18 Best Productivity Software to Add More Hours to Your Day

In today’s fast-paced work environment, the run is almost always towards enhancing productivity, i.e., achieving more in less time. Some hire the most skilled workforce, trying their best shot at enhancing productivity. Some choose to adopt strategies for optimum productivity. Most often, experienced project managers rely on productivity tools to lead multiple projects with ease.

But, what exactly is productivity? Is it solely delivering quality as expected? Or is it a combination of executing projects consistently and on time?

Well, each project comes with its revolving door of roadblocks and challenges. Your teams might be struggling with completing multiple projects without compromising on quality. Also, as a project manager, you might have often found yourself in situations where you’re faced with last-minute scrambles.

This is where a good productivity tool comes in.

Many businesses rely on modern tools to keep their teams working effectively. These tools range from project management to sales and help to boost productivity in more ways than one.

Let’s take a look at the 18 best productivity tools that can improve the way your team works. 

A Quick Look at Top Productivity Tools & Their Key Features

What Are Productivity Tools?

Productivity tools help enhance the efficiency of employees through features that simplify their workflow and help them make the most of the available hours.  Companies deploy these tools to make their and their employees’ work life easier, while ensuring that deadlines are met and projects are completed successfully.  These tools offer features that help in optimizing project processes, accurately tracking productive hours and fostering collaboration within teams.

Types of Productivity Tools

1. Project Management Software

An ideal project management software helps boost productivity by streamlining the workflow across teams and departments. It enables creating tasks, allocating resources, and setting deadlines – all from one centralized dashboard.  Also, automating recurring tasks lets you focus on the more important work, leading to optimized processes, higher productivity, and better results. 

2. Calendar Tools

Utilizing a calendar tool is the simplest way to organize and schedule meetings. With no training required,  you can easily create an event and share the invite with your team.  The recipients will then be notified of the same and reminded again as the event approaches. The tool integrates with external applications to sync and schedule events effortlessly.

3. Time Tracking

Time tracking tools let you record the productivity of your team. With billable and non-billable hours, you can do away with the hassle of constantly checking in on your team members. These tools provide quick insights into where your team is spending most of their work hours. For a project manager, the tool uncomplicates the billing process by extracting accurate hours put in by each team member in the project.

4. Video Conferencing

A powerful video conferencing tool is a must-have for saving time, effort, and resources. You can connect with anyone, be it your team members, clients, or stakeholders from across the globe. Such tools are highly useful for communicating and collaborating with remote teams. Besides face-to-face conversation, video conferencing tools allow you to share files via chat, share screens with participants, discuss and record ideas using whiteboards and much more – all in one integrated space.

5. Email Marketing

A robust email marketing tool is essential to reach out to potential and existing customers. It enables you to easily target your audience and send personalized emails. This way, you can get an accurate number of clicks on your emails, enhancing customer relationships and driving more conversions.

Using its drag and drop functionality, you can create and schedule emails conveniently. Also, it allows you to customize the list of email recipients as per your email type.

6. Sales Productivity Tools

A sales productivity tool empowers lead generation and customer relationship management. It simplifies tracking and evaluating potential leads, driving the productivity of your sales. With its sales forecast, you can stick to the path that leads to the most optimum results. Make better use of time and effort with such a tool’s sales-boosting solution.

Importance of Productivity tools

Did you know that 70% of workers admit that they feel distracted during working hours, with 16% asserting that they’re almost always distracted!

On the other hand, 92% of employees state that technology has a positive role to play in enabling work efficiency.

These compelling numbers help establish the importance of productivity tools. A good productivity tool is an asset for any organization, big or small. Deploying them in an organization simplifies collaboration and brings in a bunch of benefits like saved time, enhanced performance, and improved workflows.

List of Best Productivity Tools

Here, we have listed the best productivity tools from each category that enable a more productive workday. These tools offer an insight into your everyday productivity, thus, maximizing your time at work.

Project Management Software

1. ProProfs Project

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As one of the best productivity software on the market, ProProfs Project offers robust features to help you keep a constant check on what your team is doing, where they are investing their time, and how much progress they have made on the assigned tasks.

You can successfully handle multiple projects and teams, assign tasks, and monitor their progress – all from a single dashboard. The tool also helps you create workflows, so your team has a clear view of what needs to be done, and in what order. With all team members having access to the tasks and their timelines, they can stay away from trivial work and fully focus on what really matters.

