Active moms everywhere know about the struggles of keeping a household organized—meetings, practices, appointments, projects, meals, and all the piles of paperwork. Fortunately, there are some great apps out there to help you out with to-dos, group projects, and even fitness and dinner!
To-Do Apps
1. Any.Do
Any.Do features to-do lists, sharing and collaboration, file uploads, lists, repeats, and reminders. Tasks can be assigned to others. You can share tasks and files across platforms and devices, which is especially useful when collaborating. A Chrome extension is also available.
Try out the free version (with limited sharing and customization) to see if you want to go premium for $26.99/year or $2.99/month. Premium offers unlimited collaboration, larger file uploads, repeat customization, and reminders. A business version is also available.
Any.Do’s premium version is great for a fully-connected family.
2. Remember the Milk
Remember the Milk is a to-do list that integrates with Google Mail and Calendar, Twitter, Siri (she can add tasks for you), Evernote, and Outlook. Available for many platforms, you can share tasks, manage tasks while offline, and even get text reminders. A blog offers tips and tricks.
There is a free version and a $25/year pro subscription that gives you push reminders, unlimited sync across devices, priority support, and a tester program.
Remember the Milk has been around for 10 years, and it continues to grow and add functionality. Users can send tasks to each other, but this app is best utilized by one or two people managing their tasks.
3. Todoist
The free version of Todoist works across many platforms and offers more features than other to-do apps—subprojects, subtasks, share and delegate, notifications, repeats, real-time syncing, multiple priority levels, and visualized productivity. The design is simple, with color-coded priorities and intuitive date typing (“Monday at 2pm”). If you upgrade to Premium at $28.99 per year, you get additional features including automatic backups, comments and file attachments, location-based task alerts, custom filters, project templates, and more. Run your own business? Todoist Business is used in small and large team settings.
Organization Apps
4. Dropbox
Dropbox enables you to store and share files of all kinds off your own device. Whether you are planning a family reunion, a school fundraiser, or keeping track of family paperwork and pictures, Dropbox makes videos, pictures, and any file type available for sharing. Because these files are not stored on your phone of laptop, they are not lost if your device is.
Dropbox Basic features 2GB of storage; Dropbox Pro gives you 1TB (that’s 1,000 GB); DropBox Business has unlimited space.
Dropbox Basic is a free download; Dropbox Pro is $9.99/month for an individual; Dropbox Business is $15/month/user.
Other Useful Apps
5. Grubhub
Every active mom knows that no matter how organized you might be, things happen, and your family still needs to eat! Grubhub connects you to nearby restaurants that deliver or offer pickups. There are reviews, estimated wait times, and menu links. Add your choices to your bag, and go from there. You can also save orders for future reference.
The Grubhub app is free, as is placing your order. You can pay for your order with cash, credit card, or Paypal.
With all of the restaurant options, you might even find a new favorite place!
6. Fitbit
Want to get fit or take your fitness to the next level? Fitbit makes it easy by keeping track of everything for you! You can track your steps, miles, flights of stairs climbed, sleep, active minutes, and more. Certain devices even give you on-screen workouts. Use the Fitbit app to see your progress, set goals, stay motivated with challenges, log food, and compete with friends. It syncs seamlessly with the Aria scale.
A Fitbit device is required, however. There are a variety of choices, running from $59.99 to $249.99; the FitStar Personal Trainer is $39.99/year; the Aria scale is $129.99. The Fitbit app is free and available for all major platforms.
Just want to count your steps? Get the Zip ($59.99) and the free app. It's all you need!
