31 Best Free Time Management Tools: How to Be More Productive

By: | September 24, 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , , |

Are you here for descriptions of time management tools?

You are in the right place.

It gets better: These time management tools are all free.

31 Time Management Tools

Someone recently observed, “We are all time poor.”

Can you relate? I can.

That’s why I use the time management tools in this article.

I’ve used them, love them, and am recommending the time management tools to you.

In addition, this article will post testimonials so you can see how much other people believe these apps and websites are genuinely the best time management tools available today.

These free time management tools are grouped by their functions:

Tools and websites which will help you save time with your

  • Emails
  • Headlines
  • Social Media Scheduling
  • Blog Promotion
  • Blog Post Research
  • Blog Post Composition
  • Collaboration
  • Organization
  • Overall Productivity

Consider these comments by blogger Gilly Madison:

I am in awe of people who can implement all these strategies while holding down jobs outside!!!!

I absolutely lost track of networking ages ago and I have no idea how you can have a reading/commenting/writing schedule that works.

I don’t have an outside job but I have very ancient parents that have both had challenging illnesses in the last two years.

I am frequently absent from my own blog for weeks at a time while looking after them and each time I return from another crisis,  I find any networking I was doing has collapsed.

I am not the only person with impossible demands on time I am sure – so how do people cope with keeping up effective networking when life gives you several extra balls to juggle?

My answer to Gilly, Kathleen, who observed, “We are all time-poor,” and others feeling the time crunch, is in this post.

31 Free Time Management Tools

Email Organization Tools

Use these tools to save time organizing your email inbox. Since these are Google tools, you’d use these with your Gmail account.

  • Gmass Gmass is a Google tool. GMass is a powerful mass emailing service that integrates seamlessly with Gmail, Google apps, and Google Drive. It has the ability to send emails as either a brand new email or as a reply to a previous thread, offering up to 8 automatic follow-ups that you can set and forget. It breaks daily sending limits, avoids spam filters, and allows for unlimited personalization in mass email campaigns. Recently, they added a feature where you can get your emails proofread by an English expert to correct common spelling and punctuation mistakes, and give suggestions on how to improve your email’s grammatical and contextual strength. It truly is an amazing piece of technology that can save you hours of work time and it’s hassle free! You can use GMass free to send 50 emails per day. Sign up here to improve your email productivity.
  • Inbox This is is also a Google tool which works with your Gmail account. Inbox is an app that speeds up your email productivity. It sorts your emails into categories for you such as promos and social. Quickly delete emails with a swipe of a finger. Testimonial: Lifehack recommends Google Inbox as a productivity tool.
  • Unroll.me. This tool helps you organize your email inbox. It emails you when unfamiliar emails come into your inbox and asks you what to do with the email. Your choices are keep “rolled up” so they all come in at once, delete, or keep in your inbox.

Headline Tools

Use these tools to save time making headlines.

  • Hook Line Dynamic This tool is helpful for writing headlines and also helpful for writing email subject lines.
  • Portent The powers that be over at Portent tend to offer silly, but entertaining, headline ideas.
  • Advanced Marketing Institute The Advanced Marketing Institute will analyze the merit of your headline for you. The Advanced Marketing Institute actually takes the guess-work out of headline writing, so the effectiveness of your headline is no longer subjective.

Social Media Scheduling Tools

These tools will save you time with social media promotion. They all offer free pricing plans.

  • Buffer Automate your social media promotion with Buffer. Testimonial: I will provide a testimonial for Buffer. I wrote 17 Reasons Buffer Will Blow Your Mind.
  • Hootsuite Automate your social media promotion with Hootsuite. Testimonial: Scotts Marketplace recommends Hootsuite.
  • IFTTT  Is an amazing cause and effect app. You create a combination of causes and effects to occur. For example, if you wanted your newest WordPress or Blogger article to post to your various social media accounts, it would promote your posts at the social media sites of your choice for you. After a quick setup, you don’t have to think about social media scheduling again. IFTTT takes care of it for you. Testimonial: Cracker Jack Scribe calls IFTTT “one of the most fantastic tools around.”
  • Missinglettr Missinglettr is a free automated social media scheduling service which will promote your content on social media for a year using a drip campaign. More details about Missinglettr and a sign-up link can be found here.