Features:

• Project workflows
• User-friendly platform
• Insightful project reports
• Comments feature for faster feedback
• Ready-to-use project templates
• Task alerts and notifications

Pricing:

Essentials – $2/user/month

Premium – $4/user/month

What we liked: Project status updates on the go.

What could be better: Third-party integrations.

2. Teamwork

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Teamwork is built for maximizing your team’s potential regardless of the number of projects at hand. The tool provides a clear picture of project tasks and helps you create a workflow that enables a smooth-flowing project. Its dashboard offers an easy view of who is in charge of which task and how close the task is to completion. Teamwork helps streamline your workflow to ensure higher productivity and improved team performance.

Features:

• Resource and portfolio management
• Short learning curve
• Intuitive user interface
• Customizable controls and permissions
• Seamless file sharing
• Activity tracking

Pricing:

Free Forever – $0

Deliver – $10/user/month

Grow – $/18/user/month

Enterprise – Available On Request

What we liked: A productive tool for teams of all sizes.

What could be better: Mobile application.

3. nTask

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A productivity tool like nTask ensures that your projects are never off track. With this tool, you and your team can work on tasks and manage different projects on a single platform. This helps you achieve project goals successfully even if you have  tight deadlines.. The tool comes with excellent features that let you assign tasks to team members, highlight task priorities, and set project start and end dates. Keeping a tab on team productivity also gets easier with the help of Gantt charts and calendar views.

Features:

• Clear workflow visualization
• Prioritize tasks and subtasks
• Built-in timesheets
• Quick issue tracking
• Gantt charts and Kanban boards
• Custom project status

Pricing:

Basic – $0

Premium – $3.99/user/month

Business – $11.99/user/month

Enterprise – Available on Request

What we liked: Task management is great for enhancing productivity.

What could be better: Customer service.

Calendar Tools

4. Calendar

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Calendar improves the way you use your time. Being one of the best business productivity tools, it helps you devote the necessary time to each project while still completing everything you need to. The tool offers a host of useful features that make scheduling meetings and events a breeze. This helps arrange digital meetings with team members and potential clients. For boosting productivity, Calendar’s time analytics works perfectly. With it, you can spot grey areas that need improvement to build better productivity.

Features:

• Intuitive calendar analytics
• Meeting overview feature
• Schedule meetings as per team availability
• Customizable scheduling links
• Reschedule meetings hassle-free
• Interconnect calendars

Pricing:

Basic – $0

Standard – $6/user (billed annually)

Pro – $8/user (billed annually)

What we liked: The tool helps you focus on the most important tasks.

What could be better: Third-party integrations

5. Calendly

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Calendly allows you to coordinate your meetings without the need to go back to your schedule constantly. This helps avoid redundant email exchanges and ensures that you make the best use of available time. Also, need rescheduling? You can do this in a hassle-free way with Calendly – just a few clicks, and you’re good to go. Calendly seamlessly integrates with other tools for a  smooth and efficient workflow.

Features:

• Crystal-clear availability schedule
• Automatic reminders for upcoming meetings
• Quick rescheduling
• Adequate customizations available
• Custom SMS and email notifications
• Live chat support

Pricing:

Basic – $0

Premium – $8/user/month

Pro – $12/user/month

Enterprise – Available on request

What we liked: Automating administrative tasks is fuss-free.

What could be better: Mobile version.

6. Google Calendar

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Google Calendar makes getting an overview of your schedule easier than ever. Its Assists feature lets you create events with people and place suggestions, bringing in greater convenience for planning events. Events added to Gmail are automatically added to the calendar. Also, the multiple views of the day, week, or month’s workflow further enhance visibility so that you can get work done faster. Its time management capabilities ensure that you stay your most productive self, thus, improving work efficiency.

Features:

• Get schedule outline with images and maps
• Event integration with Gmail
• Safe and secure schedule backup
• Blocking option available for calls, emails, etc.
• Priority scheduling for calls
• Excellent user experience

Pricing:

Business Starter – $1.68/user/month

Business Standard – $9.03/user/month

Business Plus – $16.93/user/month

Enterprise – Available on request

What we liked: Scheduling suggestions are helpful.

What could be better: Push messages.

Time Tracking

7. Rescue Time

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Being one of the best productivity improvement tools, Rescue Time organizes your time to prevent projects from derailing and help you finish the day productively. The tool recognizes the distractions and blocks specified applications and websites during your productive hours. This helps to break the habit of constantly checking social media or news updates and focus fully on the work at hand. It offers a personalized daily Focus Work goal that enables you to avoid distractions and be more productive throughout the day.

