6 productivity tools for 2016
Each year starts with a list of resolutions — goals you set for yourself — that mainly aim for self-improvement.
We, Francesco D’Alessio and Enrico Nahler, are dedicated to help you succeed in reaching your goals. We want to help you succeed and to make you feel good about yourselves and comfortable with the tools you use in your day-to-day work.
There are so many tools on the market, that is sometimes can be tough to choose the right ones for the things you need to get done.
THE KEYWORDS FOR MY PRODUCTIVITY IN 2016 ARE ESSENTIALISM and MINIMALISM
Let me recommend two of the, what I believe, best resources on both topics:
Here is our list of 6 productivity tools that really make a difference in our lives
1. The Calendar
YES! The calendar. — We have spoken a lot about calendars last year mainly because it is really hard to live without one.
We dedicated quite some time on explaining the Sunrise Calendar.
Sunrise did one thing better than any other calendar app, and that was being, what I coin as a Productivity Meta-Service in my recent article on Medium.
Productivity META-SERVICES are going to change the way we will be getting things done in the future and I believe, that being a Productivity Meta Service actually got Sunrise to the state of it being a service, that needed to be bought and then being slaughtered after being around for only 2 years especially because they really hit a nerve with people.
So Sunrise is gone and… I doubt that the majority of former sunrise users will jump on board with Microsoft’s Outlook mobile client, where the power of Sunrise has been planned to be implemented.
So what is the alternative, now that the one planning service that made it so easy for us to connect all our task managers, calendars and note-taking apps is gone?
One of my big goals this year, is to really boil everything down to the essentials. Using only those things and applications, that help me get the job done. Everything, that is excess weight will be boxed and tossed out on the streets for other people to use.
That is, why my first recommended productivity tool is the calendar.
iCal or Google Calendar?
It does not really matter which one you choose because the sole important thing is that you use it with consistency.
Francesco goes with Google’s calendar because it is a great tool and for the reason, that he runs multiple devices with different operating systems.
My choice is iCal which also connects with the Google Calendar. I am utilizing it for an unscheduled planning approach in combination with a daily planning template inside my second recommended tool Matcha 3 — but first we’ll have a look at Francesco’s first recommendation.
2. Trello
An outstanding cross-platform Kanban-style planning tool, that lets you work together with your team.
Each board can be a place for one objective, each list can mark a milestone and each card can hold a task that can be voted and chatted upon. You can delegate the card to a user break it down into sub-tasks and you can attach all kinds of content to a card, be it notes, pictures, links or files or your Evernote notes.
So, if your preference is working in a Kanban-style workspace, Trello is the right tools for you.
You can also build Kanban-style notes inside the iOS application that is my second recommendation.
3. Matcha 3
In 2015 I was looking for an application, that would allow for distraction free work on various projects across various cloud storage services.
The three apps, that I centered my productivity around last year and that have served me exceptionally well are Evernote, Dropbox and Wunderlist.
Matcha 3 was created by Johanes Sung over at InterAre in Jakarta/ Indonesia.
It has been created for note taking, journaling, and writing.
Simply put, Matcha 3 is a refreshing workspace to get more done.
It connects your Evernote, Dropbox and iCloud accounts with instant 2 way synchronization.
Its cutting-edge editor lets you write, structure and add rich contents to your notes.
- Table editor
which is something that we are all missing in Evernote’s native app - Drag and drop
for list items, pictures, table rows and columns, and paragraphs - A beautiful collage editor
building beautiful image clusters has never been easier - Swipe to style gestures
to quickly turn your text into one of five headline sizes, unordered, numbered or checklist items
The writing experience is extremely enjoyable with beautiful color themes and great typography in a distraction-free workspace.
In Matcha you can concentrate on any kind of writing, where you save in the end is entry is entirely up to you. We are still testing our Wunderlist integration and the WordPress, Tumblr and other platform publishing internally and with our Alpha testers. Once we have nailed these implementations, Matcha will likely be one of the most powerful Meta Productivity Tools on the market.
If you want to try Matcha 3, head over to matchaapp.com/try and sing up for the beta program and get free access to
The last writing app you’ll ever need.
— Andrea Dal Corso (Matcha user and Matcha 3 Alpha Tester)
It really reminds me of using a simplistic post-it note, but a long form one that is really colorful, playful and customizable.
— Francesco D’Alessio
While we speak about writing, here comes Francesco’s second recommendation for 2016. Please skip to recommendation #5 if you are not interested to sound better in every single text you write from now on.
4. Grammarly
“The World’s Best Grammar Checker” instantly checks your grammar, checks for plagiarism and proofreads your writing on the web. It also provides a plugin for Microsoft Word and Outlook.
Grammarly is a tool, that makes you sound better in every text you write, pointing out mistakes in real-time.
Grammarly also sends out an email for you every week, containing your writing statistics which point out how many words you have written, what your most frequent mistakes are and it teaches you how to avoid them by explaining the rules behind it. It also points out your overall performance in comparison to all Grammarly users.
Give Grammarly a try and find out what it feels like, to instantly improve your writing.
5. Paper by 53
Paper by 53 has been around since March 2012.
It is a free download and the tools, Sketch, Outline, Write, Color Mixer, Photo import and Text just make it the perfect tool to quickly create sketch notes, annotate pictures, which is something that I used to use Evernote’s Companion App Skitch for.
Paper by 53 however is the best application on the market for visual thinkers, people who need to proofread websites, and those who love to doodle during lectures, phone calls or meetings. I use it extensively to visualize replies to requests by the Matcha 3 users, to give feedback on the Matcha 3 design to Johanes and send quick visual information to anyone who needs it.
Out of Paper by 53 you can share your drawings, sketches and annotated pictures with almost every app on your iDevice or send it to other people via various channels.
6. Google Photos
Once you connected Google Photos with your camera roll on your phone, it will instantly send all the pictures you take and store them in your Google Drive.
You can store an unlimited amount of Pictures stored in high quality, if you want your pictures stored in the original size and quality, Google Photos will use up your personal storage.
We love using Google Photos because it makes it very simple to use your pictures across all google services. It poses as an additional backup for your photos and makes is so much simpler to add them to any content you create or share within the Google ecosystem.
If you are a photographer, you could buy additional storage with Google and save all your pictures in their original size without quality loss. If you just want an additional backup for your photos go with the free and unlimited high-quality storage solution
Thanks for reading! And, stay productive!
What are your recommended tools for 2016?
Please let us know in the comments. Also, tell us about your experiences with the tools recommended by us.
Pictures taken from:
Paper by 53
http://press.fiftythree.com/assets/Paper3.0PressRelease.pdf
Grammarly
http://catlintucker.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Screen-Shot-2015-02-03-at-9.59.45-AM.png
Google Photos — store, search, and share by Google, Inc.
https://appsto.re/de/WYEw5.i
Originally published at enriconahler.com on December 27, 2015.