Upgrade Your To Do List and Stay on Track in 2015

It’s a new year and you know what that means – goal setting time. ‘Tis the season for reinvention.

The first few weeks of January find nearly every one of us setting new goals, reaching higher and farther, aiming to achieve greater success than the year before (or at least, greater success than the competition had the year before).

Most of us will set realistic goals that can be reached with proper planning and effort. Even the dreamers among us will set goals that (mostly) fall somewhere in the realm of possibilities. So why will so many of us fail to reach those goals? And how do we turn “us” into “them”, and find ourselves in the winner’s category instead?

Your blueprint to success

This month the Xerox Small Business team is answering that question, and providing a rock-solid blueprint for success that will help you turn your cant’s into cans and your wishes into wins. Help is never far from reach these days, with a wide assortment of apps designed to help you set your goals, meet your objectives, organize your work, and keep you motivated. 

At the center of your productivity system is the humble To Do list. While some of us are still using pen and paper, there’s a range of digital options available to supercharge task management on your smartphone, tablet or desktop.

Our 5 favorite productivity apps:

• Inbox by Gmail This is what the future of email looks like. The Gmail team started from scratch to make email work for you, in the way you need it. Conversations are automatically grouped, prioritized and managed. Your reminders are seamlessly integrated into your inbox and prompt you for information when you need it, based on time of day or location. Request an invite to get started.
• Todoist For the Project Manager-set, Todoist is your To Do list on steroids. Synced across all your devices, the app organizes your list using due dates, recurring dates, sub-tasks, task priorities, sub-projects and colored projects. You can share projects, assign tasks and collaborate with anyone.
• Wunderlist Great for your recurring tasks, Wunderlist assists you as you make your way through your day. Collaborate with friends and family, and sync your information across devices. Perfect for when you need to capture ideas on the fly, with a simple, clean interface.
• Clear De-clutter your life and make your To Do list neater and more efficient – and more effective. What makes it great is its simplicity. When you need to focus on what matters most, without distraction, this is the one for you.
• Gneo Your calendar and your To Do list in one place – cross referenced for your convenience? There’s an app for that. Great for Productivity-Pros, with features perfect for the GTD (Getting Things Done) method and Evernote automation.

Bonus! Prior to mastering your To Do List system, you need to put a plan on paper that’s aligned to your goals and objectives for the year. Get your thoughts organized with MindJet’s MindManager, which creates mind maps to organize your brainstorming process and help you visualize your goals for the year. (Desktop, iOS and Android)

But before you dive in, take a minute to visit the Xerox Small Business site and download our latest tip sheet on setting your goals for the year. It’s the perfect tool to get you started.  Sign up for tips like these, delivered fresh to your inbox every month with the Office Advisor newsletter.

Let us know…which apps will keep you moving in 2015?

Ready-made tweets, hot off the press and here for the clicking:

Tweet: Stop dreaming and start doing: Tips (and apps!) to help make your business goals a reality in 2015.
Tweet: Resolve to grow your business. We’ve got tips and tools to help.
Tweet: Can an app do all that? Tips and tools to help you grow your business in 2015.