How to Add to Your Day That Extra Hour You Really, Really Need: 15 Apps That Can Help Your food, wardrobe, commute and household needs are generating lots of apps. Are you up on what's available?
By Shivam Joshi Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Entrepreneurs are always running short of time for various reasons. From the moment they wake up until they hit the sack, their to-do list is never ending. Owing to their busy schedules, they often experience burnout. This is what leads them to crave the extra time that might help them lead an effortless, efficient life. Are you one of these time-cravers?
Related: 4 Time-Saving Apps Useful for Every Harried Entrepreneur
Here are some tools, tips and tricks that can help you save an entire hour every day.
Plan your evening meal beforehand.
Preparing and cooking a meal can eat up time, causing frustration -- but not when you've sorted things out beforehand. Use these apps to schedule your meal in advance, and spend the time you've saved in pursuit of other things that need your attention:
MealPlan meal and grocery planner -- Planning meals and groceries is easier than ever with MealPlan. The app's simple interface and features allow you to save a week's worth of planned meals. The app also offers combined search and add boxes, configured meals, quick meal-planning based on past choices, an automatically generated grocery list and more. The app is also integrated with Siri and Apple Watch for easy use.
Eat This Much meal planner -- Entrepreneurs who want to plan meals in a way that lets them watch their calories might want to opt for the Eat This Much meal-planning app. The app puts your diet on autopilot mode; and, based on your diet goals, budget, food preferences and schedule, it prepares an elaborate meal plan. This ncludes the best-known diets, such as the Mediterranean, Atkins, vegan and Paleo, allowing clients diverse food choices. It also allows customers to filter out specific foods or recipes based on allergies and dislikes, and sets the available cooking time for its recommended meals, depending on the schedule users have entered into the app.
Related: Short on Time? Here Are 8 Time-Saving Apps.
Pepperplate Lifestyle - Pepperplate Lifestyle is a great app for those who want to organize meals by the week or month by adding various menus and recipes to their schedule. Complete with shopping assistance, the app offers customers a brilliant option for creating, combining and adding recipes beforehand without stress.
Schedule your outfit for the day.
Some entrepreneurs have found a unique way to avoid decision fatigue: We remember Steve Jobs in his trademark black turtleneck and still see Mark Zuckerberg's range of gray T-shirts. We also see Dean Kamen (founder of Segway) attired in denim shirts and jeans -- always.
But you may have a more diverse fashion vibe. So, if wearing the same clothes/ same kind of clothes every day doesn't quite cut it for you, here are some apps to the rescue:
Closet+ -- Closet+ is a basic app that lets users take snaps of clothes and compile outfits. While it won't work for people who want to experiment a lot with their looks -- since it allows only 50 items of clothing -- it is a great app for entrepreneurs who appreciate a Spartan/minimalist way of dressing.
My Dressing fashion coset -- Building outfits is a breeze with My Dressing. It not only helps entrepreneurs neatly organize their added clothes, but also creates trendy looks so they canlook dapper on a daily basis.
Pureple outfit planner, closet irganizer abd stylist - Style-savvy entrepreneurs need Pureple on their list. The app helps you create a virtual closet, edits items, categorizes outfits and lets you come up with a unique style. It also has an amazing filter that helps reduce the time you have to spend looking for a style or outfit.
Schedule your meetings on the go.
Admit it. Meetings are a waste of precious time not just for busy entrepreneurs, but for anyone. This time sink can be managed, however, when you can conduct those meetings from remote locations, using apps like:
ExplainEverything --The interactive whiteboard, ExplainEverything, can be used to narrate documents, images and drawings as well as annotate and animate them. This collaborative app was originally designed for educators. But it can be used by anyone who wants to invite remote attendees to a meeting on the fly; you need only send a unique code. The ability to create a seamless integration with cloud storage is another feature to look for in the app.
GoToMeeting - GoToMeeting makes participation in video conferences easy and gives users the option to use six webcams. The app is extremely handy to conduct quick presentation, share design mockups or spreadsheets and share files from the cloud. There's a whiteboard and on-screen highlighter for iPad users only.
Onstream Meetings -- This next app on the list contains a wide range of features, such as screen- and document-sharing, polling, shared controls, private chats and the option to add as many as 1000 attendees!
Organize your documents.
A lot of time, effort and energy is spent on organizing docs. But there are plenty of document management apps that lessen the burden. Here's what we'd suggest:
Quip -- Used by Mark Zuckerberg, this is one of the best apps for creating, importing and sharing documents.
Document 6 -- An incredible app, Document 6 can be used to manage various file formats, view them and sync with the cloud.
Remote File Manager --The best part about Remote File Manager is that it can stream remote files to your iOS device sans a file transfer; it also supports a wide array of file types.
Save time on your commute.
Commuting to and from work is another way entrepreneurs end up losing their time. But now, they can easily address the issue with some of the best GPS/map apps, which suggest the shortest routes, help calculate ETA, show traffic conditions, help users plan meetups, get them directions and much more. The top three apps that entrepreneurs need to have on their list are: Inrix, Scout and ETA.
Related: The 15 Best Productivity Apps for Getting Things Done
Use the internet of things.
The internet of things is finally here, as we move on to smart cities, smart cars and smart everything. Although innovations are in order, there's still a long way to go before the IoT becomes mainstream. For the time being, entrepreneurs can use it directly and indirectly via apps such as Stringify, which helps you quickly manage your home and get reminders and traffic reports. Similarly, gadgets with IoT such as Google Home, Prodigio and Solu are great options to manage home and work without wasting time.
