The tech bosses of Vodacom and Discovery swear by these productivity apps - here's why

• Business Insider asked the chief technology officers of two of SA's biggest companies what productivity apps they use. 
• They named apps that can manage tasks, teams and provide an overview of daily and weekly achievements.
• But the app that stood out the most is one that summarises over 2,500 books into 15-minute reads (or listens).

Productivity apps are helping to improve how we think, work and also get motivated.

The market in productivity apps has become more diverse and there are now dozens to choose from.  For instance, Google Play Store currently recommends more than 90 productivity app.

A wide-array of productivity apps in the Google Play Store. (Google Play)

How to choose the best app? We asked the chief technology officers of the healthcare group Discovery and Vodacom for their preferred apps.

“The productivity app which I use the most is my task manager app, Todoist," says Vodacom's CTO, Andries Delport.

He tells Business Insider SA that Todoist "allows me to create tasks and actions, and then categorise and assign them to people in my team. They can give me feedback on the tasks which, once completed, are closed. I can also keep track of my own ‘to do’ list”.

More about Todoist

Todoist allows users to keep track of everything - from simple errands to most ambitious projects. (Google Play)

Todoist can also automatically set tasks and reminders, remember important deadlines and build lasting habits with powerful recurring due dates like "every second Monday".

It can also be integrated with over 60 popular productivity apps and platforms such as Dropbox, Zapier and Slack.

Todoist users can measure and check on their progess in-app. (Google Play)

Users can get an overview of their daily and weekly accomplishments with customised productivity graphs. Unsurprisingly, Discovery's CTO, Derek Wilcocks tells Business Insider SA that the Discovery app is his go-to productivity app.

Wilcocks says the Discovery app, which allows him to check on his Vitality Active Rewards, motivates him to train hard.

More on the Discovery app

Discovery's app allows users to get a personalised fitness goal and earn weekly rewards for achieving goals. (Google Play)

Apart from allowing users to get a personalised fitness goal and earn weekly rewards for achieving their goals, it monitors users' driving, also for rewards purposes. Wilcocks also lists Blinkist as a beneficial productivity app.

What is Blinkist?

Blinkist basically takes over 2,500 bestselling books and sums them up into 15 minute reads and/or listens. (Google Play)

"Blinkist offers excellent book summaries to keep me up-to-date and on the go," says Wilcocks. Field experts with a passion for explaining complex matters in simple language summarise over 2,500 books for users. Summaries could either be read, listened to or both.

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