High productivity has never been as effortless as now with how easily accessible different technological tools are. These tools and other media hacks make your life and your job much more manageable. No matter what your professional goals are this year, the following media tips and tools can refine your focus.
1. Visual Collaboration Tools
Remote work has become more and more popular and with it so has the use of video collaboration software. Video collaboration allows teams to work together on projects while across the world from each other. It also can help you interact with your clients. Video collaboration software prices vary depending on their offered capabilities. Different abilities that programs offer include screen-sharing, recording and reviewing meetings, mobile apps for on-the-go use, and utilization of existing hardware such as your computer’s microphone and camera. Some programs also offer on-screen notation and time-stamped notes that assist with creative collaboration over the course of long-term projects. Make sure to check how the program you decide on handles different video conferences occurring at the same time and see if they also offer the ability for employees to create and own a virtual room as well as scheduling one-time meetings.
2. Word-Processing Abilities
Depending on your industry, word-processing, visual presentations, and the organization of data can be extremely important aspects of your daily work. A mostly free platform that combines all of these is Google Suite. Showing real-time alterations, using Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides can help keep you focused and on task. Google Docs will allow you to create written documents such as reports and outlines with similar functionality as Microsoft Word. You can share your document by simply sending an email and adding users to the list of those who can access the information. If you need to share your document outside of the program, you can export it as a number of file types including pdf. You can also limit the collaborators’ abilities by specifying if they are allowed to edit, comment, or just view. Google Sheets is similar to Microsoft Excel and is excellent for organizing and inputting data, creating charts, and tracking fluctuations of information. Google Slides is similar to Microsoft Powerpoint. This is a tool that is useful when creating presentations for personal and professional use. Sheets and Slides have similar sharing and exporting capabilities as Docs.
3. File Transfering Software
File transferring capabilities make collaboration as well as delivering goods to customers and clients so much easier. With these types of software and websites, you are not limited to sharing small file sizes like when you are emailing files to coworkers and customers. There are many different types of websites that offer this service. What you should pick can all depend on what you specifically need from the service. These kinds of sites also offer cloud storage which can increase your productivity and allow you to work from anywhere. Small amounts are available for free and then you can add more storage for a fee. This is similar to file transferring capabilities as well. If you want to pay for a service, the links you send will also be viable for longer, whereas many of the free resources will expire after a certain amount of time.
4. Task Tracking Programs
Task tracking programs are fantastic to keep focusing on what needs to get done. You set priorities and can share lists of tasks that need completion with your team. You can even create a large project and show different cascades of tasks that need to be done under smaller headings. These websites and programs are like digital to-do lists but you can access them from anywhere.
5. Social Media Apps
One of the biggest distractions when working can be social media, but there are now apps you can download that will limit how long and when you access your profiles. This will allow you to not lose track of time when you do decide to take a break on social media.
