Apple’s iPad comes with built-in productivity tools like notes, calendars, and reminders, but if you’re looking to find new ways to maximize productivity and organize your life, there are tons of apps to help you.

Although the iPad began as a device that could be used to stream content or browse the web on the go, Apple has essentially turned its iPads into computers that can handle different tasks for personal, work, and school use. As a result, there are numerous apps to make a place to organize your life or help you focus on daily tasks such as helping you stay focused on your daily tasks by blocking out distractions.

We have compiled a list of some of the best available on the App Store.

Good note

Good note is one of the most popular iPad apps, and for good reason. The app is great for those who want to jot down notes using the Apple Pencil. You can add both handwritten and typed text to a page and add things like images, stickers and even doodles.

You can create a digital notebook with blank or ruled paper for notes, checklists, planners and more. The app lets you export entire digital notebooks or specific pages to PDF and other files.

Goodnote is also great for drawing and sketching. While it’s not as advanced as some creative apps like Creativity, GoodNotes is easy to use and perfect for quick sketches or diagrams.

If you’re attending a class or meeting, you can also record audio notes that sync with the moment you’re writing. Plus, you can use AI to help you summarize and write your notes.

You can create up to three digital notebooks for free. If you want unlimited notebooks, you’ll have to pay $9.99 per year or a one-time fee of $29.99.

tick tick

If you’re not a fan of your iPad’s built-in Reminders app, or you just want a sophisticated to-do list and task management app, tick tick Could be a good choice. You can use it for both professional and personal purposes.

The app lets you sync tasks across all your devices and integrate your favorite calendar app. You can create checklists, set recurring tasks, upload attachments to tasks, share task lists to collaborate with others, and more.

If you want to develop a habit, like meditating before bed, you can set your goals in the app and track your progress. And if you get an email but don’t have time to answer it, you can turn it into a task to remind yourself not to forget to answer it.

You can also add tags to your tasks to better manage them, and you can mark tasks based on their priority.

If you want to focus on a specific task, you can turn on the app’s “pomo timer,” which is based on the Pomodoro technique that breaks tasks into focused intervals to maximize productivity.

TickTac is free to use, but if you want extra features like the ability to add reminders to a task or more lists and up to five tasks, you’ll pay $3.99 or $35.99 per month.

The forest

The forest is an interesting app that gamifies productivity while helping the environment. If you are someone who struggles to stick to a task or gets easily distracted, then this app might be good for you.

When you need to focus on something, you can open the app and plant a tree. Your tree will then grow as you focus and finish your work. If you leave the app before the timer runs out, your tree will wither and die.

You can set up “permission lists” for different apps that you’re using to be productive, like an email app or Microsoft Word. The app also lets you track your productivity.

Over time, you create a digital forest that visualizes your productivity. If you’re competitive, you can share your forest with others to see how it compares to theirs. As you stay focused and grow virtual trees, you can earn coins that you can save to help plant real trees around the world through a tree-planting organization. Trees for the future.

Forest costs $3.99 to download, and you can purchase in-app add-ons to grow your forest and plant real trees faster.

idea

idea A great app for taking notes, managing tasks and workflows, organizing lists and habits, collaborating with others and more. Instead of going to different apps to manage your calendar, tasks and notes, you can have it all right under Visualization.

You use the various apps you use, like Slack and Dropbox, to connect all your workflows in one place. One of the great things about Concept is its flexibility and customization options. You can customize it to fit your needs, whether it’s managing your personal or work life, your schoolwork, or your passion projects.

If you’re not sure where to start, you can use templates to create things like a travel planner or a product roadmap. Idea also has an AI feature that helps you write and brainstorm ideas. Idea AI can help you get answers about your content and turn large amounts of data into digestible actions.

Idea offers a free plan for personal use. The company also offers an $8 per month plus plan for small groups and a $15 per month business plan for companies. You get 20 AI answers for free. After that you pay $10 per member per month.

