Insanely Helpful Productivity Apps to Use When Working from Home

Turbo charge your productivity when working from home with these 3 powerful productivity apps.

With the crazy turn of events in our world, so many people have suddenly found themselves in the new situation of working from home. To make the transition even more challenging, you might also find yourself surrounded by kids who are home from school, and spouses who are also now forced to work remotely as well. 

I’ve been a work-at-home-mom for more than a decade, and LOVE it. But I know it comes with its fair share of challenges, particularly when the kids are home for long stretches of time (like summer break or NOW in this bizarro world we’re living in at the moment).

The struggle to be productive working at home with kids in the house is REAL my friend. Even though my kids are both teens, a large chunk of my day is devoted to meeting their needs (for transportation, entertainment, meals, help with school work, etc.).

Of course, this translates into significantly less time that I have to devote to work. A few summers ago, I realized that if I had any hope of tackling the tasks on my work-related to-do list, I needed to up my productivity game, BIG TIME.

Eliminate distractions. Increase Focus. This became my mantra. 

That summer, I put some sanity-saving routines in place and discovered a few powerful apps that have really helped to set me on the path to productivity nirvana. In this post, I’ll share some of the productivity apps that have saved my bacon over the past few years.

3 Insanely Helpful Productivity Apps

1. Undistracted Chrome Extension

It’s a universally accepted fact that Facebook(and Instagram, and YouTube) is a major time suck.

If I could avoid social media sites altogether during my workday, I would. But the fact is that these sites are an integral part of my business as a blogger, so there’s no way of avoiding them.

But when I hop on to create a post on my blog’s Instagram account, or to attend a scheduled Facebook live session, I often find myself getting lost in the vortex of the news feeds.

After all, how could I possibly not share that adorable Facebook memory that popped up from 4 years ago?

When a blogging colleague mentioned in passing that there’s a Chrome extension called UnDistracted that blocks your newsfeed on your desktop computer when you log into social sites, I couldn’t install it fast enough.

Yep. It’s just as life-changing as you imagine it would be.

You can still check your messages and notifications, post status updates, and do everything you could do before. You just don’t get access to those distracting news feed posts anymore. This was HUGE for me, my friend!

2. Be Focused App

It seems that the more work tasks I have on my plate in a given day, the more I tend to jump frenetically from one task to another, losing focus as my brain has to constantly shift directions. This is a seriously inefficient way to work.

And none of us can afford to be inefficient.

I knew it was time to dust off a tried and true productivity booster…the Pomodoro Technique. In essence, this technique forces you to focus for short periods of time (usually 20-25 minutes), with built-in breaks (5 minutes) between focus sessions.

The focused time blocks encourage you to complete tasks more quickly, and the frequent breaks help your mind to stay fresh.

Yep, you COULD use a regular ol’ kitchen timer to implement the Pomodoro Technique. But of course, there are apps out there that make it easier (and more convenient if you happen to be in the local coffee shop and don’t have access to a kitchen timer).

The app I’ve been using for this purpose is Be Focused.

Be Focused is a simple Pomodoro timer desktop app for Macs, with options to customize the length of your own focus periods and break times. But wait. It gets better.

With Be Focused, you can also track the time you spend on specific projects or tasks. You can categorize tasks by activity type,

In this desktop app, you have the option to display a larger version of the timer that floats on top of your screen so that you can have the timer in view at all times:

Or you can choose the more subtle version, that displays in the browser extension area:

The mere presence of that tiny countdown clock at the top of my screen prompts me to stay focused on the task at hand, instead of flitting around from one tab to the next (leaving a sea of unfinished tasks in my wake).

I can’t even begin to describe how much my productivity has soared as a consequence of using the Pomodoro Technique combined with the the Be Focused app!

I load up my tasks for the day and estimate the number of Pomodoro sessions needed to complete each task. Then, it’s simply a matter of checking them off as I zip through each session. So satisfying!

3. Brain.FM

Maybe you’ve heard of Brain.fm, or similar apps that offer up audio tracks specifically designed to help you focus. I’ve avoided these apps because I typically find background noise/music distracting when I’m doing work that requires highly focused attention.

But in the spirit of productivity experimentation, I went ahead and signed up for a free Brain.fm account to test it out.

If I didn’t experience it for myself, I would have never believed it.

I was pleasantly surprised at how energized and focused I became while listening to several of the FOCUS playlists. Listening to the music induced a kind of trance-like mental state that helped me to tune out everything except for the task directly in front of me.

I found the music to be most effective when I listened to it via headphones or earbuds (vs. just pumping it out of my laptop).

Brain.fm uses all original music across a variety of categories. I tried just about every category. Strangely I worked best while listening to the electronic music focus option (I anticipated this type of music to be highly annoying, but I was wrong).

Of course, everyone’s different, so you’ll need to find the focus soundtrack that works best for you. As a side benefit, the app also helps to facilitate relaxation and sleep. Who doesn’t need a little help with that these days?

Moral of the story — If you’re struggling with how to be productive in this “new normal” work-from-home environment, why not give one of these three powerful productivity apps a try?

Got another productivity app that has been life-changing for you? I’d love it if you’d share in the comments below.

Looking for More Productivity Boosting Tips?

• How to Be Productive Working From Home
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