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Time blocking is one of the most effective ways to ensure that you can get everything done. So for example, if I want to make sure that I'm prepared for this meeting, maybe I'm going to block out some time in advance to review the budget

so I can assign a specific time and make sure I accomplish that task. But there's a problem, I don't work exclusively out of my calendar and neither do you. You're probably using a combination of project management tools, a to-do list app

and especially communication tools such as your email account or Slack. So what if there was a tool that brought all of these apps together so you could work in just one place? (gentle music) Well, there is, and it's called Akiflow.

Here I am within my Akiflow account and I already have my calendar synced. So no matter what I do here, either within Akiflow or within my calendar, it will stay perfectly synced. But more importantly, here on the left hand side, I have some specific tasks from a variety

of different other apps that I can access here. But better yet, I can click and drag and bring them directly onto my calendar. So for example, maybe I work with my team using Trello.

I obviously get a lot of requests and tasks through my email account, I also use Todoist for my personal tasks and maybe I'd like to take notes and do more detailed brainstorming within Notion.

Well, now I have access to all of those apps right here and then I can drag them and block time off on my calendar automatically. But it's better than just dragging and putting things on my calendar.

Anything that I do here will remain synced with those other applications. So let's take a look at Todoist as an example. So for example here, I have a task called Proofread This Marketing Book, this specific chapter.

Well, I want to make sure that I get this accomplished before I have this breakfast with Kelly. So I've got a little bit of time tomorrow afternoon. All I need to do is click and drag it and bring it onto my calendar.

And maybe it's going to take a little more than an hour. So I'm going to give myself a full 90 minutes to accomplish this task. But you know what? I also need to change this a little bit because I need to review chapter seven and chapter eight.

So I'm going to include that here in the title. The best thing is, is that everything

is going to stay perfectly synced. So now when I jump over to my Todoist account,

not only has the task been updated with that new chapter but the due date is also updated tomorrow at 1:00 PM. What if I want to make a change on this side? No problem. I got to hit the the edit icon here and I'm going to change that due date

to maybe later this week on Wednesday, I'm going to hit save. And now let's jump back to our Akiflow screen. And now you can see everything remains in the right place. So no matter where you edit this particular task, it will always remain in sync.

Now, one of your questions is probably, why aren't you seeing all of your emails

or perhaps all of your tasks for a particular Trello board? Well, the great thing with Akiflow is that you can choose what you see and what will be imported into your Akiflow account.

If I jump into my settings, here you can see the five different apps in which I have connected, but you can add a variety of additional apps and almost anything via Zapier.

So if I open up my Trello account, for example, here you can see I've only chosen to sync my team tasks board and I only want to see the tasks that are assigned to me. So maybe this particular board has a number of different tasks, but I don't want to see all of them.

I only want to see the ones that are assigned to me. And if I want to bring in other boards, I can enable them here and have different import settings depending on my needs.

If I jump over here to my Notion account, for example, I can choose to add multiple workspaces and configure how they are synced. So for example, there is a variety of details which we can choose based on completion and based on other custom import filters.

Lastly, within my Gmail account, I can either choose to add a new label within Gmail called Akiflow. So anything where that is applied will be synced or you can simply have every email that is starred to sync and import to your Akiflow account.

And that's what I've chosen here. With these settings configured to my liking, I can now start to drag these different tasks onto my calendar. So for example, maybe I'm going to make this phone call or later today maybe there's an email that I need to review.

I'm going to tuck that one down here in the afternoon but it's not going to take me a full hour. I'm just going to give myself 30 minutes for that and maybe I'm going to drag this Notion task to tomorrow afternoon.

So now I've blocked out time within a relatively busy schedule, but I can make sure that I can accomplish these other tasks, even though they reside in other applications.

And if you want to look at more details, remember you're always one click away from going directly to that task. So in this case, if I want to review what this Gmail Security Alert is all about, all I need to do is select it and it will automatically bring me to that application so I can review the details of that particular task Another added bonus is that Akiflow will give you a gentle notification reminder for all of your upcoming events and tasks.

So for example, here you can see, no matter what screen that I'm on,] I'm going to receive this notification in the top right hand corner. And because Akiflow is a desktop app, you'll be able to see this wherever you are.

You don't need to be just in your browser. Now keep in mind, not all of your tasks need to originate from an outside app. You can add tasks and events directly from within Akiflow, at the top of your screen, you can launch the command bar or select alt space on your keyboard.

