We all have the same 24 hours in a day. It’s what we do with that time that determines our productivity. I frequently discuss stock iPhone apps here on iGeekCentral, but I also use other apps, so in this article, I’ll share with you 10 apps that I use on my iPhone every day to enhance my productivity and accomplish more in my business.
1. Perplexity AI
One of the main use cases for generative AI is asking complicated questions and receiving straightforward answers. While most AI tools can do this really well, I’ve yet to find a tool that does it as well as perplexity does. Perplexity is a really big deal in the world of AI, openly competing with Google to dominate search, and with investments from people like Jeff Bezos, they may actually have a chance of succeeding.
When using the app, the necessary features are located in the bottom 10th of the screen. The middle consists of a rotating carousel of random questions covering various topics. If a question catches your interest, you can tap on it to get your answer.
To ask a question, you can either type it in the “ask anything” box or use the microphone icon to speak your question in natural language. The app handles voice input exceptionally well in my experience.From there, you can ask any question you want, and perplexity will do its best to understand and provide an answer. Essentially, that’s what this app does, but it’s because it does it so very well that I’m including it in this list.
For instance, I could ask “what are the most exciting tech categories to watch in 2024?” Perplexity quickly returns with an answer and lists its sources at the top. You can tap on these site links to view the articles or tap on “Show all” to see a complete list. I like that they start with their sources, because it gives me confidence that the answers aren’t just being plucked out of thin air when it doesn’t know the actual answer – ChatGPT I’m looking at you. The answer itself is displayed below, along with any related images or videos.
If you tap the rerun button, you can rerun the search. Pro users can choose to use different AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT 4, or you can use Copilot. Copilot works with you by asking relevant questions to ensure the best results. For example, it might ask which specific areas of tech I’m interested in, and the search will then focus on those areas. This app is all about getting me the information I need, as efficiently as it can. Free accounts have a limited number of CoPilot runs per month, but upgrading to the pro version provides more access.In my business, I use it to quickly get answers to questions relevant to my articles and weekly newsletter. Time is money, and when creating content, I need prompt and reliable answers, and so far, perplexity is the best app for this purpose.
2. Structured (Daily Planner)
I like working from to-do lists because they help me remember important tasks. But, the main issue I have with traditional to-do lists is that they’re too linear and don’t help me with planning my day effectively. On the other hand, mapping out my entire day on a calendar at the start of each day feels like too much effort and doesn’t work for me either, because you lose the ability to work with tasks.
Fortunately, I found an app called Structured that combines both methodologies and works really well for me. Structured is a day planner that allows you to break your day down into small time-based tasks. The app follows a timeline format, showing you what tasks you have later in the day and reminding you of the current task you’re supposed to be working on and the time that you’ve assigned to it that remains. It also includes task management, allowing you to mark things as completed as you go.
Another feature that I really like is that you can use natural language to tell it what your plans are for the day, and it will input everything for you. So for instance, I’d say something like, “tomorrow I’m going to get up at 6:30 and work for 90 minutes. Then I’m going to go and help my wife with the kids for an hour, then I’m going to walk the dog for an hour, and then I’m going to work until 1pm, before breaking for lunch.” The app would understand all of this, and create my day plan.
There is a paid version of the app, although most of the key features of this app are available to the free accounts, so it’s very much up to you whether you decide to pay for the premium version or not. If you do, you get things like more customisation with alerts, the ability to import calendar events, sync with Apple Reminders and a load of different icons that you can use.
3. Reminders App (stock iPhone)
Out of all the stock iPhone apps, besides Safari, Reminders is the only productivity app I consistently use and don’t try and find an alternative for. I think that for 99% of people, the Reminders app offers everything that they would need in a reminders app.
The main way that I use Reminders is with Siri, it’s honestly the one part of the Apple ecosystem in my opinion where it just always works exactly how I want it to, and it’s especially useful when I’m away from my desk. For example, I have a Reminders list for blog ideas and another one for topics I want to discuss in my newsletter. I have to be able to quickly capture ideas, even if I don’t plan on working on them immediately, and this is one area where I use Reminders.
To do this, you need to know how to request what you want precisely. For example, if I come up with a concept for a an article discussing “10 ways that Apple needs to fix Siri in 2025,” I would activate Siri and say, “Add ‘10 ways that Apple needs to fix Siri in 2025’ to my blog ideas list.” That’s it. The idea is added to my list, and I can revisit it to expand on it later.
So the Reminders app isn’t exactly exciting, but it excels at what it does and integrates seamlessly with the entire Apple ecosystem, and that’s why I’ve included it in this list.
