What are productivity tools? You’ve probably heard that word or some version of it before. Some people believe that the only way to get more work done is by having more tools at hand, but what exactly is a productivity tool? Your job as an entrepreneur is to come up with the best ideas while creating your product or service. That means many people see these productivity tools as unnecessary or useless. But they are not.
Below are productive tools that will help you in all areas of endeavor.
Tempo 2
An impressive start for Tempo in 2021, with eyes on tools like Hey.com and Tempo — people are more aware of their workflows. Tempo helps you batch work on email, to avoid overload and un-intentional checking and browsing.
Akiflow
A new form of productivity app called “consolidation tools” arise.
Akiflow is one of these, allowing you to blend tools like Asana, Slack, Google Calendar, Todoist, Trello and more in one hub. Perfect for team leaders or stressed team members using multiple tools and looking to bring them all in one spot.
Mem
Taking on the likes of Roam Research and Obsidian in 2022, Mem currently allows you to take notes in a timeline view, add and manage tasks, create meeting notes and use powerful templates and daily notes too. This app is one of the hottest on the list for potential bi-directional linking global popularity.
Clover
Imagine that Dropbox Paper and Milanote had a baby. This Whimsical competitor Clover, combines notes, daily notes (for journal, tasks) and “surfaces” allowing you to create visual notes (diagrams, wireframes and more)
Coda
With a pricey funding round dropped recently, Coda continues to thrive in the workplace environments as this super flexible workflow/docs tool of the future. It’s very much what Google Docs could have been, if innovation had kept them humble — I see Coda doing well in 2022 in the team market.
Evernote
Francesco, are you crazy?!
Evernote hasn’t been doing much. Yes, granted, the last 3 major features — weren’t’ anything special, but this momentum Evernote brings fills me with hope that leapfrogging could well be a potential tactic — allowing them to focus on machine learning and notes in 2022.
Things
Things 4 could very well be on the horizon in 2022. With the success of Things 3, the future could be even brighter when the 4th edition is released, with a community loving this app, and the potential for a premium subscription model could help Things 4 be the last of the Things releases.
Endel
Science playing more of a role in how we use tools, when we use them and what context could very well help the productivity market flourish. The folks at Endel are doing just this with their soundscapes adaptive to your body, weather, location and environment — this level of context could inspire other tools to be more aware of you, and your role at work/life.
Microsoft
Yes. Microsoft are finally getting it. At their more recent event covering Microsoft Teams, Office and the hybrid workspace, they progressed massively on what it means to be a remote employee and how important looking after folks during the work day is. With new Headspace additions, and a sense of respect for focus time, new additions look exciting as time goes on.
Craft
Notion have a real threat with this personal documents application Craft. Craft is adding features by the week with a real focus on catching up to the Notion-esque approach and with their recent addition of daily notes, it really is blending the experience between Obsidian and Notion so well for newbies.
Walling
Again, another flexible application providing constant updates and a really exciting product as the year progresses. Walling is aiming to be a flexible, paper-like project management tool — following in the footsteps of Dropbox Paper but with some edge in allowing you to manage bricks, walls and multi-media in a more flexible fashion.
Superlist
Yet to be released, the folks behind Wunderlist want to translate this into Superlist allowing them to be the new tool for managing tasks in a team setting, with privacy and focus in mind — this comes from the brain of Christian Reber, behind Pitch too, so I’m super (no pun) excited for this.
Kinopio
With their iOS application almost complete, Kinopio is an interesting one. A creative mind-map that allows you to add notes, link them up in connections and build walls/custom layouts — is an appealing option for students, creatives and visual thinkers of the future — I love the nature of this tool!
Motion
A rising star right now, Motion comes as a Chrome Extension gaining plenty of traction as a high-end way to plan your week — like a VA-type application of the future, combining holistic productivity with managing tasks/events. This could very well be something to keep an eye on!
LastPass
Best password management tool for teams that use a lot of apps and use different passwords for each of them to log in securely and automatically.
Though many of us are guilty of it, no one should be using the same password for everything—especially not business owners. Why make things so easy for hackers? Don’t be so generous with your company’s data.
Thing is, coming up with good passwords can be tough, and remembering all of them is even tougher. With LastPass, you can generate lengthy, secure passwords that no one, not even you, would be able to remember. Which is why it also saves you passwords for you and lets you log in automatically to every site you need them on. Plus, LastPass can be used across all your different devices, letting you log into the programs you need from anywhere. The only password you need to remember is your LastPass one!
LastPass comes with a free or paid plan. The free one lets you save login credentials for up to 20 accounts, which is generally more than enough for small business users.
Grammarly
The best spelling and grammar checking tool for anyone who writes anything, including emails, documents, presentations, and so on.
Grammarly checks your spelling and grammar for you as you type, so you always sound uber professional in all your written communications. Think of it as a proofreader that wants to make sure you sound as eloquent as possible.
For example, it’ll catch if you forgot to capitalize a name, miss a punctuation mark, or if your sentence could be clearer. It also evaluates the overall tone of your writing with an emoji. A dress shirt emoji means your writing sounds formal. A hug emoji means you sound friendly. And a peace sign emoji means you sound optimistic. Fun!
One thing that sets Grammarly apart from a typical spell-check tool is it gives you a brief explanation of why something is incorrect, so you know what to avoid doing in the future. This not only makes Grammarly a great tool to double-check your writing, but it’s also awesome for developing your writing skills, meaning you’ll get more and more efficient at writing those emails and letterheads as time goes on. And therefore, be more productive.
ProofHub
ProofHub is a single platform that may be used for a variety of applications. It’s a one-stop shop for freelancers, remote teams, small companies, and corporations to plan, communicate, organize, track, prove, and deliver work in a smarter, quicker, and more efficient manner. Chat, discussion, Gantt chart, Kanban board, Custom roles, Custom reports, Files, Notes, Timesheets, and much more are among the platform’s strengths.
Things
Things is a task management tool that helps professionals stay organized and do more work in less time. Any. do allow you to save all of your tasks, lists, and reminders in one place and sync them across all of your devices. One of the most beautifully designed apps I have ever seen and is currently available only on iOS, Mac, and iPad.
Evernote
Evernote is one of the most outstanding programs for task management, organization, and note-taking. Using Evernote, you can collect and prioritize ideas, projects, meeting minutes, and to-do lists in one place, ensuring that nothing slips between the cracks.
Gmail
Probably the best email inbox tool for any business that uses email!
Email is infamous for killing time and productivity but Gmail actually doubles as a productivity tool, setting it apart from other email apps. It’s also free, and there’s a good chance you and your team are already using it, so there’s no learning curve either.
Gmail has a super clean interface that’s easy to use and not distracting. It also has smart features like the ability to create canned responses, meaning you don’t need to keep typing out the same message over and over again.
What makes Gmail unique is it automatically sorts your emails into folders thus reducing noise and clutter, but you can also create labels to sort your emails even further. For example, you can create a label that automatically forwards any email with the word “invoice” in the subject line to your accountant.
Integration options:
- Integrate with RingCentral to make a call or send an SMS message directly from an email.
- Integrate with Slack to send a Slack message through a new email in Gmail.
- Integrate with Salesforce to get an email in Gmail when an opportunity is updated in Salesforce.
Conclusion
New entrepreneurs are particularly interested in productivity tools, but office workers are searching for tools that will help them become more productive, too.