There is no better, more appealing word for someone in a business venture – from a large organisation to a sole trader – than productivity. With employees spending just 45% of their working day on primary job duties, many issues plague the productivity of a business, and some are more avoidable than others.
The key productivity issue that affects every business is regarding administration; the necessary yet time-consuming tasks that take up our time and motivation, eating into our potential success.
What if there was a way to home in on what we really needed to do? Apps that focus on productivity are lifesavers in truly tidying up unruly workloads. All business owners should keep their fingers on the pulse of life-changing apps, while also getting reacquainted with the old favourites that we keep from phone upgrade to phone upgrade.
These 5 apps should be must-haves for anyone wanting to achieve their optimal productivity:
1. Best Password Manager: Dashlane
What eats into productivity more than anything, especially when working across a number of different accounts and devices, is the password set-up. Dashlane offers a solution that aggregates information and places it under one master password. It stores bank details, account information, receipts, and transaction information across a range of platforms, and is extremely secure. Dashlane’s credit card and address book tools also work “flawlessly”.
2. Best Task Manager: Wunderlist
Getting the right work-life balance is crucial to maintaining productivity in both aspects. Wunderlist (now owned by tech giant Microsoft) is a visually appealing task manager with an array of features to boost productivity and offer some sort of order to the chaos that comes with every business venture.
But Wunderlist is more than just a standard task list, incorporating collaborative aspects to increase productivity comprehensively. Wunderlist can add collaborators to lists; add explanatory notes to tasks; and can even share images and PDFs across the platform. Moreover, a hashtag feature can link tasks across lists for up to 25 collaborators. Increasing productivity and collaboration in the workplace has never been easier.
3. Best Social Media Integration: Hootsuite
It’s impossible to succeed in business in 2016 without a strong social media presence. But it can often be daunting having to manage and maintain the brand across every platform. That’s where Hootsuite swoops in. Hootsuite manages all social media from one dashboard, allowing for stats on progress of social media campaigns and insights into how people are responding to your posts across the board. Posting from one dashboard increases productivity and helps maintain a consistent social media presence.
4. Best Twitter Tool: Followerwonk
Twitter can be incredibly useful for a business, but it can also be incredibly time-consuming to analyse every mention, like and retweet, and evaluate how well you are doing as a result. Followerwonk steps in to increase productivity with how you use Twitter, freeing up time spent poring over stats to contribute meaningful content. Followerwonk analyses your demographics, identifies the best time to post to your followers, and even tracks which accounts you can connect with to have the biggest impact.
5. Best Anti-Procrastination Tool: Procraster
What is the mortal enemy of productivity? Procrastination: the dreaded time-killer that affects everyone in all aspects of business life. Procraster utilises the human instinct of instant gratification to break the task down into manageable chunks with rewards at the end of 25-minute blocks (using the Pomodoro technique). It even allows you to input why you’re not getting on with your task (e.g. it has to be perfect; it’s too big; I’ve made a mistake) and offers some wisdom to break through and succeed.
With these productivity-boosting apps, you’ll be hitting business targets and succeeding within no time. Why not even go the extra mile and consider moving to a serviced office space, designed to inspire productivity, by arranging a viewing of Carrwood Park?
Our serviced offices in Leeds are light, airy, spacious, and surrounded by acres of landscaped grounds, perfect for productive meetings, lunchtime walks, and inspiring a happy workforce.