5 tools to increase your productivity

Have you ever been in this state where you have 1 million things to do and get overwhelmed and eventually do nothing?
 

Well, that was me some years ago. Until one day, during my PhD years, I randomly got acquainted with the magic world of… planning! My life has radically changed ever since I started using the following tools.

Author’s suggestion: You could listen to this playlist to accompany your reading and a productive day full of planning!

Passion planner 

I will start with the most important one, my physical planner (although it now exists in a digital version too). Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned planner? Although that’s fun and new (but you can still enjoy the smell of paper if you are one of those)! Every Sunday, I use my “sacred me time” to plan next week. I log in all known meetings I have, my high-level personal and work to-do lists, my weekly focus, and use the 2-week pages available to unleash my creativity with little drawings, stickers, and washi tapes. During the week, I update it daily and add new tasks and meetings. I love the monthly reflection feature to make sure I contemplate how I felt each month and what effect it had on me. I finally use the empty pages on the back to track my eating, exercise, movies and TV series watching, finance, reading, and some journaling.

Passion planner Daily
This is a daily version of my weekly planner. Back in the day, I used it to write down all tasks and thoughts (even doodles) of my PhD life. When I transitioned to the industry, it became my best companion for detailed tasks, keeping me accountable for timeframes with the addition of a bit of daily reflection. It helps me to brain dump and prioritise, not to mention I can use it as I want, according to my needs per project.

Trello
A personal and professional online favorite. From planning a trip or a house move to managing an agile project with Kanban for big teams, I love how simple this tool is. In Greek Women in STEM, we also use it as our planning and project management tool to track our tasks and progress, while I have also used it in mentoring sessions in the past to keep a record of various tasks.

Miro
I would simply call MIRO one stop-shop tool. Essentially, it’s a digital whiteboard. However, the options it gives you are endless: setting goals, tracking progress, mind mapping, collecting and analysing data, even using the existing templates to play board games! I use it every day for work and personal purposes, and I am always fascinated by its many functions. Here you can find different templates depending on your needs.

Notion
My planner’s digital counterpart, which I only recently started using. Here, I accumulate my wish lists, such as movies to watch, and my wider life to-do list, as in my life aspirations. I am also planning to use it as my portfolio - a place to unpack my CV and the various projects I have been involved in through the years. 

Disclaimer: Please note this post is not sponsored, the tools mentioned are personal favourites of the author.