Productivity tools

Whether you are a pro (i.e. you do photography for a living) or an amateur (you do it for the love of it), there are always chores; things to be done. And how quickly you do them determines how quickly you get back to what you want to really be doing.

So here, in case it helps you, are a dozen of my main productivity tools:

  1. Adobe Lightroom. Lightroom is software for photo asset management, editing and production. It has cut 75% off my post-production time. (If you have a Mac, like me, then Apple Aperture is also an option).
  2. Apple iPad. My iPad is my business tool, my portfolio, my email and web device. I could not live without it anymore.
  3. OmniFocus – a task manager/organizing/ To Do tool for Apple, iPhone and iPad. I have it for iPad and am loving it – the first task manager that actually works for me.
  4. Numbers. Apple’s spreadsheet tool for the iPad is, once you learn it, an amazing productivity tool. I run my business using this spreadsheet tool; a spreadsheet that uses the screen interface well.
  5. My Brother QL-570 Label Printer. No kidding. Mail always used to pile up; now I click and a label is produced , and I actually mail the envelope.
  6. USB memory sticks. Now that these can cost under $10, I send my customers their shoots on a USB stick nowadays. No more waiting for failed DVD writes.
  7. ConstantContact. To send emails with info and offers to prospects and clients.
  8. WordPress. My blog runs on WordPress. Simple, to the point, etc.
  9. iWeb. Apple’s simple web editing tool may not be important to Apple – it is essential to me. How else could I quickly write my sites, like www.michaelwillems.ca?
  10. 1and1.com – I host all my web sites there. ‘Nuff said.
  11. Google Apps – my emails all run on Google Apps – my own “personal Gmail”.
  12. The Mac. Since switching from PCs to Macs some years ago, my productivity has gone up immensely. With a Mac, you do not, like with a Windows PC, spend your time making it work well. You spend your time actually working. A lot of this is due to the fact it runs on UNIX – the real OS, the same OS that powers mainframes (and that has so successfully been made into Linux as well).

Your mileage will vary, but this gives you some idea of what I use to make my life more efficient. As far as my “a mile a minute” personality will allow, of course!

 

3 thoughts on “Productivity tools

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *