Apps for Organization

 

1Password

Raise your hand if you’re sick of trying to remember all of the logins and passwords that have been forced on you over the years. Keep those hands raised if you’d welcome a solution to this problem with open arms. Everyone has their hands raised, right? The founders of AgileBits apparently had their hands raised at one point, too, as their company’s team of developers produced an app (for Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows) that generates unique passwords for all the sites you visit and then remembers them so you can log in with a single tap. Oh, and it keeps them synced across all of your various devices, too.

 

Day One

Diaries and day planners aren’t completely a thing of the past, but they may as well be now that this iPhone, iPad, and Mac journaling app exists. What sets it apart from its tried-and-true pen-and-paper counterparts? Aside from the fact that Day One allows you to easily capture your thoughts—random or otherwise—about all of the whens, wheres, and whats of life using whichever Apple product you prefer, it also allows you to embellish those ruminations with photos and music as well as date, time, location, and weather data.

 

TED Talks

It’s doubtful there’s a soul on earth who couldn’t learn a thing or two—or more—from the much-discussed “talks” (led by famous and influential scientists, thinkers, and artists) that are nurtured and semi-regularly broadcasted by the New York-based Sapling Foundation. Well, now you can take in as many of these pithy presentations as you’d like, wherever you’d like, by downloading the organization’s official Android and iOS apps. Don’t worry if you’ve yet to jump on the smartphone or tablet bandwagon; TED Talks also can be found on iTunes (in podcast form), Netflix, and YouTube.

 

Words With Friends

Think of this game, which can be played on pretty much any online-enabled device, as a thoroughly modern take on that most classic of board games, Scrabble. Actually, some are sure to call Words With Friends little more than a Scrabble ripoff, but since this version can be played with family and friends around the globe, it’s hard to criticize it too harshly. One last thing: although you can pay for an ad-free experience (by buying the deluxe version), the game also can be enjoyed without spending a dime.

 

Wunderlist

Goodbye, sticky notes—both real and virtual. This elegant app, which won’t cost you a penny, allows you to keep track of all of those lists that are bouncing around in your brain at any given moment in time: the presents you have to buy, the meds you need to take, the movies you’ve been meaning to see, the people and places you’re itching to visit. There’s more to Wunderlist than producing digital to-do notes, though; it also lets you attach due dates, reminders, and notifications to them as well as organize, share, and access them from just about any gadget you own.