11 Tools to Help You Stay Productive Throughout the Day
YEC (Young Entrepreneur Council) surveyed some folks about what they use to stay productive during the day. Here are their responses.
What is the one tool/technology that helps you be most productive throughout your day?
1. JIRA
Working within our agile development process, JIRA helps us effectively manage projects of various scopes and complexity that often include input from multiple teams in different physical locations. While JIRA is designed for software development, we’ve also repurposed it for our sales and marketing teams to help execute their tasks more efficiently. We’ve seen promising results.
– Ankur Gopal, Interapt
2. Basecamp
Internally, Basecamp is great tool that helps us keep everyone, whether they are onsite or working remotely, on the same page. All information regarding specific projects for clients are in the same page and even internal marketing efforts can be easily discussed and planned in one spot. It’s such an affordable tool that can benefit virtually every organization.
– Jonathan Long, Market Domination Media
3. Wrike
With a hectic schedule and numerous projects to chip away at, Wrike allows our entire team to collaborate and keep track of assignments that are being completed. Through this platform, we are able to communicate easily, pass tasks back and forth and set visible deadlines for ourselves. Wrike is easy to use and did not require training for our team, so it was easily adopted.
– Miles Jennings, Recruiter.com
4. Yammer
Communication is one of the biggest bottlenecks in any organization and can really stall productivity. We implemented an internal social media platform called Yammer which allows all of our remote staff and our franchise owners around the country to communicate with each other. This has helped me become much more productive. I highly recommend this tool.
– Nick Friedman, College Hunks Hauling Junk
5. Google Docs
Our company uses Google Docs in so many different varieties. They are an amazing collaboration tool to use across team members and locations. We use their spreadsheets to generate estimates that can be shared and commented on by the whole team. We use the “Word” document format to generate brainstorms across locations. It’s truly amazing to be able to share ideas in real time in a living document.
– Kelley Barry, Pixelette Studios, Inc.
6. Dapulse
It’s hard for me to stick to a project management app as some are overly complicated, some don’t have enough features and some have lots of great features but the interface leaves a lot to be desired. Enter dapulse, the first task management software that our team consistently uses and enjoys. It quickly gives everyone a high-level overview of all our monthly and weekly tasks.
– Justin Barr, Artbotic
7. Boomerang for Gmail
Part of being productive is not becoming a slave to your email. While it’s important for clients to know what to expect, it’s not always possible to answer emails within a designated window. To get a jump on the next day, I reply to emails in the evenings but also use Boomerang for Gmail, which allows you to schedule emails ahead of time so they send the next morning.
– Lindsay Tanne, LogicPrep
8. Slack
Slack chatrooms are our private offices, and direct messages are our check-ins and one-on-one meetings. Our development team doesn’t need separate conference rooms to go over last week’s models; they can simply meet in their designated chat. Rather than everyone talking across the room and creating excess noise and a mash of conversation, we keep it online and organized.
– Aron Susman, TheSquareFoot
9. HipChat
Emails have a time and a place but can generate a big distraction for simple tasks or one-off questions. HipChat gives a quick simple interface to get things done quicker without additional noise and distraction. It’s an ideal platform for quickly checking to see if people are on task and avoiding some potentially unnecessary meetings.
– Mark Edmondson, Guestfolio
10. DeskTime
We use the automated software DeskTime to track what projects we are working on, what programs/websites we are using most often and how much time we are dedicating to each task -– individually and as a company. Everyone has access to DeskTime reports that show where they fall in terms of productivity among their teammates, encouraging friendly competition to increase standings.
– Andrew Kucheriavy, Intechnic
11. SharpCloud
SharpCloud is an incredible tool for all kinds of things like roadmapping, portfolio management and storytelling. We used to waste countless hours trying to wrangle PowerPoint into the presentations and analysis tools we needed. SharpCloud helps us centrally manage and sync data driven, compelling and brilliant presentations. Our customers love the output, and it saves us time.
– Jere Simpson, KITEWIRE INC
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Young Entrepreneur Council
Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective (http://businesscollective.com), a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.