数字经济、零工经济、焦虑经济(anxiety economy)——这些都是我们描述我们今天生活的世界的方式。但归根结底，我们真的生活在生产力经济(productivity economy)中。
提高生产力的需要是为什么生活节奏似乎在不断加快，为什么我们要实施自动化来管理这种加速，以及为什么有些人精疲力竭并采取新的极简主义方向，不受束缚地生活的症结所在更快、更有效地“把事情做好”的社会规范。
但您不必“剪断绳索”就能过上更幸福的生活。如果您对一天必须（或想要）完成的事情感到不知所措，那么这五个生产力应用程序(productivity apps)可能是解决方案。
Fabulous – 目标设定和习惯追踪
下载(Download)：iOS , Android
订阅条款：(Subscription Terms:)
每月：9.99 美元/月
每年：7.99 美元/月，每 12 个月支付一次 95.99 美元
如果您正在寻找一款想要了解您当前状态并引导(state and guide)您进入更高效率的改进状态的生产力应用程序，那么(productivity app)Fabulous是一个绝佳的选择。这个应用程序希望通过建立更好的日常生活来帮助您转变思维方式，从而形成更高效、更健康、更快乐的生活方式。
研究支持
首先，Fabulous在设置过程中会问您一系列问题以了解您——即，您什么时候起床？你有足够的睡眠吗？你有运动吗？
这些不是应用程序开发人员(application developer)的任意好奇心；Fabulous是“在杜克大学(Duke University)高级后见之明(Advanced Hindsight)中心(Center)创建的，该实验室致力于研究如何通过行为科学让人们更快乐、更健康，”该应用程序的制造商说。
它本质上是一个渠道，通过它多年的研究和科学(research and science)现在被用来帮助日常生活中的人们改善他们的生活。
踏上旅程
根据您告诉 Fabulous 的内容，它会为您提供个性化的计划，让您的身心(mind and body)走上正确的道路。一旦您订阅（或注册免费试用）访问名为Sphere的空间，该应用程序就会为您设定第一个目标。你开始了所谓的意外
之旅(Journey)。
您将从简单的事情开始，您可以轻松完成的事情。Fabulous将挑战您在接下来的三天中醒来时首先喝水，以让您的思想进入新的状态。
当您完成这样的挑战时，您将解锁新的挑战。这个想法是，你将继续保持你在以前的挑战中形成的习惯，随着时间的推移，你会改变你的日常生活。您可以在您的旅程路线图(Journey Roadmap)上看到前方的情况。
但这只是一次旅程。还有其他的，例如 A Fabulous Night（学习“如何制造一夜好眠”或
Stoic Living的(Stoic Living)艺术(Art)（学习如何使用“ Stoicism发现新机会并在高压力情况下取得成功”）。还有Sphere 系列(Sphere Series)，这是为期六个月的旅程集合，旨在帮助您创造更好的日常生活，增加能量并消除不良习惯。
让自己精彩
使用Make Me Fabulous，您可以参加多项旨在帮助您改善健康和幸福(health and happiness)的活动。完成 7 分钟的锻炼，进行 20 分钟的小睡(power nap)，或者为了获得最终的生产力，可以尝试不休息(t break)几分钟或几小时的深度工作课程。(Work session)
当你更有动力去改变和实现里程碑时，你就会更有效率。这就是Fabulous的基础。它会为您制定新的例程和调整进行艰苦的工作；您所要做的就是对它们执行。
顶空——冥想
下载(Download)：iOS , Android
订阅条款：(Subscription Terms:)
每月：12.99 美元/月
每年：94.99 美元/年
因为改变思维方式对于提高生产力至关重要，所以Headspace是一款值得探索的应用程序。它指导您完成冥想练习，并围绕前僧侣和著名正念专家(mindfulness expert) 安迪·普迪科姆(Andy Puddicombe)的练习而建立。
基础课程
Headspace 首先询问您的冥想体验，为什么要探索冥想练习，以及什么时候最适合您在一天中进行冥想。
作为初学者，使用该应用程序的免费基础课程(Basics Course)可以让您试用 10 节课，其中包含两种可以利用的技术。这是为了让您熟悉冥想和正念(meditation and mindfulness)的基本技巧。
冥想图书馆
如果您决定通过订阅升级，您可以访问完整的Headspace 冥想(Headspace meditation)库。在这里，您可以根据最需要练习正念的区域来定制您的冥想课程。
例如，如果您感到压力和焦虑，Headspace会提供旨在释放负能量的引导式冥想。如果您需要提高工作输出和生产力(work output and productivity)，也有专门为此设计的做法。
有数百个课程围绕改善您的生活领域，例如注意力、身体活动和睡眠。您还可以获得提示和智慧，以帮助您保持正确的道路。
