The Top 2 Tools You Need to Be Productive in 2017

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get REALLY sick of these top ten lists. Who has the time? As we start to get near the end of the year, all I really want is for someone to tell me what to do and make all my pain go away. Oh yea, and give me $10,000. That would be nice too.

If you’re anything like me, you have this little niggling feeling inside of you that it would be great to clear the decks and start fresh in 2017. Since we live in a now very digital world, that line tends to get very blurry, very fast, when emails come in at what feels like the speed of light and, after a few glasses of Shiraz at yet another holiday party, no one (and I mean no one) feels like spending long days right before the holidays being super productive.

Getting your you-know-what together in time for 2017 will absolutely feel like a daunting task if you let too many new-fangled tools into your world. My suggestion is to pick two (2) and have a serious crack at them in your down time over the holidays.

Rather than focussing on getting things done, focus on getting things organised.

By shifting your mindset away from the doing (I know, I know) you will free yourself up to be creative and think of simple, obvious things that will definitely escape your radar if you’re in achievement mode.

You’ll be able to think of all those small tasks that missed getting done in 2016 and have been on your mind. Whether you wrote them down or not, chances are these “undones” have been weighing on your mind and driving you a bit bonkers just under the surface. It’s time to wipe the slate clean – and that means brushing off the dirt and crumbs that have accumulated in your mind over the past 12 months.

Must have tool #1: Asana

You guys know that I’ve been in love with Asana for a long time – even more so now that they’ve got shooting narwahls and other cool stuff in place to help you celebrate your task achievements…but enough of that for now…we’re organising! If you haven’t gotten on board with Asana yet (excuse the impending pun), you’ll definitely get on board with the new Asana boards. Much like Trello, Asana allows you to have tasks as cards and move them throughout stages.

For example, if you had a web development business with multiple stages and things to test, you could load all of the tasks into easy to understand columns (see below for Asana’s example):

Of course, you can always revert back to the original version of Asana, which allows for projects and tasks in the more traditional sense. I suggest taking a few hours to map out all of those outstanding to dos on index cards or blank sheets of paper (when you want to avoid your family over the holidays is a good time) and then going back later to your Asana task list and putting in each item line by line. Later, you can always convert regular projects to boards and vice-versa, so don’t get too caught up in getting the setup correct. Just get everything out of your brain and into one central location.

Asana is FREE for businesses with up to 15 users. If you’re on G Suite, be sure to enable Asana in the add-on marketplace for the best results.

Find out more about Asana

Must have tool #2: LastPass

If you’re constantly flipping through notebooks and tearing down post-it notes from the edge of your monitor, it’s time to clear the decks for LastPass. This is the ultimate tool for organising your passwords and enables you, with the paid version, to share passwords securely with your team.

Think of it like a really cool filing system for your most important information. Stored in a vault, your passwords (and other valuables like passport info if you choose) get locked up securely in a folder structure that you create. You can import your existing passwords from directly within the browser and there’s even a handy Chrome extension (I always recommend Chrome) to ensure that you never miss out on saving a new password again.

LastPass is FREE for the basic edition, but you will have to shell out USD $24.00 per year for an Enterprise account, which gives you access to the phone app. Highly recommended.

>>Click here for a FREE 14-day Enterprise trial<<

Find out more about LastPass

In summary, don’t fret about getting all the crazy new tools to start off your year on the right foot. If you haven’t already, snag Asana and LastPass and really focus on making the most of these tools while you have some down time.

Good luck and enjoy the break!

This article was originally published here:

https://www.getdigitalflow.com/the-top-2-tools-you-need-to-be-productive-in-2017/