Hey everyone! Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity.

And as we head into the holidays, as we head into the very end of the year and the start of 2019, I wanted to take just a moment to express my thanks to you.

Thank you for supporting the Simpletivity channel, for all of your comments, for all of your questions, for attending the live streams, for participating in the RESET Productivity Boot Camp.

Any way, shape, or form, I want to express my thanks to you. It's hard for me to believe that a year ago we had something like 8 or 9 thousand subscribers.

And we are now on the verge, at least at the recording of this video, we're on the verge of exceeding 40,000 subscribers. But let me be honest, it's not about the subscribers.

It's not really about the numbers or the number of views. It's the ways that I get to interact with you, and I really appreciate all of your questions and comments.

I still try to do my best to read every single one of the comments. So, as we head into a new year, I wish you the best, Happy New Year!

I hope you have a fantastic 2019. And I'm looking forward to even new bigger and better videos in the coming year.

But just before I sign off, I've got a question for you. I feel like we've built up a community here.

You're more than just a viewer, I consider you a friend. I consider you a contemporary, a partner as we seek ways to be more productive and make the best use of our time.

So the question I'd like you to help me answer is what should we call this community? I've named my business Simpletivity.

But should we name ourselves something? Or would you like to be named something or referred to as something?

I'm not saying that we have to do this, but I want to throw that out there to you. Maybe it's something fun that you can think about and you can share with me in the comments below.

With that, I wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year! Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Just a few days ago I opened up registration for the reset productivity bootcamp so in this video I wanted to answer the most frequently asked questions about reset I'm going to be using the five W's who what when where and why so you have everything you need to know about the reset boot camp number

What is Reset

one what exactly is reset well this is a four week online course where I teach you directly how to get the most out of your day whether you're dealing with distractions or interruptions perhaps you want a better way to prioritize all of your projects and tasks and most importantly how to create the optimal productivity system for you we are going to learn all of that within the reset productivity boot camp

Who is the Reset Boot Camp

who exactly is the reset boot camp for well I've had a variety of different professionals attend the reset boot camp over the last year and a half we've had

everyone from bookkeepers accountants real estate agents small business owners

entrepreneurs a wide variety of professionals it doesn't matter if you work for yourself if you work from home or if you work for a large organization this boot camp is all about transforming the way you work so you can work at your productive best if you don't believe me

What is the Reset Boot Camp about

you don't have to take my word for it here are just some of the things that passed reset alumni have said about the reset productivity boot camp I especially like what Gary had to say today's one hour reset webinar saved me approximately two hours this very afternoon something I hope you already know about me is that I'm all about

actionable tips and in each and every one of our live sessions I'm giving you actionable tips and weekly assignments you get a little bit of homework just to make sure that you follow through with this program make the differences that you want to see in your work day

Where does the Reset Boot Camp take place

Where does the reset bootcamp take place well it's wherever you want to be this

Is a online course but it is live that's right there's no pre-recorded videos with the reset productivity bootcamp I host four live webinars through the duration of the program so whether you want to take this from your home office if you want to do it at work and remember each

And every one of the live webinars will be recorded so if you can't make everyone live or only some of them live you can catch up and you can watch those videos in fact those of you who register for the reset productivity

bootcamp will have access to those videos for a full year once the course begins when does the reset boot camp When does the Reset Boot Camp take place

Take place well the course kicks off Wednesday May 1st and it will run every Wednesday throughout the month of May it's a one-hour webinar where you join me live and the other cohort participants you get to ask me questions directly but perhaps more importantly

I am teaching you directly as I share my screen as I share real-world examples and you get to ask questions and participate along with other students as

a part of the reset productivity boot camp so again that's May first starting things off each Wednesday throughout the month of May and perhaps the most

Why should you consider the Reset Boot Camp

Important question that you're wondering is why why should you be considering the

Reset productivity boot camp well as I said before this is very much unlike any other course you've probably taken before this isn't something that you can just click through over the course of a weekend know you get to work with me directly

And get direct access to me throughout those weeks you'll be invited to a private Facebook group where you can interact with myself and ask questions in between the webinars and you know if you're wanting to make some really big changes in your work day

It's important to have someone you trust it's important to have you it's important that you have a coach to guide you along the way that's one of the reasons why I only do this two times a year once in the spring and once in the fall so if

Register for the Reset Boot Camp

you would like to learn even more or register for the reset productivity boot camp I encourage you to visit simple tivity dot-com slash reset or you can click the link in the description below now we are still in the middle of early registration so you have an opportunity to save 40% off the regular price but registration is only open for a limited amount of time before the course begins May 1st as always

Remember being productive does not need to be difficult in fact it's very simple

Hi everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

And today, I'm doing something just a little different.

Today, I wanna give you a tour of my actual workspace.

Now, you may be familiar with this background here. This is where I record my monthly webinars. This is where I host the Reset Productivity Bootcamp.

If you've ever attended any of my online training, this is where you're probably used to seeing me, but this isn't actually where I do most of my work.

No, I do most of my work at a different location in my home. I do have an office location and just two weeks ago, I purchased a brand new desk.

