18 little-known tools to simplify your · whenever you find yourself with too many tabs, click the...
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The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
+5 BONUS TIPS TO ESCAPE “ALWAYS WORKING” SYNDROME
18 Little-Known Tools to Simplify Your Life and Get More Done, Faster
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
Table of ContentsIntroduction and Overview 3
1. OneTab 4
2. Noisl 5
3. Tab Snooze 6
4. Calendly 7
5. Jing 8
6. Sanebox 9
7. Inbox When Ready 10
8. Inbox Pause 11
9. Hiver 12
10. Rescuetime 13
11. Kill News Feed 14
12. Freedom.tl 15
13. 1Password 16
14. Fancyhands 17
15. Fiverr 18
16. Way of Life 19
17. Blinkist 20
18. Airplane Mode 21
5 Bonus Tips to Escape “Always Working” Syndrome: 22
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
HI, I’M CHRIS WINFIELD.
I’m a productivity and motivation writer and speaker based in New York City. My mission is to help you become twice as productive and get more out of each and every day of your life!
I compiled this free guide for smart people like you -- self-starters and high-achievers who aren’t willing to (or are tired of!) sacrifice their personal lives in pursuit of business and career excellence.
I’ve done that…given up any semblance of a “balanced life” and sacrificed time with my family and friends in order to keep all the balls in the air. And you know what? It sucked.
Through a process of intentional research, experimentation, and refinement, I’ve discovered simple systems and strategies that have helped me -- and thousands of my clients and readers -- to focus on what matters most, get more done in less time, and spend your most precious resource, your time, with the people you love.
While tools in and of themselves can’t help fix EVERYTHING that’s out of whack in your life, the right tool at the right time can definitely help ease the stress and give you the margin so you can dive in deeper and make more lasting changes. To that end, I’ve compiled a collection of 18 of my favorite time-saving tools.
Do me a favor: If you successfully implement these tools and create a more rich and rewarding life, I’d love to hear about it. Drop me a line and let me know. I love meeting my readers!
To your success,
www.chriswinfield.com
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
1 OneTab
Category: Browser Extension
Helps With: Organization
Cost: Free
Whenever you find yourself with too many tabs, click the OneTab icon to convert all of your tabs into a list. When you need to access the tabs again, you can either restore them individually or all at once. When your tabs are in the OneTab list, you will save up to 95% of memory because you will have reduced the number of tabs open in Google Chrome. This also saves a ton of time because you can sort/name your tabs, share with others, and easily find what you’re looking for!
In fact… here’s the OneTab page I created for this very list of tools!
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
2 Noisli
Category: Web
Helps With: Focus
Cost: Free
Noisli is an online background noise generator that will help you Improve focus and boost your productivity.
You can even mix different sounds (campfire, thunderstorm, etc.) and create your perfect environment.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
3 TabSnooze
Category: Browser Extension
Helps With: Focus
Cost: Free
Staring at fifteen open tabs is a real distraction -- each one is an open loop in my brain that pulls me in a different direction! I found this Chrome extension that will hide the open tabs for a timed period, allowing me to focus.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
4 Calendly
Category: Web
Helps With: Scheduling
Cost: Free/Premium Available
Hate the back-and-forth of trying to find a time to connect with a client, colleague or friend? This will save you time and frustration. Just send them a link to your Calendly calendar and they can find an open slot that fits their schedule.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
5 Jing
Category: Software
Helps With: Screencapture
Cost: Free
Jing software allows you to capture images and short videos, annotate and mark them up, and share them on the web. I use this all the time to illustrate points, share images, and record short tutorials for my clients and team members.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
6 Sanebox
Category: GMail Add-On
Helps With: Prioritizing/Email overload
Cost: Free/Premium Available
You know how that email from your spouse or boss got lost in your inbox and you missed an important meeting/deadline/message? No more! Sanebox created priorities based on your preferences, and moves unimportant messages to a “later” folder, waiting for you to get to them. You also get a daily “digest” email that lists all the emails in that “later” folder so you don’t accidentally miss anything.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
7 Inbox When Ready
Category: GMail/Chrome Extension
Helps With: Focus
Cost: Free
This Chrome extension makes your Gmail inbox hidden by default. All other views remain accessible as normal, so you can search your archive or compose messages without getting distracted.You can also lock yourself out of your inbox if you really need to break that email checking habit!
