Today’s teams often include people in the same office, people working remotely in the same time zone, and people spread across the globe.

And while this setup offers flexibility, it can also create friction and take a toll on individual productivity.

In fact, more than half of workers report feeling unproductive due to misaligned priorities, unclear goals, and scattered communication.

Worse, disorganized colleagues can drag down the rest of the team — over 50% of employees say they’ve had to take on extra work to compensate for someone else’s chaos.

The ripple effect is real, and it’s burning people out.

To build better hybrid teams, we need to start by helping individuals get clarity on what matters and stay in control of their work. That requires a mindset shift and smarter use of technology.

Here are five ways personal productivity tools are evolving to support focus, reduce to-do list clutter, and help people do their best work, no matter where and when they work.

1. Embrace app sprawl (and make it easier to find your to-dos across them)

In a hybrid setup, teams often default to different tools based on location, function, or time zone. It’s not uncommon for one team to use Slack while another leans into Teams. App sprawl is the norm—not a failure.

The problem isn’t too many tools. It’s that tasks and priorities get buried in them. Instead of fighting app sprawl, the next generation of productivity tools surface to-dos across them so individuals don’t waste time hunting for action items scattered across different places.

The result? Less mental juggling, more time spent actually getting work done.

2. Let people organize their way

Everyone has their own work style, and yet, many tools force users into rigid workflows. That doesn’t reflect reality. More than half of knowledge workers admit their organizational methods may appear chaotic to outsiders, yet they firmly believe that these approaches work well for them.

Some people think in lists. Others in color-coded boards. Some love labels and filters, while others just want a clean slate. That’s why flexibility matters. Productivity tools should adapt to the way people naturally think, not the other way around.

3. Use AI to elevate, not overwhelm

AI can supercharge personal productivity, but only if it’s implemented thoughtfully. AI that feels clunky or overcomplicated turns people off.

The best personal productivity tools use AI like seasoning: just enough to enhance the experience, without overpowering it. That could mean pulling out to-dos from a long email, automatically categorizing to-dos, or nudging users when a deadline is approaching.

When AI feels like magic, people actually want to use it.

4. Encourage modern productivity practices (like timeboxing)

One of the biggest productivity killers in hybrid teams is the blurred line between “deep work” and “collaboration time.” In global teams, someone is always online, and the pressure to respond quickly never stops.

That’s why tools aren’t the only thing that shape productivity – habits matter too. The most helpful apps are those that encourage smarter ways of working, like timeboxing (allocating specific time blocks to specific tasks), which has surged in popularity in recent years.

In a recent experiment at Atlassian, a globally distributed team of 12,000+ employees, we found that 68% made more progress when they timeboxed their calendar, and goal clarity improved for 55%.

When you orient your day around the most important tasks you need to accomplish, you’re – by design – identifying your most important work.

Features like drag-and-drop scheduling or visual calendars in productivity tools can help people stay on track and protect their focus, especially in environments where distractions are high and context-switching is constant.

Organized people build better teams

If we want to improve team performance, we need to equip individuals with tools that help them stay focused on their top priorities. That doesn’t mean chasing a mythical “perfect system” – it means offering flexible, AI-enhanced tools that support how people actually work.

When people feel organized, they do better work. And when everyone on the team feels that way? That’s when the real magic happens.

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