4. Snip’d (AI Podcast player)
I enjoy listening to podcasts, but I’ve always been puzzled by how seemingly busy people manage to listen to so many of them. We all have the same 24 hours in a day, and as a new parent, I understand more than ever how precious time is.
This is where Snipd comes in handy. Snipd is a podcast player that lets you highlight interesting parts of a podcast with a simple button tap. While you listen to a podcast through the app, a transcript is created in real-time. You can use the “snip” button to highlight specific parts of the podcast that resonate with you. These snips can be saved with notes or revisited later.
But what I really love about Snipd is the community aspect. The more popular a Snipd part of a podcast becomes, the more the app uses that information to create highlights and summaries of episodes. For example, I’m a fan of the “Diary of a CEO” podcast, and I can see that many recent episodes have been snipped hundreds of times already. When I tap into an episode, I can play the entire episode like a regular podcast player or scroll down to view popular snips. I can listen to the audio section of a snip or quickly read the AI-generated summary.
Alternatively, I can scroll down further and read the AI-generated summary of the entire podcast. These summaries are also playable and last about five minutes each, condensing a one-hour episode into something you can quickly read while you’re having a coffee break.
If you mainly listen to podcasts for entertainment, Snipd might not be for you. But if, like me, you want to extract as much information as possible from them as you can, but you don’t have loads of time, it’s more efficient to listen to two or three podcasts this way every day instead of trying to listen to entire episodes. The app offers a free plan with limited functionality, but if you want access to all the features and unlimited usage, consider signing up for the pro version.
5. Otter AI
If you’re anything like me, you probably get your best ideas when you’re walking the dog or in the shower. The problem with both of these situations is that unless you capture the idea immediately, it’s likely to be gone by the time you return to your desk. I can’t really help you with the shower problem, but when I’m out walking the dog, I use an app called Otter AI to quickly capture voice notes of anything that I think might be useful later on.
Let’s say I’m out and I get an idea for a future blog post. I could open the Voice Memos app on my iPhone and capture audio that way. The problem is that all I have is an audio recording. I’d have to listen to the audio recording in full to extract the information I want. Otter AI solves this problem. It not only captures the audio recording, so I still have the audio file if I want to listen to it later on, but more importantly, it transcribes the audio recording into written text. So, at the very least, I have a text version of my idea, which is also searchable. But additionally, it creates an AI-based summary of the transcription.
Unlike the transcription, the summary isn’t immediate, it may take a few minutes, possibly longer for very long audio pieces, but in my experience, it doesn’t take long. It can even transcribe recordings with multiple people talking and assign the dialogue to different individuals, so you could use this to get a transcription of a Podcast for example.For me, this app is all about capturing and storing ideas. If I have to wait until I’m able to grab my phone and type something down every time, there’s a good chance I’ll miss something valuable. If you want to use Otter the way I do, then I believe the free version will be more than sufficient. However, if you plan on using it with a team or for transcribing Zoom calls or long Podcasts for example, you’ll need to consider a paid version.
6. Annotable
Annotable solves the problem we all face from time to time of wanting to share or send an image, but having sensitive information on there that we want to get rid of first. With the app opened, and an image selected, tap the A button in the bottom right of your screen and you’ve a range of options to choose from.
You can crop, which is exactly what you’d expect, but below that is an option to use a magnifying glass to zoom in on a specific area of the image. You can set the magnification at the bottom left, change the thickness of the outline of the annotation as well as the colour.
Below that is the option to securely blur out part of your image, either by swiping across text like a highlighter, or by casting a rectangle over the area you want to conceal. Very quickly, you can blur out parts of a bank statement if you’ve got to send something for proof of ID for example, or someone’s face if you need to, it’s all very simple.
You also have loads of highlighting options and drawing options, like you’d expect in any good markup tool.
This is the markup tool that the built-in markup tool on the iPhone should have been, in that it makes properly annotating your images really quick and easy. It works on iPhone and iPad, it’s free to download with a lot of the core functions included, although if you want access to the entire range of functions, you’re looking at a one-off fee of $10.
7. Notion
Notion is an app that’s gained a cult-like following in recent years, and once you start using it, you’ll understand why. While it’s primarily a note-taking app, it offers so much more. I use Notion as a project management tool for my blog post writing and to assist with my weekly newsletter. It also serves as a second brain for my personal life, where I store various digital information I need outside of work.
However, it’s the AI aspect of Notion that makes it truly valuable for me and my business. For $10 a month, you can access the Chat GPT-3.5 AI feature through Notion. If you want to use it creatively, simply tap the AI button and choose from a variety of prompts to assist you in generating new content.
