In a world full of distractions, focusing on your work as an entrepreneur can be a tough task. From back to back meetings, occupied work desks, and busy timetables, today’s entrepreneurs and workers have too much on their plate.

In such a messy environment, streamlining your work, arranging your desks, bags, and even your computer and phone screens can enhance your productivity without you realizing it. When your surroundings are less hectic, you spend less time searching for things and have more time to focus on the important tasks at hand.

Fortunately, there are many apps to help you maximize your time and energy and bring your work into shape. The concept of moving from paper towards apps is not new as multinational tech giants such as IBM have already tried them in their offices to streamline their workflow.

The whole purpose of switching to apps is to increase productivity without having to worry about going through a mess of things to search for the items you need. It not only saves you time but also changes your temperament and gets your overall mood fit for the work.

The apps compiled below are designed to streamline your work and help you to achieve more in less time.

Five apps to streamline your work:

With a plethora of options available, it is not easy to narrow down your choices to the best apps. To help you with the process, here are the 5 best apps that will improve your productivity and put an end to the mess surrounding your work.

Dropbox:

While most of the businesses have gone paper-free in the past few years, some still suffer from overcomplicated file sharing and messy storage management. The processes of exchanging physical files or sharing them via email are less secure and pose threats to privacy. There is also the fear of losing your storage drive and the important data it contains. Therefore, businesses need to adopt intelligent storage management to save time and relieve themselves of importing files from the phone and other PCs.

Dropbox is the leading player in the online file-sharing world used by businesses around the globe. Dropbox Basic – the entry-level plan – offers 2 GB of free storage; however, you can upgrade to the Dropbox Plus or Dropbox Professional plans for $9.99 and $16.58, respectively. The Plus plan offers 2 TB of storage with sync and sharing features. The Professional plan allows users to use up to 3 TB (3,000 GB) of storage space, where you can share work, secure your files, and leave feedback all in one organized place.

Dropbox also offers a Business plan for teams with Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise plans. The Standard package provides 3 TB of space, while the remaining two plans offer as much storage as you need.

Trello:

Businesses also need task and project management apps or software to track their ongoing jobs.

Trello is an invaluable project management app that enables teams to see pending tasks, important deadlines, and completed tasks in a single glance. It also allows team members to create cards for each task, which represents a part of the project. Members can leave messages, attach files, and set due dates for a task on each card. The ‘drag and drop’ interface makes it a highly intuitive and user-friendly app.

Trello is mainly a free app that allows users to create unlimited boards, cards, and lists. Members can also collaborate with other members through the free version of Trello. However, it also offers three paid versions. They are:

• Trello Gold: This version provides some additional features such as three Power-Ups per board, premium stickers, customized background, and file attachments of up to 250 MB.
• Trello Business Class: The Trello Business Class includes all the features of Trello Gold and the free version. It also provides various business-oriented features, including unlimited Power-Ups per board, data sorting, and export options with a single click.
• Trello Enterprise: This version is suitable for businesses that have extensive needs. It is tailored-fit for large companies and organizations which must coordinate with multiple teams at the same time.

Salesmate CRM:

Keeping sales, support, marketing, and customer service in sync is a Herculean task for many businesses. Poor customer relationships and poor coordination among teams can damage sales figures, which is where a CRM software or app comes in. The Salesmate CRM is a system that helps individuals, teams, and businesses to streamline their tasks and convert leads into customers. It is a simple and easy to use platform that accelerates sales through pipeline management, smart emails, and tracking teams’ activities.

The CRM app also increases productivity through sales and data entry automation and deal management. Teams can track sales goals, forecast sales, and integrate the app with Gmail, WordPress, Squarespace, Shopify, Google Drive, and many others.

The Salesmate CRM offers a 15-days free trial where users can enjoy all the features of the system. After the trial period ends, the app costs $12 per month when billed annually.

Expensify:

Bookkeeping and finance management can be a nightmare for business owners. Investing in a good accounting app, therefore, becomes inevitable. Expensify is an app with comprehensive features that helps you streamline your expense reports by merely citing and photographing your expenses on the go. It frees you from keeping receipts filing up for the end of the month. With Expensify, all a user needs to do is take a picture of the receipt and forward it to the relevant address where it adds to the pre-existing records.

The app also reports the number of hours worked along with the pay rate so that you can submit them without any hassle. The Basic Expensify functionality is free; however, there are paid versions that offer additional features such as SmartScans, auto-categorization of expenses, and auto-exporting.

Hookt:

People always need secure communication for sharing images, video files, audio messages, as well as their location with friends at times. Finding the right app for these tasks can be stressful as the online world is full of hacks and scams. Hookt is an AirG spam-free app that allows secure communication and instant messaging.  It also offers features such as group chats, stickers, multi-device, read indicators, and inbox integration. Hookt is 100% free and works well across iPhone, Android, and Blackberry devices.

Conclusion:

Without the right software tools and apps in your arsenal, your work life will be often messy and stressful. Use these apps to simplify your life and maximize your productivity.