Mar 25, 2020 With these Mac apps for focus, you should be able to concentrate more on your work and less on your distractions. And if you’re looking for a simple work timer instead, check out our list of the best focus timers for Mac. Do you use one of the great apps already or is there a different free, focus app for Mac you’d like to recommend? These apps can help with your routine tasks such as file management, making lists and note taking, and password management, so that you spend less time in these tasks and have more time for important work. Best Mac Productivity Apps. Below are our picks for the must-have productivity apps for Mac. How many of these do you use in day-to-day.

1. What Makes For the Best Productivity Apps? Beyond productivity tips, there are dozens of productivity apps to choose from too. With that in mind, here are some of the core aspects of ideal productivity apps that have formed this list. Non-intrusive – you want a productivity app to weave seamlessly into your workflow and not cause disruptions.
2. In researching the best free apps for the Mac, I started by using Apple's category list. This makes it easier to cover the wide variety of content available. If an app is on the Mac App Store, it is in one of the 21 categories that Apple has listed.

Whether you’re a professional or not, time is everything. It’s great that we now have timer apps that easily manage time. Recently, we had covered the best Apple Watch Timer Apps. Most of those apps offered a built-in tool for the timer. This time, however, we are focusing on timer apps for Mac in general. You will find options from categories like Task timer apps, Pomodoro Timer apps, Countdown timer apps, etc. We have also included Reminder timers and some time-tracker timers for freelancers.

Read: Top 10 Free macOS Apps to Boost Your Productivity

Best Timer Apps for Mac

21 best productivity apps for Mac. Clockify – time tracker and timesheet app. Clockify is a free time tracker and timesheet app that lets you track time while working on tasks,. MindNode – visual brainstorming app.

1. Focus Booster

Category: Pomodoro Timer

focus booster is an incredibly simpler Pomodoro timer app for Mac. However, despite the simple interface, Focus Booster lets you customize things like the length of the session, break duration, etc. You can also sign in to an account and sync time-tracking data between your macOS, iPhone, and Android.

Nevertheless, we wished there was a menu-bar icon for the app. You will have to open the app to know how much time you have left. Also, Focus Booster does not let you add multiple tasks at once. On the bright side, you can have the better workflow, thanks to multi-platform apps.

The app is free, but it does come with some limitation, for instance, advanced analytics are web-only, and the limited number of sessions (20) in the free version

Overall, Focus Booster is the best choice if you need a simple Pomodoro timer with analytics. It’s useful when you have multiple clients and want to track time.

Check Out focus booster (Freemium, $2.99/month)

2. Pomotodo

Category: Pomodoro Timer

Pomotodo, as the name suggests, combines an excellent Pomodoro timer and a task-management list. You can add tasks to the simple interface and also start the Pomodoro timer. However, both these things aren’t integrated i.e. you cannot run the timer for a specific task.

However, when the timer is running, you can mark the tasks complete. Pomotodo has options like Analytics, Stats, Goals, and History. You can go to Preferences and customize the way this timer app works. In addition, Pomotodo also brings multi-device sync and a fully-fledged time management system.

Pomotodo is more than a simple Mac timer app. It offers ample options for time management as well as Pomodoro technique use.

Color picker for mac os. Check Out Pomotodo (Free, Pro starts at $2.9/month)

3. WaitingList

Category: Countdown Timer

WaitingList does exactly what its name says. It lets you create amazing countdown timers that you can find in the menu bar. Just click on the WaitingList icon and there will be a list of things that you’re waiting for. As opposed to other apps, WaitingList prioritizes visual appeal over anything.

The point is that you can create eye-pleasing countdowns easily. WaitingList lets you choose the style as well as the background. You can also get reminders about an approaching event. Last but not the least, the app offers iCloud Sync feature as well.

WaitingList is an awesome choice when you need interactive timers and reminders. It’s a count-down app that makes your events look more exciting.

Best Work Apps For Mac Desktop

Check Out WaitingList ($4.99)

4. Timer for Mac

Category: Countdown Timer

Timer for Mac is a general timer app but works awesome for almost all needs. You can use this app to set a stopwatch timer, normal timer or alarms. It also offers a section named Clock, where you can see the current time.

In the free version, you can set reminders along with actions. It focuses on accuracy and ease of use, but an awesome set of features are also there. Going Pro, Timer for Mac can bring you full-screen mode, a better set of programmed actions, etc.

Timer for Mac does many jobs beautifully when you need to set a timer. That having said, you’d need the Pro version if you need some awesome features listed above.

Check Out Timer for Mac (Free, Pro at $29.95)

5. Time Out

Category: Reminder Timer

It’s very important to take frequent breaks — for your health and productivity. Time Out for Mac allows you to run a timer to remind you. When it’s time for the break, Time Out will show you a full-screen message on the Mac screen.

While setting up Time Out, you can decide the desired amount of breaks. You also get features like Micro Breaks and advanced scheduling. Customization is the key of this timer app. From the time to how take-a-break messages are shown, everything can be changed.

Overall, Time Out is the best companion for those who spend hours in front of the PC. It lets you take a break without compromising productivity. Don’t forget to come back on time, though.

Check Out Time Out (Free)

6. Stand for Mac

Category: Reminder Timer

Stand for Mac is a wonderful Mac timer app for all users. It reminds you to stand up once in a while. The app does not come with any bells or whistles. Instead, you can decide how often you want to be notified about standing up.

The idea of Stand for Mac is amazing indeed. The app does not have a fully-fledged window but Preferences are available from the icon menu. Stand for Mac also plays a sound when it’s time to stand up, but further customization isn’t available.

Pros: Extremely simple and straightforward, no complex set-ups

Cons: None

The Verdict: If you think you have an unhealthy lifestyle of sitting all the time, use Stand for Mac. It comes at no cost, which is great.

Check Out Stand for Mac (Free)

7. Cooking Timer

Category: Kitchen Timer

Cooking Timer is an awesome Mac timer app for chefs out there. It’s pretty simple to use if you’re into some BBQ events or some other cooking. Cooking Timer lets you run three timers at the same time. You can make use of them for different needs.

Coming to the timers, you can use them as Stopwatches or timers itself. In the latter case, choose the desired length from the menu. The single-tap technique makes it easy to manage the timers so that you can focus on what’s being prepared.

Best Work Apps For Macbook

Cooking Timer is the simplest solution out there, for all the good reasons. You can use this timer without concerns when you want to focus on the cooking process.

Check Out Cooking Timer (Free)

8. Timing

Category: Time Tracker for Freelancers

Timing is a wonderful time-tracking app for Mac. Compared to the competitors, Timing is automated when it comes to actions. You don’t have to press the Start or Stop buttons. Instead, Timing app will observe and analyze where you are spending most of your time.

At the end of the day, Timing provides a proper report of time consumption. If you are a professional, you can use this data to create invoices and reports. The best part is that you can automate this process too. It’s going to let you set up some rules for report generation.

Timing for Mac is perhaps the best time-tracker for almost every freelancer. You cannot use the app for normal countdown or anything, but the time-tracking part is excellent.

Check Out Timing ($29 for Productivity, $49 for Professional and $79 for Expert)

9. Horo

Category: Time Tracker for Freelancers

Yet another extremely minimal timer app that won’t even make you feel its presence. No extra features than the exact job it needs to execute. The app is available on the macOS App Store and takes a few seconds to get installed. The app is so light on the system that even summoning Siri to know weather updates might take more space on the RAM.

Once installed, you’ll see the ‘hourglass’ shaped app icon on the menu bar. Click on the icon to reveal the tiny app interface wherein you just insert the time and press the play button. That’s it, the timer will start on the count-down display is visible on the menu bar.

The good part about the app is that you can continue with other tasks while the timer would still be visible on the menu bar. And even if you work in full screen it had you covered. It plays a tone upon finishing. You can even change the tone and set a timer creation shortcut in a premium version which doesn’t cost as much.

Best Mac Os Apps

Download Horo (Free, $2 for full version)

Timer Apps for Mac

Best Work Apps For Mac Os

The 10 Mac timer apps we have covered are made for unique needs. As it happens, you cannot fulfill all your needs with a single app. For instance, hr, our pick for task management, would be less useful if you need to get reminders on time. In that case, you should go for something like Time Out. By the way, do let us know which tool do you use for timers and time-tracking.

Related: Quickest Ways to Set a Timer on your iPhone?

Accomplishing a large volume of tasks while trying to stay on schedule requires not only good time management skills but also excellent tools to support you. That’s why it’ll be of great help to know and utilize the best productivity apps for Mac. The apps we review below will contribute to your performance, help you better concentrate on your work and maximize your results.

Indispensable Productivity Apps for Mac

Everhour

💡Best for: time tracking, project management, budgeting, reporting

If you are looking for new tool that would skyrocket your performance, save your time, and make payroll a breeze, look no further than Everhour. It is a complete time management tool that’s always just one click away, directly in your Safari browser.

Everhour can be easily integrated with the most popular project management tools, including Asana, Trello, Basecamp, Jira, GitHub and ClickUp. You can try it free today or book a demo — no strings attached!

MindNode

💡Best for: brainstorming and capturing your thoughts

MindNode is a productivity app for Mac designed for thinkers. If you are a person who comes up with thousands of ideas every day, this application is for you! It’s an excellent tool to capture thoughts that you want to come back to later.

In this app, you can store all your thoughts differently: through images, notes, words, or links. In addition, you will be able to organize everything hierarchically through mind maps or diagrams.

MindNode offers its users the option of customizing each mind map with stickers and custom designs. You can also export to text files and many visual formats.

Magnet

💡Best for: keeping your workspace organized

It’s not common these days to have to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. This can be confusing and stressful at times. With so many windows and applications open at the same time, it’s easier to make mistakes.

Magnet came to Mac to solve all these problems! This app has the function of proportionally organizing the windows you need in the dimensions of the screen.

The spacing dimensions vary according to the lengths of the monitor. It could separate the screen from 3 sections in the smallest screens and up to 6 ultra-wide ones. Magnet also offers its users different keyboard shortcuts for the various commands. In the menu bar, the default sets of shortcuts will appear along with the option to customize it to your liking.

1Password

💡Best for: keeping your passwords safe

1Password is another tool that definitely couldn’t be missing from this list of Mac productivity applications. This is a perfect option if you are forgetful or manage a lot of passwords.

This app aims to remind you of your passwords and safeguards them behind a password you will give yourself. After registering your passwords, in this same application, you can quickly access your user profiles on websites or other applications.

Business Insider considered 1Password to be one of the 100 best apps in the world. With 1Password, you can:

• Store information in different categories and find things faster.
• Create labels to organize information.
• Implement Spotlight to have data insight.
• Deploy and create vaults to further safeguard your data.

Top Apps For Productivity

Grammarly

💡Best for: grammar and spell check

If you ever write reports, emails, articles — well, basically, anything — Grammarly is the perfect complement. This app corrects grammatical errors on the fly and improves different aspects of the text, ensuring that your writing is flawless. You’ll get:

• Smart grammar and spelling check.
• Varieties of synonyms for words.
• Self-correction.
• Tone detection, and more.

Best Mac Apps to Streamline Your Processes

Spark Mail

💡Best for: loving your inbox again

Usually, working with emails is very tedious (yes, boring, too). However, Spark Mail came to improve the experience of working with your emails tremendously.

Mainly it is worth mentioning that the features of this tool are simple, yet deep and interactive. One of the key features is Smart Inbox that allows you to focus on the most important emails and skip the noise. On the other hand, with Shared Inboxes, you will be able to handle your inbox together with multiple people. You will be able to create and write collaborative emails with other users in real-time!

What else is there? You can now schedule, snooze, group, label, organize your emails, invite teammates to discuss specific threads and more!

Bear

💡Best for: private markdown notes

Although simple, Bear is undoubtedly one of the best Mac productivity applications. Although taking notes and organizing ideas is a fairly straightforward activity, it almost always gets complicated. Bear is a note-taking application designed to simplify and organize your ideas in texts, images, and even drawings.

One of the main things that stands out about this application is how beautiful and dynamic it is. In fact, it was the winner of the 2017 Apple Design Award.

Use Tags to easily pull up any note; customize notes with themes; organize notes quickly and share anywhere. Needless to say, the security of your information will not be a problem, since you protect your notes with encryption.

PDFelement

💡Best for: PDF file editing

PDFelement is a professional PDF file editing tool that will make things easier for you. PDFs are by default read-only documents. Sometimes we have to take the trouble and convert these into another format to work with. PDFelement is perfect for solving this problem since you can work directly with the original document.

The app allows you to change the size, color, and type of fonts in the document and makes it possible to cut, paste, delete or move lines and paragraphs.

Furthermore, there are options available to highlight and underline any information. It supports converting the document to another format without generating alterations that affect the context of the theme.

CloudApp

💡Best for: advanced screen capturing and recording

CloudApp facilitates capturing and sharing annotated screenshots and screen recordings, tremendously improving visual communication in digital work settings. When being in meetings, interviews, or virtual classes, it is very common for multimedia files to be difficult to share.

CloudApp has features that prevent these difficulties from occurring. It is a tool that stores files in the cloud to be easily sharable through a link. Also, it works to record and capture the screen easily. Once you stop the recording, you can upload it to the CloudApp online server to use or share later.

The interface of this application is extremely easy to use. Once installed, access to it will be in your menu bar.

Alfred

💡Best for: creating customized keyboard shortcuts

Alfred is one of the best productivity apps for Mac as it helps you streamline your work via the keyboard shortcuts. With this tool, you will start, close, and search for different apps and windows at lightning speed.

The most impressive thing about this tool is that it presents incredibly diverse features that will let you save time performing a range of tasks. Some of these are:

• Application Launcher: helps you move faster between the different windows and applications on your Mac.
• Search your Mac: enables you to quickly access files, music, applications.
• Search the web: you can open your favorite websites through shortcuts.
• System Commands: allows you to control your Mac with speed and efficiency. Restart, shut down, eject a drive and more via keyboard commands.

Once you have installed this tool on your Mac, the first thing you will be asked to do is to set up your own commands. Streamline your work, add speed and efficiency, and never look back!

Todoist

💡Best for: developing new habits

This is another application that helps you plan your daily activities and also stick to your commitments. The main goal is to create better habits in your life, so you become much more productive daily.

Organize or enter tasks quickly and also choose if you want the app to remind you about them. With Boards, you will get a better organization of projects and prioritize the most urgent tasks. One of the best features is Productivity. Use it to keep track of your daily progress.

Free Productivity Apps

Inside Todoist, you can collaborate with other users on personal or business projects – a feature making it one of the most essential and complete Mac productivity apps.

Microsoft To Do

💡Best for: task management

Microsoft To-Do is a handy tool for those who perform lots of different activities daily. Mainly, what this app offers is that you can better distribute your time between tasks.

In essence, it’s a task manager. Here you can create a daily planner and different activity lists. The benefits that Microsoft To-Do offers its users are:

• A suggested and scheduled task planner called “My Day.”
• Customizable lists.
• Notes.
• Alarms and reminders.
• Invoice planner.
• Calendars for labor issues.

Additionally, the app offers the functionality to share your information with other users of your choice, as well as they can also share their information with you.

Apps for Creativity and Stress Relief

White Noise Lite

💡Best for: minimizing distractions

White Noise Lite is a great application designed to help reduce stress levels. This app’s main function is to relax users through a range of varied sounds and minimize noise around them – both literally and metaphorically.

You can use this tool in different scenarios. The annoying sounds of instruments, traffic, ambulances, and others, will no longer be a problem for you. White Noise Lite takes care of covering them, so you don’t hear them and don’t get distracted.

Are you one of those who finds it difficult to sleep? Do you have a baby at home who wakes up easily when taking naps? With this app, you can control these inconveniences, so it goes beyond being an exclusive tool for work.

White Noise Lite’s catalog of tunes ranges from beach waves, wind blowing, and 40 others. In addition, you will also be able to combine different sounds simultaneously to make the experience even more relaxing.

Apple Productivity Apps

Skitch

💡Best for: visually sharing your thoughts

If you are someone who loves to share thoughts, ideas, places where you go, and more, you should try Skitch. This software performs multiple functions. It doesn’t really have a specific use, but it’s an amazing app for a variety of tasks.

With Skitch, you can capture, mark and share photos and other visuals. Essentially, you will have the functionality to capture and mark up literally any visual materials you come across in your work, leisure, and passion projects. This app also allows its users to open PDF documents, create highlights and comment on them for better collaboration – a hot feature for those of us working remotely!

Ulysses

💡Best for: focused writing experience

Writers of any kind have got to try Ulysses! With the design so simple and easy on the eye, users can truly focus on what they write.

One of the best parts of Ulysses is that when writing, you don’t have to worry about saving the document. The app saves your work automatically as you write, allowing you to immerse yourself exclusively in what you are doing. It also has a built-in proofreader and editing assistant to detect possible errors or inconsistencies in the text.

Thanks to the flexible export feature, you can create eBooks, export in all common text formats, or publish directly to WordPress, Medium, or Ghost.

Pocket

💡Best for: saving great content for later

Pocket is the perfect option to save information that interests you from any application or website. With this application, you can work, study or do the things you want at the time you prefer. Enjoy the freedom to store all topics that interest you of any kind (articles, notes, videos, news, and others).

It has a series of characteristics and peculiarities that make users choose it over other apps. You may store digital content to watch anytime later, even when you are offline. Also, it’s friendly with your eyes due to its design and customizable screen. For example, you can change the font and its size if you dislike the publisher’s original settings. In addition, Pocket allows you to listen to the articles if you do not want to read them!

Mac Productivity Apps: In Closing

We hope that this list of best productivity apps for Mac has helped you to find some handy tools to improve your time management, increase your efficiency, and boost your creativity. For a deeper dive into the topic of handy apps, take a look at our roundups of best timesheet apps and best project management tools.

Best Programs For Mac

All-in-one time management system for your team

Estimate tasks, set budgets, customize reports – direct in your project management tool. Asana · Trello · Basecamp · Jira · GitHub