A Guide to Creating Your Team’s Productivity Stack

Once upon a time, the only digital tool in an employee’s toolbox was email. In 2023, we have access to a variety of digital tools that can make our lives easier or, if we’re not careful, make them more complicated.  

Luckily, teams across various industries are learning the value of a strong productivity stack: a combination of digital tools to manage tasks, projects, and goals. 

Read on to learn about productivity stacks, explore 12 must-try productivity tools, see how Fellow can help you level up your meetings, and view our tips on how to create a productivity stack that works well for you. 

• What is a productivity stack?
• Benefits of a productivity stack
• The top productivity tool: Fellow
• 12 productivity tools
• How to create a productivity stack

What is a productivity stack? 

Most people already have a productivity stack and don’t even realize it. A productivity stack is a combination of digital tools that help you manage your daily work and personal life. Your “stack” may consist of a calendar app, email account, document management system, meeting tools, project management tools, note-taking applications, and more. By optimizing your productivity stack, you can manage your projects, deadlines, and resources efficiently. 

Benefits of a productivity stack 

Let’s face it: Most of us are guilty of using our email inboxes for purposes far beyond what they were designed for. When we use email inboxes to create to-do lists, keep track of ideas, or manage complex projects, we wind up disorganized and overwhelmed. 

This is where a productivity stack comes in handy. We can combine tools like digital task managers, note-takers, or scheduling, organization, and communication tools with our email inbox to prevent task overwhelm and optimize our workdays! 

Now, let’s look at a few popular tools you can add to your productivity stack today.

13 top productivity tools

• Note-taking tools
• Task management tools
• Project management tools
• Team communication tools
• Scheduling tools
• Organizational tools

1Note-taking tools

Fellow

Key features:

Fellow is the software you and your teammates need to host productive team meetings and one-on-ones. Fellow drives engagement and productivity before, during, and after every meeting. Before your meetings, Fellow makes meetings collaborative and productive with AI-enabled meeting preparation tools that provide context, structure, and accountability. Plus, meeting organizers can choose from over 500 pre-built templates, generate an agenda using AI, or create one from scratch.

During your meetings, Fellow drives meeting engagement, focus and decision-making. Fellow is everywhere you need it during meetings. Integrations with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet mean no more switching between tabs and screens to find and record notes.

And after your meetings, Fellow improve meeting outcomes to get more done. Keep the momentum going after a meeting is over with AI meeting summaries, searchable meeting minutes, automated feedback, and meeting analytics. Fellow’s AI-transcribed meeting notes with AI- summaries make it easy to browse meeting highlights. Get granular by tagging important meeting moments so you can quickly refer to them when you need them. 

Plus, with Fellow’s build-in Meeting Guidelines, you can get your team working together to transform meetings across your organization. By enabling thoughtful meeting creation, boosting meeting engagement, and making room for deep work and execution, Fellow’s Meeting Guidelines foster meeting best practices into every Google Calendar event.

Don’t believe us? We’re proud to be rated the number one meeting management software on G2 and be loved by some of the world’s best teams!

Pricing: Starts at $7 per user per month

Learn more about Fellow’s plans

Rating and reviews: 4.7/5 star rating on G2 with 1,758 reviews

Microsoft OneNote

Key features:

OneNote is Microsoft’s note-taking application that individuals can use to keep notes, research, plans, and information in one place. Users can access their OneNote notes from any device or platform—even offline—and can use their stylus or their fingertips to take handwritten notes, highlight what’s important, and convert between typed and written text. 

Pricing:

• Microsoft 365 Family—$99.99 USD/year (for up to six people)
• Microsoft 365 Personal—$69.99 USD/year
• Office Home and Student—$149.99 USD/year

*pricing is for Microsoft 365 packages

Rating and reviews: 4.5/5 star rating on G2 with 1,819 reviews

Evernote 

Key features:

Evernote is a tool for creatives and entrepreneurs who are looking to arrange and capture their ideas in a digital format. Users can take notes and include photos, files, and to-do lists in personal spaces to refer to later. All notes in Evernote sync to all devices, even when users are offline. 

Pricing:

• Professional—$16.45 USD/month (when billed annually)
• Teams—$21.94 USD/month (when billed annually)

Rating and reviews: 4.4/5 star rating on G2 with 1,999 reviews

2Task management tools

To Do

Key features:

To Do is Microsoft’s smart daily planner. Using the tool, users can manage their to-do lists online using a desktop or mobile app. Individuals can easily share to-do list items with family, friends, and colleagues, break tasks down into simple steps, add due dates, and set reminders. 

Pricing:

• Free—$0/month

Rating and reviews: No ratings or reviews available on G2 

Todoist 

Key features:

Todoist is a popular to-do list application for those who want their lists automatically sorted into Today’s to-dos, Upcoming to-dos, and other custom filter views to prioritize important work. Teams can use the app’s workspaces feature to keep each other up to date on what’s on the go and what action items have been completed. 

Pricing:

• Beginner plan—$0/month
• Pro plan—$5 USD/month (when billed annually)
• Business Plan—$8 USD/month (when billed annually)

Rating and reviews: 4.4/5 star rating on G2 with 763 reviews

3Project management tools

Trello

Key features:

Trello is a visual project management tool that helps teams manage projects, workflows, and task tracking. In the app, teams can customize their workspace by adding files, checklists, or automation on boards, lists, and cards to gain a clear view of what must be done. 

