The following is a list of effective and useful tools used by millions of people around the world to add productivity to their work hours.
ProofHub
Overall, ProofHub eliminates the need of checking emails every now and then which is of course a time consuming process. A notification is send out for every single activity completed or added in a project. So, everyone working on a project and using ProofHub gets real-time update for every little thing. Also, this helps remote employees stay on the same page with other team members. When you are using such a tool which has so much to offer then do you still think your productivity will suffer? Still the answer in your mind is ‘Yes’? You can give it a try once.
Flowstate
Most people think that writing is as simple task as putting words back to back to form sentences. Ask a writer how he struggles to fight his mental state and channelize his thoughts into words, emotions, feelings, characters to build a readable content. If you are a writer who is often distracted and juggles with his own mind to put ideas into words, Flowstate is the most dangerous yet efficient writing app for you. It will help you overcome ‘writer’s block’ and help you maintain a consistent and creative flow of writing.
Flowstate enables you to stretch beyond your comfort zone and finish off your work. You can assign a name to your writing session, set the time duration you want to write for and there you are. Now, if you happen to exit the program early or discontinue to type for more an five seconds, then you are again at level zero. So, the only way to save your hard work is to continue writing till the session gets completed. It also encourages you to ‘write first and edit later’ as editing slows your time.
Focus Booster
Focus Booster is a free Mac utility that makes use of the Pomodoro Technique and time tracking to help you complete projects. Using this, you can work in short yet productive rounds and also take short breaks. As per the Pomodoro Technique, your work sessions are of 25-minute intervals separated by a 5-minute break that allows you to recharge yourself.
Since Focus Booster doesn’t come with a pause button, it keeps distractions at bay. As a result of this you can focus on important things related to your work. With its sleek dashboard, you can access automated timesheets and track every single minute of your work. It is an easy to use app, quick to install and comes with a sleek and well-designed interface.
SaneBox
We waste a lot of time each day going through our mailbox and sending those spammy emails to the trash folder. In fact, there are only a few relevant emails as compared to the total number we receive daily. SaneBox helps you to organize your mail box and shun away the promotional emails. In fact, Sanebox is the best thing that you can use for weeding out irrelevant emails from your mailbox, and categorize your messages into specific folders as per their importance. You can find the newsletters and emails related to offers in the SaneLater inbox.
SaneBox helps its users stay undistracted by marking all unimportant emails as read. This helps your mailbox remain clutter free and makes it easier for you to read urgent emails. Using SaneBox is quite simple. You just have to go to SaneBox.com, enter your email address, and enter the password of your email. Don’t worry about the security! The credentials are encrypted and kept on a secure server away from public internet access.
IFTTT
IFTTT short for If This Then That is basically an application linking platform that allows its users to connect their favorite mobile applications with each other. This helps to synchronize data automatically and also get personalized knowledge feeds. The best part is that IFTTT is available on both desktop and mobile applications. Using this free-to-use application, you can create and tailor information anytime and anywhere. IFTTT provides support through its blog and social media channels.
Using IFTTT recipes, you can create personal automation recipes for social media channels. For instance, if you want to publish your Twitter message on Facebook then this tool can do it for you. It will create a duplicate of your Twitter message and publish it to your Facebook wall automatically. This adds to your work productivity and save a lot of time spent in making a double entry and then posting it on multiple platforms.
Founded in 2007 by Nate Weiner, Pocket lets its users save their interesting content like articles, videos etc so that they can enjoy it later. After they save it to Pocket, then you can access this list on your smartphone, PC or tablet. So, if you are too busy to explore your favorite content then view it while commuting, or relaxing on your couch.
The best part is that you can even view the saved stuff in an offline mode. There are a lot of apps integrated with Pocket like Twitter, Zite and Flipboard and you can run it on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Kobo, Kindle Fire, Safari, Google Chrome, Opera, Firefox, and Windows. Due to its ease-of-use, it has more than 10 million registered users and the number is still rising.
LastPass
There was a time when we used to have a single email account the password for which was generally a combination of your name and birthdate. But today we are signed into a number of social media accounts, utility apps etc. In fact, we don’t even remember the websites where we have signed up till we get a reminder email from them. Thus, managing passwords and usernames is quite a big deal now.
LastPass is the right place where you can manage all your passwords from strong to weak ones. Using LastPass you can create a strong master password which will help you guard all other secrets. The amazing fact is that passwords and even the master passwords cannot be decrypted by anyone including LastPass’s employees. Also, while creating a new password, LastPass helps you in creating a strong one automatically.
I hope these tools will help you get more productive and work in a focused way. If there are any other tools, help us add them in our list.