So I wanna give you a tour of the new desk, give you reasons why I chose this particular desk and I'm hoping you can maybe help me finish off organizing this desk.

You can choose where I get to put certain items 'cause I'm looking forward to your feedback.

So, let's head upstairs and let me show you my new desk.

Desk Tour

So, here it is, my brand new desk.

And I'm sure the first thing that you're saying is, that doesn't look like a desk.

Well, no, it's a converting desk, sometimes better known as an armoire desk. It looks more like a chest, right? It looks more like a dresser.

Well, I'm big on saving space and so I purposely purchased such a converting desk so not only can I save space, but I'm gonna show you how I can easily pack up shop and leave my work behind at the end of the day.

So, with any converting desk, all you need to do is pull on one of these handles and this desk part folds out.

I've got plenty of space for my laptop, room for a notepad, a piece of paper. This is where I do all of my video recordings, as well.

One of the reasons why I chose this particular model is that, as I close this up, for example, you'll see that it actually has some supporting arms here on the corner that fold out, right? The mechanism is built in.

I wanted to make sure that I had a desk that was sturdy enough because I'd seen other folding desks before and sometimes it was just, sort of, a very thin hinge. That was the only thing that was keeping this part here, but this is more than sturdy enough for my laptop, for my big microphone that I use for recording my videos.

Lots of space here for a notepad and some additional paper. But this is more than enough space for me to get the work done that I need to do.

The other reason why I chose this particular model is that there's ample room for storage space. You can see here, I've got room for my tablet there, I've got some scrap paper there, and in fact, I've got a lot of empty space and this is where I'm hoping you might be able to help me out.

Where and what should I be putting into these different slots here? I don't usually keep a lot of mail or paper.

Now, got some of my favorite candy. I'm a big Skittles fan there, in the background, but I'm still not sure what exactly I should be putting into these four slots.

I've got a few small pull out drawers here where I can leave some knick-knacks. I only have a few things in there, a charging cable and a USB drive. But, plenty more storage down below.

So let me just fold in, put my laptop back inside. Let me fold up the desk here.

And here on the front, you can see, I've got two drawers and two cupboard drawers.

Now, one of the disadvantages of this particular desk is that when the desk itself is folded out, it makes these drawers essentially inaccessible, right? I can't access these when the desk is folded up, but that's why I purposely put in things that I don't need very often.

Here I have a number of business cards in this particular drawer. I'm only needing, you know, one or two writing utensils at a time, so I keep those on my desk. I can leave my extras in this drawer here.

But down below, I've got much more space. Down below here, I've got mostly my recording equipment for recording YouTube videos. I've got a few snacks, a few of my favorite power bars, Clif Bars, down below.

Here I've got, actually, a new timer that I'm looking forward to reviewing in an upcoming video, and you can see, I haven't really maximized the use of this space yet. I've got lots of room still left in this cupboard here.

And if I move over to the left hand side, I've got even more space. In fact, the only thing (laughs) that is on this top shelf is my windscreen for recording videos, the thing that I put in front of my microphone.

But this is the other nice component that I like here is that it actually has a drawer, a nice wooden drawer here, that has hanging files.

And you may recognize this system. This is often referred to as a tickler file system. I'm actually experimenting with something else new with this new structure, as I'm doing, sort of, a modified tickler folder system, where I'm actually using three dates at a time because I don't like the idea of having to flip out a folder each and every day.

I find as long as I'm on top of things within a three-day window, I can do so. If you don't know much about a tickler folder system, it was popularized in the Getting Things Done book by David Allen. You can find many great resources online. Just type in tickler folder or 43 Folders and you can find out how this system works.

But I love how this is built right into it. I didn't have to buy a hanging folder system, it was built right into the desk.

So let me fold that up here.

On the top, I try to keep it nice and sparse. Sometimes I leave my phone up here. I've got a bit of a charging station here in the corner and a little lamp that I use from time to time if I need some more appropriate light.

But let me fold this out one more time, just to explain why I chose a folding desk system such as this.

Why a Folding Desk

Now, I already mentioned that one of the reasons why I chose this desk is I like to save space and maximize my surroundings. That's why I wanted a converting desk.

But there's another reason why I chose this particular desk and that is, at the end of the day, I wanted to literally close up shop, as you see here.

I wanted to close my desk and actually hide my computer, actually make it a little, tiny bit more difficult for me to access my desktop at the end of my workday.

You see, I think it's important to finish your workday at a particular time. The reason being is that that's the only way you can guarantee time for other pursuits and other time with your family, with your friends, and maybe other hobbies.

I truly feel that by having a particular stop time or end time, it's gonna make you more productive in the long run.

So I like that I actually have to put my laptop, I have to tuck it in, just a few inches here on the inside, and then all I have to do is fold this up and it's, sort of, out of sight, out of mind.

That was key for me. This is why I chose such a desk as this one.

So I hope you enjoyed that little tour.

Outro

Of my new desk and my workspace.

I'm looking forward to your questions and your comments and feedback, but more importantly, I'd love to learn more about your workspace and what makes it unique for you.

