A lot of copy has been produced in recent months about apps that will help us to remain productive while working from home – and rightly so given the pandemic-type circumstances which have led to more people than ever before working remotely. I’ll be writing one myself next week which will share the apps that I’ve found to be most helpful when it comes to keeping myself on track.
Not quite so much has been written about the apps that can come in handy when it comes to keeping on top of family life. Having worked as a VA for some time, especially one who helps others with ‘life’ organisation, I have some experience of these types of things too, which I am sharing with you today!
FamilyWall
Family Wall pleases me because it’s one of those apps which takes all the different things that you need to do as part of organising a family, and puts them into one place. It also makes me happy because its free version is really rather good, rather than an obvious funnel to the paid version.
Essentially Family Wall is there to make sure that the whole family has a synchronised app to tell them where they need to be, what they need to do and how they need to do it. It has a shared calendar, shared shopping list (SO handy), a place to share to-do lists and a messenger function. If you choose the premium version, you can have access to a meal planner and a family member locator (not sure the teenagers are going to be all that happy with this function!) Premium access will also allow you to sync with Google/Outloook which looks hugely useful.
Kitche
I LOVE THIS APP! Firstly, it’s totally free – no paid version – it’s purely there to help reduce waste in the kitchen. What can this almighty god of an app do, you may ask?
Well – first of all, it keeps track of all the food you have in your house – it will scan most products using the camera on your phone. It will also scan shopping receipts to see what you’ve bought. It will turn all of that info into a handy list of what you have lurking in your cupboards.
It sends you reminders for best before dates. Incredible! This means you can begin to meal plan while taking into account that pack of chicken lying forgotten at the back of the fridge. Such amaze! Much brilliant!
Finally, if you are feeling uninspired and can’t be bothered going to the shops, it will look at the food you have in your house and give you a damn recipe to cook which only uses ingredients you already have.
Honestly, this app is outstanding, and I love it. Go now and find it – quick!
Forest
I don’t know if this counts as a productivity app – my logic goes like this – if you want the teenagers to do their homework without stopping every 30 seconds to check social media, this may be the app for you. It’s also helped me to be more ‘productive’ during my down time by actively encouraging me to leave my phone alone and concentrate, which is great in the evenings when I can get lost in a social media / Guardian reading rabbit hole when I’m supposed to be spending time with the family.
The app itself is simple – whenever you want to stay focussed, use it to plant a tree. While you keep those itchy fingers off the phone, the tree will grow. If you use it, the tree will die and you will feel bad. Also worth noting is the fact that the developers use any profits to actually plant real trees – double bonus!
GoHenry
Full disclosure – I haven’t tried this one yet, mainly because the subscription costs more than what I want to do at the second.
This app is a banking tool which allows you to have a parent account, via which you can pay pocket money into the linked accounts for your children. Each child gets their own bank card – and can spend only what is on the card, so no banking charges to worry about.
The app is the interface to the child’s account, where you can top up funds and even add jobs which, when completed, can earn the child some extra dosh!
It costs £2.99 per child per month, so at present with my oldest being 6 and my youngest being 3, it doesn’t make sense to get – but it is on my list for the future, mainly because I spent a great deal of my twenties being extremely crap with money, so I’m all for ways of making sure my children have the opportunity to learn to be better.
So there it is, my top family productivity apps. Do you use any which I’ve missed off the list?