Productivity apps are designed to solve time and workflow problems, from the ones that bug you in your daily life, to some you don’t even realise you had until they’re already solved. Let the same technology responsible for cluttering your life help you develop habits that make your precious time count for more.
Track Your Time
If you’re a leader, team member, freelancer, or especially for those night-owl side-hustle entrepreneurs, time is the most valuable resource you have.
It’s easy to lose track of time, whether you’re working hard on a task or just procrastinating, time management will escape you at some point.
The right time tracker app will not only help you to focus on your tasks without forcing you to keep one eye on the clock, but it will also offer you valuable data on your productivity habits.
Check out the following app to see what works best for you.
TopTracker app allow you to see how much time you spend on assignments, as well as organise a team and their time use. This app makes pricing and billing projects a breeze.
Forest app blocks off access to the rest of your phone. Allowing you to focus on your tasks without being interrupted.
Tomighty is a useful desktop app that remains quietly in your taskbar until it’s time to sound the buzzer.
When it comes to time tracking, it’s best to pick an app or two and your favourite method of time management and stick with it. Time management is about forming habits, so it will set you back to frequently switch between methods.
A Note Clipper & Taker
Digital work will frequently force you to bring together disparate kinds of content. Photos, articles, notes, memos, voice recordings, data and analytics, emails, to-do lists, short-codes, and a whole host of other bits and pieces often make up the prime material of your projects.
A digital note-clipper is like having powerful digital filing cabinets that you can organise and sift through. They’re also generally connected to a cloud so that you can log into your account from just about any device and find your crucial content.
Check out the following app to see what works best for you.
Evernote is a premium app which is free to trial but for advanced services you’ll bee to pay a subscription. Evernote allows you to store simple and customizable clippings from the web as well as any attachments from your computer. It has mobile and desktop applications which all sync together making this a great productivity tool.
OneNote is a great tool which is free and very similar to Evernote but not as user friendly (in our opinion). Again, this has a great cross platform ability meaning whether you’re on a desktop, smartphone or tablet you’ll get access to all your notes.
Project Management
Project Manager apps are like interactive schedulers that help you to optimise your time while making sure that you leave no task behind.
Check out the following app to see what works best for you.
Trello is helpful for keeping a board of prioritised project-based workflow. This can be used by multiple team members and gives the ability to add tasks and mark them off once completed.
Todoist app allows you to add and mark off tasks on multiple lists, with separate filters for home, work, and leisure.
Social Media Manager
One of the first mistakes that small businesses make is assuming that they will always post their content manually to the right social media platforms on time.
Check out the following app to see what works best for you.
Hootsuite won’t take the spontaneous and personal feel out of your social media strategy, and it will allow you more control over it when you post so that you reach the most people.
Buffer offers free social media management and post sequencing for up to three social accounts. For more accounts, you need a subscription to access.
Don’t fancy the hassle of creating and scheduling social posts? Purple Yak can help you out, we can work together to create a schedule of content and social engagements then carry out the management and distribution for you. Contact us to find out more.
A Distraction Blocker
According to research we disrupt our work for something that may even seem productive such as checking our email but actually it can stall our ability to focus for 23 minutes.
Check out the following app to see what works best for you.
Freedom blocks distracting desktop apps as well as websites to rescue you from the mind-clutter of multi-tasking and help your work performance.
StayFocusd app does the same as above but is for your smartphone.
Paperwork Scanner
If you’re working primarily digitally, the hassle involved in moving between paper and digital forms can slow down your work process. Paperwork should be the least of your concerns.
ScanBot helps you use your smartphone camera to create professional scans of your paperwork so that all your paperwork is cleanly digitised and easy to share.