Being a CEO is no walk in the park.

Whether it’s managing complex mergers and acquisitions, spearheading digital transformations, or staying on the right side of regulatory compliance, the challenges are endless and unceasing.

No surprise then that according to a Harvard Business Review research study, CEOs are always “ON.” The leaders who formed a part of the research study worked 9.7 hours per weekday, on average. They also conducted business on 79% of weekend days, putting in an average of 3.9 hours daily, and on 70% of vacation days, averaging 2.4 hours daily.
It’s no wonder, then, that CEOs are always looking out for the best tools to navigate the relentless pressures with poise and precision.

In this article, we share our top picks for the best tools for CEOs designed to turn the tortuous daily grind into a much more fun model of peak efficiency and productivity.

Best Tools for CEOs, Executives & Founders

At SnackNation, we’ve been testing and reviewing online collaboration tools for over a decade to find the best ones to boost productivity and efficiency. We’ve evaluated tools based on a number of different criteria that we believe are essential to running a highly productive and super-efficient workplace.

Ultimately, the content we create is designed with you, the end-user, in mind. All of the tools we’re recommending have been tried and tested, and we’re confident they’ll work for you.

Let’s get started!

1. FounderIV | Best for CEO Newsletter

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The Founder IV is a weekly newsletter designed to provide insightful and actionable nuggets of information in a condensed format for quick CEO consumption. Worth mentioning is the choice of topics.

Given the newsletter is the content brainchild of a serial entrepreneur, the content is immediately relevant, whether it’s learning about all the health and performance tests that are essential for founders to take, the best new software for tracking your net worth, or how to create a newsletter for infinite business growth with zero CAC (Cost of Acquiring).

Why we love this tool for CEOs: Weekly content focused on the three essentials — health, wealth, and founder performance.

Standout Features:

• Easily assimilable at once a week – You get the newsletter once a week straight to your inbox. Daily newsletters can feel like a lot, especially if there’s plenty of content to get through. Once a week feels just right – you can get up to speed at work or mull over the contents on the weekend.

• Usefulness times three — The newsletter focuses on three sets of actionable insights and tips for founder performance, wealth building, and enhancing health — all topics of interest for the average business leader. It’s not easy to find all three in one place.

• Spearheaded by an entrepreneur – Founder Sean Kelly is a seasoned founder, investor, and human performance specialist, which means the newsletter is helmed by people who have visible street cred.

Testimonial: “It’s a veritable goldmine of tips and hacks worth spending time on. Especially loved the emphasis on entrepreneurial wellness — which is just as relevant to CEOs.”

Looking for more CEO-styled content designed for peak productivity? Check out a few more recommendations:

• 10 of the Best Entrepreneurship Newsletters
• You Can’t Miss These 12 Management Newsletters
• Best 16 Financial Newsletters to Master Your Money
• 12 Best Business Podcasts to Elevate Your Entrepreneurial Game 
• You Can’t Do Without These Tips to Thrive in the Startup Landscape

2. Calendly | Best for Schedule Management

Sign up for Calendly now!

Calendly goes well beyond helping you manage your calendar. It’s a complete schedule managing platform that you can use to connect not just internal teams but also external customers. Aside from sharing your calendar links, you can also connect Calendly to existing tools, like your CRM, your video conferencing tool (like Zoom), and even your payroll software!

Why we love this tool for CEOs: The ability to link your calendar with other productivity tools means you can extend the functionality you get through integration.

Standout Features:

• Accurate, real-time scheduling – Easily share your calendar availability with a single click via email or your web page. Pre-block slots in your calendar so you’re never surprised by unexpected meetings. Calendly will also automatically detect time zones, so meeting attendees are always up-to-date on their schedules.

• Integrations – Calendly integrates with the most popular and highly used tools in the market. For example, through its integration with CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot, you can record critical data from every meeting in real-time for individual customer records (super useful for follow-ups and closing deals faster!).

• Ease of booking promotes increase in the numbers that matter — Because of how easily Calendly fits into the sales cycle, it’s able to promote a higher rate of bookings for demos, bookings, and partner calls.

Testimonial: “I have had a fantastic experience with Calendly, and I have come to love everything about it, but mostly how easy it is to use. I also like how I was able to integrate it with other tools which I use like Gmail, Google Calendar and Webex meetings all on my own.” – G2

3. Notion | Best for Collaborative Note-Taking

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Notion simplifies the time-consuming and cumbersome process of documenting things. Because recording and sharing content is such a crucial element of project management, it’s no surprise that Notion can replace several documentation tools on its own because of the sheer scope of its features. Think Evernote but on steroids.

