Productivity tools

I found this week a bit difficult to get into because there are so many productivity tools and it gets a bit confusing about what is REALLY that useful.

I find recommendations from friends are really good to get into these because they either rave about a new tool or say how difficult it is to use.

This week, I started looking at HootSuite just because it sounded interesting and I think this tool would be great for companies who use social media such as Twitter and Facebook to monitor comments and information that is posted online. It gathers statistics in the ‘dashboard’ and enables companies to gather analytical data on many different areas- this would be a tool that is useful for a library that is heavily involved in social media and needed one location to monitor it all.

Another tool that I thought might be useful for me personally is Workflowy.The tag for workflowy is ‘What if you could fit your whole brain onto a single piece of paper?’

I’ve always been a bit of a list maker, it helps me feel organised and in control during times of stress and busy periods. So I watched the intro video and intrigued, I signed up.  After you sign up, Workflowy takes you through the steps of creating lists where you can start with a top heading of chores for example, and then you can indent the types of chores you need to get done and place tags next to the chores that prioritise when you will do that task. For example, I have three chores listed: clean the bathroom, do some washing and go to the post office. I definitely need to go to the post office today, so I can put a #today tag and then move my items up or down. I’ll have to keep going through the online tutorials about how to get the best out of workflowy, but so far I like it!

Workflowy would be great to organise projects and break things down into more manageable chunks, it could be used for brainstorming as you can then easily organise your thoughts.