In the business world, efficiency is a #1 priority. You need laser-like focus and excellent  organizational and time management skills to stay at the top of your game and help you achieve a good work/life balance.

Easier said than done, right? With countless distractions and things to keep track of, sometime it’s a wonder you can stay focused on anything at all. Keeping yourself on track and working at a reasonable pace takes strong self-discipline, especially if you are self-employed.

The following three apps will help you organize the many things you need to keep track of and improve your time management skills.

Evernote

This widely-used tool is built on the idea that business people are constantly making notes of things they need to remember. True, isn’t it?

This app gives you one place to keep notes of everything you need to remember. Really, everything. In Evernote, a “note”isn’t just the typical written message. It can be, but it can also be a picture of an outline, a voice recording, an emailed file, or the scanned image of a receipt.

Once you make a note, you can access it on any device. You can also share it with other people. Built for collaboration, Evernote lets you create teams inside the tool to easily share info and work together.

Use this free app on your computer, phone or tablet. For more storage space and features, you can upgrade to a paid plan.

Toggl

This real-time, simple time tracking tool is super visual and user-friendly.  By using a time tracker, you can see exactly how long each task takes you, learn which ones are taking too much time, and know how much to charge clients for – down to the second.

Speaking of charging clients, this app creates beautiful timesheets with pie charts and time-tracking details that you can easily export, email, and print.

One of its coolest features is its ability to continue tracking your time even when you close the app or work offline. And time entries can be edited in case you forget to start it or end it.

Use Toggle for a team or just for you. Assign projects, sub-projects, clients, and tags to your time entries to show what you’re working on and for whom. You can also mark entries as billable. Labels can be as simple or detailed as you want.

And yes, you (or a team of up to 5 people) can use it for free! Of course, there are paid plans with more features and room for larger teams.

Pocket

You may recognize this app from my first post in this series about organizing your lists. Pocket is great, because it can be used for so many reasons – both personal and professional.

As a business person, you want to be well-informed about your industry’s best practices, latest trends, and relevant news. Most companies strongly encourage professional development among their employees. And every self-employed person has felt the strain of being singularly responsible for staying up-to-date on his or her industry.

So what happens when you run across an interesting article but don’t have time to read it then? Do you try to memorize the URL, bookmark it, or hunt through your browsing history when you finally have time to read it?

Pocket allows you to save articles, videos, images, or websites in a clean, easy-to-use interface. Tag your saved items to categorize them and make them easy to find later.

Use this free app on your phone, tablet, or computer. Download the Pocket extension on your desktop to easily save items with a single click. One of the app’s best features is its offline reading capability. Sync it online, then access your items anytime, on any device.

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Ready to start simplifying your business life? Start with these 3 apps and see how they work for you. Then grow from there. Know any other great apps? Share them in the comments below!

Thank you for reading this Declutter Your Life series! Hope you discovered some truly useful apps. If you missed the other two posts in the series, find them here:

• Apps to Organize Your Lists
• Apps to Organize Your Inbox

To wrap up, could you do me a favor?

• Tell me which post in the series was your favorite.
• And let me know if you’d like to hear similar app recommendations for any other areas. (I might make it into a bonus post for the series!) 

Thanks again for reading!