3 Tools Under $20 That Help Me Stay Productive as a Creator
Here’s how I get more done in 10 days than in 10 weeks.
Here’s how I get more done in 10 days than in 10 weeks.
The life of a self-employed individual is not as glamorous as social media depicts.
There’s no one to tell when to do what. Unlike a job, there’s no authority guiding you to work in a defined set of time. Being your own boss might sometimes lead you to make bad decisions that spill your schedule all over the place.
A lot of times, you’d feel you’re working round the clock, and still can’t strike off more than 1–2 items on your to-do list.
This is way worse than a job.
But you know what? You don’t deserve to be in this situation.
You took this risk to come out of your comfort zone to be vulnerable in this self-employed life to outgrow yourself. You deserve to succeed.
This is why in this article, I’m compiling a list of three amazing productivity tools to help you regain control of your time and achieve all your self-employed goals.
These tools are not just plain recommendations, but I’ve actually used them and loved the impact they created.
1. Centered — Helps you beat distractions
How many times do you set out to accomplish something but your phone rang midway? And the next thing you know, you’re spending hours on Twitter rather than getting your work done.
Distractions are a major productivity killer. According to Deep Work by Cal Newport, quality work can only be done when you’re in a flow state. Creating something of value requires you to focus.
But how to control this itch of checking your phone again & again and remain in a flow state? That’s where Centered comes in.
Here’s what it does
Centered is a tool that helps you get into a flow state quicker and stay there longer to be more productive, accomplished, and happier.
What makes it different from other tools is that you’re not working alone. Rather, you join a group of people from all over the world who are all in a flow state with you at the same time.
It also has some amazing features to help you enter a flow state faster:
- Scientifically designed Flow Music that helps your brain focus for a long period of time.
- An AI Coach called Noah who guides you through completing your tasks and taking regular breaks.
- Distraction blocker to prevent you from using distracting apps.
… and many more.
The app also employs the Pomodoro Technique to help you squeeze the most productivity out of your day possible.
I love this tool so much that I’m using it while writing this article.
Here’s a quick walkthrough:
Step 1: Open Centered or download it on your desktop. Enter the tasks you want to accomplish today in the “Up Next” Bucket.
Step 2: Move the tasks that you wish to accomplish in one session inside the “This Session” Bucket. Then click “Get Flowing”.
Step 3: Yayy! Now you entered a flow session with people from all over the world who’re also in flow with you.
Being in a flow session with a group of people doing their work makes you insanely accountable and you won’t believe how much you’ll get done in just a few sessions.
If you care about your productivity, Centered is absolutely worth a try.
Cost
The free plan provides pretty much everything that you need at the start.
In case you wish to use features like full customization, comprehensive analytics, or privacy options like a solo flow session, then you can purchase the premium version which costs $10/month. To get the premium for free for 3 months, visit here and use the promo code: ANANGSHA. That’s my gift to you for being my reader.
2. Motion — helps you prioritize your day
We all get the same 24 hours in a day. Yet, some people manage to accomplish more in less time while others cannot finish a single task. They keep wishing only if they had more time.
But this is not a time issue. It’s a prioritization issue.
The calendars or to-do lists we use to schedule our tasks are not smart enough to tell us what is necessary to be done at what time.
That’s why I use Motion to schedule my day.
Here’s what it does:
Motion optimizes your day by automatically generating a single schedule that includes all of your tasks and meetings using artificial intelligence.
It removes all the manual, repetitive work of going to and from your calendar and to-do list to prioritize your work.
All you have to do is enter your tasks and schedule meetings. It connects with your calendar and prioritizes your tasks based on your meetings, deadlines, and work hours, and presents them to you in a single view.
In case you miss a deadline or something unexpected arises, Motion will reschedule your calendar for you. There are many more things Motion does that make your life ultra-productive. Check them out here.
I love how seamlessly Motion combines everything and gives me a single schedule to follow. Earlier, I used to spend a lot of time wondering whether to do this or that. Now, Motion does all that thinking for me. It’s very user-friendly and super easy to use. You’d never have to worry about your schedule again with this app.
Cost
Their price is only 62 cents a day (a 5-day free trial is available). Check for the whole pricing structure here.
3. Hypefury — helps you conquer Twitter
As a creator, Twitter is a great place to build your audience. To get found, you need to keep posting thoughtful ideas. This can end up taking a lot of your time and energy.
Showing up every day and posting at times when you’re lacking the drive is not an easy task. This can also drop the quality of your writing, and hence the engagement.
To help you take care of your Twitter strategy without burning out, Hypefury is my go-to tool.
Here’s what it does
Hypefury helps you show up consistently and deliver your content without overwhelming yourself.
Using this tool, you can set a posting schedule for your tweets to go out at the time you want. This way you can focus on writing your best content and not have to worry about when to post.
You need to schedule tweets because you get your best tweet ideas at random times. Sometimes while running, showering, or eating.
But if you try to tweet whenever inspiration hits you, these two things will happen:
- You might not write it well: Trying to rush an idea out of your head into an understandable way requires you to think. The content might not make much sense to the reader if you’re in a hurry.
- Your audience might not engage: This is because you’re Tweeting when you’re active, not when your audience is active.
So by using Hypefury, you can focus on writing multiple tweets at once (which improves the quality of writing) and schedule them to go out when you know your followers are most active.
Plus, it has a lot of amazing growth features like:
- Recurrent posts: This allows you to create categories, write tweets under them and publish in different time slots. This makes sure you cover all the topics you want to talk about without repeating yourself.
2. Evergreen Posts: Helps you to retweet an already published tweet that did well.
3. Follow-up Tweets: Helps you add an extra “call-to-action” tweet to your already published tweets.
4. Auto-DM: With this feature, you will no longer have to spend hours sending out hundreds of DMs to people who engage with your tweet. All it takes is a few clicks to get it done.
To set up your Auto DM, you can toggle it on in the Advanced tab while composing the tweet. Set the engagement on when to trigger the DM. It can either be a reply, a retweet, or both.
Once done, Hypefury will send up to 1000 DMs per day to help you convert an engagement into a lead. This is probably one of the best ways for lead generation from Twitter.
Like these, Hypefury offers many more amazing features than any other Twitter automation tool I’ve seen.
It does make your life much easier and I know folks on Twitter would agree.
Cost
Hypefury has a free plan that’s enough for you to get started. If you want the extra features, upgrade to their paid plan starting from $15.83/month. Check the whole pricing structure here.
Final Words
It’s not uncommon to have a schedule that’s often messed up. This is because we rely a lot on motivation rather than the discipline of getting work done. It impacts our performance and reflects badly on our financials.
Hence, in this article, I’ve shared three productivity tools with you to boost your performance, so you don’t feel like you are working all the time and still not getting much done:
- Centered: A tool built upon Pomodoro Technique to help you enter the flow state and get quality work done.
- Motion: An AI tool that gives you a simple schedule to follow. It combines your to-do list, calendar, and meetings all in one place to prioritize your work.
- Hypefury: A Twitter scheduling app to help you conquer Twitter without being active all the time.
I hope this article has filled you with the hope of regaining control over your time. Start using them today and you’ll be surprised at how much you get done in no time at all.
Author’s note: Some of the links mentioned in this article are sponsored. But I love these tools so much, I would never have shared them with you if I didn’t think they can add amazing value to your life and journey as a self-employed individual.
Want to be a successful freelancer but struggling to find good clients? Check out my 90-day guide to finding your first high-paying freelance client. You’ll find 5 pitching secrets, 2 email templates, and a solid framework to get your freelancing career started.
