Hello everyone and welcome back to the patron webinar. Thank you so much for supporting for another week
It is so good to have you back
Um, I just want to let you guys know that the webinar from last week is up and you can be enjoying that one
It's about how to choose your digital journal apps and on Sunday
We're going to be posting all
Of the next June's webinars so you can go and enjoy that list and choose which ones you want to see next month
Feel free to make any recommendations in the comments below. So guys
Thank you. First off to be community plus supporters I posted
I'm trying to post some more early access content and I'm actually revising trying to revise some of the perks that you have because
Obviously, it's been a big learning curve the last couple of months at least
So we're going to be talking about something that I did a talk on and the business of software conference called
avoiding the perennial problems with productivity tools and this is gonna be a sort of like
mini guide not a full guide on how to avoid switching and improving your research and optimization of
Certain tools now. I don't need this slide because it it's pretty
Explanatory and you guys know who I am at least and so let's start with this slide and that's too many options
now as you can imagine we all know from being in this sort of productivity space that there are so many options like
Hundreds of thousands of apps you can be scrolling that app store for absolutely days and still find applications
You've never heard of and of course
we know that there's endless options in both the enterprise and the personal space like there are hundreds of the evernotes and
Hundreds of the project managers so obviously choosing can be pretty tough and there's too many options to some extent
There's so much choice and it's sometimes it very hard to make a decision. And of course our downloads are continuing
There's been a hundred and ninety-seven billion app downloads as of 2017 and I can imagine that figures
Soared even more in the last year at the very least and we all know the personal productivity software options are still on the rise
Now I didn't really necessarily have a problem with this
I think the more options the better do something them having the optionality, but I don't know whether it's the best solution
So let's just take a look here
This is a perfect example. If you tell me to do this snaps on the Google Play app store
This is March. This is like two months ago. You can start to see it is absolutely
Covered and you'll be scrolling for a while. I can imagine and of course, there's not just to do this apps
You got the regular app?
So on the white hand side of the page hunting the white and the right hand side of the page
You've got to do this taps note-taking apps calendar apps and personal project managers
I'd say the four primary applications obviously got the core app said that to do the notes in the calendar and
obviously, they're the main sort of apps but there are a whole host of other ones habit trackers hybrid productivity apps ones that combine to
experiences meeting agenda apps Pomodoro timers team communication tools all-in-one workspaces calendar schedule tools email
Collaboration tools write to apps I per Pomodoro at timers twice
But that's because there's so many of them probably
but as you can imagine there's so many different options to choose from so it's being able to determine
Which one is most suitable for me and make that decision and sit down and actually go through it
So obviously we asked us have the more tools the better
Surely that means that and to some extent it does obviously the more options you have
The better because you've got a range of things that all will be able to capture
Different people's attention and different people's needs and goals
but obviously the real focus has been on choosing those and choosing is
The most suitable thing to do is essentially spend a little bit of time
Researching going deeper working out which ones?
but of course switching becomes a lot easier when you've got so many of these tools out there you can
Switch so easily because you see something brand new and you're like, oh I want this one
so I'm going to take you through a three step guide the first is
Choosing and that's choosing actually being able to do the research and selecting one application the best suits your needs
The second is avoiding switching is actually avoiding changing that routine and sticking with the solution that you have
And making sure it's strong and the third section
Optimizing so once you've actually got that
application you're happy with it is then making a base with it and really building your knowledge of the
Application and how to really take advantage of it
So let's start with choosing now as you can imagine choosing it takes a bit of time and I almost always recommend
Spending time on researching an application and not jumping to a conclusion
Now typically when people and we've all done it
This is probably something everyone's done in this community is seen a new application and be like oh
This is really nice and very attractive
I'm going to jump on board with it because it's a you know, shiny new application
But of course we do that and that's a bad thing
But we want to spend a bit of time researching and ranking it based on our own
Needs and intensity of the application
would always recommend and for those who are taken to picking that to do this tap course is
The quadrant sections and how to actually improve that now you want to match the features to your tools
So that's very important. But let's start with the quadrant section
So let's start with a simple to-do list example, so obviously in the top left we have light personal now
This is very casual. Use this might be you making shopping list
I'm you know, being able to tally, you know, what birthday presents you need to buy people in a very simple personal tasks
That won't require you to add for example
projects or much detail more than that and that could be a good example of to do this nap that matches that criteria is
Google Tasks, but once you know, you're in the light personal you're like, okay, I'm retiring soon
I don't really need an advance to do list application. I'm not doing too hideous amount of work
Maybe I'm doing some gardening. I mean I'm looking to go on lots of walks. I'm planning trips
Maybe I need like just a light personal application to suit all of my needs and that could be your like Google
Tasks iOS reminders you maybe even falling into the category of
Microsoft to do so you're looking at those sort of very simplistic applications
Now one that same very theme of light you've got light
Professional now light professional is an area that really tries to focus more
On a professional situation, so this could be sharing and collaborating with others in a more relaxed fashion
and the reason why I want to recommend that is because that's more for like teams of 1 to 5, or
those who are on the road and potentially sharing with a little small amounts of clients or
Small amounts of people and I typically recommend apps like Trello that help you to organize
In a Kanban method and be able to share
Tasks alike with other people. So that's one of the benefits of using like professionals
So do you fall under that category?
