A few of my favourite productivity and creativity tools for small business owners
An important part of building and scaling your business is ensuring it’s sustainable. Business ownership and everything it entails – from marketing to lead generation to content creation to sales to customer service – is all about the long game.
That means:
Automating processes where it makes sense (particularly repetitive tasks where you don’t need to be the one doing it)
Hiring support and asking for help when you need it
Making data-based decisions, rather than jumping on each new marketing bandwagon or new business idea you have
Being mindful of the resources your business has available, and working within them
Implementing new tools, systems, and processes to improve efficiency
Essentially – moving slowly and intentionally so as to avoid burnout, while simultaneously adding in support in the form of new hires, automations, and tools to streamline processes further.
To support you in your pursuit to accomplish more in your business, without running yourself into the ground, I’ve compiled a few of my favourite productivity and creativity helpers.
I use these frequently in my business and with my clients for increased efficiency, and to help ensure I have a more manageable workload.
Tools for generating more ideas
Something I hear a lot from my clients, specifically when it comes to marketing and content creation, is that they don’t have “anything to post about,” or that they feel they’ve “run out of ideas.”
I get it. The reality is that to continue bringing a consistent stream of new leads into your business, you need to remain relevant.
And that relevance generally comes from being omnipresent – showing up on social media platforms, in your ideal client’s email inbox, and in their mind, regularly.
The content creation process therefore is seemingly endless, and it can feel overwhelming.
While I’ve shared before that this doesn’t need to be the case because:
The frequency of your posts or emails can fluctuate based on the resources (time, energy, and money) you have available, as well as your audience wants and needs
You can endlessly repurpose content in new and creative ways, and
Content can frequently be repeated because not all of your audience sees everything you post, or remembers it (and no, your audience won’t be annoyed. Remember: if they’re annoyed, they aren’t your audience.)
…there will likely still be times when you’re struggling to find inspiration, don’t know what to post about, or are looking to fill up your content bank for future use.
It’s times like these that I like to utilize tools for support.
Feedly
Feedly is an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that sifts through the Internet to compile important insights for you, based on your interests.
From news sites to blogs and newsletters, the software will flag and bring together content that you might be interested in re-sharing, or simply using as inspiration for future content creation.
Over time as you continue to organize your feeds and interact with the content, Feedly will get better at curating content that matches what’s important to you.
You can set-up different feeds based on your interests, turn on and off different filters, and mark items for later use.
I use Feedly to pull together articles I’m interested in reading or sharing, instead of aimlessly Googling topics each time I need inspiration.
Plus, on Feedly, insights are refreshed daily so you’re never short on new ideas.
Reeder
Reeder is an IOS application for your phone, tablet, and desktop that brings together your news and other articles in one place.
Syncing across your devices via iCloud, the software is a great way to keep track of articles that you want to read or reference later.
The News Explorer feature also allows you to follow Twitter feeds and other news sites, without having to navigate multiple, individual apps (or getting sucked into the Twitter sphere).
It’s a great way to compile information and inspiration, rather than trying to store everything in your mind.
For organizing processes and procedures
I’ve spoken before about the importance of integrating standard operating procedures (SOPs) into your business to save time and energy.
They help you:
Manage ongoing tasks and projects
Outline how recurring tasks should be completed so no steps are missed
Document important notes (like equipment or program settings, or client-specific requests) so they aren’t forgotten
Support consistency between team members, and
Facilitate knowledge transfer (for example if someone from your company moves on, with an SOP in place someone new can more easily take over their responsibilities).
Using a tool to host these processes and manage tasks can be beneficial so that documents and information are hosted in the same place and are easy to reference.
Airtable
One of my most used and loved tools, Airtable supports information management and organization via different databases and AI features.
By creating new applications and databases based on your company needs, you can organize company files, tasks, content, and more.
I personally use Airtable for my content inventory. I’ve created a comprehensive table that outlines the blog posts, videos, and social media posts I want to create in the future, along with the ideal completion date and who it’s assigned to (even if it’s just me).
I’ve also included columns for tags based on the overarching theme, a tracker so I know whether the post is just an idea, in progress, or completed, and the link for when the content is live for easy reference.
I also use Airtable in a similar way to organize my podcast ideas, potential guests, and published episodes!
The tool has simple, pre-configured apps for you to get started. But, as you get more familiar with the tool, you can also play around with it to create custom interfaces to fit different workflows.
Akiflow
Akiflow allows you to consolidate all of your tools in one place, syncing platforms like Gmail, Notion, and Slack, to give you the ability to plan your schedule with ease and efficiency.
Whether you’re a one-person business or have a growing team, chances are your tasks and to-do lists are held in a variety of places.
Akiflow gives you the ability to streamline all of these into one centralized inbox, leaving you with a calendar that outlines all tasks and projects that should be on your radar.
This is my favourite part of Akiflow - my task list lives there on a pane right beside three days of my calendar so I can visually see how I’ve committed to spend my time. I can drag tasks into the actual calendar and set an amount of time it takes to complete. This visual blocking has been a huge help for me when I’m juggling a million things that are all urgent and important. Because you can only get through one thing at a time.
Other features include being able to share your availability with others quickly without having to go back and forth between email and calendar, prioritize and snooze tasks via shortcuts, easily create recurring tasks, search for tasks and events easily, link content between tools, and add smart labels to your work.