What do you love about your desk and your setup and what do you wish you could improve upon?

Be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

I wanna thank you so much for subscribing right here to the Simpletivity channel.

I hope you give this video a thumbs up and don't forget to leave me a comment down below.

Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

hello everyone Scott Friesen here at simple tivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress and today's video is a little different because I've never done something quite like this before I'm seeking your help here's how it's gonna work

I love reading all of your comments all of your suggestions and questions here

on my videos on the simple tivity channel a lot of those questions a lot of those suggestions become future videos well I'm just in the middle of

What are your suggestions

planning out my new video content for the rest of spring and through the summer months and I want to hear from you so I hope you participate in this what I'd like you to do is in the comment section down below I'd like you to add your suggestions as to what types of videos you would like to see right here on the channel in the coming months it could be something related to technology or a how-to video or anything

related to time management or productivity or getting the most out of your day but instead of adding all of

How you can help

your suggestions in a single comment if you've got two or three suggestions I'd

like you to add them as separate comments and here's why other people are

gonna have an opportunity to give you and you can thumbs up or vote up other

people's suggestions and what I'm gonna commit to is whatever suggestion gets

the most likes get gets the most thumbs up down in the comments below I'm going

to commit to making that video I'm probably going to be making a lot of the

Videos, a lot of the suggestions that you add down below, but I'm promising you right here and now, whichever suggestion gets the most likes, I will most definitely be producing that video.

So I hope you get involved, take just a few moments, add some suggestions down below in the comments, take some time to maybe review some of the other things that are being suggested, and vote on the ones that you want to see right here on the Simpletivity channel.

I want to thank you so much in advance for participating. I want to thank you for supporting the channel. As of this recording, we are approaching 60,000 subscribers.

Thank you so much, and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Not too long ago, I asked you what kinds of videos you'd like to see more of here on the Simpletivity channel.

And Mihow had a great suggestion. He said he wanted to see the best books, podcasts, and resources that helped me to be more productive.

So today I wanna share with you seven of my favorite books and podcasts that help me stay on top of my game.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

And let's jump right in with Mr. Daniel H. Pink.

And my first book recommendation is his latest and it's called "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing".

Now you may be familiar with Daniel Pink. He's the author of books such as "Drive" and also "To Sell is Human". I've read both of those books and a few others and I've thoroughly enjoyed his style of writing.

But until recently he had never tackled the topic of time management or personal productivity. And what I love about "When" is that he backs it up with research and with real data.

So for example, did you know that you should try to avoid hospitals between the hours of 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.? In fact between two and four in the afternoon, you should probably try to avoid a lot of important things, including important meetings or important phone calls.

That's just a little bit of a teaser. You'll have to find out why by reading it for yourself. But I thoroughly enjoyed "When" by Daniel Pink.

Now I'm gonna be alternating between books and podcasts. So my first podcast recommendation might be a little surprising to some of you because it may seem as though it's not focused on productivity at first glance. I regularly listen to Freakonomics or more specifically Freakonomics Radio which was loosely based or is loosely based on the book by the same name.

Now the authors of Freakanomics go into some really interesting topics. And as you glance at some of these, you may again say, "How does this help you, Scott, to be more productive?"

But if I scroll down just a little bit further, you'll see that there are episodes such as "A Better Way to Eat", "The Zero-Minute Workout", "How Does the Behavior-Change Revolution?", "How Goes the Behavior-Change Revolution?", and "Long-term Thinking in a Start-Up Town". I love that Freakonomics interviews a wide variety of experts and professors, not just economics professors but a wide variety of professionals. And I found that it's given me some really interesting insight into my own business and my own behavior, as I'm thinking of new routines and changing the way that I go about my day.

Freakonomics releases a new episode roughly once a week and they are very very well produced. So you'll certainly, it's certainly worth your time to check out Freakonomics.

All right, back to a book recommendation. And for this I have to go to Mr. Cal Newport. Now Cal Newport's latest book is entitled, "Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World." A lot of it has to do with taking a social media fast but the book that I wanna recommend by Cal Newport is "Deep Work".

Now you've may have heard me talk about "Deep Work" in the past. It's one of my all-time favorite productivity books. "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World". And it really does come down to how do we keep and achieve the focus we need to be as successful as we can, whether that's in our work or even when that's in our personal lives.

Now Cal Newport is somewhat famously known for having almost no social media presence. I don't believe he has a Twitter or Instagram account. He's not active, even if he does, he's not active in any of those places and that's really surprising for a multiple best-selling author. But if there's one thing that Cal knows a lot about that is focus. And I really enjoyed "Deep Work", immediately started to apply a number of the things that he talks about within his book.

All right back over to a podcast recommendation and for this one I have to go to the Five AM Miracle Podcast by Mr. Jeff Sanders. Now I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Sanders a few years ago. And I was actually a guest on his podcast at the same time. And what I love about the Five AM Miracle Podcast is that Jeff is just such a positive guy. He really gets you going, whether you're listening to this early in the morning or some other part of your day, he gives you actionable tips and a great interviewer as well. As you get to hear from a wide variety of professionals on a wide variety of topics. But it really is focused on productivity, on technology. As you see here, the episodes run typically, probably about 45 minutes in length, a pretty typical podcast length. But something that is a great way to either start your day or to keep you on that positive side as you go about your workday.