其他一次性功能，例如正念时刻和 SOS 会议区(Mindful Moments and SOS sessions area)，可在您觉得需要在一天中的任何时候练习正念或消除压力时使用。(practice mindfulness or squash stress)您可以跟踪所有这些进度，以查看您的改进程度。
顶空睡觉
Headspace还提供了一种名为Sleep的体验，其中包括睡眠冥想指导(meditation guidance)、睡眠诱导声音，以及Headspace所谓的“引导你到休息的地方”的睡眠广播。
考虑到睡眠对生产力的重要性，这似乎是Headspace通过其他能够提高生产力的冥想练习所提供的自然延伸。
保持对你想要完成的事情的正念，并以清晰的头脑去做，以确保不会阻碍消极或繁重的想法，(t get)这对于提高和保持生产力至关重要。顶空(Headspace)可以提供帮助。
高效——待办事项清单和目标规划
下载(Download)：iOS
订阅条款：(Subscription Terms:)
免费
Productive Premium，一个月：$6.99
Productive Premium，三个月：$11.99
Productive Premium，一年：$29.99
将您的思想放在正确的位置以确保您尽可能高效地工作是很棒的。但在某个时候，您可能需要更多的结构来组织和管理您试图提高生产力的内容。像Productive这样的应用程序可以帮助您提供提醒和统计数据，让您保持在实现目标的轨道上。
选择或养成更好的习惯
习惯是生产力(Productive)的基础，也是你作为一个人的生产力的基础。这个应用程序的全部意义在于让你更容易设置和坚持那些帮助你实现日常目标的习惯。Productive提供了一系列可供选择的习惯：去
健身房(Gym)、打扫(Tidy)房子(House)、与陌生人(Stranger–the)交谈——这些选项似乎无穷无尽。您还可以创建自定义习惯。
当您选择一个新习惯时，您还可以选择一个图标来表示它，并确定活动的持续时间以及它将发生的时间/地点。然后，该习惯会添加到您要完成的事情列表中，并且会在您将其设置为时出现，无论是每天、每周、每月还是一次。完成后，您只需将其标记为已完成。
习惯统计
通过 Productive 的生活日志功能(Life Log feature)，您将能够看到您的进步或缺乏。这提供了一个日历视图(calendar view)
，指示您在哪几天完成了所有或仅完成了部分计划，让您了解何时效率最高或最低。统计数据包括：
- 完美的日子
- 你目前的连胜纪录
- 你最好的连胜纪录
- 完成的全部习惯
- 平均每天
Productive确实是一个简单的应用程序，考虑到其目的的性质，它实际上非常合适——通过最小化分散注意力的架构和界面(architecture and interface)为用户提供更高的生产力。
如果您正在寻找一个高级的待办事项列表，它还可以帮助您养成并保持良好习惯，那么这是一款值得下载的生产力应用程序。(productivity app)
Google Keep – 笔记和列表
下载(Download)：iOS , Android
订阅条款：
(Subscription Terms:)免费
直到最近，人们才开始渴望以新的数字方式来管理生产力。但有些人仍然更喜欢笔记本和计划者来保持进度。
如果这是您，那么坚持使用Google Keep等简单的生产力应用程序可能会很好。这里没什么好看(Nothing fancy)的；Google Keep只是为您提供了一种现代方式来跟踪想法、创建列表和组织生活中的其他一切。
捕捉、整理思绪
捕捉想法，从打字或语音到文本的笔记到涂鸦，再到您拍摄或上传的图像。将它们组织在标签下，以您喜欢的方式对它们进行分组，并使它们易于查找。
或者，按类型查找它们，例如，在一个位置查看所有图像，无论标签如何。无论哪种方式，考虑到这个应用程序来自Google，搜索您创建的任何笔记、图像、涂鸦或列表都非常容易。
清单丰富
如果您是认真的列表制作者，Google Keep
为您提供了一种创建列表的简单方法，您可以在浏览时使用复选框进行标记。特别是，该应用程序的一个好处是它实际上可以帮助您填写购物清单并提供建议。您还可以为列表以及注释和图像设置提醒，以确保您在正确的时间处理需要完成的事情。
如果您希望通过一点帮助使事情保持简单但井井有条，那么Google Keep是完美的选择。它是笔记本规划器(notebook planner)的简单而现代的变体，它比智能手机上可能拥有的本机笔记应用程序更先进。
Flora – 通过游戏化跟踪焦点(Flora – Focus and Habit Tracking)
和习惯(Gamification)
下载(Download)：iOS , Android
订阅条款：
(Subscription Terms:)免费
我们发现自己所处的许多情况都需要多个人保持专注，才能让一个团队共同提高生产力——无论是商务会议(business meeting)、学习会议(study session)还是聚会。通常是我们的智能手机让我们分心。
Flora是一款生产力应用程序(productivity app)，它通过帮助每个人将注意力从手机上移开来确保这些会议的高效性变得更容易——也更有趣。
种树提高生产力
