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SEO 21 min read September 19, 2022

Best Tools to Improve Your Productivity

Best Tools to Improve Your Productivity
Best Tools to Improve Your Productivity
Experts in the digital world are likely familiar with concentration problems. Facebook alerts, videos on YouTube, or a new Game of Thrones episode ...

For your convenience, our team has collected tools that will allow you to do more work and save time. We have supplemented this article with Twitter comments from the following experts:
  • Remco Tensen
    Digital Marketing Consultant & Founder of RemcoTensen.nl
  • Olena Prokhoda
    Social Media and Community Specialist at Serpstat
  • Lyndon NA
    Internet business consultant, (SEM (SEO/PPC), CM & SMM, with UX, CRO & ORM)
  • Joey Trend
    Co-Founder of Hum JAM
  • Omi Sido
    Senior Technical SEO at Canon Europe
  • Marco Giordano
    Search Engine Optimization Specialist
    & Web Analyst at Sika
  • Jonas Sickler
    SEO Manager at Terakeet

1. Project Management Tools

1
Milanote is a tool for organizing creative projects into beautiful visual boards. By design, it feels a lot like working on the wall in a creative studio — visual, tactile, and sometimes a bit messy. Milanote is an excellent fit for designers who work in teams remotely.
2
Serpstat's Team Management mode allows you to assess your team's work, distribute plan limits, control checklists, receive reports, control the staff, and avoid project problems.
3
Hubstaff is an employee time tracking software that provides you with screenshots, reporting, and automated payments. Hubstaff has integrations with Asana, GitHub, Redmine, Trello, and other tools.
Free, pay to get more features.
4
Yaware is an automatic employee time and productivity tracking software. It shows you the time your employees spend working so that you can see the working day in your company.
5
Teamwork is a project management software that frees teams to manage their work, so they can focus on the work they do best.
6
ProofHub allows you to keep your projects, remote teams, and clients in one place, empowering you to keep things always under your control.

7
Fleep has features for project communication, checklists, audio-video calling, and screen sharing. It has many integrations and public APIs. It's free, pay to get more features.
8
Pomotodo workflow management tool allows you to save ideas, work on a plan, complete tasks, and view statistics.
9
Asana allows you to monitor conversations, tasks, deadlines, and any type of productivity (from information about potential customers to web development errors). Asana makes working together much easier. Free, pay to get more features.
10
Zoom is a tool for video conferencing, voice calls, and instant messaging, which enables you to share files, upload videos and pictures, and send messages, it also works on a mobile phone.
11
Wrike is a tool for collaboration, scheduling, and project management. You can allocate and organize tasks, and share and access project dashboards, folders, and files. Free, pay to get more features.
12
Trello combines project management for teams and a to-do list for personal use. All that is required is to drag special cards into different lists. A great option for organizing projects.
13
Paymo is a complex project management app that also has time-tracking features. It allows you to record the time you spend working on a specific task or project right from your browser. Free, pay to get more features.
14
ProofHub is about keeping your teams on the same page, or committing to deadlines and celebrating success, you and your team and clients can do it all under one roof, using one work management system. Free trial, pay to get more features.
15
MySignature is a super easy and intuitive platform to create and manage your professional email signature. With MySignature you can design your own branded signature and promote your business through email communication. Also, you can track all your email opens and link clicks. The platform is free, you can upgrade to get more features.
  • I use Harvest to track the time I've spent on various projects, and I like that it comes with a nifty visualization tool that lets you see, at a glance, how much time you've spent working on a single project. You can also use Harvest to keep track of your expenses and make sure that you're not going over your budget.
    Cherie Foo
    Content Strategist at UpLead
  • 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.
    Lesley Vos
    Content Architect at Bid4Papers.com
  • 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!
    Joey Trend
    Co-Founder at Hum JAM
  • 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 :)
    Olena Prokhoda
    Social Media and Community Specialist at Serpstat

