The best iPad apps to increase productivity and make your life easier

Apple’s iPads come with built-in productivity tools like Notes, Calendar, and Reminders, but if you want to explore new ways to maximize productivity and organize your life, there are many apps available to help you.

Although the iPad started out as a device that could be used to stream content or browse the web on the go, Apple has transformed its iPads into computers that can handle a variety of different tasks for personal use, work, and school. As a result, there are many apps that help you do things like create one place to organize your life or help you focus on your daily tasks by blocking out distractions.

We have compiled a list of some of the best apps available on the App Store.

Good feedback

Goodnotes is one of the most popular iPad apps, and for good reason. The app is great for people who like to write notes with Apple Pencil; You can include handwritten and typed text on one page and add things like photos, stickers, and even doodles.

Create a digital notebook with blank or lined paper to jot down notes, checklists, charts, and more. The application allows you to export entire digital notebooks or selected pages to PDF and other files.

Goodnotes is also great for drawing and planning. Although it’s not as advanced as some creativity apps like Procreate, Goodnotes is easy to use and perfect for quick sketches or graphs.

If you’re attending a class or meeting, you can also record audio notes that are synced to the moment you’re typing. Additionally, you can use AI to summarize your notes and help you with your writing.

You can create three digital notebooks for free. If you want unlimited notebooks, you’ll have to pay $9.99 per year or a one-time fee of $29.99.

Mark

If you’re not a fan of the iPad’s built-in Reminders app, or just want a more advanced to-do list and task management app, TickTick might be a good option. You can use it for both professional and personal tasks.

The app lets you sync tasks across all your devices and integrate your favorite calendar app. You can create checklists, assign recurring tasks, upload attachments to tasks, share to-do lists to collaborate with others, and more.

If you want to develop a habit, such as meditating before bed, you can set your goals in the app and track your progress. If you receive an email but don’t have time to respond, you can turn it into a task to remind yourself not to forget to respond.

You can also add tags to your tasks to manage them better, and you can tag tasks based on their priority.

If you want to focus on a specific task, you can turn on the app’s “pomo timer,” which is based on the Pomodoro technique that breaks work into focused periods of time for maximum productivity.

TickTick is free to use, but if you want additional features like the ability to add up to five reminders for a task or more lists and tasks, you’ll pay $3.99 per month or $35.99 per year.

forest

Forest is an interesting app that improves productivity while helping the environment. If you are someone who finds it difficult to stay on task or is easily distracted, this app may be useful to you.

When you need to focus on something, you can open the app and plant a tree. Your tree will then grow while you focus on and finish your work. If you leave the app before the timer expires, your tree will wither and die.

You can set Allow Lists for different applications that you use to be productive, such as your email application or Microsoft Word. The app also lets you track your productivity.

Over time, you can create a digital forest that visualizes your productivity. If you’re competitive, you can share your forest with others to see how it compares to theirs. As you stay focused and plant virtual trees, you can earn coins that you can save to help plant actual trees around the world through the tree planting organization Trees for the Future.

The forest costs $3.99 to download, and you can purchase in-app boosts to grow your forest and plant real trees faster.

an idea

Notion is a great app for taking notes, managing tasks and workflows, organizing lists and habits, collaborating with others, and more. Instead of having to go to different apps to manage your calendar, tasks, and notes, you can do it all directly through Notion.

You can integrate the different apps you use, like Slack and Dropbox, in order to bring all your workflows together in one place. One of the great things about Notion is its flexibility and customization options. You can customize it to suit what you need, whether it’s organizing your personal or work life, your schoolwork, or your passion projects.

If you’re not sure where to start, you can use templates to create things like a travel planner or product roadmap. Notion also has an AI feature that helps you write down and brainstorm ideas. Notion AI can help you get answers about your content and turn large amounts of data into easy-to-understand action items.

Notion offers a free plan for personal use. The company also offers an $8-per-month Plus plan for small groups and a $15-per-month Business plan for businesses. You get 20 AI responses for free; After that you pay $10 per member per month.

Croton

Sometimes, planning what to eat can take a lot of time, leaving less time for other tasks, so it might be good to have an app to help with this. Intended to help make cooking and meal planning easier, the croutons are great for organizing recipes and planning grocery lists.

You can import recipes from websites or even scan them from an actual cookbook. So, instead of relying on reference recipes or physical recipes, you can store them together in one place.

You can plan your meals for the week, and if you’re confused about what to make one day, the app can create a meal plan for you. Once you’ve planned your meals for the week, you can create a grocery list that includes all the ingredients you’ll need.

Croton also features an in-app timer, so you don’t have to use a different app when you have timed steps for a recipe. Plus, you can share your recipes with others, whether telling your family about dinner or if you come across a recipe you know your friend will love.

Crouton offers basic features for free, but if you want unlimited recipes and extra features, there’s a $14.99 annual subscription.

freedom

Freedom is a great app for blocking distractions in order to focus on your work and increase your productivity. You can start a Freedom session to block distractions across all your devices for a set period of time.

You can choose which websites and apps you want to block during that period. So, if you’re doing work on your iPad, but then try to open TikTok on your phone, you won’t be able to and will instead see a green screen.

The app allows you to start a session immediately, schedule an upcoming session, or set a recurring session. If you know you need to be free from distractions at a certain time each day, you can set up a Freedom session to start at that specific time each day.

If you are someone who listens to specific sounds to help you focus, Freedom offers a variety for you to listen to. For example, you can listen to the sounds of a café in a city like New York or Berlin, the sounds of birds chirping, soft musical instruments, and more.

The app, which costs $3.99 per month, is very easy to use and includes a series of different articles with tips on how to boost productivity and better understand digital wellness.

The worthy one

Notability is a great note-taking app that lets you jot down ideas, import and annotate textbooks, record audio, and sketch ideas. The application is useful for both students and professionals, or even amateurs.

You can choose to take notes using Apple Pencil, text, or audio. If you’re trying to find something specific, the app lets you search through your notes, including handwritten notes and any documents you’ve uploaded.

Notability also features AI-generated note summaries and the ability to work on two different notes side by side. Additionally, you can test your knowledge with custom quizzes based on the content in your notes.

If you need a place to start, Notability includes a gallery of templates for things like planners, study notes, to-do lists, and more.

Notability is free but offers a $4.99 monthly subscription to access additional features like math conversion, automatic transcription, unlimited notes, and more.

Todoist

Todoist is a simple and straightforward app that lets you record and organize tasks using natural language. You can add tasks like “Plan next week’s work every Friday afternoon” or “Do homework every Wednesday at 6pm” to quickly organize and plan your life.

You can sort tasks into Today, Upcoming, or custom filters to let you focus on what currently matters, meaning you only see what’s relevant when you need it.

Todoist can be used to organize a variety of tasks, whether work-related, personal, educational, or administrative goals and reminders. Additionally, you can connect Todoist to your calendar, voice assistant, and dozens of other tools like Outlook, Gmail, and Slack.

In addition to your iPad, you can access the service from your iPhone and Apple Watch, while syncing across your desktop and all other devices.

Core Todoist features are available for free. You can unlock additional features, like an AI assistant and calendar planning, for $4 per month with Todoist’s “Pro” subscription plan.

Trello

If you’re someone who likes to use sticky notes to plan your life, Trello might be a good option for you because it provides a simple, visual way to keep track of things.

Trello lets you set up “boards” for different parts of your life, such as work, school, projects, and personal goals, and then set up lists like “To Do,” “To Do,” and “Done” to track progress.

You can use “cards” inside boards to visualize different tasks or items you want to complete. On each card, you can add descriptions, due dates, checklists, notes, and more. Additionally, you can use labels to visually organize different cards and set priorities, such as “High,” “Medium,” or “Low.”

The app’s Calendar View gives you an overview of what’s coming up in the coming days and weeks.

Trello’s free plan comes with unlimited cards and up to 10 boards. The app’s Standard plan costs $5 per month and features unlimited boards and additional functionality, such as the ability to capture tasks from email, Slack, and Teams.

Update: This story was originally published in September 2024 and is updated regularly with new information.