Flora背后的概念很简单。您设置了一个计时器以专注于手头的任务或活动(task or activity)，而无需使用智能手机来中断互动。当您开始会话时，一棵虚拟树将在Flora中生长。在开始之前，您可以通过向其他人发送唯一代码来邀请他们加入。
随着树的生长，您可以选择休息或放弃。您使用的任何休息时间都将从您的最终
专注持续时间(focus duration time)中减去，而放弃会杀死树。Flora与您的同行社区分享您的树木生长和砍伐树木的记录（如果您太害羞，可以将其保密），这样他们就可以看到您的实际生产效率或非生产效率。
为了提高赌注，您还可以设置一个您愿意为种植一棵真正的树而支付的实际货币价格，只要您在
Flora植树会议上失败了。如果您完成一个会话，您将不会被收费，Flora会奖励您一个奖品。
将种植映射到目标
Flora使您能够标记会话、设置基于时间的目标以及设置提醒，以便在事情发生时进行。通过这种方式，您可以根据您在这些会议期间植树的表现，了解您在不同情况下的工作效率。
如果您不能专注于自己，那么激励您的生产力可能是一个有用的步骤。Flora不仅让你为分散注意力付出代价，它还将这些缺点变成了对我们的世界至关重要的东西：树木。
重回正轨
无论您承担太多工作，尝试参与太多活动，还是尝试为太多人腾出时间，试图完成更多工作很容易成为一种负担，并导致(burden and lead)效率低下的感觉或结果。(feeling or outcome)
如果这是您遇到的情况，也许是时候尝试上述五个生产力应用程序(productivity apps)中的一个或多个。在快节奏的生活中，您是否使用过其他方法或工具来恢复或提高生产力？在下面的评论中与我们分享。(Share)
Change Your Mindset and Your Output with These Five Productivity Apps
The digital economy, the gіg economy, the anxiety economy – these are all ways we describe the world wе live in tоday. But when іt comes down to it, we’re reаlly living in the рroductivity economy.
The need to be ever more productive is the
crux of why the pace of life seems to be continuously accelerating, why we’re
implementing automation to manage that acceleration, and why some people are
burning out and taking a new minimalist direction, living untethered from the
societal norm of “getting things done” faster and more efficiently.
But you don’t have to “cut the cord” to live a
happier life. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with how much you have to (or want
to) accomplish in a day, these five productivity apps could be the solution.
Fabulous – Goal Setting and Habit
Tracking
Download: iOS, Android
Subscription Terms:
Monthly: $9.99/month
Yearly: $7.99/month, one payment of $95.99 billed every 12 months
If you’re looking for a productivity app that
wants to understand your current state and guide you to an improved state where
you’re more productive, Fabulous is a fabulous choice. This app wants to help
you shift your mindset by establishing better daily routines that feed into a
more productive, healthier, happier lifestyle.
Backed by Research
To start, Fabulous asks you a series of questions during setup to get to know you–i.e., When do you wake up? Do you get enough sleep? Do you exercise?
