5 Productivity Tools for Working Smarter

In today’s digital business world, we strive to work better, faster and more effectively. With so much to do and the same twenty-four hours in every day, it can be a challenge to balance competing priorities and projects. Thankfully we have found 5 productivity tools for working smarter.

Below are five hand-picked tools, software and apps to boost productivity.

AppCleaner

Download: Mac

Macs can be complicated as they tend to put files for applications in the most inconspicuous places—and they update often. Sometimes we find several copies from full Adobe updates on a computer, and we’ve found the uninstall feature Adobe provides to be unreliable. That’s why we rely on the AppCleaner to find all those loose files in folders all over a hard drive and delete them. Our favorite part is that this app protects running applications and any OSX specific apps needed to run your computer.

NameChanger

Download: Mac

This tool enables batch name changing of files. We’ve discovered this to be very helpful at times, especially when creating presentations or a deck of slides or for when part of an asset that’s been exported and needs to change throughout a file. We also use it for updating a client’s master PDF reference folder for our MZ team. We’re able to remove the client job number reference from several files at the same time.

NameChanger features a variety of automation options. Shown below, the word cell is changed to slide in each file name.

EasyFind

Download: Mac

This tool is ideal for locating files that exist on shared servers as well as local and connected external drives. It allows the user to search a specific server, folder, or all the existing server folders. It even allows you to select the option of searching the content of files and has a “case sensitive” feature. This app has been a lifesaver at times when only a hint of the name is provided or a file is needed instantly.

Snippley

Download: Windows/Mac | Requires Adobe AIR.

This app permits the user to create a group for every client and store snippets of information about each client—listing them alphabetically. We use snippets to include links to client image libraries, current client boiler plate standards and guidelines, color palettes and much more—any important information that is sent via email is usually copied and pasted into a new snippet for that client.

Google apps

Any platform | Requires Google account

Our team uses Google apps every day in our work environment for communication across teams—we can share calendar items, edit documents as a team and work efficiently with those in the office and those out of the office. Some of our favorites are Google Calendar, Drive and Maps—on Fridays we even search out all the restaurants close by for lunch!