101 Tools to Grow Your Business in 2016 by @ChristinaBaldas | Dramel Notes

There are many things that can contribute to business growth, but, more often than not, what tools businesses use can make a significant difference to the bottom line. Whether they’re looking for increased productivity, better customer service, easier billing, more professional looking content, or finding a tool that silently speeds up project completion, every business needs a solid framework for growth.

I have compiled a list of 101 tools I believe can make a big difference in the vast majority of businesses. Chances are you are using some of them already; maybe you will find some more to add today or even a tool that seamlessly connects all the tools you have been using. The list is based on my personal experience as well as popularity among businesses.

Disclosure: I am not paid to mention any of these companies in this article. Some of them are clients, some are not. I only recommend what I think is truly helpful.

Here are my top tool picks for 2016 sorted by category.

Content & Social Media:

1. Openr: Turns everything you share into a call to action. Share on social media and automatically add targeted promotional calls to action onto any page you share.

2. Freepik: Free graphics, vectors, and icons. (Attribution required and provided ready to be copied and pasted.)

3. Hootsuite: Social media management. Great for businesses with 12-50 profiles and pages to maintain.

4. Buffer: Social media management. Limited to the biggest platforms and great for up to 11 profiles and pages. Beautiful design, flawless app.

5. Canva: Use templates for perfect social media headers, flyers, Facebook post images, featured images with custom dimensions, and more.

6. Alltop and HolyKaw: Use Alltop to find out what’s most popular on specific websites. If you need to curate content for Twitter profiles and the like, this is your website.

7. Hashtags.org: Find out quickly what the most popular hashtags are so you can jump on the trend and get more visibility for your posts.

8. Hyperlapse: App from Instagram. Use this to create time-lapse videos.

9. Layout: App from Instagram. Use this to create collage images.

10. Boomerang: App from Instagram. Use this to create looping short videos.

11. easel.ly: Intuitive and quick way to create professional looking infographics.

12. Fontawesome Icons: Steal any of these icons to enhance your blog images. They are free and come with transparent backgrounds (as vectors).

13. PicMonkey: Free online photo editing. Filters, collages, overlays, and more.

14. Pixlr: Free online photo editing. Use the free Pixlr Express web app to resize images, for instance.

15. Sprout Social: Social media management software. This is a Guy Kawasaki favorite.

16. PremiumBeat: Royalty-free sound effects and music. Extremely useful for videos.

17. Socedo: Automatically generate list of potential customers based on keywords, hashtags, or other search criteria. Ideal for finding leads on Twitter.

18. Tweetwall: Project tweets in real-time at events or on a wall in your office to show tweets that include your signature hashtag.

19. Bitly: Shorten URLs so they fit the character limit of Twitter and other social networks. Also tracks cross-channel marketing strategies, among other things.

Digital Marketing:

20. Google Web Designer: Create banners for any device.

21. Instagram Ads: You don’t need an Instagram account to show ads on Instagram. Use Facebook to create an ad that shows up on Instagram and leads directly to your website.

22. Facebook Lead Ads: Lead ads were awesome when they were in private beta, but they weren’t practical. Now that Facebook has unleashed lead ads for all advertisers, this feature is one of the best tools out there for small businesses to generate leads and scale it up quickly.

23. Facebook Power Editor: If you aren’t using the Power Editor already, it’s time! 600 targeting options for the good old boosted post are awaiting you among other neat options like bulk editing.

24. Google AdWords: Use everything Adwords has to offer and get your campaigns on steroids with location bid adjustments, dynamic keyword insertion, ad extension, converted clicks, separate device targeting, video ads, shopping ads, behavior-based remarketing, and a ton of other things you might not have tried yet.

25. Bing Ads: Bing powers the web search on Twitter, Apple’s Siri, the Kindle Fire, the Amazon Fire phone, Xbox, and many other things. So get your Bing ads up and running to no longer miss out on Bing traffic!

26. Cross-Channel Remarketing: Show ads on Twitter and Facebook to people who came to you via Google AdWords. Connect the platforms to convert customers wherever they are.

27. Facebook Audience Insights: Use it in reverse. Upload people who already purchased from you and get insights on demographics, what pages they like, location, household composition, and more.

28. SEMrush: Find out what keywords your competitors are using for their paid search campaigns, among other things.

29. VWO: A/B testing. Split test ad headlines, website designs, website copy, and more.

Business Organization and Productivity:

30. ToutApp: Email tracking that integrates with Salesforce and analyzes buying personas. In other words, this platform automatically finds a pattern of what wording works best with what type of clientele.

