Today I stumbled upon a new tool for which I was initially on fire. This tool is actually a to do list, but has features that seemed really interesting to me. The tool makes it possible to combine several other to do tools in it. Since I work with different tools (own list, team list etc.), it seemed really interesting to me. Within minutes I was logged in, watching the service video, tasting a bit and was still excited.
When I thought about how to integrate the tool into my workflow, my first doubts came up. Sure, it can be great to combine several programs in one – but that does not necessarily leave the other tools behind. You just use another one, which may offer a small advantage (in this case, more clarity through summary), but this also means more effort (the other tools will continue to be used). So why should I use this tool? Suddenly more of the advantage did not seem that big anymore, but I found more disadvantages and signed off again.
This experience brought me to further considerations. How many of the tools we use now and then do we really need? When it comes to SEO, for example, there is a folder full of tools in my bookmarks. From keyword research on backlink checker and extensive on-page tools there is everything. Some things are even double and triple, just because one tool offers a little extra that another one does not have. But how often do you need these little extras and which are really important?
If you think a little further, check your workflows and be honest, you notice very quickly: We do not need many tools that we use at all. With other solutions we would come to a result much faster, although perhaps with two clicks more or less comfort. A good example of this is cloud spaces. Free space is offered everywhere and of course we like that. Before you know it, you have spread your data across four or five different cloud services. And if you then need something, start the big search, which costs time. If you have limited yourself to a service, you would save a lot of time – and it pays off even if you spend a little money on the storage space.
So it goes on many areas in which we use tools. And even if we always present new and great tools here in the blog, we are also in favor of dealing with usage more critically. Often this means a great time and money savings because many tools are also used in paid versions.
Do you also find tools that actually bring more work than use?
