Top 3 Apps for Improving Time Management

Time’s a Tickin: How Do You Manage Your Time?

Time Management in our industry is crucial to getting projects out on time. I am most definitely an advocate of the good ol’ fashion agenda and sticky notes, but in this day and age there are more efficient and eco-friendly ways to manage your time. Everyone keeps a busy schedule and wishes for more hours in a day. So for the last 4 weeks I have decided to play guinea pig and use three different apps, for a week at a time and see how they would help keep me on track and become more productive. With that said, I want to share my experience and give pros and cons for each app. There are tons of time management applications out there, but the three apps I used were Evernote, Toggl and RescueTime.

App #1- Evernote

I liked Evernote; it was helpful in making to-do lists and taking pictures of important information...

Pros:

1. Evernote helps keep all information for your projects together in one single notebook, which can be shared with other people working on the project with you. Send out call times and shoot details to the #crew, in just a few clicks. This is great for anyone in the production industry especially #Editors, #ProductionManagers, #Producers, and the list goes on.
2. Another great feature is the ability to take and save pictures. There is no need to keep post-it notes, even if you write on one, snap a picture and save it in Evernote - never forget again.
3. It gives you the ability to make checklists for projects and set reminders to complete specific tasks, like sending off the creative brief to the #graphicdesigners.
4. A great pro for this app is that it can be used on multiple devices that sync up so you always have access.

Cons:

1. One thing that I didn’t like about Evernote is that it doesn’t have a complete calendar. I think it would be great and even more effective if all tasks with a date assigned to them or deadline were on a single calendar. This would also work great for #freelancers because they could realistically know what jobs they would be able to take.
2. The only other downside I found was that you had to pay a monthly fee in order to get the complete application. But everything I listed above was part of the basic application.

App #2- Toggl

Toggl is interesting because it let me time specific activities so I had an accurate account of the time spent on a task and could associate specific tasks to different projects. I think it is great if you work with multiple clients and projects because you can really show the data and time it took you to do something. This app is useful for becoming more productive and using your time effectively.

Pros:

1. You can accurately display where your time is being used. Toggl will email you reports and charts that are color coordinated with each specific activity. You can assign tags like #pre-production or #storyboarding to your work.
2. If you forget to start the timer you can manually enter a project activity.
3. Multiple people who are working on the same project can track their hours as well associate their rates for accurate billing to the client.
4. You can access it from your computer as well as your phone and tablet!

Cons:

1.  In order to get the full features of the application you must pay $5/per month per user.

App #3- RescueTime

I liked RescueTime because it was able to track my activity on my phone and it gave me a real picture into where most of my time was spent. It’s great because it told me how much time I spent on social media and surfing the web.

Pros:

1. RescueTime helps you see how you spend your time whether it’s on your phone, computer and tablet to help balance your time effectively. It will send you reports on how you spent your time during the day and a given week, and then provide you with a productivity score.
2. It’s different from other apps because you can set specific time limits for email activity or time spent on Facebook and it will alert you when you reach the limit.
3. You can block websites that distract you the most. (This feature is only available with the premium package)
4. You can access it from your computer as well as your phone and tablet!

Cons:

1. In order to block websites and receive the alerts you have to purchase the premium app.

I feel that each of these apps has its benefits and it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. They all help you to improve your productivity, keep yourself completely organized or manage your time better in some capacity. So if you are an editor who is looking for a better way to keep all the client's instructions, requests, feedback and changes in one place or you are an #AVTech running #videoconferences for your clients and you want to make a check list for the specific set up and have the links to the PowerPoints being used, one of these apps is for you. They will help you be more productive, organized and maximize the number of jobs you can take. I personally will be using Evernote, because it meets my needs for the type of work I do and for my personal life. I am the queen of multiple sticky notes and to-do lists and Evernote lets me keep everything in one place! So try them out, and if you don’t like these, the right app is out there for you, just have to do a little research.

TeamPeople is a media staffing company. We work with clients ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to government agencies to recruit, hire and manage creative and technical media production and AV talent. We combine extensive industry expertise with a passion for what we do to deliver best-in-class solutions for our diverse clients.