7 Productivity Tools No Creative Can Live Without

What do you think life would be like if no one ever invited the wheel? How about the hammer? or how about the match? Pretty existential, right?

Tools, big and small, old and new, make a huge difference in our existence as human beings as well as professionals. Regardless of your occupation or walk of life, chances are there is a tool (or many) that you use daily and feel like you can’t function without.

Working in a digital day and age(ncy), it should come as no surprise that, here at IMPACT, we use a variety of tools for everything from project management to inspiration. So, I went to my creative colleagues and asked them,

“What productivity tool (marketing or design) can you not live without?

Panda Chrome Extension:

“I can’t live without my Panda Chrome Extension. Panda takes the place of your default tab in Chrome and fills it with the latest shots from dribbble as well as syndicated news from the biggest design blogs.

Whenever I’m at a creative roadblock or looking for inspiration I just open up a new tab and quickly scroll through.

On top of helping with inspiration, it also makes it incredibly easy to stay up to date on the latest design and development news, so I can make sure I’m not missing out on any new tactics or products.” - Joe Rinaldi, Creative Supervisor

Evernote:

“I’ve used Evernote since early 2012 and honestly feel like I can’t live without it. I had a job at one point that blocked Evernote and I just about died. I not only use it to organize, but also as an outlet to write out my thoughts and ideas as they pop in my head. I typically have one notebook for every client, one general agency notebook, a HubSpot notebook, and several learning/training notebooks based on the subject matter. Plus, I can also use it personally for things like my grocery list (never go without a list!), honey dos (my husband LOVES that…) and anything I find inspiring.” - Brie Rangel, Account Strategist

HubSpot CRM:

“The HubSpot CRM makes my role in our sales process so much easier.  Because it links leads with their HubSpot history, I can instantly see all interactions and form fills right from their profile. The ease of use and templated emails allow me to access a lead’s profile, send an email, and set a task for myself to follow up with them all in under a minute. This makes this specific part of my job seamless, repeatable, and easy, making me much more efficient and able to do much more throughout the day.” - Natalie Davis, Director of Talent

A Planner:

“My planner! I’m old school when it comes to organization. Don’t get me wrong, I love Trello and Google Calendar, but there’s something about having a physical list of my meetings and tasks in front of me that keeps me sane. I love my planner from Day Designer. It has a to-do list for every day of the week, so it’s easy for me to stay on top of things. They have some awesome variations with pockets, hourly planners, and daily inspiration to fit your needs .” - Marcella Jalbert, Creative Lead

Notepad/TextEdit:

Sometimes I need a place to put a piece of code or text that I use frequently or may need shortly. Notepad/TextEdit solves that problem for me every day. It’s a quick and convenient place to paste my snippets and easily access them when needed. - Melissa Smith, Sr. Front-End Developer

Google Drive:

“If I wasn’t able to stash all my work in The Cloud, my productivity would drop faster than lead weight. I use Google Drive for every piece of my day-to-day work, and the rest of my IMPACT colleagues use it just as much. Since it’s a Google product, Drive integrates seamlessly with all of their other products, has clear and adaptable sharing settings, and is accessible via anything with internet access.

Instead of using a dedicated note-taking or organizational app, I just open a new doc in Drive and start writing. While Sheets doesn’t have the boundless functionalities of Excel, it also helps me organize complex ideas quickly and is perfect for an editorial calendar or social database.” - Derrick Weiss, Account Executive

Trello:

“It would be really hard for me to go through a day without using Trello. My job relies heavily on organization and project management, and although I am naturally organized, I could never get everything done on time without all of the Trello boards I have for different projects.

The ability to assign people to tasks, set due dates, attach files, and comment on different cards lets me keep my hundreds of tasks in order, so that I know exactly what has to get done and by when. Deadlines are barely missed (if ever), and my team can collaborate so easily on our shared boards.

Trello really helps get everyone on the same page in every aspect of our jobs. I even have shared boards with some of my clients, and they love the fact that they can conveniently see the progress of a project.” - Kaitlyn Petro, Account Strategist

How About You?

What productivity tools can you abosolutely not survive without? Let us know in a comment below!