A famous marketer once said that you should spend only ten per cent of your time on the technical aspects of your business. That means only spending a fraction of your time on the technical aspects of building a website, designing a logo or anything that could use up a great proportion of your time.



The other ninety per cent of your time should be spent marketing. Marketing your business is THE most important part and having time-saving tools to hand to help with things like research, advertising and monitoring your business's performance is the key to becoming very successful and time efficient.

Here are some trusted, time saving, and more importantly totally free productivity tools you should never be without.

Productivity Tool #1

Dictionary and Thesaurus - Having an easy to use a single piece of software to hand that can spell check and come up with dozens of word alternatives at the touch of a button, will save lots of time when constructing letters or writing any sort of copy.

*WordWeb is a free English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows, and can be used to look up words from within almost any program in just one click - wordweb.info/free/

Productivity Tool #2

Desktop Notes - Have you ever thought of something that you need to do but got instantly side tracked by a colleague or some other distraction? You need to get notes for your desktop that will instantly remind you of your ongoing 'to-do list'.

*AM-Notebook is a multi-featured tabbed note-taking program that provides an easy way to save notes and formula supported spreadsheets in a light weight tray icon tool - aignes.com/products.htm

Productivity Tool #3

Desktop Search - The amount of data that gets stored away on a daily basis, on even a small business's computer, is growing for most entrepreneurs on a daily basis. It's time to forget the MS search that resides on most Windows based computers as it is painfully slow, and use a performance tool that gets the job done in a fraction of the time.

*Copernic will easily search your entire hard drive in less than a second to pinpoint the right file, email, music or picture -

copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/index.html

Productivity Tool #4

Hotkey Utility - Most people don't realise that you can automate almost any keyboard stroke, or series of keyboard strokes, very easily on your computer. Having a utility that can instantly open your favourite file or your favourite software that is usually buried away on your system somewhere, can save you time in many ways.

*Automate almost anything on your desktop. AutoHotkey unleashes the full potential of your keyboard, joystick, and mouse - autohotkey.com

Productivity Tool #5

Multiple Searches Online - Getting quick access to the information you want is of prime importance when conducting research online. The answer is with a tool that can access ten plus search engines and then produce the results in order of importance for you.

*Copernic speeds up your searches with its intelligent web search tool - copernic.com

Productivity Tool #6

System Optimisation - Keeping your system running smoothly and free from errors is a must when using a standalone computer system for your own business. The computer is the heart of most businesses and you can ill afford to have it 'crash' or slow to a halt because of bad maintenance.

*CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space - ccleaner.com/

You need to promote your business at every opportunity and increase your own productivity any way you can. As most businesses, and certainly internet based enterprises, rely on the trusty computer for most of their tasks, having a 'desktop system' will certainly help your workflow.