The top five apps for improving your productivity

app development, apps, productivity
Adelaide, Australia – July 5, 2013: Close-up image of an iPhone screen with icons of productivity apps

Hundreds of emails a day, long meetings, an ever-growing to-do list and no way of keeping track of where you’re at – it’s no wonder the modern workplace is full of highly stressed and under-performing employees.

The recent exponential growth in technology has led to an ever-increasing onslaught of information that comes our way each day. This means workers are less efficient, despite the fact technology was supposed to make everything easier.

The major problems I see around productivity when working with businesses are:

  • Unnecessary and distracting email traffic.
  • Poor record-keeping, leading to important jobs falling through the cracks.
  • Bad time management, meaning we aren’t getting the most out of our day.
  • Long meetings in which nothing is achieved.

These are the sort of things that can kill a business – but there are some good solutions out there amongst the clutter.

After many hours spent with small businesses and working out their issues, here are the five best apps I’ve found that will actually improve your productivity.

  • Slack: This very popular messaging app removes the email clutter that is the scourge of so many workplaces. Work-based messaging apps like Slack help clear away that clutter and save huge amounts of time.
  • Trello: Trello is a project management, or “task manager”, software that helps removes the confusion that permeates workplaces in terms of who is doing what. Invaluable, especially for a small business.
  • Zoom: Zoom is a video-conferencing app that records your meetings. It means that people in meetings don’t have to take notes or minutes and can focus on contributing to the discussion, as well as providing a resource for employees to go back and look at when necessary.
  • Evernote: Evernote allows me to not have to worry about where my information is stored. When I suddenly need something like warranty receipt from two years ago or a note someone passed me yesterday, I can relax because I know that everything’s in Evernote. It allows me to concentrate on the big things rather than obsess over the details.
  • Meetme: Have you ever spent hours trying to work out a time where you could get ten different people to a meeting? MeetMe is a simple program that makes setting a time for a meeting so much easier. It might seem like a small thing, but for some businesses it’s a lifesaver.

You have to work out what’s right for you, but one or all of these programs could change your productivity in short order, whether you’re a solo practitioner, an artist, or a business owner.

The important thing is to work out what’s going to allow you to do what you do best, rather than sweating the small stuff.

Jamie Cunningham, Business Coach