I really love finding ways to boost my productivity and create systems for my business that allow me to work more efficiently. In college, I was an interior design major and that meant I had to build a wood model every semester for my project. The head of the woodshop, Bill, had a chalkboard on the wall that always had an inspirational quote and one other saying: “Work smarter, not harder.” He would come around to our shop desks (he wasn’t our teacher he just made sure everyone kept all ten fingers!) and he would ask what we were making and asked us how we were going about it. Usually, we’d tell him and he’d scrunch up his face and say there was a better way. He’d help us make what was called a “jig” (a plate, box, or open frame for holding work and for guiding a machine tool to the work, used especially for locating and spacing drilled holes) so that we could cut all our pieces super fast! While I’m not going to be going into my “jigs” for my photography business today, this quote has stuck with me since college and I’m always looking for great apps and ways to make my business work for me and not me for it so I can work smarter, not harder and get back from behind the computer screen and enjoy life! So here are my favorite FREE apps for a productive day.

1. Trello. Hands down my favorite tool to utilize in business. Trello is a to-do list app that lets you customize multiple lists and board any way you want. It flows like a family tree would. You start with a board (Laura Lee Photography), then make lists within this board (URGENT, TO-DO, DONE, MONDAY, TUESDAY, ETC., EDITING, BLOGGING…. the lists go on! Pun intended!) Within each list you have tasks or “cards” These are all the things you would put on that to do list (Example, on the Blogging List card, I would put a card for writing a specific blog post!—” My Top 5 Productivity Apps”) Within this card I can assign due dates, create checklists, write notes, write a description and more. Trello changed my productivity game instantly and if you want to read more about exactly how I use Trello, read my post here. 
2. Noisli. This app is simply a white noise app that you can create your own combinations of noise with! It sounds kinda silly, I never thought white noise would actually help with productivity and thought it was crazy, but when I decided to try this, I easily accomplished more than I ever had in one day and stayed focused ALL. DAY. LONG. I combined rustling leaves, a campfire, wind, rain, and thunder. You can choose how loud each sound is too, so if you want rain to be quiet and the campfire to be louder, you can customize everything! It’s a free plug-in for chrome that you can find here. 
3. Pomello. If you’ve ever heard of the Pomodoro technique, this plug-in for Trello utilizes this productivity method. If you haven’t heard of it, the premise is that your brain can only focus for short amount of periods at a time before it wanders, so the technique urges you to work 25 minutes on and take a 5 minutes break. After completing multiple work sprints, you get a longer 15 minute break and you continue this technique throughout the workday.  Pomello is a plug-in for Trello that allows you to pick which card you want to work on and then starts a timer for 25 minutes. I work much more productively when I’m trying to beat the clock and I’m sure you do to! Then, it gives me five minute breaks when i finish the task like a reward, and I usually take this time to do a quick workout challenge.
4. Momentum. This is another chrome plug-in (Free) that I recently discovered and absolutely love! It pops up every time you go to open a new tab and says “Good Morning, Laura! What is your main focus for today?” Once I input this, it pops up every time I open a new tab in my browser so if I’m going to go open something like Facebook a little reminder pops up before hand reminding me what I should be doing instead. And the best part?! There is an inspirational quote and a beautiful travel picture that rotates every day. It’s a great way to start the day!
5. Self Control. This app is for the people who really want to buckle down and get stuff done.  This chrome plug-in (again, free) allows you to block certain websites for a certain period of time on your computer. So if you want to make sure you have a productive morning and stay off social media, you can block Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. until 12:00 (Or whenever you want!). You can also go as far as to block your email until it’s really time to check it so you don’t waste time checking every 5 minutes like most people!

I hope you give these free apps and plug-ins a try! Use them all combined for the best productivity, it has helped my focus tremendously, and I constantly joke that I have ADHD and can’t focus on anything. Ever. 

Have an app that you love for productivity improvement? Leave it in the comments!

This post is the first of my new series, Workflow Wednesdays!

And a picture for good measure, of what it looks like to be living more.