Productivity and efficiency are crucial to business these days. The workplace has been shaken up since the start of the pandemic. Some teams are working fully remote, some are hybrid, while some are back in the office. No matter what your situation is, productivity tools improve efficiency and productivity among your teams.
There are many productivity tools available to you these days; some are free while others are paid, some you have heard of, and others you may not have heard of yet. Productivity tools focus on project management and collaboration. They make it simple for team members to communicate amongst one another, and to see what needs to be done in regards to their work/projects.
Task management is a big feature of productivity tools, allowing you to break a project into smaller parts and ensure everything is on track with expectations. A simple interface that is clear and easy for managers to see everything is a must; It is not productive nor efficient when a manager has to navigate their way through a complex system just to try and see how a project is coming along.
Let’s jump into tools that will help you improve your team’s productivity over 2022!
Bitrix24
You may not have heard of Bitrix24 so let’s illuminate the tool a bit. Bitrix24 is an extensive suite of productivity tools, including Collaboration, project management, documents, scheduling, employee management, messaging, telephony, and more.
Bitrix24 has a powerful and versatile CRM, just in case a CRM is all you are looking for. In their CRM, you can log contacts and communications, emails sent, calls recorded, assign leads to team members, record quotes and invoices sent. You can access it on your phone through an app, making it highly mobile. You can produce reports to keep yourself and your team up to date.
Bitrix24 has a great free plan which supports up to 12 users and has 5GB of storage. They also have paid plans, which come fully loaded with additional features for larger teams or teams that simply need more.
RescueTime
RescureTime is incredibly powerful at helping you develop better working habits. This tool tracks your activity in the background, not bringing any distraction to your work. RescueTime will track and log the time your spend doing various things on your computer and device, from the websites you visit the apps you are using. The philosophy behind RescueTime is to shine a light on how you are using your time, and consequently, how to improve your time management.
The free version of RescueTime lets you review three months of data, allowing you to analyze how you are spending your time and where you may make improvements. The paid version (starting at $6 per month) has no time limit, you can look back as far as you like (as long as you were using the app at the time), and it has additional features.
Trello
Trello is one of the most user-friendly productivity tools out there, bringing a sense of simplicity with it. Trello uses a “kanban” style task management interface which lets you drag and drop tasks as needed. This style lets your team visualize the tasks concerning the project and where they are in the pipeline.
Trello allows you to integrate with many third-party services like Box, Evernote, GIPHY, GitHub, Hangouts, Join.me, Mailchimp, OneDrive, Salesforce, Slack, SmartDraw, SurveyMonkey, Twitter, ZenDesk, and more. This may help you manage your workflow more efficiently.
Trello has a focus on collaboration, with tools that help you manage projects. One fun approach Trello has is the cloud aging power-up which visibly ages cards when they have not been used in some time. This may turn the card a yellow hue and crack them. At a glance, users can easily see what cards are underused, and the busiest boards in the system.
One of the drawbacks to Trello is that it does not have any reporting. Managers are not able to export a report to analyze how the various team members are doing and where they may make improvements.
Beeminder
Beeminder is unique in that fact that you can think outside the box and use it for many things that are not even related to work, like tracking your runs and trips to the gym. However, this may be a double-edged sword in a professional setting, distracting from work.
Beeminder is flexible, allowing users to define goals and then track their goals by logging their progress. There is a small degree of gamification as well, which brings a sense of fun and engagement from the users.
If you dive completely in and fully commit, Beeminder can be incentivizing. You can add your credit card information to the tool, which will fine you for not staying in progress with your goals.
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is a household name and market leader. Microsoft 365 is very popular and powerful for productivity. It comes fully loaded with a suite of software including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook. Even if you do not use Microsoft 365, chances are you will be working with others that do. Prices for Microsoft 365 start at $6.99 per month, making it one of the most accessible for users as well.
What productivity tools are you using to help you stay productive and efficient, helping you achieve your business goals in 2022?