7 Digital Tools and Services to Keep You Organized at Work
We all know how important (and challenging!) it is to stay organized in the work place. With many individuals now working on team-based projects, and even more individuals working remotely, it increases the need to stay organized even more. One small slip-up, and your day can go downhill faster than your latte getting cold.
Fear not, as we live in a time when there are amazing tech tools at our disposal perfect for staying on track, organized and engaged at work. These tricks and tools are not only helpful, but are incredibly easy to use on a regular basis.
Your Smart Phone
This one may seem obvious, but are you making the best use of all of the basic tools that come standard with your phone? Synching your calendar to your work or personal calendar will ensure that you stay notified and on top of your schedule while you are out and about. In addition, simply using your phone’s built-in task list will help you jot down quick projects, meetings and thoughts to help you stay ahead of your ever-growing to-do list.
Asana
This amazing cloud-based project management system makes it easy to create projects, organize the steps of the projects, and collaborate with all other members of the project team. Asana helps by allowing you to break up your large projects into smaller, manageable tasks, and then assign these tasks to the individuals responsible for them. Once a task is done, simply check it off, and notify everyone involved that you are done!
Evernote
Stuck in a long meeting? Evernote is great because whether you happen to have your laptop, iPad or even your phone, you can open up the Evernote app, and take detailed notes that will sync between all of your devices and keep your meeting notes and action items beautifully organized. The best part is being able to quickly share these notes with others!
Dropbox
In today’s world, presentation and branding are everything — which means that your organization more than likely has large PowerPoint or Keynote files and images that need to be regularly updated and shared among team members. Dropbox makes it easy to upload these large files, and then quickly share a link so that other people can go straight to the source and download (or edit!) what they need.
LinkedIn
We all know how important LinkedIn is for showcasing your areas of expertise and qualifications, but it is also an amazing tool for staying connected to your network. There are tools built right in to LinkedIn that will remind you when it’s time to connect with a sales or business contact, ensuring that you stay on top of your business relationships.
Slack
Part of being organized is just being less busy! “Slack” is an app that helps you to do just that, simply be clearing away clutter: you can easily share messages, files and projects within your team in real-time. The best part is that these messages sync across all of your devices, ensuring you never miss a beat. The service is free, with additional features (like a searchable archive and 24/7 support) available at higher tiers.
Post-it Plus
With all of these high-tech tools, you may be asking yourself “What about those of us who like to keep it “old-school”? This is for you. The Post-it Plus app allows you to take pictures of all the notes you write yourself (and others), and integrate them into an app that can be shared with your calendar and with others. This is great because it allows you to keep your note-writing habit — but kick it up a notch with a tech-rich solution.
Remember, tech tools don’t have to be expensive to work. Every one of these applications has a free version, with upgrades available for even more robust experiences. You may need to try a few of them to see what works best for you, and which projects they each work best with. The great thing is that many of them are good not only for a single-user, but for a work team of individuals. Give them a try!