Best Apps For Better Productivity, Time Management, And Business In 2025

Let’s face it—there are so many productivity tools out there, but which ones are actually worth your time? In this episode of Not Nice, Clever, we’re breaking down our favorite apps and tech that keep us organized, on track, and (mostly) stress-free, so that you can set yourself up for success in the new year ahead!

From team communication and task management to content scheduling and book takeaways, we’re sharing the tools we love and how we use them in our day-to-day. Whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to streamline your workflow or just someone who loves a good app recommendation, this episode has something for you! Tune in and discover our favorite tools that can help you work smarter, not harder.

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• Not Nice Clever
• Candice Carcioppolo
• Kat Torre

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Productivity Apps
• 2:48 Essential CRM and Project Management Tools
• 5:36 Time-Saving Scheduling and Communication Tools
• 8:46 Content Management and Analytics Tools
• 10:40 Time Tracking and Productivity Insights

Transcript

Hi, I'm Kat, marketer turned brand storyteller. And I'm Candice, educator turned entrepreneur. And you're listening to Not Nice, Clever. As CEOs and leaders, it's your job to always have the answers. But sometimes you need a little help. Leverage, if you will. We get it. This is the place for you. So wherever you're listening, 530 AM Club at the gym, on your way to your next meeting or putting out today's fire, let's get into it.

In today's mini episode, we are giving you the down and dirty rundown of our favorite tech and productivity apps because time is your greatest resource that we haven't yet figured out how to make more of. So we're going to pull back the curtain. These are both web and mobile apps that Candice and I use regularly. They are bookmarked. They are on our home screens, on our iPhones. So if you are struggling with time management, which if you're a human in today's world, you probably are.

This episode is going to be for you. So we're going to give you the whole rundown really quick rapid fire our favorite apps Candice, which one are we starting with? I'm going to start with my real favorite right now, which is folk. Folk is a CRM that I use and it allows me to track my sales pipeline. And this is, guess, another one Zapier. If you use Zapier with folk, for example.

Someone books a call with me on Calendly and there's a zap that goes from Calendly to Folk and puts them in the right position in my Folk where then they're automatically in my CRM because they booked a consultation. And then after the consultation, I can put all the notes there from them and follow up and it's seamless. I never have to go in my CRM and enter them because it's just taking the information.

Calendly to my CRM. It also integrates with LinkedIn and Instagram. So there's an add button. if I connect with someone at a conference and then we connect on LinkedIn, I can click add right next to their name and it'll add them to my CRM automatically. And so I love that about folk and I also kind of mentioned Zapier. So check that one out too. Love it.

Okay, next one that we're sharing, this one specifically for project management, note taking databases collaboration, it's called Notion. So there are so many different project management tools under the sun. I have used all of them from my corporate to agency to now entrepreneurial days, but I love Notion because it just feels like a blank page and it's very lightweight. It's very flexible. It's very customizable. It's super easy.

to share certain pages and views with people who are not like a part of your organization on Notion. So Candice and I have our whole recording studio that notes all of the episodes that we have in Notion. And I have like, you my content calendar in there. I have like my personal, I have my whole life in Notion. So I should probably update my password now that I'm thinking about it. But it's great, super like organizational. I love it for project management. And I have the, the,

desktop app as well as the mobile app on my phone. This next one is an app that think Kat and I both have a love hate relationship with, which is Slack. Slack is such an easy way. It's a necessary easy way to communicate with your team. Kind of like your own private text messaging place or yeah. So

It's great. I definitely use it. We use it for our podcast. We use it at our design studio. We use it with Sell It. So we use Slack everywhere. It's great. It's simple, but it can get noisy if there's a lot of people in there. So that's the only thing. Turn off your notifications in Slack. Yes, use it, but turn off those notifications.

Okay, next app that I love, and this is more for continuing education, right? And learning and honing your skills. It's called Headway. So it is basically an app that gives you the Cliff Notes version slash key takeaways of popular books in audio format in under 15 minutes. So if you are like us, you don't have a whole lot of time or you're already reading a paperback book that you love, but you saw this

book get recommended on a webinar on a podcast episode and you want just like the distilled takeaways. I love starting with headway and seeing if there, if it's in there. And if I like the takeaway shared, then I'll go take the time to read the whole book and get more context and more examples. But that's like my favorite app for just like information downloading when I, I want just like the cogent points. could see myself using that. Like oftentimes I go to conferences and

people speak who have written books. I could see myself using that to see if like, is this along the lines of something I wanna deep dive into? Do I wanna spend an hour in there with this person? I can listen to that and be like, yes, no, figure it out, right? So smart. I could see myself doing that for sure. Love it. I haven't tried that one yet. The next one is Calendly. Y'all, you will save so much time if you can stop texting people back and forth. How about 9.30? Oh, that doesn't work. How about 10.30? How about Tuesday? Okay.

