Whether you’re working or studying, your Mac can be the ultimate tool for getting things done. But it won’t come out of the box that way. The standard-issue applications can handle a lot, but there are plenty of independent programs designed to handle very specific tasks just a little bit better.
These programs can help you be a quicker and more productive Mac user. Below, I’ve ranked the top 13 productivity apps for Mac.
1. f.lux
Sep 23, 2020 Best Productivity Apps For Mac. I have a demanding job as a sales executive, a family with two kids, I’m a blogger, and I workout 4-5x a week. Doing all that requires dedication and brutal efficiency. The best macOS apps for productivity during remote work should consistently serve the everchanging needs of the digital worker. It is not always easy to craft the best environment for productivity during working remotely. Still, I sincerely hope this list has helped you sort through the hundreds of thousands of macOS apps that are available. Best Mac Productivity Apps 1. Alfred is a software that will help you do things faster. With Alfred, you can become the Batman of productivity. This application takes getting used to and you will have to set it up to suit your needs. Alfred basically is a search bar like Spotlight search that focuses on using hotkeys and workflows for.
If you’ve ever stayed up late writing a paper (or falling into a Youtube rabbit hole), you’ve probably noticed a strange effect of the blue light from your computer screen. Your body can mistake the particular tone emitted by your Mac’s screen for morning light, disrupting your circadian rhythm and making it hard to sleep.
By changing your computer to an amber hue when the sun goes down, Flux helps to give you the best productivity tool of all—a good night’s sleep. The app lets you create a range of custom lighting schemes and schedules to ensure that your screen works with you, not against you.
2. CleanMyMac X
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by computer clutter CleanMyMac X can give you back the feeling of control over your Mac. The app combines a range of features for scanning, organizing, and deleting files, so you save valuable space and processing power.
The app’s Smart Scan feature gives you an overall view of what’s taking up space on your Mac and helps you clean up your Mac.
CleanMyMac X also helps you get better performance by eliminating unused applications, caches, and support files. Its malware protection can defend against viruses, and, best of all, the tool is notarized by Apple so it’s an absolutely safe software for your Mac.
Download the trial version and see for yourself!
3. Grammarly
Grammarly is the spelling and grammar checker you never knew you needed. Designed to improve email, word processing, web browsing and more, the app embeds itself in the programs you use every day, offering spelling corrections and flagging any grammatical errors.
Grammarly is designed to play nicely with email clients, web browsers, word processors, and more. Its advanced AI can help with issues at all stages of the writing process, including:
- Spelling mistakes
- Grammar problems
- Redundant words
- Awkward phrasing
- Missing words
Grammarly won’t just fix your mistakes, it will also make you a stronger and more productive writer, whether you’re writing for yourself or for an audience.
4. Cold Turkey
Everyone has those problem websites, the ones you visit for a quick break and end up scrolling for 45 minutes. Self-discipline can be hard to develop when every moment you spend on your computer is a temptation.
Cold Turkey helps you develop better browsing habits and wins back your productive time by blocking the websites of your choice. If your work involves browsing one of your problem websites, you can whitelist individual pages while keeping the majority blocked.
Plus, you can pre-program whole schedules ahead of time to structure your working week.
5. Clockify
Clockify is an integrated timer and timesheet app. Great for freelancers, this easy-to-use tool lets you track and log the amount of time you spend on different projects with just a few clicks.
This makes it a snap to generate invoices for clients and ensure that you bill for all the time you put in. Plus, having a clear record of how much time you’ve put into a project can be a big productivity booster.
Clockify can also measure the time when you’re not actively using your computer and prompt you to include or discard it on your timesheet.
6. Otter
A strong option for people who hate taking notes by hand, Otter lets you dictate into the microphone and transforms your speech into text. It’s a great tool for taking hands-free notes or keeping a record of conversations and meetings.
The app’s AI can even note different speakers, and make searchable transcripts of group conversations that you can supplement with your own notes and images.
Lots of valuable information can get lost when you to keep notes by hand–with Otter, you won’t miss a beat.
7. 1Password
If you’re like most people, you use the same password for everything: email, bank account, Facebook, etc. But this risky move makes your data far less secure than it would be if you used different passwords.
The problem is that those passwords quickly become confusing. If they’re too similar, they’re easy to mix up. If they’re too different, it’s hard to remember them all. It adds up to a lot of frustration and wasted time.
That’s where 1password comes in. This secure and straightforward password vault keeps all your login information in one secure place. You can look up your username and password for any application, website, or service in just a few seconds.
1Password has a password of its own, so only you can access the information inside—the last password you’ll ever need to remember.
8. Numi
Numi is a ground-up redesign of the traditional calculator that uses plain text recognition to give you the answers you need. It goes beyond calculation too, helping you with unit conversions, time zones, and other tricky quantitative tasks.
No more jabbing around a panel of confusing symbols to try to find the square root of 4.6 or how many teaspoons in a quart! Just open Numi’s beautiful minimal interface and type your question as you might phrase it to a friend. Well, a friend who knows what 20% of $50 in yen is.
