With a million things to do when running a business, it’s true that we should all be trying to work smarter. Being busy doesn’t necessarily mean you’re being productive. If there’s anything to help ease the pressure of our workloads, then we should be jumping on it. Here are 5 useful online business tools that we use to help ease the stress and manage a better work/life balance.
Calendly
Who’s fed up with sending 10 emails backwards and forwards when you’re trying to set up a meeting?Calendly allows you to link you calendar and then allocate times when you are available for calls. Our diary is set up so that we’re free for calls between 10am and 2.30pm Tuesday to Thursday. That means that when someone asks for time in your diary, you can just send them a link and it will even send out the zoom link for you as well.
Lastpass
Lastpass is used for storing log in details and password. Particularly helpful now that we’ve supposed to have a different password for every platform we use. The benefits of Lastpass is that you can grant access to others without having to reveal the password. There is also an app you can use on your phone so that wherever you are with or without your laptop, you’ve always got your passwords with you.
Toggl
Toggl is great for time keeping, tracking time and generating reports. If you start to use this site, you’ll get a real feel for how long a task is taking you – it can be pretty revealing! There’s a choice of setting a timer or manually adding the time. Initially, I found that I was setting the timer and then forgetting to turn it off however once you get into the habit it sticks. Particularly useful if you’re thinking of outsourcing a task on your to do list and wondering how much time it will give you back.
Click Up
Click Up is a tool for project management and task management. There are so many features it can be a little overwhelming to start with. I would recommend starting with a simple to do list where you can add deadlines, attachments and then allocate the work to a team member if ncessary.
Not only is Click Up great for work, its also ideal for your personal life as well as you can delegate tasks to your other half…and with running 3 businesses, it definitely keeps us on track!
Canva
Canva is the go to place for creating infographics…and that’s just for starters! For those that are not particularly ‘creative’, there is a plethora of templates for posters, presentations, Instagram and LinkedIn to name a few. There is also the ability, for example, to quickly transfer a Facebook template into the correct size for Twitter. There are free images within website or you can upload your own. Don’t forget to use this blog post to find where you can get royalty free photos.
You can now also schedule your social media directly from Canva saving you time by cutting out the need to use another platform.
They are constantly bringing out new features including a whiteboard PLUS Magic Write which is an AI copywriting tool
What tools have you been using that you find helpful?
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