Personally, I use Notion as a personal assistant for dictation. I find it much faster to dictate my blog posts into my Mac rather than type it out, even though I’m a fast typist. While dictation on the iPhone and Mac has improved, it’s still not reliable, often making mistakes or omitting words. So what I do is dictate into Notion, mistakes and all, and then select the text and use Notion’s built-in AI to correct all the mistakes instantly.
The effectiveness of this feature lies in its AI capabilities. It doesn’t just fix errors based on the text alone; it understands the context of your writing and makes more accurate corrections. You can even use the “improve writing” function to not only fix mistakes but also rewrite your text in a more readable manner. While I don’t use this feature all the time, it’s useful for keeping me on track and getting to the point more quickly, I can be prone to making my blog posts too long, and this helps.
To use Notion, you’ll need a Notion account, which can be a free account. However, to access NotionAI, you’ll need to subscribe for $10 per month.
8. Dark Noise
Perhaps not a conventional app that you would expect to be included in a list of productivity apps for iPhone, as this one doesn’t actually let you ‘do’ anything. But, I am including it because it is one that I use all the time with other apps. I hate working in a silent room, but I find music and the radio too distracting. For this reason, I really enjoy ambient noise. While some people prefer white noise like a desk fan or rainfall, I personally prefer the sounds of things going on around me, like the ambiance of a coffee shop or a busy street.
The iPhone App Store is filled with white noise apps, but Dark Noise is the first app I found that genuinely offers a good selection of high-quality sounds. The app is available on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and you can sync any changes that you make across all of your Apple devices. Not only that, but if you opt for the premium option, which costs £20 per year in the UK, you gain access to all the different sounds available, as well as the ability to mix sounds together to create your own soundscapes. So, if you enjoy working to the sound of a coffee shop but think it would be even better with some thunderstorms in the background, you can make that happen using the clever mixing element of this app.
The free version of this app is likely enough for most people, especially if you’re happy with the handful of regular sounds that are available.
9. Spark Mail
Email apps that help declutter your inbox aren’t exactly new; they’ve been around for a while now. If you use tools like the VIP list in the stock Mail app intelligently, you may not even need them. Spark Mail is a replacement app for the Mail app that excels at organising your inbox and prioritising important emails, but what sets Spark apart for me is its recent integration with AI.
While many apps are integrating AI these days, Spark’s AI integration is amazing. How often do you receive lengthy emails where you just need to get to the key points? Or how often are you CC’d into a long conversation and need to quickly catch up? This is where Spark shines. With a simple tap of the AI button, the app can create a summary of the entire email or even conversation for you. You can even set it to automatically summarise emails from specific senders, which is how I use it.
Replying to emails is made quick and easy with AI as well. Depending on your needs, you can choose from preset options to compose a reply or input a prompt for AI to generate a response. Alternatively, you can write your reply manually and use AI to proofread and condense your email into a polished message, which is what I tend to use it for, it saves me having to write in something like Notion and then copy and paste it across.Spark is one of the pricier email apps, with a monthly cost of $5 if you pay for a full year upfront, or $8 if you choose to pay monthly. While there is a free version available, it is limited and doesn’t include the AI features or inbox prioritisation.
10. Forest
So, having all of these productivity apps on your iPhone is all well and good, but what if you can’t get yourself off of the apps that aren’t so productive? Our phones constantly receive notifications, and while we can use features like focus mode to limit them, there is a more effective way to stay focused and be productive. The Pomodoro technique has been around for a long time. It’s a simple concept: work in 25-minute increments, followed by a five-minute break. The rule is to stay laser-focused during those 25 minutes; if you stop working, even for just a moment, you have to start the Pomodoro again. I’ve been using this technique for years, and it really does work.
Forest is an app that takes the Pomodoro technique to the next level using gamification. While the motivation to get work done should be enough for most people, this app provides additional inspiration. When you start a Pomodoro session, you see a sapling on the screen. Each completed session allows your tree to grow and be planted in your virtual forest. But, if you leave the app during a session to go and check out Instagram maybe, your tree dies and cannot be added to your forest. It’s that simple. As a bonus, you earn virtual coins for completing focus sessions. The app has partnered with a real tree planting organisation called Trees for the Future, allowing users to spend their virtual currency on planting real trees in the physical world. So not only are you getting your own work done, but you’re also helping make the real world that little bit better.
While this app is more lighthearted compared to others featured in this guide, it genuinely helps me stay focused and productive so, I believe it deserves a place in a productivity guide.