Productivity Tools: Boost Your Efficiency and Creativity in the Business World

Productivity is vital for businesses, organizations, and corporations because it enables them to perform tasks efficiently and in a timely manner. In today’s busy and competitive business world, productivity is paramount for any business, and choosing the right productivity tools to help you manage your workloads can significantly improve your organization’s output and profitability. As we approach a new year, it is essential to identify new productivity goals and to choose the best tools to help you achieve those goals. When shopping around for new productivity software, always keep the following considerations in mind: cost, reliability, cross-platform compatibility, on-the-go functionality, and technical support.

In this article, we will examine some of the most recommended productivity software tools in the marketplace. We will also explore what makes them stand out from the rest of the pack and how they can enhance your productivity in your working environment.

Projects and Tasks Management

1. Monday dot com

Founded to create a team management solution, Monday dot com serves more than 140 countries. Its user interface is impressive and intuitive, making collaboration productive and fun because of its simplicity. The tool is deemed to have one of the best user experiences across the mobile and online project and task management platform. Features include usability, customization, admin control, group management and control, private or public control, in-group messaging, and more.

2. Asana

Asana enables teams from different organizations to work together effortlessly. The software comes with many customization options. As a user, when you create a project, you can choose between traditional task view or the kanban-style board view. The dashboard allows you to see progress on a project, and includes an excellent advanced set of search tools. Also, Asana’s Android and iOS apps do retain the web interface’s clean look and feel.

3. Trello

Trello was founded in 2010 and quickly gained popularity, adding 500,000 members in two years. Anyone within sales, marketing, HR, and operations can collaborate successfully with this product. Some of its features include speed, easy-to-use, and set up. The tool’s interface includes due dates, assignments, file storage, checklists, and more. Trello has over 100-plus integrations with Google Drive, Slack, Jira, and others. The product works flawlessly across various platforms.

4. Jira

Jira software is flexible and heralded as the next-generation project. Teams can design and adapt the software to meet an organization’s needs. This includes having visibility into long-term goals, project roadmaps, status of work, real-time release information, and more. In addition, the interface is customizable. The Atlassian Cloud does not support multiple separate domains, subdomains, or domain aliases in Google Apps.

5. Evernote Business

Evernote was founded in 2008 and reached 11 million users by 2011. The company was founded on the premise that their product should address the ever-increasing volume and speed of information. The product couples together groups of teams because of its versatility and functionality. It creates documents, collaboration on projects, stores information all in a single location. Moreover, you can find information quickly, thanks to its effective search capabilities and integrations with existing tools you may already use.

Communication

6. Slack

Slack was founded in 2013 and is heralded as a collaboration hub. Slack is where productivity happens. When initiating a new project, hiring new staff, deploying code, reviewing a sales contract, and finalizing a budget, Slack covers all of these. Some of the major highlights of Slack include highly customizable notifications and seamless integrations with other collaboration and office tools. The free version of the software comes loaded with features, but does not archive old messages. So, you have to review what are the best options for your organization or business.

7. Spike

Newcomer Spike makes emails more conversational by helping teams maintain productivity, communication, and collaboration. All of these are achieved from within their inbox. Spike works on top of any existing email (O365, G suite, and IMAP) turning it into a real-time messenger and making your communication much more functional and efficient. Spike’s features include built-in groups and channels, voice and video calls, email encryption, instant access to all your files, and much more.

Creation

8. Office 365

Microsoft’s Office 365 could not be excluded from the conversation, particularly as it pertains to productivity software. Of course, we are all familiar with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, but there is more capability that comes with it. You have business-class email, online storage space, and teamwork solutions. These services can be accessed from just about anywhere. Within this suite is Microsoft Sway, which is a presentation software and a step above PowerPoint.

9. Grammarly

Grammarly helps to cut down time on editing. Professionals in several industries like law, healthcare, academia, marketing, engineering, and journalism use it to provide instant feedback on the accuracy of writing in English. Once you install the extension from Google Chrome, you can get corrections when you are drafting an email, using social media, and other apps. Grammarly is AI-powered, and it’s a wonderful tool to have to check spelling and grammar before a presentation.

Team Analytics

10. ActivTrak

ActivTrak is a business intelligence tool that allows you to access team behavior analytics. In other words, it is data-driven. The pros include two-factor authentication with active directory integration. You can also automate your alerts and it has an intuitive interface with easy-to-use admin controls. Furthermore, it comes with Google sign-in, iOS app, productivity track, and more. In essence, the product offers employee productivity metrics along with team behavior analytics.

The Bottom Line

Depending on the size, budget, resources, and immediate needs of your company, not all productivity software products will solve your problem. You will have to contact any of the providers above and probe extensively to find the right product that is made for your business. Productivity software tools like the ones mentioned above can significantly enhance your productivity in the business world by increasing your efficiency and creativity, and help take your business to the next level.