Have you ever have one of those days when you swear you’re going to get a lot done, yet by the time you’re ready to call your work day complete, you haven’t accomplished even half of the things you set out to do? Or the days when you feel as if you’re running in place and expending a ton of energy, yet not really getting anywhere? That’s me today.
I had every intention of getting a lot of work off my desk, but that hasn’t exactly been the case. Although normally very organized, today everything I try to find seems to take me twice as long to locate. Plus, I am spending an awful lot of time taking care of tasks that I know could be completed a faster and more efficient way (I just don’t know what that way is at the moment.)
If this sounds like you, not to worry too much because there’s a silver lining to this cloud. There are actually a few apps that you can download that will help you boost your productivity so you can get more done in less time. Apps that can potentially make your work days shorter, your time spent at the office more efficient, and ultimately increase your capability of producing real life and career-changing results.
With those goals in mind, here are the top three productivity apps according to The Webby Awards which can help small business owners like you (and me) become more effective at what we do:
Evernote
Evernote’s iOS app won top honors as The Webby Awards Winner in the productivity app category. This free app allows you to write notes and to-do lists which can help when you are in the middle of a task and don’t want to forget an idea or something you need to do later. It also lets you quickly search your saved content to find exactly what you’re looking for without having to go through all of your notes piece by piece.
Additionally, if you’re working on a specific job or project, you can chat with the rest of your team right within the app. This keeps all of your notes and conversations in one convenient place. It even lets you set reminders or notifications, which means that you’ll never forget to do something at a certain time or day.
If you want even more benefits, you can purchase Evernote premium and pay a monthly or annual fee. This gives you access to unlimited uploads, the ability to protect your account more securely with a passcode, transform your notes to presentations, and more.
The Webby Awards People’s Voice award for productivity apps went to Pocket. Available for download to iPhones and iPads, your Android, a Kobo e-reader, and your personal computer, this productivity app allows you to take things that you find online—such as articles, blogs, and videos—and put them in a “Pocket” that you can easily access from any electronic device. Even when you are offline.
For instance, the next time you’re doing research or otherwise stumble upon some information you want to read later, all you have to do is simply put it in your Pocket. Then you can access it no matter where you are, regardless of the device you are using, with Internet access or without.
And it’s also free. That is, unless you purchase Pocket Premium and get personal backup of the information in your Pockets, better search capabilities, and tags so you can find what you’re looking for a bit faster.
Boxer
Boxer received an honorable mention from The Webby Awards, making it a worthy mention here as well. This app supports a number of different email accounts (like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and AOL) and gives you the opportunity to bulk edit your inbox, provide a quicker response, and add smart labels, ultimately meaning less time spent with your emails and more time to get other just as important tasks done.
Although this specific app isn’t free– it costs a few dollars to download–it does have a 4-star rating from current and previous users which may make it worth the tiny investment. It is available for both iOS and Android smartphones as well.
If you’ve ever used one of these apps, I’d love to know what you think of them. Or, if there are other productivity apps you’ve used and liked or even used and didn’t like, feel free to share them here so other small business owners know which ones are worth their time and which ones are not.
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