Online Tools: Improve Your Productivity
May 5, 2010
After reading Great Free Software Downloads, a reader asked if I could also recommend some browser-based tools. This list focuses on productivity, because deep down inside, we all want to be super efficient, organized and productive so that we can stop working at noon every day.
Because these apps are online, all of your work and personal data is available wherever you are (for better or for worse). You don’t have to download or install a thing. Many but not all are free or have free trial periods and many have a corresponding mobile version too. Research shows there are currently 1 zillion web apps. Let us know about your favorites.
Backups
Mozy is often recommended as the backup tool of choice. As you know but probably ignore, backing up your data to an offsite location means that in the event of a system failure, natural disaster, or other unpleasantries, you’d be able to recover all of your work. It’s low cost and easy to set up for both Mac and Windows.
Calendars
30 Boxes get good reviews and lists a ton of features. Here are a few of them according to their website: natural language entry, full screen, blazing fast, invitations, sms reminders, repeating events, integrated maps, tagging, share by tags, customizable, multiple themes, simple sharing, weather, track myspace, flickr, webshots, livejournal, blogger and more, instant photo sharing, your calendar is a timeline, add rss + ical feeds, all data is exportable, calendar badges + widgets … and so on.
Most people know about Google Calendar, but have you tried it yet? It’s simply an easy to use, free, shareable and straightforward way to keep track of events and tasks. I like the way you can add tasks to the calendar, and then view a list of all your tasks, though seeing this long list can be depressing.
Collaborate
(See Google Docs and Visual Thinking tools below too.)
Mark up, fill out, and collaborate on PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint slides, and web pages for free. Pay to get it secure and password protected.
Share organizational knowledge, plan and track projects collaboratively and get feedback in a wiki. Wikispaces has a flexible pricing structure, from free to private label wikis.
Documents
With Google Docs, you have access to a word proecessor, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing and form tool. You can keep documents private or share them with your team or clients. All for free and you can be sure they’ll be adding more tools.
This is the reverse of what you usually need, but sometimes life is backwards. Use their PDF-to-Word conversion technology to easily create editable DOC/RTF files. There’s a downloadable version too.
Zoho is pretty impressive. Go to their site and see all the apps they offer—everything from email to document creation, presentation builder, collaborative tools, wiki builder, organizer, contact management and so on. They offer both free and professional (paid) access.
Meetings
Dimdim is becoming a meeting tool of choice because participants don’t have to download and install software, as you do with GoTo Meeting and WebEx. You can host and attend live meetings, demos and webinars using just a web browser, then share documents, web pages, and whiteboards. Dimdim comes with audio (VOIP) and video capabilities. It’s free for small meetings and starts at $25 per month for unlimited use with more participants.
Money Management
This seems like a great way to save time, because Mint pulls in your balances, purchases, investments, etc. to give you a complete picture of your finances. Their site says that Mint connects securely to nearly all US banking financial institutions that have Internet banking capability. My question: Sounds awesome, but do we really want to put all this info in one place online? Your opinion?
Password Mangement
KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. According to the publisher, the databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish). It’s free.
With Mitto, you save the passwords to all of your favorite sites, then log in to them by simply clicking a button. You can access your passwords securely from any computer, organize them with tags, and share them with trusted friends and family.
I had doubts about this sharing feature, but reader Ed was kind enough to explain it. He wrote, “The Mitto password sharing feature is for sharing passwords you need to share with people. For example, my wife and I share access to a Netflix account, and we also share access to all our online billing for the house. By sharing passwords with each other via Mitto, she can update the password, and it get’s updated transparently to me (and vice versa). This way I always have access to the most up to date information.” (Thanks Ed!)
Project Management
Basecamp is considered by many to be the best browser based project management app around. It’s endorsed by high profile companies and the data integrates with lots of other apps, like Harvest Time Management (see below). It’s easy to use and in addition to PM functionality, there are some collaborative tools for sharing files, lists and messages.
Nozbe is another web-based project management tool that offers a few unusual ways of doing things. It’s Contexts mode lets you process related tasks in context, such as things you can do by Phone, Home or the Internet. And it’s Next Action functionality lets you process one next action at a time.
Social
When you use an online tool like Delicious to bookmark websites or specific pages, you always have those important bookmarks with you. The social element comes in when you share the bookmarks for others to see. Also, when you need good information quickly, you can search Delicious to see what other’s have bookmarked on that topic.
