34 Fixes for your Productivity App
I wanted to run over some of the great ways to enhance your daily Productivity Apps, with these small hacks I think you can improve some everyday activities. I highly recommend you adding your fix/hack in the comments to help others improve their app/tool experience.
Some of these maybe a little basic to some super/pro users of the apps!
1. Learn your app’s keyboard short-cuts, seriously this saves you hours — here are Trello’s.
2. Don’t attach your tasks to your Calendar if you have over 20+ tasks a day.
3. Some apps screenshots look better than they are. Always down the hype by 25%!
4. If you’re adding more than 40+ tasks, look to group tasks into sub-tasks.
5. Follow Paul Minors, Enrico Nahler, Anthony Gauna, Carl Pullein and Steve Dotto on Twitter
6. If you struggle to remember to use it everyday, put a note in the back of your phone case.
I learnt this hack from Mimi Ikonn’s YouTube channel.
7. Avoid using 2 different Todo lists, this causes your brain confusion and drain willpower.
8. Find a buddy to start using the App with, this will help with sharing tasks and more.
9. Be open and adaptable to new Apps when they appear and fill more of your needs.
10. Find a cross-platform application/solution, something that works on your main devices
11. Consider storing your weekly, monthly and yearly targets in your Task Manager for ease of access
(Here’s how I do this with Todoist)
12. Spring clean every Friday evening or Saturday morning ready for the next week
13. Don’t add all recurring tasks there, push your brain to remember 1 or 2 regular tasks each day! (optional)
14. Make sure you brain dump everyday with your physical lists to avoid loosing open loops into the Inbox section of your task manager
15. Find something that works Personal & Professional to save you time!
16. If on Web, try using CSS Editors like “StyleBot” to change the font
17. Use Drafts or IFTTT “Do” Apps to input tasks/notes on the move
18. Use a service like IFTTT or Zapier to connect with other apps, this will help them communicate with each other
19. Read GTD by David Allen, this book will give you insight to apply to any Productivity App
20. Use at least 1 Emoji per day in your Todo list, it brightens your day
21. There are updates on average every 5–10 days with Productivity apps, keep updated!
22, After week 1 of using the App, remove all push notifications/reminders and build a habit of returning…
23. Extract a group of tasks and write them on paper to help avoid “task distraction”
24. Learn how the CEO uses the App everyday, tweet him or see their Blog
This is Todoist’s CEO style of using the App across his day.
Here’s Trello’s CEO above who tweets about the App.
25. Always get the native app (Windows, Mac, Chromebook) rather than the Web.
26. Title things effectively, I do this incorrectly sometimes and it kills you later on.
27. Make sure you feel comfortable and trust the App within the first 2 weeks.
28. Use Labels, Tags and Filters to find relevant content later.
29. Always keep an eye on clients for your service that enhance your experience
Matcha is a client for Dropbox and Evernote and makes the service cosy!
30. Colour-code to help drive your organisation and association
31. Attend a Seminar online to grow your knowledge and skills
Michael Hyatt does great Evernote videos, and Skillshare offers amazing classes!
32. Be a Chrome/Firefox Extension junkie to find more ways to improve your workflow
Grammarly is a great example of chrome extension that’s amazing! Wunderlist, Evernote and Todoist have great extensions
33. Find 2–3 people on Twitter in your industry using the App + follow their process
Anthony Gauna, photographer uses Todoist different to how 5M other uses, you can learn lots from following power-users.
34. What’s your advice on improving?
I’d really really love to hear what your productivity app hacks and tricks that everyone can use. Add them in the comments!
Thank you, Francesco. 😃
(My YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/cesidalessio)
