Everyone’s productivity workflow has a few weak spots – but the best productivity apps for Mac can patch up these holes.
With the best Mac apps, 2020 can be the most productive year you’ve ever had. Let’s take a look at some of Mac users’ favorite apps:
1. Enhance Your Calls with Krisp
Most people communicate more effectively through voice calls than through text – but poor audio quality can ruin everything.
Krisp increases your call quality by removing background noise from your calls, letting only your (or their) voice through.
This cutting-edge technology puts it among the best productivity apps for Mac since it reduces the time wasted in calls or from misunderstandings.
2. Speed Things up with CleanMyMac
A full hard drive or sluggish computer can bring your productivity to a screeching halt.
Fortunately, CleanMyMac gets rid of files you don’t need while making your Mac OS run faster.
3. Getting Things Done (GTD) with Amazing Marvin (Also for Android and Windows)
If you’re looking for an all-in-one productivity planner app, Mac users will want to check out Amazing Marvin – one of the best productivity apps for Mac.
It features a Pomodoro timer, time tracking, calendar, task management, project management, and templates for popular productivity methodologies (or create your own workflow).
4. Manage Personal Projects with OmniFocus
If you’re looking for a relatively straightforward personal management app to help you manage your projects, OmniFocus might fit the bill.
It features file attachments, notes, dates, to-do lists, and project planning, making it many people’s choice for one of the best productivity apps for Mac.
5. Stay on Task with Todoist
It’s a free, powerful to-do list app for Mac. Nifty features like natural language let you quickly add and manage tasks with shortcuts.
The paid version adds a few more tools like backups, automatic reminders, and more.
6. Toggl for Time Tracking
If you want time tracking without using an all-in-one app like Amazing Marvin, you’ll like Toggl. It integrates with a variety of apps and even has a Chrome extension.
It earns its place among the best productivity apps for Mac with an outstanding feature: it detects when you’re idle. Say goodbye to opening your Mac the next day to find you accidentally tracked 21 hours while away.
7. Know Where You’re Spending Your Time with Timing
Toggl is helpful, but you’ll always need to turn it on to track where your time is going.
Timing is always watching, letting you know which apps and websites you’re using, and reporting how much time you’re spending with informative graphs.
8. Keep Your Macbook Pro Professional – Organize It with Hazel
As a powerful Mac desktop organizer, Hazel can keep your filesystem in order – automatically.
For example, you can have it sort files into folders, delete unnecessary files, apply tags, and more. This automation gives it its spot as one of the best productivity apps for Mac.
9. Say Hello to Your New Virtual Assistant: Alfred
One of the best free Mac apps of 2020 is Alfred.
It’s an application launcher but does many more small tasks. Think of it as bridging the void between Spotlight and Siri.
10. Avoid Repetitive Typing with TextExpander
Coders are familiar with the productivity boost from text expanders – and now you can tap into that power in everyday life on your Mac.
Text expansion makes it unquestionably one of the best productivity apps for Mac. For example, you could have it automatically expand the text “ty” to “Thank you.”
11. Take and Organizes Notes with Evernote
Evernote has been around for a long time, proving its worth.
It lets you take notes from text, audio, PDFs, and images – then file them into notebooks, sync them to the cloud, and share them with others.
12. Bear – Simple Note-taking Necessities
Sometimes you just need to jot down a quick note or to-do list – not harness the full note-taking power of something like Evernote.
Let Bear do the trick when all you need is a quick, convenient note.
13. Transcribe Notes with Otter
Some notes are simpler to write without typing. If you’re writing a novel, why stare at your screen if you could narrate it?
Otter recognizes audio and transcribes it into notes.
14. Stick Windows Wherever You Need with Magnet
Sometimes you need to view multiple windows at once, and you don’t have enough monitors.
Magnet makes it a cinch to organize and lock windows onto your screen for more multitasking goodness.
15. Don’t Let Your Mac or Ipad Disrupt Your Sleep – Use Flux
Screens emit blue light, which makes it difficult for us to sleep. Need to finish something up right before bed?
Flux adjusts the color of your display depending on the time of day, helping you fall asleep faster.
16. Block out Distractions with White Noise Lite
There’s nothing wrong with listening to music while you work, but it’s still an extra distraction for your brain.
White Noise Lite provides you with a variety of ambient sounds from nature, colors, and house appliances to keep you focused.
17. Keep Backups Safe with Backblaze
There are few things more terrifying than losing your (or your client’s) files when your Mac crashes or is lost.
Fortunately, Backblaze automatically backs up your hard drive to the cloud, making it simple to restore in an emergency.
18. Write Faster with Grammarly
Even if your grammar and spelling are impeccable, mistakes still happen when sending out an email or writing a document – especially if you’re in a hurry.
Grammarly makes it simple to check your spelling, highlight grammatical issues, and suggest better phrasing and synonyms.
19. 1Password to Rule Them All
Ever been in a hurry, but had to run the forgot-my-password gauntlet?
Rather than wasting precious moments of your time, let 1Password remember your passwords for you.
20. Gamify Habits with Habitica
Building proper work habits is critical for productivity – but it’s all too easy to forget that we were trying to develop the habit.
Habitica “gamifies” this process: completing habits levels up your character, unlocks new gear, and even lets you fight bosses with your friends.
21. Use Cold Turkey as an IOS Website Blocker (and More)
Despite our best efforts, digital distractions abound and often get the best of us.
Cold Turkey doesn’t just let you block specific pages of distracting websites – it’ll show you a quote to inspire you to get back to work.
22. The Hardcore Attention App for Mac: Focus
Focus works similar to Cold Turkey – it’ll block distracting websites for specific amounts of time with one click.
Even better, it’s nearly impossible to disable without restarting your computer – making it a hassle to try and sneak around in a moment of weakness.
23. Unboggle Your Mind Using Mindmaps with Coggle
Mind maps – using visual drawing to chart out an idea or thought process – can be a great way to think through a problem or solution productively.
A physical paper runs out of space, but Coggle never will. Plus, it lets you collaborate on your mindmaps with others.
24. Copy-paste More (and Everywhere) with Copied
Copied a note on your iPhone, and need it on your Mac? Do you find yourself needing to copy multiple things (and keep them in memory)?
Copied saves multiple items to your clipboard and syncs across your devices.
25. Create and Share Screen Recordings with Loom
Loom’s modern interface makes it simple to create and share screen recordings, along with real-time audio and video from your Mac’s webcam.
It’s a helpful app for effective remote work team communication and collaboration.
Solve Productivity Problems with these Apps
We don’t want too many apps, or we risk wasting our time while managing them all. However, strategically picking apps to fill the gap gives you precisely what you need to be more productive.
Which one is your favorite? Let us know, and kick your productivity up a notch with these best productivity apps for Mac.