I really enjoy reading blog posts and listening to podcasts from leaders who share some of their favorite tools and resources for productivity, running their business, or just cool apps that they use. I'm always on the hunt for better ways of doing things. Really, it's a great way to discover new tools that I want to check out or to learn to use a tool differently. Well, with that in mind, I’ve got a special treat for you. In this episode, I share fifteen of my favorite apps and tools. 

I’ll cover tools for productivity and efficiency, communication and community, financial tools and data storage, plus everything in between. Some of the tools and apps I mention in this episode may not be new to you. But some of them are just so good, I had to share them with you.  And hey, maybe I'm using them in a different way than you are or maybe you've heard of them before, but you haven't tried them out yet. Either way, I think you'll find something new in this list that can make your life better or easier. Enjoy!

 

Show Highlights:

• My favorite productivity and efficiency tools, including my preferred calendar for time management and scheduling
• Some of my preferred communication and community tools, including Zoom (plus why I think Zoom is a great tool for international calls)
• Tools to help you manage social networks, like Meet Edgar which is a really robust social media management tool that makes it easy to schedule and automate content on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
• The importance of protection against computer data loss, plus my favorite backup tool, Backblaze
• Financial tools and apps and how Freshbooks can help you organize invoices and business expenses

 

Resources:

Grab Episode 35’s Free PDF Toolkit

Productivity & Efficiency

1. Google Calendar – my preferred calendar tool for time management and scheduling

1. Calendly - a scheduling software that aims to save time, accelerate sales, and improve service quality. It eliminates the old school way of using email and phone tags for scheduling appointments, calls, interviews, demos, and more.

1. Nozbe – a “productivity system” to guide people on the path to getting things done and communicating effectively.  Nozbe aims to help people work more efficiently so that they gain more time for whom and what they love.

1. Full Focus Planner –  a physical Planner that “ends the tyranny of the never-ending to-do list by helping you focus on what matters most.”

Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less by Michael Hyatt

 

Communication and Community:

1. Zoom - communications software that combines phone and video conferencing for online meetings and calls, as well as webinar capabilities.

1. LinkedIn – launched in May 2003. I joined on May 12, 2006, and I’m member number 5,852,039. LinkedIn currently has over 610 million members.

How to find your LinkedIn member number

1. Twitter / TweetDeck – Twitter was launched on March 21, 2006, and I joined Twitter on March 25, 2008. I'm  user number 14,221,435. There are now over 330 million Twitter accounts out there, and some actually belong to real people.

How to find your Twitter user number

How to find your old/first tweets

1. MeetEdgar (ed.gr/vfvy3) - MeetEdgar is a social media management tool that makes it easy to schedule and automate content on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

 

Computer Things and Data Storage:

1. Evernote - Evernote is an app designed for note taking, organizing, task management, and archiving. Examples: save blog posts and articles, take notes on calls, save documents, save pictures of important documents, passwords in an encrypted file, etc.

1. Dropbox – Offers storage of files “in the cloud,” and synchronizes my files across all of my devices. There is a free version, which I used for a year, and I now pay for the Professional plan – which is probably overkill, but for something as important as “my entire business,” it’s worth it. I pay $199.00 per year for 3 Terabytes of storage.

1. Google Drive - a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google.

1. Backblaze - An online backup tool that allows both PC and Mac users to back up their data to offsite data centers. It provides full protection against data loss and (most importantly) recovering all of your files in case your computer is lost, stolen, or otherwise compromised.

1. Clean My Mac – is a Mac cleaner app that cleans and optimizes my Mac. It frees up space, uninstalls unwanted apps, speeds up my Mac, and helps me to stay malware-free.

 

Financial Tools:

1. Mint – Mint is a free, safe, and simple budget tool. I use it to track my spending, savings, investments, and more. I use Mint to track my personal finances, my personal business finances, and the finances for DisruptHR – that’s three separate accounts.

1. Freshbooks - is a cloud-based accounting application that I use to send invoices to clients. It also tracks expenses, and allows me to upload receipt copies to expenses, which then allows me to add those expenses (with copies of receipts) to my invoices. So much easier than hauling receipts back to the office, making copies, and attaching those to invoices to mail to clients.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, and if you go through them to make a purchase I’ll earn a commission. Keep in mind that I only link to products or companies because of their quality, or my personal experience with them, and not because of any commissions I receive from your purchases.

 

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