5 Productivity Tools to Help You Achieve Your Best Year Yet

January 13, 2014

5 Personal Productivity Tools to Help You Achieve Your Best Year Yet
With the New Year underway, our minds are filling with resolutions, both professional and personal. We would like achieve as much as possible this year. Many companies are spending these early days retrospecting on the previous year and using those learnings to set even higher goals for 2014.
I have come across numerous articles explaining how to set measurable and achievable goals, and what those goals should be based around to be the most productive. I am HUGE fan of goal setting both long-term and short-term. It always feels amazing to check off a goal you set for yourself, and to move on to the next. You can improve your confidence and your capabilities this way — how wonderful!

Setting Goals is One Thing — Achieving Them is Another

However, I want to share some tools that can help you actually achieve those goals once you have decided what to hone in on and tackle this year, this month, this week, or even today! The best way to achieve your goals/resolutions is to not only be organized, but also potentially change your own behavior and habits to achieve something that might not come so naturally to you.

5 Personal Productivity Tools to Help You Achieve Your Best Year Yet

Here are my favorite productivity tools I recommend to help you to achieve all that you desire this year:

1) Evernote

evernote
I wasn’t sure how much I would actually use this app until I downloaded it and used it constantly! Evernote syncs to all of your devices so you can access your notes or lists anywhere, even if you happen to leave your cell at home. I primarily use Evernote for personal to-do lists and notes on candidates for recruiting purposes. You can organize your notes into notebooks to categorize your thoughts even further.

2) Diigo

diigo
Most of my reading and research is performed digitally — and isn’t that true of everyone these days? Diigo does a fantastic job of bookmarking, highlighting, and keeping notes on webpages when you can’t just circle a paragraph or scribble notes into a real book. This can save a ton of time from re-reading pertinent sections, or losing notes you may have kept on a post-it regarding an online article.

3) LearnVest

learnvest
This is more for personal use, but also highly recommended keeping yourself on a tight track regarding finances. I signed up for LearnVest about six months ago and I am still enjoying the daily email reminders on how to continue saving. The app has an excellent interface that easily provides you the ability to enter in and view your budget around all of the areas you spend your money on. It can help you save up to a specific goal. It’s realistic and easy to use.

4) RescueTime

rescuetime
Do you ever find yourself in a black hole of checking fantasy sports or buzzfeed articles? RescueTime will enlighten you with how much time you are actually spending on your computer doing real work, and it provides solutions to help improve your productivity. Trust me, when you realize you are spending hours of your day on non-productive activities, you will want to change your habits. Time is money!

5) Revv

Revv Oakland
As I mentioned, a part of achieving your goals is actually changing your behavior. How better to alter your behavior than learning from experts? As an early-stage startup, Revv connects you with experts and professionals in order to create a program you can access in conjunction with their user-friendly technology to help change your behavior. This can include anything, from becoming more of a morning person, to cleaning up your inbox — Revv spans a variety of topics to help you create the best version of yourself.
What productivity tools will you be using to make this year your best yet?

Recruiting Lead - Software

<strong>Katy Smigowski</strong> is the Recruiting Lead-Software at <a href="https://www.fitbit.com/">Fitbit</a>, where she is directly managing sourcing team, recruiting process and recruiting strategy dedicated to driving software hiring in our Boston office. Prior to Fitbit, she was a Talent Specialist at OpenView responsible for recruiting initiatives for both the firm and its portfolio companies.