5 Online Tools That Will Double Your Productivity

by A Guest Author

It is a fact that more and more people are working from home today. By living in our technologically driven society, and with the convenience of laptops, Smartphones, tablets, and the ability and flexibility to connect to either a 4G or Wi-Fi network pretty much anywhere, it is easier to work from home now than ever. Regardless of whether you are working off site for a company or operating your own independent company from a home office or even on the road, check out these five online tools to help you become more productive and work more efficiently.

  • File Sharing Tools – File sharing tools are important, especially if you are working within a team that all work off site, which let’s face it, most of us do to some extent today. Dropbox is a file-sharing tool that allows you to upload and share files and folders with anyone you choose. After downloading Dropbox to your machine, which is easy and does not take up much space, everything else is completely web based. You can even log onto your Dropbox account and even upload, download, and view files if you are on another machine. If another member of your shared files or folders makes a change or uploads a newer file versions, you’ll receive pop up notifications on your desktop, just like if you get an email or a calendar notification. If space is a concern, rest assured that you get at least 2 GB for free, and if you need additional space, you can opt for more for about $10 per month.
  • VOIP Services – If you haven’t already, consider downloading and using Skype or Google Talk, which are both VOIP services. Skype allows you to make free online calls to another computer. Skype again is free to use and download, unless you plan to make a number of international calls on a regular basis, or you need to make calls to an actual landline. However, it is easy to add money or credit to your account in order to make calls. Like any other messaging program, you can share files, photos, etc. Google Talk is a similar program, or plug-in if you are a Mac user, that allows you to voice chat or instant message with another Google Talk user.
  • Social Networking and Media – While surfing Facebook friends’ pages and tweeting isn’t necessarily “productive”, it can actually lead to a lot of great business leads, if used appropriately. It’s no big secret that social media and networking are used in many effective marketing schemes today. By creating fan pages, ads, groups, etc., you can generate a real following and a dedicated number of fans or members, ultimately increasing your client base or your team. Using Facebook or even Google+ can help you stay in touch with team members, form groups, and even network to other teams and businesses.
  • Web Based Tools – If you haven’t looked into any online, web-based tools, you should do so. Google offers a lot of great tools such as Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, etc. You can access these from any machine. All you need is an account, which you can also set up for free. Google Drive, formerly known as Google docs, works similar to Dropbox where you can upload, download, and share files and file versions, allow others to view or edit versions of your files, and even store them and organize them accordingly into folders. You can upload any kind of file format: word processing files, spreadsheets, and presentations. You can even upload photos or jpegs.
  • Applications – Finally, one of the most popular forms of productivity today are applications. Regardless of whether you operate on a Smartphone or tablet while you are out of the office or on the go, applications can become your best friends. There is an app out there for everything today. Everything that was mentioned in the previous points you can find an app for. Facebook, Google, Gmail, Dropbox, Skype, everything. One of the best parts is that they are mostly free! So if you are traveling on a business trip or are going on vacation, you can access most of your files as well as your email off site by just simply pressing an app!

Finally, these are just a few of the tools that are out there that you can use and try at your disposal. They are easily accessible, easy to use, and most of them, if not all, are free! Technology has the ability to help us become more efficient, more organized, more communicative, and more professional. Success has never been this easy. Take advantage of these tools in order to increase your productivity.

About the Author

Julie is a contributing writer for Survey Examiner, a website focused on legitimate and honest reviews of paid survey panels.  Check out their blog for more information.

This post was written by A Guest Author

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