Micah's Mashup

Productivity Series: An Ode to Productivity (List of Tools)

I’ve long been interested in productivity and what I’ve been calling “digital efficiency” and picked up tips and tricks from many individuals and organizations over the years. Sharing these with others is always fun so this is a first stab at organizing my thoughts on the topic. The high-level goal of this series is to capture tactics and applicable tools, frameworks and strategies to tackle monotonous tasks and free up your time for other things.Please share any tools you love to use that aren’t listed below in the comments of this post or email me at micah@micahmador.com.My last post focused on hacking your inbox (specifically Gmail) but I wanted to share a more general list of tools next.

A few weeks ago, my boss, Seth, wrote a post about 2 productivity hacks he’s been using and asked if he could share the list below on his blog. I’ve been putting together a list of tools we’ve been using, experimenting with, or that have been highly recommended by others.

  • TextExpander – store frequently types phrases/notes across all devices
  • Wunderlist– To Do list on all your devices – supports team collaboration
  • Trello – collaborative task list for Teams, works well with Agile/Lean methodologies
  • Asana – To-do list that allows for super granular level of detail for todo lists and team collaboration
  • Voxer – Walkie talkie/messaging app for instant communication with your closest contacts you want to be more responsive to than email
  • Zapier OR IFTTT – connect the tools you use to each other based on triggers/recipes and actions (Ex. Save pocket starred items to Evernote folder)
  • Copyclip or Paste – Keep all of your copied/clipboard items in one place so you don’t lose anything
  • Charlie App or Accompany* – Easily get a briefing on who you are meeting
  • FullContact – a unified address book across accounts, devices and organizations (now supports teams)
  • Notability App – Take notes on your ipad and have them sent and OCR to Evernote
  • Yoink – Simplify Drag and Drop by using Yoink to move files around your fullscreen apps
  • Call please – web/app call list of people to connect with (helps avoid scheduling set times for meetings that don’t need to be scheduled..)
  • LastPass or dashlane – Never forget a password or deal with login troubles again!
  • F.lux – save your eyes from the eerie blue glow of screens (especially at night)
  • Toggl – A simple online timer with a powerful timesheet calculator (see RescueTime to block notifications/programs for work blocks)
  • Magnet or spectacle – Mac app to move and resize windows with ease (built into windows)
  • Headspace – Although it seems counter-intuitive to use a smart device for meditating, this app will help put you in the right frame of mind
  • Blinkist – Book summaries, 1,500+ best-selling nonfiction books, transformed into powerful shorts you can read or listen to in 15 minutes
  • Goodreads – Lets users track and rate books and network with other readers
  • Pocket – Allows you to easily save webpages for later reading (syncs across devices as well, which is a real bonus)
  • Gboard – Android lovers rejoice, iOS now allows 3rd party keyboard, I can’t remember the last time I typed, save effort by swyping!

Chrome/Gmail Extension:

  • Full contact or rapporative to see public info on people
  • MatterMark – Get info on companies (web & mobile app too)
  • Grammarly – Writing-enhancement tool with proofreading capabilities to check for a writer’s adherence to more than 250 grammar rules

Inbox Plugins

  • Streak  – Spreadsheet in your inbox, mail merge, email Templates, snooze mail, send later, team collaboration and more.
  • MixMax – Awesome for scheduling meetings by sending a live table, avoid the back and forth and double bookings! Also does templates, mail merge and tracks opens, clicks and downloads
  • SalesForceIQ – Sales focused CRM
  • Unroll.me – Clean’s your inbox – Instantly see a list of all your subscription emails. Unsubscribe easily from whatever you don’t want.

Websites:

  • Conspire (recently acquired by FullContact) – see how you are connected to the people you want to reach through your network
  • Internet Archive Wayback Machine – See what websites used to look like at a specific point in time
  • Power Googling Infograph – Sample search queries to tap into the power of Google Search

Specific Startup tools

  • Usepodium.com for pitch feedback
  • Docusign OR HelloSign – stop sending PDF’s to sign – streamline the whole process and know when docs are opened, signed, etc.
  • Docsend – track, control, send, and present sales materials with real-time document analytics.

Assistant Services

  • youcanbook.me or calendly – scheduling made easy, great for sales people, demos or office hours
  • Clara ($$)- AI for scheduling (I use Clara for scheduling the majority of my meetings)
  • Magic ($) -For simple tasks (schedule oil change, pick up flowers, order food, etc.)
  • Pana ($) – Personal travel concierge, book flights by msging Pana where you want to go and when

$ – costs money

* – beta


Also published on Medium.

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