Productivity can be rather tough to maintain.  Over the past few days, I’ve felt less than productive.  It’s not really that big of a deal.  I’m starting to learn that you will always have days and weeks where you feel like you are lagging.  I also know I’m not alone on this.  Do you ever have weeks where you just feel like no matter how hard you try to stay on task, you’re simply off your tilt?

A few weeks back, after listing 40 of the tools I use all the time, Tim Baran had mentioned that he’d like to see a list of desktop applications that I find helpful.  Good idea!

The first challenge, though, is that most of the software I use lives on the web.  Challenge two comes in that I’m a mac user stuck in a world that’s still largely dominated by PC’s – so some of my actual desktop tools won’t apply across the board.

At any rate, here are 15 of the desktop tools I use to stay productive:

• YouSendIt – This is a free (and paid upgrade) FTP service that you can use.  The desktop tool makes sending large files to your contacts very easy.  I’ve been using YouSendIt for a few years now and it’s pretty dependable, especially for sending video files.
• EverNote – EverNote rivals Microsoft OneNote in terms of functionality.  Great for document storage and organization, the desktop tool makes it much easier to use.
• Jott – Another web-based to-do list service that also has some interesting collaboration features.  The Jott Express desktop app is pretty clean and the main way I use this.
• Things (Mac) – While I’ve been using Jott for a few years now, I learned about Things from Michael Hyatt’s blog.  What I like is that the desktop tool uses drag and drop lists, which makes organization move much faster.  There are a few additional features aside from what Jott offers and I’m actually thinking about a full switch soon.
• Spaces (Mac) – One of the best local desktop tools available on your Mac, Spaces makes switching between multiple desktop screens uber easy.  I use Spaces every day.
• Stickies (Mac) – another great little add-on to your desktop, stickies gives you a quick, easy and basic word processor without having to open a word or pages document.  Spell check is included.
• Waveboard – Google Wave’s version of a desktop tool that lets you collaborate inside of Wave.  I just wish they would quit asking me to upgrade every time I log in.
• Adium (Mac) – Probably my favorite chat client tool for Mac.  I like Adium because it allows me to pull in Facebook Chat and Google Chat.
• Digsby – This is actually my favorite chat client tool because it pulls in data from multiple social networks, as well as your POP3 Email accounts.  Unfortunately, it’s been almost two years and there is still no version for Mac.
• Yammer – Yammer is a great little internal microblog, for businesses of all sizes, that can help eliminate communication silos in your organization.  Their desktop tool is clean and free of bugs.  If your company currently uses chat to communicate, give Yammer a try.  All you need is an email address that matches your company URL.
• Vimeo Uploader - I host my Skype Sessions on Yammer, simply because most of the interviews go longer than 10 minutes.  Vimeo Uploader is one of the better desktop tools for uploading video in that it’s fast, but also has the ability to pause the upload if you need to unplug from the Interwebz for any reason.
• EggTimer (Mac) – This is a dashboard widget for Mac that’s a great little desktop tool for keeping yourself in check, in terms of the time you spend on various tasks.  Great tool for productivity.
• TidySongs - Do you have a ton of duplicates in your iTunes library?  Want to clean them up, add album artwork, titles and other info without spending hours.  TidySongs is one of the best desktop tools you can use to do this.  It’s not free, but it’s worth the nominal cost and works great.
• Keynote (Mac) – I’m always so surprised that so many people don’t know about Keynote.  This Mac-based presentation design program comes as a part of the iWork package.  As a desktop tool, Keynote beats the tar out of Microsoft Powerpoint in terms of ease-of-use and end product.  Keynote presentations are truly crowd-pleasers.
• Word for Mac – Here’s where I revert to Microsoft.  I’ve never really been much of a fan of Apple’s Pages for word processing.  Word for Mac is still my weapon of choice for any document I need to produce.  I actually like the Mac version better than Windows.

Let’s Make a Longer List
Want to help make this list longer?  What are the mainstays in your desktop toolbox?  Use the comments to drop a link to any desktop tools you find helpful – Mac or PC.  I’ll update the post with your info and a link to you and your suggestion as we go along.

What do you say?  Sound fair?

nateriggs

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