According to GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com, 3.7 million Americans now work from home at least half the time. And, as always, business professionals are constantly on the go. Keeping organized outside of an office environment is critical to success, especially when you’re being pulled in different directions at all hours of the day.
At Jive PR + Digital, we have found that hacking on-the-go productivity is not so much about being organized or self-disciplined as it is about making small lifestyle changes and sticking with them. Of course, one of the greatest challenges we all face is lack of time. Our heads are brewing with new ideas, to-do lists and how-to initiatives to keep pushing forward. Thanks to evolving technologies and practical apps that fulfill many traditional responsibilities, professionals can pick and choose tools that greatly increase mobility without diminishing output.
There’s an app out there for almost every task, which can make finding the right fit for your process challenging. There is rarely a one-size-fits-all application in terms of efficiency, but there is always one to work best for you and your situation. Each one of us has a different way of working and, at our company, we believe each person finding their own groove produces the best results in a happy environment.
These five apps have become essential to our workflow:
If you have ever experienced stress, struggled with anxiety or thought about pursuing meditation but weren’t sure where to begin, the meditation app Headspace might be for you. This digital health platform gives users a break from daily chaos through the use of adorable animated characters and inspirational daily reminders.
One thing we love most about the app, aside from its minimalistic design and user-friendliness, is its authenticity. The app gives us a chance to relax and calm our minds and reminds us that we are in control of our thoughts, regardless of what happens around us. Plus, there are several science-backed benefits to meditation, like better sleep and lower stress levels.
Journaling optimizes creative potential and generates clarity. It’s also a powerful facilitator of self-discovery. Similar to meditation, gratitude journaling has been scientifically proven to motivate and help overcome daily challenges. It’s relevant to us as creatives because we tend to focus heavily on our outputs, and journaling enables us to harness this focus to prompt creative breakthroughs.
With the Five-Minute Journal, you’ll begin your morning by listing three things you’re grateful for, three ways you can make the day great and three affirmations. Before you go to bed, use it to reflect on your day with positivity. Journaling has transformed our daily routine, and it’s a habit we enjoy returning to each day.
Evernote, one of the most popular organization apps, organizes daily tasks and projects in one place so our brains have more room for the big picture. On the app, you can take notes, create project-based to-do lists, create reminders and save interesting tidbits you find online to the app itself.
Evernote can sync with all devices and allows users to send notes to others via email or text. If you’re more traditional and like to write to-do lists by hand, this app allows you to snap and upload a picture of it effortlessly without having to carry around a notebook.
Evernote Scannable makes paper documents portable without wasting time or space. Our team primarily uses it to log brainstorming sessions, store receipts and keep track of travel expenses in real time. Content uploaded to Scannable links to Evernote and allows us to share our documents via email and text, making it even easier to collaborate from a distance.
A key to staying productive in any industry involves the ability to switch from one device to another without losing your work, and Google Drive allows just that. With worldwide access to docs, spreadsheets and slides, your employees can ensure that a project stays on schedule.
Drive saves busy professionals time and frustration by letting users connect actions across devices, and eases collaboration with team members from any location. As an international company, we find ourselves using it daily to create and collab from a distance.
MIT Technology Review regards Slack as the fastest growing workplace software the world has ever seen. The messenger app centralizes real-time conversation across all devices, which is another ideal option for international companies. You can “pin” important notifications, making them easily accessible, search past conversations and create project-based channels. At our company, we’ve significantly reduced our time spent on email simply because the platform offers all the functionality of texting and more. Custom emojis, GIFs and sassy replies from Slackbot give work-related conversations an entirely new meaning of fun.
Thanks to the growth of mobile devices and applications, it is possible to work on the go and remain productive. They’re a great way to speed up and organize common tasks that could take hours worth of bandwidth each day otherwise. Quality software is plentiful right now, so while there are many apps of value, it’s best to choose those suited for your projects and responsibilities.
Once you’ve decided which tasks and aspects of your workflow are most important to streamline on the go, take advantage of apps like the ones listed above to communicate effortlessly, schedule less frantic days or simply take a moment to center your thoughts.
Do you have any other tools that improve your productivity on the go? We want to hear your thoughts in the comments!
This article was originally published on Forbes.com.
