IN THIS VIDEO WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE BEST ANDROID APPS TO HELP YOU STAY PRODUCTIVE
AND SOME APPS THAT I THINK ARE INVALUABLE FOR ANY ANDROID USER!
LET’S CRACK ON.
THIS IS NOT A SPONSORED VIDEO BY THE WAY, THESE ARE ALL APPS THAT I PERSONALLY USE AND
I THINK ARE REALLY USEFUL.
PRODUCTIVE - FOREST
STARTING WITH FOREST. THE WORST ENEMY OF PRODUCTIVITY IS DISTRACTIONS. AND LET’S FACE IT, WE’RE
ALL GUILTY OF IT.
WE HAVE AN IMPORTANT TASK TO COMPLETE BUT... TWITTER IS RIGHT THERE. INSTAGRAM IS THERE
TOO. AND TIKTOK. ALL GREAT FUN APPS.
BUT MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, THEY WASTE THE MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE YOU HAVE. WHICH IS TIME.\
AND THE BEST WAY I FIND TO FOCUS IS BY USING AN APP THAT PRETTY MUCH LOCKS THE PHONE FOR
25 MINS. YOU COULD STILL UNLOCK IT BUT THEN YOU WOULDN’T GET THE REWARD WHICH IS A TREE.
AND IF YOU DON'T PLANT A TREE YOU DON'T GET YOUR FOREST.
SO THERE’S THIS REALLY SATISFYING SIDE OF IT WHICH MAKES YOU FEEL REALLY GOOD FOR BOTH,
COMPLETING THAT IMPORTANT TASK AND ALSO TO SEE YOUR FOREST GROW.
WHENEVER YOU LOOK AT THE PHONE THERE’S AN ENCOURAGING MESSAGE TELLING YOU TO LEAVE IT
ALONE AND GO BACK TO YOUR WORK.
AND IF YOU ARE WATCHING THIS BEFORE EARTH DAY, FOREST ARE RUNNING A REALLY COOL CAMPAIGN
TO PUT THE PHONE AWAY AND DO SOMETHING THAT BENEFITS OUR PLANET.
REALLY COOL, CHECK OUT THEIR INSTAGRAM AND THE APP ITSELF FOR MORE DETAILS.
THEY HAVE COOL CHALLENGES AND A PAID OPTION THAT LETS YOU PLANT WITH FRIENDS. AND THAT’S
REALLY WHERE THE FUN STARTS AS WE ALL HAVE A COMPETITIVE SIDE, THIS COULD HELP YOU FINISH
YOUR IMPORTANT TASKS WHILST HAVING FUN WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY.
YOU ALSO WANT TO MAKE SURE YOU ENABLE DEEP FOCUS MODE SO THAT IT’S REALLY HARD FOR
YOU TO GET DISTRACTED.
- NOTION When I am not working in a team, and I have
a specific project to work on for myself THAT HAS A BIT MORE COMPLEXITY like creating YOUTUBE
VIDEOS. THEN I GO TO Notion.
FOR CONTENT CREATION I USE THIS EXTREMELY USEFUL TEMPLATE BY THOMAS FRANK - SHOUTOUT
MAN, GREAT STUFF. GO CHECK HIM OUT, BUT SUBSCRIBE TO ME AS WELL, HE'S GOT LOADS OF SUBSCRIBERS
ALREADY.
IT CAN GET REALLY COMPLEX WITH TABLES THAT CALL OUT EXTERNAL SOURCES FOR DATA BUT I JUST
LIKE THE STRUCTURE OF IT. IN THEORY YOU CAN USE IT FOR WRITING LONG TEXTS TOO BUT FOR
THAT I PREFER MORE NATIVELY WRITING APPS LIKE EVERNOTE OR ULYSSES.
VOICE RECORDER Not exactly a note taking app but I use this
to take voice notes. When I am out and about and an idea pops into my head it's great to
be able to quickly record a voice message.
Or it could be late at night and you don't really feel like typing a long note or a writing
down an idea... simply record it and listen to it later.
You can also save the recording into a secure folder for that extra peace of mind.
It comes with Android it is free - And the best feature for me is the fact that it has
a buil-in speech to text feature.
Now if you don't have this on your phone, you can still get Voice Recorder (same name)
through the Play Store which is also free.