Features:

• Control your productive hours
• Block distractions with focus sessions
• Time management
• Web and mobile friendly
• Track billable and non-billable hours
• Set customized productivity goals

Pricing:

RescueTime Lite – $0

RescueTime Premium – $9/month

What we liked: Personalized productivity goals.

What could be better: Reporting feature.

8. Apploye

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Apploye makes tracking employee productivity 10x faster. Its Pomodoro timer helps you remain focused while its idle time feature reminds you of inactivity, ensuring productivity at work. Also, you can easily manage shifts and staff attendance with the tool by enabling ‘one touch’ clock in and clock out attendance marking for employees. Eliminate piles of paperwork and sticky notes with easy access to multiple project data on a single platform. Make the most of every day with Apploye.

Features:

• Measure employee productivity with ease
• Smooth client invoicing
• Desktop and mobile app
• Employee GPS location
• Optional screenshots
• Project wise view

Pricing:

Solo – $2/user/month

Standard – $2.5/user/month

Premium – $3/user/month

Elite – $3.5/user/month

What we liked: Employee productivity at a glance.

What could be better: Employee onboarding.

9. Spica – My Hours

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An easy-to-use tool, Spica keeps track of the time your team spends on each project. You can even set different hourly rates for tasks of varied types and scopes. Besides time tracking, you can even use this software to delegate tasks and manage projects, monitor your budget, and get  detailed reports to  keep a watch on employee activity. Enabling both project management and time tracking from a single platform, Spica promises an outstanding experience for your teams. 

Features:

• Priority support
• Email & live chat
• Knowledge base
• Get detailed reports
• Timesheet and timeline view
• Generate invoices

Pricing:

Free – $0

Pro – $7/month

What we liked: Time tracking ability, powerful reports, and the ability to generate invoices – all from one place.

What could be better: Software display.

Video Conferencing

10. Intermedia

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Intermedia offers a convenient way to interact with large groups of people from anywhere in the world through its video conferencing solution. The tool offers HD video conference calls with excellent features to help your teams stay connected and be on the same page while working on projects. It is an all-in-one communications platform that makes it easy for teams to schedule meetings and work in collaboration to meet project deadlines. Also, screen sharing allows participants to display images and charts, making project meetings more engaging.  And the best part? It allows you to integrate other apps your team uses, such as Slack and G-Suite, for increased collaboration.

Features:

• Seamless video conferencing
• Quick screen sharing capabilities
• Mobile friendly
• Join and host meetings from anywhere
• Custom branding available
• Record meetings for later use

Pricing:

Starter – $0

Lite – $9.99/user/month

Pro – $12.99/user/month

Enterprise – $17.99/user/month

What we liked: Meetings can be scheduled easily in minutes.

What could be better: Participant capacity.

11. Zoom

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Zoom, one of the most popular tools in the market right now, is great for connecting people across the globe. It offers excellent video communication features, including built-in chat that helps teams connect better.  Meetings are easy to set up and video calls can also be recorded for future reference or for planning your next meeting. Its screen sharing capability allows you to coordinate on project tasks and activities with everybody in the call.

Features:

• Cross-device compatibility
• Share your screen to display images and graphics
• Mute and unmute participants at will
• Disruption-free video calls
• Single sign-on
• Private and group chat options
• Unlimited cloud storage

Pricing:

Basic – $0

Pro – $177.89/year/license

Business – $242.57/year/license

Enterprise – $291.09/year/license

What we liked: Amazing tool for large conferences.

What could be better: Bandwidth issues while connecting.

Read more: Use Technology to Increase Your Productivity

12. Microsoft Teams

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Microsoft Teams is an all-in-one app for collaborating with team members, clients, and project stakeholders. It offers a platform for easy communication with in-built chat and file-sharing capabilities. You can instantly move from chatting with project teams to getting on a call with them for better understanding. The tool supports 53 languages and 181 markets, making it accessible to people across languages and cities.

Features:

• Secure cloud storage
• Impressive participant capacity
• Customized video backgrounds
• Guest access
• Personal file storage
• Adequate security and compliance

Pricing:

Microsoft Teams – $0

Microsoft 365 Business Basic – $1.68/user/month

Microsoft 365 Business Standard – $8.86/user/month

What we liked: the tool aids productive interaction and is easy to use.

What could be better: Learning curve.

Email Marketing

13. Hubspot

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Hubspot ensures that you take the right content to the right person at the right time for maximum productivity. The tool gives you the power of data analytics so you can know what your customers require and how you can reach them. Set up notifications every time a customer opens an email and see if that is leading to website visits and conversions. Hubspot will track every piece of data imaginable so you can analyze every step in your customer’s journey and see where you can improve your approach. Utilize their email templates to create content for every customer’s needs.

