I don’t think there’s anything I like better than a free program that helps me work more productively. And, being somewhat of a program maniac—I usually end up trying out just about every free one I hear of—this is the kind of post I love the most. If you’re interested in free, time-saving resources, then this post will fit you as well.
Today, I’d like to share three valuable l tools I use to work more productively. Two of the resources below were ones I mentioned in the two previous posts in this series—How to Prepare for a Productive Day and 7 Effective Ways to Get Unstuck Now. The other is one I’ve come across in the last month or so, and it’s been so helpful to me in this area that it deserves its place as well.
Let’s get started.
1. Workflowy—“Organize Your Brain.” WorkFlowy is a notebook for lists. Use it to be more creative and productive.
A few months ago, I was feeling pretty stressed out over the sheer amount of work I had to do yet, so I sat down and had a brain-clearing session that was (at most) 30 minutes long. In that one session I wrote down over 50 things I needed to do. As soon as they were all written down it was much easier to focus on the project at hand and finish it. Workflowy is perfect for jobs like this—you can nest tasks as deeply as you like, and you can view them all together as one good-sized to-do list. Below is an example of how it looks:
(Note: If you sign up to use this task-management site, use my referral code here or above. By using my link, you will get 2x the amount of free space (500 monthly items instead of 250), and you will also be giving me an extra 250 per month. Thank you!)
2. Action Item Catcher—A place to capture action items for processing or doing later. (Scroll almost to the bottom of the page to get it.)
I find this simple “catcher” extremely helpful. It takes less than a minute to write something down, and is also very handy when I’m trying to remember what I need to do and/or figuring out what I should be doing the next day or week.
3. Momentum, Browser Extension for Chrome—Daily motivation and focus on your new tab page.
Momentum is a free extension that controls what your New Tab page looks like. Some of its main features include:
- A beautiful new picture each day
- To-do list
- Main focus of the day
- Daily inspiring quotes
- Current time (helpful if you tend to lose track of time like I do)
I love this extension. It’s basically a personal daily dashboard. It is simple, yet elegant, in design, and instead of distracting from what I want to do each day it constantly reminds me of the next step I need to take. This is one of my main to-do list programs. I love the motivation it gives each day—whether the beautiful picture, or the quote, or both—it makes getting jobs done that much more fun.
Extra: I just found out that this extension is also available for Safari—check it out here in the Apple store.
A Firefox extension is planned, but not produced yet.
For Opera—I’ve heard you can use Chrome extensions on Opera. If you install an add-on named Download Chrome Extension, you can install Chrome extensions as well as Opera extensions. This means that if you use Opera instead of Chrome, there is a chance you might be able to use Momentum. I haven’t personally tested this, so I can’t tell you about results, but it may be an option for you.
I hope you’ll be able to find something to help you work more productively. I also hope you won’t feel obligated to try anything that I recommend, simply because it works for me. If something is helpful, great! If it doesn’t help–maybe you’re already doing as well as you can, or perhaps there’s something else out there that would be better.
Whatever you do in the end–stay productive, don’t give up, and glorify God!
What are some of your favorite programs for making your workload easier to manage?
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