“If you’re appropriately engaged with your life, you don’t need more time.
If you’re not, more time won’t help.” –David Allen
(Named as one of the “Top 100 Thought Leaders” by Leadership Magazine)
It’s almost year end with reports due, performance reviews, client surveys and organization seems to disappear with chaos in its place.
Use some of the apps listed below to provide structure, create order out of chaos and reduce daily stress in your office and personal life. Share these tips with your team, your clients, friends and family. They will thank you for it!
My overall favorite organizational app is Get it Done. David Allen, productivity consultant, introduced the Getting Things Done (GTD) method in his 2002 book Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress-Free Productivity. The Get it Done app focuses on the creation of a workflow process, tracking, storing and monitoring of tasks. This ranks as my favorite app but comes at a small price, $39/year. Considering the time I save and the relief of not worrying about things falling through the cracks, it is well worth the money. Get It Done is a task manager for your web browser and your smart phone. Tasks are always in sync.
Here are some other favorites used by advisors – don’t forget to share with
your clients, your team and your family!
Calendars
For calendars, I use iCal with iCloud. It works great because it will sync to all of my devices and I can share calendars with other iCloud users. Create an office calendar the entire team can access. If someone adds or edits the calendar, it will sync to all devices. Ical also allows notification of upcoming events either on screen, by e-mail or SMS.
For Google lovers, this calendar allows you the ability to track business and personal events in one place. The added bonus – you can share calendars with family or co-workers and access calendars from your mobile device with its built-in calendar or mobile browser. You can also set up reminders via email or have text messages sent right to your mobile phone. Google Apps for Business is available for $50/user/per year.
To-Do Lists
I like the free Cozi app for iphone, ipad, and Android. It keeps everyone on the same page by allowing you to add recurring activities, appointments and events to a calendar that can be used by your family or the team at your office. You can also send messages to your spouse, kids or co-workers and make and share shopping lists. Cozi has a calendar that will support automatic syncs with Microsoft Outlook. Mac users will need to have Mobile Me to sync iCal and Cozi. I love the calendar feature which offers monthly and three-day views.
Workflowy is a free organizational tool organizing office and personal to-dos. You also have the ability to collaborate on team projects, take notes, write research papers or keep a journal. Workflowy is available for all of your mobile devices.
This is a simple (and free) “to-do” list and available on your iphone. You can add, manage and set due dates for your tasks as well as incorporate the map feature to locate where your tasks will take place.(ex: gas station)
This is a great app for a beginner “to-doer” or for someone who just likes to keep things simple. This free web app comes with pre-set lists that are easy to click on and fill out. Manage your list online via the app and automatically sync between your desktop and mobile devices. Astrid will also automatically sync with Google Tasks and calendars such as iCal. You can also share or assign tasks.
reQall is one of the favorites among advisors and myself. This app makes a to-do list easy by telling your smartphone what you want to remember. I love this!! You can also e-mail, text, IM or call reQall with information. Each morning you will have a summary alerting you of what lies ahead in the day. It gets even better, if you let reQall know where you need to pick something up, it will remind you when you drive by! reQall also offers integration with your calendar via iCal and aggregates important data from various web services you are already using. There is a free version and a pro version available for purchase. Check this one out, there’s so much more!
Brainstorming Tools
Advisors like this free web-based collaborative mind mapping app for collaborating and project management. Teams can brainstorm, discuss ideas (timelines, designs, marketing, etc) type them in the app and MindMeister will turn the idea into a visual map. Teams can share and start thinking sessions easily by inviting users via email or sending a unique and secure direct link. Color-coded effects will highlight changes by other users and the integrated live chat will let you exchange thoughts with peers directly. MindMeister is also available for mobile devices iphone, ipad and Android.
Another free popular app for team collaboration is The Brain. With this app, write notes, save files, web pages, images and emails for instant access on your desktop, web browser or mobile device. It is easy to find a file in seconds and gives you the big picture by bringing your ideas and information together. The Brain also uses visualization to discover information that may normally be overlooked. Keep your data local and have a backup online for remote access and sharing with other team members.
Capture Tools
Evernote seems to be the most popular choice of the advisors we researched. Evernote is a free app that works with nearly every computer, phone and mobile device. It allows you to keep track of nearly everything; from what you find interesting, research for your next vacation and store all of your favorite websites. Search capabilities are easy through your library or groups of items related to a particular topic. You can even take pictures of your written to-do list and locate it through search and tags. Evernote will keep you from ever purchasing a notebook again…with Evernote, you have a notebook for everything you need!
While I’ve utilized Evernote for personal use, Evernote Business is now available. The business version is $10 per user, per month. Users of Evernote Business can discover and share ideas and research within a team to create an effortlessly productive workplace.
Streamline Your News
Zite and Pulse
These free apps help you find news feeds, blogs, newspaper articles and sites that interest you. Who has time to scroll through facebook, twitter and multiple web sites throughout the day? With these apps the news is delivered to you.
Presentations
Financial advisors find this app handy to edit word, excel or other presentation documents while on the road. This a free app with a premium version available which will sync files stored in Dropbox or other cloud-based document storage services. To edit documents, you will need to purchase Docs To Go Full Version for around $30.00.
Storage
This application is a free service that lets you store your photos, documents and videos anywhere and share them easily. If you have files living all over the place – your office computer, home and your laptop, download Dropbox now to sync all of these files! With Dropbox you will avoid having to ever email yourself or team member another document! The application makes it easy for advisors to view files on a smartphone, iPad, PC or Mac. Dropbox allows you to share documents with someone who does not use Dropbox via a link. I love the idea of never having to send another email with a document attached! The application is password protected and free with 2GB of storage. You can upgrade (with a fee) to 100GB of storage for heavy users.
Conference/Video Calls
Need to meet with a long-distance client, attend a meeting while out of the office or bring virtual employees together? Free Conference Call is exactly what you need. Free conference calls are simple and easy to use, requiring only a name and an e-mail address to open an account. Once you enter your name and e-mail address, you will be instantaneously provided with a dial-in number and access code for immediate phone conferencing. Your teleconferencing line is available to you 24/7 and there is no need to schedule or make reservations.
Free Conference Call is just like its name….free! Screen sharing for online meetings is available for $19.95 a month, up to 50 participants with instant online meetings.
Simple Skype! I use this religiously almost every week. With two users you can access screen sharing. It’s hard to beat a free communications network. Enough said.
This one comes with a price at $69 a month with a discount if you purchase an annual subscription. This solution will allow you to meet with long-distance clients and employees plus add presentations, word or PDF documents, movies and images. It is free for ipad and Android devices.
Money Management
Pageonce
If you’re looking for a true mobile wallet, Pageonce securely stores all your cards, reminds you when to pay bills and supports bill payments for $0.30 per transaction. If money management stresses you out, Pageonce makes it much easier.
Nest Egg Estimator has been rated as one of the Top-10 Financial Planning must have apps! This app will project finances and allows you to try different scenarios for financial planning, retirement planning and more.
Conclusion
Take control of your time and your life. The skills you apply will ensure you are productive and accomplish your goals. The applications will aide you in prioritizing and organizing daily demands. Choose the applications that work best for you and fit your lifestyle and your firm.
A place for everything and everything in its place.
Let us know what apps you use in your firm!
Which ones work the best and which ones aren’t all that?
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