Time on your phone doesn’t instantly evoke thoughts of productivity. However, these apps are fabulous time, money and sanity savers for busy parents.
Whether you are looking to bump up your daily “done’s”, save money, keep on top of your to do’s or simply streamline some of the daily grind; here are our 5 favourites!
Pocketbook
If you love manually entering data into excel spreadsheets then skip right by. This app is for people who want to know where their money is going with the smallest effort possible. Pocketbook is free, easy to use and customisable to each family budget.
It automatically sorts bank transactions and allows you to set “safely spend” limits on your choice of categories. You can view your spending habits over the last year or the last few weeks and pinpoint how you want to change/maintain them. Set notifications for when you get close to your spend limits. PLUS the app will track upcoming bills and nudge you about any odd fees or shady transactions.
30/30
This app uses an exceptionally simple and effective time management strategy in its tech adaption of the Pomodoro Technique.
The app allows you to fully customise simple but powerfully motivating timed task lists. For the procrastinators out there, it simultaneously holds you accountable while creating a sense of purpose and urgency. The Pomodoro technique also encourages allocating your break times to reduce sidetracking and to act as a reward for time well spent.
You can pause, extend, reduce or lock the timer and the app always displays your adjusted “finish” in real time (eg 3.17pm) So it fits in seamlessly with any unscheduled tantrums or toilet training breaks.
Home Routines
This one takes a little bit of setting up to get it suited to your life, but it is worth it! This app is a great way to manage a range of recurring tasks and comes complete with a seperate to-do list.
You can set “zones” in your house to keep track of when you need to do those out of sight out of mind jobs (like cleaning the air con filter) as well as make generic check lists for things you need to to every day/week/month etc.
The app lists the tasks you have done that day and shows that you’re slowly powering through. Even in times you feel you’ve done next to nothing.
Life360
Ok. Take a breath because this app is NOT to everyone’s taste. Life360 is designed for families so that you can be notified when your husband/child leaves work/school or arrives home safely.
For our family, a husband who works irregular hours paired with a wife who wants to know what the plan is for cooking/kid wrangling/sanity reasons. Suffice to say it led to many boring and irritating daily phone conversations. For example: “When are you home?” “Don’t know” “Will you make it to pick up Moo from preschool?” “Depends on traffic” “I’ll pick up dinner tonight” “I’m already at Woolies” etc etc
Well, not any more! You can see when family members are on the move and set important places as check in sites (yes, supermarkets too) How do you feel about this one?
Lumosity
Our final app is a little left field, but it’s a winner. As a psych major I’ve always been interested in cognition and keeping your brain ‘on its toes’. Raising a family is a huge challenge, but not always an intellectual one. I’m thinking endless poo nappies, dishes and loads of washing here people.
Lumosity is a ‘brain training’ app, it keeps those neurons firing and sets you up with a sharp and focused approach to the rest of the day. It tracks your mood and offers a huge variety of challenges through engaging games, charting your strengths and encouraging you to work on your…ahem…other areas?
Are there any awesome apps we have missed? Let us know in the comments!
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