If you have read my previous blog posts, you know I am all about productivity and making sure I stay focused on tasks that need to get done throughout the day. Last year I posted two blogs, Inbox Mastery #1 and Inbox Mastery #2, that explain how I organize my email inbox.
Digging deeper into this, I have found several programs that keep me on task, increase my productivity, and help me stay organized. I find these systems to be extremely beneficial, and I think you will find them helpful as well!
Inbox Management
Inbox Pause by Boomerang
The first tool I want to talk is Inbox Pause by Boomerang. This tool has been amazing and has changed the way that I process my work flow. It allows me to stay focused on things I need to be doing, or things that I have been avoiding doing through my management process.
Inbox Pause stops emails from coming into your inbox when you’ve clicked “pause.” You can set it to batch deliver emails at defined times, or you can manually unpause it.
Before utilizing this tool, I would be working on a project, see an email come through, stop to read and respond to the email, and then have to go back to the project, remember what I was doing, and refocus. Inbox Pause keeps me focused, keeps me on track with planning my work and focused on getting stuff done without being distracted.
My favorite features:
- You can set predefined times on weekdays or weekends for email delivery.
- You can hit the unpause button and turn it back off.
- You can set a notifications.
- If you have particular people that need to contact you at all times, you can do that too.
- You can even hide the label, and you won’t even be able to get distracted to go peek at what is waiting to arrive
Why I love it: As I’m whittling down through my Action items, it forces me to not get distracted by running back to what is in my inbox and avoiding that difficult project, such as a blog post I have to write. Now I am forced to work on it because I don’t have anything else to do, and I don’t have anything new coming into my inbox to distract me.
Boomerang
Boomerang was created by the same company that created Inbox Pause. Boomerang does a lot of different things.
My Favorite Features:
- You can schedule emails to send later.
- You can set an email to return to your inbox if you don’t hear back after emailing someone.
- Their “Respondable” feature gives you feedback on what you are writing and how likely it is to receive a response based on word count, subject length, question count and a bunch of other information that they pull in.
- It is also part of Inbox Pause, so they work well together.
Why I love it: One of the features I use the most is the Send Later option. I do a lot of emails on Sunday to get prepared for Monday. One of my biggest email send out times is Monday morning between 8:00-10:00 am, but most of those emails have been written Sunday night.
I don’t want people on my team or people that are off for the weekend worried about responding to me on a weekend. I want to respect everyone else’s time and work time, and I do not want to distract them from family time or their personal time off. So, this helps me work on my schedule, and helps everyone else feel like they do not need to respond after normal business hours.
If there is something where I do not need to hear back for a while, or I just want to make sure that I am going to hear back from somebody later, but it is not important enough to fit into my Action/Hold process, then I just hit “remind me in 2 weeks,” or “remind me in 2 hours.”
If there is something where I need to hear back relatively soon (it’s a Monday email for a Tuesday follow up) then I set it to remind me on Tuesday at 8:00 am. This helps me work in my flow to bring something back to my attention if it needs to be at different times than my Action/Hold process. It has been amazing for me.
The Boomerang tool with Inbox Pause is the perfect add-on to Gmail and Outlook email processing.
Boomerang for iOS
In 2017, Boomerang released apps for iOS and Android, and this really changed my email process on the road.
My favorite features:
- The voice feature to write notes and check emails.
- You can move emails around super fast – move it to a label, mark it as read, delete it, archive it, and move it as a label.
- You can search, and there is even the Respondable feature, just like on the web app.
- You can manage multiple inboxes. It connects to all different emails, not just Gmail.
Why I love it: Before Boomerange released this app, when I was in the field or traveling, managing my inbox from my phone was not as effective as from my laptop, and it was not as fast.
There were always things missing from the way I did my work, especially the Send Later feature. It was a pain to do that on the road because there was no tool to do that. When Boomerang came out with a mobile solution, I could then download this on my phone and have the exact same features as I have shared above. Everything is the same.
This is a game changer while I am on the road!
Calendar Help
Scheduling can become extremely challenging when you have to schedule meetings with multiple people on multiple days, or even with a coworker on different days, or a vendor that you don’t work in the same office with.
This is a big challenge for any person, whether it’s your personal or business schedule. What I have found are two different options that are free. They are not super complicated, and they are super easy to set up.
Boomerang Calendar
The first one I want to discuss is the Boomerang calendar—that’s right, another add-on in the Boomerang family, so it lays right on top of your Gmail as well.
My Favorite Features:
- It lets you schedule simple 1-on-1 meetings. You can share your calendar and availability, and you can drop in dates.
- It helps you manage cross-timezone scheduling.
