6 Apps to Help Reclaim Your Personal Life Balancing your business and personal life is one of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face, but it's far from impossible. Here are six apps to get you started.
By Phil Dumontet Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
While there's an app for most things in life, there's not a specific app for quality time with family and friends – something entrepreneurs desperately need.
To solve this problem, often founders – and everyone else – turn to certain apps to save time in dealing with everyday tasks like planning team dinners or scheduling business trips, so they can devote more time with the people they care about. I am no different. As the founder of DASHED, a restaurant delivery service in the Northeast, my time is precious, as I constantly juggling my business responsibilities with my personal ones. Fortunately, I have discovered some timesaving apps, which have allowed me to reclaim my nights and weekends.
While this is by no means an exhaustive list, here are my top six timesaving apps:
1. OpenTable
OpenTable allows you to search availability at top-rated restaurants and book tables on the go. It saves you the hassle of calling restaurants individually to check availability or waiting 45 minutes at the bar until they can squeeze you in for dinner. It's especially handy for those evenings when you want to take your team out for a well-deserved meal and don't want to waste time searching for a restaurant that can seat everyone. Tip: Use the bookmark option to quickly check for tables at your favorite restaurants.
Time saved: 30 minutes
This app simplifies the travel-booking process, so you can spend less time planning and more time on more enjoyable things. Enter your preferred travel dates and budget, and KAYAK will search dozens of travel sites to find the best matches. The in-app flight tracker serves as a handy companion as your trip approaches, and the clean interface makes the app easy and efficient to use.
Time saved: 30 minutes
3. Handy
When your time is scarce, you must do what you enjoy and delegate the rest. Outsourcing certain tasks like cleaning is no exception. Handy reclaims the hours you normally would have spent cleaning your home or fixing that leaky faucet by hiring a housekeeper or handyman.
You can set up a recurring cleaning schedule, reschedule or cancel, make notes and review your cleaner. And because Handy vets all its professionals, you don't have to worry about the people you're letting into your home.
Time saved: 2.5 hours
4. Citymapper
Citymapper runs laps around Apple Maps and Google Maps when it comes to finding the fastest route to your destination. Whether you're walking, driving or biking, the Citymapper app shows every possible route with an intuitive presentation. It provides important details such as the time each route will take, how much the trip will cost and even the calories you'll burn if you're biking.
Time saved: 30 minutes
Related: 44 Apps That Turn Your Smartphone Into a Productivity Powerhouse (Infographic)
5. Sosh
When you're looking for a break and need to relax, don't waste time by having to ask the dreaded question, What do you want to do? Sosh acts as your crowdsourced, personal concierge for the best things to do in your city every day of the week. Search by the type of activity, budget or rating so you can find something that suits your mood. And since it's heavily user-driven, it's constantly refreshed with new, dynamic content.
Time saved: 30 minutes
6. Genius Scan
The name speaks for itself. Scan any document -- anywhere -- with a tap on your smartphone. This app will save you the time and hassle of using clunky fax machines – or running to the nearest copy store to get something sent via fax. You can easily export to Dropbox or send an email. Enhance the scans with black-and-white or photo options, crop easily and share. It's as simple and easy as scanning always should have been.
Time saved: 30 minutes
Balancing your business and personal life is one of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face, but it's far from impossible. By deploying timesaving apps in specific, "outsourceable" areas of life, you can reclaim five hours of your life each week. After all, there are only 40 hours in a traditional workweek. Make every one count.
Related: 10 Apps to Save You Time, Money and Energy on Your Next Business Trip
