These 5 apps truly elevated my life, and I couldn't be more thankful

We often focus on the negative impacts of smartphones on our overall well-being, from drowning in doomscrolling to needing a screen for every tangible thing (looking at you, QR menus). But at the other end of this spectrum, smartphones and all the apps that live inside them have transformed our everyday lives in monumental ways with efficient workflows and personalization.

For someone like me, who needs to organize tasks to the last detail only to get anxious about not sticking to the plan, some tools have taken a huge load off my mind. The following are my top apps that changed my personal and professional life in more ways than are easily perceptible.

TickTick

I have toyed with the idea of decking out my calendar with slots for everything from work to meals to entertainment. I got the satisfaction of being productive from putting together this setup itself, though, as you’d guess, I wasn’t able to stick to the plan always because, you know, life happens. But also because I soon realized that I’m not a calendar person.

TickTick has been my trusty productivity partner for close to a decade now, and I can’t think of moving to another app — believe me, I’ve tried. It is where all my daily tasks now live, though I brought over an unwanted habit, too. I used to micromanage every single task, giving all of them specific times with proper folders, categorizations, and tags. So, after a long-drawn tussle between the app and me, I’ve settled for a loose setup that leaves me ample wiggle room for the unexpected while telling me what I’m supposed to do for the day.

I have stripped down my TickTick setup to the bare minimum. There are no separate tags for work and personal — my mind can look at the task and tell what belongs where — minimizing the setup time. Secondly, all tasks are saved without a fixed time (with exceptions, of course), giving me a list of things to tackle whenever I get a moment instead of feeling bad about missing a task right when it pops up.

This freer structure has relieved me of both the burden of creating a perfect productivity setup and regretting not being able to stick to it all the time.

Apple Fitness+

I restarted working out a couple of months ago after a year-long break and needed someone (or something) that didn’t expect me to perform like an athlete in the first week. Apple Fitness+ became the suitable partner that helped me ease into a regimen that I didn’t start despising within a couple of days — I now, in fact, look forward to working out with all the amazing hosts and trainers on the platform.

Part of its charm comes from how inclusive the workout videos are, right from accommodating the kind of equipment you have to the flexibility you’re at — all without shame. And that extends to the short mindful cooldown sessions it automatically offers after each intense session. I needed that kind of handholding as my body acclimated itself, because my priority wasn’t to be able to work out with the heaviest dumbbell at my disposal but to form a consistent habit of picking up one five times a week.

In the last couple of months, I have built up enough stamina to sustain working out at an elevated heart rate, higher than where I started out, which is a visible win for me. And I prefer improving at my own pace, so I can always pause a workout session to catch my breath — something I sure can’t do with a gym trainer.

Apple Fitness+ is among the best investments I’ve made in myself, not the app.

PressReader

There’s no denying that doomscrolling has been consuming us (not just our time!), and I’m a victim of it too. While being aware of it is one part, I’m trying to create more alternative forms of entertainment that don’t make me subconsciously stare at the screen while leaving me drained at the end. Books sure are one part of the equation, but I’ve also turned to good-old magazines.

PressReader, through my subscription with the British Council Library, opens up an entire world of local and international magazines that I’ve been thoroughly enjoying. I’ve gone back to being a boy who opens the new issue of Nat Geo Kids the moment it arrives and is in awe of learning where the glowing phytoplankton get their light from.

I also catch up on long-form political and regional pieces that have helped counter my shortening attention span, thanks to reels. The app now permanently sits on my phone’s home screen and finds a place on all the devices I own — the cherry on the cake is how stunning magazines look on tablet screens!

Beeper

I have two separate WhatsApp numbers for personal and work use, I regularly talk to my friends on Instagram, and have professional connections on both LinkedIn and Twitter. When working, picking up the phone over and over to answer texts is downright distracting. I felt the need for a unified interface where I could interact with my chats without having to deal with ten different websites, and Beeper turned out to be exactly what I needed.

Beeper is owned by Automattic, the same company that owns WordPress, so it already comes with a badge of trust. It works entirely offline, which means none of your chats are stored on its servers, alleviating my worries around privacy. More importantly, it has been a boon for my workflow — the app stays open as long as I’m at my desk and stays just a Cmd+Tab away, helping me return to my work without missing a beat.

The only thing that I haven’t been able to find a workaround for is the Instagram integration. After a couple of days of use, Instagram warns me of third-party access and threatens me with account suspension, so I avoid it altogether now.

PDFgear

The PDF viewer on Mac is reasonably powerful, but I often find myself needing some advanced PDF management tools where the native app doesn’t suffice. Adobe Acrobat Reader is a solid option, but clicking on almost every single one of its features throws a paywall, which gets frustrating after a point. The solution is PDFgear — it’s the best PDF manager you can find for desktop and mobile.

It does the job flawlessly and has tons of features that come bundled without requiring a premium subscription. I frequently use it to remove passwords from locked PDFs before sharing, add my signature, convert files to different formats, and a whole lot more. It’s one of those productivity apps that mindlessly integrates into your workflow without friction, does its job, and gets right out of my way.

If your workflow requires playing with a bunch of PDFs every single day, I don’t think you’ll find a better tool than PDFgear.

What are some of those apps that have changed your life for the better? Do share them in the comments below.