And the best thing here is you can input your tasks using a natural language. So maybe I need to call Brian tomorrow at 10:00 AM. Why don't I just type it in the way that I want to, hit enter, and now immediately that task is added to my calendar. So a very quick and easy way to block out time

on your calendar without needing to use your mouse at all. So if you're a busy individual and want an easier way to bring all of your apps together and block out time, check out Akiflow.

To get started, go to Akiflow.com or click the link in the description down below. And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple. (gentle music)

Add a series in seconds

[Scott] Do you want to save time while using Google Sheets? Well, in this video,

I'm sharing with you seven tips and tricks so you can get in, get out, and get on with the rest of your day. (gentle upbeat music) Tip number one, let's take advantage of series.

And what do I mean by series? Often you may need to create a long list of numbers or maybe things such as the days of the week, months, or year. And rather than coming up here and typing in the numbers by two, let's say I want to have a list here of even numbers.

Better yet, all I need to do is select those numbers, come down here, and then drag this little, blue box as far down as I need to and let go, and now I have that full list of numbers here.

Days of the week, for example, maybe I'm going to start by typing in Monday, and then the day Tuesday, all you need is a minimum of two. And now all I need to do is come here and drag it down, and once again, I've got every single day of the week in order.

Now, when it comes to months, I'm going to do something a little bit different here, because let's say I want each month at the start of the quarter. So I can start off with the first month of the year, which is January, but I'm going to put in the month of April, because that's the start of Q2.

Now what I can do is drag over these two and then start to drag down, and you will see that it is doing the math for me, it's taking the month from the beginning of each quarter

and has just repeated it down below.

Clean up your sheet

Tip number two, let's clean up our data and remove any duplicates. When you have a long list of data, sometimes it can be very difficult to see if you have any duplicate entries. But on top of that, as you can see in my example, I've got a few cells here where things are unevenly spaced.

It looks like there's a few too many space characters here where this pencil, for example, should be aligned, and this name of Jones shouldn't be sticking out like this either. Well, all we need to do is come up to Data, and then come down here to Data Cleanup.

Now we can either select Remove Duplicates or Trim the Whitespace, but I'm going to suggest that you do Cleanup Suggestions 'cause that's going to allow us to look at everything on this sheet.

So for example, it's telling me that I do have duplicate rows, that row 21 and 45 are the exact same. And you can see if I hover over it with my mouse, it's going to show me where those rows are located. I can either choose to ignore this, or I can select Remove and it will remove the duplicate for me. Next up, it's identified a few cells

where there is some additional white space here. We can see that Jones, and if I hover over it, it's going to show me what it's going to do by removing that white space, and then a few other places as well.

At this point, I can either choose this check mark to accept all of these suggestions or I can choose them by each individual column. So first starting with column C, and then I could come down here

and select Trim All for column D.

Quickly filter your data

Tip number three, let's make better sense of all of this information by filtering our data. The easiest way to filter our information is to come up here to the top-left hand corner, select it, which is going to select every cell on the sheet, and then come over here and select Create a Filter.

You'll now see that we have this little Filter icon at the top of each of our headers. So for example, maybe I only want to see units sold that are above 50. I'm going to come up here, I'm going to select that filter, and in this case I'm going to say Filter by Condition.

So I'm going to select this dropdown and I'm going to say, greater than or equal to, and I'm going to type in the number 50. I'm going to select OK, and immediately my data set is reduced. Now I am only seeing the rows which have units with 50 or more, but maybe I want to go one step further.

I want to continue to see this, but I also want to see the things that only cost more than $10. So I'm going to come over here to the unit cost. Again, in this case I'm going to choose Filter by Condition. 

You can choose to sort it if you like or maybe just zero in on a particular price point, but I want to be a little more granular. So I'm going to say greater than, and in this case I'm going to type in my value, which is going to be 10.

I'm going to say OK, and perfect. Now I only have the items that have sold more than 50 units and that cost more than $10. Now the great thing is, is that you can save your filters.

o if I want to save this as a filter view, so maybe I want to call it something like 50+ units, something along those lines, and then I can quickly and easily come back to it. Now another great way to save time within Google Sheets is by sharing your sheets with others.

But if you're a part of a remote team, there may be an even better way, and that is by using a virtual workspace. Here I am within SpatialChat, and not only do I have one, but two of my Google Sheets visible to me.

And not only are they visible, but they're editable as well, so I can work in real time with members of my team. But in addition to bringing in as many Google Docs or Sheets, you can bring in any application into your virtual workspace.

