Top 5 Android Apps to Increase Productivity

7 min readJan 18, 2021

Let’s imagine a situation…

You are an astronaut. You are standing right in front of a large space shuttle, that you are about to board. You are not alone, there are 14 other crew members on board.

All of you are selected few ones, who are given a responsibility to Transform Mars into a living habitat, one step at a time.

At that moment, what would you say to the people of earth you are leaving behind?

I don’t know about you……but I will say, “Execution is the game.”

And I mean it.

Think about your childhood, how many exciting dreams did you had? Probably too many. I am no different than you. I too dreamt a lot, and was bombarded with too many business ideas. In fact, I will list down a few…

Opening a 3D rendered Web Designing Company
Creating an online portal to find home tutors around you
Starting a small organization where you will get fresh vegetables directly from farmers

and if you wonder, how much is the progress on these ideas……don’t even go there.

Not even close to zero.

These ideas stated and died in my mind alone. And only God knows how many ideas born and die every day in people.

Forget about long term business ideas. How many people do complete their daily goals? How many even create/set their daily goals? Just ask yourself. You will get the answer.

Because of all this, one day I just said to myself…screw it.

I am going to become the person I want to be. Once I become like that, then executing a long-term goal won’t be a difficult job. Believe me, from that day onwards I am living a much better, productive, happy, and energetic life than ever before.

And every day I remind myself that, “I am a Tech Blogger and a Copywriter.”

But let’s admit, distractions are part of life. And shitty things happen. So it’s important that you don’t go spiral down to a life you don’t want. That is why you need tools to keep you on track.

Below is the list of 5 FREE Android Apps I personally use to keep my productivity on top of the hill.

YourHour

You can’t expect to increase your productivity if you can’t eliminate your smartphone addiction.

Developed by Mindefy Labs, YourHour App is a perfect creation for those who aim to do something wonderful, rather than wasting their time.

Not only it keeps a track of your time spent on each app but can even block the app for a day if you have used it for more than the allotted time (like 1 hour).

There is also a sticky stopwatch feature, which shows the amount of time you are spending on a particular app in real-time.

Also, it keeps data for a while to reflect back on your performance and app usage. This is really helpful because if you see every day you waste 4 hours, it can trigger a change inside you.

Finally, I will recommend you, just install and use the app. It won’t be worthless. You will discover so much more.

Todoist

Remember I talked about establishing your daily goals?

Well, Todoist can help you do that.

If you have ever paid a closer look at Google products to plan your day, you might be questioning, “Ritambhar, what’s wrong with Google Calendar and Google task. They are really good for planning your day.

I agree they are perfect for planning a day. But I am NOT talking about planning your day. I am talking about setting goals. So that you can achieve your weekly or monthly goals.

Think about it … suppose you planned your next day like this…

7 am — waking up
7:30 am to 9 am — meditation and visualization
— Breakfast —
10 am to 12 pm — Copywriting practice
— Lunch —
1:30 pm to 4 pm — Blog
— Workout —
6 pm to 9 pm — YouTube video creation
— Dinner —
10 pm to 12 pm — Programming
— Sleep —

(This is just an example by the way)

What is the possibility that you will NOT get engaged somewhere else? like house chores or a long phone call, or maybe your car broke down. Could be anything…

Close to 0%, right?

So, the best thing you can do is set goals for the day, and prioritize them accordingly to your available time.

The coll thing about this app (Todoist), that you can easily integrate it with your Google Calander. So yeah, you can plan your day in the right way, and you will be able to complete your daily goals as well.

The incompleted tasks will be shown as overdue until you complete them.

Also, there is a Desktop version of this app as well. This is incredible for those who use their Laptop more than their mobile during work.

Focus To — Do

Alright, in the previous app we discussed how to set daily goals and plan a perfect day where you can accomplish your goals.

But, it happens sometimes that we still aren’t able to complete our goals. 95% of the time it is because we have mastered one thing…Distraction.

You are doing some work with full attention, and suddenly, “Ting!” Your phone popped up with a notification. What do you do generally? Be honest with yourself.

Most just reach out to their phone and check notifications.

If you want to get a lot done in a day, you have to have to complete your work within a time. Otherwise, you will spend your whole day thinking about how to improve whatever you are doing.

This is where “Focus To-Do” app becomes heavily useful.

All you need to do is start the timer before you start your work. The free plan lets you set a timer of 25 minutes. You can also pause the timer if required.

It has 2 benefits…

One, you can see how much time you are taking for a particular job
Second, the countdown will keep reminding you, that your time is limited, so don’t waste it.

Finally, in this app, you can even add tasks as well to remind you to start a particular work.

Spotify / YouTube

Yes, I am not kidding. Both Spotify and YouTube can increase your productivity. All it depends on how YOU use it.

Over years of hauling my ass on building my foundation, I have discovered something. You cannot ever be at your best unless you have peace of mind.

Don’t worry. I am not going to recommending you to sit in silence and legs crossed for hours doing meditation. Although that is quite beneficial, but let’s adopt a more creative approach.

Spotify

There are few albums and artists which can transform the quality of your life. One such album is Guided Meditation for Abundance by Fearless Soul. It’s a complete step-by-step process to completely relax your body and mind, which can let you experience another dimension of life.

Another artist is Your World Within (Eddie Pinero). Believe me, this guy is so underrated. He has literally let me rethink life, and taught me, “Not to take life so seriously.”

I strongly recommend you to listen to him once. I never recommended anything so strongly ever before.

There is one note by the way… you must get a Spotify premium membership, to get the best experience. Otherwise, you will have to listen to 30 seconds of annoying ads quite often. And it’s not expensive. They have prepaid plans as well.

YouTube

Well, there are tons of ambient study music you can listen to. I will list a few of my own playlists. But the problem is, you have to deal with the annoying ads and have to keep your phone turned on unless you have a premium subscription to YouTube.

It will be best if you use YouTube on your laptop or PC, and then install an adblocker if you don’t want interruptions.

Here are some of my favorites:

Dropbox

Most working professionals don’t just carry or use only one device like a smartphone. Rather, a laptop and a smartphone is the common combination you will find.

Take me as an example. I work with 2 smartphones, 1 laptop, and 1 desktop. It is quite obvious that I have to transfer files among these devices.

You can surely use the old school methods to transfer files, like using a Pendrive or connecting your phone to a laptop via USB. But isn’t it a good idea to store your necessary files in one primary place, so that you can access them from any device?

Dropbox is the perfect solution for this. It is a cloud storage application, through which you can access your files from any corner of the world.

This saves a lot of time, and also the files are organized the way I would upload them. The Free plan gives you only 2 GB of space. This is definitely not a lot of space, especially if you need to transfer a big file. But for normal office work, this should be sufficient. You can always go for their premium plan.