We know the drill. You arrive at the office with the best intentions.
You have your ‘To Do’ list all set to go and an extra strong coffee on hand to keep you focused.
But somehow the day goes by without you seemingly having made inroads into anything remotely urgent.
Well, take a breath and get ready to leave a little earlier today thanks to these great free efficiency boosters.
1. Trello
Take control of your inbox by moving some of your project management from your inbox to Trello. This project management tool puts all aspects of a project on one easy-to-review board so all project collaborators can communicate, review, and track time sans email.
2. RescueTime
This program runs in the backgrounds of your computer and mobile devices, traces how you spend your screen time, and sends alerts when you’ve hit set time limits on specific websites or activities (like emailing). RescueTime’s detailed analytics will help you understand where you’re wasting all your time each day, so you can more easily eliminate the distractions.
3. Boomerang for Gmail
If you spend late nights drafting emails but wait to send them until the next day so they don’t get lost in the overnight junk mail shuffle, install Boomerang instead. This Gmail app lets you schedule emails to be sent later so you don’t have to revisit your drafts folder in the morning. This free tool also enables read receipts and click tracking, and sends reminders to follow up with someone if they haven’t responded to your email.
4. Unroll.me
Clean up your inbox with Unroll.me, which lets you unsubscribe from mailing lists in one click. For the emails you peruse sometimes (without loving all the inbox space they take up), Unroll.me aggregates them into one daily digest.
5. HubSpot CRM
Though your contacts may not be aware that there is a best time to email them, HubSpot CRM sure is. Among its many time-saving functions, this CRM (Consumer Relationship Management) tool shows you what time contacts open your messages and which links they’ve clicked to help you better target your communications. HubSpot CRM also provides helpful email templates, an appointment booking system to avoid back-and-forth availability emails, and insight into which companies visit your webpage to help target new business prospects.
6. projeqt
If you’re looking to jazz up your presentations in record time, you’ve come to the right place. With this tool you can enhance existing PowerPoint or PDF presentations with dynamic content (think live tweet feeds, interactive maps, streaming videos, and audio), or design new ones from scratch. It also makes them easier to share and access across multiple devices.
7. Buffer
Streamline your social media messages with Buffer, a dashboard that links multiple social-media accounts, lets you schedule future posts, and has a Buffer for Business paid option that reports analytics. For all of you visual posters, Buffer recently expanded its services to include Instagram.