8 Types of Tools for Boosting Your Productivity

Remote work has changed the way we view productivity. Today, more than ever, we need new ways to adapt and grow in our jobs. Fortunately, technology has come to the rescue with productivity apps and platforms. Regardless of your location, these tools make it easier to organize ideas, plan projects, and collaborate with your team. However, you need to choose the best solutions if you want to boost your productivity effectively.

Task Management Tools

Before you can start a project successfully, it’s necessary to break the assignment into little blocks. Doing so will be helpful if you have several tasks to accomplish. As you complete each item, you can check them off the list. This makes it easier to keep track of your progress. Without proper organization, you might lose track of certain parts of the job. If that happens, it can potentially ruin your project.

You need a solution that lets you monitor and track projects for individuals and teams in one central space. An online task manager that each team member can access from anywhere in the world is essential. Simply put, such a tool will make it easy to add tasks, track individual progress, share ideas, and document bills. It should also have an easy-to-use communication channel, allowing members to reach out to each other faster.

Remote working apps for effective task management include:

• Monday.com
• Trello
• Asana
• Clickup

Trello, for example, shows you everything at a glance via its crisp user interface. You can view all tasks, monitor progress, and plan a course of action. This is an excellent option if you prefer managing projects on Kanban boards. 

Asana is another great project management app. It comes as no surprise that it is popular within the remote work community. Think of it as your personal AI in all things concerning management. Companies like Uber and Airbnb use it to plot and keep track of projects.

Using task management software keeps team members informed on each other’s progress. They can see what has been done and what needs to be done. In addition, it keeps everyone on track of deadlines. This improves communication, which in turn boosts productivity.

David Grossman, CEO of Grossman group, reports the importance of adequate communication. His study involving 400 companies showed that organizations lose about $62.4 million per year because of poor communication.

Whether it’s changing the approach to a project or adjusting the budget, you need this solution. Task management tools keep you organized. They help you avoid losing track of what needs to be done.

Tools for Storing Ideas

Whether you’re a manager or a junior employee, you understand that a team needs its members. The success and efficiency of a group depend on the sum of its parts. Think of this as a chain; to stay strong, you need each link to remain connected.

Each team member has unique strengths. When used properly, this can bring any project to successful completion. Having a place to gather, store, and access each other’s ideas is crucial if you want to move forward as a group. Idea notebooks make this possible, especially when you’re working remotely. They allow team members to collaborate and work as a unit.

As Andrew Carnegie rightly said:

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision, the ability to direct individual accomplishments towards organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”

Tools for storing ideas are among the best personal productivity apps you should have in your arsenal. These include:

• Evernote
• Dropbox
• Sketch

Evernote makes it easy to store notes, images, links, articles, among many others. Users can share and sync information or ideas across multiple devices. It doesn’t require everyone to be online simultaneously. Team members can collaborate from different time zones and view each other’s contributions whenever they open the app. 

If your team prefers to work in real-time, Dropbox makes it possible to gather and share information. Team members can brainstorm ideas and review suggestions on a joint project. You can use Dropbox alongside apps like Sketch. They make it possible for several people to work together on the same document simultaneously in real-time.

In addition to Evernote and Dropbox, there are many other note-taking apps to help you store ideas, share information, and collaborate with others in real-time. Take Hive Notes for example. This app is an extension of Hive’s productivity platform, meaning that anything typed within Hive Notes can be accessed from within the Hive platform.

You can even turn any line of text into an action item, assign it to a teammate, and set a due date. One of the most helpful functionalities of Hive Notes is the Zoom app. Whenever you connect Hive Notes to Zoom, you can take collaborative notes in real-time during your meeting right inside the Zoom window. Now that’s convenient!

Calendar Apps

To finish tasks on time, you need an efficient way to monitor tasks and their due dates. If you handle multiple projects simultaneously, it is easy to lose track of deadlines. This can put you in panic mode when you realize you’re behind on the delivery date. 

Team members need a group calendar they can access from any location. These tools allow members to stay in sync while working on different aspects of an assignment. You can allocate tasks efficiently. They also allow you to set different deadlines for multiple milestones within a larger project.

