Do you find yourself rushing out the door in the morning and then running to meetings throughout the day? Productivity tools should make your life easier, more efficient, and organized—allowing you to slow down—even just a little. These are some of the best tools I use or found through research and recommendations. It’s been updated for 2017.
How learning designers get work done may not be that different than what’s needed in other fields. But it seems that each industry has a specialized combination of requirements. In our industry, many of us design, research, write, collaborate, communicate and create media. We need tools to make team work efficient, to easily find and backup our files, to research and to continuously learn.
Backups
It makes sense to back up your work in three places. Perhaps two at work and one off-site (if your organization allows for this). As you’ve probably experienced, replacing lost work takes a lot of time. Most of the cloud backup applications can be set to an automatic mode that synchronizes your modified files to the cloud as you work.
Carbonite is a popular backup service with two modes–one for home and one for work. It provides automatic backups and lots of storage. They have annual pricing.
One of the easiest ways to backup and share files in the cloud is with Google Drive. It has an intuitive interface and it’s free.
Dropbox has an understated and simply intuitive interface. You can use it to backup files as well as to synchronize files across computers and devices. They provide several gigabytes for free.
BOOKMARKING and CLIPPING
Online bookmarking and clipping the web is a real time saver, helping you avoid doing multiple searches for something you saw a few months ago. It does take some thought to create a smart taxonomy for tagging, as information tends to overlap.
There’s also the social element to bookmarking. Many online bookmark sites feature sharing as a way to curate and to learn from others. If you’re interested in curation, listen to this interview: Content Curation for Learning.
Similar to Evernote (discussed below), DIIGO has capabilities for bookmarking, capturing images and web pages, annotating the web with sticky notes and highlights and basically collecting and organizing information.
Although not specifically designed for bookmarking, Evernote has an excellent web clipping tool that you can easily add to Chrome and other browsers. I particularly like the feature for saving an article in its simplified form. It removes all extraneous information on the page. Chrome Evernote Web Clipper. Evernote has a free plan and premium one.
The visual nature of Pinterest has made this app rise to the top in popularity. You can have many visual boards organized by category and invite others to join and post to your board.
The Pocket motto is “save for later.” You can save just about any type of online media and view on any of your devices. You can add Pocket to your favorite browser for quick saves. There’s a free plan and a reasonably priced premium one.
You want more, right? See 10+ Bookmark Managers for 2016.
CALENDARS
Calendars are a must for schedules. Collaborative calendars can make things easier.
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. You can set notifications and it syncs with your device and often, with other calendars.
Kin Calendar is pegged as the app to replace Sunrise—a popular calendar app that shut down and left fans crying. This app is not yet available, but you can sign up to see when it will be released. It will integrate with many popular tools, like Trello and Google Calendar. Wait and see.
Unlike many other calendars, this app is specifically made for groups. It allows for color coding, multiple ways to add events and it’s easy to share. There’s a free plan too.
COLLABORATING & COMMUNICATING
Being able to meet and work online with others saves loads of time and money. Working in real-time is more productive than sending documents back and forth, where you might misunderstand someone’s comments or revisions.
Providing an improved way to communicate with your team, Slack helps you do away with email and improves direct communication. This app allows you to use different channels to segment conversations, direct message individuals, move easily from text to video conversations and share files. Slack also has a good search function. There are free and paid plans.
Google’s Office products make it easy to collaborate in real time. You’ll find documents, spreadsheets, slides and more.
Notion supports collaborative workspace in the cloud. Users share all project documents in one space.
Want more options? See Slack Alternatives: Ten Best Tools for Team Communication
DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT (DAM)
DAM is a solution for storing, organizing, finding, retrieving and sharing digital assets like photos, videos, sound effects and audio files. The best functionality allows for a flexible storage structure, tags and excellent search. DAM software can be pricey and it is easier to find freebies if you only need to store photos and videos. Then again, you can simply use the functionality that comes with your operating system.
Adobe Bridge CC is free and worth looking into. It not only provides a centralized space for storing assets, but it has functionality for batch processes, importing from mobile devices and a drag and drop interface.
You may want to investigate this “freeware” as the pricing is quite low. It is a multimedia browser that supports many image and file formats. It also does batch conversions.
ONLINE MEETINGS/CONFERENCES
Now that most team collaboration apps have video functionality, there’s only a fine line between those tools and the ones specifically made for online meetings. But here are a few.
You can use Zoom for one-on-one or group meetings, webinars and conference calls. It works well and the free plan provides good functionality. Pricing is very reasonable too.
Many enterprises use Microsoft Teams for individual or group meetings and webinars.
Most people are familiar with Go To Meeting, which involves downloading a desktop client and joining a web conference. Got To Meeting allows for up to 100 attendees and features screen sharing, HD video and recording.
