I’m a real sucker for all productivity tools out there, cool little add-ons, GTD apps, to do lists, you name it. And let’s be honest, they are a real help when it comes down to working effectively on various projects at the same time, as it takes quite a bit of organisation and discipline to get those goals tackled in time.

 

This post is going to be about a few tools I have started using in the last few months. If I have decided to talk about them today, it’s because they have made a real difference to my daily approach to workload, readings, and overall organisation. Hopefully, you won’t know too much about those few apps and you will test & love them as much as i do.

 

Let me start this post by touching the subject of information collection. I’m a big fan of the “less is more” concept, especially when it comes down to white space and web design, but this certainly doesn’t apply to my readings. I am hungry for both general and web design-related news & information, tips, tutorials, advices, opinions. My curiosity and hunger for new things have no limit some days. The problem is: if you ever wanted to read all this during your working day, you’d never stop and end up doing bugger all.

 

1. Read it Later

   
   http://readitlaterlist.com/

    

   Let’s kill a myth: Yes, you are allowed to keep your eyes (and ears) open during your work. I ain’t a big fan of this ‘Turn everything off while you’re working’. How the hell would normal people function through urgencies, semi-urgent requests, inquiries if they were to turn off their email/phone/wifi everytime they had to add border radiusus to a div. It might be your way of working but it’s absolutely non sense to me. Unless I’m on very complex coding duties requiring nothing but my full and dedicated attention, i keep all my information channels open, and I often see interesting news/turorials while looking for material on google/twitter.

   “Read it Later” certainly helps me save those interesting articles for a later time with just a click of a button.
   Have a go a it. Get those extensions/addons installed, and enjoy reading what you are interested in, while commuting, or when you’re done with your work.

    

2. Readability

   
   https://www.readability.com/
   Firefox add-on
   Chrome extension

    

   Same subject, but different tool: “Readability” is another must-have app/plugin. I have it installed on my firefox and chrome browsers and I must say I have them working every day and all day long. How much rubbish do we have to endure while surfing the web?! Ads all over the place, links to places we dont want to go to. I just want to read my stuff and leave. Readability does that for you.

    

   If you’ve been on my blog before, you’d know about this app, having already played around with some jquery to replicate the readability effects (see previous post). I’m a real fan of it… and I am far from the only one…
   

    

3. Producteev

   
   http://www.producteev.com/

    

   Producteev is the latest gtd/project management tool im using. And people, it’s a cracker! I have not used the app with third parties yet, having only been working on single-handed projects at the moment, but I advise you to check out their full features to find out how you and your team mates can take advantage of this app.

    

   I am only going to focus on the free and personal approach of the tool. Firstly, they they have this great email to task feature, allowing you to quickly convert simple emails to a “to-be-done” item in no time. All you have to do is send an email to , to convert any email sent to you into a task with a little tweak of the subject. This feature allows you to centralize all your activities without losing the full details of the requests/issues sent to you.
   
   
   One important and great thing about Producteev is the ability to create an unlimited number of workspaces. This obviously gives you the opportunity to separate all your projects and to-do-lists in specific hence SEPARATE locations.

    

   As described in the screenshot above, use hashtag to allocate your task to a specific project such as #myproject, schedule it with either dates (or even days) and time, and you have a fully scheduled activity which will come by email on the day/time of the event.
   

    

   Check this video for more details…

   This is it people. I hope you enjoyed this post. As mentionned at the beginning of today’s article, those 3 apps are definitely making my web designing life easier, and I can only hope they will do the same to you.
   So long…

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