I live by the concept of working smarter not harder and because we are surrounded by technology on a regular basis, I believe in using tools/apps whenever possible to make my life easier. Whether you are completely devoted to a paperless lifestyle or you prefer pen and paper, anyone can use a couple, a cluster, or all of the below digital tools to help increase their productivity. Take a look at each option to see if it can provide a solution to any of your current task management issues (to not feel too overwhelmed, maybe check out one per day during the month of August).
Efficiency Cluster:
1/Calendar – A solution that learns your schedule and organizes, books, and updates events on your calendar, while also syncing across multiple calendar tools and devices.
2/Todoist – A simple productivity app that allows you to record and group tasks together based on projects. Consider this an upgraded version of your traditional to-do list.
3/nTask – An incredible web-based tool focused on productivity and collaboration, such as note-taking, time-tracking, and even timesheet management.
4/Fellow – Helps facilitate productive virtual meetings using collaborative meeting agendas, clear goals, productive conversation, and shared note-taking.
5/IFTTT – It seamlessly connects different apps and experiences; you can set up a range of different automations, from everyday tasks to more sporadic occurrences.
6/Engross – Helps improve your focus and manage distractions; it lets users customize the intervals based on how long they want to work and how long they want to break.
7/Hypercontext – Empowers managers and their teams, or a group of co-workers, to be high-performing by streamlining meetings, goals, and morale into one workflow.
8/Google Docs – It’s for sharing documents and collaborating in real-time; the online word processor eliminates the need to save and send files back and forth while writing/editing.
9/Freedom – Improves focus and productivity, syncs across Mac/Apple and Windows/Samsung, and lets you plan recurring blocks in advance.
10/Self-Control – It blocks your access to distracting websites, mail servers, or anything else on the web; just set a period to block any specific website and click ‘Start’.
11/StayFocused – A browser extension that blocks time-wasting websites; there are various options that cut out access to sites, including allotting a specific amount of time for a site.
12/RescueTime – It tracks your daily activity to tell you how much time you have spent on different websites, apps and other software. After reflecting, you can block sites with it.
13/Focus To-Do – Empowers you to maintain focus and keep distractions at bay. Sessions are also automatically recorded so that you can reflect on where your time was spent.
14/Forest – You can build a forest of trees where every tree symbolizes a task. Whenever you want to focus, plant a tree/task and it will be killed if you don’t complete it!
15/Brain.fm – A popular productivity app that uses music as brain stimulation. It unlocks music’s potential to influence cognitive states (validated by auditory neuroscientists).
Organization Cluster:
16/Clean Email – A tool that intelligently groups similar emails and provides users with tools to manage their messages quickly, easily, and efficiently.
17/Right Inbox – A Gmail extension that offers 10 different features, from email scheduling to email tracking, to save you time on repetitive tasks and help you effectively send emails.
18/Boomerang – A dedicated app for Gmail that schedules and sets email reminders. It allows you to ‘boomerang’ a message back to your inbox to remind you about it.
19/Sanebox – It automatically sorts your emails and declutters your mailbox. It sorts your emails into different folders, based on importance, so that you can focus on priorities.
20/Shift – It streamlines your accounts, apps, and workflows; after connecting all of your email accounts and your favorite web tools, you can toggle between them.
21/Bit.ai – A document management and collaboration tool that helps teams discuss, share, track, and manage all company documents, files, and other content in one place.
22/Evernote – A reliable note-making app to stay organized; you can capture, organize, and share notes from anywhere so that your best ideas are always with you and in sync.
23/Simplenote – It offers the simplest way to keep notes by eliminating the need for wasting time while locating files; just type what you are looking for and your list updates instantly.
24/Pocket – You can save an article you like with a click of the browser extension, then tag it so that it is easy to find later. It is a good tool for saving content you want to read/share.
25/Notion – A knowledge management system where it is easy to start writing, add tables, etc., you can capture and store the information, and organize it later if needed.
Communication Cluster:
26/Grammarly – It reviews spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement, and delivery mistakes, detects plagiarism, and suggests replacements for the identified errors.
27/Hemingway – A content editor that indicates broad stylistic problems, and shares the word/sentence count, approximate reading time, and the results of a readability test.
28/GroupMe – A way to connect with all the groups in your life. With apps on iOS, Android, and Web, GroupMe keeps you connected with the people most important to you.
29/Slack – It is a collaboration software that unifies team’s communications; it also integrates with the apps you use every day, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.
30/Chanty – A simple and fast communication app that lets you keep in touch with your colleagues in private, public, group, and one-on-one conversations.
31/Krisp – An AI-powered app that removes all kinds of background noises during a call in real-time and allows people to communicate with each other more effectively.