Croton

Sometimes meal planning can be overwhelming, leaving little time for other tasks, so it’s nice to have an app to help with that. Crotonhelping to simplify cooking and meal planning, great for organizing recipes and planning grocery lists.

You can import recipes from websites or even scan from a physical book. So, instead of relying on bookmarks or physical recipes, you can store them all together.

You can plan your meals for the week, and if you get stumped on what to make one day, the app can create a meal plan for you. Once you’ve planned your meals for the week, you can create a grocery list that includes all the ingredients you need.

Croton also includes an app timer, so you don’t need to use a different app when you have specific steps to time a recipe. Plus, you can share your recipes with others, whether it’s telling your family what’s for dinner or if you’ve found a recipe you know a friend likes.

Croton offers basic features for free, but if you want unlimited recipes and additional features, an annual subscription. is 14.99.

freedom

freedom A great app to block distractions to focus on your work and be more productive. You can start a Freedom session across all your devices to prevent distractions.

You can choose which websites and apps you want to block during this time. So if you’re working on your iPad, but then try to open TechTalk on your phone, you won’t be able to and will see a green screen instead.

The app allows you to start a session now, schedule an upcoming one, or set a recurring one. If you know you need to be free from distractions at a certain time each day, you can schedule a Freedom Session to start at that specific time each day.

If you’re someone who listens to specific sounds to help you focus, Freedom offers a variety that you can listen to. For example, you can hear the sounds of a coffee shop in a city like New York or Berlin, chirping birds, quiet instruments, and more.

The app, priced at $3.99 per month, is easy to use and includes a variety of articles including tips on how to boost productivity and better understand digital well-being.

incompetence

incompetence A great note-taking app that lets you jot down ideas, import and annotate textbooks, record audio, and sketch out ideas. The app is useful for students and professionals, or even hobbyists.

You can choose to take notes with Apple Pencil, text, or audio. If you’re trying to find something specific, the app allows you to search your notes, including handwritten ones and any documents you’ve uploaded.

Disability features AI-generated note summaries as well as the ability to work on two different notes simultaneously. In addition, you can test your knowledge with personalized quizzes based on the content in your notes.

If you need a place to start, Disability includes a gallery of templates for things like planners, study notes, to-do lists, and more.

Disability is free but offers a $4.99 monthly subscription to access additional features such as math conversion, automatic audio transcription, unlimited notes, and more.

Todost

Todost is a simple and straightforward app that lets you record and organize tasks using natural language. To organize and plan your life, you can add tasks like, “Every Friday afternoon, plan next week’s work every Friday afternoon” or “Do homework.”

You can sort tasks into “today,” “upcoming,” or custom filters to prioritize what you currently care about, meaning you’ll only see what’s relevant when you need it.

Todoist can be used to organize a variety of tasks, whether related to work, personal, education, or administrative goals and reminders. Plus, you can connect Todoist to your calendar, voice assistant, and dozens of other tools like Outlook, Gmail, and Slack.

In addition to the iPad, you can access the service from your iPhone and Apple Watch, while syncing across desktop and all other devices.

The basic features of Todoist are available for free. You can unlock additional features, such as an AI assistant and calendar layout for $4 per month with Todoist’s “Pro” subscription plan.

Trello

If you are someone who likes to use sticky notes to plan your life, Trello may be a good option for you as it offers a simple and visual way to track things.

Trello lets you set up “boards” for different parts of your life, such as work, school, projects, and personal goals, then organize lists like “to,” “do,” and “what” to track progress.

You can use “cards” within the board to see different tasks or items you want to complete. In each card, you can add descriptions, due dates, checklists, notes, and more. In addition, you can use labels to visually organize and assign priorities to different cards, such as “High,” “Medium,” or “Low.”

The app’s “Calendar View” gives you an overview of what’s coming up in the next days and weeks.

Trello’s free plan comes with unlimited cards and up to 10 boards. The app’s standard plan costs $5 per month and includes unlimited boards and additional functionality, such as email, Slack, and the ability to capture tasks from teams.

Update: This story originally ran in September 2024 and is regularly updated with new information.