Tools and Apps to Improve Your Workflow
Updated: Jun 27
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A workflow is a set of actions that you perform on your computer or mobile device. It's important to have tools and apps that can help improve your workflow. These tools can help you manage your time, stay organized, and streamline your daily tasks.
In this Plog, we'll explore some of the best tools and apps to improve your workflow and boost your productivity.
Task Management/project Tools
Task management/project tools are essential for keeping you or your team organized, and there are a number of options out there. If you're looking for a free option that works well, Trello and Asana are great options. If you want something more robust and customizable, try Airtable. Also, Monday.com offers both free and paid versions of its task management software; the latter allows users to create teams within their organization as well as add external members through the platform's marketplace feature.
I personally use Trello because it's great for beginners and new businesses or if you're a freelancer. It keeps track of your tasks with visual lists, and color codes. You can even open the card to put more details in there. It's also shareable.
Communication Tools
Slack is a great tool for communication. It allows you to create channels, share files, and send messages in real-time. You can also use it to schedule meetings with colleagues, which makes it easy for everyone involved to keep track of their schedules.
Zoom is another excellent option for video conferencing because it offers high-quality audio and video calls without requiring any additional software or hardware on your computer (unlike Skype).
Microsoft Teams: is another great option if you're working with people who use Office 365; it integrates seamlessly with other Office apps like Word or Excel so that everything stays organized in one place!
Document Management Tools
Google Drive
Dropbox
Box
I use both Zoom and Telegram to communicate quickly. I also use my email for communication for projects so it doesn't get lost in my text message feed.
Time Management Tools
Toggl: This is a time-tracking tool that can be used to track your tasks and projects. It's free for up to 5 users, but you'll need to pay if you want more than that.
Clockify: Is a free extension on Chrome. It's a time-tracking tool that you can assign projects to.
Harvest: Harvest is another time-tracking app that has features like invoicing, expense management, and even payroll built in!
Focus timer: Is an app that has you work for 25 minutes and then have a 5-minute break. A neat thing about this is you can change your focus time and your breaks to adjust it to your life accordingly. And it's all from your phone!
I use Clockify and Focus Timer. Clockify lets you personalize your projects, showing you the time you've spent on it, whereas Focus Timer is a simple app that tracks your productivity.
Productivity Tools
There are a lot of tools out there that can help you be more productive, but not all of them are created equal. Here are some of my favorites:
Trello is also great for this. Notion is another great tool for organizing your ideas as well as creating documents and spreadsheets quickly without having to learn how to use Microsoft Word first.
I also use Google docs and Google Sheets.
Collaboration Tools
Google Docs: If you're looking for a free way to collaborate with others, Google Docs is a great option. You can create documents and spreadsheets together with other people in real time, share them with different groups of people and track changes as they happen.
Slack is also a great communication and collaboration space
Google Docs is my go-to.
Organization tools
Google/Apple Calendar:
Is a great way to remind you what you need to do that day. It keeps tasks, reminders, and different calendars to keep your day organized. Sending you notifications on all your devices.
Google sheets
Is a versatile and user-friendly spreadsheet program that can help with organizational needs. With features such as collaboration, real-time editing, and automatic saving, Google Sheets makes it easy to work together on projects and keep track of important data. You can create tables, charts, and graphs to visualize your information and easily share your work with others. Whether it's managing a budget, tracking project progress, or organizing information, Google Sheets offers a flexible and convenient solution for organizing.
Design/editing tools:
Lightroom
Lightroom has come a long way from being a desktop application to being available on mobile. It can take up a lot of GB on your mobile, but this is really great to edit quality photos and on-the-go!
Splice
While I love using iMovie on my iPhone, sometimes it's just easier to use Splice. It's super quick and easy to get the size of your video just right for social media. And that's something we all want to do! Talk about a quick Reel!
Canva
Canva is a great alternative to photoshop.
I used to use Photoshop for everything, but Canva certainly made it a lot easier. I used to spend hours trying to make things look good, and now it's done in minutes with Canva.
Though don't get me wrong, I still use Photoshop for complex designs and my surreal/fantasy portraits, but this is another great tool.
Imaging Edge (Sony)
I use Imaging Edge to transfer photos I've captured at events to my phone so that I can edit them and send them to my clients right away. It's a great way to get your work done fast! Although I don't like to edit from JPG, it's still pretty great quality that they'll enjoy!
Writing Tools:
Grammarly
I know. Grammar isn't my strong suit. But I want to be better at it, and that's why I use Grammarly. It helps me correct and improve my writing so I can be more confident in how I express myself.
But sometimes, even with all the help from Grammarly writing can still be hard. So I've found a way to make it easier:
3. Copy AI
Use Copy.ai for free to create a paragraph for you! With this tool, you can just type in the topic that you want to write about and then select whether or not you want someone else's opinion or your own (or even both). Then it will generate a paragraph for you based on what information is available on the internet—but with your own style and voice!
So if you ever find yourself struggling with writing something, try Copy.ai! It's totally worth it—and if not, at least it'll give you some ideas of what to write about next time ;)
Overall,
The tools and apps we've covered are just a few of the many ways to improve your workflow. I use most of these. There are many others out there, so be sure to do some research and find what works best for you!
If this helped you, share it with others who may need it too.
Alright, until next time beauties!
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