15 Essential Productivity Apps for Windows Users

15 Essential Productivity Apps for Windows Users

These Windows-compatible productivity apps that will help you get things done effectively.

If you’re feeling increasingly digitally distracted, you aren’t alone. Students check their smartphones in class for non-school purposes about a dozen times a day, according to one 2016 survey. And a 2014 survey from Salary.com found that 89% of respondents admitted to wasting time at work.

But our computers, smartphones, and tablets aren’t just distraction machines: when used effectively, they can also help us tackle our daily lives more efficiently or collaboratively. A variety of apps available for the Windows OS, both desktop and mobile, provide powerful productivity features including cloud-based document sharing, collaborative project planning, and online time tracking. And many of these apps are designed to work together, allowing you personalize a suite of products that help you complete your tasks, on time, in the way that works best for you and your team.

These 15 applications address all stages of productivity, from cutting out online distractions and tracking your time to employee collaboration and high-level project planning.

Note-Taking Applications

Simplenote’s hyper-clean interface translates well between its web, desktop, and mobile applications.

“There a few great tools that aid in making Window’s systems even more productive on mobile devices,” says Lindsey Havens, senior marketing manager for PhishLabs. “One of my favorite is Evernote, a digital notebook you can use to type, scan notes, scribble; copy and paste web content; record audio notes with a microphone and store pictures.This is the perfect app if you need to share notes and keep yourself organized while on the go.”

Evernote is certainly one of the best-known note-taking applications, but Microsoft’s own OneNote provides similar functionality–desktop and mobile apps, offline access–along with the ability to collaborate, as well as stylus functionality with the Surface tablet. And Simplenote offers a clean interface available across multiple OS and devices, which is handy if you work not only in Windows but also in iOS, Android, and/or Linux.

Apps to Optimize Your Desktop Experience

AquaSnap’s windows management functionality levels up the Windows experience, especially for users of multiple monitors.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Windows 10 allowed users to snap windows together like magnets, aligning them side by side to customize your viewing experience? AquaSnap gives you that functionality, along with the ability to resize windows more easily (and simultaneously), or to keep one window on top permanently. These features are especially useful for Windows desktop users who are required to work with more than one monitor. The app is available in multiple languages, for Windows OS from 7 and up.

Microsoft has its own windows management built in, but the functionality doesn’t match what you’ll find in applications like AquaSnap. Other windows management applications include GUI-based Divvy and, for a no-cost option, bug.n.

Time-Tracking Applications

One big part of time management is knowing how your time is spent, and there are several apps that can help you keep track of that–and will give you the straight goods on just how many minutes, exactly, you are spending on Twitter each day.

RescueTime is one of these apps, and its developers make the ambitious promise that it will help you improve your work-life balance. The app runs in the background on your desktop, laptop, or mobile device, tracking how you spend your time on your machine. The app provides you with detailed analysis of how your time is spent online–depending on how much information you’d like to have, you might consider this a feature or a bug. The app received a rating of “outstanding” from PC Mag, which called it the best time-management app they’d tested. The app’s lite version is free but an inexpensive upgrade lets you set daily goals and block distracting websites.

If you’re a Chrome user who wants a simple solution, Stayfocusd is a free extension with a wide variety of customization options, but its most compelling feature is how it will block specified websites. This is a great option for people who just can’t quit certain time-wasting sites.

Apps for Working Remotely

Caption: Trello is an accessible and versatile project planner in both its free and paid versions.

“One app that allows you to work remotely anytime of the day is Splashtop Business,” says Victor Ong, marketing director for Premio. “With this app, you can work remotely by transforming any mobile Windows 10 device into an extension of your workplace desktop. It lets you access important documents, media, and software stored on your office Mac or PC computer. Another great feature is that Splashtop Business works whether your enterprise PC is running or not. The app acts as an alarm clock to wake up your desktop machine.”

As handy as an app that brings your Windows desktop to your mobile device is, other great applications for remote workers aim to replicate some of the missing office experience by optimizing communication. Slack  is used by many different companies to provide employees–remote or otherwise–with a chat room that also offers integration with third-party applications like Google Drive and Salesforce. Slack has both free and paid versions; the biggest difference between the two is that the free has a hard limit of 10,000 messages, so if your team ends up using Slack as a general knowledge-management repository, you’ll need something to back up all that captured knowledge.

And if planning and project management collaboration is what your team needs, Trello provides an interface no unlike a corkboard — you can pin up different notes and to-dos, group and rearrange as necessary –and it also proffers a variety of third-party integrations that allow teams to outline projects, make checklists, set due dates, and otherwise collaborate on the project-completion process no matter where in the world they’re located. Truly ambitious Trello users can mine a variety of power-use tips, many of which are expanded upon in the application’s blog.

Apps for Storing Files in the Cloud

Cloud-storage options have expanded dramatically in recent years, and chances are good you can no longer get by on the scanty free amount that most services provide. But the expansion of options also means that there are cloud options out there at every price point, for personal and professional needs.

Google Drive offers 15 GB of free cloud storage, if your needs are quite basic, but bigger plans–up to 10 TB–are available for a monthly fee. And if your office runs on G Suite, you’ll have storage there as well. Another option with desktop, mobile, and web functionality is IDrive, which allows you attach unlimited devices to one account and offers not only cloud-based syncing but also online backup. And of course, Microsoft’s own OneDrive works not just with Windows machines and Windows Phone but also for Mac and Android OS, providing offline capability, music streaming, and deep Windows 10 integration.