All right, it's time for another book recommendation and this may just be my favorite on this list. It may be a little bit surprising to many of you that I've included it on this list but it's quickly become one of my all-time favorite books. And that is "Never Split the Difference" by Mr. Chris Voss.

Now first, let me talk a little bit about the author, Chris Voss. I wanna highlight some text here. Chris Voss was the FBI's hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council's hostage working group. He led international kidnapping negotiating for the Federal Bureau of Investigation for many many years. In essence, if there was ever an American who was taken hostage in a foreign country, Chris Voss was either directly or indirectly involved.

So if we're talking about negotiation, he's certainly the expert we wanna be listening to. But the focus here is not just on the author but the book itself, and it's called, "Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It". And what I love about this is that very early in the book, Mr. Voss talks about, in a hostage negotiation there's no such thing as let's meet halfway, right? There's no such thing as, "Hey, why don't you release one of the hostages and then you can go ahead and kill the other hostage." That's never ever acceptable from a hostage negotiation standpoint. And he uses the things which he learned over his decades of hostage negotiation and applied it in a real-world sense.

Now you may think if you're not in sales, is this book really gonna be helpful to you? And I would say, absolutely. We are negotiating day in and day out, regardless if you're dealing with contracts or not. Even in your personal life, you're negotiating constantly with a spouse, with your children, with your neighbors, with good friends, with family members. But especially within our work world, whether it's clients, whether it's your own boss, or coworkers. The things that are discussed, the things that are provided in this book are invaluable and I was able to apply a number of them in my own business almost immediately. Like I said before, "Never Split the Difference" has quickly become one of my all-time favorite books and I think it will help you with your productivity. You'll be able to accomplish more because you get to start thinking in a slightly different way.

Back over to my last podcast recommendation on this list. We've got one more book recommendation to go but my podcast recommendation is the Productivityist Podcast. Now I know that's a bit of a mouthful at first, Productivityist. Who is the Productivityist? Well it's Mr. Mike Vardy and he's been doing this podcast for a number of years and I like his take and I especially love his interviewing style within the podcast. He releases his podcast typically on a weekly basis and it is an interview format. He interviews a number of authors, a number of other productivity coaches and consultants. But some really great topics, some really great things that you can start to apply right away. And what I love, whether I'm reading a book or whether I'm listening to a podcast is hearing someone else's story, someone else's journey. And a lot of times that's what Mike Vardy focuses on. What was someone else's journey? How did they improve their productivity? And I love grabbing just the key tidbits or the things that really resonate with me and I try to start to apply them in my own life, see what works and see what doesn't. So if you want some helpful tips, a very entertaining podcast, be sure to check out the Productivityist Podcast.

And that brings us to my final recommendation in today's video. And with this I have to go with Angela Duckworth's book, "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance." Now again, you may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with productivity? Well I think it has all to do with productivity because it has to do with how do we push through certain barriers? What separates the most successful from everyone else? And how can you apply those techniques within your own day today?

You might wanna start off by watching Angela's TED Talk which is very good. It gives you a bit of a summary of the book itself. But again I'm a big fan of books that can back up their claims with real-world research and data. And Angela Duckworth and her team have done a number of studies in a variety of places, some of the most prestigious universities and businesses in a variety of countries. And she's come up with some great insight on how you can be more grit-worth. How you can bear down but also be more successful in the end.

Well there you have it, there are seven of my favorite books and podcasts. Books that I've read recently and podcasts that I continue to listen to, to help me be more productive.

I would love to hear from you. What are some of your recommendations? What are some of your suggestions? I'd love to hear some of your favorite books, some of your favorite podcasts. Maybe there are some other resources that you use.

Be sure to share them with me and share them with others in the comments below.

Remember being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

(logo wooshing)

• [Scott] Let's be honest, you have a lot of choice when it comes to project management tools. Whether it's Trello, Asana, or maybe Monday.com, and they all do an excellent job of managing tasks and giving you the ability to collaborate with others. However, Hive Project Management is doing something a little different. In fact, I think it is game-changing when it comes to communication. And so today, I want to show you three ways that Hive is allowing you to communicate directly, from within its system so you don't have to go anywhere else.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

And I've talked about Hive Project Management before in the past. I really love their clean and simple layout. I also enjoy the different types of views that it gives you for managing and taking a look at all of your different projects, but the real game-changer that I wanna show you today has to do with messaging.

So here on the left-hand side, let's start with "direct messages." And you can see I've got two areas here: there's "groups" up top and then there's "direct messages" down below.

So if I wanna have a complete conversation here with Jessica, I can do so. I don't have to leave anywhere. I don't have to do it within a particular task. I can do it right here from within Hive. And beyond just simple text, I can also drag in certain tasks.

