We could all use some help improving our productivity. Here are 10 apps that help you collaborate, take notes or just plain save time.
Executives today must digest an increasing amount of information, set strategic directives, juggle social media interactions and stay productive on the move. To be effective, they may have to work on a bewildering variety of devices: PCs, personal laptops, tablets and even smartphones.
With this in mind, here are 10 versatile, cross-platform tools to get things done faster. They cover tasks such as synchronizing notes through the cloud, tracking productivity and more effectively managing social media interactions.
Paul Mah is a freelance writer and blogger who lives in Singapore. He has worked in various capacities within the IT industry and enjoys tinkering with tech gadgets, smartphones and networking devices. You can reach Paul at paul@mah.sg and follow him on Twitter at @paulmah.
Buffer
Buffer removes the tedium of manually staggering social media interactions throughout the entire day in order to maximize social presence. The online service currently works with social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+ Pages to automatically post updates through an established schedule. To make it easier to queue updates, Buffer is integrated with a large number of apps, including SocialBro and Instapaper, and has extensions for the Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari browsers.
Review: Buffer for iOS, Android Worth a Look
Evernote
Evernote, the popular online note-taking service, has earned a huge following, in part because you can quickly save and access notes from the Web and supported mobile devices. The service is offered free, though paid premium and business versions are available. Evernote Premium comes with additional capabilities such as offline notebooks on mobile devices and the ability to search inside PDFs and attached documents. Evernote Business offers easier content sharing content and the ability to search across “business notebooks.”
Feature: 10 What We Love (and Hate) About Evernote More: Evernote Adds Two-Factor Authentication, Other Security Features
LastPass
Still scribbling passwords on pieces of paper? The password manager LastPass stores your passwords and credit card information in a digital vault. This encrypted achieve can be stored either online at Lastpass.com or on a USB storage drive. LastPass is free for use on common desktop platforms such as Windows, OS X and Linux. A $1 per month premium version offers access to native mobile apps for just about every mobile device, support for top Web browsers and multifactor authentication.
Then Again … PayPal Says It’s Time to Ditch Passwords and PINs
RescueTime
The RescueTime service offers a quick, easy way to keep track of how you’re spending your time. After creating an account and downloading the app onto your platform of choice, the client utility runs unobtrusively in the background to monitor the amount of time spent on productivity apps and social media websites. This information is then presented on an online dashboard. RescueTime is available on Windows, OS X, Linux and Android. The basic version is free, while a premium version with more detailed reporting is available for $6 per month.
Also: New iOS App Helps Determine How Much Time You Waste Each Day
