Top 10 Productivity Apps for the Mac, 2018 Edition By What is the best productivity app on the Mac? We all have our opinions, and declaring the “best” app is almost impossible. What might be the best app for me may not be right for you, and an app you love may not be quite what I need. One advantage that Asian Efficiency has is we have a team that lives and breathes productivity and we’ve been evaluating tools and productivity methods for years.

We debate apps internally every day, and we all come at it from different angles, backgrounds, and age ranges. In addition, we have a highly intelligent productivity community called where tools and techniques are shared. When I started to compile our annual list of the best Mac apps this year, I polled the growing AE team and members of the Dojo to see what the favorites are. Here’s our list of the top 10 productivity apps of 2018, and some more tools that didn’t quite make the top 10, but are still great. (Just remember – you want to. Only start digging into a tool if it is something that you actually need! If you don’t need it, set it aside for now.

The app costs $49.99 and you can download it from the Mac App Store. Blotter claims to be an unforgettable calendar, and it does live up to its hype. What Blotter does for you is convert your whole calendar into a wallpaper and lets you view it right on your desktop. It looks so beautiful that you will fall in love with it once you install it.

It’ll still be available when you’re ready to put it to use.) Top 10 Whenever we set up a new Mac, these are the first apps we install. While we can use a Mac without them, we’re not nearly as productive. A good productivity app should reduce friction and amplify good habits, and all of these meet those criteria.

#1: – Dropbox is essential for how we work at Asian Efficiency. All of our shared files, blog posts, media, etc. Filezilla for mac 10 12 3. Are stored in Dropbox which makes it very easy to collaborate on projects as a team even though we are located all over the world. This is the very first thing I install when setting up a new Mac as it provides the sync and storage foundation for my workflow. ICloud Drive is getting better and better so maybe someday Dropbox won’t be necessary, but for our needs it is hard to beat.

#2: – The absolute best password manager for Mac. Essentially it works by having you creating one master password, which then grants access to all your other passwords. These passwords can be randomly generated inside of 1Password, which means that all your individual passwords are incredibly strong and near-impossible to hack. You don’t have to remember all of these passwords though as your single master password gives you (and only you) easy access to all your other passwords and can even be triggered when unlocked via a keyboard shortcut that autofills the information in your browser for you. 1Password also gives you the ability to store credit card information, secure notes, software serial numbers, and other important (but sensitive) information like passport numbers, your SSN and bank account details securely.

If you need to securely share some passwords with others, there is. These let you have Personal Vaults and Shared Vaults so you can keep some passwords just for yourself and some passwords available to family members or co-workers. With 1Password Teams, you can make it so that some staff can launch and log in to websites without being able to see the password. My wife and I use the Family plan at home, and it is great to be able to share passwords for important sites. #3: – TextExpander does exactly what it says on the tin – expands text. It sounds really simple, but once you develop the mindset of watching for things you type repeatedly you’ll start to see hundreds of things that you can automate with TextExpander.

You can even use the more advanced features like fill-in snippets, date/time math, and optional selections to create some very powerful and personal email templates. We have if you need some help to get started with it.

Some members of the Dojo prefer Typinator which is not subscription-based, but members of the AE team like TextExpander. #4: / – Alfred and Launchbar are both classified as application launchers, but that’s just scratching the service of what these apps can do. They allow you to find and open files quickly, perform quick calculations, search your clipboard history, control iTunes media playback, create custom searches, and so much more. There are even custom workflows you can create or install to expand their functionality and control your Mac with the keyboard. Think of them as Spotlight on steroids.

Both of these applications are excellent, and which one you decide to use will be determined by personal taste (Mike and I use Alfred, Thanh uses Launchbar). Just make sure you pick one! #5: – The absolute best task manager for Mac and my digital brain. OmniFocus is a powerful task manager with a very nice user interface which makes it a joy to use on Mac, iOS, and Apple Watch.