I consider myself the keeper of good apps. Due to my compulsive nature I buy apps like crazy in a quest for the best…to make my time and tasks more manageable. I am in love with organization.  If I had it my way everything in my life would be organized structured and controlled by routines…I know that is not realistic.  At this point in time I have 566 apps (iPhone, iPod, iPad) of which 216 are in use. I won’t give you a list of 216 apps but I will touch on my most used, because I actually use every last one of them (except the games they’re to entertain the kids). They are organized by importance & convenience, the first and second screens are used on a minute, hour, and daily basis.

As soon as my alarm wakes me up I go straight to my e-mails. Then review my calendar to see whats on schedule for the day. Depending on my schedule I go into Omni Focus where tasks are usually broken down into steps. Omni Focus does just that, it keeps me focused so I can complete a project instead of being distracted by the millions of things that surround me. If you count how many times you get interrupted or distracted while trying to finish a project then equate a value to your time you have just lost some serious money.  BillMinder lets me know who’s digging in my purse for the upcoming week. While PocketMoney keeps me on track. It is a personal pet peeve of mine when people don’t keep check book registers. After being in the finance industry for over a decade I know that a register can be your best friend. In today’s day and age where people just swipe cards and don’t keep receipts it’s important to record your spending habits. Know where your money goes and where your balance is.  It’s also a great tool to teach your kids about budgets and spending.

Then comes some non mandatory morning apps like 1Password. This app speaks for itself, who can keep up with all the password requirements today? You can’t even make passwords the same anymore. They all have to be different with an upper case letter, character, and numbers. A new trend is making password phrases. I will never remember this password so let me write it down, iwnrtpslmwid *ta-da*!  Yeah they make an app for that! Then onto my beloved HootSuite, I love having all my social media networks in one place. In the picture below you see the twitter icon which has been recently been replace with google+. I’m still getting into that, not quite there yet.  Then my Bible, yes Jesus makes my to do list. I’m sure he’s not offended by me giving my devotionals a reminder because that’s just the kind of relationship we have.

After some daily personal and motherly duties we visit screen two. Here my commonly used apps are Ego, KloutScore, Pinterest, Meetup, Get Glue and LinkedIn, all my social media must haves to capture an audience (it’s a work in progress). Then my reads folder has Instapaper, Tech Junkie and TimeMobile which I read everyday to tweet the stories I am most interested in and find worth sharing. In Photo I use PSExpress. This app is the best thing since penny candy, I can quickly update any photo and add it to twitter or Facebook. My favorite tool is soft focus. Health & Fitness has PillReminder. Who can always remember to take their vitamins? I never do. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit, well the exception to that rule is when taking your vitamins. In reference I use Rogert’s Thesaurus and the American Heritage Dictionary the most.

Now my business folder has some great applications some cost money but are well worth it. Billings which has a Mac version you can sync to is great for keeping up with client listings and creating invoices. RingCentral is an application for a monthly service that allows you to get a toll free or local number with a professional auto receptionist and internet fax ($9.99). I use the service for faxing. If you think about the trouble you have with always accessing a fax machine or if you have a separate fax line think about the cost involved, this makes great sense. Simply scan your document and e-mail it to the fax number using your RingCentral service. My iPhone is literally my virtual office.

Productivity has Listnomi which holds all my movie must sees and… my bucket list! Also the app Mooch! lists people that borrow stuff from me, so I can remember to get it back. Namely my niece who enjoys reading books from my extensive library. Key Ring has all of my store reward cards saved as bar codes, that actually work.  Coupons is self explanatory and Grocery G is like the grocery list app from heaven. It’s an organizers dream come true. I have all my grocery and household items stored in here so I just make my list by clicking a button. It also is a great way to stay on track and not impulse buy.

My last screen is not so important but still useful. One of my commonly used apps is GasCubby. I hate this app because it is a painful reminder that I drive a gas guzzler and that my carbon footprint is massive while my wallet dwindles every trip I make to the gas pump. Right next to that painful app is Go Green a folder that contains apps for reducing my carbon footprint. Call it counterbalance! In resource I have a great app called Tippy which allows you to calculate your servers tip and divide the bill if necessary when dining out. iTranslate, can’t go wrong with learning another language. iTourch4 is the best flashlight ever! My Foodie folder has my pride and joy Starbucks app. I should have stock in this company. If they had a platinum club I would be the Past President. It’s that serious. I also have BigOven and Epicurious which give me great dinner ideas. Last but not least my CODE folder which hold all my QuickGuide HTML cheat sheets. For the moments when I am simply perplexed and don’t want to completely mess up something on the back end of this site.

So it’s kind of Monk-ish in a tech sort of way. I organize my phone like my life. A little stiff but you can see the logic right?