Hopefully you don’t have trouble making decisions because Join.me is another worthy contender for web conferencing. It also has functionality for a whiteboard, screen sharing, webinars and mobile.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Asana has a great reputation for streamlining project management tasks. Organize work by projects, add tasks, show progress, communicate within the tool, add files and so much more. It seems that Asana is what you would imagine a project management tool should be.
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. Nozbe has a reputation for being a little difficult to learn, but it’s the tool many productivity professionals use.
Trello is conceptually beautiful. Similar to the Kanban Board concept, you create a series of cards filled with lists. For example, one list is “To Do.” As you finish each task, you then drag the task to a “Done” list. The simplicity of Trello makes it a great productivity tool.
SOCIAL MEDIA AGGREGATORS
If you like developing a personal learning environment, then a social media aggregator is one way to make the process more efficient. It allows you to keep all your social channels in one place for reading and posting. Check out more about designing a personal learning environment.
Similar to Hootsuite, Buffer integrates your social media platforms into one place where you can view and post. Buffer is also integrated with Pablo, a tool for creating social media graphics. Both free and paid plans.
This social media dashboard streamlines your Twitter, Facebook and other feeds. For example, on one screen, you can easily see your Twitter stream, direct messages, sent tweets and more. You can also schedule posts and integrate all of your social media streams. Both free and paid plans.
Socialoomph integrates Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and more. The site displays a long list of features that it provides for each social network. Check it out.
TIME TRACKING AND INVOICING
Harvest has a sweet user interface and is ideal for small business and individual time tracking, 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.
Paymo works on a similar model as Harvest. Use it to track time, manage project hours, invoice clients and run reports. They also have a free plan where you can try out the service for a couple of projects.
This article goes into lots of detail: The 20 Best Time Tracking Apps
VISUAL COLLABORATION
Visual collaboration allows teams to diagram and draw together.
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.
With Flockdraw, you’re not just annotating documents. You can perform real-time drawing and painting.
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I’ve tried Asana and Trello, but I haven’t become a fan of these tools. I like kanbantool.com a lot more. It’s easier to use, it has a time tracking feature. I find it great.
Great list! Thanks for sharing.
I would like to add another productivity tool which is one of my favorites. WebWork Time Tracker. Due to this tool I am always informed about where my teams time is going and keep track of expenses. Also, I use it for managing projects and tasks, generating report and invoices. This tool helps me a lot and saves time and money.
You have a great list here, Connie! I’ve been personally using some of these tools for years and I can say that some of them have really helped me boost in productivity and analyzing where I spend most of my energy/resources when I’m performing a task. I believe it is crucial, especially for remote workers to manage their time accordingly.
Just in case you guys are interested, we at TimeDoctor has listed down 15 of the Best Apps for Time Management on our blog: https://biz30.timedoctor.com/best-time-management-apps/. These are 15 of our highly recommended tools that worked for our remote team. 🙂 Have a great day!
Okay, thanks. The link will display in the Comments.
Best,
Connie
Hi Connie,
I just read this article, these are all awesome tools and are sure to add value to any professional.
I would be happy if you could add just one more tool to this list http://deadsimplescreensharing.com
Dead simple offers free screen sharing and audio calls for anybody to use for free without requiring to sign up or login.
thanks
Great list of online productivity software, I would suggest adding Buddy Punch (https://buddypunch.com) in time and attendance category. Its one of the best productivity software in my experience.
How about adding Proofhub project management tool to the time tracking, to-do list and project management division?
Hi Connie, awesome list of online productivity tools. Online tools can help you stay productive but it depends on what you needed most. I also keep myself productive at work and I use Google Docs, Skype and Time Doctor, which I use to track time accurately. You can check and try their free trial of the tool here: http://www.timedoctor.com/
How about adding Replicon time clock to the time tracking division?
I would like to mention http://www.kanbantool.com . I’m using this application for collaborating, managing projects and creating to-do-lists.
Great resources Connie, with these lists of useful online tools this will help lots of people to stay productive. If you can’t stay productive there are lots of online tools that can effectively help you. In addition to the list is this tool that can help you track time. Check out this http://reorg.co/timedoctor-review-2012-04/ productivity review regarding a tool that will also help you manage time effectively.
Great list Connie,
if you love the idea of Stacks, you’ll love http://organisedminds.com
Should feature in your collaboration section. You’ll see what I mean if you check it out!
All the best,
Diarmuid
Hi Mike,
Now that I’ve adjusted to the New Delicious, I actually like it better. Tags can be multiple words and I love the idea of Stacks. Give it another try! I’ll check out join.me. Thanks for the tip.
Best,
Connie
Great list Connie. I think Delicious has been ruined by their recent changes and I’d also add http://join.me which is another great, easy to use visual collaboration tool.
Great list.
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.
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.
You have a lot of great tools listed here. I’m excited to try some 🙂 Thank you!
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 🙂
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
Thanks for adding to the list, Allen. I’ll check it out.
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.