9 Productivity Tools To Keep You On Track and Staying Busy

With a culture so centered on work, we’ve become obsessed with productivity. And as you might suspect, that obsession has led to the development of tools designed to help us become ever-more-productive workers. However, with so many apps to choose from, you could easily waste more time researching and trying out different apps than actually using them. Or, you could let us do all the research and trust that we’ve selected some of the best tools currently available. Let our productivity help you become (even more) productive.

Trello

Trello is a stellar and simple system for visualizing, and then manipulating, your work. (In fact, we use it ourselves at Single Grain.) This content and workflow management system gives you the ability to easily create and quickly (re-)organize your tasks, share them with collaborators, comment on them, set due dates and reminders, and even post the completed product – all in the same place. It’s arguably the best digital whiteboard on the market today.

The Pomodoro Technique and Timer

The most immediately-applicable tip and tool for managing your time better is to work in 20 minute intervals. For most folks, the human attention span waxes and wanes in periods of about 20 minutes. After that, the majority of us have a much harder time focusing on the work we have to do or the information we need to process. So, to remind yourself to take a short break, or to switch tasks about every 20 minutes, use The Pomodoro Technique and Timer. It’ll help you to maximize on your natural productivity without having to force yourself to power through every bit of work unnecessarily.

Sqwiggle

If you and your team often collaborate remotely, then Sqwiggle is about to increase your connectivity tenfold. It’s a video chat tool that allows you to quickly engage your whole team in conversation while also giving you the ability to hop in and out of side conversations with just one person or a few people. It’s akin to walking down the hall at the office and stopping by your co-workers desks for a quick question, only digital and from anywhere in the world. And so you know that everybody’s still listening, Sqwiggle hovers in the background of your computer and takes a quick snapshot of you every few minutes to let your team know you’re still present.

Cold Turkey

As its name suggests, this app will quickly and harshly cut off your sneaky attempts to distract yourself from getting work done. No weaning yourself off of the distractions with this one; Cold Turkey slams the door shut, locks it, throws away the key, and then forgets where it tossed the key until your bout of productivity is up. It blocks sites and other apps computer-wide for as long as you tell it to, and it’s relentless. Think of Cold Turkey as your new personal trainer for productivity, and you’ll soon be in good working shape once again.

iDoneThis

Let’s assume that you’re one of those people who’s really good at getting their own work done, but you’re bad about sharing the news. You’ll knock out task after task throughout the day, but find yourself too tired or too busy to let your team know what you’ve accomplished. Well, not anymore with iDoneThis. Simply reply to an email reminder that’s automatically sent out every evening, list what you got done that day, and the next morning, read an account of what everyone else on your team completed as well. With this app, you can cut down on the frequency of ineffectual, “update” meetings by just sharing and reviewing what everyone has done. And as an added, personal bonus, you’ll have a log of all the good work and projects you’ve completed, which you can easily reference again when asking your boss for a raise or updating your résumé when you want to apply for another job.

AwayFind

Many people find themselves distracted by the “what ifs” of the workplace, most of which arrive via email. As a result, we’re constantly checking our Outlook throughout the day and anxiously awaiting that one vital email. However, more often than not, we’re simply distracted by every other message that enters our inbox. AwayFind can keep an eye out for you so that you can focus on getting the good work done again. Just tell the app which senders or what topics are important, and when that important email arrives, you’ll immediately get a text or call from the app letting you know.

WriteRoom (Mac) / FocusWriter (PC)

Both of these programs accomplish the same goal: providing you with a distraction-free writing zone. No matter how much writing you normally do for your job, there will come a time when you have to focus and crank out a great speech, story, email, brief, or proposal. With WriteRoom and FocusWriter, you’re purposefully giving yourself tunnel vision to get that writing done, and both apps come with fully-customizable themes, timers, and spellcheckers already built in.

Buffer

If you’re a social media manager, then this app is a divine gift from the digital gods. Compose whatever you want, whenever you want, and let Buffer analyze your social networking accounts to find the optimal time to post (or repost), and schedule it for maximum virality. The app effortlessly syncs with many popular platforms, and every one of your Buffered posts comes with free, in-depth analytics.

Google Drive

Google Drive (A.K.A. as “Google Docs”) is arguably one of the best collaborative tools on the Internet today. With it you can create, share, edit, and comment on a variety of documents in real time with people sitting in the same room or across the globe. It’s also a great place to host your workload in the cloud and give everyone access to the documents and information they need to get their individual jobs done efficiently and effectively.

Getting work done is never as simple as it sounds. With these apps, you’ll be able to crack down on your own procrastination and deliver that money-making work on-time and with aplomb.