Blogs
10 Productivity Tools to Help You Do More at Work - 25th July 2018
In today's
fast-paced world, everyone wants to be more productive. Fortunately, there is
an ever-increasing number of tools, many of them available online and across
multiple devices, that promise to help us achieve our goals. The challenge then
becomes how to know not just which tools will live up to their promise but
which tools are right for our business.
Choosing
the best productivity tools depends on a number of factors, from the
business size, type, and location to understanding where and how we, as individuals
and teams, can work more efficiently. That's why any list of the most useful
tools for any business starts with time tracking tools to help you determine
what kinds of tasks take up your time and where you might find opportunities to
be more productive.
Individuals
and businesses that charge or are paid by the hour are familiar with these
tools, but anyone who juggles a variety of tasks or multiple projects can
benefit from the insight they provide, particularly if they are being asked to
take on more responsibilities or additional projects.
Two of the
best time tracker applications are:
- Rescue Time - Once installed, this application runs in
the background analyzing your daily work pattern and how much time you spend on
each activity. There are two versions. The free one has limited capabilities,
primarily tracking websites visited and applications used. The paid premium
version tracks off-line time and provides more detailed reports, making it
better suited to larger organisations.
- Toggl - This robust time tracker is popular with
freelancers because it plays well with others, be they mobile devices or other
software tools. Toggl offers four levels of service, including a free version
with limited reporting, team management, and project management capabilities,
as well as three paid versions which allow it to be scaled to the needs of your
organisation.
Once you
know where time is going, it's much easier to identify opportunities for
working smarter, more efficiently and more productively. Which productivity
tools will be most helpful will depend on what you discovered while tracking
your time, but here are eight tools that can help solve or at least reduce
common issues that distract and slow down the workflow.
Effective
communications can be a stumbling block for many organisations. Whether you are
dealing with a large business having multiple departments or a virtual company
with a distributed team, connecting people and information is quickly and
easily is paramount to being productive. Four of the best tools for achieving
better communications are:
- Slack - This popular messaging platform not only helps
collaborators and co-workers communicate over distances and even in the
same office, it helps organise the conversations and keep them all in-house.
Users can message each other individually or collaborate with an entire group
across both mobile devices and desktop computers. Free and paid versions are
available.
- Evernote - Everyone takes notes, at meetings, during
presentations, when reading email or even surfing the web. This handy tool
gives you a place to store your notes as well as a means of organising them
that allows you to access information when and where you need it, from your
computer or mobile device. Best of all, it's free.
- Google Drive - Version control can be painful in many
organisations, especially if more than one person is working on a document.
That's why Google Drive is such a great asset. It makes tracking changes a
breeze, supports a variety of file types from PDFs to photos and stores it all
in the cloud, so everything is available from anywhere you have internet
access. Initially free, you'll pay for more storage space if you need it.
- Tettra - This indispensable tool isn't widely known,
making it your secret productivity weapon. Tettra is a centralized knowledge
base and knowledge management system that puts vital information at the tips of
your fingers. This tool also reduces the tendency of organisations to silo key
information with a limited number of knowledge experts whose loss would deliver
a serious blow to a company or project.
Most businesses organise what they do in terms of projects or products. Managing projects has even become a career path for some. Fortunately, you don't need to hire project managers to manage your projects more efficiently. Two popular productivity tools especially useful in keeping projects on track are:
- Asana - Asana has been around since 2008, making it one of the most robust and stable tools for project management available. You can create unique tasks for each project or develop templates that can be used repeatedly across your business. Asana also allows you to create strategic calendars, set reminders and send requests between team members. Free and paid versions.
- Trello - This visual project management app helps individuals and teams see their workflow, which can make it easier to keep projects on track. Trello is versatile and plays well with others including Slack, Google Drive and Evernote, allowing everyone to know where a project stands at a glance. Free and paid versions.
Keeping
projects on track is great, but sometimes you need something to keep you on
track. Planners, to do lists, reminders and post-it notes work but can get
cluttered. They also tend to encourage multi-tasking rather than helping you
focus. These final two productivity tools are task managers that will help you
get more done by doing one thing at a time. They are:
- Hello Focus - More than just a to-do list, Hello Focus
helps you prioritize tasks so you can work more efficiently. Multiple views so
you can see what you or your team are working on today, this week or this
month.
- TaskQue - is a free tool that uses algorithms to balance
workloads. This is a fantastic tool for managers because it helps reduce
employee burnout and overload. Simply group similar resources and assign a task
to a group then track it to completion. Completely cloud-based.
Productivity
is a difficult thing to master. Hopefully, these ten tools will help you along
your journey and allow you to reclaim some of your valuable time.
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