So if I drag in this task, I can talk directly about this task, so she knows exactly what I'm talking about. And of course you can click on it and go directly to that task as well.

But up top, I can also have a direct messaging conversation with my entire team, or I can create subgroups, very much just like in Slack. I can create a marketing team, and we can have our conversation here.

So this is fantastic for keeping everyone in line and not allowing them to be distracted, or to be engaged in so many other different channels, especially it reduces the need to have multiple tabs open, or other things open on the screen at the same time.

But maybe the biggest game-changer that Hive has introduced is email integration. So here in the top left-hand corner, you can see something that's labeled "inbox." And when I open this up, do you know what this is? This is my actual Gmail inbox. And you know what, it's more than just a teaser. It's more than just a view of my inbox; I can actually do everything that I can within my regular email, right here from within Hive.

So if I want to go into this email here, for example, and I want to reply to it, I've got a reply button, and I can say, "Yes, let's meet Friday." All right, and I can send it directly from within Hive. I can send my emails directly from within the Hive interface.

It gets better than that though. Probably I want to attach this to an existing task or maybe I wanna create a task. So I can create a new action if I want, but I can also create a link to an existing one here. So let's see here, I think I've got something that's called "marketing," or is it "call client back"? So I'm gonna say "call client back" here on my test project. I'm gonna say "add," and now I can go directly to this existing action.

So Jessica, for example, she's already on this one, but this conversation, this email I thought was relevant, and so now I've got that email directly here. It's embedded directly into this particular card. Here it is, "Yes, let's meet Friday." And I can continue that conversation. As I get more responses to this, it's not just gonna stay static. This message isn't going to end here because it's directly linked to my email; I'm gonna continue to see those new messages here as well. So I never have to leave Hive. I can continue to be productive, reply to my emails, see new emails, especially if they're assigned to a particular task. I can have that happen directly here from within Hive. I think this is absolutely fantastic.

Now the next thing that I wanna show you when it comes to emails: how many times have you been in a particular task and you've said to yourself, "Well, oh you know I forgot to write this email," or "I need to tell the client about this"? Well, why waste your time going to another application? Why not just hit "new message"? And now I can start to craft a brand new email, right here from within Hive.

And again, it's gonna stay connected to this particular task. So I don't have to worry if this person, after I've sent this message, I don't have to worry if someone has replied to it and I'm not going to see it. It's gonna show up right here within this particular task. It's also gonna show up in my inbox here on the left-hand side as well. So no longer do you have to send an attachment, right? Or send something that looks a little funny into your particular card or your particular task. It's gonna be the real email, and the best thing is, you can reply to it, you can forward it directly here from within Hive.

Now, if that wasn't good enough, I want to show you another communication feature which Hive has, which I think is great for keeping everyone on task. Down in the bottom right-hand corner, you can see that there's a little pop-up here that says "notes." Let me click on "notes." Now these "notes" are always available at all times. I can have personal notes, I can have notes that other people have shared with me.

Let's open up these meeting notes and see how we can effectively use this feature.

So here are a couple of meeting notes that we collected a few days ago, and I'm sure this sounds familiar to you, right? You've faithfully had someone on your team take these notes, or maybe you've taken some of these notes, and you know, you start to write things like, "Okay this one here, I think we want to get Jessica to do that one." So we're gonna put Jessica's name beside it, and maybe afterwards, you email out this list, or something like that. And you just hope, right? You just cross your fingers that Jessica opens it up, reads it, and sees that this is the thing that she is supposed to do. And maybe, you know, you got one down below here, and this one's assigned to me. And you just hope that people follow up with this and they see it.

Well, why do this? Why just add a little text-based name? Why email things after the fact? Why not take your notes and then assign it directly? So if Jessica is meant to do this, I'm just gonna highlight this, and I'm gonna create an action. And over here, I'm gonna assign Jessica to it. And let's give it a due date. Let's say we'd like this done within about the week. We've given it a due date, we've assigned it to someone, all within the meeting. This can all happen before the meeting is over.

How about the one below? The one that's supposed to be done by me. I'm gonna create an action here as well, or you can see, we can link it to an action as well. This one, I'm gonna take on. And let's say that I'm supposed to do this by the end of the year.

So now we've got something actionable here, and it's also gonna track it here below as well. So let me just minimize this for a second and let's go back here to see what is happening here.

So if we look at Jessica, here is the one that's been assigned to her. It's already shown up in her list. She didn't even have to attend that meeting. It's gonna show up here because we assigned it within those meeting notes. And when we come in here and check it off, what's gonna happen is if we open our notes back up again, let's open up those meeting notes. It's checked off, right? She didn't have to come back into the meeting notes. She didn't have to tell someone else. She came in here and checked off this task.

How about this one, "Follow up Ted about the Dallas office"? Well, let's go back here and let's see where it is with me. Here it is. It showed up in my task list. And here I can add a description, I can add, I can change the due date, email new comments, everything that you would do with a typical task. And when it's over, I'm gonna check it off, so maybe the next time we get together in our follow-up meeting, yeah, everyone's gonna see that it's been checked off, that we followed up with those particular action items.

