We Love Productivity Apps! Part 2

Ready for more of the best productivity apps for your small business? We’ve got you covered!

In Part 1 of our 2-part series focusing on the best work management apps out there, we talked about the best of the best in everyday life, file organization, project management and social media management.

However, there’s so much more! Here are a few additional apps we believe in and have begun to use in both our work and personal lives (so they gotta be good).

Password Management Apps

How much time do you spend looking for passwords,  trying to remember them – or just resetting them all together, only to forget again the next time? You don’t have to answer that, we know it’s a lot.

There are a few different apps available to help you keep passwords safe, secure and handy when you need them. We found this great article from CSOonline.com – they have more details and pros/cons than we could offer so check out their article here.

Email & Inbox Management Apps

We know that managing email is one of the biggest time black holes people talk about today. Between that and social media – where does that time go?!

If you have a few different email addresses, which we know you probably do, getting that information into ONE place would be great, right? No more flipping back and forth between accounts to check email and respond.

Yes, you can set up forwarding rules and things so you don’t miss anything, but you’d still have to log in to respond.

Mac’s native mail app allows you to aggregate multiple email addresses, and calendars. That’s awesome - and all in one place on your desktop.

Newton Mail – ($50/year) is one of the most powerful email apps out there and offers a ton of plugins so you can connect your other apps like Evernote, Trello and so many more. It also syncs, so no matter what device you’re using, you’ve still got it all.  Pretty sure that’s worth the $50 per year for the full experience. It also includes other out-of-the-box capabilities like:

• Consolidate all email accounts and manage from one interface, across devices
• Read Receipts
• Schedule / send later. No one needs to know you’re working to fill their inbox on a Sunday night
• Tidy Inbox – think Gmail priority inbox or Gmail tabs
• Snooze emails – to deal with later, at specific dates or times, or the next time you’re on your desktop
• Sender profiles
• Connects to tons of other apps too
• Undo send (Yes!!)

Gmail – has lots of power too. You can sync between devices, use folders to easily organize your messages by client, topic or task. And with other extensions and Google Labs, you can also get read receipts, undo send, boomerang them to send later or bring them back to the top of the list. It is so much more than just an email app.

This and That Apps

Pocket - How many of you find things you want to save, then go back to read or watch later? Our team is constantly finding on point content we want to go back and read or share via a client’s social. Pocket is great for this. Just put it in your “Pocket” and you can then come back to read the articles, watch videos, etc. even when you aren’t connected!

Feedly - Pull together a feed of websites or sources and organize them based on a subject area. You can go back and scan it regularly for new posts, articles, etc. This is super handy if you’re looking for informational articles to share via social media for many, many clients. It also has a Chrome extension so you can easily add an item from your desktop to your feed.

Mile IQ – If you drive for business quite a bit and are tired of tracking things in a notebook or excel file, this app is for you. It’s well worth the $50 per year because it tracks your drives. Then you can easily swipe left or right for personal or business. You can also customize your own driving categories for business, meetings, client visit, medical visits, you name it!

RescueTime – want to find out where your time is going, really? This little guy will track all the apps and websites you visit the most – trying to get you to change your ways. It will show you where your time is going. And if you go for the paid version, you can even block some of those distracting sites for certain amounts of time. It’s an app with a reality check.

Grammarly – We’ve been using this for a long time now - and we LOVE it. This Chrome extension checks your spelling online, as you’re typing an email, as you’re updating a website, as you’re filling out a form online – you name it, it will highlight what is misspelled. Go ahead, avoid those embarrassing errors. And, it’s free!

Browser Extensions

Don’t forget web browser extensions. We love Chrome extensions that help us with everything from setting timers, sharing via Hootsuite (and scheduling, of course), adding a new source to our Feedly feeds, our time tracking app Toggl, and even the Evernote Web Clipper.

Check out the Chrome Extension Store now!

Download The Best Productivity Apps for Your Small Business Today!

Wow, that is a lot of apps. Try some out, or share those you have that already work for you. After all, the best productivity app is one that you will use consistently.

If you have any questions about the apps mentioned in this article, or in Part 1 of our series, please reach out!