The range of productivity software that is available on the internet is growing continuously and a legitimate question is, whether this software is really helpful or not. The following points should help you decide whether you should buy a copy of some productivity software:

Supports your existing workflow
In order to make you more productive, technology should fit into your way of working and not require that you significantly change your way of working. The only situation when it is smart to invest in productivity software that requires you to change your behavior is when you expect that this new behavior or workflows will significantly impact your productivity. Even in a situation like this it is necessary to ensure that the producer of the software provides a workflow that has been implemented before to ensure that the software does not become a toy that is not used.

Question to ask:

Does the software support my existing workflow?
If it doesn’t support my current workflow, does it clearly define a workflow or usage scenarios that applies to using this software?

Assessing learning time

Usually you cannot just buy and use productivity software. While you can install it and run it right away it will take a few days or weeks until you have completely adopted to the software. The initial adjustment time might even have a negative impact on your productivity but with time you will be able to become more productive and be able to get more things done than before. It is important to be aware about this cycle and if possible to predict it before making a decision to buy the software.

Question to ask:

How long will it take until the software is fully integrated into my workflow?

Calculate your productivity break-even

Estimating your productivity break-even of software means to calculate the point when financial or time gains exceed the sacrifices you invested into learning the software. The reason why you bought the software is usually to improve certain steps in your workflow. Nevertheless one also has to face sacrifices (money to buy, time to learn) and an estimation of net benefit is necessary to decide whether you should buy this software. Here are the parameters, that you have to keep in mind:

Your rate per hour: 100 USD
Estimated time (h) to learn: 2
Estimated time (h) saved per day: 0,4
Price of the software: 19,90 USD

Days to Break Even = (Price of Software + (Estimated time to learn * Hourly Rate)) / (Estimated time saved * Hourly Rate)

In our example this is (19,90 + (3 * 100)) / (0,4 * 100) = 5,4. So after 6 days you will have gained more productivity improvement than you have initially sacrificed to learn the software – a pretty good pay-back time.