4 Tools to Increase Your Productivity in 2021

“It’s another tequila sunrise . . .” or at least another year. And even though 2021 feels a bit different after everything we’ve been through, some things never change. We all have New Years’ resolutions, and one that pops up each year for me is increasing my efficiency. To that end, let’s ring in the new year with some of my favorite tech solutions that help me have more time to focus less on what I have to do, and more on what I want to do.

Habitshare (iOS, FREE): We all have weekly goals. Running a few times a week, taking our vitamins, reading 25 pages a day, etc. Habitshare allows you to track these on a daily or weekly basis and create streaks. For somebody who is self-employed like me with an erratic schedule, this helps me keep track of my daily tasks. And if you get a friend or spouse on the app, you can share your progress with each other to maintain accountability.

Things 3 (iOS and MacOS, $9.99): Things 3 is a to-do list on steroids. I’m a big fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology, which at its most basic level states that we aren’t productive because we think it terms of large projects, and not the action items that comprise those projects. Things allows you to do a “brain dump” of all the items into an Inbox, and then move them into associated projects, and to star specific tasks for certain days. I review it each night to determine what I need to get done the next day to stay on track. Look up Things in the App Store to purchase.

Boomerang ($4.99/mo personal, $14.99/mo Pro): If you use G Suite (formerly Google Apps) for email, this is a no-brainer. It allows me to reply to an email, and then have it automatically bounce back to my Inbox at a pre-determined time. How is this helpful? Let’s say that I email a client and I’m waiting on a reply. After I email. them, I can automatically bounce the email back into my inbox a couple of days later if I haven’t heard back. It doesn’t clog up my Inbox, and I know that anything in my Inbox on a given day is something that needs to be either rescheduled to another day or acted on immediately. I also use it for scheduling yearly reminders and more. You can visit Boomerang to learn more.

Copper ($59.99/month): Years ago, I used ACT! to track contracts, contacts, and emails. Copper is a CRM that integrates with my other software solutions (Quickbooks, PandaDoc, etc.) and helps me track where I am in a given stage with my proposals and agreements. Learn more at Copper.