Working in a startup can often be fast-paced and requires lots of multitasking. Here are our tops pick of apps that help us get sh*t done.
As a team
Slack
We joke it’s easier to get Tom’s attention via Slack than in person. When plugged into music for some sprints, messaging via Slack means you don’t have to be distracted unless you want to be. Having different channels for different things from #general to #socialmedia and #overheardintheoffice means your message goes to the relevant people. It’s completely searchable and integrates with a lot of the other tools we use to monitor the Spacious site’s performance, like GoSquared.
Our top tip: Cmd-K to switch channels or conversations without leaving your keyboard
Wunderlist
We’ve swapped and debated task management tools for a while, but have finally settled on Wunderlist. It’s ridiculously simple, tasks can be assigned to anyone, categorised and commented on. It’s all we need without the fuss of a big platform.
Top tip: see everything your team has done by setting “completed” to visible under the ‘smart lists’ menu
Citymapper
We’d never get to work without it. Unfortunately, the first time Jenny used it, she didn’t realise rush hour and buses were a thing, and ended up watching 3 full buses whizz past her stop. (tweet quote) For the non-London-challenged, Citymapper will tell you the best routes from A to B by all means of transport – how long they’ll take, how much they’ll cost and even how many calories you’ll burn if you walk! Even better, they’re rapidly expanding to cities round the world – don’t be that lost city tourist ever again!
Top tip: long press on “get me somewhere” to skip the map and jump to a search and list of your previous destinations (newest version of CityMapper). You can also vote for the next city to be featured by You can also vote for the next city to be featured by clicking the info icon.
Aircall
Aircall transfers all phone calls to the Spacious line to our phones, and even calls our laptops. It calls in order, so if it doesn’t get the first person on the list, it’ll go through to the next. This means we’re much more likely to pick up than if it was just one person’s responsibility. It also gives an activity feed to monitor the calls we’ve had so everyone in the office can see what’s been going on.
Top tip: fail to add the company number to your contacts, wonder who keeps calling you and let other people answer the phone for you! #overheardintheoffice
Individually
Tom – Sunrise calendar
Yes. Really. Another bloomin’ calendar app. But this one syncs you gmail calendars, Facebook events and birthdays, iCalendar, Evernote, Asana, Producteev and Github milestones. You can also add Twitter and LinkedIn for more info on who you’re meeting with, and Foursquare for checkins. It does all this, whilst looking very pretty on your desktop, iPad, iPhone or Android. Tom’s gradually convincing the rest of the team it might actually be The Answer to calendar apps.
Top tip: add everything, including the World Cup calendar (check “interesting calendars” under settings on iPhone and iPad)!
Tushar – Hypemachine
Tushar wouldn’t look as cool in charge of the office speakers without this. Hypemachine finds the best new music from carefully selected top independent music blogs. Their goal is to give a voice to passionate individuals in a bid to diversify music and avoid rule of the mob music choices. The player is available online, on iPhone and Blackberry 10.
Top tip: don’t tell anyone else about it and look like you’re just a proper music buff*
*oops!
Jenny – Hemingway
Called “Little Miss Victorian Sentences” by her English teachers, Jenny swears this blog post would have been an awful mouthful without Hemingway. Created by two brothers, a marketer and a copywriter, Hemingway aims to make your writing “bold and clear”. It highlights unnecessary adverbs, overcomplicated words and difficult-to-read sentences. It gives your writing an overall school grade reading level and a level to aim for (Grade 10 or less). We checked – this piece is readable by an 8th Grader! For more entertainment, see what Hemingway himself would have scored.
Top tip: you can export markdown to HTML, which, if you’re putting blog posts into HTML tags, saves time
Varun – iMessage & oLark
We’ve got a new livechat feature on Spacious, powered by oLark. Being able to integrate it with iMessage makes it really easy for Varun or anyone on the team to respond to your queries asap. If you’re mid office search, pop us a message and we can help you out from laptop or mobile.
Top tip: we don’t bite! Got a question about Spacious? Open the chat in the bottom right corner and ask away.
For after work
YPlan.
YPlan was one of the awesome startups we were honoured to feature alongside in Wired’s 100 Hottest European Startups. It’s great for finding what’s on in London tonight or tomorrow, so you simply don’t need to plan ahead to have a good night. They’ve even joined up with the iTunes festival to notify you when tickets are released. As a London newbie, Jenny was super excited when she got £4 tickets to the Globe.
Top tip: never fail to come up with a good date plan again – tell them it’s a surprise! (not you panicking last minute, you romantic)