Why we love this tool for CEOs: Easily share and collaborate on notes, documents, and updates; embed videos and all of your design assets; place all your critical information in a centralized location; customize ready-to-use templates; integrate with Asana, Figma, Amplitude, Trello, your Slack channel — we’ve barely scratched the surface!

Standout Features:

• Go beyond text with over 50+ content types – Configure code snippets, set up a table of contents, create collapsible document sections, embed images and videos, write math equations, and so much more.

• Centralize your workspace with Wikis – The Wikis feature enables you to store your knowledge base in a single location using drag-and-drop organization. Use the search option to locate specific files, use a ‘@’ to link to other pages or your notes, and even import information from other tools like Jira and Figma.

• Thousands of plug-and-play templates – Notion has a large library of templates that you can use for a variety of case scenarios, for example, persona profile templates, competitive analysis templates, project roadmap templates, and 1 to 1 meeting templates.

Testimonial: “An excellent solution for managing personal notes, data and other records. Also great for sharing information.” – ProductHunt

4. monday.com | Best for Project and Work Management

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If you want a highly customizable yet super user-friendly, no-code, integrated project management software, look no further than monday.com. It helps you set up automation to streamline your workflows in no time, and you’ll find products inside the platform suitable for all types of teams, including sales/CRMs, work management, and development teams.

Why we love this tool for CEOs: Business leaders will love the extent of customization that’s available on this platform through an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Build, customize, and automate workflows just the way you want!

Standout Features:

• Dashboards – Run reports, create summaries, track progress, and get a high-level overview of your entire organization with custom dashboards. By leveraging the 50+ apps that are available in this suite, you can set up views to your required specifications, for example, track hours or set up Gantt charts.

• Improved visibility with Kanban – Set up a Kanban board to visualize your workflows. Options include customization, the drag-and-drop interface, intuitive color coding, and smart sort and filtering (priority, status, and custom fields).

• Centralized location for file storage, collaboration, and sharing – Easily cut down time for approvals by collaborating directly on documents. Organize iterations of files in a coherent timeline-oriented format. Upload documents directly from another tool you already use, like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft OneDrive.

Testimonial: “The amount of customization and automation I can add to boards allows monday.com to be adaptable to whatever I need it to do! I have used it to manage home DIY projects/renovations to multi-million dollar technology integrations.” – G2

5. Viva | Best for Subscription-Based Remote Executive Assistance

Learn more about Viva here!

Viva finds the highest quality Executive Assistants, trains them in-house, and then matches them up with StartUp executives. It’s a boon for time-starved business owners who want to free up more time to spend on growing the business.

Why we love this tool for CEOs: It’s a high-quality, vetted, and fully-trained EA service to manage all the nuts and bolts of the demanding CEO lifestyle. Think schedule management, travel and expense management, managing emails, coordinating meetings, and even project management support.

Standout Features:

• Solid vetting process – EAs go through a strenuous hiring process prior to selection. The vetting process includes oral and written assessments and multi-team member interviews to gauge competencies, behavioral traits, and levels of enthusiasm and commitment. The vetting process also includes reference checks for work ethics, collaborativeness, and reliability.

• Core skill training – EAs are trained on a variety of skills that are a must-have in the context of a startup or small business environment, such as email etiquette, calendar management, data analysis, research, event planning, and problem solving. They’re also trained in technological tools such as G Suite, project management and expense reporting tools, and CRMs.

• Ongoing coaching – Your EA will be paired with a Customer Success Manager to establish a feedback loop for the executives as well as to develop ongoing development opportunities for the EAs.

Testimonial: “Em has been a true booster pack for me (in games lingo!). My calendar immediately got 10x better in a couple of weeks after Em joined. This change has opened up time for me to focus on strategic priorities while not working late hours.” – ExecViva website

6. Slack | Best for Messaging App

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While Slack has a lot of features that make it ideal for use as a workflow management platform, it really shines as a collaboration tool, especially for connecting teams on the go.

For example, you can create channels project, topic, or teamwise, where team members can gather to discuss everything related to the subject at hand. Once your project is over, you’ll have a searchable record and archive of all the conversations that have taken place. You can do the same with external vendors, too!

Why we love this tool for CEOs: Ineffective communication can be a deal breaker regardless of the size and scope of your business. Slack helps you streamline communication so everyone’s on the same page at all times.

Standout Features:

• Chat messaging – With chat messaging, you can chat 1-on-1 or as part of teams with embedded voice and video for additional clarity. You can even add context to chats with imported information from the other tools you use, such as Google Drive, Salesforce, Mystery App, and Asana. All conversations can be categorized and organized, making it easy to search for them later.

