Dec 19, 2019
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
- Google Calendar – my preferred calendar tool for time
management and scheduling
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- Zoom - communications software that combines phone
and video conferencing for online meetings and calls, as well as
webinar capabilities.
- 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
- 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
- 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:
-
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.
- 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.
- Google Drive - a file storage and synchronization service
developed by Google.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
Connect with Jennifer:
Send her a message
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JenniferMcClureSpeaker
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/impactmakerspodcast/
On LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifermcclure
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/JenniferMcClure
***
EPISODE CREDITS:
If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own,
consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.
He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR
professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches,
and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their
business and impact the world.
Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com