You won’t regret the time you put in learning how to use these tools. From Expensify to Trello, they could save you time and hassle with automation.
Work can be stressful enough without having to manually add meetings and to-do lists to your calendar, draw out your own mind maps or keep track of all your expenses. If you could rely on some automation tools to help you do all these things, why wouldn’t you?
To paraphrase the supermarket chain, every little helps. Using automation can save time and stress, and help you be more productive because you don’t have 101 small things to do all by yourself.
There are so many tools out there just waiting to make your life easier. Here is our pick of just a few of them.
Miro
This online collaborative whiteboard is a great tool for people who need to see their workload laid out visually.
Miro’s free plan gives you access to three editable whiteboards or unlimited access to view-only boards. Users can also pay a subscription to unlock more features.
Boards come with a library of pre-made templates, which you can use to make your projects and workflows look nice and organised.
Miro has plenty of core integrations including Zoom, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Trello and Dropbox. This means you can access your boards without leaving the software platform you’re using.
Grammarly
Grammarly is an online writing assistant that is a lifesaver for those who write for a living. And yes, sending emails counts as writing.
You can add it as a browser extension or go to its website to download and install the tool. It uses AI to spot all your spelling mistakes and grammatical errors across documents, mails and social media.
Grammarly’s basic service is free. However, if you opt for the paid version, you can also use the tool’s insights on how to construct better and clearer sentences.
Otter.ai
Another AI-powered assistant, Otter’s voice recording and transcription software service is here to help your tired hands.
Instead of getting a cramp from taking notes during a meeting, you can just use Otter to record it instead. That gives you more time to focus and pay attention on what’s being said, and you can go back to Otter and look at a searchable transcript later.
Like most transcription software, it’s not perfect, but it is a lot better than having to handwrite everything yourself. Otter also offers a number of integrations with tools such as Dropbox, Zoom, Google Meet and Google Calendar.
Expensify
This is a very useful tool that lets you keep track of your expenses on the go. You don’t need to keep a giant folder of records as this app allows you to scan receipts for business or personal use, track expenses, handle reimbursements and send invoices.
Using automation, Expensify can save you hours of time otherwise spent manually tracking these things. It also offers a business credit card called the Expensify Card.
WorkflowMax
WorkflowMax is an online project management tool suite owned by software company Xero.
Xero is a cloud-based accounting software platform for SMEs, which integrates with WorkflowMax.
As well as accounting, the platform can also help you automate the process of costing jobs, managing tasks and scheduling. It comes with more than 30 other integrations for platforms such as Salesforce, Zendesk, HubSpot and Dropbox.
Asana
Asana is a work management platform that offers a host of tools designed to minimise the amount of repetitive admin tasks workers need to do and help distributed teams keep track of projects.
For example, Asana Flow aims to helps teams cross-collaborate more efficiently, with project-tracking tools and workflows.
Trello
Not a whiteboard like Miro, but more like an online notice board, Trello is another good tool for those who like to visualise their productivity and projects.
It’s very easy for multiple people on a team to use, which means it’s great for distributed workforces.
Dropbox
We’ve already established that Dropbox can be integrated with a lot of other tools featured on this list, which means it’s a great choice for convenience.
You can back up your photos, files and whatever else you need automatically to the cloud. For teams, it offers a one-stop shop to save and access all of your work docs in one secure place, with plenty of automation features.
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