Be More Productive with Synchronous Apps
It doesn’t matter what you do or where you work, the ultimate thing everyone thrives is how to be productive with their work. An underlying presumption is that one should get more done in less time, but it’s hard to get a real sense of the time spent moving documents or texts from one device to another — completely unaware of synchronous applications.
This article is completely based on experiences and usage from my Android mobile and Windows 10 PC. As a college graduate, I do most of my work on mobile — while in college and copy the stuff to my laptop whenever I’m back at my apartment.
Let’s dive into some tools I use to optimize my life!
Firstly, Microsoft launcher, this has completely taken my peak as an android user. It has lots of integrations in it — such as Cortana, sticky notes, document tracking, ToDos, Windows Timeline along with great customization options.
Microsoft To Do: Most of the time I get lost in keeping track of my daily activities, which end up vexing me all day. Making a to-do list every morning has helped me a lot, especially Microsoft To Do which keeps me in flow. I am completely immersed in it and began using it all the time. It keeps things synced between my devices & Cortana’s integrations have made it an amazing experience to use.
Previously, I’ve used Pocket, to bookmark content online to read later, but I end up completely forgetting to do so.. With M-To-Do, I add the link, hashtags to it, set time to read it, duration and lot more, which completely made me ditch the pocket app.
Speaking of Sticky Notes — I have been a great fan of them since Windows 7, The latest version even comes with image and styling support. The best part of them is that they do even sync with all my devices 😄. This part helps me in my daily routine with taking little notes during class lectures and working on them later.
For gaining much more control over using digital notes, Microsoft OneNote is a no-brainer. OneNote contains great text formatting and pen tools. You can check out an article on 11 Tips for Improving Productivity using OneNote by John Gruber.
When it comes to browsing the internet , Microsoft’s latest browser that’s been trending recently, Edge Chromium, is off charts with its great features like — advanced tracking, ability to install any webpage as a PWA, Read-aloud, Collections and PDF tools. With Edge for Android, you can constantly sync your bookmarks and history. There is a feature called “Continue on PC”, where it opens your current tab in Edge Chromium browser, making it super simple to work seamlessly.
Syncing documents has never been easier, but Microsoft is pushing it further with Office Beta app — integrating Word, Excel, PowerPoint and even sticky notes into one single application. It also includes File transfers, image to text, image to table, PDF signing, lens built into it. MS-Office also do allow us to save a copy of the file in OneDrive, providing us three places of editing options — mobile, PC and online.
Getting to OneDrive, having it installed in mobile keeps photos and videos synced to it, which can be later viewed in Windows Photo app, also with editing options. If you are a Samsung user you can get 100 GB space for 2 years. 🥳
Another little unknown app is Your Phone Companion, which syncs Photos, Messages and Mobile Notification, right into the PC. Its recent update pushed out a Calls feature, allowing a user to make calls right from their computer . Also, there’s Screen Mirroring with gestures feature update lined up.
Off-title: Ever became fuss about loads of SMS you get and struggling to manage them. If so, try SMS organiser, which categorizes SMS, provides card-view of events, remainders, offers, also band and wallet balance — with very sleek design.
To conclude I hope this post on productivity provides as much value as they have for me. Just jump in and take advantage of these tools to increase productivity.
If you’d like to get some more tips on using sync-apps, get in touch with me on Twitter: @arunaiekhil
