In my daily life, I always use various applications to support my productivity. There are so many different apps developed and available for us to use, and I always want to use the best apps for each task. I'm even willing to spend a few hours trying to figure out which app is the best for me.
I'm writing this because I want to share my so-called research results so that people might save some time without having to research other apps again. Here are the best applications that I use according to their use case. All of them are Android apps. Some are also on Windows.
Notetaking #
I usually use a notetaking app to document everything, from ideas that I have to write down because it's a shame if they get lost, cool articles I find on the internet, to the thoughts of my brain that are passing through but are unique and remarkable. I document them in one application, namely Notion.
I've tried various other notetaking apps, such as Evernote, OneNote, Slite, and Google Keep. For me, Notion remains the best.
Indeed, I used to go back to Evernote, but in the end, I still moved to Notion because its very diverse features can't be found in other notetaking applications. The drawback is only one, there must be an internet connection. But today, who doesn't have internet?
But maybe most of the features can be confusing to use, so if you only use it for simple regular notes, I recommend Evernote. It looks excellent. Unfortunately, there is an upload limit of only 60 MB per month, so I can't upload many photos.
Overall, Notion.
Update: Now I use Obsidian. I started to hate that all my notes only exist on one online platform that I don't know how long it will last. In Obsidian, I can set up my notes to be saved locally and regularly backed up to several cloud storages. I can also set up my notes to be encrypted.
However, Notion is still excellent if you want many features and collaboration.
To-do-list #
The to-do list application is essential so that we don't have to overthink something that must be done, but the deadline is still next week.
If there is a task like that, we can put it on the to-do list instead.
I've tried Todoist, Google Task, Microsoft To-Do, Any.do, and TickTick. Just tried the free tier btw, because I still don't need to pay just for a to-do list. The app with the best free tier, in my opinion, is TickTick.
Other apps' free tiers always have flaws that make me unable to continue using them. Some can't repeat tasks, and some can't even send a reminder.
There are two things that I really like about TickTick. First, it can sync on phones and laptops, and other devices, so you can create and view your tasks anywhere.
Second, it has widgets on phones and laptops, and we can create new tasks without having to open the application using the shortcut. This is really helpful, so we can always see the list on the home screen.
Money manager #
I used to be quite a spendthrift, so I decided to keep track of my expenses and income.
The applications that I have tried are Wallet, Money Manager, Monefy, Money Lover, and Spendee. In my opinion, the best is Wallet, because there are no ads and the features are complete, you can even connect to your bank account if you buy the premium one for about $18 (lifetime!).
Book #
Since high school, I really like reading books, and after graduating, I prefer e-books because they are very flexible. I can read anything anywhere as long as I bring my phone.
At first, I bought several books on Google Play Books. Until recently, I found an application to which you can subscribe and access thousands of Indonesian fiction and nonfiction books, namely Gramedia Digital.
The subscription price is excellent, IDR 89K for the fiction + nonfiction package. But one account can have 5 people, so if you share an account, it can be just around IDR 18K per person.
Update: Now, a Gramedia Digital account can only be used by two people. Because the price has become quite expensive, I now use iPusnas which is quite good, even though we have to struggle sometimes :).
Quran & Prayer times #
There are so many Qur'an applications and prayer schedules available, and most of them are all-in-one applications, so in an app, there is the Quran, prayer schedule, Qibla, prayers, dhikr, etc.
But usually, all-in-one applications have pretty annoying ads and require us to pay to get rid of those ads. So I prefer one application for the Qur'an and another one application for the prayer schedule.
The Qur'an application that I use is Qur'an for Android from quran. com. In this app, the Quran is per page, not per verse, like other applications. There are also many murottals that can be played per verse. Very cool. No more ads.
For the prayer schedule, I'm using Prayer Times and Qibla. It can show prayer schedules on the home screen that we can customize through a widget.
We can also set the notification so that it is always on, even if our phone is in Silent or Do Not Disturb (DND) mode. In-App Purchase is not really needed because it only adds Themes and can play adhan from our phones.
Brain trainer #
I've tried Lumosity, Peak, Elevate, and NeuroNation. Most of them require a membership, which usually costs hundreds of thousands of IDR per year.
The free tier often limits the games we can try, and the games aren't adapting to our abilities (the same start point every day). Except NeuroNation. This is what I use.
NeuroNation's free tier can give us a recommendation of 5 games per day according to our abilities level, so we can monitor our progress continuously. But one of the five games will be locked.
I think the most worth it for the paid version is Peak, with a price of IDR 250K per person or IDR 500K for 5 people, and both are lifetime.
Language learning #
I've only tried two apps in this category, Duolingo and Memrise. But it seems pretty clear that the winner is Duolingo.
The free version of Memrise is very limited, while Duolingo in the free version already provides everything. Starting from grammar, vocabulary, and stories for teaching how to use the sentences in everyday life.
Duolingo Plus itself only adds offline learning features and removes ads, but I've never seen the ads even though they're always connected to the internet, so there's no need to upgrade.
These are some of the applications that I use on a daily basis. All of them are the best apps in their category, at least in my opinion. You can try it for your consideration.