Our connected world is filled with free tools that make work easier. In today’s post, I’m giving you a list of digital tools I use or have used. To make them easy to access, I have this list within a single note in Evernote. To go a step further, on Evernote Home, I have that note saved as a “pinned note.” Click on each to explore the site.
Productivity Treasure Chest
This first group consists of the digital tools I use daily. I also have them saved as buttons on my browser’s bookmarks toolbar.
- 01. Google Calendar
- 02. Remember the Milk
- 03. Google Contacts
- 04. Evernote
- 05. Gmail
- 06. Feedly
- 07. Google News
- 08. Google Photos
- 09. Google Maps
- 10. Google Drive
- 11. Google Advanced Search
Collaboration
- Brainstormer No registration. Anyone with the link adds suggestions. Everyone can vote on the best suggestion. You can add a timer. Here is a demonstration.
- Padlet
Converters
We constantly have the need to convert data from one form to another. Having the right tool for the specific job saves hours on any given project. Check them out and see which ones will fit your needs.
- CleanUp Pictures
- Cloud Convert
- Cloud
- HQCometdocs
- Cometdocs
- Converters Free online converters for various files and units of measure, you can convert video, audio, images, ebooks, documents and more.
- Converters 40+ (mostly free) tools to convert files, audio and video clips, documents, images and more into other useful formats at zero cost.
- Compress JPG
- Time and Date
- Fillable PDF
- HTML Cleaner
- Optimizilla
- Online Converter
- PDF24
- PDF Candy
- PDFBear
- PDF Merge
- PDF Rotate
- PDF to Epub
- Picresize
- Small PDF
- Tiny PNG
- Tiny Wow We offer PDF, video, image and other online tools to make your life easier
- YouTube Start & End Times
- Zamzar
Design
- Blush
- BrandColors
- Canva
- Color Hunt
- CoulorLovers
- Dewatermark.ai (Watermark Removal)
Education
Entertainment
- Sirius Radio
- Kindle Library
- Kindle Notes
- Send to KindleSupported File Types: PDF, DOC, DOCX, TXT, RTF, HTM, HTML, PNG, GIF, JPG, JPEG, BMP, EPUB
- Meme Generator (Blonde/Cat, Decisions, others)
- Spinnerwheel (Pick names. Also has other spinners such as plot and flip a coin)
Junk
We all get too much junk email. We’re asked to give our email addresses and are then inundated with email we don’t want. The solution? Provide a “junk” email address. You satisfy the requirement of the website without giving over permission to fill your inbox. Here are three candidates.
Photos
Photo Editing
There’s an old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” We want the visual elements we use online to look good. Here are a variety of tools that do the job. In particular, if you’re not familiar with Canva, create a free account. Whether your project is a flyer, some social media images, or any other design project, Canva does an amazing job.
- AI Image Enlarger (Allows you to enlarge image without pixelization)
- Background Burner
- Compress JPG
- Cleanup.pictures
- Ezgif
- Let’s Enhance
- Image Compressor Optimizilla
- Online Converter
- Photo Scissors
- Picresize
- Remove Background
- CleanPNG Removes background
- Canvas Prints Background Remover
- Tiny PNG
Productivity
Time is our friend, or at least it ought to be. This section contains a variety of tools for a variety of uses. The common thread is the time they save over doing things manually.
- Barcode Reader
- Calculators
- Calendly (Autoscheduler)
- Cal.com (Autoscheduler)
- Digital Signature-HelloSign
- Evernote Help
- Personal Productivity Club
- QR Code Generator 2
- Snipboard (Snip and image and get a URL for it)
- TaskClone
Public Speaking
If you make videos, it helps to have a script in front of you. There’s no need to memorize. And talking off the top of your head is rarely the best move. Here are two teleprompters you can use. To be honest, I have moved away from a teleprompter when recording at my computer. I put the text in an Evernote note, increase the font size, and decrease the width of the note to minimize the distance my eyes move back and forth. With a wireless mouse, I’m able to scroll the text.
Research
Whether it’s locating a person, getting past a telephone tree, or conducting a search that goes way beyond Google, here are some tools that will help.
- 411 Info on People
- Capitalize My Title Making title capitalization easy. Automatically capitalize and case convert to Title Case (in AP, APA, Chicago, MLA, BB, AMA), sentence case, UPPERCASE, lowercase, and more.
- Easy Map Maker
- Get to Human
- GoblinTools great AI-powered tool, especially for neurodivergent people
- Kialo Kialo presents a more complete view of reality by showing you the best arguments on both sides of a debate.
- Statista Search engine for statistics
- summarize.tech: AI-powered video summaries
- Techurls Lists news stories arranged by sources. Great at-a-glance
- Vetted Personal shipping agent. AI powered. Gives recommendations.
- Weather History
- Whitepages
- WolframAlpha
Social Media
Enjoy these tools to make posting to social media easier and more enjoyable for you and those who follow you.
- Code for Special Characters
- Emojipedia
- GIF Collection
- GIF Collection 2
- GIF Maker
- HTML Cleaner
- X Advanced Search
Tech (Miscellaneous)
- Computer Info
- Internet Speed
- Jotti’s Malware Scan Let’s you upload any file (such as email attachment) to the site and it will check for malware)
- Link Checker Tells you if the link is safe to click
- Lookout
- Ninite Lists programs you might want to download when setting up a new computer
Travel
I recently did an entire post on Google Travel. Check it out.
- Google Travel
- Route Planner
- TripIt
- Parkopedia (Shows parking availability and rates
Writing
Nobody likes to organize footnotes. When I was in high school, it was a tedious process. With the right tool, it’s easy. As for Hemingway App, it’s phenomenal for making your writing clean and clear. I wrote about it here.
- Citation Creator
- Hemingway App
- LoremIpsum.io
- ChatGPT
- AI Text Classifier (Tell you if text was created by AI)
- AI Content Detector (Tell you if text was created by AI)
- ReadTime-How long will it take to read something
- Diffchecker Compare two documents, images, PDFS, spreadsheets, or folders and find the differences
- WordHippo.com Find synonyms, antonyms, definitions, rhymes, sentences, translations, pronunciations
I hope you’ll go through the digital tools a few at a time to see what they do. Adopt what works. Ignore what doesn’t apply to you. Revisit this post multiple times to work through the list.
Want to get your desk clean and everything you have to do in one place? I’ve got two free gifts for you that do exactly that. But it’s only for email subscribers. Want to join? You get them both. Plus, each week you’ll hear from me with nuts & bolts tools and strategies to make life easier and more productive. You’re one click away from making it happen.
Eric Snyder
April 19, 2022 4:08 pmFrank. I find your list of tools really useful. But, pinning it in Evernote isn’t quite as handy as I’d like. So, I use the Activeword “tbx” to launch it when I need it.
[email protected]
April 19, 2022 6:28 pmEric,
Thanks! Great to see you have found an even easier way to get to the tools. Iknow you have been a fan of Activeword for some time. Great service.