We’ve all heard the old phrase coined by Benjamin Franklin, “time is money.”
What Ben Franklin was getting at is that time is a highly valuable commodity. You only have so many minutes throughout the day to get things done and so in order to be successful you have to be hyper-productive with your time.
All too often people believe that means working longer and harder. We must put an end to this way of thinking.
With the world of technology at our fingertips, it’s more than possible to be more productive while working less. In fact, it’s becoming a standard for people everywhere.
Whatever your personal or business goals are, here are 15 productivity tools successful people use to work less.
1. Humin – Your Phone, Evolved
Humin is a great mobile app that helps you to remember all of the little details about your relationship with other people (i.e., how, where, and why you met them).
It’s been called the “first intuitive address book” and will help to improve your human productivity.
2. Evernote – The Workspace For Your Life’s Work
Evernote is a great, all-in-one productivity app that allows you to write down and organize everything you want to remember. In other words, it’s modern-day notebook on steroids.
Keep track of web pages, notes, PDF files, photos, audio clips, and more and access them from your desktop or mobile device at any time.
3. Google Drive + Google Analytics & Google Webmaster Tools
If you’re not already connected with Google Drive, you may want to consider jumping on board with their array of productivity tools. Google Drive (and the suite of products) makes it extremely easy to share and edit an array of files solo or with a team. Plus, it’s completely free.
Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools also take productivity to the next level by providing quick and easy insights into the performance of your online assets.
4. Slack – Be Less Busy
Speaking of team productivity, Slack is one of the most talked about and useful team software products on the market today.
Slack allows you to organize your team conversations in open channels. Members make a channel for a project, a topic, a team, or anything—everyone has a transparent view of all that’s going on making communications quick and efficient.
5. Dropbox – Safe and Synced Files
Dropbox is a cloud storage system that offers personal synchronization to keep all of your files safe, synced, and easy to share across each one of your devices.
Simply create and add folders/files to your Dropbox account and the program will automatically update those files whenever you make changes to them. This saves a ton of time when it comes to sharing files between devices and teams.
6. Buffer – A Smarter Way to Share on Social Media
With social media intertwined in every aspect of our daily lives, it’s no wonder that software products like Buffer have emerged to help us all be more productive.
Buffer allows everyone from individuals to small teams to enterprises manage their social media in a smarter, more efficient way. You can easily schedule social media posts in advance from any device you are on.
7. IFTTT – If This Then That
If This Then That is a unique app that allows you to craft “formulas” that make it so various programs and apps can work together for you.
For example, you can create a formula that allows you to automatically save any photos that you post on Instagram to your Dropbox folder. Or, you can post a daily reminder from your calendar or email account directly to Slack for your team to see.
IFTTT makes it easy to automate, saving you valuable minutes throughout your day.
8. Digit – Save Money, Without Even Thinking About It
You got it right, there is a way to be super productive at saving money. Digit is a great tool that takes a few dollars from your checking account every few days and puts it into a savings account specified by you.
How? Digit analyzes your income and spending over a period of time and finds small amounts of money that it can safely set aside for you. The amounts range anywhere from $ 5-50.
Save time (and money!) by allowing Digit to do the work for you.
9. Toggl – The Ultimate Timer
One aspect of being productive is the ability to manage your time. Toggl makes it very easy for you to do that. The concept is insanely simple – a time tracker built for speed and ease of use.
All you do is start the timer and Toggl tracks your time. This can be extremely useful for measuring projects, meetings, tasks, and when it’s time to take a break from all of that hard work. It also allows you to monitor the time you spent on different projects throughout the week.
10. Fantastical 2 – A Calendar App
Fantastical 2 is a beautiful and useful calendar app that allows you to use natural language to create complex repeating events and set alerts – Saving you time and energy when adding events to your schedule.
It has a clean, clear design and works just about anywhere.
11. MailChimp – Send Email Better
Crafting an email campaign can be time-consuming, costly, and downright frustrating. However, MailChimp, with more than 10 million users, makes it easy to create and manage email campaigns.
MailChimp’s drag and drop designer saves users time and allows for a wide array of email designs and styles. They also have a great automation feature that will make sure your emails get to the right people at the right time.
12. WeTransfer – Large File Transfers Made Easy
As many of us know, transferring large files via email or a mobile device can be frustrating due to upload time and files being too large.
Luckily, there’s an app for that. WeTransfer is an app and desktop solution that allows users to quickly upload, send, and receive large files across devices. Save time and energy using this software for your large, important files and your clients/team will thank you.
13. RealtimeBoard – Empower Teams Through Collaboration
Are you often too busy to meet with your team in person? Realtime Board just may have the solution for you.
They’ve created an online collaboration tool for “project leaders, marketers, designers, developers, and creatives.” Never get lost in endless email chains and numerous messengers ever again – gather feedback and provide comments, mark things up and see the updates in real-time.
14. ContentMarketer.io
We all know that influencers can have a huge impact on our business and personal brand, but finding and contacting influencers can be time-consuming and downright unproductive.
ContentMarketer.io is an easy-to-use program that allows people to find and contact influencers via email and twitter.
Using proven email templates, it guarantees an increase in productivity and results in your outreach efforts.
15. Noisli – Improve Focus & Boost Productivity
With all that goes on around us when we’re working, it can be tough to focus on the task at hand and be productive.
Noisli is out to help with that. Noisli is a high-quality background noise and color generator for working (and relaxing) when you need to focus. Their software allows you to create “the perfect environment” where you can be at your best.
That concludes the list and so now it’s time to try some of the productivity tools on your own! On your productivity journey, remember that it’s not about working harder; it’s about working smarter.
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