Best Productivity Apps for Mac in 2021

The Intriguing Case of Diminishing Productivity Whilst Working from Home in 2020

Workplace productivity is important for any business because it directly effects the work-life balance of individuals and the success chart of the organization. Getting people to stay happy and maintain their work flow is a challenge most days.  With people working from home during the world wide quarantines this year due to Covid 19, that challenge got levelled up chiefly because achieving productivity is particularly difficult for remote workers or people working from home. Maximizing efficiency, both inside and outside of the office, did become a major concern and priority for all businesses.

Whether – this year especially- you worked in the office, as part of a distributed team or from home or freelanced it, the apps we discuss will help you maximize productivity and get more done during the working day. What better way to bring in the new fiscal year than to blog about the Best Productivity Apps for Mac in 2021.

Personal or office productivity software (simply called productivity software) is used for producing information in the form of documents, worksheets, charts, graphs, databases, presentations, electronic music, digital videos, and even digital paintings.

Mac’s hidden built-in games and other surprises can make maintaining focus and high productivity levels is a tough challenge. The apps we will discuss now will help you make the most of the time you spend on your Mac. Here are some of the best productivity apps for Mac, guaranteed to help you work more and procrastinate less if used optimally.

So, here are the 21 best productivity apps for Mac to help you focus on your work more and procrastinate less.

Serene 

Serene is the one-stop productivity tool for macOS, created to attain deep work- being able to focus undisturbed on cognitively demanding tasks. It's a skill that allows you to lessen the time taken to master complex information, hence allowing you to produce better results. Whether finishing a project, writing a book, or developing a startup, Serene keeps you focused by utilizing the following three proven techniques:

• Blocking distractions (upon initiating Serene)
• Organizing each work day with a plan 
• Slotting focused sessions of work with regular breaks into every work day

You can set daily routines and plan your day around the work in order of importance. It will also block all distracting websites, apps & notifications, helping you to stay focused and prime that focus with concentration music. Serene tracks your productivity with analytics, as it has a reporting feature and can easily be integrated with other productivity & project management tools to help you get things completed faster. Serene is based on the principle proved by numerous studies show that multitasking actually destroys productivity. Serene will provide you all the concentration you need as it has the ability to put your phone on mute, block distracting apps and websites, control Philips Hue lights, update your Slack status and help you create your optimal deep work environment. It is better to stay on track with a task at hand defined by a single goal for each day, this can be broken into multiple tasks, and with blocked out distractions, you are ready to meet your own expectations and exceed them. As the thought process behind Serene clearly says, “Multi-tasking is a myth. Single-tasking is a superpower.” You can try Serene for free and at the cost of $4 per person per month, it is a cost effective solution to keep your team focused and distraction free.

1Password

If you are anything like me, you will try to use the same password in all sites and apps that you work on for efficiency. However, there are many sites and apps that won’t allow you to use the same or even similar password because it can be easily compromised. You may realize that users spend a lot of energy and time creating passwords that are strong enough, have enough special characters, numbers, caps and lower casings and almost as much recalling them if you had entrusted your passwords to your system and get locked out, especially if you forget one to a frequently used app. You can organize your items with tags by entering and saving tag names in the tag field, or mark them as favorites by dragging items onto Favorites. Both will be accessible in the sidebar for quick handling when you need them.  1Password saves and remembers all your Mac passwords for you in one place, so you can access all your favorite sites with a single click. The 1Password extension on your browser allows you to fill passwords, addresses, and credit card details in Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Brave. This saves time and maintains the security of your accounts at a nominal cost of $2.99 per month for a personal plan.

Alfred

Alfred is an all-in-one app designed to save you time with Mac shortcuts and convenient custom actions. It automates small admin tasks and can also perform advanced functions. Using the Clipboard History tool you can locate text, file or image you copied earlier, or create your own snippets with specific abbreviated names to archive them, or set up custom workflows to automate some of your most repetitive tasks and reduce duplicated effort. It’s a paid app, with multiple price points based on the features you desire. Alfred is an app-launching utility, you simply type a key-combination you choose, e.g. Cmd+Space, to bring up a text input window. Alfred autosuggests as you start inputting the name of your desired app and starts displaying matches, narrowing it to the one of your choice as you continue to type. Hitting the Return key or selecting a Command-key option opens the selected item,  you can also open files, folders, emails and contacts, perform web searches, copy/move files and folders, and a whole host of other actions in the same way. Anything stored on your Mac is accessible for Alfred and it learns about you in order to help you work more quickly and efficiently. Alfred 2.6 is available as a free download and is easily one of the best free productivity apps for mac  and the paid version LaunchBar costs $29 for a single license and allows a 30-day trial period.

Magnet

Working across multiple windows or tabs makes for a cluttered rabbit warren of a workspace. Magnet solves this by helping you configure a neater arrangement, locking windows to the side of your screen wherever you drag them. It’s a great way to quickly organize your view so you can focus on what matters. Its predefined keyboard shortcuts are particularly handy when transferring text and files from one app to another. You can use Magnet's menu bar icon to choose a size and location for your current window, or revert to a previous size or location with a restore option. Dragging windows to the corners lets Magnet snaps them into quarters and use side edges to arrange horizontal and vertical halves. Since Magnet is not integrated into macOS it is a much needed application for those who multitask or need to have windows side by side, and at only $1, it is worthy investment.

Trello

Trello is a simple project management app that is easy-to-use for collaborative teams. The platform is based on the Japanese Kanban board philosophy. Kanban is a non-disruptive management system that focuses on evolutionary change, meaning any existing process can be improved in small steps rather than a disruptive large one, thus minimizing the risk to the overall structure (the collaborative team).  Tasks are added and organized as per “to-do,” “going” and “done” positions. This helps teams track progress. The tasks can also be grouped into boards and cards that are capable of holding multiple tasks, so that individual tasks can be assigned to groups or team members with deadlines and checklists. Trello can create to-do lists, add due dates, assign them to people and manage tasks as they’re completed on its dashboard. You can invite anyone no matter their physical location to collaborate with you and talk to team members in real-time via instant messaging. There is a free version and prices for the paid Business Class version are very economical at the cost of $9.99 per month per user. Productivity apps  The list for best business productivity apps for mac can keep going on, as per user preference. Often we don’t realize how easy life becomes as we use more apps that optimize and automate our work process. However, the opposite is also true, for as we learn to rely more heavily on technology in our daily lives, it seems amazing that we could ever perform without the help of some app or the other. However over dependency on anything can only lead to unseen problems, the more apps you pull into your work process, you also risk the potential for adding complexity instead of simplifying processes. This could lead to poor experiences or expansion of work responsibilities instead of integrating them to increase productivity. 

Appedology Promise: Best Productivity Apps for Mac in 2021

That is why it is important to choose the right software and tools that help to achieve more. Creating bespoke apps with tailor-made features might be the best way forward for you and your organization, why rely on a ready- made list when you can easily create the best productivity apps for Mac  in 2021 for your business. One that will not hinder you with unnecessary steps and staff going in circles to learn new apps.  Productivity apps are a big thing in business software right now and there are plenty of tools on the market to help you overcome issues getting in the way of your workflow. At the same time, integration between apps is constantly improving and the average user experience is getting better all the time. Call Appedology now to find what would work for your business and create an app that works as per your needs and requirements. As a top app design and development solution provider situated in Corona, California we have the resources, team and strategies that make your mac usage optimum and craft a productivity app beyond your visions and perfect for your Mac. Let us help give you a free assessment of your app needs, we’ll take it from there to the best of our abilities and for the best ROIs for you.