Best Time Management Tools for Daily Work Over the years, I've put together my fair share of IKEA furniture. And, not to toot my own horn here, but I think I've mastered the art of assembling...

Over the years, I've put together my fair share of IKEA furniture. And, not to toot my own horn here, but I think I've mastered the art of assembling it. I know that it's a struggle for many. But, for me, it's all about patience and having the right tools. Sure. IKEA throws you a bone here and provides you with a wrench and Allen key wrench. I've found that I can speed this up with additional tools, like a ratcheting screwdriver, drill, and/or hammer.

The same thing is true when it comes to time management. With the right tools, you can do everything from finally seeing how you're spending time to automating repetitive tasks. The problem is that there are a lot of tools that you should consider. But, I've done the bulk of the work for you and came-up a list of some of the best time management tools for daily work.

Calendar

Leading the pack is Calendar. It's a nifty piece of software that uses AI and machine learning to solve all of your scheduling and calendar needs. How so? That's an excellent question.

One way is analyzing past calendars to make smart suggestions on how you should spend your time, like when and how to schedule a meeting. It also has a time tracking feature to see how you're spending your time.

But, wait there's more. Calendar also syncs with Google, Apple, or Outlook calendars so that you can quickly add events and manage all of your events in one convenient location. With the paid version, which starts at $10 a month, it will also transcribe your meetings for you as well.

Calendar is also available for iOS and Android.

Todoist

Need help prioritizing your lists? Todoist, like Mighty Mouse, is here to save the day. It's a task management app that highlights your day's most important tasks so that you'll always spend time on the right activities. You can also create sections, subtasks, and delegate assignments to others.

Todoist is free, but the premium plan starts at just $3/month. It's available for your desktop. iOS, or Android.

Focus@Will

One of my personal favorite tools. It uses neuroscience to improve concentration. No. Seriously. It matches your personality with the right background music to increase your focus by 200-400%.

After a free trial (one week for individuals, 28 days for the workplace), Focus@Will costs $69.99/year.

Scoro

If you're looking to consolidate some of the tools that you rely on for business, then you might want to Scoro a test drive. It's actually a unique tool in that it lets you track time, assign tasks, schedule meetings, track projects in real-time, and get an overview of your sales funnel. Not only does that make collaborating with others easier, but it also allows you to manage all your business processes in one dashboard.

Pricing starts at $26 per user per month.

Time Doctor

Time Doctor, in case you couldn't tell by its name, is a time tracking app. It claims that it can boost your productivity by 22%. With the number of features, it includes, I think that claim isn't too far off. Time Doctor tracks your web and app usage, how long you're chatting online, and the amount of time spent actually working.

Time Doctor also reminds you to stay away from time-wasting sites and reminds you to take breaks. Another way Time Doctor can save you time is by using the invoicing feature to bill clients. As if that weren't enough, it integrates with Asana, Trello, Slack, Todoist, and Google. Not bad for $12/user per month.

Clara

As I'm sure you're well aware, planning, scheduling, and organizing events aren't just time-consuming, they're also frustrating. Calendar, as I've already mentioned, can help solve this pain point. But, there's another cool AI-enabled tool that's worth using.

Clara app is a scheduling tool that will schedule, coordinate, and send invites to any meeting or event you have planned. It's particularly useful when interviewing potential hires since it screens candidates and finds the best time for an interview.

Slack

At this point, I don't think Slack needs much more of an introduction. It's a widely popular tool that has made communicating and collaborating with others by a snap. You can also connect Slack to your calendar so that you'll never miss an important reminder.

Kiwake Alarm Clock

Regardless if you're a morning bird or night owl, you have to wake-up at some point. So, why not start your day on the right foot with this handy app?

It prevents you from constantly hitting snooze and build a morning routine so that you'll be more productive. It does this by proving you got out of bed by snapping a pic. But, the alarm still won't stop until after you've played a quick brain game and review your goals for the day.

G Suite

Unless you're working solo, you've probably had to switch over to G Suite. And, there's nothing wrong with that. It's pretty much the Swiss Army Knife of time management tools since it has everything that you need.

To reach and work with your peers or clients, there's Gmail, Drive, Meet, and Hangouts Chat. You can also capture ideas with Keep, brainstorm with Jamboard, create Slides for presentations, and you even build your own solution with Apps Script. Oh, yeah? How could we forget that Google Calendar is included as well?

Week Plan

Managing your time is more than just self-discipline and tools. It's about how you actually spend and plan your time. You can do this yourself, but this planner app makes it just a bit easier.

With Week Plan, you can create weekly schedules for you and your team based on priority. The app uses the Covey matrix, which separates the important and urgent, to make this possible. It also allows you to set up quarterly goals.

SaneBox

If you're not careful, your inbox can wreck the strides you've made in managing your time. Sure. You block out specific times to check your messages. But, SaneBox can make this process more manageable by identifying important messages, hiding distractions, and banishing annoying senders. There's also a Do Not Disturb feature and reminds you to follow-up.

Hootsuite

In this day in age, having some sort of social media presence is essential. Like email, if you aren't careful, it can destroy your time management efforts. Thankfully, Hootsuite is a social media manager that connects all of your accounts so that you can manage and schedule content from one platform. Plans start at just $29/month.

MyLifeOrganized

If to-do list apps like Todoist aren't cutting it for you, then MLO might be the answer. It's available for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android with the goal of being your personal organizer. Besides generating to-do-lists, you can also break tasks in subtasks. MLO can also automatically turn your lists into priority actions, send you location-based reminders, and create new tasks via email.

iDoneThis

Instead of pestering your employees or co-workers all day on the progress of their work, iDoneThis handles this for you. It sends you daily status updates and lets you know when something has been completed. It also lets you know when it's not possible for a task to get done.

Zoom

Whether you're working remotely or want to save time by not meeting in-person, Zoom allows you to communicate with others via phone conferences, video meetings, or chat. It can also be used for webinars — life if you wanted to train or educate your team.

Launchy

Launchy is an open-source and cross-platform utility that, as the name implies, helps you launch applications, open files and folders, bookmarks, and locate necessary documents with just a few keystrokes.

1Password

Instead of wasting time searching for passwords or resetting them, use 1Password. It stores all of your passwords in one encrypted database. You just need to remember, well, one password.

HabitMinder

You can download or install all of these tools I've listed. But, if you've got nasty habits, then I've got some bad news for you. It's futile. After all, multitasking, neglecting your health and letting yourself distracted prevent you from achieving more in a shorter amount of time.

Now, there are some tools that can help. For example, you can block websites and apps using RescueTime or FocusMe so that you don't get distracted. But, you also need to build healthy habits so that you can tune out all interruptions. And, HabitMinder can help you achieve this by tracking and encouraging you to follow through.

Zapier

The concept behind Zapier is pretty straightforward. It connects the apps that you're already using in order to automate workflows. For instance, Zapier lets you connect Slack with Todoist so that if you created a new tack for a team member, they would be notified via Slack. Zapier is free forever

Image Credit: pixabay; pexels; thank you!

The post Best Time Management Tools for Daily Work appeared first on Calendar.