PRODUCTIVITY
7 Digital Tools That Keep Me Sane Everyday
Simultaneously working on a lot of things can get overwhelming. Here are seven digital tools that make juggling tasks more convenient and efficient.
I’m an advocate of technology because it makes us more efficient in every day life. As consumers of the digital era, we live and breathe social media, enjoy the accessible vast resource and entertainment on the internet, and utilize digital tools and applications that allow us to function stress-free.
I’m one of the beneficiaries of today’s modern, innovative, and technology-inclined world, and I’d like to share the digital tools that keep my life together:
Tracking work, personal projects, and freelancing gigs
Work, passion projects, and side hustles became easier to manage when I started to use Todoist. I can separate my main interests into Projects, where I can create tasks, add reminders, and keep track of all my activities in one application straight from my mobile phone or laptop.
I like keeping things organized and staying accountable for activities I committed to, so I’ve tried several applications to find the best fit —Asana, Trello, Any Do, Notion, the list goes on. Todoist came out on top. It’s the most user-friendly no-fuss solution that lets me monitor all my tasks and keeps me productive day by day.
Note-taking for everyday activities
I mentioned how I use Todoist to stay on top of my daily grind. I complement it by using OneNote for more long-form writing or note-taking. Similar to Todoist, I’ve explored many similar applications — Evernote, Notion, Typora… regular doc files — and OneNote tops all of them by a mile.
Most of my appreciation comes from the time that I was still finishing my Master’s degree. Classes were fast-paced and not all professors had visual aids to accompany lectures. It was easier and faster to type notes instead of handwriting it. With OneNote, everything is more manageable because of Notebooks that separate work, school, and personal projects. In class, I separated each subject into its own Section, and each lecture split into Pages, just like a regular notebook. OneNote also has a feature that lets you handwrite a mathematical equation and convert it to a digital version, making your notes tidy. That feature was especially handy because I had classes with complex formulas.
Staying on top of my reading list
I use Microsoft Edge as my default browser because of Collections. It’s a built-in function in the browser that lets you save and organize links or texts you find on the web into manageable groups.
When I don’t want to read something immediately, I add them to Collections instead of using Bookmark on my browser. Using this function saves me a lot of time and removes extra sticky notes or files just to keep tabs of articles I want to read later on, plus it keeps my Bookmark bar clutter-free, too.
I tried a similar applications before, Pocket and Instapaper, but Microsoft Edge Collection is more accessible because it’s built-in to the browser you already use to open your saved content.
File back up and collaboration
My hard drive is only 1TB. Aside from my personal files, it’s easily in full capacity because of how much content and asset I work with for my job and other projects. Sometimes, I’m not sure if I’ll ever need some of them again, while others are really for keepsake. That’s why I turned to Google Drive as my file backup solution. There’s 15GB free with your Gmail account, but you can also do what I did by upgrading the storage for additional space for very affordable costs.
I also use Google Docs when working with clients. To reduce the number of offline files I manage and to minimize downloading and uploading that can be cause for confusion, collaborating via Google Docs only needs a shareable link. I house these files to my Google Drive and separate them via folders to keep things organized. One of the features I love best about Google Docs is the Suggest function. It lets you add in texts or elements in the interim and another person can accept or reject the suggestion made, disregarding it or making it officially a part of the document.
Sales conversations made easier
I take freelance gigs for additional income during my spare time. Bulk of the task comes from looking for projects. There are job posting sites everywhere, but when you compete with many other freelancers, your application can easily get buried and forgotten. One of the ways to get noticed is when you reach them through a direct channel, such as their email. With Hunter, you can find professional email addresses in seconds just by clicking the browser extension icon on a site you want to peruse.
Imagine targeting clients within a specific niche, if you know their website, you can easily reach out to them directly to offer your products or services.
Second bulk of the task is waiting if they haven’t gotten to your email yet or they’re just completely ignoring you. That’s why I installed MailTracker, it’s an email tracking extension that lets you know if your email has been opened.
Assessing if leads are hot, warm, or cold is made easier when you reach out to prospects using cold messages with this extension integrated to your email account.
Everyday life becomes more convenient because we find ways to use the wonders of technology. I personally love staying organized even though some people tag it as being uptight. It lets me function the way I want and rids me of worries and excuse from forgetting to do important tasks or failing to be productive. Are there other tools you use that you think I should know?
About Azelle
Azelle is a freelance digital marketing professional and copywriter for hire. Visit her site www.content-wordsmith.com or send her an email at hello@azelle-lee.com, and she’ll be glad to help you out with your goals and challenges!
