It’s a new year, so the season for dreaming, goal setting and planning is upon us. As productivity geeks, we love charting out a vision, identifying tasks and ultimately, checking them off the list.
Of course, many of the memorable successes in any given year come from the people we surround ourselves with, the opportunities that unexpectedly come up and our readiness to take chances – but a few handy tools never hurt, right? Here are a few suggestions to tune up your 2017 plans and keep you on track throughout the year:
- Plan your projects digitally with Basecamp, Trello or Teamwork. While it’s ok to keep your day-to-day task lists in a notebook, on your desk, whatever works for you, it can be really helpful to have big projects for the year mapped out in a digital format. The goals you set now will be easier to refer back to later or to share with collaborators.
- Keep in touch and master the art of follow-up with a new CRM (contact relationship management) tool. While these can seem intimidating, they don’t have to be! We have tips for beginners and the slightly more advanced. Our favorites are Zoho CRM, Pipedrive and Hubspot CRM.
- Focus with ambient noise. Especially if you work from a bustling coffee shop or coworking space, or even your home, distractions are everywhere. Tune in to your work with one of our newer favorites, focus@will. Whether your style is ambient white noise or thumping drums, their tracks will keep you in the zone.