Top Tools and Apps to Get You through the Day

Sometimes all those apps and tools we have taking up space on our phones and tablets can be a bit distracting. How often are you grateful for an app or a crucial tool for keeping you on task or for making you more productive during your day?

We've all had one of those days where it seems the simple app we have keeping us on task is the only reason we were productive. Since we tend to get stuck using the same tools over and over again, we may be unaware of the other tools out there, or unwilling to try something different for fear of switching up our routine.

Via Atlassian

There is a lot of time wasted at work, and you'd be surprised to know that some of the biggest culprits are some of the unnecessary things we end up having to do while at work...and not just checking on our Facebooks. According to a study by Atlassian, at least 60% of our time at work is actually spent productively.

If you're working a 40 hour work week, that's at least 24 hours spent not being productive. One of the biggest culprits? Answering and keeping your emails organized. That same study found that, on average, it takes about 16 whole minutes to get back on track after being derailed by an incoming email. Okay, ready for the good news? We've got the master list of professionals from all different industries of the tools and apps they use to get through their day productively.

We went out and asked a few of our customers what they thought about it and what top tools or apps they use everyday. The results? Amazing. And we'll be honest, there are a few on this list that we hadn't even heard of! But you can be sure we'll be implementing them into our routine very soon.

Jamie Haynes, Owner of Triangle Realty

"We love... Contactually, Zapier, WuFoo, Asana, Evernote, Dropbox, BombBomb, Voila, DocuSign, Hootsuite, and Chrome Plugins like Boomerang, Rapportive and Google Analytics."

Christopher Cox, Regional VP of Better Living Real Estate

"On a daily basis, I rely on Google Calendar, BombBomb, and other Contactually integrations, as well as e-signature tools such as Docusign and Dotloop. I also love Wunderlist as my to-do list manager because of its seamless cross platform (Mac included) integration and syncing. Trello also keeps my projects and pipelines in order."

Russell Stalters, CEO of Clear Path Solutions Inc.

"These are the day-to-day productivity tools: Evernote, Microsoft Office 365 (calendaring, email and document management), Nozbe for task management and delegation to others, Hootsuite, Dropbox, ScanBizCards for business card scanning, Toggl for time tracking, and Slack.

These are the other tools I use to keep my business running... Quickbooks Online, Leadpages, Kajabi for my online courses or other content, Beacon for eBooks, WordPress for my website, Stock unlimited for images and vector files, Soundcloud, and MileIQ."

Scott Rosengrants, Bring Home Denver

"We are heavily dependent on emails. However a few that come to mind are Google Calendar, the Contactually app, Home Keepr, and the Gmail app. We sync all of our calendars through Google Calendar and are able to view everyone's schedule in one convenient place. This helps greatly when setting appointments for our agents and finding convenient times for team meetings. We utilize the Contactually app as an extension of our phone books. Often we have to get in touch with each others' contacts and it is nice to be able to search the Contactually database rather than bog each of our phones down with potentially outdated contact info.

Home Keepr is a newer app that we offer to our past clients. It is a marketing tool for us that delivers excellent value through reminders of common household tasks such as cleaning gutters, changing furnace air filters, and blowing out sprinklers. The app contains our own database of approved vendors so our clients have peace of mind when calling the vendor. The app also allows for the client to message us regarding home owner questions. This app helps keep us top of mind and really adds value to our clients.

Lastly, the Gmail app is essential, as I am sure it is for most. We do a ton of work remotely and rely heavily on email."

Lori Livers, Director of Staging Solutions at Home Staging of Houston

"My Wisestamp signature and Quickbooks. I can't live without either of these two!"

Lee Radford, Executive Director of Redeemer's House International Inc.

"I can't live without: Contactually, Evernote, Nozbe (an awesome Get Things Done product), Fantastical (a better alternative to Apple's iCal), QuickBooks Online (gots to pay da bills), Skype (I live in Guatemala, but raise funds from within the U.S.), KissFlow (business process management to streamline daily requests from my team), MapMyRun for iPhone (to run out all the stress from work), Facebook Pages, MailChimp, Instagram, DropBox, and Feedly."

Download for Productivity

Overwhelmed? To sum it up, some clear favorites among the crowd are Evernote, DropBox and the all of the Google Tools. Yes, Contactually came up a couple times too, but to be clear, we did ask what their must-haves were beyond Contactually!

A few new ones we had never heard of? Nozbe, Fantastical, and Home Keepr were among the top most intriguing tools and apps that we'll be taking a closer look at. Now before you go app-crazy, keep in mind that you can overdo this as well. And having too many tools can sometimes make you even less productive than before.

Take the time to assess how you spend your time, and see where you may need some help in making that time a little more productive. Once you do, you can find the right tool to suit your exact needs... and watch as all that wasted time at work goes flying out the window!

To view the original article, visit the Contactually blog.