I mean it has some ads which you remove by paying around $5 bucks I think... But I didn't
bother.
The recording quality is also fantastic, and with this one you can even choose whether
you want to record in MP3 or WAV files and you have loads of storage for it.
When you playback the recording you can speed it up or slow it down. The speed ranges from
half speed all the way to 2 and a half times faster.
There are many other uses for voice recording.....like taking minutes for a meeting - as long as
you are allowed to record that of course.
But in general it makes my life a lot easier and saves me a lot of time,.....
and most importantly doesn't disrupt me from what I'm doing doing, which is one of my favourite
productivity hacks. If I can do something without having to completely switch to something
else, that has a lot of value for me.
We are not designed to be multitaskers, so for me focused work always wins. And that's
how you're gonna get lots done, and be disciplined.
Fabulous. Talking about discipline, probably the best
app I will cover today is called Fabulous. Once you've set it up, you configure it according
to what you want to achieve.
Whether it is start an exercise habit, to build self-discipline, manage an addiction
like social media or gaming addiction, this app can help you achieve your goals.
It works as your personal coach. It uses really clever things like behavioural science to
help you develop good habits like having a morning routine.
It also lets you compete with other people but most importantly with yourself so you're
constantly trying to improve.
It can start with simple things like sleeping better and eating more healthily.
I can't recommend it enough, it is easy to use, it looks gorgeous and is really fun to
use.
Digital Wellbeing The next app I want to talk about is Digital
Wellbeing. This is not really an app, more like a feature of Android. Not all Android
phones have this so I will link to alternative app for this down in the description.
It shows in a really nice and friendly way how much you are using your phone, how many
times you unlocked your device and what apps you are using the most.
It has this really cool bedtime mode feature which I swear by and in comparison with IOS
this is much better.
During that time that you schedule as your bedtime, the screen will turn on greyscale
and all your calls and alerts will be muted.
Discipline is really hard with so many distractions, we really get quite lost in scrolling social
media.
And sometimes the simple fact that the screen has gone to greyscale is enough as a reminder
that it is time to turn things off and start relaxing for the next day ahead.
LEARNING
- SKILLSHARE THE OTHER THAT I RECENTLY STARTED USING IS
SKILLSHARE. I AM PROBABLY THE ONLY CREATOR WHO IS NOT SPONSORED BY SKILLSHARE SO THIS
PROBABLY WILL FEEL WEIRD.
LEARNING IS ANOTHER GREAT WAY OF NOT WASTING HOURS SCROLLING ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND INSTEAD,
TO LEVEL UP YOUR SKILLS either in your are of work or in something completely new.
By the way this video is not sponsored by Skillshare. Even sounds wrong, this is proably
the only video on YouTube that's not sponsored by Skillshare. Or squarespace...
BUT IN A WAY IT PROBABLY GIVES YOU SOME PEACE OF MIND THAT WHENEVER YOU HEAR ANOTHER CREATOR
SAYING THEY ARE SPONSORED BY SKILLSHARE THAT THEY ARE ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT A TOP QUALITY
PRODUCT.
THE APP IS REALLY EASY TO USE, AND has lots of incredible professionals who have mastered
their trade,,,, AND are on skillshare providing their own courses, sharing their own secrets.
Really really great app, expensive. But worth every penny.
UDEMY Right, There are dozes of online courses apps
out there. And if you are not too sure about the expensive ones, maybe try something like
UDEMY.
I used a lot for my other business which is around technology consultancy. Like many industries,
tech is always moving and a great way to stay on top the latest changes is to keep learning.
Udemy allows you to tailor your learning, and there are some great courses on it for
like $15 or $20 bucks. Most of the courses will provide you with offline material and
tests that can even help you get certified!
- LINKEDIN LEARNING
SOUNDS OBVIOUS BUT the first step is to start. And you start by downloading the app.
IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE APP AND YOU DON’T START SOMETHING, THEN YOU ARE LETTING THOSE
POINTLESS HOURS OF SCROLLING WIN.
AND WE DONT WANT THAT, LEARNING IS A GREAT WAY OF FEELING GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF AND FEELING
CONFIDENT WHEN YOU GO INTO DOING WHATEVER IT IS THAT YOU ARE trying to explore as a
new skill.
