10 Productivity Tools To Help You Get The Most Out of 2019

All of us would like to be more efficient with our time, even if that means different things to different people. For some that might mean ditching the social media habit, while others may wish for the ability to quickly and easily compare data without having to move back and forth between several pages.

Whatever you’re trying to achieve productivity-wise, there’s likely to be a tool out there that can help you achieve freelancing success. Instead of wasting time on the things that aren’t helping you to get through your workload or move your business forward, get more out of your day with the help of useful apps and handy browser extensions.

We’ve compiled a list of some of the best productivity tools out there, which will help you turn your abstract goals into actionable and achievable items in your day-to-day life. That way, your resolutions or intentions for making partner in five years, starting your own business or even writing a book don’t stay just that – intentions.

1) IFTTT

We’re not sure how to pronounce this acronym, but it stands for “If This, Then That.” What does it do? Well, this brilliant productivity app will streamline all sorts of productivity tasks.

IFTTT sweeps and rakes through your basic daily movements on your computer, detecting patterns and automating those patterns for you. It is a fantastic tool to optimize social media, but it can also be used to create other patterns for your daily technology use. Definitely useful if you’re looking to shave off minutes of your working time.

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2) TopTracker

Brought to you by Toptal, the world’s leading network of top-notch freelance designers and developers, TopTracker is a fantastic app that enables you to easily track your work.

The intuitive and clean desktop app and web interface allow both teams and individuals to track their productivity, create projects and quickly identify any problem areas that need to be improved.

TopTracker was designed with the freelance community needs in mind, allowing you to have complete control of what you are tracking, and how often you track it.

3) Rescue Time

If you need to figure out what distractions you need to cut out from your life and you’re wondering where your time goes each day, Rescue Time is here to the, well, rescue you.

This app runs in the background and tracks the sites and programs where you spend most of your time, allowing you to generate a report with the results, such as the best days of the week for you to work and your most productive hours of the day.

You can also set productivity goals, such as not spending over an hour per day on social media, making it easier for you to stay on track.

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4) MiniNote

MiniNote works wonderfully for helping you stay on track of your personal work. It works as a checklist-like tool on the corner of your screen, reminding you of all the tasks on your to-do list.

The lock function will display the device on top of any other programs, and the note-taking feature will allow you to be thorough with all your tasks on a non-intrusive, easy to look at, and simple platform that will gently remind you to stay on track.

5) ProofHub (iOS)

ProofHub is a cloud-based collaboration and project management tool designed to help you organize, plan, collaborate, and deliver your projects by the set deadline. It makes project management simple with its amazing features and simple interface.

Some of its best features include files, reports, calendar, Gantt charts, timer, notes, and discussions. And if that wasn’t enough, you can access also Outlook, Onedrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Google calendar within its interface, offering the perfect way to keep all your files in one place.

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6) StayFocusd

Most of us have loads of tabs open, making it really tempting to click on the Facebook tab and check our news feeds or any notifications that may pop up, even if we’re right in the middle of a task. That’s where StayFocusd comes in.

It’s an extension you can add to Google Chrome and use to block specific sites from your browser. The good thing is that you can set it to block for certain hours, or days, so you can block them just during working hours. Just choose the sites you find most distracting, and StayFocusd does all the work.

Working on a complicated task and can’t afford any distractions? StayFocusd gives you the option to “go nuclear,” where the tool will block any sites you want for the amount of time you want, and it can even block your internet access if you so desire.

7) Hours (iOS)

It can be a headache to keep track and log your schedules, shifts, and working hours. Hours can help with that, as it’s a time-tracking app that comes with helpful reminders, a visual timeline, and other tools so that you can log in your work hours with the least amount of hassle.

You can set notifications, track time by task, project, and client, view tracked hours on a calendar, start, stop, and change timers, and set your own rules about how the hours are logged. You can also view detailed reports in the app, send out PDF and CSV reports, and add notes to your timesheet.

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How to track work time using the Hours app for iOS

8) Wunderlist

If you’re anything like the rest of us, you have tons of sticky notes taped to your screen or your desk with a million to-do lists or task you assigned yourself, some of which are severely overdue, while you completely forget about the others.

If that’s you, then Wunderlist is a welcome tool in your life. It will put all your to-do lists in a single place, allowing you to subdivide each task, and add notes. It easily syncs with your computer and phone calendars, making it ideal when it comes to digital planning.

9) Any.do (Android, iOS)

When the day gets busy, you may forget daily chores and tasks, and Any.do is here to help by keeping your schedule on track with notes, reminders, to-do-lists, and the capacity to assign tasks to others and share lists.

You can sync between your tablet, desktop, and phone, keeping any list updated. You can also add items to your task list by speaking with its voice-entry feature, handy!

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10) Boomerang (Android, iOS)

Email can be a remarkably constant and annoying distraction. Boomerang will let you temporarily dismiss messages that arrive at your inbox, and have them reappear when you have more time to deal with them, be it in a few hours, or even a few days.

Boomerang also gives you the ability to completely pause your inbox, suspending any interruptions when you’re busy with something else, as well as the capacity of scheduling outgoing messages.

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Are there any productivity tools you can’t live without? Share your thoughts in the comments below!