PR Toolkit: 3 Productivity Apps

To say public relations is fast-paced is just the beginning. Judging from the time it takes your massage therapist to work out the kinks in your neck it’s no wonder PR made CareerCast’s 10 Most Stressful Jobs in America list (along with enlisted soldier, firefighter, and police officer – what?!). With summer half-gone, here are three helpful time management apps that will have you delegating like a pro, so that you can actually enjoy summer hours, get out of the office and get that Vitamin D download.

Increase Productivity with Producteev

One of the leading social task management solutions for teams that allows you to create and manage tasks from anywhere there’s internet service. Here’s what a Fashion PR representative at BPMC had to say about the service: “We have nicknamed Producteev ‘our personal assistant’, because it has simplified our to do lists and allowed us to work more seamlessly as a team.”

How it Works:

To get started with your account, simply send an email to Producteev with the tasks you wish to create. The service will add these to your account and set alerts for deadlines. You can also remotely add files (such as press releases, client contracts, etc.) to your tasks, and review and sort them within your Producteev inbox.

Pro’s:

• Producteev is especially helpful when it comes to educating users about how to make the most of its services. While the app and its features are standard for all users, Producteev provides a variety of tutorials by profession to help users get the specialized help they need to enhance their productivity.

• It’s dashboard is also one of the more user-friendly, offering helpful links and additional video tutorials along the way.

Con:

• Users have complained about a general lack of customization when it comes to the types of notifications you can set up. This might be limiting if you’re working with a variety of clients with quite different needs.

Compatible: Web, Mac OS, iPhone, Android.

Registration: Relatively straightforward once you complete a standard form via the Productive website. You can also register your account via Facebook.

Price: Since it’s recent acquisition by Jive Software, Producteev is now free! Feel free to add your entire team to your Productive account.

Relax and Go with the Flow

Collaborate with your team as you manage and delegate multiple tasks. Paul DeJoe of Esquire had this to say about his company’s experience with the service: “Flow is the new standard in task management: within three minutes of using it I was in a completely different tier of productivity.”

How it Works:

The Flow dashboard offers a variety of views for easy navigation. By moving between the various tabbed sections (including projects, tags, and contacts), you can easily focus on one very specific aspect of a current task at a time.

Pro’s:

• It’s one of the cleaner, organized, (dare we say sexy) dashboards out there, and works well with the Mac style.

• Flow let’s you invite your team members, or those you’ll be collaborating with on a given project or task, without them having to sign up for the service. This is especially great for instances when you are working with a client or freelancer on a one-time-basis, who would not otherwise sign up for the app.

Con:

• Flow prevents you from editing the section tabs, again lack of customization can be a downside for those of your working with many clients, with multiple tasks for each.

• You also cannot created repeating tasks for your ongoing client relationships.

Compatible: Web, Mac OS, iPhone.

Registration: Create an introductory free account on the Flow website.

Price: Free 14 Day trial, $9.99/month

Wonder Less With Wunderlist 2

With more than 4 million users relying on this app to get things done, the app has received countless endorsements from tech efficiatoes. Songza’s CEO Elias Roman relies on Wunderlist 2, and called it one of his recent obsessions in a Vanity Fair Article: “This very simple, very intuitive to-do-list app makes keeping track of what I’m trying to accomplish on a given day really easy.”

How it Works:

Creating a task is as easy as entering text into a text box at the top of the Wunderlist dashboard and assigning a due date. From there, you can sort and view your tasks by priority or due date.

Pro’s:

• Wunderlist does allow you to customize the organization of your tasks and also bookmark for easy access those tasks that are of a higher immediate priority.

• Wunderlist works with the cloud, so you can share a task or task list online with your social network, visitors to your agency’s website, clients, and others as an HTML version via CloudApp.

Compatible: Web, Mac OS X, Windows, iPhone, iPad, Android.

Registration: sign up on the Wunderlist site to get started with a brand new account.

Price: Free

What helpful tools have you found that help you efficiently manage your time and delegate tasks? We’d love to hear about them!

Photo Credit: dongga BS

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