Last year was one heck of a ride for all of us. As we're waving goodbye to all things 2020, we're also re-thinking and reworking how we're- well- working, in and out of the office.

I'm sharing my favorite list of tools and apps for the upcoming year, some that I've been using for a while, some that are relatively new to me and super impactful, and a few just that I think everyone needs to know about! Let's just get right to it, shall we?

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1) First on my list for must have apps in 2021- Calm. Calm is a meditation app that's literally changing my life. I accidentally purchased it not long ago, and I've been using it daily ever since. I've long known about all the amazing health benefits of meditation and truly- I'm a "just do it" type of person… and yet, I still could not find it in my capabilities to meditate without going bananas. My mind would race, I would feel even more anxious, and finally stand up feeling like "cool, now I'm another 10 minutes behind all the things I need to do." Enter- guided meditation. Emphasis on GUIDED. I started the app with the beginners guide (30 days) by Jeff Warren. Highly highly recommend that you start there if you've had an experience anything like mine. He covers the fundamentals of meditation- namely what helped me is the "meditative posture" which has less to do with your bodily position and much more to do with your attitude.

TL;DR: Get calm. Be happier. (Free 30 days rather than 7 with my link below. Feel that zen yet?)

Calm

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2) Time to nerd out about organization, yes? If you clicked on this blog post at all, it's likely you're a small business owner, an aspiring entrepreneur, or you just love apps. Either way, Infinity just might become your new favorite tool. Like Airtable light, Infinity is basically a spreadsheet on steroids. The best part? It's a "pay once" service, which means no monthly subscriptions and no being hassled to upgrade to the more expensive monthly plan when you want to do something new with your data. It's incredibly customizable, with different views for different parts of your project, team members, or even ways you accomplish tasks. Additionally, in my experience, the customer service is amazing, timely, and actually helpful. All in all, it's an awesome service for anyone who needs ultimate flexibility with their info, whether for project management, client relationship management, or general team collaboration.

TL;DR: Infinity is a pay-once service that can help you organize anything

Get Infinity

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3) Earlier in the year, my stress level was maxed out. You can read about it all on many of my recent Instagram posts if you're into that, but the long and short of it was that I knew I needed help managing the "back and forth" of client revisions to projects. In true nerd fashion, my brain knew there "had to be an app for that", so the hunt was on. I was looking for a very user friendly virtual white board of sorts, where we could easily post pictures of updates, and have some type of "option a" or "option b" choice for our clients without having to send 5,000 emails about it. We found several services that would work great, and if you want the full list, it's easy to Google. That said, we landed on Milanote BECAUSE of how simple it is. There are other services very similar, but I knew the key to getting the most out of this kind of service would be that people (aka- my clients of all tech-levels and backgrounds) would actually use it. Milanote has the "all and only" approach- all we need and only that. It's drag and drop. It's clean. There's not a lot of extra fluff you can do with it. This all adds up to a service that for us means no matter HOW exactly our clients give feedback, we can understand what they're saying. Win win.

TL;DR: Milanote is a simple, user-friendly virtual whiteboard for communicating remotely (and whatever else you can think of)!

Milanote

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4) If you've made it this far in the list... you've hit the jackpot. I'm reluctant to even share this one because it makes me look like I'm super put together and brilliant. But- alas- it's too good not to share.

Email campaigns are my nightmare. They're always clunky, fussy, and annoying to keep track of when automated (amirite?). Enter Flodesk- your "love at first sight" email campaign manager. It's the beauty of a well done Instagram grid with the functionality of any larger email campaign rival. It's simple. It's sexy. It's user friendly. It has a FLOW CHART FEATURE YOU CAN PLAN YOUR CAMPAIGNS WITH. If you're not getting excited about this, then I don't know what kind of normal, non-nerd life you're living, and why are you even here?

TL;DR: Email campaigns that don't suck= Flodesk.

Flodesk

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5) Okay- on to the personal ones. I'm adding this to the list this year because we've all been doing our shopping online- groceries, Christmas gifts, toilet paper. Yep. Online, thank-you-very-much.

It should be said that I love small business and support it as much as possible, but while I'm living in a pandemic world, you better believe that I'm pre-ordering my groceries online and doing store pickup rather than hauling my pregnant body and two small people while masked up inside the store. What am I, a caveman? Anyways- order your groceries through Rakuten, get cash back, pick up groceries, get a check in the mail in a few weeks. Easy peasy.

TL;DR: get cash back while you shop online (like you already are).

Rakuten (formerly Ebates)

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6) Speaking of buying things online... Last year, I approached my husband through tired mom-eyes riddled with a cabin fever of epic proportions and said, "I need to shop spending money on crap we don't need. I'm buying stuff because I'm bored and lonely and sad. Halp."

To be sure, this wasn't the first time we've had this conversation. My name is Sam, and I'm a recovering shop-aholic. Not for clothes or makeup or purses or even shoes. Usually for technology, and what I call "life hack" products. But alas- during the pandemic first quarantine... it got a little out of control. There were boxes showing up on our doorstep far too often... maybe daily? For sure weekly. I cringe just thinking about it.

My husband- ever the champion of problem solving money issues (#banker) came up with a great plan. Phase 1: find a goal I'm excited about saving for. Phase 2: budget a small, ambitious-yet-reasonable amount that we’ll share to spend on "whatever" in one year.

This plan works for a few reasons- One, I love a good challenge, and a yearly budget that's somewhat skimpy means that I have to try at it... and I love trying at things. Two, saving for a goal I cared about forced my brain to think "do I want this dinglehopper more than I want my goal?" and three, it meant I got to buy a new app to track my spending, and here comes secret reason four; I started tracking money I wasn't spending and adding that to our goal fund. I'm telling ya- if you haven't experienced the joy of NOT buying something because you know you get to track it on an app and put it towards something you really want, you haven't lived.

TL;DR: An easy to use budget tracking app that costs a whopping $4 and has literally helped me save hundreds over the course of 6 months.

Fudget

And there you have it my friends, the list of technology that’s helping me survive and sorta thrive in 2020/21. Have you tried any of them? What’s your favorite? Or what app would you add that didn’t make my list above?

Wishing you a wonderful, calm, organized, user friendly, sleek as heck, and affordable day!