5 Productivity Boosting Mac Apps

One of the many things people strive for during a normal day is productivity. Being productive is something that benefits you greatly. And you who hates being productive, let me know how that is working for you. Not getting any work done each day must really be helping you get places. Applications to keep you focused have been featured here before, but I would like to give you my take on it.

The problem is, that it is easy to get distracted. I myself find that I get distracted easily while on the computer. I might be working on a report, someone posts a YouTube video link on twitter, and I’ll find that it’s 2 o’clock in the morning, the report isn’t finished and I just spent an hour and a half looking at various YouTube videos. Luckily, there are a range of Mac applications available to help you and me stay on task.

1. Task Manager
In order to be productive, I think that everyone needs a good way to keep track of their tasks that need completion. At the moment, I am using OmniFocus (in private alpha) to keep track of what I need to do throughout the day. It does a great job of being my to-do list, though I can’t say much until it goes public. Before I was let in on the alpha, I used a few other applications like Do It, iCal and more recently TaskPaper. I think for now I am settled on OmniFocus, but what apps do you use to keep track of your tasks?

2. Word Processor
Most people these days write essays and such on a computer. I mean who uses a pen and paper these days? The only problem I find, is that sometimes word processors can be distracting. There are so many different things you can customize in word processors that you could easily find yourself spending more time finding a cool font for your project than actually typing. When I feel like I really need to get work done, I turn to WriteRoom. I like how WriteRoom blocks out everything else, and all you do is type. There is nothing else to it. I found it awkward at first going from typing in Pages to typing in WriteRoom, but it is something you get used to. When you focus on one task, you can get a lot done in a short amount of time. I do not know of any other word processors that can do this, so if you know of one, hit us up in the comments. Check out MacApper’s review of WriteRoom here.

3. Application Focus-er-on-er
Yes, that is a weird name for this next application, but in a way it fits. Think, from Freeverse, is an application that lets you focus on one window. It puts a backdrop color of your choice over your desktop, and lets you select a window that you want above the backdrop. Think basically allows you to do what WriteRoom does for word processing, to any application that you choose. This boosts my productivity greatly, as I can focus on just one windows at a time while still being able to switch to another quickly. Other applications have this ability such as Backdrop and Isolator (The other two apps along with think that were featured in this post); What have your experiences been with these applications?

4. RSS Reader
“RSS Reader, you say? But RSS feeds are the anti-productive” That is definitely true, but they can help boost your productivity greatly if you know when it is time to read RSS feeds, and when it is time to work. I am the type of person who loves to stay up to the minute on news. If Apple releases a new product, I want to know about it; If FSJ calls someone a frigtard, I want to know about it. RSS Readers help me stay up to the minute with news. Before I actually used an RSS Reader, I had a folder filled with about 15 bookmarks of blogs that I read regularly. It used to be a great bother to have to stop my work every few hours to peruse those blogs for new content. With an RSS Reader, all those blogs are combined into a nice application.

Instead of having to stop my work to check the blogs, my RSS Reader will let me know when there is new content. This saves a lot of time, and certainly helps me get the job done faster. Since I have got an RSS Reader I have found that I can read more blogs than I could have without one (not that I am a productive RSS Reader, as at the time of posting I have almost 4000 unread items). It is just a matter of being able to read a few RSS items, and still being able to get back to work quickly. My RSS Reader of choice right now is Cyndicate. Look for a review soon.

5. Clippings Application
One application that I think everyone needs is an application to store their notes, clippings etc. A pace where you can store images that you want to be able to find later, bits of text to remember, and research. The application that I use for this right now is DEVONThink Personal. If I find a quote on the internet I find funny, I can quickly open up DEVONThink and save it. When I need it again, it is as simple as opening up DEVONThink. No trying to remember what I named that TextEdit or Pages file.

This also comes in handy when researching for essays etc. as you can store paragraphs you want to quote or plagiarize use for information. There are many, many other things that you can store in DEVONThink, and different people use it for different things. Other apps that I have used in the past include SOHO Notes and Notebook.

So there you have it. Those are the applications that help me be productive, now I want to hear yours.