No longer are you gonna have meeting notes or meeting action items that fall by the wayside or just get ignored. Why not convert those notes directly into actions in the middle of the meeting or immediately after?

So I am pretty excited about the way that Hive has integrated communication, whether that's email, whether that's direct messaging, or assigning things directly from their notebook. I think this is an amazing way for them to keep everyone in line and on top of what they need to do.

So, I'd love to hear from you next, what did you think about these features here within Hive? Let me know, down below, in the comments.

Thank you so much for watching today's video. I hope you subscribe right here to Simpletivity and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Hello everyone Scott Friesen here at simple tivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress and today I am excited because I don't do a lot of contests I don't do a lot of giveaways but I wanted to say thank you for all of my many many subscribers we just recently hit the 100,000 subscriber mark so thank you so much for being a part of this journey and for continuing to support the simple tivity channel what

Special Announcement

I've got here today is a copy of the self genil bye best self and although I talk primarily about technology and apps and tools sometimes we need some analog

tools to help us work at our productive best now just before I tell you how to enter this week's contest I have another special announcement starting this next Monday registration for the reset productivity boot camp is going to open up now if you have not heard of the reset boot camp before this is an online course that I deliver live twice a year

Reset Boot Camp

Yes

Live that's what makes it so unique and it's one of the reasons why I enjoy delivering it so much

This isn't something that I pre-recorded in the past

It's not some collection of videos that I did back in 2013 and I just hit play

This is something that I continue to revise and change over time based on the the needs of our surroundings and the needs of Technology and applications and your day to day

So if you would like to join me for the spring class of the Reset Productivity Boot Camp be sure to check out Simpletivity.com/reset

You can also find a link in the description below if you'd like to learn more about the program

And if you want to be notified when registration opens on Monday

All right back to the contest

Giveaway

Back to the giveaway

If you would like to receive this for free all you have to do is three things

Number one make sure you're a subscriber here to the channel it can't be a subscriber giveaway if you don't actually subscribe

Number two make sure that you give this video a thumbs up

And last but not least in the comments down below tell me why you would like to receive this copy of the Self Genil

Those are the only three things that you need to do

Now this contest is only gonna be open for 72 hours so make sure that you get those comments in soon

And I will be notifying the winner right here in the comments in just a few days

Thank you so much again for subscribing to the channel

I hope you check out the Reset Productivity Boot Camp

I hope many of you join me for this spring class

And last but not least remember being productive does not need to be difficult in fact it's very simple.

If you manage your own business or are promoting something special, you know how important it is to have social media on your side, and producing something that is professional-looking yet won't take a great deal of time so you can promote that event or that product or that special sale.

Well, in today's video, I wanna show you how to create some great social media marketing in just minutes by using PosterMyWall.

Hello, everyone. Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And one of the things that I love about PosterMyWall is not only that it takes just a few minutes, but check out all these cool video templates in which they have.

In fact, PosterMyWall has over 150,000 different templates to get you started. No, these are things that you're just gonna use off-the-shelf, but you can replace your logo, your name. You can do whatever you want and upload your own content as well in just a few minutes and produce something pretty special.

So let me show you some of my stuff and some of the things that I've created in just a matter of minutes, and I wanna show you how easy it is to replace your logo, use your own branding, such as your own color, etc. So that you can produce great social media images, whether that's Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter or wherever you are posting this type of content.

So to get started, all I need to do is select New here on the left-hand side, and in this case, I'm gonna choose a new design. Now, like I said, there's over 150,000 different templates to choose from, and they've categorized it by the different purposes that perhaps you are after. I'm gonna choose a small business here because I wanna show you something here that I was working on a little bit earlier and just how easy I can take a template here within PosterMyWall and create something special.

So I'm gonna use this one here which is labeled Big Sale, something like that. Now, of course, I can preview all of the things that I see here. I can just click on them. It shows me a bit about a better preview. That seems pretty enticing, right, to have a video actually as a part of your promotion here, but I'm gonna go back to this big sale here, and I'm gonna choose customize my template.

So here within this window, I can now fully edit every aspect of this template. So I can edit out the text. I can even go so far as move these little images. If I don't like where that little green arrow is, I can just click and drag and move it around. Don't need this text? Well, let me just click on it and delete it and so forth.

So as you can see, I can have as much control as I want as I go about editing this image. So let's say I actually like the first part of this. Big sale up to. Well, I'm not gonna offer 40% off. I'm gonna offer let's say 25% off, sounds good, and for this one here, I'm gonna say. I'm actually gonna give them a date in this case. So I'm gonna say until April 30th. How about that?

And you know what? I want that to stand out a little bit more. So if I go over here to the right, I can add some more editing options as well. I'm gonna change the size of this. Punch it up a little bit there, and, yeah, let's drag it down, maybe just away from that little pink background there, until, or maybe just overlaying it there, until April 30th.

And then down below here, I don't want everything here. I don't wanna give this address. That's obviously not my address, but what about if I put my website address? I'm gonna type in simpletivity.com, and no one's gonna see that. So let's pump up the size of that, as well. You know what? On second thought, wouldn't it be great if I had my logo in here?

