What's Your Favorite Productivity Tool for 2013?

Dragon Naturally Speaking 12 Mobile - the version with the dictaphone. Brilliant!

Great thread topic Tiffany!

For me, I would have to say Omni Focus. It's a great project management and To-Do app that definitely saves time and helps you focus. I've had it but need to actually USE it more in 2013

Tiffany - I actually got Dragon v.12 last week. Isn't it cool though?

Tiff, I forgot to ask, in regards to Dragon Naturally Speaking, did you get the Home version, Premium, or Professional?

I get start with dropbox, evernote, a blog in markdown, and Visual Studio 2012 :-)

Hi Tiff,

As far as my "2013 productivity product" goes, I'm doing two things.

#1. A kitchen timer I got at the Dollar Store for (you guessed it!) a buck. :-)

That will help me to focus on working in "chunks". If I can get 8-10, 30 minute chunks of work done per day (without distractions) I'll be rockin'!

#2. Outsourcing more tasks that I don't like to do. I know it's not a "product", but it does have to do with productivity. I love me some outsourcing! :-)

About Dragon, I bought the original version on the advice of Lance Winslow (#1 writer at EZA for years). I liked it, but over time I grew frustrated with having to constantly edit my work. I was writing like crazy at that time, so I was doing a lot more editing than usual. Still, it might be worth checking out a newer version. Would everyone say that the voice recognition is better and there's less editing with the newer versions?

About headphones, I picked these up at Amazon back in March and love them! Logitech USB Headset H530 with Premium Laser-Tuned Audio (981-000195). I can't remember who recommended them, but they work great and they're very comfortable. I only paid a little over $30.00, but now they've jumped to $54.95. Still, I'll buy them again when I need a new set.

Joe

It would be one task at a time.
I would write all the list of tasks to be done,
then focus entire on the task only.

Say NO to multitasking!

-Tenzho Lee

That Dragon 12 software looks neat. I'm gonna look into that. Thanks for the heads up!

Here's my list.


Google Apps for business has been my top productivity tool this year, for sure. It gives me the Gmail, Google Calendar and all the other Google apps interface on my personal domain. It is awesome. Syncs up perfectly and instantly with my Android phone and tablet, too. I was lucky to sign up for the free plan a week before they got rid of it.

InfiniteWP is a fantastic piece of software that I use to manage my growing amount of Wordpress websites.

Windows 7 is also still very good to me. I got two 22" screens hooked up to my custom-built and I wouldn't want to trade it for anything else. Windows 8 looks pretty cool, but it doesn't add enough for me to upgrade right away.

Microsoft Office 2010 still does its thing exceptionally well. I've written pretty much all my college essays using Word. I checked out the 2013 free preview and it adds a lot of great new features. I think I won't be able to resist buying it the day it comes out. The best office suite, bar none.

Wave Accounting is a great free cloud accounting tool that I use to keep track of my business's finances. You can also do your personal finance with it. Love it!

Oh, I'm forgetting the most important one...

Things-to-do-today-list. It's a simple to-do list notepad that's on my desk on which I write things I want to get done today. It has these boxes next to the description which I can cross-out when I finish a task. It's satisfactory to literally cross things off my list after they're done. At the end of my day, I move things that didn't get done to the next page and if I finished my list before the day is over (which almost never happens), I allow myself an early one.

This way I know exactly what I'm gonna do today and it really helps me organize and clear my head. I'm really mr. Chaos.

Biggest productivity tools for me would be dropbox and evernote. I cant recall how many times dropbox saved my behind when i needed to access a file when im on the go, and evernote has been very useful to me when i needed to jot down notes

My favorite thing ever is Simplenote. It's on my computer, iphone and ipad. I can make a note whenever I have an idea, and it syncs instantly. It's simple and effective for capturing ideas, making grocery lists, and copy pasting code while site building.

Dropbox is my number two.

Tools, software, and processes are great, but sometimes you just can't beat hiring a human with a good brain.

One of the best things I ever did in terms of productivity was to hire a contractor to do routine tasks like accounts data entry, article research and drafting, tweeting, Facebook posting, blog commenting and competitor analysis.