31. Phone.com: Cloud based VoIP Business Phone Service. There are too many neat features to name just one, but one of the biggest advantages is that they can handle whatever volume of calls you are getting.

32. Salesforce: CRM solution. Systemize business processes such as lead management and conversion; manage projects; synchronize it with your mailbox and calendars; and get some automatic data about your business to present to banks, investors, or simply for your own knowledge.

33. Insightly: Stripped down CRM solution for small businesses. Integrates with Google Apps.

34. Skitch: This is the quickest tool I know to insert arrows and text in images. Also very useful to use to pixelate information you don’t want to share—such as sensitive data when sharing “how to” tutorials with screenshots. It integrates with Evernote and it’s for Mac only as far as I know.

35. Evernote: Use this to manage your notes in an organized fashion. Use the web clipper to save websites for later or simply stay organized by synchronizing across devices.

36. Zapier: Connects hundreds of apps you use, automates tasks, and maximizes productivity. Apps include, Evernote, Salesforce, Trello, Google Calendar, Twitter, Slack, MailChimp, Dropbox, Google Drive, Typeform, among others.

37. Google Apps for Work: It’s cool to have your corporate email run via Google’s server. Besides that, you get all the Gmail features and Google App goodness. It’s practical and makes sharing and storing things easy.

38. Intranet with Google Apps: One of the most overlooked features of Google Apps for Work is the possibility to create an intranet. Automatically update it with your Google+ page feed and use it as the place to go to for internal trainings, company updates, and other information that shouldn’t be public.

39. Google Drive: Create folder trees to store information and keep things organized. Employee resumes, bios, profile photos, projects—you name it, Google Drive is a handy cloud storage and file backup solution.

40. Screencast: Record your screen and send the video links.

41. Camtasia: Screen recorder and video editor for Windows.

42. Google+ Hangouts: If the quality of video conferencing with Skype doesn’t live up to expectations, try a regular Google+ hangout. When you send Google calendar appointments, Google automatically sends a video link with it, so it’s easy for everyone to join.

43. Google Calendar: Use personal and shared calendars to keep track of appointments on all devices. It integrates with nearly everything and loads fast.

44. Notes: Use the default note program on your laptop or smartphone to keep all your thoughts somewhere. If you are a Harry Potter fan, think of this as your pensive. There are countless useful versions for Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and more.

45. Skype: Get a phone number from Skype and forward it to your cellphone. This way you never miss a call from a client even when you are traveling.

46. Tripit: Trip planner app with real-time flight alerts.

47. Basecamp: Project management for service businesses.

48. Desk.com: Help desk solution for small businesses that integrates well with Salesforce.

49. Sidekick: See who opens your emails and when.

50. AngelList: Post jobs to recruit someone from a startup-loving community with Silicon Valley vibes, raise money, or invest.

51. Asana: Tracks time spent per project.

52. Harvest: Tracks time and issues invoices accordingly.

53. SwiftKey: Multilingual keyboard with smart prediction for mobile phones.

54. Time Doctor: Manage the productivity of your team. Tracks people’s work time.

55. dashlane: Get a grip on your password mess with this password manager.

56. InvoiceBerry: Track business expenses, send quotes and invoices.

57. Upwork: Platform for freelancers, formerly oDesk. Get your projects done by recruiting the right team.

58. Trello: Visually organize emails, spreadsheets, sticky notes, and other things by project.

59. ReferralSnip: Create your own referral program to keep track of word-of-mouth better.

Website:

60. Google PageSpeed Insights: See how fast your website is on desktop and mobile. Automatically generates list of things to improve.

61. Google Web Designer: Create graphics that look good on any device.

62. Google Mobile-Friendly Test: Get a mobile friendly label below organic search results if you pass the test and an overview of what can be improved to make your website even more mobile friendly. The test consists of submitting your URL. It’s free!

63. Uberflip: Show different content on your website depending on who is looking at it.

64. Mashshare: Social sharing plugin that looks like Mashable’s sharing buttons

65. Publicize for WordPress: Automatically shares blog posts on Google+ profiles and other social media accounts.

66. GoToMeeting: Set up meetings and set automatic reminders for everyone. Professional look and top quality audio.

67. Zopim: Live chat for websites.

68. Yoast SEO: Free, handy WordPress plugin to check your blog posts for the right keyword density and preview posts in organic search results. There is a lot more to it, but I find this is the most useful function.

