Tools to Increase Productivity and Efficiency
The tools I can’t live without after 5 years in the digital / agency / creative / startup industries.
Google Drive
I use Google Drive for EVERYTHING. I’m lucky in my job that I have the flexibility to work from home. I also seem to find inspiration at the most inconvenient times (3am Sunday morning?!). This means I need to access my notes and documents from wherever I am. The inbuilt sharing and feedback mechanisms are also great if you love to collaborate.
Here are two great articles, one from Tech Republic and one from Hub Spot, teaching you how to get the most value from Google Drive.
Gmail Labs
I use Gmail for emails (obviously). Not exactly a lesser-known tool. But, what you might not know is that they’ve got some neat functionality hidden away in your settings under Gmail Labs. Go into your account and click the gear icon, then “Settings”, then the “Labs” tab. Here are my favourite three features that you might want to enable first;
Undo Send — Forgotten an attachment? Made a typo? Sent an email to the wrong person?
Just hit “Undo Send” and you can stop the message going out. Phew. [UPDATE — Gmail have finally pushed Undo Send out of Labs and into the wide world].
Canned Responses — Instead of copying and pasting from your sent items, save time by saving regular emails as Canned Responses. Just select a response from the little dropdown in the bottom right of your email and it will auto-populate. Brilliant.
Google Calendar Gadget — I hate having to open up a new tab to access the calendar. This gadget solves the problem by adding a box in the left column which shows your Google Calendar. It pulls in all upcoming events with locations and details.
Slack
Before Slack, my experiences with instant messengers included Microsoft Messenger as a 15-year-old (ASL?) and the occasional Skype chat. So I wasn’t expecting it to revolutionalise my working life in the way that it has.
At Neverbland we use Slack as a tool to hold different discussions throughout the day. The entire team can be found online during (and outside of) working hours. We have a number of groups and channels categorised by topic or business sector so questions and issues can be shared, addressed and responded to by relevant team members.
I love that it keeps me so connected to the team. A large part of my role is making sure the studio runs smoothly. With Slack, even if I’m off sick, I can keep tabs on what’s going on. I don’t think I’ve ever settled into a new job so quickly.
Trello
Not the sexiest of interfaces but so damn useful. When I was a Project Manager, I used Trello to manage all my projects. Now I use it for my To Do list. I have a simple board with a list for each area covered by my role; admin, recruitment, product support, product marketing, blog posts, social media, and miscellaneous tasks. I create a card per task, with a checklist for sub-tasks. Once everything is ticked off and the task is completed, I archive it.
It might sound excessive to split even simple tasks into checklists, but when I have a million things to do and have to remember where I got to on a task I started 6 months ago, it’s a life saver.
I can easily set deadlines, re-order my cards depending on priority (which changes on a daily basis as new tasks come in), and use labels to highlight any urgent ones.
Feedly
I discovered Feedly when looking for a way to reduce the time I spent each morning going through my bookmarked sites looking for interesting/relevant/funny articles and content to post on social channels.
Turns out what I needed was a “news aggregator application”. Just add your bookmarks and it pulls all the content into one feed. You can organise by time or category, create collections, save your most read articles, and probably do loads of other cool stuff that I’ve not even discovered yet.
I‘d estimate it saves me at least an hour each day. And it’s free.
aText
Anyone else hate copying and pasting? I use aText to speed up typing my frequently used phrases by setting them up as shortcuts - telling recruiters to take me off their email list, responding to job applicants, and even filling in address forms.
Cinch
My biggest gripe when switching from a PC to a Mac (yes I used to have to work on a PC) was the lack of window management on a Mac. I found and downloaded Cinch and it’s been my trusty companion ever since.
Canva
Canva is a really simple online design tool. I use it mostly to create imagery for social media. Or sometimes I’ll use it to stick someone’s head on a funny picture.
Giphy
I. Love. Gifs.
Part of my role involves sending out potentially tedious emails and reminders. But sprinkle a few Gifs here and there and you’re laughing. I find a well chosen Gif can really increase the read and engagement rate.
Grammarly
I’m a stickler for grammar errors and typos. Grammarly is a Chrome extension which checks and suggests corrections for everything you type, even in a random form field. No more embarrassing spelling mistakes.
Hemingway
I use Hemingway to check the readability of everything I write. It advises on sentence length and complexity, use of adverbs, and even tone of voice.
Push Bullet
And to round off my list — a handy little tool for transferring information between devices. I mostly use it to send links between my laptop and the meeting room computer.
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