Have you ever said this to yourself or to someone else?
I don’t have enough time.
I’m sure most of us have at some point in time, even the best of us.
It’s a self-limiting belief which stops us from being more productive.
It’s not that we don’t have enough time, it’s that we need to find ways to do more with the time we have.
In this post I will show you tools to help you become more productive. Whether you want to stay focused while writing, organize your time better or automate tedious tasks.
Are you ready to start getting more done in less time?
A simple strategy to help you use these tools and get more done
There are a lot of tools here, but that doesn’t mean you should use all of them, in fact far from it.
Pick one, try it and see how it helps.
Solve one challenge at a time and avoid trying out too many tools at once.
This post is organized into key areas where tools can help you be more productive so you can focus on where you need to be more productive.
Just click the link to get to scroll to your chosen section:
Tools to help you stay focused
E.ggTimer.com
E.ggTimer you access to an easy to use timer in your web browser. Set the timer, click ‘go’ and it will countdown. once the timer expires, you’ll get a notification in your browser.
How it will help you be more productive: Set the timer and work in timed bursts, this will increase your focus. This idea is based on the Pomodoro technique.
Price: Free.
Toggl
Toggl is a tool designed to help you track your time better.
Just type in what you’re working on and hit start, then stop the timer and your task will be stored along with your time spent on the task.
Toggl can be used on the web, on your desktop or on your mobile with the ability to support teams and generate reports.
How it will help you be more productive: Tracking the time you spend on a task helps you to stay accountable for the time you’re spending on specific tasks. Also works great if you want to monitor the productivity of your team.
Price: Basic features are free, all features cost $5/user/month with 30 day free trial.
Tools to help you stay organized
Evernote
Evernote is a note taking application that allows you to create and share notes. Evernote can be used on your desktop, your mobile phone and in your web browser.
There is also a handy Chrome extension that will allow you to clip from the web and save directly to your Evernote account.
All of your notes are synchronized within your account.
How it will help you be more productive: All of your notes will be in one place allowing you to stay more organized.
Price: Free, premium starts at $5/month.
Dropbox
Dropbox is one of the best cloud storage tools available right now.
Sign up for an account, download the software client and start saving files in your “Dropbox” folder. Your files will then be synchronized and you can then access them from anywhere.
You can use Dropbox on your mobile, your desktop or via the web interface.
How it will help you be more productive: Access your files from anywhere, no matter what device you are using. Share folders with others in a few clicks and never have to worry if anything happens to your computer, everything is backed up.
Price: Starts from free for 2GB+ storage, additional storage starts at $9.99/month.
LastPass
LastPass is a password management tool which is supported well across multiple devices.
You have access to desktop software which supports Windows, Mac and Linux along with specific browser extensions that support Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer and more.
Type in a password and you’ll be prompted to save or overwrite an existing password. You can also choose to auto-fill your details or click a button and select your account before logging in.
How it will help you be more productive: When you have accounts on a lot of different websites
Price: Free, premium plan available for $12/year.
Trello
Trello is a project management tool that allows you to create boards for each of your projects; you create lists across your board and then add cards to each list.
Within each card you can specify a due date, attach files, add descriptions, checklists and labels.
You can drag & drop cards and lists which makes everything easy to move around. Trello is also supported on multiple devices to help you keep everything in sync.
How it will help you be more productive: Trello makes it easy to manage tasks for large projects with lots of details. The interface is simple and makes collaboration easy. Trello makes project management quicker.
Price: Free, premium plan available for $5/user/month.
Teux Deux
Teux Deux is a simple to-do app with a twist.
Instead of creating seemingly endless lists like with other to-do apps, Teux Deux puts those lists into a calendar style format.
You can use the app in your browser or on a mobile device.
How it will help you be more productive: This app will make your to-do lists more manageable, it’s simple with no unnecessary bells and whistles which end up hindering productivity. You will know what you’ve got to do and when you’ve got to do it.
Price: $3/month.
Writing tools to help you stay productive and focused
ZenWriter
ZenWriter is a simple writing application for Windows. It’s all about helping you stay focused on what’s important – your writing.
If you are a mac user try an alternative called WriteRoom. It will give you a distraction free writing environment like ZenWriter.
How it will help you be more productive: ZenWriter removes unnecessary distractions to improve your productivity.
Price: $9.99 with free trial available.
Hemingway App
The Hemingway App is a web based tool that helps you to improve your writing and make it easier to understand.
You can write in the app or paste your text in and there’s a desktop editor available for Mac and PC.
How it will help you be more productive: Save time editing and learn how to develop your writing at the same time.
Price: Free, desktop version costs $6.99.
Think of this tool like the next evolution of bookmarking.
Pocket allows you to save content to read later and it takes one click. You can add tags to better organize your saved content.
