The web is full of tools out there that claim to help you to be more productive, and for the most part they are right. The problem is that with all of these applications, it is very easy for all of your tasks, events, and documents to become fragmented. It’s hard to resist the urge to try out the latest and greatest web app out there (yes guys, I am looking in your direction) just for the sake of trying it out. Therefore, I thought that I’d give my picks for the top productivity focused web applications of 2009. These are all apps that I use on a daily basis, and you would find me in a fetal position off in the corner if I were ever left without them. I assure you that these are not original or spectacular, but they’ve allowed me to get things done.
Photo by Bull3t
Dropbox
This amazing and very simple tool deserves to be on the top of this list without any competition even coming close. Dropbox is God’s gift to productivity. It’s free for up to 2 gigabytes of storage, and it essentially allows you to have a folder on multiple computers that syncs to dropbox and each respective folder. In other words, that picture of you with bumping fists with Pope Benedict can be available anywhere in the world and on any computer you own. Even if you aren’t on your computer, you can use their web interface to get your files. It’s that awesome!
Google Apps
If you have a small business and you aren’t using Google Apps Standard, please sell it. Yes, you heard me, sell your business now because you obviously like throwing your money away on things you can get for free. Google Apps Standard (and even the premium version) is a fantastic platform for email, calendar, and word processing. Think about it, you basically get the superior spam filtering of GMail, with 7 gb of storage, routing to your own domain name (i.e. yourbusiness.com) ,and everything else you need to communicate to customers and staff FOR FREE. Even if you don’t have a business, it’s a great way to brand your blog or website. Okay, I’m done.
Evernote
Never forgot that recipe that you found on the Mac & Cheese box at the grocery store, or your wife’s 20 honey-do list that she graciously left next to your car keys. With Evernote you can take a picture, type, or record audio of whatever you want to remember. Not only that, their text recognition software allows you to search the text of things that you took a picture of (i.e. your pool man’s business card).
Netvibes
You are probably thinking, why in the heck is Netvibes up here? It’s because Netvibes brings it all together, baby! Netvibes a one stop shop for all of your blog reading, email/calendar checking, and social media upkeeping. Seriously, I have 10 email accounts on my Netvibes homepage that would go unnoticed without it. Not only that, I am able to read all of my Catholic, tech, and news blogs – and then Tweet about them in the matter of a few minutes. It is seriously a huge time-saver.
That’s it!
Hopefully you aren’t disappointed that I only use 4 web apps to maintain optimum productivity, but why complicate things with a whole bunch of tools? If you stick with a few that work with your personality, you’ll find that it’s much easier to keep track of your life.
What tools do you use? Am I wrong in using only a few specific tools? Let me know what you think in the comments.
apps, google, Productive, Productivity, productivity applications, small business, web
Mark Alves
October 22, 2009 at 4:07 pmI have an Evernote account, but have been using Google Notebook out of habit. Maybe I should give Evernote another try since it can hold more media types than Notebook.How do you think Netvibes compares to a customized Google/ig?
Dean Soto
October 22, 2009 at 6:28 pmEvernote > Google Notebook. Seriously, nothing beats Evernote's user interface and wide range of media support. There have been times when I accidentally lost receipts for expenses while on travel and all I had to do was print copies from Evernote that I snapped a picture of. It is a great tool, and very inexpensive for the premium version.As far as iGoogle vs. Netvibes, both are great. But where Google fails is how they try to be everything to everyone. Netvibe's entire niche is being specifically a web desktop, and through the specificity they are able to deliver a better product. The thing that did it for me (and iGoogle may have this now) is that I can have all of my various email platforms on one desktop. So I can see 10-15 inboxes from Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo and so on because there are so many user made widgets that allow for that. iGoogle doesn't have that ability (at least not since I've used it). Plus, although I love Google Reader, Netvibe's use as an RSS reader is much more scan-able. I can literally look through 30 Catholic blogs in less than 15-20 minutes on a good day. Oh, and Netvibe's Social Networking modules are awesome. I have nearly all of the 15+ social networks I am on in one page. Ping.fm is good for mass blasts, but I like to be able to look and interact with each medium.I'll stop rambling now, ha!