- Work Advice
Lifehacks - The Best Apps For Admins
As PAs, EAs and admins our job is about making other people’s lives easier, we’re the glue that holds everything together, getting stuff done quickly and quietly regardless of however crazy the task that we’ve been challenged to resolve may be. So, having a bank of apps, tech tools and general lifehacks that help us get this crazy stuff done is vital. If there’s a tool that can do something for us quicker and more accurately than we could do ourselves then we want to know about it. And we want to share it with you too, because strengthening the admin community and sharing advice, recommendations and general lifehacks is something we're committed to doing.
We’ve looked through our own phones and computers, spoken to our candidates and quizzed our interviewees to find the day to day tech tools that we couldn’t live without. Got any good ones we’ve missed? Let us know and we’ll add it to the list!
Organisation
Slack is a fantastic messaging tool, channels can be divided up by project, client, or anything that is relevant to your organization and team members can join and leave channels as needed. Slack also has an app store, meaning you can integrate apps such as Google Drive and Dropbox and you can also use the app for group calling and sharing screens, saving you from juggling different tabs. It’s a fantastic way for a PA or EA to keep in touch with your boss on the go and have everything you need to manage their diary in one place.
Apps? Desktop, IOS and Android
Cost? Basic usage is free and business subscriptions start at £5.25 per month per user.
Download the app
This mobile app turns your phone into a scanner and saves your documents as either a photo or a pdf, sharing them via email or Dropbox, Evernote or Onedrive. We prefer it to Mac’s airdrop as it works on any device and, for those that choose to pay for the app, an advanced searching tool that lets you search and sort your saved documents is really useful.
Apps? IOS and Android
Cost? Free or an upgraded version is available for £4.99
Download the app
If you are forever copying your meeting notes from your notebook to your computer then what could be more useful than connecting both together? Rocket Book is a physical notebook that lets you take notes on the go and then sync them with Google Drive, Evernote, Dropbox, OneDrive, OneNote, Slack, Box, iCloud, iMessage, or Email by simply signing in and tapping the symbol at the bottom of the page.
Apps? IOS and Android
Cost? Notebooks start from £11.99.
Buy the notebook
Some people like to talk rather than type. If you, or your boss, is that kind of person then Google Docs dictation tool could be really useful. We like it for notes, agenda items and meeting summaries, however, it’s not great for longer documents as we’ve found that the symbols don’t work that well. You’ll need the latest version of google chrome to use it and a microphone on your computer.
Apps? Desktop, IOS and Android
Cost? Free
Find out how it works
Effortlessly zip, unzip and save any encrypted or unencrypted document on any device.
Apps? Desktop, IOS and Android
Cost? Try it for free or buy it from £31.44.
Download the app
Travel
Our favourite flight comparison site. Compare the costs and times of flights to any destination.
Apps? Desktop, IOS and Android
Cost? Free
Download the app
Does your boss do a lot of driving? Is so Appyparking is great for sussing out parking charges and parking availability in cities. Search your destination and use the map to work out where to park and how much it will cost.
Apps? Desktop, IOS and Android
Cost? Free
Download the app
Finance
Really useful for viewing live exchange rates and converting currencies.
Apps? Desktop, IOS and Android
Cost? Free
Download the app
Our favourite app for finding nearby cashpoints or cashpoints near a destination. The advanced search filters are useful, for example, you can search by cashpoints that dispense £5 notes or ones that don’t charge to take out money.
Apps? Desktop, IOS and Android
Cost? Free
Download the app
Social
Scan and store your business cards, exchange e-cards with other users, search through your listings and add the details to your phone and computer contacts.
Apps? Desktop, IOS and Android
Cost? Free
Download the app
The best app we know to find good coffee. Each café is reviewed by their experts and judged upon the quality of their coffee beans. The filtering feature is useful as you can search for specific types of coffee and whether a café allows dogs, has outside seating and/or good wifi. A great one for finding ad hoc meeting venues or a place for you or your boss to grab acoffee while out and about.
Apps? Desktop, IOS and Android
Cost? Free
Download the app
Creative
Our favourite tool to create posters, invites, presentations and social media graphics. Their bank of templates, layouts, images and graphics make designing something that looks professional really easy and their templates, such as Facebook posts and invitations, come set at the exact dimensions, meaning you don’t have to mess around changing pixel sizes.
Apps? Desktop, IOS and Android
Cost? Free for basic use
Download the app
If you manage your company’s social media channels then Hootsuite is a great tool for scheduling your content meaning you don’t have to post it manually. Sync the app with your social media feed and upload your image and caption - the app will post it for you on the platform at the time and date you choose.
Apps? Desktop, IOS and Android
Cost? Free for basic use
Download the app!
If you're an admin and you're looking for a job then visit our job page now to view all our live roles. Got a question? Drop us a line here.