This guide outlines six types of business productivity tools that will help you work better in any field.
There are so many different tools out there that you can use to help you increase productivity levels and just work with less stress in general. It can be difficult to know just what tools to use when there are so many out there, which is why we have put together this guide of six types of business productivity tools that will benefit you, or at least to inspire you! Let’s get started.
6 top business productivity tools
Communication Tools
How can you expect to work well without being able to communicate effectively? You need to be able to communicate not just so you can tell people what needs to be done, but so that you can actually listen back to them. Communication goes both ways, after all!
As we’re sure you are aware, there are actually many communication business productivity tools you can make use of, but the most important ones come in the form of email clients and instant messaging platforms. Email clients, such as Outlook and Gmail, allow you to contact anyone whenever you need to across the world.
Instant messaging platforms, on the other hand, are mainly used within teams for communicating internally. Following the pandemic, the most popular ones used by remote teams come in the form of Slack and Microsoft Teams. There are project management tools and video conferencing tools that will also be imperative for you if you wish to communicate more effectively on a daily basis.
Document Tools
No matter what sort of business you’re working in, or even the industry, it is likely that you will benefit from various document business productivity tools that are around.
The type of document tools that you choose to work with may vary depending on personal preferences. For example, some people may prefer Microsoft Office documents, such as Word or PowerPoint, and others may prefer Google Docs and Google Slides.
You should try a few different document tools until you land on one that you like, which may take some trial and error. Your place of work may have one specific document type that must be used, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use a different one and then convert it later on.
With all that said, it may still be best to speak to colleagues to find out what they’re using, and what they prefer, as they may be able to give you some recommendations.
There are also plenty of business productivity tools for document support that you can use alongside your primary documents application. For example, you could install Grammarly to your document for easy proofing, or you could use PDF compressor toolsthat can make it easier for you to save and send various documents. Overall, these tools allow you to get things done better and faster.
Development Tools
Away from your documents, you may want to think about what sort of business productivity tools can be used to help develop you day-to-day. For example, you could be using development tools that are designed to help you improve your skills and be a better worker. These development tools could help train you daily, and they can track your progress, allowing you to visualise your progress and motivate you to push forward.
Development tools don’t only just refer to your personal and professional development, it also refers to tools that allow you to develop products and code! It may refer to you learning how to code and learn specific programming languages, such as PyCharm or Sublime Text.
Similar to the above, these sorts of business productivity tools can be used across many different industries, so is worth looking into. Even if you are just using these tools to help create and design a website for your business, it’s worth looking into.
Design Tools
This takes us nicely onto business productivity tools for design. There are many different design and creativity tools out there that you can use daily for various tasks. You can use graphic design software, such as Adobe Photoshop, to help you create various assets that will be useful for creating content and other work tasks further down the road.
There are Photoshop tricks you can employ to make it easier for you to create and edit various images. These tricks can make it easier for you to work, and save you a lot of time and hassle, if you know what you’re doing. In time, you will be more experienced and will be able to work and create like it’s perfectly natural.
When you are more experienced with photoshop and other such business productivity tools for design, then you will be best placed to train the others around you, which benefits the entire business. This can make the entire day-to-day work life easier for everyone.
Automation Tools
Speaking of making your day-to-day work life go easier, automation tools are certainly the sort of business productivity tools you should try to incorporate in some way.
Of course, the sort of automation tools that you use will depend on what it is that you’re actually doing daily. If you are working in a warehouse, then using stock counting software can save you the time it takes to count and keep track of everything.
If you are working within an office space, then there are plenty of examples of automation tools that you can use for various tasks. You could implement email rules that automatically move emails to specific folders when they come in, so that you can get the most out of your emails and save the time that it takes to move them and find them.
If you’re unsure what sort of automation tools are helpful for your specific job, then you should certainly ask your colleagues what they have been using. If they also don’t know, then it’s time to take a closer look at what competitors and other businesses do, which can be found online or through speaking to people in the industry you know.
Alternatively, it may be time to go to an industry/trade show, as there will be lots of exhibitions relating to automation, you can be sure of that.
Research Tools
Research is paramount in the business world, as you will need to be able to know what’s going on within your industry and find ways to make improvements in all areas. Research can be conducted with the help of business productivity tools, some that will be automated to collect data that you can use, and some tools can just assist you in researching and developing in general.
All businesses will need to be doing market research to try and find out what their customers want, and what they will want in the future. Market research will need various tools to help you find this out. It may be best to partner with a market research company to do this for you, however, as it is likely they will have all the tools on hand to do this.
If you want to conduct research in-house, ensure that you’re using the best business productivity tools and modern techniques to find everything you need in the best way possible. Without using these tools in the right way, then you won’t be as effective as you otherwise could be.
Conclusion
The literal point of these business productivity tools is to speed up your productivity and allow you to operate more easily in your daily work life!
