Websites and Apps I use on a Regular Basis

I am constantly testing new websites or apps that I think might somehow make my life a little easier. Most of the time I find they don't live up to the promise and delete or stop using them. But every once in a while I discover something that ends up being a huge time saver. I thought it might be helpful to share some of my favorites with you and maybe you'll find something equally useful.

Dashlane - I've discussed how important using a password manager is in the past but I really can't stress enough how much this has simplified my life. I now only need to remember one password instead of hundreds. When I have to log in to a site on my computer, phone or tablet I always have Dashlane there to fill in my password for me. If I need to fill out a form online or make a payment, all the information is stored in Dashlane and will auto fill the form for me just by typing in my Dashlane password. I can share passwords with my wife and create an emergency contact so if something happens to me someone else could have access to all my passwords. There are other password managers out there, Lastpass being one I've heard as a great alternative. Whatever you do in 2017, set aside your fear of password managers and commit to using one - you'll thank me for the incredible time savings!
Pocket - I read a lot. In fact, according to Pocket I read the equivalent of 52 books in the form of articles last year! My goal this year is to read more actual books and less articles, but I continue to keep up with current events and I couldn't do it without Pocket. This is an app you can download to your phone and/or tablet, but there is also an extension you can add to your preferred internet browser (Chrome is mine). With that extension enabled, anytime I see an article I want to read, I hit the pocket button and it's automatically saved in an easy to read format in the pocket app on all my devices.
Unroll.me - If you are like me your inbox is probably overrun with various promotions and newsletters, some you might not even realize you signed up for. Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to go through the unroll.me process. This website will uncover all the e-mails you are signed up for and ask you whether you want to unsubscribe, add to rollup or keep in inbox for each. The rollup can be delivered to you daily and will contain all the newsletters and promotions you want to receive in one e-mail, instead of 20. And it will unsubscribe to any others you don't want to receive anymore for you. Just remember to keep our L.K. Benson & Company newsletter in the "keep in inbox" section so you don't miss anything from us!
Evernote - I'm typing this article in Evernote as we speak. Evernote is a website, app and a browser extension that helps you keep your notes handy across all devices. The app lets you take pictures of things and if it's a document it'll even act as a scanner and trim the image automatically to capture just the page of information. The browser extension lets you easily save information from a website you come across. Find a good recipe on pinterest? Hit the evernote button and it will even automatically categorize the page as a recipe and throw it in that folder for you! The possibilities are endless and I store everything in Evernote and refer back to it frequently throughout the day.
Waze - By now I think most people have heard of Waze, which was acquired by Google a while back. If you haven't, you should download the app now. Waze has millions of users providing detailed traffic information on a realtime basis. Anytime you are heading somewhere open it up and use it instead of your GPS and it will find the quickest route based on current traffic. It's saved me from many traffic jams over the years!
Nuzzel - If you've tried Twitter you probably came away overwhelmed by the constant stream of information. Nuzzel helps consolidate the important bits of information the people you follow on twitter are talking about. Rather than checking in to Twitter to see if I'm missing any important news or good articles, I get a daily e-mail with all the most relevant articles to me. It's a true time saver if you are using twitter.
Honey - If you do a lot of online shopping like I do, you've probably noticed that just about every site has a place in the checkout to enter a promotion code. I used to spend time searching the internet for these codes before I'd buy anything until I found the Honey extension for Chrome.
Boomerang - Ever send an e-mail asking for something then forget about it and never follow up with the person? Boomerang will help you not forget. It's an app that connects to gmail that will allow you to specify when a sent e-mail should be returned to you so you don't forget about it. If you strive to achieve "inbox zero" you can also use this to clear an e-mail from your inbox but make sure it comes back in a set number of days so you don't forget about it.

I could go on and on with this list but I'll save the rest for another time. If questions about any of these tools feel free to reach out to me and I'd be happy to help.

The views expressed represent the opinions of L.K. Benson & Company and are subject to change. These views are not intended as a forecast, a guarantee of future results, investment recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities. The information provided is of a general nature and should not be construed as investment advice or to provide any investment, tax, financial or legal advice or service to any person.

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