7 top productivity tools I can’t live without

I am sucker for apps that help me be more productive at work and in my day to day life. I read, bookmark, share and create  an awful lot of content on a daily basis, and use an array of tools to help me manage my content consumption. Without further ado, and because we all love a list post, here are some of the apps and browser extensions I simply can’t live without.

All round productivity at your fingertips

Alfred App is a productivity application for searching files on your Mac or on the net. The more you use the app, the more clever it gets; Alfred will learn which apps you use often and prioritise them when you search I would ditch Spotlight right away if I were you! You can also a purchase an extended PowerPack with extra features including better file system navigation, iTunes mini-player, clipboard history, recent documents but to name a few.

RSS feed management

The world of social media moves pretty fast and I like to know what the latest news are before I get into work. I use MobileRSS for iPhone (premium version) which synchronises nicely with Google Reader when I am on the go. At the office I use the brilliant Feedly extension, which turns my feeds into a magazine-like start page. Saying that I wouldn’t mind checking out the Mac version of the Flipboard app (hear, hear!)

Content Management

I opened an Evernote account a couple of years ago but quickly stopped using the service as I found the web version quite fiddly. Until they launched their free Mac app through the Mac App Store last week, that is.

The app is super easy to use, and helps me save, bookmark and tag content which can then be accessed from any computer in the world via the web service or on the go via my phone.

The iPhone app is very well designed and lets you save photos and voice memos, and best of all, it’s free!

Project Management

As far as project management is concerned, GTDAgenda offers a comprehensive project management solution. I have to admit that the interface is not very sexy and quite complicated to use, and they’ve recently launched 3 new simple products (a comparison chart can be found here) and I really like YouTasks:

• YouProjects is Project management with collaboration and email integration – http://www.YouProjects.com
• YouTasks is To-dos/Tasks manager: http://www.YouTasks.com
• YouChecks ia manager for your Routines, or things that must be done regularly: http://www.YouChecks.com

I am also supposed to be reviewing the newly launched GTDAgenda App at some point and I’ll write a thorough review in the coming days.

Google launched their Chrome Web Store a couple of months ago, meaning danger ahead for the apps freak that I am (sometimes I think hat I spend more time downloading productivity tools than being productive!)

I made the full time leap to Chrome from Firefox a few months back and even though replacing all my extensions and getting accustomed to a different interface was a pain to begin with, I quickly saw my browsing experience and more importantly my productivity improve.

Read Later pretty much does what it says on the tin. Spotted a cool article but don’t have time to read it? Read Later lets you save articles directly from your browser and read them later (!). It a nifty extension, sadly it doesn’t synchronise between two computers at the mo. Something tell me this shouldn’t be the case for too much longer now though.

Awesome Screenshot: this extension is simply amazing and my favourite by far; it’s basically a free version of Snagit built into your browser It let you screengrab (even a full page!), and annote web pages directly from your browser. If I could only use one extension on my browser, that would definitely be Awesome Screenshot.

I am still looking for the perfect Note App for iPhone. I use the basic one that comes with the software for notes on the go, but I am curious to find out if there are better options out there. Recommendations greatly appreciated.

What other productivity tools do you use?

Tags: Alfred App, Awesome Screenshot: Capture & Annotate, Chrome Webstore, Evernote, Feedly, Flipboard, GTDAgenda, GTDAgenda iPhone app, MobileRSS, Read Later, Top productivity tools