Plus, if you have complex calculations that you need to do often, Numi lets you save custom operations, saving you time and energy down the road.
9. Omnifocus
Omnifocus rolls together with a variety of functions into one full-featured to-do list app. Its slick design and ability to import information from your email and calendar applications make it a great center of operations when you have tasks to accomplish.
You can even set pop-up alerts to keep yourself focused and productive.
10. Bartender
Having a bunch of open windows can be a drain on productivity—nobody wants to drag and dig through windows to find what they need, especially when deadlines are looming. A small but powerful manager for your Mac’s menu bar, Bartender condenses your open tabs and applications into one small icon.
This reduces clutter and confusion on your desktop and gives you a way to quickly switch between applications without interrupting your workflow. It gives you the reassurance of an empty desktop, but your applications and browser tabs stay active and ready to use in the background.
11. Evernote
This classic note-taking app has been a staple of productive Mac desktops for years. Evernote has constantly reimagined what digital note-taking can be, adding new features and capabilities with each version.
Instead of limiting you to what you can type, Evernote lets you supplement your notes with all sorts of additional information, including:
- Embedded images
- Audio recordings
- Videos
- To-do lists
- Calendar entries
More than just a digital notepad, Evernote is a great choice for a one-stop productivity hub.
12. Slack
A relatively recent arrival, Slack has quickly become the go-to communication tool for teams. Whether you’re four people in a garage or hundreds spread across continents, this app provides seamless, integrated communication and project management.
By creating separate channels for different teams and projects, Slack offers a convincing and permanent replacement for email. You can even let clients, outside advisors, and others participate in the conversation.
And by streamlining your communication and collaboration, Slack makes you and the people you work with more productive.
13. Magnet
Magnet solves the endless shuffle of overlapping windows once and for all. The app lets you snap the edges of open pages together so they share your screen nicely.
For example, you can have a web page and a word processor side by side so you can read research as you type. Magnet’s uses are only limited by your needs and imagination—it adds a layer of flexibility and functionality to your Mac you didn’t know was missing.
With the apps described above, you can transform your working day. Keeping your mind and workspace clear is the key to being focused and productive, so consider eliminating time wasters and removing all distractions like junk files and malware pop-ups from your Mac with CleanMyMac X.
Whether you use your Mac for work or just for your personal projects, you’ve likely found yourself wondering how to improve your productivity. There are only so many hours in a day, and so much mental stamina you can muster before you run out.
There are dozens of tricks you can use to improve your own productivity and outlook, but if you’re looking for a more objective, comprehensive fix, the best thing to do is equip your Mac with productivity apps designed to help you do more in less time.
This Lifehack-exclusive list has some of the best productivity apps to help you feel less tired, improve your energy, and ultimately help you get more done every day:
1. Todoist
Available for all iOS devices, Todoist is a note-taking and organization app that can keep you on top of all your projects—both personal and professional.
Its best features are all free to use, including browser extensions, task creation, and interactive boards you can use to organize all your notes.
If you want to pay the optional $29 yearly fee, you can get even more advanced features like backups and automatic reminders. Even with the free version, you’ll stay far more organized.
Download: Todoist
2. EmailAnalytics
Have you ever wondered how much time you’re really spending on email, and whether that time is productive? EmailAnalytics exists to help Gmail and G Suite users answer that question in the span of a few minutes.
It generates a detailed report to tell you how long it takes you to write and read emails, your top email sources, your average response times, and other information you can use to boost your email productivity. It’s free to try for 14 days.
Best Apps Productivity Macbook Pro
Download: EmailAnalytics
3. 1Password
You may not realize it, but you probably spend a ton of time recalling your passwords, especially if and when you forget one to an app you use on a regular basis.
1Password is an app for Mac that saves and remembers all your passwords for you in one place, so you can access all your favorite sites with a single click.
You’ll save time and keep all your accounts secure simultaneously. A personal plan is $2.99 per month.
Download: 1Password
4. Bear
Bear is a unique kind of note-taking app designed to make it easier for Mac users to jot down notes on the go. With it, you can create to-do lists, give yourself reminders, and outline concepts for future brainstorming sessions.
It comes with many different inline styles so you can customize your notes to your personal preferences, and remember the context in which you wrote them. The core version is free, with a $14.99 per year version available as well.
Download: Bear
5. Hazel
Hazel by noodlesoft is an automated organization tool designed for Mac that will help you automatically organize your files based on any custom rules you want to create.
For example, you can set it to move untouched items from one folder into another folder labeled “action items” if they haven’t been addressed within a week. It can save you hours of organization over the course of a few weeks. A single license is a flat $32.
Download: noodlesoft
6. Alfred
Alfred is an all-in-one app designed to save you time with Mac shortcuts and convenient custom actions. You can use it in a variety of ways.
For example, you can access Alfred’s clipboard memory so you don’t copy and paste the same material over and over, or set up custom workflows to automate some of your most repetitive tasks.