Blog Promotion

Use these sites to save time with blog promotion. You can get new audiences exposed to your old content by posting your content at these sites. Since these have apps, you can access them on your mobile device as well as on your computer.

  • DrumUp retweets for you. Blogging is about relationships, so it’s important you retweet other people’s links. Finding tweets your Twitter followers would find interesting takes time. DrumUp saves you that time.
  • Quora is about empowering people with your information. However, in your answers to Quora’s visitors, you can include relevant links to your articles with additional information. Since it’s a Question and Answer site, you can also use Quora to conduct research for your blog posts.
  • Medium has an app as well. You can get new eyes on old content by curating your posts at this site.

Blog Post Research

Many bloggers report research for their posts takes hours. Speed things up with these tools.

  • Atlas Recall is a companion app for the iOS, Android, Mac or Windows. This tool helps you have a photographic memory of your desktop. Return to websites you remember enjoying but can’t find again.
  • Amazon’s Alexa will answer your questions, make jokes, and offer you compliments.
  • Siri for the iOS: This tool has the same function as Amazon’s Alexa.
  • Google Now Open Google on your phone. Say “OK Google,” and you can use Google to conduct your blog post research using Voice Search.

Blog Post Composition

  • Grammarly Let Your Chrome Browser tell you if you have an error and save time editing. Testimonial: Kingged’s Hafiz Akinde recommends Grammarly.

Blog Commenting

Save time responding to commenters and repeatedly answering the same questions. Let your chatbot represent you 24/7!

  • Chatbot Don’t take up space on your blog with a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. Let your chatbot answer your questions for you. Thanks to the genius of Bottr.me, you can have a chatbot greet your website visitors and answer frequently asked questions. Imagine the time you’ll save! Enter the age of machine learning. Your chatbot learns quickly how to greet guests and respond as you would. Go ahead and try it! Ask my chatbot a question!

Collaboration Tools

These time management tools will help you collaborate with your blogging associates.

  • Timezone Have you ever wondered what the time is where your associates are around the world? I have. One of my V.A.s lives in Egypt. I don’t know what time it is there when I need him. Others I come into contact with through blogging live in England. I’m in California. I often can’t understand why they don’t respond to my emails until they tell me they were sleeping. Timezone is a website which will tell you the time around the world.
  • Trello Blogger Gail Gordon uses Trello. She empowers other bloggers by showing them information on Trello boards. Trello can be used by groups. Blogging mastermind groups use Trello to show resources and other visual aids on Trello boards.
  • Google Docs Do you ever collaborate on blog posts or sales copy? Google Docs is ideal for working with guest authors as well. By sharing the document to someone’s email, you can collaborate on the same doc in real time.
  • Skype Save time emailing people you collaborate with. Talk in real time to your virtual assistants, guest authors, and people who want to utilize your services for sponsored posts.

Organization

You’ll be more productive if you are more organized. You can be with these tools.

