There’s no shortcut to becoming a full-fledged adult, and most of it we learn along the way. It can be difficult, but thanks to technology, we can automate some tasks and free up time. I’ve listed down more of the apps you need in your adult life—hacks to make everything easier.

This is the second part of the post, and you can check out the first part: The Adulting Apps You Need in Your Life which I posted a few weeks back. If you’ve already seen that, scroll down to read more.

the apps you need in your adult life pin showing cellphone with a cup of tea on the screen

Productivity

We all want to work smart so we can do more in the same amount of time. Some apps can help us do just that, while others help us form better habits. Note that I posted a few of the basic apps that can help you be more productive in my previous post, but here are a few more that take it a step further.

Want to start introducing better habits to your daily routine, like writing in a gratitude journal, exercising, or meditating? Or do you want to cut some bad ones like eating sweets or sleeping late? This app can help you do both, allowing you to list down habits you want to make and break. You can set reminders and notes for each then see your stats as the days pass. Seeing a successful streak can be really motivating. Habit Tracker encourages you further by showing inspiring quotes and giving you the chance to connect with the community to discuss your progress and share tips.

Similar to the previous app, Productive also allows you to track your habits and schedule reminders. Added features which seem to make this rank higher on the App Store are the abilities to add Siri shortcuts and integrate it with your Apple watch.

If you love taking lists or notes, check this app. You can jot down your notes, to-do lists, and add photos, web pages, or even audio. The coolest thing is that you can search anything you’ve written, even scanned handwritten notes! This is a really neat feature about keeping notes digitally since you can’t CTRL+F on paper. But if you take a photo and upload it to Evernote, you can!

With the free plan, you can sync across 2 devices, so there’s no need to manually transfer thoughts from your phone to your laptop or tablet. This makes it one of the apps you need in your adult life, indeed.

It can be hard to keep track of passwords with all the different apps, networks, and websites we’re using today. Plus, most companies are requiring complex ones for our safety, which is great but makes it much harder to remember. Lastpass saves us the hassle of all this, as it keeps track of all passwords, generates strong ones, and allows us to share these within a secure network.

It’s free to use with most of the basic features, but paying a monthly fee grants you more such as allowing emergency access to trusted people and 1GB of encrypted file storage.

Office Teamwork

Now that many people are working from home, connecting with teams is a bit of a challenge. Again, technology comes to save the day. There are many apps out there that can help groups work seamlessly together, but you have to choose which is the best fit for what your organization needs and can adapt faster to.

apps you need in your adult life
Teamwork is easier because of these apps! GIF from Modicum.

If you use Microsoft Outlook in your company, chances are you’re already familiar with Teams. If not, you might want to give it a try. Teams is basically a way to chat, collaborate, and meet with your teams virtually. You can add it to your phone and desktop and stay connected. You can create MS Teams meetings easily through Outlook, with the option to invite people outside of your organization.

There are so many ways of working together using this app—you can send files through a Sharepoint team site, share notes together through OneNote, assign tasks, and more. Personally, I’ve always loved Teams and have been using it for over 2 years now.

Asana is an online to-do list app for teams to plan their work. You can create projects and list down tasks for each one, loop in teammates, add attachments, and set deadlines and reminders. The idea is that you don’t need to remember everything you need to accomplish. Asana does it for you so all you have to do is get them done. One benefit is that you don’t need to keep asking or be asked about the status of a project. You and your team can see it instantly and all the steps that have been completed within it.

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Sustainability Apps You Need in Your Adult Life

Part of adulting is living more responsibly, and that includes living sustainably. We need to be more conscious about our everyday routine and how it impacts the environment. I wrote Simple Tips to Go Green Everyday, listing down easy-to-follow practices you can incorporate in your daily life. If you haven’t started to go green yet, I’m encouraging you to read the post. You may be surprised to find that it doesn’t have to start with zero waste or going vegan. To help the planet even further, check out these sustainability apps you need in your adult life below.

One of the ways you can make a big impact through small actions is by being mindful of the things you eat and how they are sourced. HowGood helps you choose sustainable food based on 3 benchmarks: Growing Guidelines, Processing Practices, and Company Conduct. Now you can purchase products that are not only good for you, but for the environment and society as well.

This app makes sustainability fun and collaborative. Get points for the sustainable actions you do while learning more about their impacts. You can compete with your friends, get badges and trophies, and save money. Joulebug also helps you find sustainable initiatives in your community that you can be part of. Plus, there’s an option to share your achievements on social media to influence more people to save the environment.

Learning

The world is changing rapidly. Learning new skills, whether to advance your career, start your own business, or just develop a new hobby has never been more important. Thankfully, we have online resources to make this easier and more accessible to us. Start learning from the palm of your hand with these apps below.

If you want to listen to stories while doing your chores or exercising, Audible is the app for you. Choose from hundreds of books to make the long drives, mundane tasks, or physical activities more enriching and fun. And if you have an Amazon account, you can start a 30-day free trial and get your first audiobook for free.

With over thousands of courses to choose from, Udemy is one of the apps you need in your adult life. You can explore and find free and affordable courses on just about anything (from Photoshop to personal development) from experts around the globe. The best thing is that you can access the courses at your own pace.

Interested in taking courses from top universities and institutions like Harvard, MIT, and Microsoft? EdX offers you that option and the flexibility to do so at your own time. You can also get professional certificates or accreditation (price varies per course) to use for your current or future jobs.

Finance Apps You Need in Your Adult Life

I made a list of the finance apps in part 1 of this post, but I’ve come across some more that are needed in our adult life. Use the app with the features that are the most useful to you and your lifestyle.

woman doing victory dance
That dance you make when your finances are in check. GIF from QuickBooks.

Recommended to me by my friend, this app manages your expenses and allows you to take photos of your receipts while scanning the details. You can send receipts directly to your manager or accountant and track your reimbursements. Other neat features include the ability to group your expenses and export them to pdf or excel spreadsheets.

Running a business can be very complicated especially when it comes to keeping track of all your expenses and sales. QuickBooks Accounting makes it easier for you by allowing you to add your expenses, scan receipts, create and send invoices, among others. You can even track your mileage and connect your bank accounts to see a complete overview of your profitability and cash flow. Intuit, the creator of this app, is also the one who made Mint, one of the finance apps I recommended in my previous post.

With all these amazing apps, adulting has never been easier. If you’d like to suggest new apps, have tried any of these before, or found this post helpful, do leave a comment below.

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