Microsoft

Need to shake up your work routine? Try a productivity app.

There is, put simply, a ton of crap to get done. Keeping track of all of it can be a real nightmare, which is why you may want to set your sights on a productivity app. Increasing your productivity means something different to everyone. Maybe you often feel overwhelmed by the tasks in front of…

There is, put simply, a ton of crap to get done. Keeping track of all of it can be a real nightmare, which is why you may want to set your sights on a productivity app.

Increasing your productivity means something different to everyone. Maybe you often feel overwhelmed by the tasks in front of you and want a way to sort them into categories. Maybe you want a to-do list that’s better than a Google Doc. Maybe you want to split tasks into smaller, more manageable goals: a method that makes big projects seem less daunting and can also Speaking of distractions, maybe you want to decrease the time you spend scrolling through social media during the workday and increase the time you spend working. 

Whatever your needs, there’s likely a productivity app that’ll give you a little boost — or at least some insights into your current behavior.

What is a productivity app?

For the purposes of this list, we’re defining productivity apps as tools to help individuals spend their time according to their own priorities, whether those are work-related, hobby-related, or just a general decrease in social media use or screen time. There are also productivity apps available for business use — even versions of some of the tools on this list! — but we focus on personal productivity options here.

Most of the options on this list are available for iOS, Android, and desktop. Only one — Stayfocusd — is a browser extension; the rest are downloadable apps. Our top productivity tool, Todoist, is cloud-based, which means it syncs across multiple devices. If you work across several operating systems or expect to switch frequently between a desktop app and a mobile app, this might be a good option for you.

Free versions vs. premium versions

While the “21 days to form a habit” thing is , it does take time to get used to new practices — and to figure out what actually works and what you’re just honeymooning with. 

With that in mind, we generally recommend starting with the free version of your tool of choice for a month or so, then moving up to the premium version if it has features that you feel would improve your experience. 

Some tools on this list, like the list-making tool Do!, require a one-time purchase to get rid of ads. That’s generally worth it. Ads are extremely annoying (and not good, we surmise, for productivity). 

It’s important to note that even the best productivity apps are not an instant panacea for all your work-related problems. Even the tools you’ll end up liking will probably require troubleshooting and tweaks along the way as you figure out your ideal workflow. Give it time. And don’t forget to take breaks, hydrate, and prioritize sleep — you can’t app your way out of basic needs.

Here are our picks for the best productivity apps.

Best overall

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Image: Doist Inc

The Good

Streamlined UX • Cloud-based • Premium version is fairly affordable

The Bad

Limited to 80 projects in free version

The Bottom Line

Both the free and premium versions of Todoist are great for time management, but the premium version will get you a smorgasbord of features.

1. Todoist

Todoist is the mother of all to-do list apps, with plenty of features to play with in the premium version.

  • Free version: Yes
  • Premium version (paid monthly): $4 per month
  • Premium version (paid annually): $3 per month
See Details

Todoist is a task management powerhouse. It requires a bit more effort than list app Do! (also featured on this list), but will reward you with an efficient, streamlined way to organize all your tasks — and far fewer excuses to waste time.
Reviewers praise the productivity app for its clean look and ease of use, as well as its ability to sync between devices and apps. “It’s easy to navigate and use and the fact that it works on all my devices and syncs the creation and completion of the tasks is one of the things that helps make it a must have app!” writes one App Store reviewer. “I have been using it for a few weeks and find myself appreciating the native features that makes entering tasks a breeze.”
The first tier of Todoist is free, but a premium account costs $36 per year (billed annually) or $48 per year (billed monthly). In the premium version, users can invite other users to collaborate on tasks, set reminders, and write comments, among other things. If you’re new to the tool, we recommend using the free version for a while, then bumping yourself up a level if you love it. For the number of features you get, it seems to be a pretty good value.
Plenty of people use Todoist in conjunction with Getting Things Done, a book and task management system by consultant David Allen. If you’re struggling to make sense of the tool, consider approaching it from that angle.

Best website blocker

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Image: Stayfocusd

The Good

Easy to use • Useful “nuclear option” feature • Highly customizable

The Bad

Can’t set time limits for individual websites • Only works on Google Chrome

The Bottom Line

Though it does have limitations, Stayfocusd is a solid website blocker for the good-faith procrastinator.

2. Stayfocusd

Perusing r/relationships instead of working? Stayfocusd will help you stay off distracting social media and on top of your actual tasks.

  • Free version: Yes
$0 from Chrome Web Store

If your main barriers to productivity are social media doom-scrolling and Wikipedia holes, you may want to block your access to those activities entirely. The classic option for this is the Chrome extension Stayfocusd, which limits the amount of time you can spend on distracting websites. After the time limit you set is it up, you won’t be able to access the websites on your list. Don’t want to block all of YouTube? You can also block more focused destinations, like channels, subdomains, and individual webpages.
What sets Stayfocusd apart is its “Nuclear Option” feature, which lets you block a website for a certain amount of time regardless of the hours you’ve selected for unobstructed browsing. It’s called the Nuclear Option because it’s irreversible — once Twitter is blocked for 24 hours, it’s blocked. There’s no getting around it.
Otherwise, Stayfocusd’s major downside is that it’s easily overridden. It only works in Chrome, so if you really want to give into distractions, all you have to do is open another browser. But you’d never do that. We have faith in you.