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
8 Inbox Pause
Category: GMail/Chrome Extension
Helps With: Focus
Cost: Free
Another fantastic Chrome extension for Gmail that allows you to take control of your inbox -- instead of the other way around! With Inbox Pause, you can put new messages on hold, making it so they won’t appear in your Inbox until you are ready for them.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
9 Hiver
Category: GMail/Chrome Extension
Helps With: Team Collaboration/Productivity
Cost: Free basic/Premium
If you have more than one person on your team, Hiver is a must! It lets you manage shared mailboxes like [email protected] or [email protected] right from your Gmail. You can leave comments, assign tasks, track history, and more.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
10 Rescuetime
Category: Software
Helps With: Focus
Cost: Free basic/Premium
Want to know how much time you’re REALLY spending on Facebook? Rescuetime to the… rescue! It runs securely in the background on your computer and mobile devices, tracks time spent on applications and websites, and gives you an accurate picture of your day. It also gives you detailed reports and data based on your activity.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
11 Kill News Feed
Category: Chrome Extension
Helps With: Focus/Productivity
Cost: Free
How many times have you logged into Facebook for “just a minute,” only to get sucked up in what’s passing through your friends’ news feeds? Banish the black hole with the Kill News Feed extension. It hides the Facebook news feed and replaces it with a message reminding you not to get distracted. That’s it. You can still check your messages and notifications, post status updates, and do everything you could do before. You just won’t get distracting news feed posts anymore.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
12 Freedom.to
Category: Software
Helps With: Focus/Productivity
Cost: Free Trial/Paid (starting at $2.99/mo)
Freedom is an Internet, social media, and app blocker. Freedom works on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac and Windows computers. You select what apps and sites are blocked on which devices.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
13 1Password
Category: Software
Helps With: Team Collaboration/Organization
Price: Free Trial/Plans Start at $2.99
More than a password reminder service, 1Password stores everything from online accounts to social security numbers. Use tags and powerful search to quickly find what you’re looking for on any of your devices. You just remember your one master password!
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
14 Fancy Hands
Category: Outsourcing
Helps With: Productivity
Price: Plans Start at $6/request of 20 minutes
One of the best ways to start delegating is outsourcing tasks. From scheduling dinner reservations for 20 in Austin to finding a local dog walker… FancyHands says that they’ll do “...anything that doesn’t require us to physically go somewhere for you. Anything a smart, patient, internet-savvy person with a cell phone can conquer. As long as it’s legal, we’ll do it.”
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
15 Fiverr
Category: Outsourcing
Helps With: Productivity
Price: Plans Start at $5
From simple graphics to WordPress troubleshooting to video voiceovers… you can find a wealth of services on Fiverr.com, starting at only $5. Just take a look at the site to see what people are willing to do for only five bucks! WARNING: The quality of work can vary, so check the ratings. And be prepared to spend more than $5 on “upgrades” and gig add-ons.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
16 Way of Life
Category: App
Helps With: Habits/Focus
Price: Free
Way of Life is an iPhone app that will have you addicted to keeping your new routines! The graphical interface and slick design makes logging in to check your progress absolutely addictive. You can see your results in living color, in a variety of different formats.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
17 Blinkist
Category: Web
Helps With: Information/Time Management
Price: Free trial/Free+Premium
Wish you had more time to read? Instead, access just the high points so you get the main idea of long books in short summaries. Blinkist offers 1,000+ best-selling nonfiction books, transformed into powerful packs you can read in just 15 minutes.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
18 Airplane Mode
Category: Phone
Helps With: Focus
Price: Free
This may be the best hack ever -- takes seconds and you already know how to use it! Just put your phone in airplane mode for important phone calls, for dinner with your family, or for meditation time. TURN IT OFF and give yourself the gift of distraction-free living… if even for a few minutes at a time.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
5 Bonus Tips to Escape “Always Working” Syndrome
Before adopting any new productivity tool or system:
1. Where am I “feeling the pain” most with regard to my schedule? Morning? Family stuff? Running errands? Pinpoint where the greatest pain is, because that’s where the biggest rewards will be. For example, my mornings weren’t getting off to a great start, which meant my whole day was off. By creating and implementing a successful morning routine, I set the tone for the next 16-18 hours. (You can read more about my morning routine here.)
2. How complicated is the system? There are some great systems and programs out there, but if many force you to adapt your way of life to them. I think it should be the other way around so I always favor simple tools and simple systems. They are the most adaptable, and since they are so easy, you’re more likely to use them.
3. Don’t do too much at once. Sure, you can download all the recommended tools listed above… and then there’s about a 99 percent chance you’ll promptly go into “overload” mode and implement exactly ZERO! (We’ve talked about that couch-to-marathon-to-couch phenomenon before…). Instead, pick one or two that seem the easiest or most promising, implement them, get full value from them, and then add more.
The Busy Person's Productivity Toolbox
4. Remember that the biggest waste of time is not doing the right thing inefficiently; it’s being very efficient at things you shouldn’t be doing in the first place. Even more important than efficiency is effectiveness -- having an impact in the areas that matter to you. I sincerely hope you take some of the time you free up and spend it thinking about your bigger goals, the stuff that makes your life worth living.
5. Tools can’t replace good habits and systems. A tool is only as good as the person using it. If it sits unused, or is used in the wrong way, it’s not making you efficient OR effective. Once you find tools you like and that you think will work for you, you need to do two things: First, test it out. Figure out how it works, what you like, where you’re having trouble with it. (Having a guide for this process is really helpful, even if it’s just a friend you can ask for assistance.) Next, instill a habit. We often find great tools, put them to use for a while, then fall out of the routine. That’s why so many treadmills become expensive clothing hangers rather than fitness aids! Research shows that a minimum of 21 days is needed to make a new behavior into a habit, so give yourself structure until that threshold is reached.
Want to Go Further? Click the image below to learn how you can become twice as productive today!