12 key features of productivity applications you may not know you need

Remember the days of working with your team in-office or huddling around a conference table to video chat with team members in other locations? Well, the workplace is now shifting, and it’s shifting quickly. In fact, working from home has significantly increased over the last decade, with a record growth of 159%! And the adoption levels for project management software have significantly spiked in usage as well. But how do you know that the features of productivity applications are truly what you need?

The good news is there are new, powerful options to keep your team members engaged, save time, and increase team productivity. The key features of productivity applications that are built for next-generation work and designed for remote, in-person, or hybrid team collaboration can now be found in dynamic, all-in-one solutions.

Effective productivity goals for collaborative remote teams

The primary goal of most productivity applications is to improve your team’s overall time management without any hassles along the way. 

Your collaborative software should be intuitive and simple to use on a daily basis. Even if you or your remote team members aren’t tech-savvy, you should enjoy using your productivity applications without the added stress of what will happen if or when your team grows. An easy-to-use interface that’s not too simple and not too complex is crucial — one that strikes a perfect balance of all the key features you and your team need.

12 key features of effective productivity applications

Productivity is a business’ bread and butter. Whether you have project managers working on intense assignments or campaign managers collaborating on marketing content, these 12 key features of effective productivity applications will ensure you have the functionality you need for successfully delivering projects.

1. Customizable views

An organized, customizable view of your projects, timelines, files, Kanban boards, and calendar will enable you to prioritize projects you’re working on. The ability to search and the filter will help you review projects by status, start date, or end date. This also ensures that you can track tasks that are overdue, have missing deadlines, or are unassigned.

2. Macro view of projects

The ability to view a project by individual team members or across teams, as well as by timeline, enables successful progress tracking along with maintaining the high-level, calendar, or list views of initiatives. You should be able to view by days, weeks, or projects. 

3. Internal chat tool

An internal chat tool enables teams and individuals to share updates in private, group, or company-wide messages. In chat, you can create separate channels for teams and project groups, as well as enable your team members to send direct messages.

4. Recurring tasks

Recurring tasks ensure you and your team have the ability to set ongoing daily, weekly, or monthly tasks according to your deadlines. You don’t have to manually recreate tasks that are managed on a regular basis. And you can create tasks that recur and repeat by assigning start and due dates and how regularly they happen.

5. Add tasks via email

You should be able to create tasks by email in a matter of seconds using a simple process. Some platforms offer an easy way to accomplish this by sending an email to a specific address with the email subject becoming the task’s title and the body of the message acting as a task comment.

6. Set reminders  

Reminders are crucial so that you and your team members never miss an important timeline and information doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. The ability to customize notifications in your project management platform will make missed due dates a thing of the past.

7. Ability to mute notifications and chat channels for better focus

Sometimes, when you need to focus, it helps to have the option to mute notifications and chat channels so you can dive deep into important projects without interruption. 

8. Private projects and tasks

A great project management program will offer the ability to control project privacy to ensure your task or project is private and open for view by invitation only.

9. Single Sign-on with Google or Microsoft

Your productivity application should enable you to efficiently and easily set up a profile with your existing Google or Microsoft accounts. This allows for a simple, one-step login experience and quick access to your projects. 

10. Speed of app

The speed of your productivity app is important, too. Using a collaborative project management tool with quick access will speed up the learning curve and save time for important projects. A fast-access application enables quicker connections for remote, in-house, and distributed teams, as well. 

11. Secure file-sharing integration

Secure cloud-based file and document sharing reduces information silos. And with the right, secure application, your team will be able to use not only file sharing but file hosting and storage services as well. Everything should be accessible through one application, without ever compromising data security.

12. Beautiful design that creates an inspiring workspace 

It’s refreshing to access a beautifully-designed project management tool that’s simple, aesthetically pleasing, and isn’t a chore to use. An intuitive and attractive dashboard with project visibility, recurring tasks, and the ability to adjust views as needed, enables increased team productivity and reduces frustrating and chaotic workflow experiences.

These 12 key features of productivity applications can help you manage tasks more seamlessly while ensuring the greatest productivity on projects. A project management system that supports your work style and simplifies your team’s workload will help make the virtual workplace somewhere everyone will want to be.

Implementing your best productivity platform

The days of having to report to the office in person are changing. When you’re managing a remote and distributed team, and you require a system with all of the features your team needs to manage valuable client and team projects, an all-in-one solution is an answer.

After all, as work-from-home, distributed teams, and even hybrid work teams have gained ground, so has the project management software. So, why not work with an all-in-one productivity application that improves your and the team’s productivity? With Flow, you will progress swiftly, streamlining your day-to-day workflow, ensuring flexible task management and valuable insight at first glance.

Flow provides a feature-rich productivity app and an all-in-one collaborative platform with a simple setup to support your team’s success. Sign up for a free trial today!