The 10 Best Productivity Apps of 2020

Outlook is by far the most popular calendar and email system in the business world. It follows the tried and tested productivity combination of calendar, tasks, notes, and contacts. It has been possible to synchronize this type of data across mobile devices for many years, starting with the Psion Organiser in 1984 and continuing with Blackberries.

Features such as categories allow you to tag and filter items in pretty much any way you might like, making it a powerful tool for getting things done. A common system is to prefix contexts with the '@' sign, for example, "@home," or "@work." This means you can quickly filter your task list to see only tasks that are relevant at a particular time.

Google suite provides a much simpler calendar and task system than the one in Outlook. Google Calendar can make it easier to use although it isn’t possible to use categories for a proper GTD implementation period. The cloud-based system is great for shared calendars.

To keep all your data synchronized between Outlook on PC and your phone, CompanionLink is the best app. Most other solutions will only sync some of your data, so features such as categories may not be synchronized. CompanionLink syncs everything in the standard Outlook database and even allows you to configure custom fields.

Complex projects involve multiple activities happening at the same time, activities that can’t start until others are completed, and multiple resources that must be allocated. For this type of project management, Microsoft Project is the industry standard. However, while it’s a powerful piece of software, it can be time-consuming.

Google Keep has been designed to look like post-it notes, but it does a lot more than that, as it also supports sketches, photos, text, and lists. It's available online, primarily for PC use, and it syncs to Android and iOS.

Reminders can be set by time or location, but it can only be a single location. It's also a shame this feature isn't better integrated with Google Maps—it would be great to be able to say "remind me at a gas station."

Sticky Notes are a Windows 10 feature enabling users to make text notes that reformat to fit a window of any size, much like a text file in Notepad. It's possible to apply a bit more formatting, such as bullet points, but the biggest difference is everything is stored in one location and can be synced with an Android device.

MindMapping is a way of brainstorming and note-taking designed to resemble the way the brain works, and is said to improve memory and creativity. SimpleMind capitalizes on this by enabling users to create MindMaps on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. Created and finished maps can be synced via Dropbox or Google Drive, so you can access them from any device.

Kanban uses visual cards to keep sight of the jobs you need to do. Trello, however, replaces cards on a physical board with a digital Kanban board that lives in the cloud. This is great for distributed teams who need to keep track of what they're doing, while also being aware of what other teams are up to.

Microsoft Excel has many uses for organizing data and performing calculations. It can also be a great tool for planning projects and scheduling time; you can easily list tasks, together with the time required to complete them. Excel can then quickly calculate the total time required, as well as target start and finish times. It’s easy to cut-and-paste tasks and adjust times as you plan your project.