Five Ways To Make Your Devices Work For You

Our lives are pretty much connected to technology. Almost every aspect of our lives is dictated by our computers, social media, apps, smartphones and tablets. In some ways, it’s made our productivity much better and our working speed increase. However, more devices means more information, more things to take in and sometimes more work to the point where it ends up complicating things more than simplifying them. Thankfully, there are a number of apps designed to make things easier for you as you go about your daily life, making things more efficient and better for you. Of course, there are numerous apps and services out there that will help you out, but we’ve chosen five of the more pressing concerns in our lives.

Read Only Relevant News Stories

We all like to keep up to date with the latest news and events, but with so many blogs and news sites to keep up with, it’s better when you have a general app that curates content so you’re left with the news you’re interested in.
If you’re an iPhone user, Prismatic is a great app to start with. An intelligent app that uses both preferences, location and subscriptions to build up a smart news app. Also, whatever article you’re reading is accompanied by three of the most popular tweets to show you what the general mood is. Sometimes they’re general tweets, but the slick design and clean interface makes it a solid app. There’s also a desktop version for those who don’t own an Apple device.
For Android, you have Flipboard and Google Currents, both equally good alternatives for organising your news feed. Flipboard is by far the more stylish of the two, but Currents is arguably a more versatile product.

Keep Yourself Organised

We’ve already covered the importance of being organised before and what you can do to improve your time keeping. However, if you need some extra help, then there are a number of apps that you can use to keep yourself in check.
Alongside using the Calendar app that’s included with any Apple or Android phone, there are specialised apps such as Astrid, Remember the milk, Clear and Any.Do which will keep you on top of your schedule. With the exception of Clear, all these apps are free and will definitely help you out once you put a little bit of time into it.

Save Time Completing Tasks

It’s one thing being organised, but what about completing those tasks that are spread across different apps and will take too long to check around and complete. Especially when it comes to things like tracking deliveries, paying bills and syncing up your phone contacts with your Facebook account.
If that’s the case and you’re an iPhone user, consider downloading EasilyDo. It can connect to your social media and email account and instead of clicking on a task and directing you to said app, it lets you complete them through the app itself. If someone’s birthday was coming up, you would be notified and allowed to post a message through EasilyDo itself. If you have an appointment, for example, it alerts you when you should leave and provides directions to boot.
The app has some nice touches like alerting you to bad weather the night before, tracking shipments and merging duplicate contacts. Perhaps the best one is when you pull down on the list. Instead of refreshing your list, it shows you what tasks you’ve completed and how much time you’ve saved by using the service.

Don’t Strain Your Eyes
Chances are that you work in front of a computer every day. Consider that you spend eight hours minimum looking at a computer screen and perhaps spend some of your leisure time doing the same thing, it can be a strain for your eyes. Also, like watching TV late at night, this can make it difficult for you to get to sleep as your brain is wired.
If this is the case, you should download F.lux for your desktop. Compatible for both Windows and Mac users, F.lux adds an orange hue to your screen so that it’s easier on your eyes and prevents you from getting headaches. Since looking at a screen at night isn’t good for you, it automatically adjusts itself when it reaches evening time in your timezone, so all you need to do is select your settings and let it do all the work.
Unfortunately, the app isn’t available for Android, and can only be downloaded on a jailbroken iPhone or iPad. If you’re not comfortable jail breaking your phone, then you will have to wait until Apple or Google allow an official version in its stores.

Wake Up Feeling Fresh

Speaking of getting to sleep, if you’re waking up feeling a little groggy or find it difficult to get yourself out of bed; there are days that we will feel like this, but if it’s a persistent problem, you should monitor how you sleep.
If you’re an iPhone user, you should download Sleep Cycle, which monitors your sleeping patterns and wakes you up at an optimal time. By setting the alarm, it will wake you up within a 30 minute period depending on your sleep cycle. The more you use it, the more you’ll be able to identify patterns that aid or hinder your sleep like caffeine, mood, time spent in bed and timing.
For Android users, Alarm Clock Xtreme is a good alternative. Alongside a straightforward interface, the app has some nice touches including a home-screen widget which tells you when your alarm is set and it can detect when you’re moving and disable the alarm for you.
On top of that, it could be worth visiting the site sleepyti.me, which will help you calculate the best times for you to fall asleep. Just enter in the time you need to get up at and the site will recommend different times for you to sleep at.