A calendar app should be customizable and easy to sync across multiple devices. It should also have the ability to send notifications of scheduled meetings and upcoming deadlines. 

Effective calendar tools include:

• TimeTree
• Outlook
• Keep & Share

Users can also manage client contacts within these tools. This allows you to focus on work without worries about forgetting important dates. A good calendar app enhances productivity by sending you essential reminders throughout the workweek.

Messaging Tools

Whether you’re working remotely or commuting, you need a way to facilitate communication. You don’t have to leave your work desk whenever you want to ask your colleague a quick question. Messaging apps allow you to send messages and receive responses instantly.

While project management tools offer messaging features, they have their limitations. With direct messaging tools, it’s easier to reach out to anyone within your organization. This facilitates work output and increases productivity within a team.

There are lots of messaging platforms to choose from:

• Discord
• Slack
• Google Chat
• Microsoft Teams

Slack comes with unique features that set it apart from other messaging apps. It includes the ability to create multiple chat channels for varying topics. This feature makes it an excellent tool for remote teams working on different aspects of a project. You can also reach out to individuals privately. Slack notifies them to reply as soon as possible if they’re online.

While Discord has a “text channels” feature, it’s mostly known for its voice channel capabilities. By simply pushing a key, you can join a voice conversation to discuss tasks and ask questions. How you choose to communicate is entirely up to you and your team.

Google Chat helps you create a homely work environment. You can send direct messages or participate in group discussions. It is a perfect tool for bringing the team closer. Go ahead and create multiple virtual rooms with threaded conversations. This creates a backup of chats that you can reference in the future. It can support up to 8000 users simultaneously, making it suitable for small to medium organizations.

For a team and its members to function efficiently, communication needs to be at its very core. In a survey conducted by Dynamic Signal involving 1,000 employees, 80% admitted they feel stressed by ineffective company communication.

Security Apps

You might not know this, but your security is essential when it comes to boosting your productivity. You don’t want to find yourself amid a malicious hack that can affect your deadlines.

Working with several remote tools creates a security challenge that can potentially halt productivity. Since you’re using different apps to collaborate, passwords are important. However, the drawback is that with so many people working remotely, mistakes can happen. Anyone can easily forget the login code to their account. This is especially true when you have several passwords to remember.

You might be tempted to write down your passwords in your diary or notebook. However, this is potentially dangerous, as anyone can access it and log into your account. If you deal with sensitive or confidential data, you don’t want this to happen. Your productivity can be cut short in the event of a security breach.

As a remote worker, you need a way to save passwords easily. It is vital to have a security tool that allows everyone to keep their login keys safe. These apps make it easy to create and store strong and secure passwords. 

You can use any of these password management tools:

• LastPass
• Dashlane

LastPass is a popular password management platform among remote teams. Once a secure password is created, it stores them on the app. It also backs everything up with two-factor authentication. You can significantly reduce the risk of a security breach with this tool.

Sometimes, you might want to take a shortcut and use the same password across different accounts. Security experts advise against doing this. Dashlane makes the process easier by helping you to create and store unique log-in details.

Use password managers to remove the worry of losing access to your account due to a security breach. When you’re not struggling to recall passwords, you save time. This allows you to focus on more important aspects of your work. In addition, it frees your mind to think of more creative things. This way, you boost your productivity.

File Management Apps

As a remote worker, you understand the importance of convenient file sharing. A reliable data storage platform is essential to productivity and effective collaboration. Whether you work with a large or small team, you need to send and receive files. You don’t want to leave a task you’re working on just to deliver folders to a colleague.

Courier services are not a practical solution, especially when your team is geographically distributed. Evidently, file management apps are the best options for boosting productivity. You need a way to send, receive, and store documents across multiple devices. You also want the tool to be accessible to each team member, no matter their location.

File sharing tools offer users an easy way to share what they’re working on, receive feedback, and make updates. They are also great for creating backups of projects.

These tools are among the most popular apps for sharing spreadsheets, documents, and presentations:

• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• One Hub
• Huddle

Google Drive offers users free storage space for collaborating and sharing files. As long as you have a working internet connection, you can access this cloud service. You can upload documents and make them accessible to your teammates or client. They can then make changes, drop comments, and track project progress. This makes it an excellent tool for keeping a record of updates.

