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10 Must-Have Office Tools for Productivity That I Use and Recommend

Updated: Dec 21, 2023

In the modern workplace, having the right office tools in your arsenal is essential for productivity and efficiency. With so many options out there for business tools and software, how do you know which ones are must-haves? I've rounded up the top 10 tools no office should be without to optimize work, save time, and get more done each day. Read on for the ultimate list of essential office tools to give your professional productivity a serious boost!


productivity tools

No office software roundup would be complete without the staple suite from Microsoft. Microsoft Office remains the gold standard with its abundant features and seamless integration across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. Whether crafting documents, crunching numbers, creating slide decks, or working collaboratively across its apps, Microsoft Office has all your basic needs covered. With calendar, email, contacts, and task management abilities too, it’s one of the most essential must-have tools for workplace efficiency.


Key Features: Word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, email, calendar


When much of the working world shifted to remote in 2020, Zoom became ever more crucial for keeping teams connected. Its intuitive video conferencing capabilities make collaborating and communicating a breeze. Host video meetings, webinars, conference calls, chat sessions, virtual events, and more with life-like clarity. Record sessions to revisit later and integrate with other software and tools using Zoom’s API. Zoom is undoubtedly a core office essential for maintaining productivity.


Key Features: Video meetings, screen sharing, messaging, virtual backgrounds


If real-time messaging is more your team's speed, Slack just can't be beaten. The king of workplace chat platforms helps distributed teams stay connected with channels, groups, and direct messaging. Easily drop in files, share screens, log meetings, integrate with other apps you rely on, and customize notifications so you always know what's important. With robust searching and archiving abilities too, Slack is a top choice for efficient, seamless team communication.


Key Features: Messaging, file sharing, app integrations, notifications


When it comes to accessing, storing, syncing, and sharing files from anywhere, no tool does it better than Dropbox. Keep your most important documents neatly organized in folders, preview 175+ file types without downloading, restore previous versions going back 180 days, set viewer permissions for sharing, and see who's viewed, edited, or deleted files. With top-grade security protections too, Dropbox is an absolute must-have software for a productive workspace.


Key Features: Cloud storage, file sharing, link sharing, restoring files


Evernote makes it simple to capture ideas and find information fast with notes, attach files, organize notebooks, set reminders, collaborate with others, and everything syncs automatically. Its powerful search makes digging up something from years ago a cinch. For crafting plans, saving research, managing projects, or just plain remembering things, Evernote is among the best productivity tools around.


Key Features: Note taking, file attachments, tagging, searching



No more dropping the ball on projects and tasks with Asana keeping everyone on track. Easily plan initiatives, set milestones, assign activities, specify deadlines, and see progress across both big-picture plans and everyday workflow items. Robust collaboration tools, drag-and-drop ease, custom fields and boards, and meaningful status updates with timelines give you unprecedented oversight. For taming projects seamlessly minus the chaos, Asana is a top productivity tool for a modern office.



Key Features: Project management, task management, boards, timelines


Level up your writing across the board (and avoid embarrassing typos) with Grammarly. Its AI-powered suggestions help you refine the tone, clarity, conciseness, and flow of emails, documents, social media posts and more while catching tricky grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. Enable its browser extension for real-time writing feedback across all your go-to sites and apps. For taking communication up a notch in no time without endless proofreading, add Grammarly to your software stack.


Key Features: Grammar checker, spell check, plagiarism detector, readability score


Stop the back-and-forth scheduling madness with Calendly. Let people book meetings, calls, demos, consultations and more directly on your calendar. Specify availability preferences, appointment duration options, invitation questions, and notifications to automate scheduling tasks seamlessly. Integrate with tools you already use too for maximum efficiency. When you need serious help wrangling busy calendars, turn to Calendly for scheduling success. It’s easily among the best time-saving tools and work optimization heroes.


Key Features: Scheduling automation, availability preferences, integrations, notifications


For juggling multiple projects with ease and transparency minus confusion, Trello can't be beaten. It offers kanban-style boards to organize tasks and teams however suits your workflow best. Break initiatives down into actionable items, specify owners, track progress, set deadlines, attach relevant files, and get an eagle-eye view across all your plates. Trello brings sanity back to workflow management in one highly flexible intuitive platform.


Key Features: Kanban boards, task assignment, deadline tracking, file attachment


Finally, no office essentials list is complete without serious security. 1Password makes complex password management simple across all your devices. Let its algorithms generate ultra-secure passwords, store them encrypted, and log into sites and apps with a single click. Setup goes quick, syncing is automatic, backups are total peace of mind, and sharing passwords securely with team members has never been easier. For bulletproof business tools guarding your digital world, 1Password is an absolute must-have.


Key Features: Password generator and storage, encrypted syncing, secure sharing, automatic backups


While no software can do the meaningful thinking, relationship building, communicating, and creative problem solving for us - these sure make handling the processes, follow-ups, and organization piece way more possible. These are the best tools for workplace efficiency no modern office should operate without. Equip your team or workspace with these essential productivity apps to drive good collaboration, seamless communication, total oversight, and next-level security every day. What tool can you not live without? Share your office must-haves below!

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