Most of us want to be productive, and it is the driving force that motivates us to work. However, being prolific is not as easy as it seems. You have to be proficient in managing all your tasks and completing them within a reasonable time frame. If you want to survive in the busy, fast-paced world, you’ll need all the tools for boosting your productivity. After all, it can be difficult to stay focused when you’re juggling so many responsibilities and tasks.
The best productivity tools are tailored to a person’s lifestyle and interests. In this post, we’re going to discuss some of the efficiency tools that will help you maximize your productivity.
Tools for Tracking Your Time
1. Traqq
Traqq is one of the free productivity tools you should download. If you want to become efficient, you need to know what’s wasting your time. In this case, using a time tracking app like Traqq will help you. This lightweight and user-friendly tool will run in the background and monitor the websites you visit and the apps you use. On the dashboard, you will see which activities are eating into your time. As a result, you will be able to identify your common time wasters.
Traqq does more than just tell you how you’re spending your time. This tool is also designed to help you create invoices easily. Once you install the app, all you need to do is click Start, and Traqq will automatically log your work hours. At the end of the week or month, you can check the dashboard and see your timesheet for the entire period. What’s more, you can export the data to a CSV file for easier invoice generation. With manual timesheets out of the way, you can focus on more important tasks and boost your productivity.
2. MinuteDock
MinuteDock is a personal productivity tool you’ll need if you want to streamline your timekeeping, billing, and progress monitoring processes. If you don’t work online all the time, you can add hours manually to the tool. What’s more, the tool will help you become efficient by showing you reports of your performance. If you’re managing a remote team, you can also use MinuteDock to monitor the productivity of individual members or the entire staff. For easier payment processing, you can even integrate the app with your preferred accounting tool.
3. ActivTrak
ActivTrak is another personal productivity tool that you need if you want to track your time and computer activities. You can use it to watch your performance, the websites you visit and the apps you use. If you’re managing a remote team, you can use ActivTrak as an online monitoring tool for your employees. Once the program spots any suspicious activity, you will receive alerts. ActivTrak also allows you to restrict access to non-work-related websites for optimum focus. As a manager, you can terminate unwanted applications remotely as soon as you notice any harmful activity.
Tools for Organizing Your Projects and Tasks
4. Asana
Asana markets itself as one of the top productivity tools for keeping individuals and teams organized. It is ideal for more complex projects and bigger teams. So, it may not be the perfect option for those who prefer a simple to-do list. Even so, if collaboration and communication are important to you, then Asana is a good choice. You can create a chat window within a project for discussing particular tasks. Aside from that, Asana creates a visual representation of your tasks, making it easier for you to manage them.
5. Trello
If you’re a fan of the Kanban board, then Trello should be included in your list of productivity improvement tools. It’s so visually appealing that it almost looks like a Pinterest board. The app lets you add tasks under lists or cards, which you can drag depending on their status in the project life cycle. It may not be as revolutionary as Asana, but it is the ideal alternative for those who want a simple tool for managing their tasks.
6. ProofHub
Productivity also depends on how well you plan your projects and collaborate with your colleagues. Well, ProofHub is a cloud-based tool for work that has been trusted by thousands of teams for task management. It has a user-friendly interface, which makes it easy to use. After all, a project management tool is supposed to organize your tasks—not turn them into something more complicated. Another great thing about ProofHub is that it comes with a mobile app. So, you can continue organizing your tasks even when you’re on the go.
7. Freedcamp
Freedcamp is an online productivity tool that offers a central hub for project organization and delivery. You can use this tool to discuss task details and share files with your colleagues. What’s great about Freedcamp is that it offers several functionalities for free. However, if you want to add more team members and sync your projects with Google Calendar, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the paid plans. You can also access other advanced features like invoices and CRM.
Tools for Productive Content Writing
8. Hemingway Editor
If you’re writing content for the web, you need to ensure that what you create is optimized for search results. The thing is, people lose their interest when the text exceeds their reading ability. You can ensure content readability by using the Hemingway app. This free productivity software will make your writing easier to read and more accessible for a bigger audience. The Hemingway editor will show you which phrases and words you can simplify and which sentences you can shorten. You’ll also see your content’s ‘readability grade level’ according to the metrics from Flesh-Kincaid readability tests.
9. Copyscape
Copyscape is one of the online productivity applications that content writers swear by. After all, copied or plagiarized text can hurt any blogger’s credibility. For writers, being productive is synonymous with producing quality content. The tool will compare your submission to millions of web pages. This way, you can ensure that your articles are unique. While searches are paid, they are not expensive. Copyscape credits are available for at least $10, and usually, a thousand-word article will only cost you $0.02.
Tool for Managing Account Passwords
10. LastPass
If you’re always struggling to remember passwords, writing them on a piece of paper is not the ideal solution. After all, someone can easily go through your desk and discover your passwords. Instead, you should use a secure password management tool like LastPass. You can use this app across several devices, and it will even audit your passwords and help you create better ones. This tool uses multi-factor authentication for your master password. So, you can manage all your passwords in a single, protected hub. LastPass has been recommended by PC Magazine, CNet, and Lifehacker.