Huddle, another great file management app, deserves mention, especially since it’s used by big names NASA. Even the Department of Homeland Security chose this tool for its enhanced security. If you work with clients who value confidentiality, this platform will help you stay productive.

One Hub is another file management tool that allows you to sync information across multiple devices. You can work from anywhere, back up projects safely, and access tasks from any location. 

You can also use Dropbox if you prefer a tool that makes file sharing convenient and easy. Its drag-and-drop functionality allows you to transmit files in an instant. You can also activate the auto-sync tool to migrate new files while you sleep or work. This will enable you to focus on the task at hand.

If you’re frequently dealing with media assets (think pictures, videos, promo materials, etc.), digital asset management (DAM) is a powerful solution that allows you to manage and organize them in a centralized fashion. With DAMs, you can search for files by metadata tags and see (and access) the revision history of each file from a single screen. This makes DAM a perfect option for users with visually-centered file libraries.

File management apps are one of the best ways to enhance communication within a team. They’re a must-have if you want to get information across quickly. You can work faster and beat deadlines with these handy tools.

Time Tracking Programs

Adequate time management is essential to maintaining optimal productivity. You have to keep track of “how” and “what” you spend your time on each day. This helps you plan your week, minimize distractions during work. It also makes it possible to identify your most productive hours. 

Time tracking apps monitor your on-screen activity and take screenshots in the background while you work. Some of them even measure your keyboard and mouse activities. You can improve your productivity by analyzing this data on a daily or weekly basis. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Do you get more work done in the early hours of the day? 
• Are you more productive at night? 
• How long do you spend on social media? 
• How much time did you spend on a particular task?

You can answer these questions by using an effective time tracking tool. With this information at your fingertips, you can boost your productivity and that of your team. You can check out this time monitoring app:

• Traqq

There are tons of other productivity apps that you can use alongside time tracking tools. If you’re looking to learn more, you’ll find this article on remote work apps to be helpful.

Apps for Rewarding Employees

This section is meant for organization heads. Every leader understands the crucial role their team members play in their productivity. If you want to stay productive as a manager, you have to motivate your employees. Their progress determines your growth. When remote workers are engaged and motivated, they will contribute positively to the success of your company. 

Studies have shown the importance of having loyal workers. Paying attention to your employees’ engagement level will greatly boost productivity. You can achieve this by using reward tools. They help you to focus on things that matter. This makes it easy to create a healthy work environment. 

You can these platforms:

• Awesome Boss
• WooBoard
• Qarrot

Awesome Boss simplifies the engagement process. You can use it to gain insight into your employees. It reminds you of important things, such as birthdays and anniversaries. Remembering these seemingly little details makes you an outstanding leader who inspires loyalty. In addition, it allows you to ethically keep track of each worker’s activity. You can analyze the collected data and use it to reward them accordingly.

WooBoard takes the rewarding process a bit further; it makes it fun. Your employees can earn rewards through a point system. This app creates a transparent structure that fosters a sense of fairness. You can use it to track and reward accomplishments within the team. This encourages productivity, allowing everyone to celebrate each milestone.

Meanwhile, Qarrot adds color by gamifying the reward experience. Its game-like features encourage team members to track their own progress. You can set up milestones with agreed-upon rewards. This will create a deeper bonding experience as participants celebrate their colleagues.

You can use these tools to create a system that rewards teamwork and team players. After all, you cannot boast of productivity if your team is failing.

As Vince Lombardi once said:

“Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes a teamwork, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” 

Conclusion

Remote work is fast changing the way we view and approach work. You can see why having the right tools is essential if you want to boost your productivity. While you might be tempted to improve your personal productivity alone, how about sharing your newly found knowledge with your team? 

Khyati Sagar

Khyati Sagar is a seasoned HR and payroll expert with over a decade of experience in the field. She has worked with businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large corporations, helping them optimize their HR and payroll processes. As a passionate advocate for technology-driven solutions, she is always on the lookout for the latest advancements in HR and payroll software. When she’s not working, you can find her hiking or playing basketball with her friends and family.