Techblog
Three productivity apps that will change the way you work in 2015
While many new gadgets, tools and apps were designed seemingly only to drain our time, others are created to help us make the most of our workdays. Check out these three productivity apps.
Technology is a time-saver and makes our lives easier in countless ways but in the midst of a workday, news sites, Twitter and Facebook can easily distract an employee from their goals.
Thankfully, not all software has this effect. Although you may spend a little time setting them up, once you've mastered a few useful applications, they can boost your productivity to a great extent. Here are three productivity apps that will change the way you work (for the better) in 2015.
Google Drive for Work
Google Drive has long been used unofficially by companies as a multi-pronged solution for their needs: a backup device for important files, a storage drive for those on the move and a way for multiple employees to work on the same document simultaneously.
But in June this year, Google announced a version of Drive that is specifically for businesses. Drive for Work offers unlimited storage space, meaning it could potentially be a company's main storage facility. It includes Google Vault, which has an archiving feature for all emails and chats. The eDiscovery feature allows you to find and retrieve information quickly even from closed accounts. It comes with enhanced administration controls that are useful for businesses and administrators, and can keep track of the work employees are doing. Other enhancements include an increased file upload size (anything up to 5 TB is now possible), the ability to edit files created in Microsoft Office and an easy-to-see list of who has accessed and shared specific files.
IFTTT
IFTTT (acronym for If This Then That, pronunciation rhymes with ‘gift’) is a simple app that helps users automate their days and makes tasks easier. Following a simple pattern, or recipe, users can set up filters so if something happens then it will perform an action. The program currently allows you to pick from more than 100 other sites to monitor.
Popular examples include 'If my company gets a new follower on Twitter, send them a welcome tweet', 'If a photo is uploaded to my company's Facebook page, save it to Dropbox' and 'If one of my Feedly subscriptions mentions my company, send me an email'. Although IFTTT's been around since 2011, the first stable release came earlier this year.
Digital marketing companies and bloggers are using the tool to more effectively track what's happening online and immediately take action. Here's an article on how IFTTT can help automate some of your business processes.
Limitless
One of the biggest time-wasters at work is careless web browsing. Whether employees get distracted by emails or are drawn into stories on news sites or Facebook, there's always something interesting happening online to lure staff away from their tasks.
Limitless is a Chrome browser plugin that monitors what employees are doing and, by comparing their activity to yearly and daily goals, will give them gentle nudges when they seem to be straying from their tasks. Sites are grouped together into categories (many predefined, but they can easily be amended) so the business can see the percentage of an employee's browsing time divided into work, email, learning and more. Each category can be blocked at certain times - say, social media in the last few hours of the workday - to help boost productivity.
Everything from our laptops to our tablets and smartphones can be used in any number of ways. But with the right frame of mind and the right software installed, it's possible to use these tools to improve our workday.
About Google Drive for Work
Google Drive for Work is an all-in-one office productivity solution that is powering SMEs to the cloud. With unlimited storage, a single login and less than $0.50 per user per day, you can access email, conferencing, collaboration tools and documents anytime, anywhere.
Click here to find out why many SMEs choose to get on Google Drive for Work with Singtel.