Is productivity rising or falling in our culture as a whole? It turns out it depends on who you ask.
What we can say for certain is that in our digital age and with distractions at every turn, it can be hard to stay on task.
We’ve look at productivity hacks in a previous post, and in this article, we’re going to look at specific tools to help you be a more productive leader.
If you’re looking for productivity tools for busy CEOs, look no further than these apps, start using them and find each week running smoother than the previous one.
Productive
This is a great app for goal tracking.
Not only is it simple to use, but it’s soothing with a refined interface.
You can create as many goals as you’d like. For example, you can create goals for work, such as “complete marketing plan by March 1,” or “finish contracts two weeks from today.”
You can also add fitness goals, as well as other personal and professional goals. The app houses them all in one central location.
The Productive app helps you plan your day, stay in the moment and focus on the tasks at hand. It also provides you reminders so you stay on target.
Slack
Help your team communicate more effectively with Slack.
This easy-to-use platform helps you get more work done in a day because it eliminates the need for emails. Your entire team connects right in the app.
Answering emails is a productivity killer, and Slack helps you communicate through a message forum, direct messaging, file sharing, video calling, notifications, and more.
Whether it’s finalizing a project, reviewing a contract or working on the budget, Slack is a time saver.
Workflowy
Although it doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, Workflowy gets the job done for people who like to work off lists.
Workflowy helps you keep track of your to-do lists in an organized fashion.
Think of it as the uber outline.
Worklowy is uncomplicated and straightforward, and there is little learning curve.
Evernote
Are you the busy CEO who takes notes on pieces of paper, only to lose them a few days later?
Evernote is a great note-taker. Not only can you capture notes, files and websites, but you can organize everything in notebooks and access your data from anywhere.
Perhaps you bookmark articles to read later and videos to watch in the future. Or, you peruse websites for ideas and whitepapers.
You can take notes of everything in Evernote to read at a later date.
Duolingo
A relatively new app, it’s not only beneficial, but it’s fun, too.
If you are a CEO who travels into international areas, Duolingo can help you learn the language.
The Duolingo app makes learning a second or even third language easy.
The interface is like a game, but it breaks up learning into bite size chunks, making it easier for busy executives to learn.
TripIt
This is another app for busy CEOs who travel.
With TripIt, you can store all of your reservations from flights to hotels, rental cars and more.
You can do away with itineraries and store it all in TripIt because they build an itinerary for you that’s stored right on your phone or tablet.
You don’t have to worry about looking for travel info in your email or phoning your assistant because it’s all right in the app.
Final Thoughts
Now that we’ve looked at productivity tools for busy CEOs, we’re going to leave you with one final thought from American businessman, Paul J. Meyer:
“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”
So, commit yourself to trying at least one of these tools this week. Once you get used to it and see the fruits, try another tool next week.
You’ll soon find that you’re getting more work done than ever before.
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