How to Use the Microsoft Outlook Mobile App

You may find the Outlook app more efficient and effective than your default email app.

Maybe you use Microsoft Outlook on your computer. But what do you use on your mobile phone or tablet? You can use the built-in email app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. Another option is the Microsoft Outlook mobile app. The Outlook app supports Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and other services so you can set up and access multiple email accounts. You can choose what happens when you swipe a message. You can attach files from a variety of sources. And you can view and work with your calendar. Let’s check out how to use the Outlook app on your mobile device.

For this article, I’m using the Outlook app on my iPad, but it works similarly on an iPhone, iPad, and Android device. If you don’t already have it, you can snag the app for iOS from Apple’s App Store and for Android from Google Play. After you launch the app the first time, tap on the Get Started button. The app may suggest an account to add. You can add accounts for Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com (including Hotmail and MSN), Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and iCloud as well as accounts accessed through your Internet Service Provider. After you’ve set up all your email accounts, the app informs you of some of its features and takes you to the inbox of the last account you added.

By default, the app displays your inbox in Focused mode. What’s that? Outlook’s Focused Inbox displays your most important messages at the top of the list. But the feature requires time to learn which messages should be deemed important. When you first start the app, you may see no messages in the Focused Inbox. In that case, tap on the button to View Other Messages or tap on the header for Other.

You should then see your latest messages. Maybe now you want to add another account that you neglected to add at the start. No problem. Tap on the hamburger icon (the icon with three horizontal lines) in the upper left corner. Tap on the Settings icon (the gear icon) at the bottom of the left pane. The Settings window displays the accounts you’ve already set up. Tap on the Add Account link to set up another one. Follow the prompts to add the new account. The app deposits you at the inbox for the account you just set up.

If you run multiple email accounts, you can easily bounce from one to another. Tap on the hamburger icon. The left pane displays icons for each account. Tap on the account you wish to view. You can also access a different folder in your current account. Again, tap on the hamburger icon and tap on the folder you want to see.

Not crazy about that Focused Inbox feature? You can turn it off. Tap on the hamburger icon and tap on the Settings icon. Swipe down the screen until you see the option for Focused Inbox and turn it off. Tap on the X to close the Settings window.

Now let’s go through some of the email icons and commands. Tap on an email in your inbox. To send it to the Trash folder (which means you can recover it), tap on the Delete icon, which is the third one in the upper right corner. To permanently delete an email (which means you can’t recover it), tap on the Trash Can icon and then tap on Permanently Delete. Tap on the icon with the three dots under the time in the message header and you can reply to your current message, forward it, or delete it.

To run other commands on an email, tap on the icon with the three horizonal dots in the upper right. A popup menu offers several options. Click on the Schedule command and choose a time to schedule an email, meaning the email disappears and reappears at the scheduled time. Click on the Move to Spam command to banish an email to your spam folder. Click on the Move command and select a folder to which you want to move the email. Click on the Print Conversation command to print the email’s conversation thread. Click on the Mark Unread command to tag the email as unread so it appears when you view all unread messages. And click on the Flag command so it appears when you view all flagged messages.

You can also perform certain actions on an email by swiping it. By default, swiping on an email to the right schedules it and swiping on it to the left archives it. But you can change the swipe commands. Tap on the hamburger icon and then tap on Settings. Tap on the setting for Swipe Options. Tap on the option for Swipe Right and you can change the command to Delete, Mark Read, Move, and others. Do the same for Swipe Left. Tap on the left arrow to exit the Swipe Options window and close the Settings window.

You can run commands on multiple emails in one shot. To select more than one email, hold down one of the messages you want to include in the selection until you see a blue circle with a checkmark in front of it. Now tap on the other emails you want to include in the selection. You can also tap on the Select All link to select all messages in your current folder. At the bottom of the right pane are icons to schedule, deselect, move, delete, and permanently delete all selected messages.

Outlook offers a smart filter through which you can view specific types of emails. Tap on the entry for Filter, and you can now view only unread messages, flagged messages, or those with file attachments.

You can naturally search for messages. Tap on the Search icon and then type an email address, a person’s name, the subject of an email, or another keyword. In response, the app displays any messages that match your search term. Tap Cancel to turn off the search results.

Need to send someone a file? Outlook offers an array of options for file attachments. In your email, tap on the paper clip icon. You can attach a file from Outlook, Microsoft OneDrive, Box, Dropbox, or Google Drive. You can also attach a photo, either one from your library or a snapshot you take with your device.

Need to set up a meeting with someone? Compose your email and then tap on the Calendar icon in your email. You can show the other person your availability for a particular date or create a meeting invitation. With the first option, tap on specific times that would work for a meeting. With the second option, you fill out a meeting invite the same as you would on the desktop version of Outlook.

Speaking of calendars, you can access your calendar without having to leave Outlook. Tap on the Calendar icon at the bottom of the screen. You can now view your appointments by week, day, or agenda. You can also add a calendar event by tapping on the plus symbol and filling in all the details. And finally, you can view all your contacts by tapping on the People icon.