A social approach to technical issues. This site provides all sorts of tech information and it has social features such as profile pages, blogs, wikis, and knowledge bases. Wrestle with your technical problems in a group!
Because Meebo integrates all social network and communication channels into a single, simple-to-use interface, users can easily share content and communicate in real time with the people who matter to them.
If you use more than one social bookmarking site, like Delicous, then Socializer can save you time. It lets you submit a link to several social bookmarking systems at once, instead of having a link to each to each individual site. One link goes to all!
Time Tracking
Harvest has a sweet user interface and is great for tracking time, logging expenses, invoicing clients, running reports, and keeping track of account receivables and revenue. Multiple users can log in to track time too. This is the time tracking app I use and love it! They have a free plan so you can check it out before getting started: 2 projects, 4 clients, unlimited invoicing for 1 user for free.
ToDo Lists
If you love to make lists, then you’ll like Ta-da Lists. Make lists for everything and when you check it off, the item is marked Done! You can share lists with others. The app is free.
Remember The Milk is totally connected. You can manage tasks from anywhere, get IM, SMS and email reminders, share your tasks, access it from your phone, use it with Google Calendar, add tasks from iGoogle and manage things offline too. Use it for free with the option to upgrade.
Visual Thinking
Creately is a visual collaboration platform used by project teams to communicate with each other. This means that everyone on all your teams (design, development, business) can collaborate through diagrams easily.
A real-time collaborative drawing and painting tool.
With Webspiration you can map out ideas, organize with outlines and collaborate online with teams or colleagues.
Twiddla lets you mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or a blank canvas in a collaborative fashion. It has a free 30 day trial.
JOIN ME ON FACEBOOK. More tips and a chance for discussion!
You should check out Acrobat.com – it has many of these things all in one place. The document editor based on Buzzword is the best online collaborative editor I’ve seen and there is virtual meeting hosting, presentation authoring, charts / tables and so on in addition to new things all the time. We just added Tracking and Reporting / Reviewing for Captivate 5 projects for example.
I got addicted when it was still Buzzword.com – and use it all the time for my students to share documents with myself and one another. It has powerful sharing tools to let you control who can / cannot see / edit what document.
Thanks for adding to the list, Allen. I’ll check it out.
I would like to add a suggestion for another email and text message reminder service. http://www.myemailreminders.com They have a lot of cool features and scheduling options.
The Mitto password sharing feature is for sharing passwords you need to share with people. For example, my wife and I share access to a Netflix account, and we also share access to all our online billing for the house. By sharing passwords with each other via Mitto, she can update the password, and it get’s updated transparently to me (and vice versa). This way I always have access to the most up to date information. The way it works, I only share what I need, and the rest is strictly private and only I can see it.
Hi Ed,
Thanks so much for clarifying. This was a tool I hadn’t used and was recommended though. Obviously, I misunderstood it’s usage. I’ll correct it right now!!
Connie
For web conferences you should try http://www.showdocument.com ,
Great for online teaching and collaborating. I use it for working on my designs with other in my field.
Its free and pretty simple – you just upload your file and invite others to view it together.
- Laura W.
Another project management tool that I would highly recommend is Liquid Planner (www.liquidplanner.com). I have been using with my team and clients for the past couple of years. One of the greatest features is the ability to create project portals which allows you to track project milestones and requirements and also make it very simple to pass and share documents, media files, etc.
Rob
You may likewise checkout http://www.worketc.com/Online_CRM, it is one of the online CRM which small to mid-size businesses can use. A CRM and project management tool in one, plus other equally important features.
30 Boxes and Remember the Milk are EPIC winners for me! Problem is most people I try to coax into using it are just too lazy to sign up, making google calendar the most viable one to use since everyone has a gmail account. Honestly, I hate the blahness of google. I just prefer the effort and creativity put into 30 boxes and RTMilk
Another great time tracking software and my favorite is TSheets, http://www.tsheets.com. It’s a perfect fit for me because it’s web based (my employees and I are always meeting clients out of the office) and it has invoicing and QB integration. I love it and it sure makes keeping track of my clients projects and billing a piece of cake.
Thank you!
You have a lot of great tools listed here. I’m excited to try some
If you’d like a tool for managing your time and projects, you can use this web-application inspired by David Allen’s GTD:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage and prioritize your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
Comes with a mobile version too, and with an Android app.