If you’re an iPad or an Android tablet owner and say you happen to be a CEO of a corporation, a marketing rep on the road, or a new student entering University, there’s an electronic minefield of smart and powerful apps which can effectively help you in managing the ever growing organizational demands of your daily lives.
It doesn’t really matter what type of Tablet PC that you own, as both of these platforms are excellent and extremely functional, offering a wealth of great options for you to stay on top of things. And it has nothing to do with having or collecting the largest number of apps and loading them on your tab, it’s more about having the proper and the most efficient apps for your needs.
CEO’s who control large corporations already have a staff of capable personnel to handle all of their most critical demands which would take up the majority of their time and attention. For the rest of us, we have to manage this by effectively using technology. Fortunately, a tablet that’s loaded with the proper productively apps can be an excellent substitute to a personal assistant. So here are the best virtual productivity based apps for your Tablet PC.
A Good “To-Do” List App
Any good productivity system needs an easy to use “to-do” list organizer. These to-do trackers however range from easy to use basic to advanced. Choosing the proper app however needs to be tailored to your specific skill sets, needs and your ability. There are a few areas to begin with when selecting the most suitable app for this purpose. One which involves the tracking of your appointments and commitments.
If you’re looking for an app that’s concise and compact, and which will allow you to make simple lists of things that needs to be done on a daily or weekly basis, then the “Remember The Milk” app for the iPad may be what you need.
For the Android however, on its screen, if you’re using the Remember The Milk app, it’s a little less compelling than for the iPad. The widget looks great on the 10-inch “home” of the screen, as it will give you an excellent and instant “At-A-Glance” view of all your upcoming tasks.
For those who are looking for a productivity app that’s a little more advanced and comprehensive to track what needs to be done, there are plenty of other options for the iPad. One of the better ones is the “BitAlpha’s Taska” app. This offers pretty much the same advanced capabilities as the much higher priced apps on the market. It has a cool easy to use “DayRunner” type of interface. This app also syncs well with Toodledo, so you’re able to access all of the data from any PC that’s online.
There’s also a great variety of options for Android tablet PC users when it comes to fully featured GTD or Getting Things Done apps. Although most of them are designed for the smaller smartphones, there are a few which offers optimized interfaces for the tablets. Whoever happens to develop a really comprehensive GTD which is compatiable for the larger Android tablets, that will be extremely popular as there’s currently a void in this area.
Gmail Management For Tablets
Although Apple Mail for the iPad can also work with Google’s Gmail, there are a lot of Gmail users who may find the interface a little too bland and boring, especially when it’s compared to Gmail’s Web interface.
A great alternative for Gmail users who are wanting to manage more than just one account, such as a personal and a business account, is the Ginbox app. This easy to use app solves the problem of not being able to manage multiple logins for Gmail and Google Apps by using just one single interface. This without sacrificing any of the straightforward usability which Gmail fans like.
Overhauling The Online Calendar
The default calendars which are available on the Apple iPad and the various Android Honeycomb tablets offers a certain style and functionality to them. Both of them however also happens to lack some key features which the various third-party calendar apps are able to provide.
Although the iPad’s Calendar syncs pretty well with Exchange, it leaves much to be desired for the Google Calendar users. A much better option for improved productivity using Google is the Readdle Calendar app. This is a low cost app which presents multiple calendars brilliantly, while including features such as tracking various tasks. This app will also sync easily with Google Calendar, as it will allow you to drag and drop your scheduled events smoothly, so you can reschedule on the go.
On Google’s Honeycomb OS, there is an excellent and free app which is called Jorte, which offers one of the best sets of calendars as well as task-tracking features which are available for the Android. It’s also able to sync directly with Google Calendar as well as Google Tasks. Although Jorte isn’t completely “Get Things Done” optimized, it is extremely adaptable.
Dictation Of Text Apps
Although the Android Operating System does include Google’s voice-recognition software, making it easy for you to dictate your text directly into the software program, you’re also not required to mess around with the tablet PC’s on-screen keyboard if you don’t want to.
The iPad’s iOS doesn’t offer such a feature, but you’re able to easily add a text dictation app by using Dragon Dictation, which is free. Yes, that’s the same Dragon for text that’s been around for a while in software form. They are one of the original pioneers in the online text dictation field.
What you can’t do however is that it won’t allow you to use the Dragon program directly through the iOS operating system. You’ll need to dictate the text into Dragon first, and then “copy and paste” and save that text in the app.
Timers For Doing Certain Tasks
When you’re having difficulty focusing on doing certain tasks, then setting up a time limit on it can be helpful. Doing so will give you a concise block of time to be able to spend on that specific exercise. What it does is it’ll show a light at the end of the tunnel.
One good technique for using a timer, which is known as Pomodoro, involves setting up a timer for say 20 minutes, and then you begin working feverishly on just that single task until the clock expires. The setting of the time is less significant than the actual setting of the timer itself.