WHY YOU NEED AN ONLINE PRODUCTIVITY SUITE
GOOD HABIT: Building your foundation for future productivity & efficiency.
Rob, I’m not technical, what’s an online productivity suite?
Before I answer that question, it’s important to understand that setting up an online productivity suite is going to be the foundation for other efficiencies in your life.
I highly recommend taking the time to set this up if you don’t have one already.
So, what is a productivity suite? Basically, it’s a set of online tools or software programs that help you manage email, create documents, work on spreadsheets, put presentations together, and most importantly, store files in the cloud.
You’re probably familiar with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.), Google G Suite (Google Docs, etc.), and Corel’s Office Suite (Word Perfect… if you remember WordPerfect, congratulations, you’re old :P)
Years ago, these “Office Suites” were only available to be purchased and installed on your computer.
Now with cloud services they’re available online and many have free versions for personal use (there are paid versions too with more features but most of the time you can get by with the free version!).
Benefits of modern Online Suites
1. They include email and cloud file storage (I’ll recommend 2 different suites)
2. All features can be accessed from the same website
3. They can be used on any device (laptop, tablet, phone)
Two Examples
Microsoft
https://outlook.live.com/owa/
- Productivity Suite = MS Office
- Email = Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail or MS Live if you currently have an account)
- Cloud File Storage = OneDrive
https://www.google.com/drive/
- Productivity Suite = G Suite
- Email = Gmail
- Cloud File Storage = Google Drive
Note 2: I’m more in favor of Microsoft’s Office suite due to the application called OneNote… more of that to come in future posts.
So, What’s the Biggest Benefit? … Cloud Storage
Using Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive allows you to store your files in the cloud, access them anywhere, and not have to worry about backing them up in case your computer blows up… they backup files for you automatically.
For those of you who work in an office setting, this is like your work server!
So, since most of these services are free (at a basic level), it’s a no brainer to sign up for an account if you don’t already have one.
Even if you rarely have a need for word processing, spreadsheets, or presentations, it’s still worth having the account so your email is associated with the online file storage.
IMPORTANT: After reading this, make sure to setup online cloud storage.
Your new online file storage will become a central place to store data for some of my other recommendations.
If you’re already familiar with online storage and have an account… Great! I’m going through this in detail to help those that are less familiar with this type of technology.
So how do you setup an account if you don’t already have one?
Affiliate Disclaimer: At this time, I currently make ZERO affiliate commission by recommended Microsoft’s products. I admit though that I would like that to change in the future, but will update this message if/when it does.
