An interesting perspective from one of our colleges which may be worth sharing:

“I’ve stumbled upon a new tool that really excited me. It promised to save time as well as to make the work more effective. I signed up right away, watched the video tutorial, checked it out and couldn’t be more excited”

Then I started to think how to integrate the tool with how I work already, it could definitely make sense, but will it make me limit the other tools I’m already using? Considering how many tools or applications I already use on a daily basis, the excitement started to fade. With more cons found, I’ve eventually dropped the tool completely.

Which made me think about a principal question – how many of the tools that I’m using do I really need? For example when it comes to SEO, my bookmarks bar is full of all sorts of gimmicks, be it keyword research tools, backlink checkers, all sorts of on page checkers etc. If one evaluates these – various ones often duplicate 80 – 90 % of its functionality.

If one then puts the way he works on paper, and evaluates it step by step, one may often find some steps, or tools, that bring in so little, that the time may be better used elsewhere. The typical trap is to use several free tools, each of which offers something the other’s don’t. It’s clear that using multiple tools to accomplish one goal will take more time, and more hassle, than to use one. A typical example may be using several free cloud services.

In this case, it for sure makes more sense to use just one, whether it be a paid one, or not, and be done with it.”

Can you yourself make an audit of how you work, and identify tools that you use, that cost you time, as opposed to saving it?