apps

Much of my life, like yours, is spent on my desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone.

This has brought invaluable efficiencies to my work and personal life, but it has also brought tremendous headaches. So whenever I find a tool whether it be a gadget, app, or service that allows me to do or get what I want easier, I am all for it.

Here are a few sanity-savers that I hope you will find as useful as I do.

Be Smarter: Keep Up With Important News (And Sports Too!)

theSkimm

theSkimm started as a newsletter that is delivered to your inbox every day filled with pithy, cheeky, smart summaries of the top news stories of the day. Then, theSkimm App was launched, a subscription product that updates your calendar with upcoming events in culture, politics, sports, tech and more.  Just imagine yourself in a group of male colleagues all talking about the World Cup?

If you read theSkimm you would be able to chime in on the best teams, players, scores, etc. How cool is that? It’s an invaluable tool that makes it easier to be smarter – which happens to be theSkimm’s tagline. You can sign up here.

Be Saner: Reduce Email Subscription Clutter With Ease

Unroll.me

Unroll.me is a service that reclaims and organizes your inbox. Basically, it allows you to “roll-up” as many email subscriptions as you want into one email delivery per day.  It also will “unroll” you from unwanted subscriptions with one click.

The service currently supports Outlook.com (including Hotmail, MSN, and Windows Live, Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail and iCloud.

A typical email from unroll.me looks like this:  “We found 6 new subscriptions in your inbox. Why not roll them up or unsubscribe?” It’s a beautiful thing. Check it out here.

Be Savvier: Never (Or Rarely) Run Out of Battery Power On Your Phone Again

Portable Chargers

I’m not particular to any brand, but the charger I’m currently using was highly recommended on Amazon – it’s the Anker 2nd Gen Astro Mini 3200mAh Lipstick-Sized Portable Charger.

With a portable charger in your purse or pocket, you don’t scurry around trying to find an outlet while at a conference, traveling or just out and about doing errands. The charger is lightweight, powerful when fully charged and will add one and a half charges to an iPhone 5s. More details are available on Amazon.

What are your favorite apps or services, please share!