By Bob Tom
Life is full of distractions, ranging from social media, chitchat with friends, catching up with family among others. These distractions deter us from achieving our day-to-day goals and, in most cases, we end up being busy the whole day but hardly productive. Here are some productivity tools that can break this chain. By keeping you focused on small actionable objectives, you can accomplish the daily goals which translate into long-term goals. These are some of the best-recommended productivity tools for you to try.
1. Flat Tomato – Time Management Tool
The flat tomato application employs the Pomodoro technique to help you accomplish more in a more effective way. The Pomodoro technique is one of the oldest concepts in queuing theory designed in the 80’s by Francesco Cirillo. It uses a timer to break down complex work into simple tasks with 25 minute intervals for each. At the end of every interval, there is a short break referred to as Pomodoro, hence the name.
The flat tomato is a time management tool that employs this technique in breaking down your project into 25 minute intervals. By employing the Pomodoro technique, the flat tomato helps you to improve your concentration on a project. It helps you to avoid distractions while working on a project by breaking down the project into 25-minute intervals. When the timer goes off after 25 minutes, take a break from the project. When you resume after the break, you will be more refreshed, energized and focused. This way, you can concentrate for long hours without getting fatigued.
2. Trello – Project Planner
The Trello project planner enables you to plan, organize and prioritize your tasks in a fun, flexible and smart way. This tool can help you organize anything in your life, ranging from job-related tasks, planning a party or even planning your long-term life goals. The Trello project planner tool uses cards and boards with the board representing the event and each task represented by the cards. For instance, if you are planning a party, the board represents the party while the cards can represent events like booking a venue, shopping, sending out invitations among others. Further, this tool has an option for you to add anyone who can help you in the event. For instance, if your friends want to help you plan the above party, you can add them to the application. In addition, it has amazing graphics and visuals to make the planning process fun and interesting.
Features of the Trello project planner
- The tool has a quick overview feature for all the tasks in the project.
- It comes with easy organization tools containing tags, categories, and labels.
- Contains a checklist with a progress meter.
- Comes with a dateline reminder tool to help you meet your datelines.
- Contains a data filtering feature for easy editing of the data.
3. Google Calendar
With the Google calendar tool, it is easy to keep track of life’s most important events all in one place. The tool allows one to create a calendar of events of the most important tasks in a day, week or month. For instance, a company CEO can create a calendar of all meetings he/she must attend. Similarly, a socialite can create a calendar of all parties that she must attend. The calendar is stored in Google’s cloud system, hence it is always available on the web, unlike the traditional calendar which must be accessed through the computer or phone.
4. 30/30 – Task Manager
Planning is an important aspect of completing any task, but sometimes, it is hard to predict all tasks with certainty. Thus, all you need is to set a start period and end period and this tool is great for that. With the 30/30 planning tool, you can manage your to-do list by assigning times for all the tasks, then start the time. When the timer goes off, simply switch the tasks. This way, you can avoid the temptation of over concentrating on one task, especially in cases where some tasks are more fun and interesting to accomplish. Thus, with this tool, you can divide your time to allocate equal time intervals to all the tasks.
5. Google Drive/Google Form
Accomplishing a project on time requires you to visualize, plan and track every step of the way and this is exactly what Google drive forms can help you attain. With the forms, you can outline all the tasks in the project, every activity during the tasks and expected completion date. The forms indicate the start and end period for each project. Hence, at every stage, you can compare the expected completion date with the actual completion date, compare the two and outline the reasons for the difference. Normally, a huge difference between the expected completion date and actual completion date can tell whether the project is on-time or there are delays and corrective actions can be undertaken.
Also, with these forms, you can identify the critical path, which is the shortest path that can be used to complete the project within the shortest time possible. You can also share the documents with your team, a customer or any other concerned parties. Hence, this is a great tool for planning, whether you are working on a personal project, completing your day-to-day activities or making long-term life goals. Also, you can save and share all forms in Google drive.
6. Remember the milk – Thing-To-Do Application
Remember the milk is one of the most basic thing-to-do application, but also one of the most effective. With this tool, you can break down complex tasks by creating tasks, dividing the tasks into sub-tasks and then, organizing the tasks creating multiple lists for the sub-tasks. Further, the application includes powerful tools for searching and a smart list to improve your organization. It can also integrate with most project planning tools like Google calendar, Gmail, Twitter and Evernote among other tools.
- Ease of organizing the tasks and sub lists to ensure each task is integrated into the main project.
- Enables you to set the start and due dates, hence ensuring you can complete the project on time. Further, it outlines the recurrent tasks.
- It has a dashboard which can help you prioritize the tasks, hence you can distinguish between emergency, high-priority and urgent tasks.
- It can integrate perfectly with other planning tools and applications.
7. Password – Keeping Passwords Secure
Remembering and keeping passwords secure is one of the tasks that can waste your time and reduce your productivity. Some people prefer to use one password for computer logins, social media networks, phone, work emails, personal emails, and other sites, which increases your risk of exposure to hacking. Thus, with this application, you can keep track of every password that you have. This way, when you need to retrieve the password, simply go to the application and get it, rather than wasting time trying to remember, or searching for the password in your diary, or even resetting the password on the site which might waste your time.
8. Workflow
Tasks like sending texts, calling Uber, or even uploading photos on your social media networks can waste your time. Luckily, with the workflow application, you can automate such tasks. The application allows you to customize your phone, this way you can tell your phone what to do when you realize you need something done.
To recap, setting a goal is one thing, but its achievement is a totally different thing. Most people get overwhelmed by the tasks needed to be accomplished in any activity. With these project tools, you can plan, organize and work on the tasks needed to achieve the desired goal, thus help you get more done within a short duration.
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