If you’re ambitious, you need a personal productivity system.

Or a personal assistant—but not everyone likes someone hovering around them all day long.

So what should your personal productivity system consist of? At least these 3 apps:

First, a task manager to capture to-dos and organize them.

It’s your central source of truth of what you need to do.

The task manager helps you to be proactive about what receives your attention. It lets you prioritize day to day. And it makes sure you don’t lose sight of important deadlines.

For your task manager, I recommend using Things or Todoist.

Second, you need a calendar app to track appointments, meetings, and other events.

It’s your central source of truth for where you need to be when.

You’re surely using a calendar already, but are you comfortable using it? Are you getting the most out of it? Does it help you manage your unique situation, for example with advanced timezone support if you travel often?

For your calendar, I recommend Fantastical (now available for Windows, too, by the way). It integrates nicely with Todoist, which is particularly great if you like to time block your dayus.

And third, you need a notes app to take meeting notes, store reference material, process thoughts, and so on.

It’s your central source of truth for written material.

For your notes app, if you’re on Apple devices, I recommend Apple Notes. It just keeps getting better year after year. Notion is a good cross-platform alternative.

There are all-in-one apps that combine a task manager with a calendar and that also have note-taking functionality. But typically, dedicated apps are easier to use and have better features.

Your task manager, calendar, and notes app are the foundation of your productivity system.

There will be other components too, like your email app, perhaps Microsoft Teams, and ancillary apps for planning and reflection, like a journaling app.

If you can get those to play nice with your primary productivity apps, all the better.

But first learn to get the most out of your task manager, calendar, and note-taking app—in that order.

Take some time to make your system work for you.

That will make you the best, most productive version of yourself.