Listen parsimoniously to what people praise about an app instead, focus on your needs. If one boosts about the fantastic results he obtained within a short time frame, it is impressive. However, it might not work as expected for you. If it solves your problems, with your skills, in the scope of your passions and beloved activities, then you can be productive and fruitful.
An app cannot get you motivated
Never expect an app to get you motivated, you won't be productive for a long time. At the beginning you may feel some excitement but this is not going to last forever. Your motivation can fade away at the sight of your first bigger challenge.
To stay motivated, understand and work on your emotions and feelings. Setting an ambitious goal gives us a strong and refreshing energy. As opposite, fear, the routine or the long road may extinguish your motivation and productivity.
Know what you can and cannot do
There are things you love to do and you are good at it. You may be interested by some tasks but you don't have developed your skills yet. Finally there is this list of things you don't care about.
In life, there are things we love to do but they do not offer us the results and the productivity we want. Often, you need to improve you skills to get better results. Unfortunately, there are things that we don't like to do but have to because it is the only way to get the job done.
Nevertheless, you should always ask yourself to see whether you should do or not what you work on at the moment. In case the task is necessary, can you simplify or improve it ?
An app does not do your job
Yes it executes a task. Yes if you are the first one to use a new app you is going to make your more productive over your competitors and the job will be executed for you... for a while. As soon as your competitors get access to a similar technology, the expectation on the market will change. It is going to be necessary for you to change your process again to keep up with your productivity.
An app can make you appear more professional, save you some money and time, make you more competitive. This may lead you to more benefit but it does not do the job for you, it changes it.
My point is, even if your goal is to be very successful in a short period of time, you may not end up well from the beginning. You might not access the list of the very few people who reached the top overnight. Be prepared for hard work and long battles, although you should love what you do.
An app is a tool in your hands
Think this way : I will solve my problem with this app instead of this app will solve (all) my problem(s).
You should know your tasks, be completely aware of the process. Better is for you to execute the task by hand before using an app. This way you keep control instead of giving it up to an app thinking it is going to fix all your problems.
An app is useful to improve a process that you often do. The reason is that you know exactly where you can save time, money, be more productive or professional.
This way of thinking is going to lead you to choose an app that will really improve your work and productivity. It will help you decide which one is the best and prevent you from buying anything not so useful. Even though an app sounds great and the design is appealing, it is not enough to purchase it.
The interest of your business first
There are three main axes that you need to work on : communication, core business and organization. Each of them include many subcategories but let us focus on the overall strategy. You should use apps that are going to help you move towards your business mission on all three axes. A good balance for more productivity.
Even if one of them is not your call, it should be done. If no one else can do it, you are under the spotlight. Remember, an app cannot do the job for you, so find a way to love and learn.
The communication axe
It includes marketing, advertisement, public relations, internal communication. What do you want to communicate about your mission ?
The core business axe
This is what you do, what your business is about. What do you do to solve your customers' problems ?
The organization axe
How do you organize your work, what is the architecture of your company ? What are your ressources and how do you allocate them ?
Learn how to use the app
Some apps are very straightforward and easy to use. In a little while you will take full advantage of them and be productive. We all love those apps and hope that all of them are going to be like that. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, some apps are definitely too complicated, avoid them.
However, some actually need a new way of thinking. For instance, the first time you sent an email your logic has been challenged. The concept of recipient, subject and message was probably clear. But how is it sent ? Where can I buy a stamp ? How can I add my real signature ? Are people going to receive and read it ? Can I use an email as evidence in a court ?
As soon as you have made your choice for an app, take the time to understand the logic behind. Ask the community around and verify if your process needs to be improved with what your are learning.
Continuous progress
Keep learning and improving your work, you may find new problems in your process. Some of your apps may have already addressed one of those problems and you did not know about. There is no end to creativity and learning. If it is your mind set, it should prevent you from falling asleep on the way and lead you to more productivity.
Along the path, be proud of what you have accomplished and rejoice about what you have done. That is another key to not losing track and stay productive.
Conclusion
We love apps so much but we love them even more when they are really useful and we can get the best out of them. For this reason, we believe that a clear understanding of our needs and ourselves is the best way to take advantage of the new technologies. We wish you to be more productive with your apps !