There is no question that the tools you use can help you increase your productivity. Using the right tools can help you accomplish more in less time.
In my case, I use many tools that fill different roles. But, if I had to choose only one of them as my favorite, I would choose Microsoft OneNote.
OneNote is not a new tool for me. I had used the Windows version in the past. Since I moved to the Mac in 2010, however, I no longer used it. Why? Because OneNote wasn’t available on the Mac.
A few months ago, Microsoft finally released OneNote for Mac. That alone was good news for me. But there’s more: OneNote is now free! You no longer have to buy it as a part of Microsoft Office.
I have used it since then and I love it. I use it to store my to-do lists and a lot of my ideas.
My favorite feature in OneNote is outlining. It allows me to write things in a nested way and then collapse or expand them. That way I can choose to see either the details or the big picture. For example, let’s say that I have some ideas for a project I’m doing. I can write those ideas under the project name to add details to that project. But then I can hide them to easily see all the projects I have.
So that’s the case with me. But of course, everyone has their own favorite tool. So here is my question to you:
What is your favorite productivity tool and why?
Please leave your answer in the comments. Even if you don’t plan to leave an answer, I hope you will still stop by and vote for your favorite answer.
Thanks!
Photo by ladyada
I must say that Paper and Pen are my favorite tools. I don’t need electricity and I can always have them with me. Plus they give a good example for my daughter…. 🙂
EverNote
I prefer pen and paper, but have to admit that some of those electronic tools are very handy. With pen and paper I love the Franklin Covey way of work. I still use paper planning pages which I create myself and changed them a little bit to fit my needs.
Electronically I love “Remember the Milk”, although I’ve found some bugs in functions I would love to use. And I use Evernote, mostly for, of course, notes 🙂 and documentation.
I wish there was a tool like Remember the Milk that also adopts Franklin Covey’s way of work.
I use pen and paper – often resorting to a sticky note but mainly notebooks. I have though being experimenting with One Note on my new Windows phone which is very impressive.
Meditation + Pen & Paper 😀
I prefer to draw a mind map with different coloured pens on paper because it is easier to read and I won’t miss out anything compared to writing a list. Mindmeister is a fantastic tool to do that if I don’t have paper and pen with me.
Thanks for participating, everyone! Looks like pen and paper are popular here.
Pen and paper at home. Whiteboard and marker at work.
I love TextExpander. It allows you to enter a short code (for my website, I type “;myURL” and then, kaboom, my URL: http://www.publicationcoach.com appears, as if by magic.) Saves me buckets of time every day!