Features:

• Live chat
• In-app support
• Email automation
• Contact storing available
• Custom reporting
• Phone support

Pricing:

Starter – $45/month

Professional – $800/month

Enterprise – $3200/month

What we liked: marketing emails can be automated for best results.

What could be better: Predictive lead storing only available in Enterprise plan.

14. MailChimp

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MailChimp’s customizable email templates help small businesses market their brand in a way that greatly increases sales and ROI. Its drag-and-drop builder is a simple way to create engaging emails for your target audience. Their content studio stores all of the images your company loves to use so they can be easily accessed as you work on your next template, thus, increasing productivity at work. To top it off, analytics allow you to track results to make the necessary changes to have the most effective email marketing strategy possible.

Features:

• Role-based access and control
• Comparable reports
• Custom templates
• Marketing CRM
• Creative assistant available
• Mailchimp domain

Pricing:

Free – $0/month based on 2,000 contacts

Essentials – $9.99/month based on 500 contacts

Standard – $14.99/month based on 500 contacts

Premium – $299/month based on 10.000 contacts

What we liked: The click metrics are awesome to gain marketing insights.

What could be better: Automation functionality in emails.

15. BigContacts

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BigContacts is a robust email marketing platform for small business owners that helps engage with customers effectively. Get more done in less time with automated emails that target prospects based on their previous actions and responses. The tool provides an overview of emails, easily customizable as per the required field or workflow. Save time and efforts by targeting leads having the most potential to convert. Also, enable better decision-making with insightful reports, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.

Features:

• Free contact import available
• Comprehensive contact dashboard
• Email attachment storing capabilities
• Automated email marketing
• Send individual and group emails
• Easy-to-use platform

Pricing:

Big – $10/user/month

Bigger – $20/user/month

Biggest  – $30/user/month

What we liked: Contacts, emails, and customer communications can be managed from a single dashboard. 

What could be better: Mobile application.

Sales Productivity Tools

16. Reply

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A powerful sales engagement platform, Reply helps you automate and scale your outreach across multiple channels, including email, social media (LinkedIn), and direct calls. Make the most of your workday using advanced automation capabilities, like AI-based inbox sorting and semi-automated processes, i.e., LinkedIn touchpoints. It helps sales teams eliminate routine and time-consuming work, making your sales team’s life easier. The tool enables sourcing prospect’s emails in bulk from LinkedIn Sales Navigator, using a built-in dialer to call prospects and accomplishing sequence tasks on the go.

Features:

• CRM integrations
• Customer success services
• Reply Chrome extension
• Unlimited sequences
• Automatic follow-ups
• Intelligent email sorting

Pricing:

Individual

$70/user/month (Contact 1000 people per month)

$90/user/month (Contact 3000 people per month)

$120/user/month (Unlimited contacts per month)

Business

$70/user/month (Starts at 3 users)

$60/user/month (Starts at 5 users)

$50/user/month (Starts at 10 users)

What we liked: Prospect lists, email templates, and sequences.

What could be better: Email formatting.

17. Mixmax

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There is no one-size-fits-all sales tool that can magically raise your company’s revenue. With Mixmax, you can try a variety of approaches to find what works best for your business. One of their most useful features is workflow automation that  allows you to set up automation for repetitive tasks. Mixmax helps you personalize emails and make them more brand-aligned. You can even embed polls and surveys in the email, or drop in your calendar to set up a meeting to add an extra dimension to the emails you send.

Features:

• Email templates
• Email polls and surveys
• Customized branding available
• Insightful sales reports
• Automation capabilities
• Follow-up reminders

Pricing:

Free Plan – $0

Starter – $12

SMB – $29

Growth – $65

Enterprise – Available on request

What we liked: Robust email tracking.

What could be better: Calendar integration.

18. Salesloft

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Salesloft uses a three-step smart approach to help you drive more revenue in less time. The tool does this through pipeline generation, deal management, and customer engagement. Its powerful features allow you to customize and manage deals for every client. Keep your customers engaged, leading to their retention, which in turn leads to consistent sales day in and day out. Moreover, the tool has dozens of applications available for teams and businesses in every category, enabling increased output and productivity.

Features:

• Email tracking
• Mobile app access
• Clean and intuitive interface
• Monitor sales progress
• Customer support
• Ready-to-use templates

Pricing:

Available on request

What we liked: Reporting capabilities.

What could be better: Learning curve.