Free tips and tools to improve your digital productivity

Productivity is about using fewer resources when performing a task. We save time, for example, by using all our fingers when typing on the keyboard, or by adjusting the scrolling speed of the mouse pointer to the maximum.

Here are some tricks and tools that will help us to be more agile and efficiente.

Enable ChatGPT to access the Internet

WebChatGPT

WebChatGPT is an extension that allows web access in ChatGPT (available for Chrome, Edge and Firefox).

This generative AI only has information until January 2022, but with this plugin you will be able to read everything that is on the internet, which is great for getting ideas, trends, news, studies, etc. You can disable this feature by clicking the button that will be added at the bottom.

By the way, if the answer is cut off say 'Continue' to continue typing, and use the keyboard shortcut 'Shift + Enter' to make line breaks in the text box, so that it looks bigger and you can reorder the information.

Translate websites and documents

Google Translate

Google Translate gives you many options when it comes to translation:

• Translate a text to another language.
• Modify the text of an image and put it in the language of your choice.
• Attach a Word document and translate it completely.
• Translate a website into another language, giving you a link that you can share with any user.

YouTube video transcription

YouTube Summary

YouTube Summary is a Chrome plugin that allows you to transcribe YouTube videos. This extension generates the summary and text that you can copy and edit. It even includes a button for ChatGPT to generate a written summary of the video or you can ask ChatGPT questions about the content.

Generate images with AI

Microsoft Designer at Copilot

Within Copilot you have access to 'Designer', a chatbot that transforms text into images. Give it the details of what you want to see in your prompt and vary elements with new requests. You can download the generated images in good quality and royalty free, or edit them to vary elements or add text.

Multiple image transcription

JEG to Text Converter

JPG to Text Converter is an application that converts your .jpg or .png images into editable text, thanks to the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) system. You can transcribe several images at the same time and even translate them.

Summarizing and analyzing PDF documents (without reading them)

ChatPDF

ChatPDF allows you to upload a pdf and ask questions about the document (be careful, do not upload confidential information). If, for example, you are sent a contract, you can ask if there are abusive clauses, or if you have an extensive report that tells you the main conclusions about your sector or product. In case you have a .docx, .ppt or .xls, export them to PDF so that this AI can read them.

Find out the email address of the person you are looking for

Hunter.io

Hunter.io allows you to find a professional's email address based on their name and company, which can be very useful for sending business proposals. You can also check if an email exists or search by the company's domain.

Proofreading

Language Tool

LanguageTool checks spelling and grammar of texts in several languages. While it is not 100% reliable, it does alert you to possible typos. You can also use Deepl Write to check texts in English and German.

Manage two (or more) Teams accounts at the same time

Microsoft Teams

You can avoid logging in and out if you have multiple profiles in Teams by having one session open in the application on your computer and others in web browsers.

Go to https://teams.microsoft.com/ and sign in with your Microsoft Office 365 account, for example. You will see that you have the same options as in the desktop application and you can have both open at the same time. If you need more you can use Chrome, Firefox, Opera... even your mobile or tablet.

✅ Another option is to install the Teams app in Edge, which allows you to dock it in the bottom bar of Windows so you can conveniently access any of your conversations.

Convert WhatsApp audios to text

LuzIA for WhatsApp

LuzIA transcribes the audios you send it, which is very useful if a voice message arrives during a meeting or in a noisy place. It can summarize it if it is very long, and also acts as an AI chatbot to converse with.

Save links to your tools

Tools folder in the web browser

You can organize your bookmarks in folders in your browser, for example you can name one as 'Tools' and save the links to the pages you are most interested in, if possible divided in subfolders to be able to find them easily in the future.

If you click on a folder with 'Control + left mouse button' you will open all the links included in that folder in new tabs (but not those of the subfolders).

Future Workplace

Optimize your time: tips to be more productive

September 28, 2023

Image by Creativeart / Freepik.