guru and SEO specialist. As the owner and operator of Raging Bull Digital, his strengths have largely been focused on helping small to medium sized businesses gain search-ability in their digital space. He is also the co-founder and chief marketing officer for WarPaint International Beauty Agency. Having worked with national liquor brands, service companies, retail companies, authors, jewelers, artists and more, Sammy has a solid grasp of how many business owners are being found and how their content strategy affects their bottom line.

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  Raging Bull Digital is a Boutique Website Design company. We offer website designs starting from $2500 for small to medium sized businesses. We also specialize in Social Media Advertising, SEO, Local Search, Blog creation and writing.

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