69. Instapage: Quick landing page creation with templates.

70. Unbounce: Quick landing page creation with split test integration.

71. CrazyEgg: See exactly where your customers click on your website. This goes into detail, for instance it shows where on a photo or button people click. Helps to find out why they leave your site and where to position the most important call to action.

72. W3 Total Cache: WordPress plugin that increases server performance. In other words, this makes your website load faster.

73. timetrade: Online appointment scheduling with concierge and analytics.

74. Autosend: Automatically sends personalized emails and text messages to (potential) customers based on what they do on your website.

75. Picreel: It’s inevitable that some people will leave your website without converting. Show them customized exit offers based on what they did on your website.

Branding and Promotions:

76. AgoraPulse: Social media management. Useful for Facebook contests and promotions, as well as reporting.

77. Mobile Roadie: Create a mobile app for your business.

78. MailChimp: Intuitive and cost-effective email marketing.

79. Intercom: Email marketing with event-triggered emails, among other communication features.

80. Infusionsoft: CRM for small businesses. E-mail marketing, sales platform, customer relationship management, marketing automation, lead capture, and more.

81. Tinyletter: If you send any newsletter to someone in Silicon Valley you better have the tiny letter logo on it. It’s the way to go.

82. Etsy: Get creative with your print collateral. Or better yet, have other people do it for you. For example, get business card-sized envelopes and put a note with your story inside. This is a unique card that people will remember and keep!

83. QRstuff: Get a free QR code and send people to exciting landing pages (think contests, limited edition products, behind the scenes insights, industry reports, etc.)

84. Postcardly: Upload a photo and have it sent as a postcard. Upload addresses in bulk. Great for the Holidays!

85. Google Photos: Use the automatically generated gifs to have more content variety for your social media profiles/pages.

86. YouTube Live Stream: Start a live stream in your office or during an event.

87. Google+ Hangout on Air: Have a hangout that is streamed publicly in real-time so other people can join. Not to be confused with regular Google+ hangouts that are not public! Google+ Hangouts on Air can also be broadcasted on your Google+ page.

88. GoToWebinar: Great for webinars. Intuitive and good quality.

89. Paper.li: Website/blog based on feeds and auto-generated like a newsletter. People you feature will automatically get Twitter mentions which helps to get more traffic.

90. Powtoon: Create animated videos and business presentations.

91. Google Alerts: Get a notification when someone talks about your brand.

92. mention: Find out who is talking about you or your competitors on the web and view reports on your online performance.

93. Oktopost: Social media management for B2B marketing.

Education:

94. Udemy: Sell courses and/or learn from others.

95. Flipboard: Mobile app with customized newsfeed. Stay up-to-date on the go!

96. My Alltop: Sign up free and choose what websites you see the most popular posts of. These are typically the most informative and you are up-to-date on what’s trending in your industry.

97. Medium: Minimalistic blogging with in-depth articles. Write and/or read articles with specific topics.

98. Reddit: Find your topic of interest and get more info than you could read in a lifetime.

99. BuzzSumo: Find what’s most shared and trending.

100. Teachable: Sell your online courses.

101. Google Trends: Find out what the world is talking about on Google and where those searches are.

What Helped Your Business Grow?

This is a list of my favorite tools, but there are many more useful ones out there. If you have used or are using some of the tools mentioned in the list, feel free to share your experience in the comments to help others decide what’s best for them. If you have additional tools to recommend, please share them in the comments as well.

Image Credits

Featured Image: Image by Christina Baldassarre
In-post Photo: Image by Christina Baldassarre
All screenshots by Christina Baldassarre. Taken December 2015.

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How to Beat the Winter Cold With These 8 Home Gadgets | Dramel Notes

The winter season is a real productivity killer. Between shivering spines and frozen fingers, your workflow may grind to a halt. Indeed, there’s nothing worse than being unable to warm up in your own home.

The good news is you aren’t alone. The obvious solution is to fix any heating issues you may have, but if you’re still cold — or you just want to save on heating costs — then there are a lot of small gadgets and devices that may come in handy.

Individually, these products may seem like ineffective gimmicks, but if you combine two or three of them, you’ll find that you’re way more comfortable than you were before.

