Kimber PowersFebruary 9, 2015
Getting (and staying) organized is a goal for many busy small business owners juggling multiple tasks with limited time. Here are six online tools you can use to organize all your business needs, and make this your most productive and time-savvy year yet.
1. Trello
The perfect hybrid of an online to-do list and full-scale organizational tool, Trello is the ideal app for someone seeking a project management platform that’s easy to use with straightforward functionality. Among its many features, you can use the main landing page to organize your tasks by creating note cards and dragging them onto one of your customized Trello note boards (think Pinterest with Post-its). Each note card offers a color-coding option, allowing you to rank it by priority and proposed deadline.
Additionally, everyone in your business can keep track each other’s projects using the ‘Share with Others’ function, allowing for greater collaboration and transparency across teams.
Trello is a free app with options to upgrade storage space, fun extras, and more visibility into other boards with an added fee.
2. Buffer
The incorporation of social media has become vital to increasing brand awareness and reaching new customers in the marketplace. However, it can also be seen as time consuming and less valuable than other projects that generate revenue. Insert Buffer – a tool that allows you to automate your posts across popular social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, saving you time while growing your social reach.
Buffer users can pre-schedule up to 10 free social posts per week (unlimited posts are available for a monthly fee) that can include a link, photo, or infographic to help your followers better engage with the message you want to convey.
3. Evernote
Serial note keepers appreciate Evernote – an app dedicated to making sure you have one central place for all the important ideas you need to jot down for your business. Evernote’s web clipper extension gives you the capability to save snippets from online articles, handy URLs, typed notes, and even photo snapshots from your tablet so that you can retrieve them later.
Secured by the cloud, locating any saved note is made easy with the app’s bookmarking function that allows you to quickly search for what you want to get your next project started.
Evernote is free to use. If you need to collaborate with others or manage other users you can sign up for a Premium or Business account.
4. Anti-Social
Designed to temporarily rid you from all online distractions, Anti-Social can be used to block any website that causes you to waste time or be unproductive. A valuable tool that is best used during peak work hours, this app allows you the functionality to set start and finish points to ensure you have a restrictive period of time in the day for focusing and completing necessary tasks.
Anti-Social is an app you download and install on your computer, with a fee of $ 15 to purchase the license.
5. Freedom
From anti-social to zero social, Freedom gives you the capability to blackout the online world completely. If you’re someone who’s easily distracted and not heavily dependent on the internet or e-commerce management for your business, this app allows you to select up to eight hours at a time where you go completely off the interweb grid.
Freedom is $ 10 for the license, but you can purchase both Anti-Social and Freedom together for $ 20.
6. Toggl
Have you ever wondered how much time you really spend on your daily tasks? If the answer is yes, give Toggl a try. This free time tracking software can be setup to track any task no matter how small. Simply plug in a name for your project and hit ‘start’ to begin. Even more useful, all of your sessions are saved in your account for review so that you can look at trends over time to better understand how you’re spending your time.
Toggl is free, but if you’d like to have a team of more than five people use the system, or you need to export data to share with clients, you’ll need to sign up for the Pro plan at $ 5 per head per month.
With the integration of these time saving business tools, you’ll be almost certain to see not only an increase in productivity, but you’re also bound to feel more inspired to develop and meet goals quicker to help your business flourish.
What time-saving tools are you using? Let us know in the comments below.
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