These aren’t the arbitrary curiosities of an application developer; Fabulous was “created at the Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University, a lab dedicated to studying what makes people happier and healthier with behavioral science,” the app’s makers say.
It’s essentially a channel through which years of research and science are now being leveraged to help everyday people improve their lives.
Take a Journey
Based on what you tell Fabulous, it provides
you with a personalized plan to get your mind and body on the right path. Once
you subscribe (or sign up for a free trial) to access a space called Sphere,
the the app sets your first goal for you. You begin what it calls An Unexpected
Journey.
You’ll start with something simple, something easy you can accomplish. Fabulous will challenge you to drink water first thing when you wake up for the next three days to get your mind moving towards a new state.
As you complete challenges like this, you’ll unlock new ones. The idea is that you’ll continue to maintain the habits you’ve formed with previous challenges, and over time you’ll change your routine for the better. You can see what’s up ahead on your Journey Roadmap.
But that’s only one journey. There are others,
like A Fabulous Night (learn “how to manufacture a great night’s sleep) or The
Art of Stoic Living (learn how to use “Stoicism to uncover new opportunities
and succeed in high-stress situations”). There are also Sphere Series, which
are six-month collections of journeys intended to help you create better
routines, increase energy and cut out bad habits.
Make Yourself Fabulous
With Make Me Fabulous, you can access several
activities intended to help you improve your health and happiness. Complete a
seven-minute workout, take a 20-minute power nap, or for ultimate productivity,
try a Deep Work session where you don’t break for minutes or hours.
When you’re more motivated to change and
achieve milestones, you’re more productive. That’s the basis of Fabulous. It
does the hard work of coming up with new routines and adjustments for you; all
you have to do is execute on them.
Headspace – Meditation
Download: iOS,Android
Subscription Terms:
Monthly: $12.99/month
Yearly: $94.99/year
Because changing your mindset being critical
to improving productivity, Headspace is an app worth exploring. It guides you
through meditative practices and was built around the practices of former monk
and renowned mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe.
Basics Course
Headspace starts by asking about your experience with meditation, why you want to explore meditative practices, and when it makes the most sense for you to meditate during your day.
As a beginner, using the free Basics Course of the app gets you a 10-session trial with two techniques to leverage. This is to get you familiar with the foundational techniques of meditation and mindfulness.
Meditation Library
If you decide to upgrade through subscription, you gain access to the full Headspace meditation library. Here, you can tailor your meditation sessions to areas where you need to be practicing mindfulness the most.
For instance, if you’re stressed and have anxiety, Headspace offers guided meditations designed to release that negative energy. If you need to increase work output and productivity, there’s a practice designed for that as well.
There are hundreds of sessions built around improving areas of your life, such as focus, physical activity, and sleep. You also get tips and nuggets of wisdom to help you stay on the right path.
Other one-off features like Mindful Moments and SOS sessions area available for moments when you feel the need to practice mindfulness or squash stress at any point throughout the day. You can track all of this progress to see how much you’re improving.
Sleep by Headspace
Headspace also offers an experience called Sleep, which includes sleep meditation guidance, sleep-inducing sounds, and what Headspace calls sleepcasts that “guide you to a place of rest.”
Considering how important sleep is to productivity, this seems to be a natural extension of what Headspace already offers through other meditative practices that enable higher productivity.
Maintaining mindfulness of what you’re trying
to accomplish and doing it with a clear mind to ensure negative or burdensome
thoughts don’t get in the way is critical to improving and maintaining
productivity. Headspace can help.
Productive – To-Do Lists and Goal
Planning
Download: iOS
Subscription Terms:
Free
Productive Premium, one month: $6.99
Productive Premium, three months: $11.99
Productive Premium, one year: $29.99
It’s great to get your mind in the right place
to ensure you can be as productive as possible. But at a certain point, you may
want more of a structure to organize and manage what it is you’re trying to be
productive with. An app like Productive can help with reminders and statistics
that keep you on track to achieving your goals.
Choose or Create Better Habits
Habits are the foundation of Productive, and
really the foundation of your productivity as a person. The entire point of
this app is to make it easier to set and stick to those habits that help you
meet daily goals. Productive offers a range of habits to choose from: Hit the
Gym, Tidy the House, Talk to a Stranger–the options are seemingly endless. You
can also create custom habits.
