<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"2013 was a great year for productivity. The email problem hasn\u2019t been completely solved, but apps like Mailbox and Dispatch have taken away much of the pain of the task. Meanwhile, we have plenty of choices for calendar and to-do apps that are well-designed, useful and fast.\r\n\r\nHere are 20 of our favorite productivity apps from 2013. If you\u2019ve been putting off optimizing your workflow, download a few of the apps off of this list to help you get a fresh start in the New Year. While not all new in 2013, these all saw notable advancements during the year.\r\n\r\nSee also: 35 of the best productivity and lifehack apps of 2012 and The 40 Must-Have Android Apps for the Power User\r\nEmail\r\nMailbox\r\n\r\nSince launching on the App Store last February, to-do list style email client Mailbox enjoyed a remarkable year. The company\u2019s unique approach to postponing emails in your inbox attracted hundreds of thousands of users to its waiting list in just weeks. It also attracted a buyer: Dropbox.\r\n\r\nThe Dropbox deal helped Mailbox scale up to meet the massive demand for its service. The startup also recently addressed one of the biggest complaints by expanding beyond Gmail to support Yahoo and iCloud accounts.\r\n\r\nWhile you\u2019ll find The Next Web editors using a few different mail clients on their phones, several of us are swiping away our inboxes with Mailbox.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Mailbox for iOS\r\n\r\nThe Swizzle\r\n\r\nPart of the problem with email is that it\u2019s cluttered with junk promotions that you signed up for in the past but never got around to unsubscribing from. The Swizzle scans your inbox and then shows you a list of all the newsletters, promotions and offers that it finds. You can then choose to either unsubscribe from them or bundle them into a daily/weekly Swizzle digest.\r\n\r\nWeeding out the emails you don\u2019t want and aggregating the ones you do could save you hours every week. Meanwhile, Gmail is taking a step in this direction with its Promotions tab, and Unroll.me and Sift could also produce similar results.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 The Swizzle for iOS\r\n\r\nDispatch\r\n\r\nDispatch has a lot of similarities to Mailbox, but it takes the Inbox Zero strategy to an extreme with its TextExpander support and close integration with apps like Chrome, Pocket, Evernote and Skype. The app costs $1.99, but you\u2019ll make it back pretty quickly with all the time you save.\r\n\r\nTNW\u2019s own Jon Russell named Dispatch his favorite app of the year because of its speed and versatility.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Dispatch for iOS\r\n\r\nNext up: To Do lists\r\n\r\n\r\nTo Do\r\nAny.do\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAny.do has been around for a few years now, but we\u2019re big fans of its Moment daily planner feature, which shows you unscheduled tasks and helps you plug them into your routine.\r\n\r\nThe company has intuitively built its app around actual task management needs, making it incredibly streamlined. You can dictate your tasks, set time and location reminders and share lists with others.\r\n\r\nWith the arrival of a sister calendaring app (more on that later) last year, Any.do is pursuing a strategy similar to Evernote by creating a whole suite of standalone apps. As the ecosystem grows, it\u2019s only.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Any.do for iOS | Android | Chrome\r\n\r\nClear\r\n\r\nWith iOS 7\u2019s visual refresh, Clear\u2019s impressive design language and gestures have spread to other apps in the iOS ecosystem, but that doesn\u2019t make it any less beautiful. Its features remain fairly minimalist, but Realmac has been steadily adding in requested options like emailing lists and iCloud integration.\r\n\r\nEven with all the other fancier apps out there, Clear\u2019s still my go-to for quickly creating task, packing and grocery lists.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Clear for iOS | Mac\r\n\r\nAsana\r\n\r\nAsana was a tricky app to categorize, but I ended up putting it under to-do lists because it\u2019s primarily focused on sending tasks between team members. When used with your colleagues, it\u2019s a powerful collaboration tool that lets you schedule and assign tasks across projects.\r\n\r\nEarlier in 2013, Asana arrived on Android and added support for importing Google Drive files. Dropbox support arrived in late 2012.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Asana for iOS | Android\r\n\r\nTodoist\r\n\r\nThough Todoist arrived on the scene in 2007, it took until last November to launch its iPhone and Android apps. With its nested tasks, priorities and color-coding, the app particularly shines when working on a complex project.\r\n\r\n2013 also saw the launch of Todoist\u2019s new Gmail plugin for integrating the service directly into your inbox.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Todoist for iOS | Android | Mac | Windows\r\n\r\nNext up: Calendar apps\r\n\r\n\r\nCalendar\r\nAny.do Cal\r\n\r\nCal, which launched on iPhone in June and then on Android in December, tag teams the main Any.do app with a slick calendar interface. The app simplifies adding events through its smart detail feature.\r\n\r\nWe\u2019ve seen a lot of calendar apps for mobile devices that fail to really give a sense of a day\u2019s schedule. Cal, however, puts your small screen to good use with its clean design and convenient gesture controls.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Any.do Cal for iOS | Android\r\n\r\nFantastical\r\n\r\nWhen Fantastical first arrived on the iPhone in late 2012, we called it a \u201Cbrilliant re-imagining of the purpose of a calendar.\u201D In particular, we loved the way its DayTicker feature hides days when you don\u2019t have appointments.\r\n\r\nIn October, the iPhone app got an overhaul through a paid iOS 7 update version 2 that gave it a new look, landscape mode and additional support for reminders.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Fantastical for Mac | iOS\r\n\r\nSunrise\r\n\r\nSunrise started out as a daily email service, but it really hit its stride with the launch of its iPhone app in February. Started by two Foursquare veterans, Sunrise excels at pulling in and presenting data from third-party services like Google Calendar, Facebook and LinkedIn.