Want to edit your Miro board or review that video? No problem. Need to access Notion or share code with your team? You got it. SpatialChat is the ideal solution for teams who need to collaborate in real time. To learn more about SpatialChat and to get started with their free plan, click the link in the description below.

Make columns freeze in place

Tip number four, let's freeze certain columns so that we can keep relevant information in front of us. When working with sheets, it is very common to have many different columns, which is going to force you to scroll to the right-hand side of the screen.

But what if I want to make sure that I can align this information with my particular sales reps? Well, here you can see the sales rep information is in column C.

All I need to do is come over here and hover my cursor right over here, and then drag this bar until it's between column C and D. Now, these first three columns will remain frozen.

With these three columns frozen into view, I can scroll as far as I like to the right-hand side and see the association between these cells and these particular sales reps.

Now, if I only care about the date, again, I can come up and hover over this thick, gray line and drag it to, let's say, the first column, and now only that first column will be frozen as I analyze and make use of this sheet.

Make your sheets easier to read

Tip number five, let's make our data that much easier to read. When you're working with a spreadsheet, especially with a long list, it can be hard to differentiate the different rows and columns.

But all we need to do is apply alternating colors to make each row stand out that much more. So in order to have our rows and columns stand out, the first step is to select where you would like these alternating colors to appear.

So I'm going to select these first columns here. Then, I'm going to come up to Format, and I'm going to select Alternating Colors. Here on the right-hand side, we have a menu which is going to pop up with a number of defaults.

Now the very first default here is just sort of a gray scale, so we have a darker shade for our header, and then sort of an alternating between a white and a light gray just so it's that much easier to read these numbers. But there's a number of different color schemes which we can choose from.

Maybe I'm going to select this orange shade here, and if I like, I can tweak the different colors here as well. I can select Done, and now we have this alternating pattern in front of us which is going to make it a lot easier for us to pick out a particular row and find that information.

Create drop-down menus

Tip number six, let's add a dropdown menu so we don't have to manually enter in everything, and also make sure that we have the correct formatting. Here you can see I've added a column called a product line. And what I'm going to do is first off

is I'm going to select where I would like that dropdown to be. So I'm going to select that area, and then I'm going to come up here to Data and I'm going to come down here and select Data Validation. So I've already selected the area. If I need to adjust that, I can select the data range again. Now, I can either choose a list from a range in my sheet, so maybe I have a list of the things that I'd like to include in that dropdown menu, I could select them here. But I haven't created that yet, so I'm going to select this dropdown and I'm going to come down and select a list of items. So here I can type in what I want available within that dropdown. So maybe I have a consumer product line, I'm going to enter in a comma to space between the options. Maybe I have a small business product line, and then I also have an enterprise product line as well. So I'm going to type that in here as well. At the end of entering in my options,

I'm going to select Save. And now you can see I have a small dropdown arrow within the selected cells. So I can select that, and I have those three options now available to me. Maybe this is for small business, this is for consumer, and this one here is also for consumer.

Visualize your data

Number seven, column stats. When you're dealing with a large quantity of information, it can be hard to see any particular themes. But if you select any of your columns, then come up to Data, and then come down to Column Stats, a new window will open in the right-hand side of your screen.

Within this view, I can quickly see the count or distribution of the different items in that column. Now, pay special attention. You may wish to ignore the first row, because that's my header in this case,

but now I can quickly see that I have more binders in this column and only three desks in total. If I scroll down a little bit further, I can actually hover over these different values and see exactly where they are listed within that particular column,

along with their specific number. And if you'd like to see the stats of other columns,

all you need to do is come up to the very top and select the left or right arrow.

So here I can quickly see my regions, for example. And if you want to save even more time within Google Sheets, make sure that you get familiar with pivot tables. Don't know how to use a pivot table? Then watch this video next where I show you everything you need to know.

And remember being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple. (gentle upbeat music)

Let participants see what's coming next

Are you an online trainer, workshop facilitator, or perhaps a coach? Well, if you do any type of virtual training, this video is for you because I'm going to share with you five key elements which is going to make your next training so much more memorable.

So let's dive in. Tip number one, use an agenda. But wait, it's probably not what you're thinking. I don't mean just add something to your slide deck or send out a document in advance. I mean, use an agenda within your session.

Now in this example, I'm using a virtual meeting tool called Butter, which is great because not only can I create an agenda in advance, but I can add facilitator notes so I know exactly where I am and what I need to remember along the way.

But better yet, I can create an agenda which is visible to my participants so they can see where we are going and what is going to be happening next. So, for example, I've broken my agenda out into several different components and I've even given them an estimated time.