• Slack Connect for external partners –  With Slack Connect, you can move all your external vendor conversations into a single location. All the information is held securely within your platform, so there’s no concern with how parties outside the company will access sensitive company information. You can even piggyback your existing techtools to add more context to the conversations.

• Virtual huddles – Slack makes it easy to set up virtual huddles at a moment’s notice. Simply connect online through audio or video and share screens to get started!

Testimonial: “Slack is so robust. You can send files, GIFS, and video, have team video calls and create channels for your team to chat together. When sharing links, there is an option to display rich content previews, and you can even make your own emojis. The customization is endless. It is incredibly powerful even as a free version.” – GetApp

7. 1Password | Best for Password Management

Grab 1Password here!

Although we’ve tagged it as the best for password management, 1Password’s use-cases extend well beyond passwords. You can use it to protect, share,  and fill  credit cards and other private/sensitive information, too. It’s available in variants for personal, business, enterprise, and developer use.

Why we love this tool for CEOs: Ample, well-thought-out features and options to protect sensitive information at a corporate level.

Standout Features:

• Account management – See all your accounts with a simplified overview. You can unlock individual accounts and also set up to restore your original window on relaunching with 1Password.

• Multiple autofill options — You can set up to autofill literally any type of data, including security questions and two-factor authentication codes. 1Password will even automatically submit the form for you after autofilling. You can also go beyond the browser to auto filling directly in Mac apps and the macOS system.

• Automatic data recovery – 1Password will automatically recover your sensitive data in the event of a power failure or crash.

Testimonial: “1Password is easy to use and it will manage all your credentials. Share credentials in vaults and enforce your organization into the privacy practices. All employees can handle the tool and make the data safer. We use this tool every day in every place, and the deployment is easier than ever.” – G2

8. QuickBooks | Best for Small Business Accounting

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QuickBooks is an easy-to-use accounting software designed for small businesses to help manage (and stay on top of!) income and expenditure. Aside from managing incoming and outgoing money, you can also use it to pay your workers, accept payments in a variety of options (ACH, Apple Pay, Venmo, PayPal, etc.), and track/adjust/approve team hours.

Why we love this tool for CEOs: QuickBooks gives you everything you can expect from accounting software in one place.

Standout Features:

• General/advanced accounting features – Just a few examples of how this works in practice – You can easily track income and expenses by auto-syncing bank and credit card transactions. You can also snap and store receipts, making it easy to manage tax deductions. You can also set it up for bill payment.

• Set up and send invoices – Create and customize on-brand invoices in minutes. Sync QuickBooks Time and Google Calendar to automatically add billable hours. You also have real-time tracking so you’ll always know when invoices have been viewed and when they have been paid.

• Multiple pricing options —  Quickbooks offers flexible pricing options, so you can purchase just the modules you want. You can also opt to pay monthly or get a discounted price if you pay for three months upfront.

Testimonial: “Having no prior experience in Bookkeeping, I was pleasantly surprised how user-friendly, easy-to-use and well-integrated Quickbooks was to use. I have recommended this to all my friends. Well done and thank you for making it super easy for us. Their customer support is fast, efficient and extremely helpful.” – G2

9. Ahrefs | Best for Professional-Grade SEO Analysis

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Ensuring your business gets high visibility online to generate endless traffic is no mean feat. Every SEO specialist worth their mettle has their own tech-stash of tried-and-tested tools that help them stay at the top of their game. Ahrefs is one such tool that founders can use to get insights to help them rank in search engines.

Why we love this tool for CEOs: It’s a high-quality, feature-rich, and industry-grade SEO tool that delivers as advertised.

Standout Features:

• Competitor analysis – Use the Site Explorer option to find out the keywords that your competitors are ranking for and their highest traffic-generating pages. Get in-depth insights into the website architecture. Analyze backlink profiles and the quality of these backlinks. Also, find out whether your competitors are using paid search marketing and how it’s being deployed.

• Site Audit – Use this feature to run an exhaustive website analysis of your own site to identify technical and on-page SEO issues that could be holding it back from ranking. You’ll get metrics in the form of a Health Score, key data in the form of charts, and recommendations you can use to fix the SEO issues.

• Keywords Explorer – Ahrefs is a complete keyword research tool offering thousands of keyword suggestions for 10 different search engines, including Google and YouTube, with up-to-date search volumes refined on a monthly basis.

