What’s in a productivity system? | The Vergecast
26 Aug 2024 (21 days ago)
Shared Productivity Systems
- J Peters uses Apple Reminders for both personal and shared reminders with his wife. They use shared reminders for tasks like weekend chores and birthdays.
- J Peters and his wife use a shared Apple Notes document to keep a running list of things they want to talk about with each other.
- J Peters and his wife use a shared Apple Calendar to keep track of each other's appointments.
- Esther relies heavily on Google Calendar but does not use a shared calendar with her husband.
- The speaker utilizes Google Calendar for work and personal appointments, including shared calendars with family.
Physical Productivity Tools
- A preference for analog productivity tools is explained, with a Papier Productivity Journal used for daily planning and task organization, supplemented by a Pomodoro app (Focus To-Do) for tackling challenging tasks.
- A physical journal is used to record daily to-dos, workouts, and books read.
- Some people prefer to write down tasks instead of using digital to-do lists because they find the act of organizing digitally to be mentally draining.
- A multi-tiered productivity system is used that includes a large paper calendar with sticky notes for work and personal life, a Google sheet for weekly tasks, and a physical notebook for meeting notes.
- A physical notebook is used for taking notes during meetings, capturing both direct tasks and thoughts, and these notes are later transferred to the weekly calendar and the main calendars.
- The speaker uses a physical notebook to write daily to-do lists and checks off completed tasks with a variety of fountain pens.
- The speaker prefers a Rhodia spiral-bound notepad with the spiral at the top for easy page removal.
- Upnote and a physical notebook are used for note-taking.
Digital Productivity Tools and Methods
- TickTick is favored due to its ability to understand and schedule tasks from typed instructions, such as setting reminders and recurring events.
- A system is used involving Google Calendar for scheduling, email for communication and task management (aiming for Inbox Zero or Inbox 10), and a Pomodoro app (Focus To-Do) for focused work sessions.
- The Pomodoro Technique, a time management method, is used with a timer app to break work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.
- Notion Calendar is used for scheduling and blocking time on both personal and work calendars.
- Cara Verain uses the basic notes app on her phone to take notes because she finds AI features distracting.
- Verain keeps her work and personal calendars separate, believing that excessive focus on productivity can be counterproductive.
- Verain prioritizes taking notes and reviewing them thoroughly to determine her next steps, using them as a guide for scheduling and follow-ups.
- Esther Cohen uses Google Docs for work tasks and Apple Notes for personal tasks.
- Cohen prefers using her computer over her phone for productivity because she finds it easier to focus.
- When Cohen needs to remember to do something, she will text herself a reminder and then add it to her to-do list later.
- A preference is stated for using a laptop over a phone for browsing the internet.
- Before creating a to-do list, a "vibe session" is used to determine the important aspects of a project.
- The Google sheet is organized by team functions (sponsorships, operations, production) and is filled out each day with tasks for approximately 20 minutes.
- Victoria has started using spreadsheets more and finds that the more she learns about them, the more enjoyable they become.
- Jake uses the app TickTick for 99% of his organization, both professional and personal, including reminders to talk to friends.
- Jake prefers to input his meetings as tasks in TickTick rather than using the calendar sync feature, as he found it to be too chaotic.
- Calendar apps are considered mostly terrible, but the time grid feature is potentially a perfect solution for quickly viewing and understanding schedules.
- A list format is suitable for personal daily planning, but a calendar app is necessary when coordinating with others' schedules or determining availability.
- TickTick is a cross-platform to-do list app that effectively sends reminders to both computers and phones.
- For personal errands, the speaker uses Google Keep to create checklists.
- Google Keep is used for making quick checklists, especially for chores that need to be done on a busy day.
- Notion is used as a task management tool, where tasks for the day or week are listed out. Sometimes checklists, regular text, links to Slack messages, and due dates are used.
- Google Tasks is used for tasks with deadlines, as it integrates with Google Calendar and provides reminders.
- Airtable is powerful but can be fussy and slow, especially without a time investment to learn the program.
- UpNote is a simpler, well-designed alternative to Evernote for note taking and to-do lists.
- Joplin is a good, simple note-taking app with a decent free version, but it relies heavily on Markdown.
- Google Tasks and TickTick are used for managing to-do lists, but there is a desire to consolidate them.
- Notion is used for almost everything else.
- A preference is stated for using a combined calendar and note-taking system, with Fantastical being the preferred app.
- Apple Reminders is used for task management due to its integration with Siri.
- For larger projects, various apps have been used, including Notion and Capacities, with no definitive solution found.
Podcast Information
- The show is produced by Andrew Marino, Liam James, and Will Poor.
- This specific episode was edited by Xander Adams.
- The Vergecast is a part of the VOX Media Podcast Network.