iPhone Apps I Swear By
Well, I’d say happy Friday, but we all know it just feels like day now, haha. But in all seriousness, happy Friday everyone. I hope everyone is feeling good and healthy during this time, and I hope everyone is being good at practicing your social distancing, and only going out when you need to. If you saw my post last week So, I Got Laid Off… Now What?, you’ll know that I’m someone who is struggling a bit more to find my purpose and things to do while I’m not working. That being said, I’ve since decided I’m going to be working on more blog content, and even working on creating both free & paid (but affordable), downloadable content! (This will be coming soon - stay tuned)
But, when I am at work, I need to use my tools to the best of my abilities to stay on top of my stuff. I’m a very organized person, but I’m also a very forgetful person. Even with working on my blog stuff more, and just generally keeping track of my life when we’re not in a pandemic situation, I need to make sure that I’m on top of my appointments, meetings, blog deadlines I set for myself and everything in between; so let’s jump into what apps are built right into your iPhone that I swear by, and I think everyone should use to their fully ability:
Calendar App
I can’t stress how much you should be using your calendar app that’s built right into your phone if you aren’t already, especially if you’re like me and you’re a very forgetful person. It doesn’t matter if it’s the iPhone calendar app, the Android one, or Google Calendar, whatever it is, you should definitely be using it. I have an iPhone, so of course I’m going to speak about this, and all other apps from an iOS stand point! Like I’ve said above, I’m a relatively forgetful person, and I need to make sure all of my meetings are in my calendar with a 5-10 minute reminder so I won’t forget to leave my desk & walk to the meeting room. I also have an Apple Watch, so this is where I find the app the most helpful for me. If you don’t have an Apple Watch, you probably aren’t fully aware that all of your phones notifications go right to the watch instead of your phone, so if you have the vibration on, your watch vibrates. So when my 5 minute reminder for my meeting goes off on my phone, it literally vibrates on my arm, so I never miss a notification.
Voice Memos App
I’m not sure if anyone else has this problem where you need to just blurt out your ideas, get them written down, or something almost immediately or you’ll forget it? Well, if you can’t relate, that’s exactly what I’m like - if I think of some content I’d like to create, I have to make sure that I get it written down or recorded somewhere immediately or I will absolutely not remember it, so this is where I love to use voice memos! It’s so easy to just quickly record whatever I’m thinking about and wanting to create, which I’ll just go through later and elaborate more in either a draft, or note format.
Notes App
So, you know how I just mentioned that I’ll take those voice memos, go over them & elaborate on them in detail later? This is where the notes app comes in, for me. I’ll listen to the voice memos that I’ve recorded, and elaborate on those ideas, pausing after each idea so that I can focus on getting more info hammered out for that one concept. For example, when I made a voice memo talking about this post, I said “a post idea could include how I use my built in iPhone apps to stay on track, organized and productive”, and while listening to that, I went into my notes app and started marking down all of the apps that I often find myself gravitating towards to accomplish these things, and I noticed a lot of them seemed to be sitting right on my home page, where I can easy access them. One of my other favourite things about this is that because I do have a Macbook, my notes transfer across my devices, so I can listen to my voice memos, type out my ideas at a faster rate on my laptop than if I was to do it on my phone, and it’ll be accessible on my phone too! Another benefit is having locked notes, and I in particular like to use that to write down things I’d like to talk to my doctor about, because like I said - forgetful! It’s accessible to me, but not to anyone else.
Reminders App
Lastly, the reminders app. Oh, how I could not properly function without the reminders app. This may seem like it’s super similar to the calendar app, and while it is, I use them for two very different things. Reminders for me are more for things like “remember to pick up X, Y & Z”, and I love using the location tool to do this. So if I need some ingredients for a blog post the next time I go to the grocery store, I have it set to remind me the next time I arrive at that grocery store, to pick up those things so I won’t forget them. You wouldn’t believe how often that has happened to me, and I’ve had to learn the hard way more than once that I need to set these reminders. It’s also convenient to use the date function on this as well so if I have plans with friends on a certain date, I can set a reminder to bring something for them - I often forget little gifts that I pick up for my friends, and just like I said before, I’ve learned that I need to utilize this app for that kind of stuff the hard way, multiple times.
So tell me guys - do any of you use your iPhone apps for similar things? Did I open your minds to new ways to use these apps to better help you stay organized, efficient & productive? I’m a big fan of using what we have to the best of our abilities, but I also understand a lot of people don’t thrive with using technology to stay organized, and need to write things down instead - if that’s you, you’ll have to let me know!
Until next week guys, xo.
