Essential Co-working tools

Over the years I have amassed some essential tools that I have found indispensable for those who are freelancers or co-working. With the rise in the distribution of work and the ease of use of cloud services, new products and tools are replacing the old, more traditional models.

Google Docs

Want to create a document, edit a spreadsheet or put some finishing touches to a document? Google Docs is a cloud based office package, admittedly, it does not have the functionality of a Microsoft Office, but it does enough to enable road warriors and co-workers to create, edit and distribute documents from any device. The beauty of Google Docs is that all documents are seamlessly stored in the cloud for access anywhere.

You can get started with Google Docs here https://docs.google.com

Pocket

Pocket’s aim is to be a ‘clipboard’ for any useful content that is found on the internet. I find this service absolutely essential. Pocket can clip any article, tweet, picture, video or any other type of web content into a curated list for you to read later. By tagging each item you send to pocket, you can easily find what you are looking for. If I find an essential article that I have no time to read now, but want to read later, Pocket is perfect. Apps are available on all major smartphones, as well as being available on the web.

Pocket can be found at this link https://getpocket.com

Evernote

Evernote is an amazing tool. You can use it as a note taking tool, which in itself is a very well polished and mature tool, but Evernote does much more than that. Snap a business card with your camera and upload it to Evernote, and it’s smart OCR will allow you to search the text within the image, this is incredibly useful for those people who have drawers of business cards and need them digitised in some way. With Evernote you can also enhance notes with images, video, and audio clips. A recent update to Evernote allows you to take notes with a stylus or finger, allowing written notes to be stored and searched easily. Lastly, install the plug in into your browser, and Evernote will show you relevant notes that relate to your search, this can be incredibly useful when researching a particular topic. As with other web based tools, all notes, pictures, audio, and video is stored in the cloud for access on smartphones, tablets or computers.

To find out more about Evertnote, follow this link https://evernote.com

Wunderlist

Wunderlist is an online to do list, useful for your shopping list, but also your essential work items. I use Wunderlist in several ways, as a shopping list, which is shared with my wife, this way, we can both add items to the list, but also see if someone has checked an item off. This is incredibly useful. I also use this as a ‘brain dump’ of anything I come across that may be of use later, be it a book recommendation, some new software or smartphone application, to restaurants and places to visit. This way I never forget anything that may prove useful later. The final way I use Wunderlist is a work based to do list, each to do item can be set with a deadline and also set with a reminder, this way I can keep on top of my priorities and focus on what is important.

Wunderlist can be found at this link http://www.wunderlist.com

IFTTT

IFTTT stands for ‘If This Then That’ - this is a service that takes a bit of time to get your head around, but once you do, it’s absolutely amazing. IFTTT triggers actions based on events. For example, you can get IFTTT to back up any new smartphone contact to a spreadsheet in Google Docs, this way your contacts are automatically backed up. IFTTT can trigger actions with your smartphone, for example you can get it to log your working hours by using the GPS on your smartphone and uploading this to a cloud service. IFTTT can also do some smart things with the physical world, if you have a Philips Hue light bulb (these can be controlled via smartphone), you can set it to dim or turn off at a particular time, or perhaps flash your favourite sports team’s colours when they score a goal. Adding a “trigger’ is easy, people have uploaded their ‘recipies’ to the service, so if you see something you like, you may want to automatically text your partner when you are leaving work, then pick this ‘recipe’ , connect up your services and off you go!  

IFTT is found here https://ifttt.com

Hopefully you have discovered a tool or two which could help supercharge your productivity, if there is something you use that you find indispensable, comment below.