5 Free Apps to Increase Productivity at Work

We all know that in today's online world, things are ever-changing, making it difficult to be efficient and productive. Productivity at work is the key for any successful business, because if you can't get things done quickly and easily your company will suffer. Furthermore, there are many common mistakes that businesses make that could be negatively impacting productivity without even realizing it. Your employees need motivation to stay on task when they are working from home or traveling for work, but sometimes an app isn't enough--you also need productivity tools that makes it easy to collaborate with others without wasting time.

5 Best Productivity Apps For Work

For the IRI Consultants team, it's all about tool time! We're always on the lookout for resources that will help us work smarter, faster, and better together! Mobile applications can provide your employees with access to the data they need on the go. See why these five free apps are our current must-haves to increase employee productivity and motivate today's roving workers:

1. Trello

Trello is a project management tool that can be used to organize and manage any type of project. Organize anything from work projects, such as managing the design and development of an app, to home-related activities like planning your next vacation. Trello offers features for both small teams and large enterprises with many employees.

Trello has been designed with collaboration in mind. With cross-team functionality, teams from marketing, sales, support, design, to development can work together seamlessly without having to switch between multiple tools or leave their inboxes behind. Assigning important tasks is as easy as click-and-select. And all team members receive a notification as soon as they are assigned a task.

Organization is key to staying productive at work. Trello provides a simple yet comprehensive list design to help your employees maximize efficiency while they organize projects and engage with other members of the team. Trello uses an interface that allows users to easily create lists around:

• Ideas
• To-Do, Doing, Done
• Labels
• Checklists
• Due dates

You can organize boards into categories based on their purpose using labels that allow your team to sort through the important data quickly. For example color-coded categories for different clients or defined areas within an enterprise-level project that need to be broken down into their individual parts.

Cards let you attach files, comments, checklists, due dates, labels, members, and more—which means no matter how much information you need to include for each project there’s plenty of room here for it all. Furthermore, attach any number of files or documents to cards you create, which can then be shared with the appropriate team members with just a click of button.

Trello is accessible across all devices, so your team can access the app from their desktops or laptops as well as their mobile phones. Fully customizable, Trello encourages team members to create, update and get things done together! Trello is a sure-fire way to give employees control over their own productivity and stay organized.

2. Google Docs

Google Docs is free online software that lets you create documents collaboratively with other people anywhere in the world at the same time (literally "at the speed of thought.") It has many features which make it perfect for busy professionals who want to collaborate and share documents, spreadsheets, to-do lists, and presentations with their teams. Google Docs also works on your PC, Mac or smartphone.

For easier project management, you can share documents with others and see their changes to your document in real time, and it also keeps track of everyone's changes so you know who made what change and when. With this type of instant feedback and information, saving time and increasing workplace productivity at work is a snap.

Your employees aren't tied to a desk, so why should their documents be tied to a desktop? The Google Docs app provides a real-time place for workers to access and share their documents on their mobile devices, regardless of location. Its features include:

• Real-time co-authoring
• Multiple fonts
• Redlining and commenting
• Role assignment
• Public or private access
• Integrated spreadsheets
• Syncs with Google Calendar

With productivity app, the data your employees need is as mobile as they are, something that's uniquely designed to boost productivity at work. Using this for your business documents will help you save time and money by having everything you need in one place.

3. Asana

Asana is a project management app designed to organize teams and collaborative projects. Not only does it provide task management, you can also manage team members, conversations, files and deadlines all in one place but it also provides other productivity tools that can help professionals work faster and more efficiently.

With this productivity app, you can assign and prioritize tasks, or to-do lists, for yourself or your team members which are assigned to different projects. Projects can be assigned different due dates and even given a priority level. Each task is then assigned an "owner" which is the person that should complete it, allowing for transparency within your team. Asana even allows you to schedule daily tasks so managers will know their employees are working during business hours!

A major key to increase your productivity at work is making sure your team is working according to its goals at all times. To do this, Asana allows great data visualization through charts and graphs. These insight-providing tools can help managers run reports that show employees where they are spending their time or how much work has been completed.

Asana is a free service which provides an unlimited amount of storage for teams up to 15 people. For larger teams, Asana offers monthly paid subscriptions starting at $8.33 per user!

There are only so many hours in the day. We're here to help you solve your unique needs. Our team of experts can help you implement the strategy that works best for your organization.

4. Monday

Monday is a free work management and productivity app for both iOS and Android which helps you complete tasks and important projects, manage your time, and prioritize the most important things in order to meet deadlines. It also makes it easy to stay productive and collaborate with coworkers without forgetting any deadlines.

With Monday, you can invite coworkers to share their deadlines and view a collective project timeline. This means that you can always see what's going on in the company and when each task will be completed. Monday includes a calendar for planning meetings, a kanban board, customizable reports. Here's a quick list of features:

• time tracking tool
• task management
• to-do lists
• ios android
• multiple team members

Monday offers a variety of features to help you stay focused, stay on top of all the tasks, and manage your time, making it easy to avoid late deadlines and therefore increasing productivity at work. 

5. Loom

Loom is a video messaging tool that helps you get your message across through instantly shareable videos. With Loom, you can record your camera, microphone, and desktop simultaneously. Your video is then instantly available to share through Loom's patented technology. 

Loom also stores all of your videos in a library, making it easy to reference later. This means you only need to explain something once - saving you time and keeping your messaging consistent. Loom also will send you a notification as soon as your video has been watched, so you know when you should follow up or to expect further questions. 

More Ideas for Improving Productivity at Work

Of course, new projection management tools and software isn't the only answer for increasing productivity at work. Sometimes you may just need to think outside the box and get a little creative with your current systems and processes. There are a lot of ways to improve productivity without spending a dime, and along with increased productivity, you'll get better engagement and higher morale. It's easy to feel overwhelmed when you're not prioritizing tasks by order of importance, but these apps, combined with the right productivity system, can help you to stop multitasking and focus on one thing at a time.

Providing employees with these five handy apps creates the flexible environment demanded by today's remote workforce, thus helping everyone to improve productivity at work. Try them out today and see the heights your company's productivity can reach.