Seven Best Free Productivity Apps For Work-From-Home That You Must Download Now

In a survey conducted by Monster during the height of the pandemic in 2020, they found out that 42% of respondents feel they have not been able to maintain the same level of productivity when working from home compared to when they were working in the office.

If you feel like you are part of that 42% or if you feel like you could do more throughout the day, you may want to consider using some of the best productivity apps for Mac and PC as well as the Android platform that developers have to offer.

Throughout this list, you'll find a list of the best free productivity apps, a brief description of each application, who it's best for, and why you should consider adding it to your toolbox.

If you're having trouble focusing when working, or if you need productivity tools that'll optimize your workflow, the following desktop and mobile apps will give you the boost you need.

1. Calendly: Best for Scheduling Meetings

If you've received interview emails, you've likely received links that led you to Calendly to select your availability. Calendly's an excellent tool for scheduling meetings. You can use it to sync your calendar with the software, select time slots that you're available, and adjust your availability.

Once you're ready to invite someone to a meeting, Calendly will generate a link afterward you will send to the person you're meeting. Then, finally, they will select their availability. This app prevents unnecessary back-and-forth discussions and miscommunication.

Moreover, Calendly accounts for those residing in different time zones. That way, you avoid the other person showing up for the meeting at the wrong time.

2. MindMeister: Best Tool for Mind Mapping

One of the best ways to brainstorm ideas and visualize data is to create a mind map. However, despite the number of mind mapping apps for work on the market, most of them aren't the best. However, MindMeister is a fantastic digital mind mapping app that you can use to create mind maps for yourself or collaborate with teams.

Moreover, you can style your mindmaps as you wish. Whether it's by using images, different colors, particular styles, or formatting.

3. Evernote: Best for Taking and Organizing Notes

Evernote is one of the best free notetaking tools because it offers plenty of features that other apps don't. For instance, it has Evernote Clip, which allows you to clip pages or sections of websites and save them to your Evernote notebooks.

With this tool, you can reduce your time taking notes while keeping them organized with tags and notebooks.

4. Google Drive: Best for Storage

Dealing with lost files will take up a lot of time and potentially cost you months of hard work. That's why one of the best things that you can do for your productivity is to back up your files.

One of the best ways to do this is to use a cloud storage service provider. Google Drive is one of the best cloud storage products out there, especially if you use Google Docs frequently. Moreover, they offer plenty of free storage and ways to organize your files.

If you're a Mac user and want to sync Drive with your computer's files, you will want to learn how to add Google Drive to Mac.

5. Trello: Best Tool for Task Management

Whether you're collaborating with a team or managing a content calendar, Trello's project management software offers everything you could need. You can use their Kanban boards to divide your projects into smaller tasks to ensure you never miss a deadline.

Moreover, Trello has plenty of workflow automation tools and syncs with every device. Out of all of the organization apps available, Trello offers the most features while not overwhelming you with too many features.

6. Engross: Best Pomodoro Timer

The Pomodoro technique is a tool designed to force focused work sessions and offer short breaks between "pomodoro," which are sessions. For instance, you would work for 25 minutes straight without distractions and take a 5-minute break afterward. Then, after 4 pomodoros, you would take an extended break.

While you could use a regular timer app to manage your Pomodoro timers, it's significantly easier to download an application to manage your sessions and notify you of breaks. That's where Engross comes in.

With Engross, you can customize your work and break intervals, which allows you to tailor your focus and break periods to how you work. Moreover, this application includes a distraction tracker. With this feature, you can tap your screen whenever you're distracted. Afterward, this app will track the number of times you were distracted to help you figure out what's hindering your productivity.

7. Bitwarden: Best Password Manager

Stop wasting your time searching for your passwords and storing them in an unsafe location. Instead, use a password manager like Bitwarden. It's a free and paid open-source password manager that hasn't ever been compromised and comes with plenty of features.

For instance, you can generate secure passwords that hackers can never brute force with current technology. Moreover, you can download a browser extension and have Bitwarden automatically fill in your login information.

Also, you can manually set up a time-based one-time password (TOTP) two-factor authentication on accounts in your password vault. This means that you don't have to store your TOTP passwords on a mobile app like Google Authenticator.

However, if you decide that you want to support the developers, the paid version includes:

Universal second-factor authentication login to Bitwarden

Encrypted file attachments

Priority support

Password vault health report—shows you whether your passwords have been exposed in a leak

Use Best Productivity Apps: Don't Settle For Less

While plenty of talented developers have designed other apps that'll enhance your workflow, the best free productivity apps mentioned above are the best overall for the categories they target.

Stay tuned for more of the best productivity apps in different categories as well as software tutorials, and more.