Improve your work productivity
At Christmas, we all fill ourselves with good resolutions for the new year. We thought about joining the gym or English classes, that our Oxford accent was fading. However, then January came and we fell into stark reality … We don’t have time! Our workday is so full of things to do that we don’t have time for anything. That is why our post today gives you a series of tools that will increase your work productivity. With them, lack of time will no longer be an excuse not to change those love handles for some marked abs. Did we discover them?
Table of Contents
1. Todoist
If you are wondering how this website can help you, just look at its simple, but clear slogan to understand it: Todoist, the tool that helps you do things. Simple truth? Todoist allows you to manage all your tasks and projects. In this way, you can do much more in less time. Remember that good organization leads to improved work productivity and with Todoist this is a piece of cake. The tool adapts to you and your needs. Therefore, you can find it in up to 15 different media. You have the possibility to use it in the web version or download it to your computer, whether it is a Windows or a Mac. Or why not take it everywhere thanks to its mobile application? With it you can create a calendar that includes tasks and subtasks, projects or key dates.
What’s more, If you purchase the Premium version, you can create alarms that remind you of key days or manage your tasks using labels. At the end of the month, don’t forget to take a look at Todoist Karma and see how that month went. You will be able to see everything you have managed to do and how your productivity has improved. Does it seem little to you?
2. Keep Focused
Have you heard of the Pomodoro Technique? This method tries to increase your work productivity by establishing, precisely, some work times and others of rest. The first thing you should do is decide what task you are going to dedicate yourself to. Then you start the timer and dedicate yourself to it in 25-minute intervals with a 5-minute break each. You repeat this 4 times and you can rest for a quarter of an hour. How about? This technique may be a bit difficult to use at first, but the truth is that it greatly increases your productivity. With it you manage to apply yourself to the maximum in the work intervals, but without overwhelming yourself thanks to the moments of rest. This technique applied to the 2.0 world, results in tools like Keep Focused. If you have found this working method interesting and you think you can apply it in your working day, Keep Focused will mark the time periods for you. In this way, you will only have to worry about performing at your best in the 25 minutes and enjoying your well-deserved breaks. Why not try something different?
3. Evernote
This is possibly one of the best known tools for increasing work productivity. If you have not heard of it, you must imagine what it would be like to group all the ideas in your head in a large digital folder. Already? Well that’s Evernote. With this tool you can create a note every time you need to store a piece of information. This is just great for freeing your mind from lots and lots of data. With Evernote you will be able to organize and label this information, having it accessible whenever you need it. You will be able to capture everything you need and save it for when you have time: from an Internet article to a handwritten note. All this in such a simple way that you will never have to saturate your memory again. What’s more, This tool allows you to share all this information in real time with other users. For example, Evernote is a fantastic service for creating presentations because with a single click your notes are transformed into a beautiful and attractive design.
4. Hootsuite
If you manage social networks like Twitter or LinkedIn, I’m sure you’ve heard of this tool. With Hootsuite you can schedule all your publications for the day, the week, the month … Can you imagine how much time you can save? Without a doubt, if you want to improve your work productivity, you will not achieve it if every X time you have to stop what you are doing to put a tweet. With Hootsuite you can concentrate all your time on social networks and dedicate yourself to other tasks the rest of the day. Obviously, you have and should stay tuned to them in case a follower needs you. But remember that you are no longer going to waste time thinking about how to fit your message into 140 characters because… it’s done!
5. Productivity Owl
Despite the fact that all these interesting tools are found online, the Internet is the main enemy of labor productivity! We cannot deny it, many times we get too distracted. If you feel identified with this statement, Productivity Owl is the perfect application for you. This Google Chrome extension allows you to determine which pages you can and cannot visit during your workday. That is, a parental control that you impose yourself. This vigilant owl follows you through all the pages you visit and if you are not being productive it will close all the tabs. Still don’t know why you need this tool? Because it will deny you entering certain pages for a few hours. In addition, if despite this you find other (improper) leisure alternatives, this owl will close everything. To work!
6. Wunderlist
It is time for us to assume that human beings love to make lists. The topics? Of the most diverse: from the 100 movies you must see before you die to what you have to buy when you go down to the supermarket. This can end our desk full of post-its and pages with to-dos, at least if we don’t use Wunderlist. This fantastic tool allows us to plan everything, absolutely everything. Its use allows you to plan all kinds of tasks, regardless of their theme or size. In addition, this service has a built-in alarm that alerts you every time you are approaching one of the scheduled appointments. Sounds interesting? Wunderlist is the perfect tool to increase your work productivity because you can group and label all your tasks, adding clarifying notes if necessary. And if that was not enough, it allows you to convert emails into pending actions just by forwarding them. Without a doubt, it will make your life much easier.
7. MakeMe
Do you spend the day imagining everything you can achieve? It is true that we all love to think about all the things we want to achieve, but if we do not work we will not achieve them! This is the goal of MakeMe. This fantastic application allows you to enter your goals to check, on a daily basis, your progress. This is essential if you want to improve your work productivity. In this way, you will be able to know if you are on the right track or if you should increase your efforts. This application also allows you to create group goals and see the progress of each team member. Ah! And it allows you to send messages to all your colleagues to congratulate them when they achieve a goal, and to be able to encourage them to keep up their good work. If this seems little to you, you can purchase the Premium version of the application. This modality will give you an action plan to follow for each of your goals. Each day will mark small actions that you must take to finish achieving what you propose. Doesn’t sound bad at all, right?
8. Soundrown
Finally, we cannot stop showing you this curious tool that wants to improve your work productivity. Soundrown is an application that reproduces, among others, the ambient sound of a classic cafeteria. We have long thought that it is a quiet room, and without many distractions, what we need to do a good job, right? Well, the truth is that a study from the University of British Columbia showed that these types of ambient sounds help us improve our concentration and creativity. The tool contains sounds from different parts of the world, from Brazil to Paris, all with the aim of helping you improve in your work. Therefore, if your boss sees you a lot in your company cafeteria, you can tell him that you are improving your creativity.