- It also allows you to plan a group event.
Why I love it: It may not be as nifty as some of the ones you pay for, but it is free, and it gets the job done. At the end of the day, you are trying to save time, and not spend money on a tool you won’t use. Some of the ones you pay for are too powerful and have too many features.
This one is fast, quick, and easy. It lets me do all my email communication back and forth, and it helps cut back on tons of emails because I can compose an email, suggest a meeting, and then drag and drop my availability into an email. It won’t schedule for you, but it gives the person you are trying to schedule with dates and times so that they can schedule with you.
Simple, easy, free and it works!
Assistant.to
Assistant.to is a great tool to use to set up a meeting with one person. I have not found it to be as good with setting up group meetings, or sending multiple people options for meetings. It is super nifty for setting meetings with one person though.
My Favorite Features:
- You can plug in your availability and it makes clickable links that allows the other person to click on a time.
- It populates a meeting invite and asks your meeting recipient if they accept. Once they click yes, it automatically sets an event on your calendar sends them a meeting invitation.
- It makes sure you don’t double book yourself when integrated with Google Calendar, and it is super easy to use.
Why I love it: You cannot beat it for one on one meetings. It lets you drag and drop where the meeting will take place, the time zone, if you want to put in an UberConference or Zoom link.
It also lists your calendar availability, allows you to reset it, and you can drag and drop all your availability straight into an email. The person you send the email to can input their availability, so you can see what works for them. It is not over complicated and it’s free. You cannot beat it.
Conference Calls
For small to medium sized businesses, salespeople that are on the road, or one person shops, conference calls can be a challenge. Many conference call tools are expensive and may be too powerful for what you need. But I have found two that are super easy to use.
UberConference
The first one is UberConference. It is great because it gives you a straightforward UberConference business name and website to go to.
My Favorite Features:
- You can use your computer audio or a dial-in number. You get the same number and the same 5-digit pin.
- Your website is always open and working, so you are able to quickly jump on a call whenever you want.
- Screensharing and document sharing capabilities
- A mobile app that is easy to use
- It records your calls if you want, which is great if you need to record a team meeting for someone to listen to in the future
Why I love it: UberConference is easy to use and painless to set up and learn. You get an unlimited amount of conferences, and up to 10 participants are free.
One cool thing if you pay for it, that I haven’t seen, is that you can dial out from the conference call to add people to the call. I don’t know of another software that is doing that, so for $10/month, that is a great feature to have because we know there are people who forget to jump on the call.
Zoom
Another great conference call product is Zoom. People can’t say enough good things about it. I use the product more as a customer, than a user, as we have a couple vendors and associations that I work with that use it. It seems to be great, and I have never had any problems with it.
My Favorite Features:
- There are several plans that start at free all the way up to the enterprise plan.
- On the free plan, you can host up to 100 meetings, unlimited 1-on-1s, and a limit of 40 minutes on group meetings, but it works. For the most part, you can get a lot done in 40 minutes.
- You can host a meeting and send out the invitation to anyone via the website or through a link that you email.
- You can record meetings and afterwards it will automatically download and save the recording to your computer.
Why I love it: If you are in the tech space and you want to show a customer something as a screenshare, this is a great product to use. It is a little bit more restrictive than UberConference, but it still works, it’s still easy, and it’s still a great product.
A Human Touch
Loom
Loom is my screen recording tool, and it is the bomb. Personal videos add a human touch to instructional or explanatory emails. You start a Loom video, and it records your document or whatever you want the other person to see on your screen. Loom also can record your face from your webcam, so your recipient can see you talking to them at the same time.
My favorite features:
- It is an easy to use, free screen sharing & video recording tool
- Anything can play on your screen. You can have it on your email, or a specific document that you need to explain.
- It sends the video directly to your Gmail to send, or it immediately saves the videos on the website as recordings, and you can share the link.
Why I love it: There is so much that is lost when it comes to just a written word. People are reading what you are writing through their filter. Sometimes they are not even reading the entire email, just because that is human nature. We are busy, we are moving fast, and that is just what happens. Loom helps you have human touch and human connection through the computer with people, with your team, and in a fun way.
It does not take that long. It used to take me 20-30 minutes to write a complex email about a really challenging request or issue, and now I can send a Loom that is way faster. I can just created a video that is a couple minutes long and send that instead.
You learn as you go, and it gets easier the more comfortable you get with the product, and with yourself giving Looms.
Summary
There you have it! The tools that have helped my day-to-day workflow tremendously. Without these systems, I would have a much more difficult time staying focused and on track. It is not only easy and effective to utilize these tools, but every single one of them are free to use! I love them, and I think you will too.