4 Great Productivity Apps to Save You Time

App stores are crammed with all manner of time-management options. These four take interesting tacks toward maximizing your time–and productivity.

iCukoo Charity Alarm Clock

Take a moral–and financial–stand against sleeping in. Create and edit alarms using the dead-simple design. If you ignore them, iCukoo sends a set amount of money to a charity of your choice. In this way, the app brings new meaning to “you snooze, you lose.”

Workflow

Want to, say, make GIFs on your phone? There’s an app for that–once Workflow makes it for you. Workflow programs certain tasks and turns them into buttons for your phone’s homescreen, thus transforming many potentially tedious activities into simple, one-touch operations.

IFTTT

Short for “if this, then that,” IFTTT automates smartphone apps using what it calls recipes. For instance, if you want Dropbox to upload Instagram photos, program “If I take an Instagram photo, then Dropbox will add the file.” Or use the service to program your phone to text you when it starts raining.

Timeful

Feeling a little short on downtime? Timeful will send, well, timely notifications reminding the desk-bound to do things like stretch. Its algorithm learns your preferences: Ignore a suggestion to hit the gym at 10 p.m., and next time it will recommend you go earlier.

 

By JIll Krasny