The Top Three Apps For Business Owners Who Want a Life

Life got you going in circles? Feeling a little overwhelmed?

As a business owner life is crazy, and sometimes balance is impossible. I am here to provide you tools that you can use to help you stay on task, organized and above water. When you have a family, a business, and you are a volunteer or give of your time to community or industry organizations, it’s important that you utilize these tools to keep your sanity.

According to a recent article from Bustle, working mothers these days are the norm, not the exception: according to the U.S. Department of Labor, 70 percent of all moms with kids under 18 in America are in the workforce, and three-quarters of all working moms work full-time. So, as a business owner, I do fall into this category and believe me, it’s not easy.

Here are the top three apps for busy business owners who need to stay above water.

Being able to manage your time is key to keeping your composure and remaining calm and organized. It’s called time management, and as long as I put it in my Google Calendar - all is well. What google calendar has enabled me to do is to create different calendars and share these calendars so that other people can see what is on a particular calendar of mine. For example, I have a personal appointment calendar, a school calendar, and business calendar. I select the appropriate calendar and create appointments or events. I can even invite people to a meeting on a particular calendar - this is great for my business calendar. What’s really great is that I share my calendars with my husband and business partner so that he can see what I have happening. It allows him to make appointments around my appointments. For example; car appointments like changing the oil. Bruce (hubby)  can see when I’ll be around for him to book an appointment. This has been a life-saver when it comes to business, family, and community. It’s an app that is available for your phone and your desktop, as it synchronizes, which is totally awesome. It’s a free app as well unless you utilize gsuite for business in which I do. If this is the case there is a monthly fee for gsuite and the Google calendar is included. Need a quick tutorial on how to use? Here’s a link.

Wunderlist, an app that was released in 2011 makes one of my top three apps that I use. It has made several lists as a great organizational app, in an article by Carrie Kirby it’s noted as one of the Top 10 Best Productivity Apps for Busy People.  I jumped in early on the bandwagon with this app and never looked back. My favorite part about this app is that it is simple and easy to use. You create folders and lists within the folders. For example: I have a Personal Folder that includes lists for “gift ideas”, “grocery list”, and even “books I want to read”.  In the lists I create tasks or ideas. You can view your to-do items as a simple list, or you can have alerts or emails pop up to remind you when things come due. What’s awesome is that you can share your lists with people, so my grocery list I can share with or email it to my husband.

The latest app that I’ve added to my survival kit of being a business owner and mom is called Life 360. It allows you the ability to see where your entire family is at all times from the comfort of your phone in real-time. Don’t think that your kids would like the app or would want to share their location, not the case. According to results from a recent nationwide survey, the research indicated that nearly 70% of teens are comfortable using a location-sharing app with their family. The cost is min $7.99 per month or $69.99 per year is well worth it. How it works is simple. You download the app to your phone, walk through the steps of adding any phone/person to your “family” and the phone literally tracks where everyone is. Yes, I know where my boys are at all times. Unless they forget their phone at home - which is never, I know where they are at, and how fast they are going. If I need to get directions to where they are at, I just click on their avatar and directions magically appear. It’s a great way to monitor your family.

My three favorite apps: Google, Wunderlist and Life 360. If you are looking for a little sanity and organization in your life, you might want to give these a try. You can thank me later.