Save content directly from your web browser, via email or from a variety of different applications including Flipboard, Pulse and Twitter.
Pocket’s interface is clean with minimal distractions and is available for mobile.
How it will help you be more productive: Read content in a clean and distraction free interface.
Price: Free, premium available from $4.99/month.
Grammarly
Grammarly is an online tool that proofreads your content for you.
It will help you with your grammar, spelling, sentence structure, style and more.
How it will help you be more productive: You will know exactly how to improve your content, no need to wait for a person to do this for you. It’s also a great learning experience as you can see what you need to change and why.
Price: $29.95/month.
Visual content creation tools that make life easy
Share As Image
Share As Image allows you to turn any text that can be highlighted into engaging visual content.
In less than a minute you could have a branded piece of visual content ready to share across your social networks.
Images featuring quotes usually generate a lot of traction via social media. The problem has always been the time that it takes to create them.
Just highlight any piece of text, right hand click, select “Share As Image” and edit your image.
How it will help you be more productive: Create shareable images faster than you thought possible. It takes around 2 minutes on average.
Price: $8/month or use this link and discount code ADAMCONNELL for 10% off yearly subscriptions.
Canva
In the past you would need expensive image editing software to make eye-catching graphics for your blog.
Now tools like Canva make it easy for anyone to make images for your blog posts, social media graphics, presentations and Infographics.
How it will help you be more productive: Canva’s interface is designed in a way which makes it faster to put together images. Default layouts and
Price: Free, premium images available for $1 each.
Adobe Kuler
Choosing color schemes can be challenging.
Fortunately there are tools like Adobe Kuler which allow you to create your own color schemes on the fly.
Various color rule settings mean you will have plenty of choice. RGB and HEX values are given for each colour so you can easily copy and paste into Canva or another image editing tool.
How it will help you be more productive: Create color schemes that fit together in minutes.
Price: Free.
Skitch by Evernote
With Skitch you can quickly take screenshots, edit them, add annotations and quick sketches.
Skitch is compatible with desktop, tablet and smart phone.
How it will help you be more productive: Instead of using your computers “print screen” function, use Skitch to take screenshots, edit them and save them in minutes without having to use other software.
Price: Free.
Social media tools that boost your productivity
Social Oomph
Social Oomph is a tool that helps you save time on various social media tasks.
You can use it to schedule updates, monitor mentions, find the right people to follow and a lot more.
Supported networks include Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and more. You can also publish directly to blogs from Social Oomph.
How it will help you be more productive: Social Oomph automates time consuming tasks and makes it easy to share recurring updates.
Price: Free with limited features, full features for $35/month.
Buffer
Buffer is an easy to use tool that helps you schedule social media updates and find awesome content to share.
You can add content to share directly via your Buffer account, the browser extension or the mobile app. Choose when you want the updates to be shared from within your account.
Buffer also helps you to find great content to share. This can be done via the web interface or from the Suggestions app for iOS.
How it will help you be more productive: Schedule social media updates at the click of a button and find interesting content to share.
Price: Free, paid plans start at $9.99/month.
Friends+Me
If you’re a Google+ user, you will love this.
Friends+Me allows you to cross promote your Google+ posts from pages & profiles to other networks which include Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Tumblr and more.
How it will help you be more productive: Friends+Me helps you to grow your Google+ following and save time scheduling content across other networks.
Price: Free for up to 5 accounts, paid plans start at $9/month.
Tools to help you automate tedious tasks
IFTTT
IFTTT stands for ‘if this then that’.
It’s a tool that allows you to create connections between various online services, anything from Facebook to Evernote. These are called channels.
You can search for recipes, this link connect channels together to perform automated tasks.
Here are a few examples:
- If you get a new Twitter follower, they are invited to connect on Linkedin.
- If I get an email through Gmail that has an attachment, save it to my Google Drive account.
- If a new blog post is published (via the RSS feed you choose), add it to my Pocket account.
- If I post a photo to Instagram, publish it to my Tumblr account.
How it will help you be more productive: Automate countless tedious tasks that would otherwise take you a very long time.
Price: Free.
Zapier
Zapier works on a similar basis to IFTTT.
There are some key differences; free accounts are limited and there are more apps to choose from.
The potential Zapier has is mind-blowing.
Here are some examples of the amazing things you can do:
- Add Eventbrite attendee’s to MailChimp.
- Add MailChimp subscribers automatically from a Google Form entry.
- Send new Tumblr posts to Buffer automatically.
- Send Feedly “Saved for later” articles to Evernote.
- Add an item to your Buffer account from new Google Docs rows.
How it will help you be more productive: Automate tasks you never thought were even possible and get more done in less time.
Price: Free, paid plans start at $15/month with extended features.
Over to you
Which tools do you use to stay productive and why?