I am a sucker for a good to-do list.

At this time of year, I have these lists all over the place. Grading to do. End-of-year activities. Summer event planning.

For years, they’ve been on scrap printer paper cut into quarters. Good size, and I always have plenty of it.

Those days are changing. I still have my scrap paper ready to go, but so many of my lists have gone digital. In fact, I depend heavily on my iPad and laptop for so many productivity solutions now.

Here are four must-haves apps to keep yourself on track and firing on all cylinders:

1. Evernote – The beauties of Evernote are well chronicled on the Internet. Its finest quality is its ability to be everywhere – computers, tablets, smart phones. I can sort my notes, grab information from the Internet, and store data quickly.

2. 30/30 – 30/30 can save a teacher’s prep hour from the clutches of inattention and distraction. This app puts you on the clock. You schedule your activities in an ordered list and give them a set amount of time to complete. Start the timer and 30/30 counts your time down as you work. Check off a completed task and start the clock on the new one.

3. Mailbox – This app has revolutionized how I use email. For years, I’ve let email pile up in my inbox after I read it. After installing Mailbox, I reach “inbox zero,” as they call it, every time. The genius in Mailbox is its swipe features. With four separate swipe motions, you can delete, mark as read, file in a folder or schedule for later. The schedule-for-later feature works like an alarm clock snooze button. It files a message in a number of notification categories, including later today, tomorrow, next weekend and someday.

4. Buffer – If connecting with colleagues on social media is important to you, Buffer will save you time and energy. Users can schedule posts through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all in one place. It gives you a social media presence even at times when you can’t connect personally. Plus, it saves your followers from the retweet blitz they get when we visit Twitter and say, “Oh, I need to share that” 10 times in the course of a few minutes.

What are your go-to apps when you have to get things done? Leave us a comment and let us know!

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