5 Time-Saving Software for 2021

Running a business is no easy task. There is tons of work to be ticked off the checklist.  But the time always happens to fall short.  If you are in a startup landscape,  chances are you would run into this even more frequently. 

Having the ‘hustler attitude’ is a must in such a scenario. And with the right reasons. 

After all, in business, ‘time is money.’ 

Used productively, it can yield you unprecedented benefits; while unoptimized, it can leave you in treachery. 

So how do you ace your productivity? That is the big question here. 

One smart way to achieve so is by adapting the famous Eisenhower matrix technique. 

You can easily divide all your tasks in the to-do list based on two metrics: urgency and importance. 

According to the value that the activity adds to your system and how urgent it is being done, you map out all your tasks into four quadrants. 

You start with a ‘do first’ box that is both critical and high-value tasks. You finish these off at the very onset. 

Second, you check your ‘scheduled’ tasks. These activities are high on value but don’t need your immediate attention. 

The third is the ‘delegate’ box. These tasks are high on urgency but don’t add up a lot of value in the present time. So, you can always get them done by someone. 

Finally, you get to the last quadrant that has low value and urgency tasks. Now you can choose not to do them at all. 

But only shortlisting tasks cannot ace productivity requirements. You need something extra. 

Following are five time-saving software and tools that can skyrocket your productivity in no time.

1. Project management tools

Project management is perhaps one of the most critical business processes you will ever execute in your startup. It is the make or breaks element of your whole startup. 

A proper management tool here ensures to navigate your whole process in the right direction. 

Following are a few benefits that project management software can bring to your system. 

• Improve chances of achieving the desired goals. 
• Improves team collaborations.
• Prioritize business resources to ensure their optimal use.
• Map the scope, schedule, and budget with high precision.

Basecamp is one of the industry leaders when it comes to project management. 

It’s all-in-one solution makes it super easy to manage communications, files, tasks, discussions, and schedules make it super easy for your team manager to keep an eye over everything all the time. 

Plus, the software is super intuitive, making it easy for most startups to jump-start without thinking of the learning curve. 

A strong alternative to basecamp is Trello. Having a kanban style getting work done is super simple. What is even more simple is that the software is super flexible to meet your requirements. 

If you want something more personalized to your vertical, you can consider some other project management tools. 

Pro Tip: 

Using a knowledge base or internal wiki system like Atlassian’s Confluence can prove to add immense value right from the beginning. 

2. Workflow automation tools

Acing your business planning and strategy is critical for your startup’s smooth movement towards its business vision and goals. 

Ideally, you are going to get bogged down by frequent challenges. A lot of the decisions are tricky. 

It has surface-level effects and elusive effects that are not transparent right away. But automating the repetitive processes can ensure that you can focus on your business’s finer decision-making. 

Workflow automation comes in handy in such cases. 

Workflow automation gives you the following real-time benefits:

• Efficiency
• Productivity
• Precision
• Auditability
• Accountability

Zapier is one of the pioneers when it comes to workflow automation software. It can improve your business growth in no time.

3. Product development tools

It does not matter how efficient your business and its process is if your ultimate product fails to impress its target audience. 

A few of the critical challenges that a startup faces are as follows: 

• Cutting down the total time to market
• Ideation drove by innovation.
• Driving customers to the product
•  Finding product viability
• Devising pricing strategy
• Executing post-launch reiterations & improvements

Keeping a close eye on the product desirability ensures that you stay on the 

right track when it comes to development. 

JIRA is an agile virtual product development platform that can help you gain momentum in the whole developmental process. 

A strong alternative to this is Workzone. 

But what should be at the core of all of these efforts is your users. 

Taking user reviews is key to improvements in your applications. Remember that the type of website usability testing questions directly impacts the improved quality of your product.

4. Communication tools

No startup can upscale itself without a high-performance team. But what drives any super team is their internal communications system.

Building a nomenclature for every kind of communication can bring massive benefits towards achieving this goal.  

What kind of messages can be sent via real-time chats and what type of communication can be completed via emails must be documented right from the beginning of the project.

For instance: it is challenging to keep up via email when you need to ask someone about real-time updates like a document location.  Again, it is choosing an instant messaging app like WhatsApp isn’t viable for heavy file transfer.

To keep you on track, here are a few tips you can always utilize for your team: 

• Use a standardized, systematic, and documented strategy for communicating within teams. 
• Keep the main messages hyper-specific, simple, and precise.  
• Try to use screenshots, videos, links, etc., for better explanations and annotations wherever possible. 
• Use standardized communication channels and tools for every category of messages.  
• The use of mobile communication software like Slack can ensure your real-time communications becomes hassle-free.  

5. Privacy & protection tools

While you will have several tasks to be done at your startup, the one element that you cannot make any mistake is data privacy. 

How you use your customer’s data needs to keep in alignment with the law at all times. And now, with the new ccpa rules, the data protection scenario has reached new levels. 

The GDPR is laser-focused on creating a “privacy by default,” a legal framework for pan EU. On the other hand, the CCPA is all about creating transparency in California’s colossal data economy and its consumers’ rights.

Here is a detailed review of how the new law of ccpa is different from the European gdpr: CCPA vs. GDPR. 

Pro-Tip

It is important here to remember that no matter how many tools you have in hand, it is always beneficial to audit your time periodically. 

Using time tracking software can help you in such a case. 

Rescuetime is a vital tool when it comes to time tracking. Its UI is super intuitive and fun to use. What’s more important it is exactly what it claims to be. It rescues your most valuable asset: time. Thus both its desirability and functionality are on point. 

Conclusion

In today’s tech dominant lives and business world,  you will always find some kind of support to complete your task. 

While these tools can boost your productivity at all times, what we cannot guarantee is your ultimate success.  

Thus,  use these tools to free up time and cater to what matters to make your startup a successful venture.

Let us know in the Comments section below which time-saving software you have used or plan to use to save on your time and focus on other important tasks.

Read Dive

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