Notion
Notion is another great tool that runs the gamut from a simple notes app all the way to some pretty sophisticated business management, allowing you to organize ongoing tasks and projects in a variety of ways. Notion has become an indispensable tool for me in the past year, and allows me to collaborate more effectively with my long-term clients.
From simple checklists to detailed databases hosting entire projects, Notion offers endless possibilities for organizing your work in a way that makes sense for you and your team.
Start with one of the pre-made templates available online (like this one for meeting notes, this editorial calendar, or this habit tracker), or make your own. There’s a massive market of pre-made Notion templates for just about anything you can imagine. (I’m even working on putting all my favourite recipes and meal planning into one I found.)
Notion is a simple tool, but at the same time it’s very powerful! And the best part is the price. You can do a LOT on the free plan and even the paid plans are extremely reasonable at every level.
My best advice: start small and take your time to learn and build out your boards in a way that works best for you and your business. For me, I started out just looking for an alternative to Evernote. After moving everything over, I quickly realized how much I could do to streamline my business all within Notion.
If venturing out on your own you have the freedom to build pages entirely based on your preferences and the requirements of the project, with room for titles and descriptions, status tags to track progress, the ability to add links and attachments, in-depth linking to other pages or tasks for easy reference, due dates, and the ability to assign tasks to other team members.
To support collaboration and delegation
Collaboration and delegation are inevitable parts of managing a business.
When different team members or clients have files hosted on too many different platforms or devices though, workflows can become messy, quickly.
To avoid constant email attachments and back-and-forth messages, implementing a tool like Airtable or Google Workspace that allows for easy document sharing and real-time editing is supportive for efficiency and peace of mind.
Airtable
I outlined some of my favourite features and personal uses of Airtable above, but one of the other features I enjoy is being able to add team members to my workspace.
I can easily assign tasks, and monitor the progress of said tasks, by giving team members or contractors different access permissions.
In a similar way, if I’m working with a client I’m able to create a workspace for us, so we can monitor our progress and stay on track with our goals.
Miro
Most of the client meetings I have are virtual and I often record them for future reference (mine and my clients). When I’m working on a strategic plan or messaging, I love mapping out the information in Miro.
Miro is a digital whiteboard tool with a whole Miroverse full of templates you can use as a starting place, or build your own templates.
I can link directly to specific objects on the whiteboard, which makes it easy to point my clients and other collaborators to items I want to bring their attention to.
I can also provide edit access for my clients when I need their input to fill out various aspects of our work together.
Google Workspace
The entire set of Google solutions from Gmail to Google Drive to Google Docs to Google Calendar, has made it easy to share documents and files between clients and team members.
Plus, because files and documents are hosted virtually, you can access them from wherever you are and whatever device you’re on. This makes it very convenient to work remotely, and to stay connected with your team in real time.
The Google Meet feature is also a great free alternative to Zoom, allowing you to connect virtually with team members or clients for updates that may be too clunky for email. But if you’re like me and prefer Zoom, you can easily set it up as your default video conference option in the admin.
There was a time when I could never imagine hosting my email on Google and using the productivity tools for my business, but recent issues with Dropbox has made Google Drive a much preferred option for my cloud storage and business management.
(P.S in case you’re more familiar with the term G Suite, it’s essentially the same thing! Google rebranded with the intention of more accurately describing the intention and product vision behind their collaboration tools.)
How do you decide when to add a new tool into the mix?
While you might be feeling super inspired to go and implement one or more of these tools into your business today, I would advise you to go slowly so as to not overwhelm yourself, your team, or your organization.
Just like I’ve cautioned against jumping into too many new marketing tools all at once, or relying too heavily in automations, it’s important to be strategic and intentional with when and how you implement a new productivity or creative tool into the mix.
Each of these tools might carry with it a learning curve, which means you’ll be investing a potentially significant amount of time and energy learning how to use it (which may or may not lead to a direct return on the investment).
And, while most of the tools I shared are free (or at least have a free version), there is also a potential financial cost when you invest in a new software or tool.
There’s a balance here! When it makes sense, implementing a new tool can be incredibly beneficial for your business.
However, you also don’t want to become stuck in an endless loop of implementing new software, always searching for the next best thing.
To help you strike this balance, here are a few questions you can ask yourself to know if it’s time to implement something new:
Get clear on the tools that would be most beneficial in your business right now. What are you struggling with? Where is your team getting hung up? Where is money, time, or energy being wasted and how could it be minimized?
Ensure the specific tool fits into your unique business. While no tool will be perfect, there are generally enough options out there that you can find one that offers most of the functionality you need.
Take inventory of your current tools (and maybe also the “graveyard” of tools you’ve signed up for but stopped using). What’s working? What isn’t? Do you already have something integrated into your business that essentially does the same thing as the tool you’re considering? Why are you considering making the change? What are the pros and cons of your current and new tool? Again, nothing will be perfect so if you already have something that’s working, it may not be worth it to make the investments required to switch.
Move strategically, rather than falling prey to shiny object syndrome, and you’ll find the transition much more successful.
Setting your business up for success is all about the long-game
While none of these tools will eliminate your workload completely (nor should they), they can be supportive for helping you reduce the amount of hours you’re working in your business so you can focus more on your business.
Success comes to those who strategize and plan, set clear goals, take consistent action, make tweaks to their plans as more data is accumulated, implement new processes and procedures to improve efficiency, and are patient when it comes to the realization of their goals.
These tools are just one part of the larger picture of running your business, and can help make it much more manageable and enjoyable!
What tools have you implemented in your business that you would recommend to other small business owners?