What’s Your Go-To Productivity App?
This past week was quite eventful at the CareGuide office. Ed, our Director of Engineering, celebrated his 1 year anniversary at CareGuide, we finally hung up our parkas as the weather reached the double digits, and we ordered a fancy new espresso machine to compliment our growing office. (And not just any espresso machine, but a robust, top-of-the-line, Rancili Silvia espresso machine).
It goes without saying that we were all pretty psyched on it’s arrival. Like kids on Christmas, we gathered around our newest addition to bask in all it’s glory and question who was going to put it together (not me).
Although we can agree or disagree whether or not coffee is an efficient stimulate for productivity, this got me thinking two things.
One: I didn’t realize coffee could cause so much excitement amongst 6 people and two: what other productivity tools do my colleagues get this stoked about?
As a fairly tech savvy bunch, I present to you, our personal favourite apps that enhance and improve our productivity.
Lakhveer
Product: Oh My Zsh and Total Terminal
Why He Loves Full Screen Sublime:
“I love it because it allows me to stay on one desktop and one window to do all my work. This increases productivity because I don’t have to fumble around with windows or desktop layouts with my track pad."
"I also get this nice floating terminal that sits on top of any window or full-screen app that I can simply toggle to hide and show.”
Why He Loves Oh My Zsh
“Makes my terminal experience awesome. It allows me to autocomplete all file names and command names that way I don’t have to remember a ton of commands."
"Also I make everything dark theme so I can code late at night, in the dark, without killing my eyes!”
Ali
Product: Pomodoro Timer
Why He Loves it:
“It breaks up your time into productive work and breaks. Personally, when I am using that, I can work about 12 hours straight being productive consistently. It also helps prevent burnout throughout the day and keeps you interested. It allows you to break up your tasks into time slots, so you can better predict what you’ll get done, and makes multitasking easier.”
John
Product: Parachute Coffee
Why He Loves it: “It’s subscription based, so we never have to fear running out of coffee around the office!"
Brian
Product: NPR All Songs Considered Podcast
Why He Loves it:
“Best music podcast out there by a long way.”
Danica
Product: Headspace
Why She Loves it: “I love this app because it lets me clear my head and focus on only my breathing for ten minutes a day. This helps me find clarity among the endless to do lists I set for myself and is a great way to start my day and be more productive at work.”
Natasha
Product: Rdio
Why I Love it: I listen to music for about 8 hours a day so it’s easy for me to get sick of my local playlist. I don’t want to be wasting time skipping songs or fumbling through my dated iTunes music library. My personal station on Rdio has introduced me to a ton of great music I would have otherwise missed. Plus, being a designer, I’m a sucker for their UI.