LC’s Top 5 Apps to Help Increase Productivity

Many companies and individuals are constantly looking for ways to improve productivity which will in turn improve quality, reduce downtime and increase inputs of work. At LCVA, we have found that simple changes to processes and operating can increase productivity, and the biggest gain often come from adopting new technologies…aka. Apps!

Top 5 Apps for Productivity

Some of these apps we have been using since the start of LCVA, and others have been recently picked up. All of these apps are great for getting things organised and online. The best thing is that all these apps are free to download, however there are subscription options if you’d like to get more benefits out of them. 

“Master Your Strengths, Outsource Your Weaknesses” – Toggl

Toggl essentially is a time recording app and desktop browser, and what’s great about it is that there are different ways you can use it. Some use it for calculating work hours (useful if you or an employee work from home), others to calculate how much time they are spending on specific client’s work. 

TOP TIP – Try using it for a few days, maybe a week, and record yourself doing every task you need to do for your business. You’ll be able to see how much time exactly you are spending on different aspects (scheduling social media posts, creating content, emailing, client work, travelling). At the end of this time period, take a look at the time report that is available to you and it will show you how much time in total you spend on certain tasks. 

You’ll be quite surprised at how much time you are spending on tasks and how much time you could have saved if you were to outsource some work and where you could have fit more client work in. 

COST 

Basic Package – FREE 

Then from $10 a month – Find more details here.

“Plans Are Nothing, Planning is Everything!” – Trello 

Managing a lot of clients and project work means that planning is important to keep on top of things. Trello is planning board app and desktop browser, and just like Toggl, you can use Trello for many different reasons. Trello is one of the most user-friendly project management tools out there. 

Trello offers a variety of board templates which you can use for almost anything, or you can create them yourself. You are able to add cards within your board – such as work hours availability, social media content, client work etc. 

You have the ability to share certain boards with others – great if you’d like to designate a new task to your team member. It also makes it easier if your team or clients are online, or if you’re always on the go.

“An Hour of Planning Can Save Hours of Doing” – Hootsuite or Later

Hootsuite and Later are social media scheduling apps and desktop browsers. There are hundreds of social media scheduling apps out there however these two apps are user-friendly and great for beginners! – they keep things very simple.

If you have a load of content you wish to post and are still logging in and posting manually every day to all your platforms.. STOP! You can plug all the content into either of these apps, and it will automatically post it for you. You can schedule specific times and dates, add images or videos, enter any hashtags you would want to use.

Hootsuite covers all social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and has some additional features if you wish to monitor your accounts. They have even recently added Instagram Stories scheduling to their packages too! Later does exactly the same too but I will say that it is a better tool for those fans of very coordinated Instagram grids! 

COST 

Hootsuite Limited Plan – FREE 

Then from £25 per month. Find more details here. 

Later for individuals – FREE (Limited) 

Then from $15 per month. Find more details here. 

“Business Locked, Business Security” – LastPass or Google Authenticator 

Gone is the little book of usernames and passwords for important websites! Whilst you can save them on your computer, you can also use LastPass and Google Authenticator for added security. 

Google Authenticator can be useful for saving personal details, passwords and credit cards – for ease of logging in or making payments. LastPass, however, is bigger and better than google! Rather than searching back through paperwork you can store additional details such as passport numbers or your driving license information which may be needed in the future when you’re not near that paperwork. 

There is one thing which wins over LastPass for me – When using Google Authenticator, it links this information to your Google account. If you sign into your google account on your phone, laptop, ipad, etc… This will share your passwords over multiple devices… Yes, I agree this is great for productivity but what if one of these devices got lost or fell into the wrong hands? That person then has access to a lot of your Gmail information resulting in a greater security risk. 

If you are working with a team who need to know certain logins you have the ability to share them over LastPass securely – rather than messaging or emailing them over.

COST 

Google Authenticator – FREE 

LastPass – FREE (Limited Access)

Then from £2.60 per month, per user. For more information click here. 

“One Thing We All Have in Common…ART” – Canva 

Canva is essentially graphic design but simple! Canva is great for jazzing up documents, creating graphics for social media posts, building your own leaflets or posters. They offer millions of templates which you make your own. It is very user-friendly, with an app and a desktop browser. 

You have the ability to set up branding colours and fonts, whether you’re starting from scratch or upload your logo where it will simply extract the colours and create a palette. 

It is such a vast database of templates and elements, it’s best to go in and have a play with creating some content! It’s very practical and you can learn as you go.

After recommending these apps to other business owners, we have received some great feedback on how these have helped others!

Jane Chesterman of Vale Wills recommends both Canva and Trello, “Canva is really user friendly and great if you want to create a quick leaflet.

I use Trello on a weekly basis to plan and design my social media posts. It’s a great way of planning and pulling the images, copy, hashtags and links together. I also use it to communicate with my social media designer as we can share access to it.”

Andrew O’Leary of F9 Films said that though he was aware of the apps beforehand, “I really didn’t appreciate how useful they could be in my day-to-day work.”

COST 

Canva – FREE (Limited Access) 

Canva Pro – From £10.99 per month. For more information click here.


👇 The Key Takeaways:

• The five free apps we recommend are Toggl, Trello, Hootsuite (or Later), LastPass (Or Google Authenticator) and Canva.
  
• Toggl can be incorporated into your business as a time recording tool, allowing you to produce timesheets or evaluating how much time you spend on specific tasks or clients.
  
• Trello is one of the most user-friendly project management tools which can help you plan like a pro.
  
• Hootsuite or Later are two of the best social media scheduling apps out there, they keep it simple for beginners however have great features which can enhance your social media accounts and organise your posts.
  
• LastPass and Google Authenticator keep any details, logins, finances secure – including any paperwork details you may need in the future.
  
• Canva can be used to create practically anything – from brand logos, to social media graphics, to fancy pdfs and documents. The templates are especially useful if you struggle with starting from scratch and are looking for some inspiration.