12 productivity apps that will help you do more at your workplace

The new year is here and you probably looking into ways you can enhance productivity at the workplace. At time little things get into your way ad you end -up procrastinating the bigger and more important tasks or even stretching yourself to work for longer hours and losing out on your work-life balance.

Thanks to technology though, you can do much more with the ‘little’ time you have in your hands. Here are some productivity applications that will help you manage your time and probably look good the next time you are having that team meeting.

Buffer

If you are into social media Buffer is that application that you really need in your phone this new year. This is because the buffer is a scheduling app that lets you pre-post your social media posts and “release” them at a specific time. Studies have shown unequivocally that Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are more active at certain times of the day. This app allows you to schedule your posts to be visible during the times and days your audience is online.

Hours

Knowing how you spend your day is extremely helpful in making you more productive especially if you are a freelance. Hours is one of the best time tracking apps for freelancers and small business. The app helps you track projects, clients, tasks on the web and phone. The application is free and available for both Android and IoS users

What we love about the app is that it helps you actually track the time you spend on tasks versus the time you spend on distractions. At the end of the week it will give you a kind of ROI of your time. This will help you see how you utilize your hours each day.

Newton

Newton helps you separate your work and personal email. The app is an email management system that collects your client emails and tracks them for you. It’s a great way to remind yourself to reply to clients, send quotes and invoice customers at the end of a project.

Trello

Whether it’s for work, a side project or even the next family vacation, Trello helps your team stay organized.  It is arguably one of the is arguably one of the most popular priority management apps available.

The app helps you categorize your tasks by showing what needs to be done, who needs to do it (team management), which tasks are priorities and which tasks have been completed. Trello also lets you break tasks down into manageable parts, making them easier to handle. The app is however suitable for smaller personal to-do lists and might not work for bigger projects. So probably you will also want to check out other alternatives like Workzone.

Blinklist

Probably you have had about the five-hour rule if not the rule is around the most successful people on the planet, and typically says that the people likeliest to devote an hour a day to read and learn. As a business leader, Blinklist helps you achieve this easily. The reason why it made it on our list is because, the app gets to summarize books for you and reads it back to you in 15 minutes as either an audio or even text. The app is excellent for researching or general learning. With this app you could devour several books in a matter of weeks.

Cisco Spark

Probably, you have used Cisco Spark before with your team to create, meet, message, call, whiteboard, and share, regardless of whether they’re together or apart; in one continuous workstream before, during, and after meetings.

What is more interesting about the app is that the app can work as your virtual assistant. The app emails you every morning and gives you a summary of what your day has in store for you. It will list your tasks and give you the times for each one. It also can manage your team and remind relevant people of meetings, tasks and projects.

Focus List

I am sure we have heard of the pomodoro technique or even applied it. Well this technique is a time management method developed in the late 80s. The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. Focus List is a daily planner and focus app based on Pomodoro technique. It helps you plan your day, stay focused and track your time. Focus List also helps you deepen your concentration while you do it.

Google Keep

Google Keep is a note-taking service developed by Google. Launched on March 20, 2013, Google Keep is available on the web, and has mobile apps for the Android and iOS mobile operating systems. Keep offers a variety of tools for taking notes, including text, lists, images, and audio. Users can set reminders, which are integrated with Google Now. Text from images can be extracted using optical character recognition, and voice recordings can be transcribed. The interface allows for a single-column view or a multi-column view. Notes can be color-coded, and labels can be applied for organization. Later updates have added functionality to pin notes, and to collaborate on notes with other Keep users in real-time.

Overcast

If you are into podcasts, then overcast is an app that you need installed in your phone.  The app helps manage your podcasts subscriptions.

Push Bullet

Pushbullet helps you sync your computer with your phone, eliminating the need to switch between the two while you’re working. You can view your WhatsApp, social media and phone apps on your computer screen while your phone is on charge in another room. It’s very helpful for people who use their phones for multiple tasks like I do.

Slack

Project discussions, important documents, free food announcements name it all, Slack will always have them all live tidily together. With your team and information in one easily searchable place, collaborating online is as easy as collaborating in person. At Nairobi Garage, being home to over 500 people we find it easy to communicate and post announcements on the platform

Scanbot

Are you into so much paper work? Are your documents safe from getting lost or damaged?

Well, Scanbot is an application that you need to manage your document. The app helps you scan documents using your phone and makes quick work of turning your physical documents into virtual ones. Get your documents email ready by giving them a quick scan and archiving them permanently.

 

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