1. USB Heated Mug Sleeve

In the past, we included a USB mug warmer as one of our gift ideas for coffee lovers, but if you’ve been planning on getting one this winter — whether for yourself or for someone else — then you may want to reconsider. There’s a much better alternative out there: The USB Heated Mug Sleeve by Besteek.

Unlike a normal mug warmer, which is just a flat heated plate, this one is flexible sleeve that you can wrap around the entire mug. The result is less heat loss, longer heat retention, and adaptability to any mug regardless of shape or size. Heat range is 113 to 122 Fahrenheit.

If you prefer the plate design, then we recommend the Decorative Cup Warmer by Norpro. It has a nonstick heating element, a light indicator for power, and fits mugs up to a diameter of 3.75 inches.

2. EnergyFlux Rechargeable Handwarmer

One of the best ways to warm up is with a portable handwarmer, but don’t settle for the disposable or non-electric kinds. They wear out and you end up spending more money in the long run. Instead, consider the Rechargeable Portable Handwarmer by EnergyFlux.

The price is a little steep, but the features are worthwhile: it’s double-sided (most portable handwarmers only heat on one side), has two temperature settings, lasts up to five hours, and can be used as a portable USB charger if necessary.

This is an awesome last-minute gift for the holidays, too!

Pro Tip: The best way to use a handwarmer? Not in your hands! Place the heat source on your wrists, along the side of your throat, or between your upper thighs. This transfers the heat directly into your arteries, thus warming you up faster.

3. Sunbeam Heated Fleece Wrap

Fleece wraps are a great way to stay warm, but electric fleece wraps are even better. This Heated Fleece Wrap by Sunbeam is a more practical solution than a space heater when all you need is a bit of personal warmth, because it uses less energy and wastes less heat.

At 25 inches by 57 inches, this wrap is big enough for most people. It has four heat settings, an auto-shutoff function, two pockets for convenience, and can double as a seat warmer if you just fold it up. The fleece is extra soft too, which is nice.

4. ValueRays USB Seat Warmer

If the fleece wrap above isn’t exactly your style, then you may want to opt for something less conspicuous, like a heated seat warmer. This USB Seat Warmer by ValueRays is great for computer-related activity (e.g. writing, gaming, etc.) because all it needs is a USB port.

Its flexible design means it can be used on nearly any kind of chair. The heat is infrared, and since there’s a voltage limit for USB power, you won’t ever be burned. The cover is also washable, making it easy to clean.

5. Cozy Products Heated Footrest

What most people don’t realize is that a lot of heat is lost through the soles of the feet. As such, socks and slippers are important — but in some cases, they may not be enough. That’s when you’ll need something like this Heated Footrest by Cozy Products.

This simple device has adjustable heat settings, three adjustable positions, a low-key design that makes it great for office environments, and an energy-efficient 90-watt design. Nothing keeps you warmer than having warm feet.

6. ThermaCell Rechargeable Heated Insole

Warm feet aren’t just important at home. In fact, depending on how cold it gets where you live, it may be even more important to make sure your feet stay warm away from home. Wool socks and proper boots go a long way, but so does this Rechargeable Heated Insole by ThermaCell.

This insole comes in five sizes, ranging from 4.4 to 13 in Mens (or 6 to 14 in Womens). It’s battery-powered, but there aren’t any battery straps or wires to worry about. It’s rechargeable, has two heat settings, and can be turned off.

The only issue is that this product is rather pricey. If you live in an extremely cold area like Alaska or Canada, then it may justify the price. It may also prove helpful for sufferers of Reynaud’s disease. Otherwise, we wouldn’t blame you for passing this one over.

7. Remedies Ultrasonic Humidifier

If your home feels colder than expected, it could be due to low humidity. Moist air holds heat better than dry air, which means that your home could feel noticeably warmer if you just pump up the relative humidity with the Ultrasonic Humidifier by Remedies.

As an ultrasonic humidifier, this device produces almost no noise. It comes with a stone filter (replace every 500 hours), has a 2.8L capacity with auto-shutoff functionality, and a diffuser compartment for scented oil-based or water-based aromas.

If you don’t like it, a good alternative is the Ultrasonic Humidifier by TaoTronics. It uses a cartridge filter and lacks an aroma diffuser feature, but the humidifier itself works well enough for home use.

8. Dyson AM09 Fan Heater

If you have central heating but want to save on your energy bill, you may be better off switching to a space heater and only heating the room you’re in – and as far as space heaters are concerned, the AM09 Fan Heater by Dyson is one of the best in its price range.

