What’s been hindering your productivity at work?
Is it constant distractions, pure boredom, or perhaps, ineffective processes and poor communication?
Whichever is causing the most problems for you, don’t worry — building productive workflows can be easier than you think if your team tries CAKE.com’s Productivity Suite, which comprises 3 powerful products:
- Clockify — a time and resource tracking tool,
- Pumble — a team communication and collaboration app, and
- Plaky — a task and project management platform.
All 3 tools are available in our CAKE.com Bundle, which Jovana Kandić, VP of Product at CAKE.com, describes as “an all-in-one package for businesses looking for a simple-to-use and secure platform to organize their work, enhance collaboration, and improve their productivity.”
But how exactly can you use these tools to build a more productive workflow? Here are our exclusive tips — courtesy of the people who took part in creating CAKE.com products.
Tip #1: Make communication more effortless
Effective team communication can make all the difference to finishing a project on time — or watching it go all up in flames.
Luckily, Clockify, Pumble, and Plaky cater to organizations looking to make communication straightforward among both in-office and remote teams.
As explained by Dijana Stefanović, Product Marketing Manager at Pumble, Pumble’s appeal is based on its ease of use and making daily work communication simple:
“Pumble streamlines communication with direct messages, channels, file sharing, and integrations, making collaboration and communication feel natural and easy. Plus, its user-friendly interface makes it super easy for everyone to stay on the same page.”
Stefanović highlights video calls as one of the most useful Pumble communication features:
“Video conferencing on Pumble is my go-to feature. There’s just something about seeing everyone’s faces and sharing screens that makes meetings feel more personal and productive. It truly brings the team together in one virtual room, even if we’re miles apart.”
For Nikola Bosić, VP of Engineering at Pumble, this business chat app plays a key role in crisis communication:
“Pumble does not only improve our communication, it enables it. Without a tool like Pumble, we would not be able to act as quickly as we do. When an incident happens, we are able to act on it and resolve it in a matter of minutes; the whole team gets notified immediately, and we are able to communicate in real time.”
He also shares how he uses Pumble to communicate on a daily basis:
“Pumble can be used for both synchronous and asynchronous communication. I personally use it a lot in an asynchronous way. This allows me to focus on important things, but still be able to maintain multiple communication lines open and multitask when needed.”
Thanks to Clockify’s integration with Pumble, it’s also possible to view all company communication directly in Clockify, as well as:
- Send DMs,
- Post in public or private channels, and
- Reply to threads.
Apart from using Pumble for quick messages, you can also share important updates and communicate with your teammates in real time in Plaky, by @mentioning them in the task card’s comments section.
Further reading
Learn what team connectivity is and how to foster it in the article below:
Tip #2: Keep a better track of your time and progress
If you’re still tracking time manually in a separate spreadsheet, it’s high time you stepped into the 21st century.
As time tracking software, Clockify comes with an array of versatile timekeeping features, including:
- One-click time tracker,
- Timesheets,
- Calendar,
- Kiosk, and more.
Product Marketing Manager at Clockify, Mirjana Trifković, relies on the Clockify timer and the split time entry feature at work:
“First thing in the morning, I kickstart the timer and start working on my priority tasks. Split time is also useful if something urgent comes in while I am working on something else, and I don’t instantly change the project I am working on. It helps me get an accurate picture of my day.”
To make sure your timesheets stay accurate, Clockify comes with idle time detection, too. When this feature is turned on, Clockify notifies you if you accidentally leave the timer running.
If you want to visually track your task progress as well, switch over to Plaky.
According to Aleksandra Šarović, Product Marketing Manager at Plaky, the tool’s status field is one of its most valuable features:
“Being able to categorize tasks as “to do,” “in progress,” “done,” or “stuck” provides clarity and peace of mind. Plus, it eliminates the worry of what needs to be done next and in what order, allowing me to focus on the most important and urgent tasks first.”
And in case you’re a visual thinker, check out Plaky’s powerful Gantt charts, which let you effortlessly keep track of:
- Task durations,
- Overall project performance, and
- Issues, such as overlapping tasks and missed deadlines.
