11 Productivity Apps for You and Your Team
You’ve already assembled your best team. Great. But now they all need to work together to tackle a large project. Keep everybody in touch, organized, and updated with these web tools, all of which come packaged with smartphone app versions as well so you can stay working on the move.
1. Buffer
This app should bring a tear of joy to every social media manager’s eye. Compose whatever you want whenever you want, and then Buffer analyzes your social networking accounts to find the optimal time that you should post (or repost) something for the most virality. So instead of automatically sharing that awesome article you just found at 2am, Buffer it at a recommended time the next day and get a lot of folks to see. It effortlessly syncs with many popular sites, so anybody with access to that account can share and schedule posts across multiple social media platforms. Oh, and every one of your Buffered posts gets in-depth analytics as well. It’s happier sharing for us all.
2. Google Drive
Google Drive (AKA as its “Google Docs” predecessor) is one of the greatest tools ever invented for collaboration. With it, you can create, share, edit, and comment on a variety of documents in real time with people sitting in the same room or across the globe. And now, with the Google Drive app, you can do all of this on the fly as well. No more needing to log into a web browser on your phone to look it up and fight with the web version on a phone screen. The whole thing has been optimized for a great mobile experience.
3. Evernote
Want to keep all your work assets and materials all in the same digital spot? Evernote uses its own proprietary file storage system to do just that, which is great because it takes everything you put into the app, reformats it, and makes it searchable by any term in any document – typed and handwritten alike. Access these documents on any device or computer with the program installed on it and you’ll be one with the workload.
4. Dropbox
Remember when you had to write everything to a floppy disc to take it with you? And then it became a CD, a jump-drive, and finally just an email to yourself? Well, this is the next evolution folks. Sharing anything with yourself is now easier than ever. Dropbox is like a shared folder on your desktop that anybody with access can open up and get what they need. It keeps the documents’ original formats and automatically updates itself whenever internet is available to keep everybody on the same literal page.
5. Asana
After that great meeting you had earlier today, everybody has been assigned his or her individual tasks already. But how do you plan to easily keep track of the progress everyone is making with their new duties? Your answer: Asana. This content and workflow management system allows you to create, organize into project-related groups, and assign tasks to individual or multiple folks. Then you can sit back and digitally watch as they complete a task, or delegate it to more or different people if one person is struggling to complete it solo.
6. Wunderlist
If you find Asana too hefty for a smaller job you’ve got to get done, then this app is the simpler friend for you. Assemble, manage, and share various to-do lists for anything from grocery shopping to the chapter titles of your new book. You can even create lists with sub-items, and as you cross them off the Wunderlist, everyone else also on that list is notified so nobody doubles the work already done.
7. Pocket
Don’t want your important websites or the vital links your teammates sent you to get lost in an email or the black hole of web browser bookmarks? Then you’ll want to download and put everything in your Pocket. This smartphone app and browser extension is everything bookmarks should have been. It allows you to easily save anything on the web, label it, organize it, and even search for it, making for super easy access later on. Best of all, the app automatically syncs whenever you tap into wi-fi, so you can even view website and read online articles afterward without a trickle of internet.
8. Yammer
Imagine if Facebook had sectioned off part of itself just for your company; a place where you and your fellow employees could chat, share pictures, and congratulate each other in a closed circuit social network. Well, Yammer is exactly that – a private social network for your company. But, like any social media outlet, it’s only as strong as its active population, so be sure that your fellow employees won’t mind using an additional communications platform before asking them to join it.
9. CamScanner
Back in the day, whenever you needed a digitized version of a document, you’d have to run to the archaic scanner machine at work and have it grumble until it spat out a poor facsimile of your original document. However, now that smartphones have high-quality cameras, you can just snap a picture of whatever document you need and watch as this app techno-magically converts it into a crisp digital version of its paper self. CamScanner is especially effective for printing, signing, and sending back in .JPG or .PDF form that official paperwork of which everyone in your department seems to need a copy.
10. Boomerang
Google’s “send it later” email extension is a stroke of functionality and efficiency genius. Not all of us work on the same time schedule, especially with international clients or partners in different time zones. Boomerang, however, allows you to compose that email at your convenience and schedule it to fly out when the recipient is most likely to see it. This is also a good way to impress your boss by looking like you’ve been up really late or really early working. While Boomerang is more of web browser/email client extension, the effect it’ll have on your productivity is awe-inspiring.
11. Voxer Business
Forgive us for some shameless self-promotion, but you knew we had to add in Voxer Business. Use Voxer Business with your company to cut down on emails, phone calls, and save time and money while doing it.