by The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC)
Question: What productivity tools can you not live without as an entrepreneur?
1. MANAGE PROJECTS WITH ASANA
“Although Asana is a project management tool it doubles as a productivity system by making our team and clients more efficient every day. By tracking, assigning and follow up on individual tasks, Asana allows us to eliminate the noise and focus on what action has to be taken today.”
– Kelly Azevedo | Founder, She’s Got Systems
2. SHARE FILES THROUGH DROPBOX
“This must-have app is installed on all our laptops, tablets, and phones. Since we’re often traveling or working remotely, Dropbox is absolutely essential in helping the whole team stay literally in sync. In addition, it makes updating and distributing decks that need to stay extremely up-to-date, like our Media Kit, very simple and efficient.”
– Annie Wang | Co-founder, Chief Product Officer, Creative Director, Her Campus Media
3. PRODUCTEEV KEEPS UP PRODUCTIVITY
“Producteev is a cross-platform productivity application. It works online, on Desktop and across mobile applications to help streamline your personal or corporate activities. Producteev is ideal for small teams and we use it extensively in my businesses.”
– Doreen Bloch | CEO / Founder, Poshly Inc.
4. KEEP TRACK OF TASKS ON ANY.DO
“I organize my life around “to-dos” and without a doubt the best app to organize these tasks is Any.DO. It’s simple and beautiful, which makes it a pleasure to use on a daily basis.”
– Ben Lang | Founder, EpicLaunch
5. TRACK THE NOTEWORTHY ON EVERNOTE
“Without a doubt, Evernote. I keep all meeting notes, client info and personal ideas in one place, and am able to access anything and everything from any of my devices on the go. I’ve used it religiously for the past couple years, and can’t help but wonder, “What the heck did I do before Evernote?””
– Matt Cheuvront | Founder, Proof Branding
6. GET IT BACK WITH RESCUETIME
“RescueTime is a great app that runs in the background on your computer. It graphs your activity and breaks it down onto a scale from “very distracting” to “very productive.” It helps me to find the leaks in my productivity so that I can address them and get the most out of my time.”
– Jennifer Vargas | Founder, Accompl.sh
7. STOP GUESSING WITH WUNDERLIST
“Wunderlist has become a wonder for me. Not only is it very easy to input all of your projects, your clients and their associated priorities, but the accessibility of it constantly syncing to all of your portable devices, such as your smartphone, tablet and computer. It is unrivaled and has made my life that much easier, whether in the office or on-the-go.”
– Steven Le Vine | CEO/President, grapevine pr
8. ROOT BACK TO BASECAMPHQ
“I’ve used a ton of others and even tried to have my own built, but I always come back to BasecampHQ for project management.”
– Roger Bryan | Managing Partner, ROI Marketing Department
9. KEEP AN EYE OUT WITH TRELLO
“Trello allows me to easily keep track of our major tasks and the stage of development on each. It’s a simple and intuitive interface is perfect for web development teams. Best of all, it’s free.”
– Patrick Curtis | Chief Monkey and Founder, WallStreetOasis.com
10. MONEY MATTERS ON FRESHBOOKS
“Client perception is important when you’re small. They need to see you have your act together, especially on the basics. If you can’t get that right, how can you handle their business? Invoicing and expensing with Freshbooks makes it easy for me to look good and work efficiently.”
– Susan Strayer LaMotte | Founder, exaqueo
11. DAY-TO-DAY ON GOOGLE CALENDAR
“Without Google Calendar I’d never get anything done. Since the calendar is web-based, I always have access to it whether it’s on my laptop, iPad, or smartphone. I also use the calendar to block off times when I want to focus on a task for several hours straight.”
– Bhavin Parikh | CEO, Magoosh Test Prep
12. CAPTURE LEADS ON INSTANT CUSTOMER
“This CRM system allows me to capture leads when public speaking or networking. From the audience, people can SMS to opt-in to my email list and special offer. Or they can give me a business card, and minutes after I scan it in, it sends them a series of pre-programmed emails with follow-up resources, and a promo offer. “
– Michael Margolis | President, Get Storied
13. TOP THE TO-DO ON GOOGLE TASKS
“I’m a very process-oriented person and I need to have a list of things to accomplish every day. Google Tasks, which is part of your Gmail, is a free task-list service. I update my tasks constantly and it keeps me focused each day.”
– Eric Bahn | Founder, Beat The GMAT
14. MIX BUSINESS WITH PLEASURE ON YAMMER
“Yammer keeps my whole team organized, on track, and in-the-know on all important communication for a particular project. It’s where we share files, discuss goals, and most importantly, where my virtual team has an opportunity to build real relationships with their peers.”
– Natalie MacNeil | Emmy Award Winning Producer & Entrepreneur, She Takes on the World
15. STAY UP-TO-DATE THROUGH GLASSCUBES
“My team and I use Glasscubes on a daily basis for managing documents, keeping track of tasks and organizing information. It’s great because it’s really cut down on the amount of emails we were sending back and forth — and helps keep track of content and its status.”
– Heather Huhman | Founder & President, Come Recommended
16. KEEP IT CLEAR
“I’m finding a nice balance with Clear, a new iPhone app that’s gotten tons of attention because of the way the designers rethought the touch screen user interface. Underneath, it’s a very basic to-do system, but I’ve never been big on bells and whistles when it comes to productivity. The truly incredible UI is the kicker, and seems to fit well with how I prioritize in my head, so it’s stuck!”
– Derek Shanahan | Co-Founder, Foodtree
17. JUST DO IT WITH DO.COM
“I use Do.com to manage all of my various business projects. It helps me track who is doing what and what is left to be done on any given project. Track time, billable hours, share files, etc. — This site can do it all for free. When I discovered it, I knew I would never go back to emails or Excel for managing projects.”
– Lucas Sommer | Founder CEO, Audimated
18. HIRE A REMOTE ASSISTANT
“As a startup social entrepreneur, there is absolutely no way that I could afford a traditional executive assistant. Through YourRemoteAssistant.com, I have a full-time assistant for just $1,099 per month. This serve has enabled me to delegate in an entirely different way at a cost that my organization can afford.”
– Garrett Neiman | Co-founder and CEO, CollegeSpring
19. POMODORO TECHNIQUE FOR TOP PRODUCTIVITY
“Apps and project management tools can help you manage and prioritize tasks effectively, but when it comes to getting stuff done, use the Pomodoro Technique. Dedicate laser focus to one and only one task for 25 minutes — make sure to use a timer! Once the timer goes off, take a 5-minute break. I find that when I use this technique, I tend to not get distracted by small urgent things.”
– Brenton Gieser | Co-Founder, JoynIn
20. TEUX DEUX
“Teux Deux is perfect for simple to-do lists and I love the accompanying iPhone app!”
– Erin Blaskie | CEO, BSETC
