Hacks for Smartphone Productivity
Smartphone productivity can help you get through the working day if you have everything set up to make it easier and more efficient. Rather than being a distraction, your phone can be your best friend when working or studying. All it takes is some knowledge of what’s available, such as transcriptions, integrating apps and password managers. Here are my favourites to help me be productive on the go.
Integrate as Many Apps as Possible
The amount of apps available today allow greater productivity than ever. This is because most can integrate with each other and across platforms and operating systems. For example, the popular NDIS platform, iinsight, can work with Microsoft Office for report generation and exports to spreadsheets, etc. Other apps will integrate, too. For example, Outlook links with calendar apps to automatically add appointments to your schedule, and Google Transcriptions links to Todoist – an organisation app to help with lists.
Increase Smartphone Productivity with Transcriptions
Further to Google Transcriptions, this handy tool can save you a lot of time and allows you to get to messages when you can. Most people read their emails between 9am and 3pm. But you may not have the time to get to them when working. Google Transcriptions for Android and iOS will convert your incoming voicemails to SMS or email format via Gmail. This means you don’t have to spend time going through them and can scan them at the end of your working day.
Remove Any Apps You Don’t Use
Distractions are among the worst things when you are trying to get something done. And we all have an instinct to react to our phone when it pings. Notification control is the best way to remove unwanted distractions on your phone, but some apps are set to ignore these. Even websites can send notifications to your phone, too. The more apps you have, the more likely you will receive these, so remove any apps you don’t use and keep only the ones you need.
Set Up Android Digital Well-being
In an effort to reduce how much time we spend using our phones and to create a more harmonious balance between devices and life, Android has digital well-being features. These are designed to reduce common issues of the digital age such as eye strain and irritability.
Digital Well-being dashboard
This tool displays the apps you use the most, how often you use them, and the time spent.
Digital Well-being bedtime mode
Bedtime mode is handy for setting quiet time so you won’t be disturbed when sleeping.
Digital Well-being focus mode
It’s easy to avoid common distractions using focus mode to ensure you can study and work.
Just using your phone in a dim room before bed can cause health issues. Digital well-being features are designed to limit phone use and offer ways to use them in a safer way than before.
Use the Home Screen Properly
It can help to have a separate work phone, yet this means more management. However, using home screens well can reduce the work you need to do to separate work from the personal. Android allows you to use multiple home screens, and you can arrange these to display the shortcuts you use the most for work.
Smartphone Productivity with Password Managers
For cybersecurity alone, a password manager like LastPass is ideal. Logging in and out of sites all day means having to remember them and even typing. This can be confusing and I often end up mixing them up and being locked out of accounts! Given that we all need to remember 25 passwords on average, it can also be tempting to use the same ones. This is a massive security vulnerability that will grind your work to a halt if you become a target. Password managers can also help create complex passwords for you.
Get Phone Versions of Essential Apps
For many of us, work doesn’t end when we get up from our desks, so having a smartphone can be a real advantage when we can use it for work too. There are app versions of almost every desktop software you can imagine available for Android and iOS. From social media to collaboration apps, you can take what you need with you. This way, you can get more done while on the go, which even makes better use of time when commuting or travelling for work.
Summary
Integrating apps with each other can help improve smartphone productivity. Android also comes with digital well-being features to help manage the relationship between you and your phone. There are also app versions of pretty much all popular programs you may use for your job. You can download these to stay productive using your phone when out of the regular office.
LL x
*This is a contributed post. As ever, all opinions are my own.
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