Tip #3: Simplify task and project management
Disorganization can easily decrease your productivity and render your carefully designed workflow all but useless. With Plaky, though, task and project management chaos becomes a thing of the past.
As explained by Šarović, Plaky aims to streamline workflows:
“Plaky provides the foundation for better organization of our workflow, offering a centralized hub for managing day-to-day tasks and setting long-term goals accessible to all members, ensuring alignment and cohesion within the company.”
Unlike clunky spreadsheets, Plaky’s intuitive interface also makes creating a coherent project board a piece of cake. Go for one of Plaky’s pre-made project management templates or build a board from scratch. Either way, Plaky makes it effortless for teams of all sizes to accurately plan and execute projects of any complexity.
According to Miloš Jovanović, VP of Engineering at Plaky, using different Plaky views — such as Kanban — can also help improve productivity when managing projects:
“We’ve set up a series of boards and views to have refined introspection in each segment of the delivery process. Depending on their role, each team member has a specialized view that enables them to be very efficient and productive.”
And, when used in tandem, Clockify and Plaky serve as a project management powerhouse. You can use Plaky to break down your projects into simpler chunks. At the same time, you can rely on Clockify to create a functional project schedule and manage your team’s capacity.
Moreover, to make task management even simpler, Clockify’s Plaky integration lets you automatically track time on your Plaky tasks.
Once you install Clockify’s time-tracking browser extension, you can start the Clockify timer directly from your Plaky card. The timer will automatically pick up the task’s name, and you’ll also get a popup where you can add more details about the task.
Later on, you can navigate to Clockify’s web version and edit your entries, as well as analyze your efficiency.
Further reading
How does Plaky compare to some of its competitors? Learn more in our overview of the best project management tools for small teams:
Tip #4: Encourage more efficient collaboration across departments
Efficient cross-functional collaboration can be difficult to achieve, especially when managing remote teams. But, with Clockify, Pumble, and Plaky, even collaborating in real time across different time zones doesn’t have to be a challenge.
Apart from mentioning teammates in comments, Plaky users can use the Person custom field to ensure the right people get instant updates about task progress.
Another perk is the Files tab, which they can use as a collaborative space for sharing project-related files and documents.
Meanwhile, in Pumble, your organization can collaborate in separate channels, each dedicated to a different project or department. This way, you can eliminate misunderstandings and have a written trail for every decision or agreement.
According to Strahinja Krstić, Product Manager at Pumble, this team communication app also ensures more efficient collaboration thanks to its file-sharing and notification features:
“Pumble enhances team collaboration and communication by providing a centralized platform where team members can exchange messages, share files, and organize conversations in channels dedicated to specific topics or projects. Real-time messaging and notification features ensure that team members stay informed of updates and changes immediately, which is crucial for maintaining momentum in fast-paced work environments.”
Further reading
Learn why team collaboration matters so much and how to build it in the article below:
Tip #5: Minimize distractions
Even if your workflow is flawless, there’s no telling how various distractions throughout the day could damage your productivity. Luckily, Clockify and Pumble come equipped with focus-enhancing and distraction-repelling features.
For example, if you’re a fan of the Pomodoro technique, you’ll be happy to know Clockify offers the Pomodoro timer in its Google Chrome extension in all its plans, including the free one. By using this timer, you can ensure you stay focused on the task at hand.
And, if team chat app notifications tend to distract you as well, Pumble’s got your back.
One of the best ways to minimize distractions on Pumble is to tweak your notification settings. For instance, you can:
- Pause notifications for a set time period,
- Choose what you want to be notified about (new messages, threads, only DMs and mentions, or nothing at all), and
- Set a notification schedule (choose when you want to receive notifications).
For even greater control, you can also mute channels. This might be the best solution if you’d like to go through the messages later on.
Additionally, you can mute messaging and call sounds — or change these sounds to something less distracting.
Further reading
See how Pumble stacks against other team communication tools in the article below:
Tip #6: Stay mindful of your mistakes and deficiencies
Just because you have an effective workflow doesn’t mean you won’t sometimes make mistakes. The important thing is to notice your shortcomings on time — which is exactly where Plaky and Clockify come in.