It’s a paid app, with multiple price points based on the features you desire.
Download: Alfred
7. TextExpander
TextExpander does exactly what the name suggests; it allows you to type a short snippet of text, and expand that text automatically.
For example, you can create a custom expansion that allows you to conjure a full paragraph you type repeatedly by simply typing a unique abbreviation. Once you get used to your custom combinations, you’ll spare your fingers from typing thousands of words.
An individual account is $3.33 per month.
Download: TextExpander
8. Backblaze
If you’ve ever experienced a crash, or theft of your Mac, you know how much time a system restore can cost you. You’ll spend hours replacing the files you lost, and lose thousands of files that are irreplaceable.
Backblaze is an automated, inexpensive way to back up your entire Mac for just $5 a month.
Download: Backblaze
9. Keyboard Maestro
Keyboard Maestro is an older app that still has the power to make your life easier. With it, you can automate any number of tasks based on a certain trigger (such as a hotkey combination, or an event like connecting to a wireless network). A single license only costs $36.
Download: Keyboard Maestro
10. Snagit
There are many applications for a good screen-capture app, whether you’re trying to illustrate a tech problem you have or just want to make an interesting meme. Snagit makes it easy, with built-in editing for both still images and video. A single license covers two machines, and costs $49.95.
Download: TechSmith/Snagit
11. Bartender
Bartender is the cleverly-named app that helps you clean up and organize all your menu bar icons. You can also access them quickly with keyboard shortcuts.
If you’re like most Mac users, those icons get cluttered quickly and stop you from working efficiently. It’s free to try for 4 weeks, after which you’ll need a $15 license.
Download:Bartender
12. Otter
Otter is the Mac app for the note taker who hates typing. It’s an intelligent voice-recognition system and note-taking app that will help you transcribe your conversations, keep notes during meetings, and even take contextual notes to yourself in your own time.
Best of all, it’s free to get started!
Download: Otter
13. Flux
Do you often find yourself feeling tired throughout the day, or feeling unable to get to sleep after a day of staring at your computer? That could be because of the unnatural blue light that radiates from your Mac.
Flux naturally adapts your display to emit light that matches the time of day, so you can sleep better and feel less tired. It’s also free!
Download: Flux
14. PDFpen
If you deal with PDFs on a regular basis, you probably find yourself wishing for some kind of tool that can let you mark up those PDFs however you want. Without a dedicated app like PDFpen, this can be difficult.
PDFpen lets you edit PDFs in almost any conceivable way, giving you more power and saving you time. A single license is $74.95.
Download: Smile Software/PDFpen
15. OmniFocus
OmniFocus is all about task management. It has a clean interface that allows you to tag your tasks, schedule events, and even automate certain features.
It’s one of the most comprehensive solutions on the market, so there’s a bit of a learning curve to get the most out of it.
A standard license is $39.99, while the pro version is $79.99.
Download: OmniFocus
16. Franz
It’s tiring to switch between dozens of different chat programs like Facebook Messenger, Slack, and WhatsApp, whenever you want to have a conversation with a different contact.
Franz’s solution is simple; offer access to all these apps in one convenient package. And best of all, it’s completely open source.
Download: Franz
17. MindNode
If you’re the brainstorming type, you need an app like MindNode to help you efficiently organize your thoughts. There are dozens of tools you can use to connect ideas in a mind map, or simply jot down notes for future reference.
The core app is free, with in-app purchases available.
Download: MindNode
18. Focus
Best Free Productivity Apps Mac
The internet is a wonderful thing, but it can be awfully distracting. And if you’re like the majority of us, you’ve interrupted work on a project because of some attention-grabbing site or bad online habit. That’s where Focus comes in.
This app allows you to block the worst offenders with custom time limits and other constraints, so you can focus on the task at hand. A single license is $19.99.
Best Macbook Apps 2020
Download: Focus
19. CleanMyMac
Chances are, your Mac isn’t working as fast as it could, thanks to gigabytes of clutter and unnecessary files on your system. CleanMyMac helps you scan your Mac, monitor its health, and ultimately clean it up—so you can handle all your tasks that extra bit faster. A single license is $39.95.
Download: CleanMyMac
20. Grammarly
A spelling error or grammatical mistake can cost you big time. It could be the source of a worse grade on a big paper, or compromise your credibility in the workplace. Thankfully, Grammarly can help you.
This Mac-integrated writing assistant monitors all your writing and makes live corrections, so you’re alerted to your potential mistakes before they become permanent.
A free version exists, but the premium version will cost you between $11 and $30 a month, depending on how you pay.
Productivity Tools Mac
Download: Grammarly
The Bottom Line
These productivity apps should help you squeeze more productive hours out of every day, but they aren’t the only tools you’ll have to help you find success.
Make the time to learn about and experiment with all the life hacks that can make you more productive. By improving your devices as well as your outlook and focus, you’ll be able to get far more done in a day, and feel better doing it.
More to Boost Productivity
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