App Awesomeness

I am engineer.  I fact I am an industrial engineer.  This area of engineering basically is the study of productivity and processes to improve and refine them to be efficient and cost effective.  So what does that have to do with organization?  Why thank you for asking!  Basically, I am hardwired by nature and training to organize and fix things to make them efficient, so when it comes to everyday life I am always looking for the most efficient way to store or get something done.

I love lists and charts and graphs and colors so when I find an amazing app or two I can't help but be addicted.  In this post I am going to talk about my 3 favorite apps that I currently use all of the time for organization and lists.

Number 1 - Wunderlist

Wunderlist is an amazing tool that according to the website

"Organizes Everything! Can be used everywhere"

When they say everywhere they mean it, Mac, iphone, ipad, Windows, Android, and Linux as well as a web based interface!  Woot!  I love anything that I can have on multiple devices and syncs with everything.  For instance this weekend I planned to run errands to Target and the grocery store.  I had 4 recipies in mind that I was buying for as well as some other staples. With Wunderlist I was able to create the list on my Mac and view it on my Droid and then screen cap it on my PC.  So awesome!

Isn't the interface pretty?  You can pick your own background

Here is my shopping list from Saturday

So that takes me to the next App that I am currently in love with....

Number 2 - Evernote

I found Evernote when I got my MacBook Pro and it was listed as a featured app and it was free which was awesome.  As I read the background on the app I thought "I can use this!" Huzzah so I downloaded it to my Mac as well as my PC and Droid then proceeded to do nothing with it.  I was in love with Wunderlist I will get around to this eventually then a post from Lifehacker changed my Evernote life. The post talks about the best apps to organize recipies online and low and behold Evernote was listed and really my world was turned on its head.  The beauty over Evernote is that I can clip recipies from blogs and Pinterest (Check out my boards) and reference them offline and on my phone. How crazy awesome is that?!?

There is even this handy little bookmark tool that clips articles, webpages and highlighted text while remembering where the URL of the original recipe!  I try to keep up with my Pins and stared bookmarks and keep them in my handy dandy recipe notebook.  I can tag and list to my hearts content and the clips are editable so if I make a modification to a recipe then I can add the note.

What else is awesome about it?  I can take pictures with my phone and create new notes.  I plan on doing this with old recipe cards.  That way I can charish these time tested recipies from my family and still have a readable and user friendly format.  Seriously awesome.

Here is a sample of a recipe I made this weekend:

This is Honey Lemon Chicken and I plan on posting the recipe and my cooking adventures soon.

Here is a sample from my phone:

Here is a list my mom made for Thanksgiving Dinner.  I took a picture of it so I could save it for next year.

Last but not least

Number 3 - dayone

With everything going on in my life and all of the change I decided that I wanted to start journaling as well as blogging.  With the dayone app I found an awesome vehicle to prompt me to write down what went on for the day.  I have alarms set up that bug me to write and the interface is simple and clean.  This app really has given me a chance to write down what I am feeling and gives inspiration to future blog posts.  Also, I can write down some of my crazy dreams (sleeping dreams not goal dreams I would tell you those) that don't make sense but are funny to remember after time.

Overall, I loves the apps and I hope that I have inspired you to try them out.  Let me know if you have a favorite app I should try!

<3 Heather

**Note: this is a completely arbitrary review and examples of my own experiences, others may have differing views and results**