Pricing:

• Free—$0/month
• Standard—$5 USD/month (when billed annually)
• Premium—$10 USD/month (when billed annually)
• Enterprise—$17.50 USD/month (estimated cost for 50 users when billed annually)

Rating and reviews: 4.4/5 star rating on G2 with 13,366 reviews

Hive 

Key features:

Hive is a project management tool for users who want to simplify workflows and complex approval processes. The tool offers project and action templates for repeatable steps, document and video proofing, approval workflows, project templates, and views like Gantt, Kanban, tables, and calendars to visualize your workflow however you want. 

Pricing:

• Solo—$0/month
• Teams—$12 USD/month 
• Enterprise—contact sales for pricing

Rating and reviews: 4.6/5 star rating on G2 with 463 reviews

4Team communication tools

Slack 

Key features:
Slack is a messaging app for businesses. With the tool, managers can bring their teams together in one digital space to organize, plan projects, and communicate via messages and video calls. Using Slack Channels, users can bring individuals from within and outside of the company to share ideas, make decisions, and move work forward with a common purpose. 

Pricing:

• Free—$0/month
• Pro—$7.25 USD/month (per user when billed annually)
• Business—$12.50 USD/month (per user when billed annually)
• Enterprise Grid—contact sales for pricing

Rating and reviews: 4.5/5 star rating on G2 with 31,683 reviews

Google Meet

Key features:

Google Meet is Google’s video conferencing platform. With the tool, users can share videos, desktops, and presentations with teammates, customers, and other stakeholders using cloud-encrypted links. Use Fellow’s Google Meet extension to collaborate on meeting agendas without leaving your video call.

Pricing: 

• Business Standard—$12 USD/month (per user with a one-year commitment)
• Business Plus—$18 USD/month (per user with a one-year commitment)
• Enterprise—contact sales for pricing 

Rating and reviews: 4.6/5 star rating on G2 with 1,337 reviews

5Scheduling tools

Calendly 

Key features:

Calendly is a scheduling automation tool that can find the perfect time for you to meet with colleagues. The platform eliminates the need to email back and forth, can connect up to six of your calendars together at once, automates routine communications before and after meetings, and can schedule meetings based on the criteria you specify. 

Pricing:

• Basic—$0/month 
• Essentials—$9 USD/month (per user when billed annually)
• Professional—$12 USD/month (per user when billed annually)
• Teams—$16 USD/month (per user when billed annually)
• Enterprise—custom pricing

Rating and reviews: 4.7/5 star rating on G2 with 1,907 reviews

Cirrus Insight 

Key features:

Cirrus Insight automatically syncs emails to the correct contact or lead in Salesforce. It can help sales professionals with all aspects of their work—from buyer signals to sales cadences—to help them close deals and reach big goals. Cirrus Insight removes the need for manual entry to improve your team’s customer engagement. 

Pricing:

• Salesforce Sync—$10 USD/user per month (when billed annually)
• Pro—$21 USD/user per month (when billed annually)
• Expert—$29 USD/user per month (when billed annually)

Rating and reviews: No ratings or reviews available on G2

6Organizational tools

Microsoft OneDrive

Key features:

OneDrive is a digital tool for saving documents, storing and protecting files, and sharing them across devices. The tool allows users to simultaneously edit Microsoft Office documents, edit documents in browsers, and create and share folders to organize work. It also offers integration with apps like Facebook and automatic camera roll backup. 

Pricing:

• Microsoft 365 Family—$99.99 USD/year (for up to six people)
• Microsoft 365 Personal—$69.99 USD/year
• Office Home and Student—$149.99 USD/year

*Pricing is for Microsoft 365 packages

Rating and reviews: 4.3/5 star rating on G2 with 9,422 reviews

Dropbox 

Key features:

Dropbox is a cloud storage platform for storing and sharing files, collaborating on projects, and bringing ideas to life. Users can use Dropbox links to send files to colleagues and stakeholders without sending large attachments via the desktop or mobile device and easily access files from anywhere. 

Pricing:

• Professional—$19.99 USD/month (when billed annually)
• Standard—$18 USD/month (when billed annually)
• Advanced—$30 USD/month (when billed annually)
• Standard + DocSend—$83 USD/month (when billed annually)
• Enterprise—contact sales for pricing

Rating and reviews: 4.4/5 star rating on G2 with 20,593 reviews

How to create a productivity stack 

The best way to create a productivity stack that will work with you is to begin slowly. The goal of a productivity stack is to start with one or two tools that can help you automate or complete tasks efficiently. Once you know the ins and outs of the first few tools, slowly add other software as needed. 

For example, if you’re a project manager, beginning with a tool like Hive or Trello might be a good starting point for organizing your projects and designing complex workflows for your team. Then, you can add other tools that will improve your meetings, note-taking, communication, and more. 

Parting advice 

Having an intentional productivity stack is one of the best ways to manage your day-to-day work. A solid roster of digital tools will make you more efficient and have you reaching goals faster than ever. 

Our advice: Add Fellow to your stack if you want to host productive meetings that will improve the entire team’s output and morale!