Testimonial: “Great tool for anyone who cares about his own website. The way it shows all the data is just perfect. You can find many useful things that help you improve your SEO, find broken backlinks, tons of info about your competitors and many more. I can’t imagine doing my work without this tool.” – Gartner

10. Canva | Best for Social Media Content

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Canva is an online graphic design tool ideal for social media graphics and presentations. Its chief highlight is its customizable templates, which you can modify for all types of visual, audio and video content. Although Canva does have a paid option, you’ll find the free option more than adequate for all your design needs.

Why we love this tool for CEOs: Even if you have no design experience, you’ll find Canva simple and user-friendly. The images are high-quality and the templates are easily customizable. You can also do video and reel content for swoon worthy social media content.

Standout Features:

• High-quality customizable templates –  Whether it’s graphics, presentations, invoices or any other type of visual content, there’s an exhaustive library of templates that you work with. You can customize colors and typography or use the free (or paid!) image library. You can also upload your own audio/visual content to create the graphics.

• Pre-sized and measured for social media – Templates are already pre-done in the right sizes for a variety of social media use cases, so you don’t have to remember sizes, for example, Facebook banner graphic, Instagram reel, Instagram post, and so on.

• Download, print, and share options –  You don’t need to subscribe to the paid plan to download your content. You can also share directly to social media and print your images, too.

Testimonial: “Canva has contributed greatly to my audience’s engagement with Instagram and Facebook posts. I have gained and continue to gain more followers because of the quality of the images, stylized texts and short videos I post weekly.” – GetApp

People Also Ask These Questions About Best Tools for CEOs

Q: How can executives choose the best project management software?

• A: Before selecting your ideal project management software, evaluate your needs against several competencies, including features, integrations, ease of adoption, and other key aspects. Consider the specific tasks you need the software to perform, such as task management (planning, tracking task completion, managing to-do lists, etc.), people management, workflow creation and automation, schedule and time management, reporting and analytics, resource management, collaboration and team communication, real-time updates and notifications, and inbuilt generative AI tools. Assess how well the project management tool integrates with your existing tech stack, including HR and payroll systems, and whether it can consolidate existing systems to centralize operations. Review the software’s user-friendliness, the necessity for extensive training, the availability of a customer success manager or support team, and the ease and speed of setup. Also consider the level of security and compliance offered, mobile accessibility for remote team member access, whether future upgrades are included, and if the software fits within your budget for technology.

Q: What are the essential tools for strategic planning for founders?

• A: Founders have a suite of tools at their disposal for effective strategic planning, encompassing various aspects of business analysis and execution. These include SWOT analysis tools, which are instrumental in assessing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats relevant to the business. For insights into market dynamics and competitor behavior, competitive analysis tools are invaluable, offering a deep dive into market research and strategic positioning. The backbone of the planning process can be supported by strategic planning software, crucial for managing goals and performance, along with strategic execution tools such as OKR (Objectives and Key Results) software or the BSC (Balanced Scorecard) model, which aid in aligning objectives and measuring outcomes. Financial forecasting and modeling tools play a critical role in crafting data-driven financial projections to guide decision-making. Furthermore, project management software is essential for translating strategic plans into actionable tasks, ensuring visibility and tracking of progress. Lastly, data visualization tools offer a means to distill complex data into comprehensible visuals, facilitating quicker and more informed decision-making among stakeholders.

Q: How do analytics tools impact decision-making for executives?

• A: Analytics tools bolster executive decision-making through several key functions: They provide data-driven insights by collecting, processing, and analyzing data from various sources, offering executives deep insights into patterns, behaviors, and trends crucial for strategic decision-making. This includes delving into market trends and consumer preferences, alongside utilizing predictive analytics. They also aid in risk assessment and management by evaluating historical data, which helps executives understand potential challenges and risks, thereby enabling them to preemptively address issues before they arise or escalate. Additionally, analytics tools are invaluable for performance management, allowing the evaluation of team progress towards goals, identifying real-time lags or delays, assessing shortcomings, and implementing immediate corrective actions.

Q: How can time management tools improve productivity for busy CEOs?

• A: Time management tools are essential for busy CEOs, enhancing productivity by instilling discipline in optimizing the use of available time. These tools aid in tracking and analyzing time usage, allowing the identification and reduction of time-wasting activities, and assisting in realistic task time allocation. They enable the creation of daily, weekly, or monthly schedules and the practice of time blocking for specific activities. Moreover, they assist in prioritizing crucial tasks, breaking complex tasks into simpler sub-tasks, and setting timelines and deadlines. This comprehensive functionality supports continual schedule tracking, ensuring CEOs stay on top of their commitments.

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