do you fall under the small team situation and
Have the need to share stuff with other people. So you should be looking apps in the vicinity of Trello that have a very
team of collaboration abilities so obviously
Heavy personal is where you actually need to go right and need a really consistent task manager that has powerful
Features, that's gonna get me organized. This is a heavy personal. I normally typically recommend to
Freelancers those who don't work with people but need a heavy toolset to actually get them going
So heavy personal is for those sorts of characters and you could be looking at apps like you know
Tick tick is a good example
You've got only focus 3 you've got things 3 and many applications that don't really have too many sharing collaboration
I know ticktick does but of course you could fall it under the heavy
Professional category so heavy professional is a task manager
Experience that has sharing abilities projects and it allows you to communicate with others
Now OmniFocus 3 doesn't so todoist is a good example of a heavy professional application
So sitting down with this content and going ok, which one do we fall under?
Do I for example?
You know share a few things with team members and do I use a lot of the projects and tasks and contacts abilities
then you might be looking at heavy purse or a professional but if you're looking at like
Sharing some few things with team members and you want to keep organized maybe a like professional could be that category with you
Let's apply this to note-taking so there could be a like personal has really nice
simplistic abilities
Like professional might be notion being able to share stuff and use some of the note-taking abilities their heavy
professional could be Avenue because I have such a wide range of toolkits and
heavy personal could be standard notes because obviously you don't have any
Sharing abilities there, but you do have some advanced note-taking
Structures there. So as we move on to the second section, ok, so you've spent time
researching you've choosing you've used a quadrant method you've found an app that meets your future needs and needs in a long-term and
Switching is the next thing is avoiding. It is actually making sure you're going to settle down with this tool
So the best thing to do there is if you're torn between a couple of those top solutions then to shortlist
top three solutions and to pick one of those and feel
which one meet your
requirements and take a full
90 day trial with it and the goal of the 90 day trial is to actually make sure you spend time with the application and
You have two commits this 90 days
Which means that you have to set up a small base there and know that you're gonna be staying there for 90 days you cannot
Remove yourself in this 90 day gap, so that's very important. So
Obviously that is a conversation in to have yourself
Whether you want to actually spend 90 days of an application and you'll slowly filter your short list down
But it's really important to understand as well is when you're going about choosing an application is to choose for the long term as well
Because you want to be with this app on a regular sort of to two-year three-year basis
So let's say you're a couple of months down the line. You've done that 90 day trial you're happy with the app
You're like, okay
I need to really improve my use of this application streamline it so the important thing is to
Take some courses
guides to optimize that application and design the tool to your work now something a lot of people do but it's important to really
Understand whether you're utilizing all of the abilities of this
Application and really take advantage of it because once you do you can really excel honestly, I've seen people go from going. Ah,
Okay, using two duyst. I really like it
But if I saw another thing I'd be tempted
But then they go ahead and learn to doest like a bit more detail and they're like, wow, I'm sold and they go much deeper
So some recommended steps is to choose do the research. Do not switch and really test yourself in those first trial periods
And in optimize an application you need to research your needs not unders
We typically get a lot of recommendations from colleagues from our friends from our family that go you should use this app
You should use this software. And of course that's important, but being able to determine do they match your criteria
Will help you so massively and
Of course up buying for the long term of these
Applications like two to three years is a good time period to have and out because moving base is like moving house
With it to do your staff. So guys a big. Thank you
Obviously, I hope to do a webinar next week. I will do a webinar next week
If you have any questions pop them in the comments below and I'll happily answer them
But guys, I hope you enjoyed this talk and found some money from that
I will be doing a course very soon about how to choose the best to do this tap
But I'm gonna be going deep with this. So I hope to share that with you see so guys. Thanks so much
I will see you guys in the next week or so
Be sure have a great week keep productive and thanks for being a patron subscriber. Cheers guys