FOR ME IT IS TO KEEP IMPROVING MY PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO EDITING SKILLS.
I USE A FEW DIFFERENT LEARNING APPS AS YOU'VE SEEN HERE AND ONE I WANT TO TALK ABOUT IS
LINKEDIN LEARNING. I WOULDN'T SIGN UP TO LINKEDIN PREMIUM JUST FOR THIS, BUT YOU MAY ALREADY
HAVE LINKEDIN PREMIUM AND IF THAT'S THE CASE, THEN DOWNLOAD THE APP BECAUSE IT IS FANTASTIC.
IT HAS SOME GREAT COURSES AND THEY ARE ALWAYS ADDING NEW CONTENT.
FOR WHATEVER SUBJECT YOU CHOOSE, THEY HAVE BASIC, INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED COURSES SO
YOU CAN LEARN IN A WAY THAT SUITS YOU.
IT ALLOWS YOU TO DOWNLOAD COURSES SO IF YOU ARE OFFLINE OR TRYING TO SAVE USING YOUR MOBILE
DATA PLAN, YOU CONTINUE TO LEARN WITHOUT DISRUPTIONS.
AUTOMATION - IFTTT
It's something that manufatures have taught us... A great way of achieving more and SAVE
TIME IS TO REMOVE the human from doing repetitive tasks. We are very capable and our time should
be spent in being creative or doing some valuable with our time.
So we can give those mundane tasks to robots, just like the manufacturers. For us, we have
IFTTT, they used to be called If this than that. Unfortunately they charge for a Pro
version now, it used to be entirely free. So my recommendation is to start with the
free version and if you like it upgrade it to the Pro version.
For example, with all the Alexas, Siris and Google Home all the smart home stuff, it can
become a mess to remember where you created an alert or a reminder so I have a task in
"if this then that" to add all of my to-dos into Evernote.
And this can do a lot more, like adding your reminders that you created on your phone to
your todo app, like todoist for example.
And there's some other cool options like automatically flashing your Hue lights to indicate an event,
like an email you received, or when your location changes or even for weather alerts. Because...
UK
LOCATION - AS WE START TO BE ABLE TO TRAVEL AND MOVE
AROUND THIS BEAUTIFUL PLANET. IT’S IMPORTANT NOT TO GET LOST.
ACTUALLY GETTING LOST IS FUN SOMETIMES.
BUT WHAT IS NOT FUN IS TRYING TO SHARE YOUR LOCATION WITH YOUR FRIENDS.
WHAT3WORDS HAVE MAPPED OUT THE ENTIRE PLANET AND CREATE UNIQUE 3 WORDS addresses FOR EVERY
3 SQUARE METERS. AND THEY WILL NEVER CHANGE.
STREET ADDRESSES SOMETIMES SUCK! WHETER YOU ARE DRIVING OR WALKING SOMEWHERE NEW, HAVING
A ZIP CODE OR GPS COORDINATES IS NOT THAT FRIENDLY.
OR IMAGINE GOING TO A CONCERT OR A SPORTING EVENT. I AM AT GATE W2. WHERE THE HELL IS
THAT?
WHAT 3 WORDS SOLVES THAT BY USING WORDS. EASY TO REMEMBER, FUN TO USE, WELL INTEGRATED WITH
OTHER MAPS APPLICATIONS. CAN’T RECOMMEND ENOUGH.
NOTES - GOOGLE KEEP
I use many different note taking apps but some have different usages. If I just want
to jot down some quick details about a product or something I am reviewing, like numbers
and specs, I use Google keep.
It's in the cloud, it's quick to access from anywhere and very searchable. And it has a
Dark Theme now. Sold.
- EVERNOTE MORE FOR ACTUAL WRITING, LIKE WRITING AN ARTICLE
OR THIS SCRIPT FOR THE VIDEO RIGHT NOW.
I LOVE HOW EASY IT IS TO EDIT THE FORMATTING, IT'S VERY SIMPLE TO USE. ALSO HAS A DARK MODE
AND IS VERY EASY TO SEARCH FOR THINGS.
AND I ALSO LOVE HOW EASY IT IS TO KEEP IMPORTANT INFORMATION.
