The collective, cultural obsession with productivity drives us to shave a few seconds here, a few seconds there, from our busy lives, knowing that over time, seconds add up to minutes and hours and days of your life that could be better spent. I've long been a fan of the EasilyDo "personal assistant" app (free; premium subscription from $4.99 per month), which helps save precious seconds for you and even adds them up so you can see how much of your time you've reclaimed. EasilyDo automates simple, small tasks in your life, such as texting your significant other when you leave the office later than normal. Its capabilities span all areas of life, from saving a new contact's information right into your Contacts app, to letting you schedule "happy birthday" posts to appear on your friends' Facebook timeline on the appropriate day.

The EasilyDo iPhone app (and Android app, though the focus of this review is the iPhone version) was recently redesigned with a whole new look to better match the lightness of iOS 7. But it also comes with a new, optional, premium subscription service that costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year. One service that only premium members get is the ability to have new contact information from people who email you for the first time automatically added to your address book. In the free version, users see a prompt asking if you want to add this new person to your Contacts, so there's slightly less automation.  

Still, the free app offers a wonderful service that anyone will benefit from having, making EasilyDo an Editors' Choice iPhone app.

Setting Up EasilyDo

For EasilyDo to work, you need to connect it to some other services first, such as your email and calendars. Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Microsoft Exchange, and IMAP email accounts are all supported, as is connectivity to Evernote, iCloud, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter (although you can only connect one Facebook account and one Twitter account, which might be limiting to some users). After you authenticate your connections, EasilyDo will get to work looking for tasks it can automate.

EasilyDo Automations

I've already mentioned a few of my favorite automations in the EasilyDo app, such as the ability to automatically send a text message when you leave a certain place at or after a certain time. But there's a lot more to explore. By default, all the automations are turned on, so you'll want to turn them off or customize them the moment you install the app and connect it to your various services.

The tasks, called "do its," fall into four categories:

1. navigate your day
2. get notified
3. stay connected
4. get organized.

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"Navigate your day" contains options to pull up  your next calendar event, weather updates, and directions to your home or office anytime the app detects that you're more than a mile away. The "get notified" section has seven "do its," ranging from package tracking to finding out when a free iPhone app of the week has been released.

"Stay connected" has that wonderful "text when I leave" option, as well as a birthday reminder for your Facebook and Twitter friends. Another neat automation in this section is the ability to receive an alert when someone on Facebook tags a photo of you, something I'm fairly diligent about monitoring.

The "get organized" section has a "do it" for adding contact information that can utilize email, the Contacts app, SalesForce, and Evernote. Other automations in this section largely focus on cleaning up email, an area where most people could use help.

Premium Features

The new premium subscription ($4.99 per month or $49.99 per year)adds a few new and exclusive features, such as merging duplicate contact entries in bulk, alerting you in near real-time of travel alerts—which the TripIt app also does and also restricts to paying customers—and offering a 10 percent discount on gift cards that you can purchase in the app to give your friends on their birthdays.

More premium features will likely be added in the future, too.

Easily Done

The free and stellar app, EasilyDo, automates a wide variety of simple tasks that add up to save you dramatic amounts of time and effort. It should go straight to your list of recommended iPhone apps. I recommend using it for at least a month before deciding whether to subscribe to the premium service. There's a lot to learn in this little app. So install EasilyDo, customize it as you need, and let it save you time, effort, and a lot of hassle in taking care of everyday tasks.