On the third day of Christmas, Spin Sucks gave to you three productivity tools, two lies told about the PR industry, and a phrase to banish forever.
Today we’re going to talk about the three productivity tools that, if you aren’t already using them, will change your life in 2017.
They are: Slack, Wunderlist, and LastPass.
Let’s start with Slack.
#1 of the Productivity Tools: Slack
It’s probably not going to come as any big surprise that Slack is number one on my productivity tools list.
I LOVE SLACK!
Here is why: Remember, back in the day, when we all had AOL Instant Messaging?
You could instantly message someone halfway across the country or the globe and they would instantly message you back.
My handle was prginiarment and it was the easiest way I could communicate with my new boyfriend, Kelly Dietrich, who lived in Washington, D.C. (I was already in Chicago).
The only trouble was, you could only message one person at a time.
Enter Slack.
You can invite people in—either through a work email address or by manually adding them—and then add them to channels.
For Spin Sucks, we have 38 channels.
Some are for clients, others are for online courses, and we have one specific one for the hilarious things Pete Salmon says (trust me, you want a record of it).
But not every team member is in every channel. He or she belongs to the ones where she needs to communicate or share information.
You can tag people, share documents, collaborate on work, or create your own emojis.
It is the best productivity tool out there, especially for large and/or distributed teams.
We also use it for clients and we’ve found satisfaction has increased significantly.
It’s an easy way to ask them quick questions or get information quickly, without having to do the email circle thing.
If you are new to Slack, don’t know what to expect, need to figure it out, or just want a new place to hand out, we have a free Spin Sucks Slack community.
Join it now and we’ll show you the ropes!
#2 of the Productivity Tools: Wunderlist
A little more than a year ago, I was trying to find a to-do list that Dawn Buford and I could share, but that also would allow me to repeat certain tasks.
I was using (still kind of do) a notebook and, when the page got full, I’d just transfer the list to the next page.
Not super efficient or safe…considering if I lost the notebook, I’d have zero idea of the things I had promised to do.
We tried Trello.
I hated it.
We were already using Basecamp for project management, so we tried that.
It didn’t work for me, particularly when I was on a plane and didn’t have internet access.
So I did a bunch of online research and asked my Facebook friends and finally settled on Wunderlist.
You can invite people to join your lists and assign tasks, create due dates with notifications (I hate that feature, but it works for some), access it online and off, and—most importantly—it has little boxes you check off when you finish the task.
For me, having that satisfaction is really, really important.
You can even print your to-do’s, if you still want to keep them in a notebook.
I don’t recommend it, but hey! Each to his own.
#3 of the Productivity Tools: LastPass
And, last but certainly not least, we have LastPass as our third productivity tool.
I’m going to admit it kind of drives me crazy when people use the same password for everything or have them all written down in one spot.
STOP DOING THAT.
LastPass is a password keeper that creates really strong passwords, and changes them periodically.
This makes it A LOT more difficult for hackers to get into your system.
It autofills all of your sites and gives you options.
This is the login page for Spin Sucks.
See how there is a 9+ on the side?
Click on that and it will give you options for logging in.
In this case, it gives me the login information for every WordPress site where I am an editor or contributor.
I don’t have to remember any of my login information and I don’t need to have it written down somewhere that can be stolen.
You can create teams and share certain logins with your teams or keep them to yourself.
It’s possible to access passwords if you are offline (which is helpful when you’re standing in line at the grocery store and have been kicked out of ApplePay).
But what I really, really love about it is it changes your passwords for you.
I have mine set to change once a month.
With that feature turned on, it autofills for you and you don’t have to worry about anything else.
So there you have it.
If you aren’t already using Slack, Wunderlist, and LastPass, get to it!
What are your must-have productivity tools for 2017?
