Today’s post is a guest post submission from Marc Bromhall. Marc is the co-founder at Contentellect. He does some freelance writing on Legiit. You can check out Marc’s services here.

The Best Productivity Apps for Your Business

Work smarter, not harder. It’s something we all want to do in pursuit of a work-life balance. But how do you actually pull this off? Well, technology certainly helps. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a freelancer, there’ll be an app that can help improve your productivity. We’ve rounded up some of the most useful productivity apps available today. At least one of these is going to elevate your productivity game so you can do more and toil less. Spend more of your time on the things that matter.

Trello

We love Trello for its user-friendliness and versatility. The app lets you stay on top of personal goals and it allows you to oversee teams. For example, writers can track upcoming projects, projects in progress and completed projects in separate list columns.

Each list has movable cards for really simple and intuitive project management. Break big projects up into achievable parts, prioritize jobs or lay out tasks for SOPs. There are a vast array of different colorways you can apply to the cards and lists which allows for seamless visual differentiation.

Trello’s basic plan is free. It includes labels, messaging and 10MB attachments. The premium plans start at $9.99 a month for bigger attachments, custom backgrounds and stickers, and more.

ToDoist

ToDoist takes a classic concept, the To Do list, and adds smart software to the mix. Sure, the app sounds like a toddler aspiring to be The Boss Baby, but it’s very much for grown-ups. ToDoist has helped more than 10 million people get stuff done.

Use it as a personal aid to keep your life organized – it’s like a Pensieve for storing anything from flight reminders to Christmas shopping prompts. Alternatively, dole out responsibility and keep a watchful eye on deadlines. Progress bars show you how far along various employees are with specific projects.

ToDoist is free for less than 80 projects with small teams of up to five. Beyond that, you’re looking at $36 annually.

CloudApp

With CloudApp, it’s all about the visuals. A picture is worth a thousand words after all. The company boasts users including Facebook, Adobe and Uber. The app’s show-and-tell philosophy makes for a bunch of neat, image-centric features.

Between the screen recording functionality, GIFs, annotated screenshots and cloud space, it couldn’t be easier to quickly communicate. You can share important information with team members or with clients, and you’ll save time while you’re doing it.

CloudApp’s basic plan is gratis but video recordings are restricted to five minutes. Pro plans start at $9 per month for unlimited recording.

Slack

Slack is not one of the fastest growing companies of all time for nothing. The app is a collaboration station. It counts Oracle and Target amongst its users.

As a replacement for email, Slack handily keeps all work-related comms in one searchable place. The video chat capability is another nifty feature. Best of all, Slack seamlessly integrates with loads of other popular tools like Dropbox, Twitter (for keeping tabs on social media) or MailChimp. You’ve got everything you need within easy reach – it’s the height of efficiency.

Slack has a free plan for less than 10k messages, a standard plan which charges around $7 per active user per month, and a plus plan which costs about double that.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is one of the best ways for businesses to handle lots of social media channels. Like Slack, Hootsuite’s advantage is that it serves as a hub. Instead of going into each social platform separately, businesses can post and reply to comments from within the app.

The ability to schedule posts is another major drawcard. Line up timed posts months in advance and then sit back and do maintenance. Hootsuite lets you optimize the monitoring and analysis of posts and has a bunch of other practical benefits.

Aside from its trial period, Hootsuite is not gratis. The app costs $29 a month, but it’s well worth it in our books.

PomoDoneApp

This app utilizes the Pomodoro technique to help you track your workflow. If you’re not familiar with the Pomodoro technique it is a time and workflow management technique which was created by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It advocates a simple precept – optimal productivity happens when we work in 25 minute increments and take 5 minute breaks in between.

The PomoDoneApp offers the user a simple time tracking tracking tool. Once the app is installed on your browser, the PomoDone icon will sit in your toolbar which allows you to start, stop, and pause your task just in seconds.

Asana

Asana is an easy-to-use app that combines file storage, collaboration and project management elements in one platform, so you can manage your tasks across a team. It was one of the first workplace tools to get real traction in the business world, helping teams track tasks and ongoing work while harnessing collaboration and communication.

It’s a trusty, easy-to-use tool with a simple interface that works with projects that aren’t too complex, which is a massive selling point for people just starting out with project management software.

The main view is a list of tasks to which you can add subtasks to break them down further. You can easily track what each team member is doing, create to-do lists for ongoing work, send requests to colleagues as well as set reminders for upcoming deadlines. It also allows for commenting on posts in the app.

Conclusion

As we are now firmly in the grips of the internet age, digitisation pervades our lives like never before. There is little doubt that as technology evolves, our jobs will become more complex. Thankfully there is a flipside to this thanks to productivity hacks and apps.

These tips, tools and apps can help us navigate the digital labyrinth that many of us find ourselves facing in this internet age. By boosting our productivity, we can spend less time on peripheral aspects of our job and focus on the things that really matter and directly impact the bottom line.