I'd love to say that was like really organized music, but when Paddy emailed me what music do you want?
I just sent him what I was actually listening to you say
Oh well
I'd like to start with like a mini survey before we get into the talk
The talk is gonna be a little bit of about a three-part process in decision-making when it comes to choosing
Personal productivity software. So before we get started a little mini survey who uses Evernote here probably hands up
Awesome, who's using it right now to take notes
couple of you Trello users here Oh
quite a few todoist
Asana
And I'm gonna go for some wild ones now that aren't maybe mainstream in a moment superhuman anyone using those anymore quite a few
Yeah
It's got a very long list
And notion as well there another Oh quite a few notion is that's awesome. So yeah my talk to me about avoiding
Perennial problems with productivity tools and do you have to click it by any chance as well?
sorry, I
was here
so
Just a bit of instruction to myself. My name is Francesco. I host a channel called keep productive
I mean II do a lot of freelance work in the marketing space
And I don't know about you guys
But one of my main passions is to match people with the most suitable tools for their work
And I love when you see someone like find a tool like Evernote or asana they go out and use it and they Excel
massively
You can follow me on Twitter as well
Just briefly about key productive. It's primarily a YouTube channel that it has just over 60,000 subscribers
we routinely do tutorials about apps we bring in guests to talk about productivity and
We really do guides as well. We also have a podcast called tools. They use that interview professionals
So we really try and curate the best tools and resources for people to learn more
So as you know, there are way too many options out there
There's a hundred ninety seven
billion app downloads and total and that was back in 2017 and a lot of those are both the business and productivity space if you
Go to any of the app stores iOS App Store or the Google Play Store
And you type in to-do list app or you type in you know note taker calendar app
you probably even get a list like this that has a very long scrollbar because there are so many options and
determining which one is best for you is
pretty tricky, of course, you get a lot of recommendations from
Colleagues and everything like that. So there are typically on the white side
There are sort of three
Main apps that you'll use in your day a to-do list app a note-taker and a calendar app and maybe a project manager, too
if you're self-employed or use it for your
Freelancing efforts and then there are a ton of other different types of productivity apps like habit trackers Pomodoro timers
All-in-one workspaces. It's pretty endless actually
And you're probably wondering right? Ok, so there's all of these options out there the more tools the better right surely
I've got a big selection I can choose from them
well
That's good
Because obviously you can narrow down the app that you're going to go with but actually it can be damaging if you switching routinely
For example, if you switched to do list app, it's almost like moving house
You're moving all your tasks over takes you a couple of weeks to get into it
So I'm going to share a three-part process that will help you to hopefully and eventually improve your decision-making around
Choosing personal productivity tools. So the first new steps is is the choosing part
That's the research so obviously putting a lot of time into the research to find that one application
That you're going to go with is very very important
Then number two is actually to avoid switching once you've gotten that application
So you've done all that research you then move to obviously trying not to switch
so that's making sure that that app is the most suitable for you and
Number three is once you've got that app
Once you've done all the research is then building a base and actually making sure you're using the full level of function
So going back to that first step. This is the research part
So obviously you get loads of recommendations in your work places other people will be trying apps throwing apps at you either through Twitter producthunt
Or someone nudging you in the office, but selecting them based on your needs is most important
So typically what I recommend is using a quadrant system, it's a really simple way to break down
Which apps are most suitable for your work or life needs. So here's an example of those for example in the top
Left-hand corner, you've got light personal and that's just for everyday use it could be for example for shopping lists
It could be managing at day to day stuff and this is for to-do list applications
down at the bottom left
Heavy personal which is really strong featured applications
That you're only going to use for yourself up in the top right hand corner light professional
it's basic but it has some sharing abilities and
Finally an application that has powerful features with team use as well
So obviously a lot of you guys probably will be over on this side in the professional segment
But actually sitting down working out what quadrant you'd fall into before choosing an app will help you to make better decisions
So obviously you can apply this to other such applications and find out which one is most suitable for you
So before you go about doing it pick one of those areas and you'll be in to fine-tune the apps and the features that match
those
So number two is switching, okay
So your goal is to actually settle down on this application once you've got it you don't want to move
The importance of this is is massive a lot of people switch
I've done it in the past and honestly, it's something that I know a lot of people will be doing
But it's important to settle down because once you do you'll save so much time
money and effort because it is like moving house when you move a
Note-taker order to do this application
So what I typically recommend is plan your choice for a three to five year distance
So for example, I know that when I started University
I was recommended a lot and was going to go with an app called vendor list
Which was great for the time period but I knew I'd need some sharing abilities after I finished University for some jobs
So I went with an app called todoist and I've been with them for six years now
So the importance of the application is to be there for as long as possible so that you don't have to move
so what to do is once you've done all that hard research the quadrant system is
To choose your top three solutions and then to spend a 90 day trial with the app and the main reason for example
Would you pick one of those three and go with the 90 days?
The main reason in doing that is so that you can be stuck with that application
And actually not spending like 30 days of there dropping it going to the second option
So you actually have to commit 90 days to it and that will help you to determine whether the app is not suitable for you
but it also helped filter out some of the other ones and
The third thing the third area is optimizing is actually fine-tuning the application to your day-to-day use now
I know that loads of people will find an application on product done or see one and be like that looks good
I'm going to give it a try
But actually once you're to this stage and you're past the 90 day period it's actually important to do and go deeper with that application
So what I recommend is typically taking small courses guides
videos to learn the full functionality of the application and to really go as deep as possible with them and
Also to craft a home for that resource because once you've crafted a home on it, it becomes easier to stick with that application
So a few recommended steps
so the first is obviously to do that research to choose then it's not to actually switch once you've got it and
Finally to optimize that application
Research on your needs not the needs of other people
And if you're obviously choosing the team tool that goes a little bit differently and you need to spend more time with other people
Choosing that resource and although it will be may be offensive to some software developers up here. Don't necessarily
Upgrade straightaway, you need to understand whether the free experience matches your needs before necessarily going to premium
I've accidentally absolutely stormed through this
So thank you very much for having me today. Thank you to mark and all the team for having me here
If you'd like to come and show me your app homescreen, I'd love that because I'm a fairly
Fan of productivity tools or you can drop me a line on Twitter if you like or obsidian person
So, thanks very much, and I look forward to some of your questions
Cheers
You