12 Productivity Apps For After Vacation

Summer will disappear soon, get ready for work!

Francesco D'Alessio

Published in

Paper Planes

5 min readJul 20, 2017

Using summer as way to recuperate is a great goal.

But after those few weeks of relaxation, it’s time to get back into it! You’ll need to get back into the flow of work and all of its issues. So having a great toolkit will put you in good stead for success.

We’ve put together a strong list of 12 productivity apps that might take your fancy to help that process of improving your efficiency, upgrading and moving forward with your goals and targets.

1. Pillow: Sleep Tracking

Sleep is so important. After a long holiday, all that travel might have knocked you out, so the first productivity app I would recommend is Pillow.

Pillow is a great way to track your sleep and make sure you are sleeping effectively. Sleep is valuable, as highlighted by Arianna Huffington in her most recent book, The Sleep Revolution.

Download: for iOS here. (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch)

2. Taskful: Smart To-Do List

Simple to-do list applications are becoming very popular amongst those concerned about their productivity. If this is you, this will be perfect!

Taskful provides a simple way to add to-dos and plan your goals. This simple iOS app works well for beginners.

Download: for iOS here.

3. Qbserve: Track your progress

Keeping an eye on what you visit, how productive your time is and how much time you are spending on tasks is useful. This audit provides a clear analytical approach to your work.

Qbserve provides just that, a productivity score and timesheet to your busy/or not so busy work day.

Download: for Mac here. (£32.00/one-off)

4. Origin: Just Write

Ace your freestyle writing or even get some words down.

Origin forces you to write, no going back, just straight forward writing. This direct approach to getting words on the screen helps to avoid distractions. There is a word-limit (250-words) paywall per document, you have unlimited documents, just to note.

Download: for Mac here. ($4.99 to remove limit)

5. Purp: Set your goals!

After the vacation, you may have some new goals. Maybe loosing weight might be one, or even hitting a target in work? Setting those goals can sometimes we be a tough one.

Purp brings together actionable goals with tasks, allowing you to plot what needs to be done.

Download: for iOS here.

6. Fantastical 2: A beautiful calendar

Getting all your events and activities plotted out for the next few months might be vital. Doing this one your basic calendar application might be a little painful, why not treat yourself to an attractive calendar.

Fantastical 2 for Mac and iOS is a pretty powerful, well-designed option.

Download: for iOS and Mac here.

7. Timing 2: Auditing your time

Very similar to Qbserve, but provides users with the ability to track their day to day website usage in a more analytical manner, improving the depth of your work day knowledge.

Timing 2 is a well-designed, easy-to-use, clean way to audit your time and how you spend those precious minutes.

Download: for Mac here.

8. Headspace: Meditation at home

At home, relaxation is tough. With your smartphone only inches away from you, or family/friends wanting your attention, your personal mindful time is reduced. Using that time wisely is very important.

Headspace, the most popular of the mediation apps to get started with.

Download: for iOS, Android here.

9. Soon: Everyday Bucket List

Over the last few weeks of vacation, maybe you’ve noted a few bucket list style items for your list? The movies you haven’t watched? The restaurants you’ve never been?

Enter Soon. Soon provides a smart way to organise all the things you’d like to do, bringing you an ongoing tally to add too.

Download: for iOS here. (free, Android coming soon)

10. UnClutter: Avoid Mac Messiness

Transfer a file, link or note on the screen? This handy Mac app should provide a pretty smart way to save time moving files around the windows when using your Mac or Mac device.

Unclutter has saved heaps of time moving files across my day.

Download: for Mac here. ($9.99 one-off)

11. Sorted: An Alternative To-Do List

Sorted is a more proactive approach to your to-do list providing you with a way to organise your tasks based on time.

Organising your tasks using time will help to map out your day’s activities and avoid any distraction using a very simple, yet interactive to-do list app.

Download: for iOS here. ($29.99, one-off) (Mac coming soon)

12. Things 3: The Most Attractive To-Do List

Just looking for a brand new to-do list as you are back from vacation?!

Things 3 might be your to-do list of choice. This is one of the most attractive to-do list experiences on iOS and Mac right now and pretty easy to get started with. Things 3 might just become your daily to-do list!