7 Time Management Tools To Increase Your Productivity

There are hundreds of productivity and time management tools and apps that can help you manage your time better and achieve more in less time. However, with so many apps to choose from, how do you know which ones to use.

Google Calendar 

If you aren't already using a calendar app, scheduling tool, or another way to maintain your schedule, Google Calendar (https://calendar.google.com)  can help. It’s free for anyone to use and you can install it in a matter of minutes. Keeping a calendar and scheduling everything you need to do during the day is an easy way to discipline yourself and help you become a more effective entrepreneur, which will, in turn, help you grow your business faster.  

Using Google Calendar will help you organize your tasks and help you better manage your time. Most successful entrepreneurs keep a calendar to stay organized and plan their days and weeks so they can avoid low-priority tasks on their schedule.  

RescueTime 

With all of the distractions that have the potential to pull you off course quickly, it is easy to get scattered. RescueTime (https://rescuetime.com) is an app that will help you better understand your daily habits so that you can focus on what's really important and increase your daily productivity. RescueTime runs securely in the background of your computer and other mobile devices. It tracks the time you spend on applications and websites, which provides you with an accurate picture of how you spent your day.  

With RescueTime you can set alerts to let you know when you've spent a certain amount of time on an activity, block distracting websites, and it will log highlights about what you accomplished during the day. RescueTime will show you how long you spend reading and responding to emails, how long you're in meetings, and how long you spend doing things online other than work.

Focus Booster 

Focus Booster (https://www.focusboosterapp.com/) is based on the Pomodoro technique that can empower you to maintain focus and manage distractions throughout your day. Focus Booster uses a simple Pomodoro timer to help you boost your productivity, put an end to procrastination, improve your focus, and track your time. The app will help you achieve more while also helping you understand how you use your time. The simple dashboards allow you to visualize your progress and rhythm to help you improve your productivity and gives you the power to quickly generate invoices or reports from CSV exports to share with your clients. With Focus Booster you can search for work/life balance and identify areas where you can improve. 

Toggl 

The Toggl app (https://toggl.com) is an excellent alternative to time-sheets if you need to track how much time you are spending on different projects. It makes tracking time simple and if you forget to log your time it sends you reminders. When you track your time efficiently, you'll find out how much your time is spent on projects, customers, and tasks that break your hours. This will allow you to see what tasks are making your money and which ones are holding you back. Effective time management starts with being clear on how much time you are actually spending on projects and tasks, then thoroughly analyzing the results so you can work out how you can manage them more effectively.  

Evernote

Evernote (https://evernote.com) is a free productivity tool that allows you to capture all your thoughts, ideas, and images in a variety of ways. With Evernote, you can even record your meetings, speeches, interviews, and ideas, as well as create notes, add voice or text attachments, and share all your files with your colleagues. Evernote helps you to capture and prioritize your ideas, projects, and to-do lists so that nothing falls through the cracks. 

Mind42

An excellent productivity method that can help you come more organized by focusing your thoughts is mind mapping, and Mind42 (https://mind42.com)  is the best free mind mapping tool available. You can use Mind42 to create your to-do lists, brainstorm ideas, and organize events. The software runs in your browser to create mind maps to help you visually organize your day. Gain more clarity about your day and get more done in less time. 

SyncBackFree

Stop wasting time backing and syncing up your files, and let SyncBackFree (https://2brightsparks.com) do the work for you. With SyncBackFree you can backup and synchronize all your files and restore backup files quickly. It allows you to schedule backups and run programs before and after profiles. If you've never backed up your files before, you should consider this crucial tool to not only save you time but keep all your files and documents safe. 

MyLifeOrganized (MLO) 

If you find it challenging to manage all your tasks throughout the day, organize your goals, or work on your to-do list, MyLifeOrganized (https://mylifeorganized.net) can help. MLO is a task management system that can help you target what you should be focusing on during the day to ensure that you reach your objectives. It will automatically generate to-do lists that include priority actions for your immediate attention so that you can better track your progress. The simple drag-and-drop interface will allow you to rearrange any task within a plain list or it will organize them into a simple to use task tree. 

1Password 

These days everyone is bombarded with too many passwords and trying to remember all your passwords can eat up your precious time. That’s where 1Password (https://1password.com) comes in. The app allows you to keep all your passwords in a single encrypted database that is protected by just one password. Having all your passwords safely stored in one place will save you time when you forget then and need to retrieve them. It also allows you to use various passwords for different accounts so that you don't compromise on security. 1Password also allows you to securely store your credit cards, receipts, and more and have access to them from any device. 

These are a few of some management and productivity apps and tools that help you gain more expertise in less time and get done in less time. You can use most of them for free and the monthly fees they charge are very reasonable. Start with increasing your productivity and managing your time better with these time management apps.