Suzanne Humphries
Let’s be honest—there are a million things to keep track of and stay up to date with every day, and there’s no reason why technology can’t help us keep everything organized. Plus, who can afford to hire Marie Kondo?
Although we can’t help you organize your sock drawer (sorry, not sorry), we do have a few recommendations for ways to keep other things organized, like passwords, online subscriptions, and your finances.
Manage Your Passwords: 1Password
Create To-Do Lists: Todoist
Find and Negotiate Your Subscriptions: Trim
Take Important Notes: Microsoft OneNote
Manage Your Finances and Credit Score: Mint
Coordinate Your Social Life: Google Calendar
Centralize All of Your Communication: Franz
Save Important Links for Later: Pocket
Manage Your Passwords: 1Password
If you’re reusing passwords, physically writing down your passwords, or still using “password” as your password (why?), just know that you don’t have to live that life. Password managers like 1Password (starts at $2.99/mo) are an essential tool for organization and online security. The app automatically saves all of your passwords, autofills them when you need to log in to a site, and generates secure new passwords whenever you need. Best of all, 1Password is available cross-platform, so no matter which devices you use, you can always access your passwords.
Create To-Do Lists: Todoist
Whether you’re creating your weekly shopping list or packing for your next vacay, you’ve got to have a reliable to-do list app. We recommend Todoist (Free), which allows you to quickly create new lists and view upcoming tasks. The app allows you to customize lists by assigning single or recurring due dates, setting priority levels, and adding subtasks. Todoist is available on all major platforms and even allows you to delegate tasks to coworkers or family members, allowing you (and everyone else in your circle) to stay on task.
Find and Negotiate Your Subscriptions: Trim
It seems like everything nowadays is a subscription service, and who knows which ones you’ve auto-subscribed to over the years. But don’t worry, Trim (Free) can help. Simply link your bank account and credit card to the service and it will show you all of your recurring subscriptions. It can even try to negotiate the costs of your subscriptions or unsubscribe you from those you no longer want. Now you can enjoy your next Netflix binge watching session with peace of mind.
Take Important Notes: Microsoft OneNote
Having a versatile note-taking app is a must-have for pretty much everyone. Microsoft OneNote (Free) allows you to easily type or handwrite notes and keep them organized. It can even convert what you’ve written into typed text (great if you have terrible handwriting). You can add media files like images or audio memos. OneNote is fully free, requires no subscriptions, and is available cross-platform.
Manage Your Finances and Credit Score: Mint
Having a finance management app like Mint (Free) on your side makes it easy to see all of your bills, deposits, investments, and other financial aspects in a single place. Mint makes it easy to create budgets, set reminders for upcoming due payments, and even monitor your credit score.
Coordinate Your Social Life: Google Calendar
Between work meetings, bill due dates, and that family get together your mom says you have to go to, having a reliable calendar app to keep your life events organized is a must. Google Calendar (Free) syncs across all of your devices, making it easy to add or update events and invite others to them. You can also create recurring events, color-code them, add reminders, and plug in an address for easy navigation. Plus, all of your events are automatically saved online, so your social calendar won’t disappear if you leave your phone at the club again.
Centralize All of Your Communication: Franz
If you’re like most people, you probably spend your day switching between a million apps to read texts, group chats, work chats, and social media messages. But a communication centralizing app like Franz (Free) allows you to connect all of your communication-based apps—like Messenger, WhatsApp, Slack, Tweetdeck, Android Messages, and Discord—in a single place. From here, you can view new messages as they come in. A premium subscription (starting at $2.99/mo) even gets you spellcheck support and ad removal.
Save Important Links for Later: Pocket
Pocket (Free) gives you a place to save all the awesome links to articles and videos you encounter during your day but don’t have time to look at. You can peruse your saved links any time through the mobile app or on your computer.
