Nifty productivity apps for teamwork

If you work in a team, you know that communication is key to success. It doesn’t matter if you work from different locations or in the same office; you need to contact your co-workers to make things happen.

Some people bring bad manners to the office. They yell at their colleagues and upset them. No one needs to be screaming from office to office, or sending unnecessary e-mails.

There are smart tech tools to help teams collaborate and produce.

Productive teams plan and monitor their progress on key objectives and iterate their plans, based on results and lessons they’ve learned.

They also tend to use a sleuth of apt apps to organise their work, communicate with their teammates, boost their mood and even to relax after work.

MORE PRODUCTIVE

Whereas there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to being more productive, we have carefully combed the digital terrain, hunting down and reviewing productivity apps. Here are a couple of them.

Top on the charts is Slack. It claims to be changing the way teams communicate, and looking at user testimonials, it appears to do just that.

The desktop and mobile versions allows teams to chat in channels, with conversations divided by subjects, and you can chat and share photos, videos and music.

It gives you a centralised place to communicate with your colleagues through instant messages and in chat rooms with your project teams.

It reduces the time you have to spend using email. Slack is free to download.

SOCIAL NETWORK

Then there is Yammer. This Microsoft-owned app has more of the feel of a social network than a chat app. You can post — ideally work-related things — and colleagues can like or reply to a post.

Imagine it as a cross between Twitter and Facebook, which is specifically made to make businesses more productive. Collaborate with co-workers, share files, and connect with partners and customers.

Its features include mobile sync and language support in 25 languages, which goes some way in separating it from the herd of similar apps.

Quip, another app, has a small, but decent set of features, including the ability to collaborate on documents with other people.

The app also comes with a built-in chat you can use to message other people on the project.

Aside from that, you get a full-featured spreadsheet experience, cross-device syncing, offline support, and various exporting options for file types and cloud storage services. Quip hasn’t been around as long as other office apps, but it’s worth trying.

SCHEDULE PROJECTS

Productive people plan their activities and prioritise them. They understand that what doesn’t get scheduled, doesn’t get done. So they schedule their projects on a daily and weekly basis. You’ll be surprised how much you’re able to do when you actually plan everything and stick to it.

Any.do is a collaborative (or personal) task-management app for iOS, Android, and Chrome. It’s a beautifully designed to-do app, but one unique feature, called the Any.do Moment, sets it apart from the others.

The Any.do Moment nudges you to make a habit of reviewing your daily tasks first thing in the morning so you’re never caught off-guard by surprise tasks and meetings later in the day.

At the heart of every great productivity app is a solution to a specific problem. Some look toward efficiency and others seek to silence the noise of the net, bolster collaboration, or unite disparate data. Whatever it is you desire to achieve, there is a suit of apps for you and your team.

The writer is an informatics specialist. [email protected]. @samwambugu2