It has no moving parts or exposed heating elements, making it safer and quieter than most space heaters. It also has timer-based and tip-over auto-shutoff functions. The heat distribution is both long and wide, offering lots of coverage.

Other features include a remote control, easy tilting of the heat direction, and high energy efficiency. Combined with these alternative energy home projects, you could see a significant reduction in home heating costs this winter.

How Do You Stay Warm for Winter?

If you hate the winter season because you have trouble staying warm at home, then these gadgets and devices will definitely bring you a few steps closer to true comfort. Try a few of them and see how they work for you.

Looking for something a bit more serious? Consider installing a smart thermostat.

Got any tips of your own for staying warm in the winter? We’d love to hear them! Share with us in a comment down below.

Image Credits:Feet in woollen socks by AlexMaster via Shutterstock

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Get More Done At Work The Easiest Way Possible | Dramel Notes

When you think about being productive, you probably think about getting rid of distractions and focusing on working hard. But as it turns out, there’s a very small fundamental thing you can do to increase your productivity, and on top of that, it will actually increase your happiness while at work!

Whats is this small thing? Posture! As it turns out, having proper posture can make you happier and more productive every single day that you go to work!

Via Ultimate Mats

Click to Enlarge

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8 Effective Evernote Apps for Painless Productivity | Dramel Notes

Evernote helps you increase your productivity with only a little effort.

One of the best things about Evernote is being able to integrate it with other web apps. So apart from it being an excellent note-taking app, Evernote can do an IFTTT manoeuvre and sync up with your favorite web app (assuming it is supported).

Bear in mind though that these apps obviously do need you to grant them access to your Evernote account.

 

You do not need to fall back on IFTTT always. After taking a wander through the Web Apps section of the Evernote App Center, I have found 8 good useful apps which integrate well with Evernote.

Go forth and be amazed.

MapClipper

If you are taking a trip somewhere, you may not have continual access to WiFi (I know, scary thought). This means that if you need Google Maps to navigate, then you are a wee bit stuck.

MapClipper aims to help solve that problem by enabling you to choose a certain area of a Google Map within a fixed size of square. When you have this, then click the “Save to Evernote” button, and the clipped portion of the map will be sent to your Evernote account.

Blinkist

Blinkist is an interesting service which takes works of non-fiction, and distills the main facts of each book into 15 minutes. This saves you the time of reading the entire book which could take hours, days, or even weeks, depending on your schedule.

Blinkist decides what the most important facts are in the book and presents them to you so you can learn them. You can highlight important passages, and send them to your Twitter or Facebook account.

The only downside to the service is that it is mostly not free. After only 3 days paid trial, if you want to get the most out of the service, the prices start at 50 Euros a year. The free plan gives you only one pre-selected book per day.

With each 15 minute distilled summary, you can have them sent to your Evernote account. However to do this, you need to have a paid plan.

Voice2Note

One of the great things about Evernote is that you can speak to the service to leave voice notes. This is great for those spontaneous thoughts of genius, the ones that will ultimately shake the world to its foundations.

But the big snag is that voice notes are not searchable (yet). Evernote boasts of its OCR technology which reads written text, and the search engine takes care of digital text. So how do we search the voice notes?

Voice2Note takes your voice notes and transcribes them into searchable text. But, it will only transcribe the first 30 seconds, so this is only suitable for short snappy notes. Not the next audiobook adaptation of “War and Peace”.

The free plan will give you up to 5 notes per month, and according to Voice2Note, the “transcription frequency is low”. The paid plan is $29.99 a year or $2.99 a month. This unleashes all the bells and whistles – unlimited notes, tagging and a “high transcription frequency”.

Sush.io

Running a busy business is a hectic affair. You have so much to think about, and forgetting just one thing has the potential to put a spanner in the works.

Sush.io gives you a chance to automate some of those essential tasks. It collects your recurring bills and statements, and all of your other online bills. It then also sends them all to an Evernote notebook (you can also choose from a huge amount of other cloud services. This page showcases just a small sample of them.

The first 100 transactions are free but you must pay a minimum of $25 a month for the service. But there are two things to consider here – the amount of billable time this app saves you, and the fact you can offset the charges against your tax bill.