BUT NOT CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION. NEVER USE NOTE APPS SAVE PASSWORDS. PLEASE DON'T. YOU
KNOW WHO YOU ARE... PASSWORD123 ON THE NOTES APP.
SECURITY 1PASSWORD
FOR THAT I USE 1PASSWORD. THIS IS A FANTASTIC TOOL. I'VE USED IT FOR MANY YEARS NOW. AND
THE FACT IT IS A FANTASTIC SECURITY APP, IS KINDA SECONDARY FOR ME. IT SAVES TIME.
AND EVEN THOUGH IS NOT NECESSARILY A PRODUCTIVITY APP, IT DOES REDUCE THE AMOUTN OF TIME ID
HAVE TO SPEND RESETTING PASSWORDS LOGGING INTO EMAILS, RECEIVING TEXT MESSAGES TO CONFIRM...
YOU KNOW THE DRILL.
WITH ONE PASSWORD, IT SYNCHRONISES ACROSS ALL YOUR DEVICES AND SMARTWATCHES.
THERE ARE SIMILAR ONES BUT FOR ME, THE WAY IT INTEGRATES WITH THE BROWSER, IT IS MULTI
PLATFORM SO IOS ANDROID, MAC AND WINDOWS. IT HAS A BROWSER PLUG-IN AS WELL.
IN A WORLD WHERE WE HAVE MILLIONS OF BOTS OUT THERE,,,, FORGET HACKERS, THERE ARE MILLIONS
OF MACHINES OUT THERE TRYING TO HACK US SEVERAL TIMES A DAY...
SO WE CAN’T AFFORD TO USE SIMPLE PASSWORDS. THE APP WILL HELP YOU CHOOSE COMPLEX PASSWORDS
BUT THE BEAUTY OF IT, IS THAT YOU DON'T NEED TO REMEMBER THE PASSWORDS.
THE APP WILL DO THAT FOR YOU. SO YUOU CAN CREATE REALLY COMPLEX PASSWORDS, BUT YOU WILL
NEVER TYPE IT. BECAUSE OF THE BROWSER EXTENSIONS AND THE INTEGRATION WITH ANDROID MEANS YOU
NEVER NEED TO TYPE THE PASSWORD.
I USE THIS EVERY DAY. SEVERAL TIMES A DAY.
ANOTHER GREAT FEATURE IS THE FACT IT “TALKS” TO THIS EXTERNAL SOURCE FOR COMPROMISED EMAILS
AND PASSWORDS. CALLED WATCHTOWER.
SO IF SOMETHING LIKE TWITTER OR FACEBOOK GOT HACKED, IT WILL ALERT YOU TO SAY THAT THE
ACCOUNT YOU USE HAS BEEN COMPROMISED AND ALERT YOU TO CHANGE THAT PASSWORD.
I DON'T WANT TO SCARE YOU, BUT YOU GOTTA STOP THOSE BAD GUYS COMING IN. BUT THAT’S NOT
ENOUGH. A PASSWORD IS THE FIRST POINT OF ENTRY.
TO REALLY PROTECT YOURSELF, ESPECIALLY FOR THE THINGS YOU CARE ABOUT, ENABLE TWO FACTOR
AUTHENTICATION.
AND FOR THAT THERE ARE TWO OPTIONS. SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE.
FOR THE SOFTWARE OPTION I LIKE GOOGLE AND MICROSOFT AUTHENTICATOR APPS.
IT'S A BIT OF A FIDLLY TO SET IT UP AND YOU HAVE TO MAKE SURE YOU KEEP THE BACKUP CODES
SAFE IN CASE YOU LOSE YOUR DEVICE.
AND THERE ARE HARDWARE OPTIONS AS WELL BUT I DONT WANT THIS VIDEO TO BECOME ALL ABOUT
CYBERSECURITY WE WILL LEAVE IT THERE FOR NOW. MAYBE I WILL DO A SEPARATE VIDEO IF YOU WANT
MORE ON CYBER SECURITY.
THIS VIDEO IS PART OF A SERIES SO MAKE SURE YOU SUBSCRIBE SO YOU DON'T MISSOUT ON THE
NEXT ONE.
AND I WILL SEE YOU AND YOUR SMILING FACES IN THE NEXT ONE.