In my job, I often find that sometimes work gets in the way of life, and sometimes life gets in the way of work.  What I mean by this is, sometimes I need to do something during the day but I have to work, and sometimes, I have some work that I need to get done, but I need to get home for all my home commitments.  This is one of the main reasons I love my iphone and Ipad so much.  Wherever I am, I have the tools I need to help manage both my work and home life.

Aside from having constant access to the internet and my emails, I’m also a great fan of apps.  If I ever I want to know or do something I’ll always look to see if there is an app to download first.

I’ve narrowed down my favourite apps to the top five free apps that I find the most useful to me.

1.            Evernote

Evernote is without a doubt my favourite app.  It is like a filing cabinet, notebook and scrap book all in one.  To use this effectively you need to download the PC version and the web clipper for your PC.  You create note-books and then you save all of your bits and bobs relating to that subject in that notebook.  The type of things you can save are emails, web pages, articles from websites, pictures and videos.  Say for example you are going on a trip abroad.  You can set up a notebook for this trip and store all of the train times, maps or websites about places you want to visit, confirmation emails etc..   You can then access them from any PC or iPhone/iPad by simply logging into your Evernote account.

2.            Drivesafe.ly

This app will read out your emails, Facebook notifications or tweets.  I use this if I’m waiting for an urgent email to come through but I need to go home – it means I can still receive emails while driving home – without breaking the law!!  There is a paid version with has more functionality but for me the free version is great.  The only problem is that it will read out everything in the email including email signatures!

3.            Dictamus free

Dictamus, as it sounds, is a dictation app.  It allows you to record dictations and then email as a quicktime document, or upload to a dropbox or online file storage application.  This is great for those of you that may want to record some lengthy notes without having to type using the small keypad on an iphone, or who are on the move and want to get down their ideas.

4.            Google translate

Google translate is a simple translation application.  You simply select the language the word is in, the language you want to translate to, then enter the text.  What I like about this app is that is also speaks the translation so you get an idea of pronunciation, and it also saves your last few translations so you can revisit them if required.

5.            The Trainline

A slightly boring app, but so handy when you are at an event in London or on holiday and you want to know when the next train is!  It works in a similar way to the website by simply entering to and from stations.  You can even buy tickets through this app if you want to.