“Productivity tool” tends to sound like something complicated—something with at least a few moving parts, or a catchy name and cute logo, or perhaps some sort of hand-tooled leather cover.
And yes, there are plenty of productivity tools out there that can be described thus (bonus points to anyone who comes up with a tool that meets all 3 of those criteria), but if we might (and we’re so, so sorry for this, but we must) quote Avril Lavigne here, “Why you gotta make everything so com-pli-cated?” These 5 productivity tools are simple and straightforward yet awesomely and oddly powerful.
- Caller ID. Confession time: When we had AT&T as a landline provider, we were too stubborn to shell out more money to that behemoth for the privilege of caller ID, and so we wandered in the telecommunications desert for years, unable to tell who was ringing us. Then we wised up and switched to Comcast, and lo, the clouds parted and caller ID appeared (at no extra charge). And it is good. It’s not an exaggeration to say that we’ve saved several hours by not having to field calls from people we know we don’t want to talk to, and by being prepared to say, “I’ve only got a few minutes to chat” when we see that it’s someone who might tend to go on (and on) a bit otherwise.
- A Reliable, User-Friendly Calendar. Sounds insanely basic, right? A calendar? Seriously? But there are plenty of folks out there trying to use calendars that are too complex, too basic, or otherwise just plain wrong, which means missed appointments, hours spent trying (often in vain) to learn how to use complicated electronic calendars, or so many different calendars in so many places that it’s no wonder stuff falls through the cracks.Our calendar-choosing guidelines: be honest with yourself about whether you prefer something paper or electronic, and then choose accordingly. Keep two separate calendars for work and home if you must, but aim to keep them more or less synched. And if your calendar of choice comes with bells and whistles you don’t need, ignore those suckers, please
- Some Sort of Capture Tool. No matter how intelligent or on-the-ball you are, your brain is a fairly crapwad place to try to store reminders about things to do, ideas that occur to you when you’re out in the world, or other bits and pieces of inspiration. So stop trying to sock this stuff away in your memory and get some kind of capture tool already. Your capture tool can be a notebook, a smartphone app, a stack of index cards, or, in very temporary situations (we hope!) the back of your hand–just somewhere you can offload stuff from your brain into writing.
- Some Sort of Inbox. A kissing cousin to the capture tool is some kind of inbox/basket/folder. (As an aside, doesn’t the idea of kissing cousins kind of skeeve you out? Just checking.) This inbox is the spot where unprocessed stuff goes until you have the chance to process it so that it doesn’t loiter on your desk, in your briefcase, or in your brain while it’s waiting for action.Our inbox is a basic desktop file folder, into which go bills to pay, notes about articles to write, reminders about client projects, mindmaps, lists of various types, invitations that require RSVPs, and on and on and on. Your inbox might also be a folder, or maybe a letter tray, or an accordion file, or some other container. Whatever floats your boat. The trick with any inbox, of course, is to revisit its contents regularly so that it doesn’t become a dumping ground–but that’s a topic for our next post.
- At Least 3 E-Mail Folders. Whether or not you ever strive for Inbox Zero (read our struggles with that damn elusive goal here), the fact remains that an e-mail Inbox with 1500 messages (or 150, or maybe even 50) is likely to slow you down, if only because it can be overwhelming enough to induce paralysis. Just as your brain is a sorry spot for storing reminders, so is your Inbox a poor choice for storing e-mail more than temporarily. You wouldn’t use your mailbox to hold stuff you’d already opened but hadn’t yet dealt with, right? Think of your Inbox the same way.
Even if you don’t take our lead and create bunches of e-mail folders and subfolders (It’s OK. We can take it. We’re not offended. Really.) customized to the work that you do and the types of messages you receive, it’s smart to have at least 3 non-Inbox folders: Follow Ups, Waiting For, and Reference. Into Follow Ups go all of those messages you actually have to deal with in some way–stuff you need to reply to, meetings you need to schedule, research you need to do, and so on. Waiting For holds messages related to tasks you need others’ input on (like a meeting you can’t schedule until you hear back from your boss about her availability). Reference holds pretty much everything else.
As with your trusty desktop inbox above, setting up these folders gets you only partway there: you also need to get into the habit of using them, because having 1500 e-mail messages in Follow Ups is just as much a losing proposition as having 1500 messages in your Inbox. But having folders helps you start to make distinctions between e-mails–and between the tasks you need to take as a result of them–which is a huge step in the right direction.
We love these 5 tools for their simplicity and effectiveness. Have any similar tools you’d add to the list? Leave a comment and let us know.
