Leadership is fundamentally about movement. It is about taking people and projects from Point A to Point B in the most life-giving and cost-effective manner possible. The defining characteristic of your leadership is how you answer these two questions – “Did you do what you said you would do? Did you get the job done?”
Those two questions are so important they are the subject of today’s post.
If you are a regular reader of this site then you know BELAY Solutions is absolutely one of my favorite organizations. Co-founded by Bryan Miles and his wife Shannon,BELAY was recently ranked #1 among small companies in the 2017 Top Company Cultures List Presented by Entrepreneur and CultureIQ. I am privileged to have them as a sponsor of this site.
Below is an article written by their team on The Best Productivity Apps For Getting Things Done. It was the most popular article about their organization I posted in 2018.
For the record, nothing will help you get things done more than hiring one of BELAY’s virtual assistants. Trust me. After reading, if you consider getting a virtual assistant, click HERE and start a conversation with the BELAY team today.
Now onto their comments:
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Necessity is the mother of invention, so we’ve heard. And, boy, has humankind gone and invented something for everything. And in many cases, many, many‘somethings’ for everything.
In fact, as we’ve mentioned previously, a quick Google search of virtually anything can yield some very impressive – albeit overwhelmingly lengthy – results.
Enter the Wormhole…
You click one. It’s pretty good. But maybethere’s something better, something that’s the best.So you willingly dive back down that wormhole, finding endless articles, options and suggestions … and losing three hours of your life in the process.
Informative? Maybe. Productive? Decidedly not.
And therein lies the problem. When faced with too many choices, we often end up so overwhelmed that we choose none. In fact, a study conducted at Columbia University ‘… raised the hypothesis that the presence of choice might be appealing as a theory but in reality, people might find more and more choice to actually be debilitating.’
Counterproductive much?
With so many apps, sites and resources for, well, just about anything, it’s impossible to create a comprehensive and complete list with all the ‘best’ – but here is a short-and-sweet list of our favorite resources for getting things done.
***Note how many times the word ‘collaboration’ – or any derivative – is used to describe each of these resources. Coincidence? We think not.
Best Productivity Apps
• Asana: Asana is a cloud-based software that facilitates colleagues within an organization to track and manage the progress of projects. Simply put, you and your team create tasks to monitor individual contributions to a larger, collaborative project.
Team members add tasks, assign them to colleagues, set due dates, comment, and share relevant documents while notifications on the status of each task – and their approaching deadlines – are sent to your inbox.
Best of all? It’s customizable to the way you want to work. Want to work in a way that is driven by conversations? Asana can do that. Prefer to work in a way that’s driven by tasks? Asana’s got you covered, too, so every team has the opportunity to work in the way that is comfortable for them. If that’s not enough to pique your interest, the BELAY marketing team would be lost without Asana.
• Basecamp: Basecamp is a project management app that combines all the tools teams need in a single, straightforward platform. It combines communication and collaboration by providing the tools you need to set up to-dos, discuss ideas, plan marketing campaigns, create a schedule, create and upload documents and files, message and chat with your colleagues, and check in regularly with your group – all from one productivity-boosting app.
• Slack: Slack claims to be ‘ … a collaboration hub that connects your organization – all the pieces and the people – so you can get things done.’ And we’re here to corroborate those claims.
With Slack, you can collaborate online – just as you would in person – by bringing the right people and information together in a one-stop shop where you can communicate efficiently, stay connected, and get things done – faster. Fast, efficient and communicative? That’s (productivity) music to our ears.
• Trello: Trello is a collaborative tool that organizes projects into ‘boards’ so that in one glance, you know what’s being worked on – and by whom – and its stage of completion.
Trello is a ‘whiteboard, filled with lists of sticky notes, with each note as a task for you and your team. Now, imagine that each of those sticky notes has photos, attachments from external data sources, documents, and a place to comment and collaborate with your colleagues. Now, imagine that you can take that whiteboard anywhere you go on your smartphone, and can access it from any computer through the web.’
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
• Evernote: There’s no better person to encapsulate the wonder that is Evernote than former CEO and co-founder, Phil Libin, who explained it as ‘ … your brain offloaded to a server. It’s Google for the web of your life. It’s a spotlight on the dark matter of your universe. It’s a tool for converting your smartphone from a time killer to a time saver.’
It can store notes, audio memos, web pages, emails, documents, and photos. Further, users can add labels and tags to make items easier to find in a search. It can even read and catalog text in photos, including handwritten notes. It will also automatically track when and where you were when you created it. You can also organize items into notebooks. And best of all, it has apps for PC, Mac, iPad, nearly every kind of smartphone, and a web-based application.
OK, this one’s not an app, but it’s the most productive decision you can make…
BELAY Virtual Assistants: Listen. We’d be remiss if we didn’t take a second to – once again – remind all you midnight-oil-burning solopreneurs out there that the time to hire a Virtual Assistant was probably yesterday. Or three months ago. Maybe even a year ago.
Why?
Because you’re likely not as productive as you think, even if you manage to not let anythingslip through the cracks. As we’ve discussed previously, there comes a time when you haveto delegate if you want to be productive – and grow.
And the best part? Your Virtual Assistant can use all of the aforementioned productivity apps for doublethe productivity bang for your buck! It’s a productivity business BOGO bargain bonanza. Say thatthree times fast.*
*Actually, no. Don’t. The time we spent Googling words that start with ‘b’ was enough to make our point about Google wormholes. Lesson learned.
Are you ready to be more productive?
If you’re ready to maximize your productivity, consider implementing any one – or all – of our app recommendations. If you’re ready for a realproductivity game-changer, consider hiring one of BELAY’s world-class Virtual Assistants today.