StudyBlue

StudyBlue touts itself as “the leading crowdsourced learning app providing intelligent learning tools“. What does that mean in simple English? It means that everyone’s notes for a particular class are uploaded and made available for everyone to read and use. StudyBlue claims that they have more than 250 million pieces of user-generated content available.

Any class notes that you make in Evernote can be imported into StudyBlue and automatically turned into flashcards. So you can make your notes in Evernote, and later you can lie in bed and learn that day’s course content via the newly made flashcards. The flashcards are also sent back to the Evernote account so you have a copy of everything.

StartUp Tracker

Another day, another startup. Keeping up with which 15 year old entrepreneur has started what in their bedroom can perhaps be an overwhelming affair. That’s why I have totally fallen in love with StartUp Tracker.

StartUp Tracker is a browser extension for either Chrome or Safari (one for Firefox is apparently in the works). Once installed, if you see a name of a new startup, just highlight it and click the browser button. Alternatively, StartUp Tracker has embedded itself in the right-click menu.

A box will then appear on the screen with all pertinent information, and if you scroll all the way to the bottom, you will see a “Save To Evernote” button. Clicking on that will send the startup information to your Evernote account.

Using the app is completely free, but the one snag is that you cannot assign these notes to a specific notebook. It will just send it to your Evernote account, without putting it in a notebook for you. On the plus side, it DOES automatically tag each note for you.

Cronofy

If you are a knowledgeable Evernote user, you will know all about reminders. These can be added to a note to remind you to give it some attention on a particular day and time. Extremely useful if you deal with a lot of notes containing time-sensitive information.

Cronofy links up with the calendar of your choice (iCloud, Google, Office 365, Exchange, and Outlook.com). Then when a reminder is posted on Evernote, it posts the reminder on your calendar as well. This not only gives you a backup alert, but it also gives you a very good overview of all your different reminders coming up in the future.

NYT Cooking

Finally, one of my favorite destinations on the web. The cooking section of the New York Times! Whenever I want to fantasy cook, or find something to ask my wife to make, I head over to the New York Times. They have 17,000 recipes, and one visit to the page is enough to make me extremely hungry.

Now Evernote has partnered up with the Times to enable you to save recipes in your account. When you see something you like in the recipes, just click the Save button. That will save it in your NYT account, but it will also send a copy to your Evernote account. No tagging, but well, that’s a minor gripe.

It also goes the other way. Save recipes from other websites in Evernote, and scan any handwritten recipes you have. Then you can send those straight to your NYT recipes list.

Which Apps Do YOU Integrate Into Your Evernote Account?

Evernote is becoming more robust and useful as time goes on. As more and more apps become integrated, Evernote truly will become your second brain, as it scoops up all the information it can get its hands on.

Let us know what apps you use in conjunction with Evernote. Do you have a must-have that I missed out? Do you wish there was a web app integration someone would build?

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The Best Self-Improvement and Productivity Gifts for Christmas | Dramel Notes

Personal development and productivity are on a lot of people’s minds around this time of year.

Whether it’s because they’re reviewing the year behind or looking forward to the one ahead, your friends and loved ones very well may be thinking of how they could do a little better in 2016.

And if you want to help them out, these nine gifts are great ways to be supportive!

Listography: Your Life in Lists ($14)

Journaling is a great exercise, but not everyone has the patience to write out reflections long-hand, or even in short form. Listography is like a journal, but it’s made completely of lists, and aimed at helping you write down important things and moments from your life (it’s pitched as a sort of highly compact autobiography).

The highlight of the lists are the hilarious illustrations which should help to motivate your moods as well. In fact, the pages are so pretty, they will compel you to write your lists more thoughtfully.

There’s also My Reading Life in Lists, Exploring the World in Lists, All I Hope to Do in Lists, and several other fun options.

Give the gift of memory this year with Listography!

Boogie Board Jot LCD Writing Tablet ($30)

Did you know that doodling can be a highly creative and beneficial activity?

Whether your friend or loved one is a doodler, a list maker, a note taker, or just someone who likes to have a pen in their hand, the Boogie Board Jot is a cool, fun way to let them jot as much as they want without using up paper. The writing tablet is great for drawing, leaving reminders, making and tracking lists, and saving notes to your phone with the Jot app.

The included stylus can even be used as a stand for displaying your creations and ideas. Or you can just use the magnets to mount the doodle board for display.

Gratitude and Bucket List Journals ($15–25)

Another great journaling or list-making gift, these handmade, twine-bound journals are great for helping people keep what’s important in mind, whether that’s what they’re hoping to accomplish in their lives or what they’re grateful for already having.

