Pyxl Shares Productivity Hacks

For as long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with Productivity Hacks. In school, I had a meticulously neat and color-coded “agenda” that housed my class schedule, homework assignments and extracurricular schedule. That has carried over to my work today with endless sticky notes, productivity apps and color-coded editorial calendars.

I was interested to see what the other Pyxlites do to keep themselves organized. Here were a few of the more popular suggestions:

Notes

Many of us Pyxlites use a digital note-taking system. The two most popular are OneNote and Evernote. Director of web technologies Jerod Mills uses One Note because “it makes it super easy to keep notes synced across all devices, has incredible organization, allows you to insert lots of different types of information and has awesome searching.”

I prefer Evernote because I often have ideas in really inconvenient places, but I usually have my phone. With Evernote, I can jot down my thoughts, keep them organized into “notebooks” (instead of a stream of consciousness Note on the Apple Notes section) and access them later. So even if I come up with a brilliant idea for a blog post while walking my dog, I don’t have to tell her my idea in hopes that I remember it on the walk back to our apartment.

To Do Lists

There are several different ways that Pyxlites keep track of their days. We recently switched to the amazing Teamwork project management software, which helps us keep track of files, projects and time tracking. But sometimes, we have things that fall outside “normal” work. When I need to remember to call someone back or pick up some things from the grocery store, I have liked using the app TeuxDeux. I love that it’s organized by day and that I can have several different lists outside of the daily lists. I also find the mobile / web app syncing very convenient. Other Pyxlites use Remember the Milk in the same way.

Internal Information Sharing

Our developers are always learning and sharing their knowledge so it only makes sense for them to have a web-based information-sharing system. The Dev Wiki was initially created as a source for a way to have a repository of code snippets about 3.5 years ago. Since then, the system has changed and houses various tutorials on how to do certain things. This internal resource is used mainly for more complicated tutorials.

Calendars

Having the ability to share calendars in our office is a must. With three different offices and timezones, scheduling is very important – not just internally, but with out clients as well. Being able to share calendars and see what is on our team member’s plates is extremely helpful. Creed Huckaby, managing director of Knoxville’s office, says he would be completely lost without it.

I’ve started using a beautiful calendar app called Sunrise. It integrates seamlessly with Google Calendar and has a much more attractive interface, if that’s something you’re into.

These are just a few of the apps and tools we use to keep organized. Leave a comment below with your favorite productivity apps!

Updated: Apr 13, 2022