  • Dropbox Both an app and a website, Dropbox helps you store all kinds of documents and data. Open your data wherever you are. No hard drive is needed. Never lose your documents or photos again. You will always have them handy.
  • Evernote Store your ideas for future posts here. Evernote works great as a storage place. Although Evernote recently raised its pricing plan, this valuable tool is still free to use on two devices. You can use it on your phone, tablet, or computer. Before the company put limitations on the number of devices, I was using Evernote constantly to store my ideas for my blog and personal tasks. Testimonial: Cascade Avenue calls Evernote “the best tool out there for brainstorming sessions.”
  • Google Keep Despite all my choices, I keep returning to Google Keep which uses a post-it note theme. I pin urgent tasks to the top of the screen and color code based on the category of my task. This is a note taking app made by Google which has a really easy to use interface and comes with handy tags to organize your notes. Also, since it is owned by Google, you’ll never really need to backup your notes as they keep your data very secure and safe! Testimonial: Nicole, the admin of The Professional Mom Project, recommends Google Keep. The app works with both Android and iOS.
  • Todoist This app is similar to Google Keep. It lets you prioritize your tasks and you can color code them. Since I am using my Google login, it could send me a reminder if my task was time-sensitive if I wanted. Oops! I missed completing a task. Guess what happened? Todoist emailed me a reminder. You give them your email when you set up your account. To add to the excitement of Todoist, the app incorporates karma points. When the app emailed me to let me know I had an overdue to-do, it let me know my karma score. Testimonials: The Verge calls Todoist the best to do list app out there! The It Starts with Coffee blog also recommends Todoist for its simplicity.
  • WorkFlowy Make to-do lists on the computer and see them appear in your phone in your WorkFlowy app. Are you making to-dos on your phone? No problem; they will appear on your computer at workflowy.com where you can continue to reference them and modify them. In addition, the folks over at WorkFlowy email you tips about how to use their app productively.
  • Wunderlist With this handy app, you are able to create lists for you and members of your household. You can email their task list to them. You can organize your lists into folders. Reorder your lists by the date your tasks must be completed or even in alphabetical order. Use the star to prioritize your more important tasks. Check your list from anywhere since your app syncs with the computer. The app is compatible with iOS, MAC, and PC. 

Overall Productivity

  • ezClocker This app is a time tracking and scheduling software for small businesses. If you have employees that are not tech savvy, then this app is a perfect fit for you and your team. With a 4.8 out of 5.0 App Store rating, no wonder small business owners love it. From its simple design to the various features it supports like clock in/out GPS location, restrict early clock in, overtime, and so much more.
  • Apploye Apploye is a comprehensive time tracker that gives organizations what they need in terms of size and functionality. It’s a platform that helps businesses of all sizes, especially remote teams. It helps to ensure accountability and keep track of hours/scheduling on an easy-to-read dashboard.
  • Timr This app tracks your time. It starts immediately while you’re working. At the end of the day, your total work is tracked so you can see how productive you’ve been. The app works with iOS.
  • Toggl This app has a timer. The Toggl Work Time Tracker tracks how much time you spend on each of your activities. Do you find you get engrossed in blogging tasks and don’t know where your time went? Toggl can tell you. Testimonial: Zapier recommends Toggl as one of the best time trackers and calls it “powerful.”
 

Wrapping Up: Time Management Tools

 
In closing, it may be true that we are all “time poor.”

 

 
However, today, time management tools and websites exist which are free and can help you more quickly complete your blogging tasks. Although many of the time management tools described in this article were specifically geared toward helping bloggers boost their productivity, many of these tools can help everyone.

 

 
If you use the tools and websites recommended to you in this article, you won’t be as “time poor” as you were before.

 

 
Readers, please share so others can have more quality time.

 

 
I look forward to your views: Are you using any of these time management tools? Do you recommend them to others? What’s your favorite time management tool?

 

 
Click here to get your own downloadable PDF of my free blogging tools list.
 

 

 

Related Posts:

More information about these tools can be found in my post 123 Best Free Blogging Tools to Save You Time Blogging.

 

Other Related Posts:

Source:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/298293#18

Disclaimer: This was a sponsored post, but the opinions contained herein are my own.

 

 

  1. Joy Healey

    Hi Janice,

    I can certainly relate to feeling time poor, so all these tools for better time management are really helpful.

    I already use (and love) Buffer and Missinglettr.

    The tool I’m going to investigate from your list is Google Keep. I already use Sticky Notes on each machine I work on, which works great – until I move to another one. So if Google Keep can keep them all synchronized that would be brilliant.

    I’m a big fan of Google Contacts and Calendar already for storing all my info.

    Joy Healey – Blogging After Dark

  2. Susan Velez

    Hi Janice,

    I love using free tools that help me make the most of my day. Like so many other bloggers, I find myself struggling with managing my time properly. I am still freelancing for clients, so I don’t get too much time to work on my blog.

    I love using Google Docs, I use it to as my editorial calendar. Whenever I come up with a new topic to write for, I’ll write it down on Google Doc. I now have over 100 topics that I can write about on my blog.

    I haven’t heard of Google Keep, but it looks pretty cool.

    Thanks for sharing these time management tools with us.

    Have a great day 🙂

    Susan

  3. Judy Martin

    All this info in one place is just perfect. Thanks so much Janice 🙂

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Judy,
      Thanks for coming by. I am always happy to help. This is the first time I’ve grouped the tools by function. Glad you found the lists valuable.
      Janice

  4. Becca

    Ugh, I am definitely time poor! Looking into some of these ideas now, and some I can attest are fab! I LOVE Wunderlist– I use it at work, with my blog, and even personal to-dos!

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Becca,
      Thanks for writing with this testimonial about Wunderlist. I use it for those things as well.
      Janice

  5. Diana

    The only issue I have with these time saving sites is that I need time to decide which ones I need and then how to successfully us them. 😉

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Diana,
      I agree. Many times deciding which tools we prefer comes down to the “shotgun effect.” We try many and then decide which tools we prefer to use permanently. Thanks for your comments.
      Janice

  6. Marjorie Mallon

    This looks really something I should investigate! So I’m sharing it to the #ABRSC for when I have more time!

  7. Golden Okechukwu

    Hi Janice,

    Its been a while.

    I can really relate to your question.

    One thing that has turned us all into murderers is that we kill time.

    As I am writing this comment I still got other things I need to do on Facebook, Twitter, My blog and other blogs.

    Hence time mangement tool are essential.

    Thank you so much for the list.

    Do have a nice day.

    Golden.

  8. Ryan Biddulph

    Hi Janice,

    What a list of fabulous tools.

    I figured out something a while back; I was never time poor, when I appeared to be running out of time. I just chose what I valued. Meaning, when I got down to it, I valued virtually all things in my life, more than blogging.

    When I valued my freedom and blogging above almost everything else, I built my day around blogging and freedom, even as I circled the globe, spending a serious amount of time offline in some spots.

    I admire folks who blog part time because having a 9-5 can eat into your schedule but time and again, the folks that succeed and building full time income earning blogs while holding down full time jobs spend most of their free time blogging, showing what they truly value, because when you put the time and energy in now, you and your family will appreciate it 1 or 2 years down the road, when you have the life of freedom and oodles of time to do whatever you want to do.

    We always make time for what we most value and of course, even through the 40 hour a week 9-5 crowd is faced with a unique set of challenges, success is the ultimate destination when you value freedom and blogging more than virtually everything else, save your family.

    I think I can be a good example because even though I blog full time, as a pro, many folks wonder how I am able to do what I do, guest posting wise, blog commenting wise and seemingly being everywhere wise, being one human being with 24 hours a day.

    I promise, I sleep 7-8 hours and spend some solid time offline but I value guest posting and blog commenting over virtually all else so I commit to both, big-time, and put most other activities aside.

    Thanks for sharing Janice.

    Ryan

  9. Ruth Bowers

    This is an amazing list of tools! I use a few of these, and see a few i’d like to try out. My favorite of all you have listed here is Toggl. I use it for keeping track of my own projects and for billable client hours too.

  10. Prince Akwarandu

    Hi Janice,

    I learn that people who manage to get a lot accomplished each day aren’t superhuman; they’ve just mastered a few simple habits and used some productivity tools too. The ones you listed here are great tools with nice features. For the headline tools I’ve used Portent which a great one by the way.

    I’m using a good number of the tools listed here. And it is an amazing stuff because they help me stay organized even in the virtual world. Developing good quality friendships is one of the key secrets to living to 100, as we meet with people. Thus, I’m going off to hang out with some of the tools here that are new to me.

    Have a great day, Janice 🙂

  11. Elise Cohen Ho

    It is so interesting that email marketing is taking a backseat to anything. It is something that makes little sense when it is the true cornerstone of connecting to your clients.

  12. SaraBeth

    Oh, Janice, many of these are my time savers too. I’ll have to check out Gmass – sounds interesting.
    I really like Inbox because I can add notes and set reminders to send an email at a later date.

