I like to do quarterly review of my tools and systems for being productive. I want to make sure I’m still using all my tools and apps.  I Also want to make sure my setup is still functioning as optimally as possible.

Make it a regular habit to assess and review the tool and apps you use to keep you being productive. 

It doesn’t take long for an app to become outdated from lack of development. Awesome products that you’ve used in the past may become discontinued or just never updated.

The worst time to find out that your beloved notepad is no longer available is when you just used up your last sheet.

At the end of each quarter I take a moment and review my tools and systems. Most companies pause for a moment to check the financials and you should check your productivity system.

I start here:

Capture – What are my current capture tools? I think of capture tools as tools I use to “capture” ideas or notes.

• Note by Squarespace – This is for me one of the best capture tools on my phone. It sit’s in the bottom tray on the right. You open the app, then  type or speak your note, then pull down and it will  send your note. I have it sent to my Nozbe inbox for later processing.
• David Allen Notetaker Wallet – Pen and paper still work great! My wallet is always with me and that means I have a open and paper always handy. I jot down a lot of notes on these little pads of paper.
• Evernote Photo – After a meeting I take a photo of my notes with the photo feature in Evernote. Evernote is linked with calendar and will title my notes and date it. I simply tag and move to my file cabinet folder.
• Action Book Mini  & Action Book– At work this sit’s open on my desk. I capture any random note in this book and also use it to organize my focus for the day.  I use the full sized Action Book for taking meeting notes. I find I really like the larger for a meeting.
• Outlook & Gmail – I have to capture email somewhere. These work well enough.

Process – Where do I process what I capture?

• Nozbe – Everything is processed in Nozbe. There are many programs out there and Nozbe is one of the best. It’s important to use only one system, whether it be a paper based or digital system for this step. You want all your “stuff” and by that I mean your project lists, task lists, waiting for’s, etc to be in one location. I have a few different ways to capture what’s on my mind but they all get processed into Nozbe. That’s an important thing to note, everything goes into Nozbe.

Reference – Once it’s been processed how can I reference it later?

• Evernote – This is my digital file cabinet. Anything that I may want to reference later goes here. I use a tag system to easily find what I need later on.
• PDF Expert – I could and do use Evernote for PDF’s but I can drag and drop PDF’s into a folder in Dropbox that sync’s to PDF Expert. This is fast and easy for me to do. I also really love the tools in PDF Expert and I find it easy to scan my PDF’s and find the right one. I mostly store PDF’s that I’m in the process of referencing right now. I will either delete or save a PDF in to Evernote once I’m done with it.
• Dropbox – I keep project files in Dropbox. It’s a wonderful program and allows me to access any files most anywhere. It’s a pretty see less integration with all the Office Apps (Word, Excel, etc.) with Dropbox. I can pretty much open any document anywhere on any device.
• OneDrive – I do most of my writing using Word Online and the iPad app. It syncs really well and I use the offline feature on iPad for when I’m not connected to wifi. This has really been a game changer for me. I truly can use my iPad for most anything.

My conclusion is that all tools work and work well. With these apps and tools I can do pretty much everything I need to do. Yes I do use other apps for specific purposes but these apps cover all my bases during the day. I suggest you check them out.

What do you use? Let me know about It on Twitter.