I put an ad in a site similar to craigslist and was overwhelmed by responses from some very capable people in the local area. I selected a young woman with great writing skills who now comes into our offices a half day per week to do all the stuff I never get around to doing. She enjoys the work and I get a lot more done. Here's a post I wrote about the process: New web site content? Yeah, right. Who has time?SEO Brisbane by Search Tempo

Thanks Tiff for a great thread topic

Evernote and MyLifeOrganized! Great combo.

Re's
Rob Whisonant

For 2012 it has been:
Roboform
Evernote
desktop-timer dot com
Dragon NS 12.0 (Huge improvement from older versions.)
Whiteboard on the wall by my desk

For 2013:
I'll be watching this thread - I really want to increase productivity this year also!

The biggest improvements for me were finally getting everything sync'd between 2 Macbooks, a PC and an iMAC. Doesn't matter where I go, I have the latest of everything. To do this I used:

Dropbox for my files
XMarks for my bookmarks
1Password for my passwords

I've had dragon naturally speaking sitting on my computer the past year and have used it once. I like your idea Tiffany. Time to invest more time into this tool

A coffee maker in my office; Mr. Coffee DRX5 Programmable Coffeemaker from Amazon. It saves time, steps, and my productivity has already zoomed into a flurry of blurring speed, noted especially in now being able to shuffle mounds of paperwork like a whirlwind.

Interesting. I was thinking about the Dragon software just 2 days ago.
But instead I picked up the best spinner.

I also did a few other things to make content generation go quicker.

1) Downloaded and installed as many free adobe vectors/brush/shapes/fonts as possible. Then I went through both my old and new fonts, and removed about 90% of the ones I'll never use. When I limit my options like that I won't waste time playing around with fonts that I already know don't convert.

2) Bookmarks have been getting out of control. I had hundreds that weren't organized so I organized them all in labeled folders for quicker navigation.

3) I bought a bunch of well reviewed books off amazon related to my 3 main niches. So when I run out of ideas for content, I can use the books to generate ideas. For some reason I find this much easier than endlessly scanning the web for information/ideas about my niche. Not to mention I always wind up on websites I shouldn't in the process.

4) This one will be confusing to explain, but its my swipe file. For some reason, I find that the internet slows me down more than anything. So anything I find useful, I like to have printed out on paper. For a long time half of my swipe file as been printed out in my file cabinet, the other half on the computer.

So I merely printed out everything on my computer, and organized it all in my file cabinet. Which leads me to my final recommendation on getting organized.

PRINT EVERYTHING YOU FIND USEFUL, aside from videos obviously.

This one habit alone has saved me countless wasted hours.
For instance, anytime I have to go online to do anything. I waste time.

In the past, when I needed a good template for a salesletter or ad, I'd go online to my bookmarks, read a site, go the next site, read the site, the next site, then I'd realize I liked the first site better, I'd go back, and forget what was on the last site.

For writing copy especially, I can kill a ton of time. But when everything is printed out, it is SO MUCH EASIER to do. For instance, I can have copy from 10 different sources all pinned to my cork board. It would be similar to having 10 different computer screens, which would be ridiculous. But when everything is printed on paper, it makes work go so much faster.

Or maybe I just prefer working that way. But I honestly suggest that everyone tries this out. It really helps me a lot.

Aside from these things, I haven't really done much. The real key to me is organization and how your organization effects the way you work. Some people like having everything organized on their computer... but does that really help you? Do you find yourself visiting websites you shouldn't? "Researching" things you really have no use researching?

The more you can limit yourself, and control things, the easier it is to work.
The less time you waste with nonsense.
The more time you waste on important stuff.
Thats just how I see it.

-Red

If I had to pick a single tool I couldn't do without, it's no contest. I use LastPass (like a lot of other people).

Couldn't imagine going back to manually storing gazillions of usernames and passwords and having to find them and type them in.

I'm with those that are learning how to delegate/hire others to be productive.

We grew so much this year that we HAD to hire others for our older accounts. It has freed me up so much that I got worried we wouldn't have enough for me to do...but then this week hit!

So, the answer for me is: hiring others to take some of the work load so we can do more!

