Best Tools to Improve Your Productivity

I'd recommend TimeDoctor for tracking the productivity of your team, and RescueTime for tracking your own.

The first one works by making screenshots and monitoring the screens of employees for you to see how much time they spend working and what tasks they complete during that time. The second one tracks the time you spend on applications and websites, so you can later check a report and see if your online journey was productive and useful enough. Also, it allows you to block websites for some time, so you can better focus at work.

I usually use Clickup. For me, it's a must! My productivity probably doubled after I started using and organizing my workflow with their tool. Their phone app is what I love the most. I always know what I’m supposed to do because of their app. Shoutout to them!

My recommendation would be to switch between high- and low-attention tasks.

When it comes to assessing your team's work, distributing plan credits, controlling checklists, and receiving reports, you should try Serpstat Team Management Mode. This is how you can run your team using one account.

Follow this link to read more about it :)

To stay productive, I use the PomoDone App when I'm writing content. The app helps me implement the Pomodoro Technique (traditionally a 25-minute burst of work separated by short breaks.) It's a simple tool that removes digital distractions from my life while I try and get the creative juices flowing.

This is how I usually start my working day. 

The first thing I do is check my Google calendar. After that, it’s on to checking emails. Then I hop over to my hosting dashboard to see that all of my clients and my own websites are up and running smoothly. After that, it’s onto social media to network.

What do I do to improve concentration at work?

• set timers for blocks of work;
• set rewards if I complete a task;
• schedule calls/meetings;
• ignore emails/apps during a work block;
• tell my kids to go away :)

You should do your best to focus on the working strategy: goals, KPIs, and target figures/times, regular updates to figures in a shared document, open comms, set tasks with deadlines, regular checks (twice per day), etc.

My team and I have been using Hubstaff since 2016. Their tool is simple, and it doesn't take long to install it, figure it out and start using it. I often hire freelancers and if I'm paying them per hour outside the Upwork platform, then I use Hubstaff to track their working time and productivity.

As an admin, you can set it up to take screenshots from your freelancer's screen at a random times. This can show you if they're working on your project or chatting with friends on Facebook. If they are not working for 5 minutes, then the tool stops tracking working time until they're back.

Also, you can set up automatic payments through the Hubstaff platform, and that could be convenient.

This is how I manage my own productivity:

1. I create a weekly plan and allocate time to each task.
2. During the week, I track my own time spent using Toggl.
3. After the weekends, I reflect on how I spent my week, whether my estimations were correct or not, and write down my learnings. During the week, when an unexpected task comes up, I tag it in Toggl. If it becomes a regular thing, perhaps I need to schedule time for it or allocate a bit more time to the "misc" slot.

As for managing our team's productivity: everyone on the team has a lot of freedom and autonomy. We don't micromanage (that doesn't scale and A-players don't like that.) We work in sprints, and make an estimate and evaluate that after the sprint ends. If you do that, you learn and get consistent output.

I'd like to talk about concentration while working process. 

• Some people should NOT be on Twitter. If you're constantly tense, odds are that's caused by Twitter. It's optimized to keep you in an 'always on' state — like a microtransaction game.
• If you feel anxiety 24/7: stop denying what may be going on, and shut it off.
• If you're constantly fed with work coming from one direction, and if that's not supposed to happen: leave the problem where it consistently originates from, or those responsible won't take responsibility for solving the issue(s).
• Need a little more oversight and control? Map out the work process. Every node — action, person — in the chain, is a potential risk: something that can lead to delay, mistakes, and miscommunication. Remove them as much as you can, to prevent them from happening.

Personally, I'd recommend you the following: 

First, don’t ever over-commit to a strategy that makes it impossible to pivot when needed! Second, set aside an emergency fund. Thank me later :)

To answer the question "How do you deal with sudden changes to the working plan?": Try to stay calm. Gather ALL the people involved in the project. Be honest.