Both can be personalized with the recipient’s name, making it an even more personal gift. The Twine Bindery shop on Etsy also has a lot of other cool paper products that make awesome gifts, too.

Lumie Bodyclock Sunrise Alarm Clock ($139)

A lot of uber productive people in history have taken advantage of the early morning hours to get things done (here are a few examples). If you know someone who has trouble getting up in the morning but would like to be one of those people, the Lumie Bodyclock’s sunrise simulation will be a big help.

A gentle sunrise full-spectrum lamp, FM radio, and six different sleep sound effects that includes white noise to lull you to sleep at night makes this a great sleep-cycle enhancer. (I used a Lumie lamp to fend off seasonal affective disorder while living in England, and I can vouch for how awesome they are.)

If you’re feeling rather crafty, you could actually make your own sunrise alarm and give it as a gift!

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ($9)

It seems almost cliché to put this on the list, but this book is a a perennial bestseller for a good reason. With useful real-life advice on how to change your perceptions, manage your time, act with initiative, and think positively, this book will help anyone on their quest to become a better person, whether they’re just starting their personal development quest or they’ve been working on it for a long time.

Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win/Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize
Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

~ Stephen R. Covey

Agendio Custom Planner ($35– $45)

A custom planner can be a big help to anyone trying to get and stay organized. Agendio’s planners come in three sizes and multiple formats, and each page can be customized with different types of labels, checkboxes, lines, lists, schedules, and other sections you need to make a planner that contains absolutely everything you need.

You probably won’t know what your friend or loved one will want in their planner, so you may want to give them the gift of cash to be used for an Agendio planner (at least until Agendio starts offering gift cards, which I’m told will be soon).

Bend Your Brain ($11)

This book of brain puzzles from Marbles (one of the greatest stores of all time) will keep your friend or loved one’s brain in great shape. Part of personal development is learning to think in new ways and to flex mental muscles that haven’t been used in a while, and Bend Your Brain will do just that.

The puzzles in this book focus on the five key brain categories: visual perception, word skills, critical thinking, coordination, and memory. Give the gift of better brain function this year!

Ebook Subscription (~$120)

You’ve probably noticed that many of the personal development and productivity gifts listed are books — that’s because reading is an absolutely great way to improve oneself! If you don’t know which book to get as a gift, or you want to go beyond just giving a single book, an ebook subscription is a great gift.

There are a number of different services to choose from—check out the article linked above and choose the one that seems best.

Help Friends or Loved Ones with Your Gift

Sometimes the best gifts help their recipients help themselves. In this case, they’ll help your friend or loved one on their quest to be a better person. Whether that means being more educated, more disciplined, more organized, or just more productive, these gifts will help.

What are your favorite personal development gifts this year? Will you be giving any gifts like these? And what’s on your own Christmas list? Share your ideas in the comments below!

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Your Quick Guide To A Productive Home Office | Dramel Notes

For many people, working from home is an incredibly appealing proposition. You get to hang out and work in the place where you’re the most comfortable: your home. But for many, the negative tradeoff of working from home is a loss of productivity. All too often, it can be easy to put things off until later when there are so many other things you’d rather do at home besides getting your work done.

The key to getting stuff done from home is having a home office that’s aimed at productivity. That’s why we have an infographic below that will show you how to make a home office that will allow you to maximize productivity (while still staying comfortable, of course). Check it out, and work from home like a boss!

Via Made.com

Click to Enlarge

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9 New Office Online Features to Manage Documents & Collaboration | Dramel Notes

Office Online has received some pretty interesting updates in the past few months, but they’ve been overshadowed by the release of its bigger brother, Office 2016. The Office web version of the ever-present productivity suite includes copies of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Sway, as well as Skype integration and tools new to Office 2016, such as Smart Lookup.

Microsoft recently delivered another update to the lightweight-but-powerful service, giving you more scope for working on the go.

What’s New in Office Online?

Over the past year Microsoft has delivered a number of useful updates to the Office Online web service. This includes the introduction of tools designed to extend the functionality of Office Online, making it a serious competitor in the online document editing world.

With so many free online editing platforms in the marketplace, Microsoft realized that one of its finest opportunities to stay ahead, is to keep the new features coming, and push the integration with other core Microsoft services.