So let's actually delete that. I'm gonna go over here to the left, and here I can upload a photo to my images here. So if I say add from my photos, I already uploaded my logo a little while earlier. I'm gonna select this and say add photo, and so now, I've got my actual logo here, but you know what? That might clash a little bit because it's got a bit of a darker blue here in the background.

I wonder how I could fix that? Here you can see the background color. I'm gonna click on that. I know my branding hex color. 0079BF. I'm gonna hit enter, and now I've got that blue there. So it's gonna blend in with that, but I still have these darker images. So I'm gonna click on that. I'm gonna hit delete. I'm gonna click on this one and hit delete. Now that's starting to look a bit better.

I'm gonna go down here, and the only thing I don't like is that this is sort of bleeding over top of these images. See the sharp corner here and how this is over this little graphic here. If I click on this and say send to back, that should be able to fix, there we go. Now I'm sort of overlaying it. Now I'm over top of that. If I don't like this here, again, I can just cover this and drag it over to the left so that my logo is better seen.

Now the last thing I wanna do here is add something extra special to my graphic. I wanna add a little extra pizzazz. Here you can see on the right-hand side that PosterMyWall has a brand new feature called animation. So if I select an option here, let's start with fade, you can see that it's gonna bring it even that much more to life when my viewers see it. I particularly like slide. I think that's really eye-catching, and I can further make changes here, including the speed, maybe I want it to come from the left-hand side. I can do that.

This is a fantastic way to add just a little extra oomph to your social media marketing. However, you're probably looking at this with me and saying, "This looks a bit more like a traditional poster." Now that is gonna look fine on a place like Facebook, but what about some of the other places where I intend to post this, like Instagram or Twitter?

Well, one of the great things is that you can see there is this resize button at the top of your screen. So if I select resize, it's gonna open up this little window, and I can start with more traditional marketing, right, like a flyer or a poster or a banner, but if I come down here, if I scroll down to social media, I'm gonna select Instagram post, and I'm also gonna select a Facebook shared image. It even tells me the dimensions right here.

So we can tell Instagram, of course, is a square, one by one, and then Facebook has its own specified dimensions here as well. So I've got both of them listed down below. I'm gonna say copy and resize, and in just a moment, it's gonna take the image that I had, it's gonna keep the one that we just had, but it's gonna show me other versions of this image.

So this is what I love here. We now are looking at the Facebook-optimized image right here. Now as you can see, it's blown it up a little bit. So I've got a bit more of a widescreen view here. You can actually see more of these graphics, right? That yellow didn't used to be. We only used to see a sliver of that in the poster one, but if I drag things out even a little bit more, maybe I wanna bring the yellow down a little bit like this. I can make it a little more eye-catching like that. Maybe drag something like this over there. Anything like that that I wanna touch up just for the Facebook post, I can do so, and of course it's gonna produce an Instagram post of this as well, more of a square, one-by-one dimension, as well.

So if you're needing to create great high-quality images for your social media marketing, be sure to check out PosterMyWall. Now I'd love to hear from you next, which social media platform are you spending more and more time on these days? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below. Thank you so much for watching, and remember being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

hello everyone Scott Friesen here at simple tivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress and I've got a question for you do you like to win free stuff well in

today's video is just for you because

What is Time Tracker

I'd like to send you the time euler time tracker haven't heard of time euler

Before well let me tell you what it is and how it works tanja ler is actually a physical device which sits on your desk and you get to decide what are the different things

What are the different work activities that you want to track and when you're

Engaged in that activity all you have to do is just flip the time Euler device and it will track it for you whether you're doing it on your computer or maybe you're just taking a phone call or doing something else so all you need to

How to Use

Do is write down those different activities or you can add these stickers that come with time Euler itself then just flip time Euler face up to the activity that you're actually engaged in and remember this often makes it a lot more reliable than some of our desktop trackers because just because an application is open doesn't necessarily

Mean that you're engaged with it and what about if you're in a face-to-face meeting or something away from your desk you can always turn time Euler and record that as well but last but not least because time Euler is bluetooth and it connects directly to your phone or to your computer you can track all that information see where you're

Wasting time and see how you can adjust your schedule so if you would like to

Win time Euler yourself this is an $89 value all you have to do are these three

Things number one make sure you're a

Giveaway

Subscriber right here to the simple activity channel number two give this video a thumbs up and three last but certainly not least in the comments down below tell me why you would like to receive the time Euler tracker do those three things and I will be picking a winner one week from today so make sure you get those comments in right away for your chance to win best of luck to everyone and remember being productive does not need to be difficult in fact it's very simple

There are so many different tools available to you and I when it comes to managing our projects, but sometimes, simpler is so much better.

In today's video, I wanna showcase with you a very simple yet very effective tool for managing projects and especially for communicating with your team or perhaps with your clients.

I want to give you a full tour of an application called AirSend.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

And one of the things that I like about AirSend is that it combines sort of three major components that I think truly we are all looking for in a project manager.

We want effective communication.

