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What is essential for you in a productivity app/software tool?
Hey, all!
There are many productivity tools out there offering different features. But I still haven't found one that covers everything I want. To me, the essential features a perfect tool must have are:
- A good text editor ( I mean, I love notion. But why is it so hard to bring the text there to other formats? Sometimes I summarize some things inside notion, but taking them to an actual doc or pdf is so painful!)
- Simple, minimalistic design
- A good place to have random thoughts and things that I need to get done without losing sight of them
- Good integrations!! I use Gcal a lot, so I would love to have a productivity software that actually integrates with it.
What about you?
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@paul_vanzandt Thanks for sharing! Which tool are you using at the moment?
@martina_hackbartt Mainly ClickUp to track tasks - creating them is easy and it saves me so much time when wondering what I have to do next. The next part is not procrastinating that step 😅
I dont think productivity is a zero-sum game. It takes many forms, and different activities can have conflicting optimizations that a productivity application would look to leverage in feature building. That being said, UI is crucial, tooling and relative proximity(integrations), emotional feeling of empowerment (user feels like they can do more), efficient learning curve:functionality unlock ratio. This aids with the time investment piece and perceived effort in to time saved that @paul_vanzandt is referencing
While I utilize various online tools to arrange assignments and deadlines (Trello, Asana), I find it simpler to manage my projects when they are right in front of me. As a result, in my ideal PM program, I'd like the ability to create as many workspaces as I need, each with various lists and tags for simple organizing.
I have tried a ton over the years. My favorite right now is Notion. Easy to use, cross-platform, and easy to collab. I use it for tracking everything from notes to sprint planning and software dev docs.
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But tbh, for just staying personally productive, my favorite tools are a kitchen timer and a small notebook that I can fit in my back pocket. I don't like productivity apps on my phone. Every time I pick up my phone I get distracted by everything else on it, SMS, email, etc. So a notebook is perfect - every time I open it up, it only shows me tasks that I need to do. And the kitchen timer for the same reason :)
@solomon_bush I don't like productivity apps on my phone as well. As you said, it's impossible not to get distracted by other things. Thanks a lot for sharing!
Notion! I use it for almost all aspects of my business - even the product itself! Highly recommend. Always happy to help if anyone has any Notion related questions too ☺️
Funnily enough, we thought the same thing when building Weavit - we built it for random, scattered thoughts and also for your random ideas.
In addition, Weavit integrates with GCal making it a great tool to take random notes on your day.
If this is what you're looking for -> Do give it a try! www.weavit.ai
@komalnarwani Hi Komal! Sounds amazing. Could you share the link to Weavit with us?
@martina_hackbartt Hi Martina! Absolutely - here it is: www.weavit.ai and a direct link to download on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/we...
My essentials are quite similar to you, my add on would be that they have to be very portable and fast! So either an iOS app that's actually an app and not a wrapper or webview, and blazing fast performance since I'm likely short on time whenever I use these apps 😊
As an example, Todoist and Trello both have options that add multiple tasks for me if I paste in multi-line text.
I'm still struggling with the spot for random thoughts, I tried mymind but I'm not quite sold on paying for it yet 🤔 My current workaround is a Notion bookmarker, but I hardly ever review it 😬
@kina Ugh yes, the amount of great desktop tools that are awful on mobile is huge. I still haven't found any productivity app that works for me, but will try with Todoist and Trello! For random thoughts, I have a specific place in my notion "dashboard"; it's not ideal but does the job...
So far, the best and most alternative for productive teamwork is the Google ecosystem. Google Docs + Google Calendar covers most tasks. But separately such services as "planyway" for project management and "notion" for working with data are good. One of the main advantages of these services is a minimalistic and simple design, because they are supposed to "simplify" the work
Really depends on the type of productivity (team/solo, business/pleasure etc), but as it is a productivity tool, by far the most important thing is that it's accessible and easy to use.
I think that because productivity tools are almost always an addition, we won't spend too much time learning them, and if we can't get value quickly, we'll drop out.
Also, they need to be super accessible - if I can't use them in a second the moment I need them, they will not be very productive (e.g., if there's no mobile app, or if there are too many steps to do an action)
For work-related, I like something with a lot of features (e.g Notion), nice UI and UX, and quick loading time.
For personal stuff, I'm just using a plain simple to-do list because I just need a to-do list with a reminder feature. I'm using Mac default app called Reminders
Integrations with different apps so that I don't add double burden when I need something extra - just a one-stop-shop solution.
A professional productivity tool should contain the feture for prioritization your activities and tasks. I use a Gantt chart planner (https://ganttpro.com/) and it allows me to prioritize my work activities on a visual timeline to make sure deadlines are met.
Clean design of the app and simple integration with other products. Automation of the most frequent steps
@jordan_quell Automation would be perfect! Do you know any tool that has a feature like that?
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@ujjawal_sharma Thanks for sharing! Which productivity tool/s are you using atm?
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