    I am a fan of GKeep – quick snip and notes and to-do lists throughout the day. One way I use it is to track comments. Like this one, I’ll grab the URL of the comment I posted add it to my weekly “check-in” and return to see if there is a reply.

    This helps me free up my inbox of all the comment reply notifications.

    Yes, we’re all time poor but we also decide what we spend our time on.

    I too have elderly parents who need my assistance. Some days are just one interruption after another. I’ve chosen to wake up 2 hours early to get my “deep work” done. (writing and creative work)

  13. Santosh Yadav

    Thank you so much for sharing this up! Its really true! I will share this to my friends and clients today!

  14. Jarvee

    We are all time poor these days Janice. If we want to have some quality time, we need to work smarter. There are so many tools out there that can help us, we just need to find those that will actually save our time and not waste it.

    I would like to recommend our tool Jarvee that is basically your social media assistant. You can use it to automate different social networks, schedule your posts and easily gather real users that are interested in you niche. Hope it will help more people to do things faster and better so that they can have more time to spend doing what they enjoy!

  15. Emenike Emmanuel

    What amazing tools you’ve got here!

    Thank you, Janice for sharing this with us. I really appreciate. Managing one’s time is something that needs to be given priority if one really want to be productive.

    Emenike

  16. Izuzu Nworgu

    This is great!
    Being productive despite too much responsibilities/tasks can be a bit tough for some of us.
    The most important thing is being able to discipline yourself to be successful in the productivity hustle.

    I use some of these tools and I love the results I’ve seen so far.

    Chatbox and atlas recall sounds great.
    Can’t wait to test them!

    I’ve written on this topic (productivity) some time ago although the post mentioned other things.

    Thank you for sharing this.?
    ~Izuzu

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Izuzu,
      It sounds like we are in the same niche. I saw your headline about the expert bloggers’ tips. I too have an expert blogger interview scheduled for this Sunday. I’d be happy if you returned with your productivity post. I’d love to see it.
      You indicated you were interested in having a chatbot. I’m glad! Did you try talking to mine?
      Janice

  17. candy

    Wow your post is packed full of information. Will be saving this to read and go through many times. Found you on Bloggers Pit Stop

    • Janice Wald

      Thank you so much Candy for your kind words about my post. Enjoy the tools. Thank you for bookmarking.
      Janice

  18. Clearissa Coward

    An excellent list. I use Dropbox and Google Docs at my 9 – 5 I am really interested in Google Keep. I am bookmarking for when I have time to investigate this list more thoroughly.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Clearissa,
      I just saw this comment. My apologies for not replying sooner. Thanks for commenting and bookmarking. I like those tools as well especially Google Keep.
      Janice

  19. Software Testing Company

    Hi Buddy,

    Great article.

    And the tools that you have mentioned are very useful in increasing the productivity of the business and also achieving business heights.

    I will also try to use some of the tools for my software testing business (TestingXperts), and I also thinks that ranking for software development type project is bit difficult.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi,
      Why is it difficult? Do you use keyword tools to help you know which focus keywords are easiest to rank for?
      Thanks for commenting on my tools post.
      Janice

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Tom,
      Thanks for contributing to the discussion by sharing a tool. I may have heard of it.
      Janice

  20. Antoine Aarts

    Hey Janice,

    Great Post Buddy!!!!

    I have previously also read your article and what you post is worth reading. Now I would look forward to read more from your side. It is true that in today’s world time management is mandatory. The tools you have share,d they are like treasures for the time management. I would sure take this into consideration.Thanks a lot for sharing this amazing piece of information and Keep Sharing!!!!

  21. Atif Shahab

    Well, above all are excellent productivity boosting tools. Among team collaboration tools, i found one name missing and its TaskQue.

    • Janice Wald

      Thank you for writing with the recommendation. Is it a free tool?
      Janice

Would you like to share your thoughts?

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

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Instagram
Pinterest
fb-share-icon
LinkedIn
Share
%d bloggers like this: