Tools to Unfetter

I’m going to geek out a bit in this post. ツ I love my iPad and use it daily and continue to push its capability to be practically the only piece of technology I need to bring with me when I am out unfettering. I enjoy and appreciate articles by individuals I admire who share their workflows and tools as I have learned a lot from them. So I thought I would do the same. You can see a picture of my iPad home page as a reference. Most of these apps I use daily, all weekly. Many are universal between iPad and iPhone.

Tools / Apps I Use to Unfetter

NOTABILITY. Notability is my go-to app for notetaking and annotating pdfs. I also do almost all of my journaling in Notability because I like to handwrite. What sets apart Notability for me is the way I can zoom into a page or pdf and write “small” consistent in relation to the size of the text in the document. It syncs across all devices including my MacBook Pro.
OMNIFOCUS. This is a relatively new app for me. I have tried almost every productivity app out there — kind of a hobby (addiction?) for me. I had heard lots about the power of OnmiFocus and have now joined the raving fans. This is a productivity app on steroids. Flexible, powerful, robust, clean, comprehensive … slightly expensive and worth it. I use OmniFocus for basic tasks, tracking rituals / habits, and project planning and tracking. Able to create and organize by project, context, perspective.
WEEK CALENDAR FOR IPAD. The interface and usability is stronger than the native iPad calendar app. Easy to use.
EVERNOTE. This year I want to push myself to get even more paperless and have decided to walk down the Evernote path. I use Evernote to store all of my coaching notes and documents related to my clients. I also can easily clip articles and websites to store in Evernote.
SUGARSYNC. SugarSync is reliable and allows me to access any file on my MacBook via my iPad. Very slick!
DROPBOX. For backup, sharing, etc. Most apps have an option to automatically be backed up to Dropbox.
PARALLELS ACCESS. This app allows me to “parallel” my MacBook via my iPad. Essentially it is a portal to my MacBook. It allows me to remotely access and run my MacBook when necessary.
Reading … several apps in this bucket …
- FEEDLY. The primary app in which I capture and read blogs and RSS feeds.
- INSTAPAPER. The primary app in which I save longer articles to read later, especially from websites.
- KINDLE. Books obviously. I do almost all my book reading via Kindle now and keep track of my library with GOODREADS.
- FLIPBOARD. Similar to Feedly, but incorporates social media and other feeds.
- USA TODAY. Quick news / headlines – what USA Today does well.
- 1PASSWORD. The app I use to store all of my passwords. Popular and powerful.
DAY ONE. An app I just started using this year to do “quick” journaling — capturing a few paragraphs and maybe a picture of my thoughts, feelings, experiences for the day. Ideal for this use.
OVERCAST. I use this to organize and listen to all of the podcasts I subscribe to. Lots of features.
OTHER STUFF …
- MILEBUG. Used to track my mileage on my phone.
- FOCUS@WILL. Great app with music options to help focus.
- EVERNOTE SCANNABLE. Awesome for scanning a document and saving it / sharing it and leaving the paper behind.