Integrated Skype

In keeping with using Office tools to increase productivity, Microsoft announced Skype integration would be coming to Office Online, way back in February 2015. The feature is designed to extend team collaboration opportunities without having to leave the Office Online environment. Work, chat…profit? Here is what they said at the time:

“Skype for Office Online makes collaborating a breeze. The chat experience is available right next to the document, enabling you to chat in and edit in real-time with other authors. Speed up and simplify document editing with quick Skype group chats instead of long e-mail threads. Keep track of which co-authors are online as well as messages you might have missed.”

Integrated Skype for Office Online followed an earlier announcement for Skype integration with Outlook, similarly tapping into the desire to boost and ease our communication by cross-linking products where possible.

Once you’ve signed into Office Online and opened your document, click the Share button in the top right. Send a link to whoever you wish to invite to the document. When they accept your invite, their name will appear in the top-right corner of the document. If they have signed into/linked their Skype account to their Office account, you’ll be able to live chat in the document.

File Management and OneDrive

Office Online saw improvements to its file management system. You can now navigate and locate your documents quicker, whether using local or OneDrive storage, and make instant copies of view-only files for editing, using a new OneDrive toolbar command.

Microsoft also added more save options to Office Online. You can save to your OneDrive, rename OneDrive documents, download copies, and download the document as a PDF.

Editing PDFs

Together with downloading as a PDF, Microsoft also introduced PDF editing for Office Online. The editor, while basic, is still useful and runs within the Office Online environment, meaning no third-party downloads or unnecessary installation of software onto your system. This can be handy for editing surveys or forms while on the go, or caught out of office.

Dropbox Integration

As part of the ongoing Microsoft/Dropbox working partnership, Office Online received support for Dropbox earlier this year, giving Office Online users the chance to link their accounts, browse, save, upload, and edit documents from their accounts. More useful service cross-linking from Microsoft, and a nod to the “Cloud First, Mobile First” ethos.

Open Office Online, head to Open > Add a Place, choose Open from Dropbox, or just Dropbox. Dropbox should now be an option. Just add your login details, and off you go.

Anything Else?

Office Online has also seen improvements to its proofreading tools, as well as some additions to the Reading View mode. Reading View mode now has its own toolbar for commands such as Edit, Print, Share and Comment, Translate, and Download.

Office Online was also one of the first places Microsoft trialed the Smart Lookup feature, and joining it is the Tell Me search box, of the same type as Office 2016.

Finally, Office Online makes use of the Bing machine learning tool we have seen slowly moving across the entire Microsoft spectrum. That means when you’re writing a paper about Viennese Conductors and decide you want some insights on the word Viennese, your search will only return information relating to your paper – not Viennese Rolls, or Sandwiches, or the like. More context, more accuracy, more learning.

Finally, Microsoft has expanded the Office Online formatting functions. You can now copy and paste entire format sections with the Format Painter toolbar (available to Word and PowerPoint), and they’ve also included some new formatting functions for PowerPoint Tables.

Pro Tip: Use Ctrl+Shift+S to bring up an additional styles menu.

Office Online Chrome Extensions

Wanting to spread the functionality and reach of Office Online to everyone, Microsoft created a handful of Office extensions for Chrome: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and OneDrive all receive their respective apps, available in the Chrome Web Store. These have been unified into a single Office Online extension, available here.

However, I would argue that for the most part these extensions don’t add too much functionality when you can simply type Office Online into your omnibox. Depending on your search history you’ll either head straight to the requisite site, or Google will come to your rescue. That said, I will concede the addition of the Office Online extension button isn’t bad, and the service is quick to open a new document.

The choice of installation rests entirely with you, reader.

Office Online vs. The Rest

Google Docs was way, way out in front for a very long time. It was the only realistic free online productivity suite market option for both professionals and casuals, and it was clear to see why. Free, fast, integrated, collaborative, and pretty-feature-full, Google Docs had it all. It also had one important thing: time. It was ahead of Office Online in almost every sense of the word.

Office Online has clawed back, though. Not content to sit in the blue, red, yellow, and green shadow of Google Docs, Microsoft has consistently updated their web-service over the past year. The result is an altogether slicker, equally integrated experience that can match its sustained rivalry, and with the prospect of more features, more updates, and more toolbars to come, could even succeed it at the top of the pile.

Do you use Office Online, or are you forever Google? Do you use something altogether different? What features would you like to see introduced to Office Online?

Image Credit: working with business diagrams by Dragon Images via Shutterstock

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