Productivity Tips and Tools from the Buffer Community

The Buffer community shared their favorite productivity tools, tips and books in #bufferchat!

Catch our weekly Twitter chat, #bufferchat, every week on Wednesdays, 9 am PT/Noon ET/4 pm GMT, for valuable industry insights and networking with nearly 400 other smart marketers and community managers.

What are your top three essential productivity apps?

Resources shared by the community:

• Evernote
• Todoist
• Feedly
• GoogleKeep
• Trello
• Buffer
• MeetEdgar
• Hootsuite
• BuzzSumo
• Outlook
• Slack
• Pocket
• Headspace
• Toggl
• SEMRush
• WordTracker
• GoogleDocs
• Sprinklr
• Basecamp
• Asana
• Ghost
• AnyDO
• Wunderlist
• AwesomeNote
• ProductHunt
• Sunrise
• Nozbe
• Stitcher

See the full tweets in answer to question 1 here!

How do you balance authenticity with automation?

• “With one rule. Automate content NOT conversation!” @lifeofaworkgirl
• “Integrate your brand personality into whatever you’re automating…only use automation for select things. Always BE THERE.” @weintraubl
• “Schedule a few basic things in advance, but make sure you’re available for interaction / engaging regularly.” @sarahfromDC

See all the great answers to question 2 here!

What’s the greatest productivity advice you’ve ever received?

• “The best productivity advice: Plan your work and work your plan. Love that one!” @madalynsklar
• “Focus, focus, focus. Don’t try to do everything & get swamped and stretched. Less is more – go for quality” @bditcheva
• “If something takes less than 2 min to complete, or can be started in 2 min, do it. Our director swears by it!” @brighthausgroup

See all the great answers to question 3 here!

What productivity book or method has helped you with your workflow?

• “As with everything, find what works best for you. Keep testing your workflow to find optimizations.” @benbrausen
• “Mindfulness has helped me more than anything. Bringing myself back to the present helps me focus on the task at hand” @J_rouser
• “I prefer to use classic methods such as manually writing out my to-do list. Repetition helps me remember!” @Anne_E_Mercer

Books recommended:

• Getting Things Done by Dave Allen
• The Four-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey

See all the great answers to question 4 here!

How often do you reflect on your routine and workflow?

• “Daily! Doesn’t mean I make changes everyday but means that I react if needed and change routines as needed!” @joelrrenner
• “Daily or weekly. Daily, if I feel things aren’t flowing. At the end of week I think about improvements for moving forward.” @TheMissNicolina
• “Every time I use a workflow or routine I evaluate how well it worked for that task and how I can make it better” @sales_prodigy

See all the great answers to question 5 here!

For anyone working alone, remotely or freelancing, do have any tips on self-motivating?

• “Keep a routine. Have regular “office” hours. I keep my laptop ONLY in home office and don’t go into office when not working” @lucyrk78
• “Work out your style. If that means work at night, do it. Don’t be afraid to test something new” @biancajsmith
• “I’ve worked remote for 17 years, build a solid to do list, knock it out then take a break enjoy being remote” @rockatdell

See all the great answers to question 6 here!

Who do you follow for good productivity tips?

• SocialMedia2Day
• Jeff Goins
• Entrepreneur
• Buffer Blog
• Minimalists
• Pat Flynn
• John Lee Dumas
• Tim Ferriss
• Charlie Gilkey
• Gary Vee
• Michael Hyatt
• Forbes
• Business Insider
• TED Talks
• Lifehacker
• Hubspot
• Hootsuite
• Social Media Examiner
• Stever Robbins
• Mary E Fern
• Neil Patel
• Brian Clark
• Jerod Morris
• Remotive.io
• Harvard Biz
• Inc
• Medium
• Check out this Twitter list created by Lindsey Weintraub from suggested people to follow on productivity!

See all the great answers to question 7 here!

Thank you so much for everyone who joined in on this great chat!

Catch #bufferchat each Wednesday at 9 am Pacific/noon Eastern and join our Google+ community for the latest news. We also have launched a brand-new Slack community to continue these awesome conversations all week long! Join 500+ people there!

Do you have any comments or answers to these questions? Leave your thoughts in the comments! We’d love to hear from you!

Image sources: UnSplash