takes so much time. On Calendly, you can actually set your available schedule and allow people to click into Calendly, pick a date and time that works for them, and you'll automatically get that invite on your calendar. And you're available during that time because you've told Calendly when you're available and it sees your calendar. So you'll need Calendly.

It's going to save you so much time going back and forth trying to figure out when is the best time to meet with this person. One quick app recommendation as an extension to that is Calendar Bridge. So if you have an Outlook email calendar or Outlook email inbox and calendar and Google Calendar, Calendar Bridge will put your Outlook events on your Google Calendar for you. It'll automatically sync and update it. So I like that. So if you kind of walk in both worlds like I do, like Candice does,

Um, calendar bridge is a nice add-on to, use with Calendly. Yep. The next one is chat GPT, obviously like Kat and I are in chat GPT all the time. She jokes that she's cat GPT cause you know, she's a copywriter and she's great at it. Um, but y'all chat GPT knows me so well now because I've spent so much time giving it prompts and telling, telling it about me.

that it really can write something in my voice very quickly. So I highly recommend being in chat. GPT make a login so that it does actually remember and know you over time. You'll see a little memory updated, signal that comes on the screen to tell you like, Hey, we're remembering who you are. So now I could just go, Hey, I'm creating this webpage on my design studios website.

already knows that I own a design studio. It already knows who my target audience is. And I know I want to blurb about this, write a blurb and it'll write a blurb. That's 85 % there. Yeah. It's a good start. It's a great start. Such a time-saving tool. Get the paid version. It's like 21 bucks a month. Do it. Do it. Like, do it.

Okay, this one just started using this Fathom. It is an AI tool that takes notes during your Zoom calls. And what I love about it is it takes the notes, timestamps it, and then if you click, it takes you right back to that exact spot in the video where you talk about that thing. But not only does it take notes, like it delegates, it's like, here's the key outcomes for the time.

and it literally puts those at the top and then it breaks down the smaller ones at the bottom and it does it very well. I've seen note takers who where it's just like kind of everything is a bullet point. That's not really helpful. This organizes it in a way that's really useful for you and for your client or whoever's in that meeting. So fathom, check it out. Really good. Love it. This next one is for

content, right? So it's called Metricool, M-E-T-R-I-C-O-O-L. It basically allows you to schedule out your content. It also shows your content analytics. It also has a heat map by profile, so by platform, of when the best time to post is for you and your audience. So instead of just going by what the latest blog or the latest social media report says is the best time to post globally,

Metricle actually takes into account your unique presence and audience. So for those three reasons, I love using it. I've used it for a while. I am currently entertaining another platform, but honestly, like don't struggle from shiny toy object syndrome. This is a great place to start. And I've been using it for over a year. And Metricle has a free version that lets you choose two or three platforms, I believe. like that. Yeah. That lets you post so you can pick LinkedIn and Instagram or

Facebook and Instagram, you get to choose which platforms you want. And there's a free version that lets you pick two or three, and then paid version that lets you pick even more platforms. But I just love having all of my scheduling in one place. And I don't schedule all of my posts, but when I do want to schedule them, that's what I use, Metricle. And the data and analytics are way better than the analytics you see just on Instagram or just on TikTok. You're going to see...

way more in-depth analytics that are really helpful. So check it out. And then this last one, we haven't actually used it, but we heard about it and we're like, oof, that sounds great. It's called Rescue Time. So it's a time tracking tool that helps you understand how you spend your time and identifies areas that you can improve your productivity. So since we're all about that, and I are definitely gonna have to check out Rescue Time and see how that- already Yeah, she's already, she's- I'm gonna sign up for the free trial.

I'm giving them my information. check it out and we'll put links to all of these in the show notes. But like we said, down and dirty, just apps that are going to help you get better.

Thanks for joining us on Not Nice, Clever. Remember to follow Not Nice, Clever wherever you listen to audio. And if you haven't already, drop that five star review. Share your takeaways. Tell us your story. We love to hear it. Signing off, you're not so nice, but so clever besties that mean business. See you soon.