This time I would like to share some cloud applications to boost your productivity. Most of them are free and will help you greatly in your day-to-day activities.
There are plenty of cloud applications to help you be more effective and efficient. For example, we can share video presentations using Dropbox and access them from anywhere — other computers or even mobile phones. No more complicated workarounds like bringing a USB drive, a portable hard drive, or sending files by email.
Cloud computing enables us to work as a team and collaborate in an efficient way. Implementing such technology will boost our productivity a lot.
Below are some of the cloud applications that you and your team can use to boost your performance:
1. Dropbox — Dropbox is a free cloud software service that lets you bring all your photos, videos, and documents anywhere. It has full support for both desktop and mobile operating systems, meaning you can access your documents wherever you go.
2. Google Drive — Similar to Dropbox but connected with Google Documents. You can store all your documents and presentations online in Google Docs and access them from Google Drive.
3. Evernote — Evernote is an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all devices. Write it once and access it from anywhere. I use this app and find it really useful for project management, capturing ideas, and taking notes.
4. Asana — Asana is a great team collaboration tool for task and project management. Our team uses Asana for task delegation and collaboration. It helps us achieve our goals faster, more efficiently, and more effectively. I personally recommend it as your collaboration tool.
5. Gmail — I think everyone already has a Gmail account. I find using Gmail is hassle-free. It just works, is fast, and easy to use. With an Android mobile, you can sync email and contacts easily. No more losing contacts or emails. Gmail also comes with powerful search to find previous emails fast and accurately.
6. Skype — Skype is one of the best chat applications. It enables chat, phone calls, and video calls, including group chat. We use it in our team collaboration — sharing and two-way communication while working. It boosts our productivity as well, but you need to moderate it so team members don’t use it for useless chit-chat.
7. Any.do — Any.do is a very simple to-do list app. It’s a mobile app that reminds me of my personal todos. I use it in my day-to-day life because it is easy to use — when a new idea or task pops into my head, I write it in Any.do to follow up on later. Very handy, easy to use, and very useful.
8. Google Calendar — Google Calendar is one of Google’s products for managing your schedule: deadlines, appointments, meetings, and other reminders. It can remind you via email and text messages. With an Android mobile, you can easily manage your schedule and it will remind you in the future.
9. LastPass — LastPass is a password manager that works on both desktop and mobile. Remembering passwords is hard if you don’t use them very often. And using the same password for all accounts online is the worst mistake I ever made. By using LastPass, I can generate a random password for every account and don’t have to remember them all. Just remember the most essential accounts and your LastPass master password. Once you use LastPass you can use your mind to remember other things.
10. Expensify — Expensify is a cloud-based solution to track expenses. Track your expenses and your company’s expenses so you can control the cash flow. Knowing your expenses or recording billable expenses easily will certainly increase your overall productivity. You can also do a smart scan of your receipts by just taking a picture, and Expensify will detect and record it for you.
I use all of them in my day-to-day life, both for work and personal use. I find that my productivity and my team’s productivity is much higher now. Communications, project management, meeting schedules, deadline scheduling, expense management, note-taking, and password management are all covered by those apps. And fortunately, most of them are free. So don’t wait — boost your productivity now.
I would like to hear more opinions from you. If you have one, please comment below or follow me on Twitter @ivankrisdotcom.