Best for accountability

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Image: FOrest

The Good

Fun premise • Effective motiva

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Microsoft

Arkane Founder: ‘I Think Game Pass is Unsustainable’

The founder and former president of Arkane Studios Raphaël Colantonio, who left in 2019, took to social media weighing on the huge Microsoft and Xbox layoffs. “Why is no-one talking about the elephant in the room? Cough cough (Gamepass),” said Colantonio (spotted by VideoGamesChronicle). He added…

The founder and former president of Arkane Studios Raphaël Colantonio, who left in 2019, took to social media weighing on the huge Microsoft and Xbox layoffs.
“Why is no-one talking about the elephant in the room? Cough cough (Gamepass),” said Colantonio (spotted by VideoGamesChronicle).
He added…
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Microsoft

In the Wake of Xbox Layoffs, Founder of Dishonored and Prey Dev Arkane Slams Game Pass: ‘Why Is No-One Talking About the Elephant in the Room?’

Hot on the heels of the layoffs that have swept through Xbox, the founder of Microsoft-owned Arkane Studios has hit out at Game Pass, whose subscription model he called “unsustainable.” Raphael Colantonio, who founded the Dishonored and Prey developer and served as its president before leaving in 2017 to start Weird West maker WolfEye Studios

Hot on the heels of the layoffs that have swept through Xbox, the founder of Microsoft-owned Arkane Studios has hit out at Game Pass, whose subscription model he called “unsustainable.”

Raphael Colantonio, who founded the Dishonored and Prey developer and served as its president before leaving in 2017 to start Weird West maker WolfEye Studios, took to social media to ask: “Why is no-one talking about the elephant in the room? Cough cough (Gamepass).”

When asked to expand on his thoughts on Game Pass, which Weird West launched straight into as a day one title in March 2022, Colantonio said: “I think Gamepass is an unsustainable model that has been increasingly damaging the industry for a decade, subsidized by MS’s ‘infinite money,’ but at some point reality has to hit. I don’t think GP can co-exist with other models, they’ll either kill everyone else, or give up.”

Colantonio’s comment sparked a vociferous debate about the pros and cons of Game Pass in industry terms as well as for the customer. Microsoft’s subscription service has been called many things over the years: the death of the video game industry; the savior of smaller developers who benefit greatly from payments made by Microsoft to secure their games; and everything in between. During the great Xbox FTC trial to decide the fate of Microsoft’s $69 billion aquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, then PlayStation boss Jim Ryan claimed that he had talked to “all the publishers” and that, unanimously, they all hated Game Pass “because it is value destructive.” He also said Microsoft “appears to be losing a lot of money on it.”

Back in 2021, Xbox boss Phil Spencer countered Game Pass doomsayers, saying: “I know there’s a lot of people that like to write [that] we’re burning cash right now for some future pot of gold at the end. No. Game Pass is very, very sustainable right now as it sits. And it continues to grow.”

That was four years ago. What about now, in the wake of cuts that have seen Rare’s Everwild, the Perfect Dark reboot, and an unannounced MMO in the works at developer behind The Elder Scrolls Online all canceled?

Colantonio’s comments were backed by a number of industry peers, including the former VP of biz dev at Epic Games. Michael Douse, publishing director at Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian, said that the biggest concern right now revolves around what happens when all that money runs out. This, Douse added, is “one of the main economic reasons people I know haven’t shifted to its business model. The infinite money thing never made any sense.”

(It’s worth noting that Baldur’s Gate 3 has so far not launched in Game Pass or PlayStation Plus.)

Colantonio then ridiculed Microsoft’s insistence that launching games into Game Pass did not impact sales, only to later admit the contrary.

Douse responded to to say he prefers the Sony way of doing things. Sony’s PlayStation Plus policy is to keep first-party games off the subscription service at launch, only adding them some time later. That’s why you won’t see this year’s Sony’s Ghost of Yotei launch straight into PS Plus, but you will see Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 as a day one Game Pass launch.

“The economics never made sense, but at the same

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Microsoft

Microsoft denies shutting down operations in China

Microsoft China denied it would cease operations in the country, after a screenshot of an internal email from Wicresoft, a Microsoft outsourcing partner, fueled speculation about a potential exit. On Monday, several employees of Wicresoft shared screenshots of layoff emails on social media. The email cites geopolitical tensions and shifts in the global business landscape

Microsoft China denied it would cease operations in the country, after a screenshot of an internal email from Wicresoft, a Microsoft outsourcing partner, fueled speculation about a potential exit. On Monday, several employees of Wicresoft shared screenshots of layoff emails on social media. The email cites geopolitical tensions and shifts in the global business landscape [……
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Microsoft

Fake Microsoft Office add-in tools push malware via SourceForge

Threat actors are abusing SourceForge to distribute fake Microsoft add-ins that install malware on victims’ computers to both mine and steal cryptocurrency. …

Threat actors are abusing SourceForge to distribute fake Microsoft add-ins that install malware on victims’ computers to both mine and steal cryptocurrency. …
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