Plaky’s activity log serves as the repository of everything your team does on a project board or item card. So, you can use it to check your team’s daily activity and spot errors before they become issues.
In addition, Clockify is a great option when you want to consistently analyze areas of improvement.
For example, you can use Clockify’s Dashboard feature to check what you have worked on during a particular time period and how much time you dedicated to those projects.
Additionally, you can get a project time breakdown for your team and analyze whether some projects took longer than expected to finish.
Clockify’s reports also remove the guesswork when assessing your team’s time performance and show you where the inefficiencies lie. And, according to Biljana Gogić, Customer Success Manager at CAKE.com, that comes with some mighty perks, such as identifying your key time wasters:
“Once you know how you spend your time, you’ll be able to catch what drains your productivity, which will lead you further to take the actions that will improve your time allocation.”
Arguably the most useful report for tracking your team’s (in)efficiency is the Assignments report. With this report, you can easily compare all the tasks you’ve scheduled with the actual amount of time you and your team spent on them.
In the long run, this may help you improve your workload management by identifying areas of improvement. Better yet, it should allow you to become better at:
- Workload distribution,
- Creating feasible project timelines, and
- Making accurate time estimates.
That said, remember that you can always start fresh if need be. With the Clockify Clean add-on, you can clear all unwanted data and optimize your workflow further by removing any digital clutter that’s been dragging your efficiency down — without deleting your entire workspace.
Tip #7: Keep an eye on your team’s availability
To maintain a productive workflow, it’s important to know your team’s availability and when they’re ready to start or continue working on their projects. Luckily, as robust workload management software, Clockify is a safe bet for companies looking to efficiently manage their staff and schedules.
After inviting your whole team to track time with Clockify, you can designate your staff’s:
- Working days,
- Rates, and
- Capacity.
Clockify also lets you easily manage employee’s PTOs and holidays. After defining your own time off policies, you can manage time off requests and keep a close eye on your team’s time off balance directly from Clockify.
Better yet, you and your team can get a clear insight into your staff’s availability at any time by checking the time off timeline.
And, to make your team’s availability even easier to monitor, Clockify also integrates with Pumble to help you keep track of who’s at work and who’s on vacation.
This feature is a favorite of Ljubomir Simin, VP of Engineering at Clockify:
“I like how Clockify and Pumble can sync with PTOs and holidays, so whenever someone is off, I can see their status change in Pumble, which helps me be mindful of other people’s availability. Likewise, when I submit, for example, a sick day in Clockify, I can rest assured that my Pumble status will reflect that.”
Tip #8: Automate tasks whenever you can
Automation is your savior if you’re looking to enhance productivity and ensure you remain focused on high-impact work. With Clockify and Pumble, you can automate key activities in a few different ways.
To automate time tracking in Clockify, you can rely on the auto tracker. It automatically records which programs you use and generates timesheets of the time you spend using them.
Clockify users can also set up automatic time-tracking reminders for their teams. Meanwhile, managers and admins can automatically receive daily, weekly, or monthly emails of all those who’ve forgotten to fill out their timesheets.
What’s more, you can schedule tracked time reports to be sent on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. That way, you can always be in the loop regarding your project’s progress and team performance.
For Krstić, a key Pumble integration with another popular tool has proven useful in automating call scheduling, thus improving communication and reducing scheduling conflicts:
“[Pumble’s] integration with Google Calendar adds a layer of convenience, enabling us to schedule calls directly within the calendar interface [and] ensuring that all participants receive automatic updates and reminders.”
Other ways to automate messaging in Pumble is to schedule messages and message reminders to be sent at a custom date and time.
Ensure workflow efficiency with CAKE.com’s Productivity Suite
Companies struggling with unproductive workflows are all but guaranteed to keep climbing the ladder to success — without ever actually coming close to the top.
But with CAKE.com’s easy-to-use productivity suite, you could (finally) take your company’s efficiency to a level that enables continuous growth.
As Krstić explains, CAKE.com’s integrated suite of tools “offers a unified solution that addresses the core needs of modern teams” — which makes the CAKE.com Bundle a great deal.