\r\n\r\nWith the addition of Foursquare check-in logging in June, Sunrise also got the potential to act as a diary by keeping track of where you\u2019ve been. In October, the app\u2019s iOS 7 redesign made it even more stunning.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Sunrise for iOS\r\n\r\nNext up: Note-taking and Collaboration\r\n\r\n\r\nNote-taking\r\nKeep\r\n\r\nGoogle released its Keep note-taking service for the Web and Android last March. The company rolled out a series of improvements throughout the rest of the year, culminating in a Web app redesign in December. We\u2019ve been pleasantly surprised by Keep, enough so that some of us have switched from Evernote.\r\n\r\nKeep\u2019s feature set is fairly lean, but it\u2019s fast and still has everything you need to jot down short notes and lists. If, like most of us, you\u2019re already invested into Google\u2019s other services, Keep\u2019s worth a look.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Google Keep for Android\r\n\r\nEvernote\r\n\r\nGoogle may be putting some pressure on Evernote with Keep, but the fact remains Evernote is still the obvious choice for extensive cross-platform information collection. Last year saw Evernote set aside its war on paper as it focused on partnering with physical products that connect back to the service or extend its lifestyle branding.\r\n\r\nEarlier in 2013, Evernote did have to reset all user passwords after an intrusion on its network, but the addition of two-factor authentication this fall should help keep your account secure.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Evernote for iOS | Android | Mac | Windows\r\nCollaboration\r\nFlow\r\n\r\nFlow got a massive overhaul this fall that earned our respect. It added a new Workspaces feature that separates different teams into individual spaces. You can still share to subsets of the team through lists, but the workspace is intended for a discrete group of people.\r\n\r\nAndroid users may soon be able to get in on the action, as Flow\u2019s website makes mention of an Android app. We didn\u2019t see a listing on Google Play yet, but presumably it\u2019s coming soon.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Flow for iOS | Mac\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNext up: Documents and Mac Shortcuts\r\n\r\n\r\nDocuments\r\nDropbox\r\n\r\nDropbox relaunched its business service in 2013 with a new solution for juggling both personal and work files. You can now pair a personal account with a corporate one and see two separate tabs from within the Dropbox app.\r\n\r\nIn November, the firm released a \u201Cnew beginning\u201D for its iOS apps while promising that it will \u201Cset the stage for some exciting things\u201D down the road. The new app includes support for AirDrop and a visual refresh that falls in line with iOS 7.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Dropbox for iOS | Android\r\n\r\nBox\r\n\r\nWhile Box seems to have emerged as the other major cloud storage provider next to Dropbox, the company has even bigger ambitions with its new Box Notes product. With its note-taking and document editing features, Box is gearing up to challenge Google Docs and Evernote.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Box for iOS | Android\r\n\r\nNext up:\u00A0Writing\r\n\r\n\r\nWriting\r\niA Writer\u00A0\r\n\r\nWhen it comes to distraction-free writing, iA Writer has no parallel. The app strips everything else away so you can stay productive. Focus Mode tames your compulsive editing by highlighting the sentence you\u2019re working on and receding the rest into the background.\r\n\r\niA recently released the more feature-rich Writer Pro for the Mac and iOS, but response to it has been mixed. It\u2019s designed to divide your writing process into discrete sections: notes, writing, editing and reading, but reviewers have criticized it for lacking enough features to justify its \u201CPro\u201D designation.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 iA Writer for iOS | Mac\r\n\r\nEditorial\r\n\r\nOMZ:Software\u2019s new Editorial app is a beast. It offers in-line previews of Markdown text and supports Python scripts for automating your workflow. Add in Dropbox and TextExpander integration, and you\u2019ve got the most powerful text editor on iOS.\r\n\r\nEditorial is more than I need, but it\u2019s an amazing piece of software for those of you who need the customizability.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Editorial for iOS\r\n\r\nQuip\r\n\r\nFormer Facebook CTO Bret Taylor launched Quip, a collaborative word processor, in July. An Android version arrived in December.\r\n\r\nWhen Quip first came out, we were intrigued by the concept. Subsequent updates have helped flesh out the product with document importing, focus mode, and additional notification settings. You can now import files from Word, Dropbox, Google Drive and Evernote.\r\n\r\nQuip still feels a bit young to rely on solely for document creation, but it\u2019s fresh and has plenty of potential. We\u2019re expecting great things from Quip in 2014.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Quip for iOS | Android\r\n\r\nRelated: The 10 best writing apps on the iPad\r\n\r\nNext up: Reading\r\n\r\n\r\nReading\r\nReadability\r\n\r\nWhile Readability started out as a reformatting service, the company\u2019s transition to apps has been an effective one. We do a lot of reading, and Readability keeps it simple and painless.\r\n\r\nAlso in 2013, Readability launched a Top Reads service for showcasing the most popular content on its service.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Readability for iOS | Android\r\n\r\nPocket\r\n\r\n2013 was a good year for read-it-later app Pocket. The service passed 10 million users in September, up from 7.4 million at the end of 2012.\r\n\r\nIn November, the company bumped up to version 5, adding intelligent features for filtering content. A new Highlights section breaks down your saved reads into categories, such as trending, long reads and quick reads.\r\n\r\nThird-party apps and publishers are also implementing a new Pocket Preferences option that lets you share your Pocket reading preferences with them so they can recommend the best content to you.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Pocket for iOS | Android\r\n\r\nFurther reading: 43 of the best Android apps launched in 2013 and 89 of the best iOS apps launched in 2013\r\n\r\nHeadline image credit: anuphadit / Shutterstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/01/01/20-best-productivity-apps-2013/1/>