c. Despite there being an endless amount of sites that can distract you online, there are plenty of ways to use what’s out there to make you laser focused and accountable. Our international team works together entirely online. We’ve all found the best productivity apps available on the web and collected them here. Try a few of these out and see if they help you turn bad habits online and at work into positive ones that save you time, energy, and reduce stress.
Here are the top productivity apps for 2018
Toggl
If you spend all day online at your desk working and still have no idea where your time really goes, that is step one to fixing your habits for better productivity. Toggl is an easy time tracker you can use on your desktop to help track how much time you spend on which websites and activities throughout your day. Even if you just use it for one day to get an honest look at where your time is going and what your habits at work are like to get a better idea of your biggest distractions, it’s worth it. From there, you know what to avoid and what habits you need to work on changing to boost your productivity and steal some time back.
Self-Control
Once you know what your distractions are, you can keep them blocked and out of site using Self-Control. Self-Control is a simple website blocker that blocks certain sites for a set amount of time. The burden of working online is that we have conveniently have access to a whole world of information and communication. The way our brain works is that we will avoid what we perceived as strenuous or stressful work by turning to anything else available. Simplifying your options of things that can steal your attention is a basic step in improving productivity.
Momentum
This is actually lightly based on a Jerry Seinfeld productivity tip (weird, we know). Jerry once explained that to motivate himself to stay consistent on things, no matter how small, he would mark off how many days he had done them to form a chain that he found he wouldn’t want to break. So he was actually more motivated by not breaking his streak rather than actually doing it. It’s an interesting psychology, and for many who use Momentum, it works. Momentum helps you track and build “streaks” of habits to keep you focused on consistency. This is great for those goals that require long term small commitments.
Hibox, boost your productivity with this app in 2018
If your office is bogged down with slow processes and out of date communication, not much you can do on your end is going to speed things along. Improving team productivity together is key to real significant returns. Hibox is the perfect digital workspace built for team collaboration and productivity. Hibox eliminates the need for email and multiple communication platforms and logins. Hibox provides company chat, task management, file sharing, and group video chat all in one. All communication and work is in one central place so there is no need to waste time bouncing between tools and accounts. It’s an optimal setup for team productivity.
FocusBooster
If you’ve ever found yourself burned out during work and you end up giving up on certain tasks and getting distracted, it may be time to implement a new process for yourself. FocusBooster is a web time tracker for tasks that follows the Pomodoro Method. If you’re not familiar with the Pomodoro Method, it’s a way of organizing tasks and time where you pick a task and set a time for 25 minutes to work on it without distraction. At the end of the 24 minutes, you get a 5 minute break. You can organize your day and tasks in Pomodoro rounds to help boost productivity. Many say it’s optimal for keeping cognitively sharp throughout the day. FocusBooster helps you work through a to-do list while timing your work with the Pomodoro Method.
SaneBox allows you to boost your team’s productivity. Start using this app in 2018
Email is arguably one of the most productivity-inhbiting parts of our day. One study found that employees can often spent up to 6.3 hours a day on internal email. At this point in time, we all still need to stay connected to email but there are ways to mitigate the damage. SaneBox is a simple tool that organizes your emails as they come in into different folders with different priorities as you arrange them. It makes checking email and avoiding the stress of a full inbox much more simple.
Apollo
As Warren Buffet will tell you, reading and staying caught up on current trends, events, data, etc. is majorly important to future success. We just don’t have the time. Apollo is a summarizing AI tool that you can use for any article, document, report, etc. that will give you a quick, AI-created summary of what you submit. It will give you the most important points and key facts so you can be briefed and on to the next in minutes.
When the 24/7 workday still doesn’t feel like enough, it’s time to enlist some productivity apps to help you. Try a few of these tools available online at anytime and see how they help streamline your workday for your best productivity this year.
Ps. Hibox has a 14 day free trial for you to make sure it’s the best fit for your team. Click here to get started today: www.hibox.co