Tools for Managing Your Social Media Assets
11. Buffer
Being productive also means being efficient at your job. Now, if you want an easy way to share web articles across several social media accounts, you should use Buffer. All you need to do is connect your social media accounts to Buffer, then schedule your content for publishing. If you discover an article that you know your followers will love, you can click Buffer’s bookmark button. The article will be placed in the publishing queue and will be shared at your designated time.
12. HootSuite
HootSuite may be an old player in the field, but it is still one of the best tools for helping you manage your social media accounts efficiently. Its user-friendly dashboard allows you to monitor all your activities across different social networks. HootSuite even allows you to schedule posts, organize Twitter followers and lists, delegate assignments to individuals, and measure social media performance.
13. IFTTT
Short for If This Then That, IFTTT is an online productivity tool that can automate the internet tasks you repeatedly perform. With this web-based service, you can regularly back up your media files to your cloud account on your preferred schedule. Its pre-built applets let you automate one or multiple functions.
Tools for Google Productivity
14. Google Workspace
If you want to maintain your productivity online, you should have all the tools necessary for sharing and editing files. Formerly known as G Suite, Google Workspace has everything you need to get anything done. Aside from Google Drive, you can also use Google Docs and Google Spreadsheets to make collaborating with your colleagues seamless and convenient. Google Workspace also comes integrated with Google Calendar, Google Meet, and Google Forms, among others.
15. Google Analytics and Google Search Central
When you’re working with websites and SEO, you cannot talk about productivity without mentioning Google Analytics and Google Search Central. You can get valuable insights into your website’s traffic, performance, conversions, and referrals with the help of these online marketing services. This way, you can take a results-driven approach to your campaigns and boost your productivity.
Tools for Creating Simple To-Do Lists
16. Any.do
For some, project management platforms can be too complicated. In that case, using a simple to-do list app is the perfect solution, and Any.do is one of the best options. With this app, you can use your voice to create to-do lists, and its ‘plan my day’ feature can be handy if you tend to forget things. You can also integrate the app with Outlook calendars. This way, you can view your tasks and appointments in one place.
17. Todoist
Todoist may be one of the oldest work productivity tools, but it gets more and more powerful every year. You can color-code your tasks for easy organization. What’s more, the app has a user-friendly design and an easy sign-up process. Now, if you need more than just a to-do list app, you can still use Todoist. This app lets you create dependencies, subtasks, primary projects, and sub-projects.
Tools for Organizing Your Emails
18. Unroll.Me
Having a cluttered inbox won’t help you become productive online. Well, with Unroll.Me, you can clean up your inbox and compile all your newsletters into a single bundle. Once you find the time to read them, you can open the bundle and skim through the emails. Unroll.Me hides all the junk in your email and only shows you what’s important. As a result, you become more efficient at scanning through your messages.
19. SaneBox
If you want a hassle-free way to organize your inbox, try using SaneBox. This tool will analyze your email activities to determine which messages matter to you and which don’t. Those that aren’t as important will be moved to the SaneLater folder. Once you have the time, you can check that folder to scan through the emails. By hiding away less important emails, the tool helps you focus on messages that matter more to you. As a result, you will be more productive in terms of handling your emails.
Tools for Being Productive When Using Chrome
20. StayFocused
Being productive is a skill you need to learn, and you’ll need tools to help you remain efficient. If you’re always working with Chrome, you’ll need StayFocused. This browser extension will restrict the time you spend on time-wasting sites, like Twitter or Facebook. Don’t worry because you can customize it to block or limit specific websites.
21. RightInbox
RightInbox is a Chrome extension that lets you set up email sequences, several signatures, and delayed sends, among other functionalities. It is a tool that can help you manage your inbox without the hassle.
Tools for Organizing Your News/Blog Subscriptions
22. Pocket
Sometimes, when we browse the web, we find interesting videos or articles. However, it’s not always that we have the luxury of time to read or watch those posts. Well, Pocket lets you curate interesting content that you can check out later. What’s great about Pocket is that it syncs across your devices. So, if you find a good cat video on your desktop, you can watch it on your phone later while commuting home.
23. Podkicker
Do you listen to podcasts no matter what you’re doing? If so, then you’re probably overwhelmed with all the podcasts you subscribed to. With Podkicker, you can download and stream all your favorite podcasts via a single app. It has a user-friendly interface, which makes organizing easier.
24. Social Champ
Juggling with the tabs, monitoring your social media actions, and engaging with your audience, can be hectic, but what if one tool does all this for you?
An all-in-one social media management tool, Social Champ can make your workflow easier and more productive without being heavy on your pocket. The tool allows you to autopost your content on multiple social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.
Social Champ has a centralized dashboard so you can manage all your social media accounts effectively. The tool is wrapped with rich features such as Auto RSS, bulk scheduling, sentiment analysis, and much more to stand out from the crowd.
The best part, Social Champ is a pocket-friendly tool without any dip in performance.
In Conclusion
Becoming productive is not an easy feat, and you’ll need all the tools to help you. However, you don’t have to use all the apps that we mentioned in this article. You simply need to identify the productivity tools that will suit your needs and work. With enough practice, staying focused and efficient will be natural to you.