How to Effectively Manage Your SEO Team: Asking Experts

2. Time Management Tools

15
Time Doctor is a time tracking app that enables you to monitor the work of each of your team members using screenshots and screen monitoring. Free trial, pay to get more features.
16
RescueTime tracks the time you spend on different applications and websites. It also allows you to block sites you need for a certain period of time so that you can focus on your work.
Free trial, pay to get more features.
17
Timely is an automatic time tracker that records how much time you spend on the tasks you do. It has GPS tracking, that helps you capture the time spent while traveling. Free trial, pay to get more features.
18
Focuster schedules your to-do list in your calendar, helping you maintain focus, prioritize tasks, and achieve your most important goals every day. Free trial, pay to get more features.
19
ManicTime helps you keep up with your employees' work, send accurate progress reports, and manage your time better. Free, pay to get more features.
20
Toggl is a time tracking app and a browser extension that lets you track time within more than 80 online apps. You can generate comprehensive reports so that you can understand where you spent your time.
Free trial, pay to get more features.
21
TMetric Time Tracker is a productivity tool that tracks employees' working hours, breaks, attendance, and leaves. The tool lets you set an estimated number of hours per project or team member, as well as specific monetary amounts as a project budget. Free, pay to get more features.
22
ClickTime lets you make use of understandable timesheets to stay on budget, reduce your costs, and increase the visibility of your projects. Free trial, pay to get more features.
23
Timecamp lets you track time, evaluate the performance of your team, and monitor your team members' leaves and vacation days. It also allows you to create and send pre-designed invoices to your clients, based on the hours you have tracked. Free, pay to get more features.
24
Harvest allows you to record every aspect of your work, such as clients, projects, tasks, notes, and more. It tracks the time you spent as well as expenses. You can use Harvest in any browser, and also as Android and iOS app. Free, pay to get more features.
25
Everhour is a time tracker that offers you task-based estimation, and customizable reports. Moreover, it also allows you to create invoices right from the app and keep track of the budget of your projects.
Free trial, pay to get more features.
26
WorkPuls is a time tracking tool aimed to identify problematic staff and increase your employees' overall productivity. Free trial, pay to get more features.
  • We think that productivity requires a combination of tools. One which provides great benefits is the TimeTimer app for Android or iOS, which assists by timing your work using the Pomodoro technique. It shows a unique visual queue that is hard to miss and enables you to focus for 25-minute chunks of time without interruption.
    Zamir Javer
    CEO at Jumpfactor
  • 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.
    Nico Prins

3. Calendars and Meetings

27
Google Calendar is a time-management and scheduling calendar service. It allows you to plan, create and edit events.
28
GoToMeeting is an easy way to connect with people. It provides desktop sharing, and video conferencing: you can meet users, customers, clients, or colleagues in real-time.
Free trial, pay to get more features.
29
Doodle makes it very easy to plan and host meetings by sending the list to all participants so that they can choose the time; the time of the meeting is selected by most of them. The application can also be integrated into your calendar.
Free trial, pay to get more features.
30
Slack makes internal communication easier, so you can set up dialogues and never miss important messages. You can send messages to your colleagues, share files and photos, and make calls.
Free, pay to get more features.
  • 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.
    Joey Trend
    Co-Founder at Hum JAM
  • 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.
    Lyndon NA
    Internet business consultant, (SEM (SEO/PPC), CM & SMM, with UX, CRO & ORM)

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4. Checklists and Notebooks

31
Wunderlist helps you organize your work, shopping, entertainment, and household lists. You can share your lists with your team, family, and friends. You can also set a reminder not to forget anything.
32
Evernote is a note-taking app: if you are looking for a place where you can store all your notes, presentations, articles, checks, receipts, and articles, this platform will fit perfectly.
Free, pay to get more features.
33
Taco allows you to view all your tasks on one screen as a single to-do list: it collects tasks from more than 40 different applications: Evernote, Asana, Todoist, Trello, etc.
34
Todoist is a functional, minimalist application that helps you cope with the necessary work and keep all tasks under control. Free, pay to get more features.
35
FocusList is a daily planner and focus tool based on the Pomodoro technique. It helps you plan your day, stay focused and track your time.
36
PDFLiner is an online platform for working with PDF documents that allow creating and editing files, filling out forms, sharing files, adding electronic signatures, etc. Check out the extensive library of ready-made templates and forms to find - rent and lease agreements, purchase and sale contracts, registration and tax forms, surveys, and invoices. Free, pay to get more features.

Checklist: Step-By-Step Work With Serpstat Projects

5. Keeping in Order

37
Google Keep is a note-taking service that offers a variety of tools for taking notes, including text, lists, images, and audio.
38
Sanebox is an email management tool that integrates with IMAP and Exchange Web Services email accounts. It filters important email messages into a folder for later processing.
Free trial, pay to get more features.
39
Zapier allows you to connect over 500 of your favorite apps: create Trello cards from the rows of Google tables; post upcoming events from Google Calendar to Slack; post your MailChimp campaign through LinkedIn.
Free, pay to get more features.
40
Boomerang is an email management application for Gmail that schedules and sets email reminders. It can 'boomerang' a message back to your inbox to remind you about it at the set time. Free, pay to get more features.
41
Pocket lets you save content that you don't have time to watch or read. The content is available on any device.
42
Dashlane allows you to store all relevant information in one place: your passwords, logins, etc.
Free, pay to get more features.
43
Buffer allows you to keep up with social media services like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and schedule posts when you want them to go live.
Free trial, pay to get more features.
44
RightInbox
is the go-to email productivity tool that supercharges your email inbox. Free, pay to get more features.
  • 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.
    Georgi Todorov
    Founder of Digitalnovas
  • 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.
    Steven Van Vessum
    VP of Community at ContentKing
  • 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.
    Remco Tensen
    Digital Marketing Consultant & Founder at RemcoTensen.nl
  • 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.
    Omi Sido
    Senior Technical SEO at Canon Europe
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