Top 5 Apps for Busy People in Brampton

Published March 13, 2017 at 4:00 am

Keeping up with family, work, friends and life in general can be pretty overwhelming.  

Keeping up with family, work, friends and life in general can be pretty overwhelming.  

From managing your finances, to getting to your daughter’s soccer game on time or remembering to follow up on a certain email–things can easily slip through our hands. Luckily, there are a few apps available at the palm of our hands to help us stay organized, save time, communicate more efficiently, and keep up with everything going on around us.


5) Google Calendar

Many of Google’s apps are amazing, but Google Calendar is one of the best Calendar apps on both iOS and Android software. You can sync your calendars with emails that are not associated with Google, and personalize all your events in almost every way possible. My favourite feature is when you’re searching for a location, you type in the name of the destination and similar to Google Maps, it populates the address, and in most instances, the banner will have a Google-generated image of that location. When creating a new event, it will prompt for more details and use keywords that will help provide more details, and when you’re done, it auto fills the other parts of the calendar. For example, after you type in ‘Haircut’, it’ll give you an option to type in the location of the event on the same line, followed by ‘on’ which will drop down the next 7 days, followed by time slot options.

Once you finish this long sentence subject line, all those details are already integrated into the calendar event and you are able to adjust accordingly before saving/sending the event. This saves time since you do not need to go back and forth to input specific a detail regarding each meeting and it’s very easy to make quick adjustments to events.

Another great feature is how it integrates with the rest of your devices and apps such as one of my favourites, Waze (which is also owned by Google). I get notifications from Waze advising me of how much time I would need to get to my next meeting, taking into consideration the traffic and distance so that I’m always on time.


4) SwiftKey Keyboard

This free app is especially resourceful for those who have large screens, such as Android devices and iPhone 6/7 Plus. SwiftKey is a keyboard that makes typing easier and faster. I often find myself struggling to touch the right letter on the keyboard to type out a message, but SwiftKey knows exactly what word I’m looking for when I’m swiftly, moving my finger across the keyboard. It also has predictive technology and predicts the next word you’re going to say, which improves as you use the keyboard over time. It’s like auto correct but on another level where it can basically read my mind. Why can’t everyone understand what I’m trying to say like SwiftKey?


3) Dashlane

With all of the different accounts we have, Dashlane is an effortless way of saving your passwords safely. Creating a new password these days require an arm and a leg, but do you remember which arm you gave and which leg? Dashlane is here to help organize and save your passwords for whenever you need to log into your accounts. This app neatly organizes your social media accounts and other accounts that typically require a password (such as Amazon and Dropbox), and are only accessible on the mobile and desktop app once you’ve entered your ‘master’ password. You can also update passwords to multiple accounts simultaneously instead of manually updating them one at a time. You can also share account details with friends and family who use Dashlane and you can remove their access to that specific account at anytime. This app can help generate new passwords for you and you have the option to add notes to the account’s details for future reference.

Taking a few seconds to type in your password details will save you a lot of time in the future because you don’t have to worry about clicking that annoying ‘forget your password’ option every time you need to log into one of your accounts.


2) Mint

Owned by Intuit, Mint is a free app that aims to assist people in managing their accounts and reaching their financial goals. This app is great for budgeting, organizing your accounts and has a unique credit score feature that helps monitor your usage, payment history and any discrepancies. Mint syncs your bank & brokerage accounts, your credit cards and monitor your balances and get notifications of upcoming bills. One great feature is that you can set goals on how much you spend on education, transportation and food, and monitor your spend vs goal. Mint automatically categorizes your spending so that whenever you login, you can instantly track how much you have spent in each category and how well you are progressing within your budget. If you go over your budget, it sends you a notification letting you. Other alerts include late fees, bill reminders, rate changes and unusually large purchases. Mint is a great app for those who avoid looking at their bank accounts, because the notification feature is a great reality check and a reminder that we should always be mindful of our spending habits.


1) Wunderlist

This FREE app is great for those who swear by to-do lists and for those who have a hard time committing to-do lists. Wunderlist is another quick and easy to use app that syncs with your other devices and helps remind you of things you need to get done. You can create lists for your grocery items, must-see movies and share certain lists with specific people and groups. Certain lists or items can be given a ‘star’ to help identify important items from other items. You can also set up notifications if you’d like to remind yourself to complete a task at a certain time (e.g. if you need a reminder to send an email at a certain time). It is extremely quick and simple to add to-do items, and you can add recurrences, notes, files and sub-tasks. You can chat with others using the app, which gives you an opportunity to collaborate and delegate certain tasks with coworkers, friends and family.

All of the apps mentioned in this blog post are free, but there are premium versions available for a few of the apps mentioned if you fall deeply in love with them. Happy organizing and we hope these app allow you to get through your day more efficiently!

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