Technology does not stand still. New apps and online services appear every day, increasing your productivity and making your life easier. But not all of them are high-quality, useful, or even safe. In addition, most of them offer paid services, so you should choose them carefully and responsibly. To make this task easier, we’ve prepared a list of the best new tools for everyday life, work, and business.
Table of Contents
1. Forest
Forest is a classic productivity app with an interesting feature. By completing tasks, you plant virtual trees and improve the health of the digital forest. The higher the degree of plan fulfillment, the stronger and greener the grove. If you stop working and start missing deadlines, the trees will turn yellow and fall. We don’t want that, right?
Forest is on the list of the best online tools for business because it supports teamwork. Subscribers can assign tasks to each other and report on their participation in joint projects. Together, they will receive rewards for achievements that they can share in messengers or on social networks.
Despite its simplicity, this mechanic of work gamification really helps to increase productivity. Users say that they manage to complete 10-30% more tasks with the app!
2. Fireflies
Fireflies is another one of the interesting tools for entrepreneurs or professionals with busy schedules. This is your personal secretary that allows you to convert speech to text with an accuracy of over 90%. It can be used both during online conferences and at a physical workplace.
The principle of operation is very simple — you give Fireflies permission to record audio in other applications or launch the microphone manually by pressing the big red button on the main screen. You can read the finished notes both on your smartphone and on a PC — the service has a web version available in a browser.
Thanks to AI support based on the GPT-4 generative model, the app can turn notes into short summaries and summarize online meetings. You can customize it to your needs by connecting additional paid modules.
3. PDF Guru
If you are looking for a versatile service for working with documents, PDFGuru.com is your best bet. This online PDF editor doesn’t even require downloading and installation. You can use it on any device, including a smartphone, tablet, laptop, and desktop computer. It allows you to modify information in a document, protect a file with a password, or even add a digital signature to verify the author’s identity.
PDFGuru.com can convert documents to 12 formats, including EPUB eBooks, DOCX text files, PPTX presentations, HTML web pages, and more. It even has a built-in PDF to Excel converter if you want to analyze a spreadsheet and make additional calculations.
The online PDF converter also offers the following features:
- Document compression — reducing the size by optimizing the resolution and removing content inaccessible to the end user;
- Splitting files, for example, to send them by email or increase the loading speed on websites;
- Merging documents to create presentations, detailed guides, marketing materials, etc.
4. Way of Life
There is a theory that anyone can form good habits by simply repeating these actions for a certain number of days. Experts have different opinions — some say that 14 days is enough to change your lifestyle, others suggest monitoring your behavior for 21 or 30 days, and the most pessimistic insist on 90 days.
Whatever the case, the Way of Life app, which is on the list of the best new tools of 2024, will help you create good habits. You can keep a journal in it, registering your actions, such as working out in the gym, walking in the fresh air, or even drinking water. The service will demonstrate your progress, and at the end of the week or month, it will provide advanced analytics.
What sets Way of Life apart from its competitors is that it allows you to take notes. This feature is very convenient to access — just click on today’s task to open the corresponding window.
5. YNAB
If you’re constantly wondering where your money has gone, you need a Budget — that’s how the name of this app stands. It automatically synchronizes with banking apps on your smartphone, categorizing your income and expenses. So, at the end of the week or month, you can see how much money was spent on sushi, public transportation, or fashionable sneakers.
YNAB is also often included in ratings of the best online tools for business. It can not only manage your personal budget but also keep track of the accounts of entrepreneurs or small establishments such as shops and cafes. It also has a very convenient and simple loan calculator that allows you to calculate monthly payments and overpayments, both for simple and compound interest.
By the way, if you don’t trust developers too much, you can enter all the input data manually, although it won’t be as convenient.
6. Seven
One of the most popular excuses for not going to the gym is that people don’t have enough time. But you can’t argue with this app. It suggests that you spend just seven minutes a day exercising. According to scientists, such short workouts tone up the body, increase productivity, improve sleep quality, and boost immunity.
Seven has more than 200 exercise programs that can be customized to your preferences. The service will also take into account the presence of diseases or physical limitations, so it is suitable for everyone. It regularly hosts competitions and other interesting events in which you can participate independently or team up with friends.
Another interesting feature is the opportunity to choose virtual instructors. Among them are quite interesting characters like an army sergeant and a cheerleader.
The Bottom Line
How can you do without apps and online services in the modern world? Gradually, they have become truly indispensable. They help us learn to lead a healthy lifestyle and plan our expenses carefully, increase our productivity at work and communicate effectively with employees, run our business properly, and comply with all laws.
