7 Lesser-Known Tools to Make You More Productive Than Ever

We all want more time in the day, but, no matter how hard we wish, that’ll never happen.

Instead, we need to find better, smarter ways to work.

Whether you’re a solopreneur or part of a big team, here are 7 tools that will make you more productive than ever.

GIF courtesy of Giphy.

Scrivener

Screenshot courtesy of The Writer’s Cookbook

The longer your content, the more research you need to back it up. But keeping all that research and content organized can be difficult.

Scrivener allows you to keep everything together without needing to search through multiple Microsoft Word files or Google Docs.

Everything you need can be saved in the same Scrivener project. When it comes to creating or editing that content, you can adjust it so that you only see what you need. This makes it much easier to concentrate an less intimidating to work on.

It syncs with Dropbox, so you can start a project on mobile and continue working on it when you return to your desktop.

Once that project is complete, you can export it as an ebook, a PDF, or pretty much any other file type you need.

Airstory

Airstory was designed to make copywriters’ lives easier. It allows you to save quotes from anywhere on the web quickly and easily. You can then sort them and use them as inspiration for your copy.

Pen and paper

Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash

Never underestimate the power of pen and paper. When you’re feeling stuck, switching to doing things the old-fashioned way can be a great way to break through that wall.

It also gives your tired eyes a much-needed break from the screen.

Voice recorder

Photo by Oscar Ivan Esquivel Arteaga on Unsplash

Many people — particularly those that are new to writing or that don’t do it very often — find themselves self-editing when they write by hand or type stuff out.

Using a voice recorder (even just the one on your phone) means you’re far more likely to speak casually. This casual tone of voice sounds more natural to the reader when written down, making them more likely to form an emotional connection and therefore more likely to turn into a customer.

Because you’re not self-editing as you write, you can also get your idea out of your head faster.

And you can share your voice memos with your colleagues to inspire them, too.

If you don’t have the time to transcribe your notes, apps such as Dragon can transcribe as you dictate, or services like Rev can transcribe your audio files.

MarsCraft

MarsCraft turns productivity into a game. The longer you’re productive for, the bigger your Mars base grows. If you miss a day, you go right back to the start…

If you find it difficult to concentrate for long periods of time, this app is a useful way to ease yourself into concentrating for longer.

Should you close the app to peruse your phone when you’re meant to be working, you’ll lose your progress and have to start all over again.

Trello Calendar Connector

We all know how amazing Trello is at helping us to organize our projects. But its Power-Ups make it even better.

The Trello Calendar Connector works with all major calendar services (even Microsoft Exchange). Using it, you can sync your due dates with your calendar. If you move a card in your calendar, it will automatically update in Trello, too.

Slack Calendar Connector

Most of us spend our working lives talking to our colleagues on Slack. So, inevitably, there will be times when you need to organize a meeting with them. Cue lots of back-and-forths as you both cross-reference your calendars to find the best day and time to meet.

The Slack Calendar Connector cuts out the need for all of this. You invite the person to a meeting, then they can choose the time that best suits them based on your already existing schedule.

It even works if they’re in a different workspace to you or don’t use Slack at all. Now that’s productive.

What are your favorite productivity tools?

Let us know in the comments!

7 Lesser-Known Tools to Make You More Productive Than Ever was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.