When you choose a new habit, you also choose
an icon to represent it as well as determine the duration of the activity and
when/where it will occur. The habit is then added to your list of things to
accomplish and will appear when you’ve set it to, whether that’s daily, weekly,
monthly, or once. Upon completion, you simply mark it as done.
Habit Stats
You’ll be able to see your progress or lack
thereof with Productive’s Life Log feature. This provides a calendar view
indicating on which days you’ve completed all or only some of what you set out
to, giving you visibility of when you’re most or least productive. Stats
include:
- Total perfect days
- Your current streak
- Your best streak
- Total habits done
- Average per day
Productive is really a simple app, which is actually very appropriate given the nature of its purpose–to enable higher productivity for users through a minimally distracting architecture and interface.
If you’re looking for an advanced to-do list that also helps you get good habits in place and keep them, this is a productivity app worth downloading.
Google Keep – Notes and Lists
Download: iOS,Android
Subscription Terms:
Free
It wasn’t until recently that people began yearning for new digital ways to manage productivity. But some people still prefer notebooks and planners to stay on track.
If this is you, it may be nice to stick with a simple productivity app like Google Keep. Nothing fancy to see here; Google Keep just gives you a modern way to keep track of thoughts, create lists, and organize everything else in your life.
Capture, Organize Thoughts
Capture thoughts, from typed or speech-to-text notes to doodles to images you take or upload. Organize these under labels to group them how you like and make them easy to find.
Or, find them by type, e.g., see all of your images in one place, regardless of label. Either way, considering this app is from Google, it’s really easy to search on whatever notes, images, doodles, or lists you create.
Lists Galore
If you’re a serious list-maker, Google Keep
gives you an easy way to create them with checkboxes you can mark off as you go
through. In particular, a perk of the app is it actually helps you fill out your
grocery list with suggestions. You can also set reminders for lists as well as
notes and images to ensure you take care of what needs to be done at the right
time.
If you’d prefer to keep things simple but
organized with just a touch of help, Google Keep is perfect. It’s a
straightforward yet modern variation of the notebook planner, and it’s more
advanced than the native notes app you likely have on your smartphone.
Flora – Focus and Habit Tracking
with Gamification
Download: iOS, Android
Subscription Terms:
Free
Many of the situations we find ourselves in require multiple individuals to stay focused for a group to collectively be productive–whether it’s a business meeting, study session, or get-together. It’s often our smartphones that distract us.
Flora is a productivity app that makes it a little easier–and more fun–to ensure these sessions are productive by helping everyone to keep their eyes off their phones.
Plant Trees for Productivity
The concept behind Flora is simple. You set a
timer to stay focused on the task or activity at hand without going to your
smartphone for a break from the interaction. When you begin the session, a
virtual tree will being to grow in Flora. Before beginning, you can invite
others to join by sending them a unique code.
As the tree grows, you have the option to take
a break or give up. Any break time you use will be subtracted from your final
focus duration time, whereas giving up will kill the tree. Flora shares your
tree-growing and tree-killing record with your community of peers (you can keep
it private if you’re too ashamed) so they can see how truly productive or
unproductive you are.
To up the stakes, you can also set a real
monetary price you’re willing to pay to plant a real tree whenever you fail a
Flora tree-planting session. If you complete a session, you won’t be charged
and Flora will reward you with a prize.
Map Planting to Goals
Flora enables you to tag sessions, set
time-based goals, and set reminders for when things are coming up. This way,
you can see how productive you are under different circumstances based on how
well you do with planting trees during these sessions.
If you can’t stay focused on your own,
incentivizing your productivity could be a useful step to take. Flora not only
makes you pay the price for breaking focus, it also turns those shortcomings
into something vitally important to our world: trees.
Get Back on Track
Whether you take on too much work, try to be involved in too many activities, or try to make time for too many people, attempting to accomplish more can easily become a burden and lead to the feeling or outcome of being less productive.
If this is what you’re experiencing, maybe it’s time to try one or more of the above five productivity apps. Are there other methods or tools you’ve used to regain or increase productivity in a fast-paced life? Share them with us in the comments below.