For me the 3 tools I wouldn't want to live without are the online personal organizer called "EssentialPIM" for overall personal organization (fantastic!), Jing for quick videos and screen captures, and online timers/phone timer (any of them will do), for keeping me on track with tasks and keeping me from burning the kitchen up when I get sucked into the laptop vortex.

For some reason (self-sabotage, I suppose), I usually forget to use a timer to stay on task; if I did use it all the time, I could probably instantly double my productivity; in fact, maybe I will make that my new year's resolution; this thread was a great idea!

Since you asked for a tool, I'd say RescueTime. I've been doing this for about an year now: just turn off the wi-fi when you are working and focus on the work. I get a lot more done that way than I do otherwise. RescueTime tells me where my time is going.

I've been using Fantastical for more than a little while both on my phone as well as my laptop, and it's fantastic. I love iAWriter for some writing tasks too — it's wonderful.

Here is a small list of things that I do and why I do it.

I use Evernote as mention in this thread, but what I use the most for is voice notes. Writing takes too long and when a client calls me it is faster to do a voice note on my phone with Evernote. Then when I get to my office, it has already sync with my computer. Much faster to than using the touchscreen to type.

People mention multiple monitors with a couple people wondering why does it increase productivity. I can speak to my own personal experience.

I use one monitor to program in and another to view the results. That way I do not have to switch back and forth between windows.

If your email program supports this, make a VIP section. On my phone I have two different tones, one for VIP emails and one for regular emails. That way I don't have to waste time grabbing my phone to see who emailed me. If I hear the VIP tone I know to check my phone otherwise I can ignore it. I do the same for texts and phone calls from VIPs also.

Pocket for Google Chrome. Ever see an article on the web that you would like to read, but at a later time? I use this to save the article and read it on my iPad at night or when I am stuck somewhere waiting like a Doctor's office. I get up around 5am and I spend about an hour scouring the web for articles I like to read. Some days there are just too many to go through in the morning, so I love this program for this feature.

Everybody needs to find their best productivity time, I can not emphasize this enough.
For me for example, if I am working at home, I start work from 7:00am-noon. Then I take a afternoon break and wrap up everything from 2pm onward. I find that works best for me. I hate working after lunch, I always want to take a nap or just lounge about for a couple hours. If you are working at home the best thing you can do is design a schedule where you do not feel tired.

Lastly for now, I do not use this myself, but for those of you have problems with focus and distractions on the internet. If you use Google Chrome there are extensions you can download that will allow you to block sites like Facebook for set periods of time.

I seriously boosted my productivity when I got my new laptop.

I had no idea how much time a was actually spending while waiting for me old computer to load and when things crashed.

Buying a new computer is the easiest thing to do to boost your productivity immensely.

Big Productive thing for me in 2012 was to keep all my data in the cloud, so I can work
from anywhere, can change PC or Location and work on my business on the move...

I am going to keep it to enhance my productivity as it really helps:

1. Lastpass - To keep all passwords in cloud, office, home pc, laptops and phone!
2. Xmarks - To keep all Bookmarks in cloud, office, home pc, laptops and phone!

3. Dropbox - To keep all files i am working on or i may need, in cloud!

4. Google Apps - To keep all my emails & contacts in cloud, office, home pc, laptops and phone!

5. Google RSS Reader - To keep track of all important blogs and sites which i have subscribed for RSS Feeds in cloud, office, home pc, laptops and phone! It really help me boost my productivity as all new content I am interested in, just comes into my RSS Reader, and I can read in minutes Fast...

Hi Tiffany, thanks for such great thread, I recommend for 2013 you try
Google RSS reader If you are not using RSS reading already...
It is so much time saving and easy process of keeping up to date with industry.

Best Regards,
Mohsin

Software and outsourcing. These are two of the things that you have to do if you want to be more productive these days. Dragon Speaking is awesome along with mind maps. You also need to leaern new skills from reliable sources. A coach will help you along as well.

MindJet MindManager is the best investment I've made in a long long time. It keeps all your work flow and projects organized in visual manner.

It's made me much more productive, especially with big projects.

Super intuitive.

Should be on everyone's wish list IMO.