We want to be able to track and manage our tasks and our actions.

And we also want a place to store our files and to be able to reference those files as well.

And I think AirSend does a really great job of combining all three of those components.

So let me give you a little lay of the land here.

Here I am within my AirSend account.

On the left hand side, we have our different channels.

Now, you may be familiar to channels when it comes to other applications such as Slack.

This can be very, very helpful because you probably have either different departments or different themes or different projects that you want to keep separated.

You don't want all of that information coming at you in the exact same channel or the exact same messaging feeds.

So, whether it's a marketing project, whether it's a PR team, or here I've selected something that's called the Simpletivity Community, I can now focus on this task or this area of my business, and then jump into the other ones as I need to with just a simple single click.

Now, in the middle of the screen here, and the bulk of our screen here, is really our communication feed.

But it's a lot more than just comments.

It's a lot more than just texting.

This area is also going to give us updates on when people add or complete actions, when they upload files, and when they respond to other things as well.

And what I love about this type of activity feed is it allows you to catch up very quickly and easily.

I can just scan up perhaps a few hours and see what were the most recent comments that were related to this particular channel, or who completed a task, and it's going to show up right here in this feed.

So often I hear complaints from people saying that they didn't get a notification from their project management tool, or they didn't know where to find out the latest information and what was going on.

It's really hard to ignore that.

It's hard to miss that in a layout such as this within AirSend.

We're going to dive into this in a little deeper in just a minute here, but let's look at the right hand side here where we have our actions.

Now, it is a fairly simplified task list.

I'm going to show you how to set up an action in just a moment.

But the nice thing is is that nothing here feels too squished, right?

I can see my channels, I can see the feed, and I can see my actions as well.

And this area on the right also will give us our full file folder menu.

And yes, you can upload as many files as you like, both the ones that are attached or mentioned in the comment, or you can add additional files as well.

And we also have a Wiki available to us as well.

So if you want to create something that is maybe semipermanent, or maybe you just want to post an update, a weekly update or when the next weekly meeting is, you can do so here as well.

And again, it doesn't feel too squished.

When it comes to the file format here, I can easily dive down and select the file that I'm looking for.

I can preview it here.

It also comes with a handy search bar as well.

So if I want to search for that recent file that I just pulled up, I can search and quickly and easily pull it up.

And here you can see sort of the full file folder structure that is available right here within AirSend.

So let's dive in a little deeper into some of my favorite features here within AirSend.

First thing first has to do with the comment section or the activity window here.

Of course I can quickly and easily reply or react to any of the messages up above, and I can start and I can attach other documents right here to a new message.

But one of the things that I like here is that I can actually choose if I want to post this message just here within the activity feed, within AirSend, or if I select this option, I can also post the message and send an email.

The reason why I like this option is that you're probably aware that we all work a little differently.

And you probably work with some individuals who just don't spend much time in your chosen project management tool.

So depending on the message, you can choose this option.

You can see the icon turns to an envelope, and now everyone within this community is going to receive an email in addition.

Now, it is going to stay with this until you change it back at your own choosing.

But what I've been doing recently is that depending on my message, I may select it to an email, just if I want to ensure that everyone is going to get that message regardless of the last time that they've logged into AirSend.

Now, the other thing that I want to look at here has to do with our actions.

Here on the right hand side, you can see a combination of some actions.

Some are overdue, in fact, a number of them are overdue.

That's why they're listed with a red color.

This one is an orange color because it's coming up in about a week's time.

But let's start by adding a new action.

And it is fairly simple, right?

Let's email out our latest newsletter, and I can add an additional description here if I want to.

I do like that it's fairly easy for me to find people.

I don't need to know their username.

I can just go and grab them here and attach them to my list just by typing in their name.

And then I'm going to say, yeah, let's include a due date to maybe a week from today and set okay.

I can create that action.

And of course it is going to be added here at the bottom of my action list.

But of course, you'll also see that it is updated here in the activity feed.

And I think this is what's so helpful is that others can be notified immediately of what's going on or the next time that they jump into the channel, they can see what's happening as well.

Sticking with the actions, you can also separate between an actions, all of the actions for your community or your channel, I should say, and also your individual actions.

So here you can see, here is a task that is assigned just to me.

So if I want to work in this mode, I can do so as well.

But another nice thing is that you can create those actions directly from the activity feed.

So here you can see this little icon.

If I select it, all I need to do is select reminder, and I can immediately start creating this new action.

I can give it a name, but it's already helped me out in a few ways.

In the description, it will reference, or it will include the comment that I just clicked on.

And it already has my dummy username here because I was the one on who made that comment.

So it's assuming that I may want to assign that task or assign that action to that individual, something else which is really helpful just to save you a few steps when you are creating those new actions.

So if you are looking for something that is not only simple, but something that's going to keep everything on the same screen so that you don't have to jump back and forth between a project management tool and a communication tool, or, chances are, your project management tool already has some communication built in, but it's buried in the back, AirSend may be a great alternative to you.

If you want to learn more, you can try AirSend for yourself at AirSend.io.

Thank you so much for watching today's video, and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.