So if I'm going to get started with my welcome all I need to do is hit this play button. And you can see that this timer has now started. I've estimated that this is going to take me about five minutes, but what's even better is at the very bottom of the screen, I can see my estimated end time that my entire workshop should finish at about 10:18.

And then on the right-hand side, it's going to give me a status update. So for the time being, I'm on time, which is great. But most importantly, you want to know if you can keep things on track.

So, for example, if I finish my welcome a little early and I'm going to move onto my next area, which is called check-in, it now says that I'm ahead by four minutes so I can see at a glance where I am, making sure  that I can keep everything on time.

Get your participants involved early

Tip number two, get your participants involved and contributing as early as possible.

And I recommend using a quick poll to do so. Here, again, within Butter, I can set up my polls in advance. So you can see that I have an activity here during the check-in phase. All I need to do is hit start. And now that poll is open and available for everyone to contribute.

In this case, I've asked them a very simple one word answer

which I can display in either a word cloud or in a standard list view. And, of course, you can choose if you'd like to make those answers anonymous, so people may feel

a little more comfortable in contributing. But it's so important to get your participants involved interacting with your meeting application and interacting as a group so you can spark further discussion within your workshop.

Don't be afraid to share a timer

Now, tip number three is about using a timer not just to keep yourself on task

but to make sure to keep your participants on task as well. Here we can see we've moved onto another section within my training, and I'd like to spend a little bit of time discussing with my participants, but in order to make sure that we have enough time

for the other elements and the other activities, I've included a three minute timer.

So I'm going to select start in this case. And at the very bottom of the screen you can see that a timer is now visible to everyone not just myself as a facilitator. And you can also see that there is a nice visual indicator so that people can see when we are nearing the end.

Having a visible timer can encourage participants who perhaps have not contributed to the discussion to get their comments in before the timer is up.

This can also be a great way to help reduce those very chatty or perhaps overly talkative participants from wrapping up their comments so that, again, we can all stay on track within the training.

Now, Butter makes it very easy for us if I need to add an additional minute. Perhaps the discussion is very fruitful and we want to keep things going or I can always pause the timer or stop it at any time.

But adding a timer to certain elements to your training can be a great way to keep everyone on track.

Share content the right way

Number four, include video and other dynamic content as a part of your training. Now, of course, some facilitators are often hesitant to share video during an online meeting. It forces them to have to have another tab open to queue up that video.

And often the experience is rather poor for participants on the other side, but Butter makes it super easy. Here you can see that I've added this YouTube video in advance, so I don't need to remember anything.

In fact, I don't even need to open up another tab. That's right. I'm not even sharing my screen. When it comes to this point in the training, all I need to do is select start, and immediately that video will open up

right here within Butter, and the video will begin to play. With this integrated video player, all participants will be able to see and view your video as if they were watching YouTube on their own desktop.

It's seamless for you as you launch the video and the quality is the best it can be for those who are on the other end. But don't just stop with video. You can bring in other interactive elements and other apps

that you use all the time directly into Butter. In this case, perhaps I want to gather some of the key points from our discussion. Here, I've opened up a Google Doc, but you'll notice I haven't opened up another tab.

Here, I can edit and get others to contribute to this Google Doc in real time, and then have something that I can send out immediately after this training session. Whether it's Google Drive, Miro, or many other applications, you can bring them in directly into Butter so it's a seamless experience for both you and your attendees.

Breakouts for deeper understanding

Next up, let's make sure that your attendees have an opportunity to share with one another in breakout rooms. Now, I know with some other applications, including Zoom and Microsoft Teams, breakout rooms can not only be a little intimidating, but they can be a little difficult to set up.

But here, within Butter, you can set up your rooms, name them, and customize them in advance. So when I'm ready to get started with this Q&A portion of my training, I'm going to select start here.

Within the breakout room overview page I can see everything that's going on. Here we are in the main room, but I've created three rooms in advance. Maybe I want them to assign themselves depending on the size of their team.

So I have three rooms labeled small, medium, and large, and I'm going to give them the opportunity to join the one that's the best fit for them. Once my attendees have assigned themselves to their appropriate breakout rooms, I've got a master bird's eye view of what's going on.

I can either go ahead and join each room individually or if I want to observe without making my presence known I can do so by hitting the observe button. I can also communicate directly with each room. When it's time to end the breakout room,

all I need to do is come up to the top of the screen and say, yes, let's end this session.

And in a matter of seconds, people will be brought back to the main room.

Use templates to save time

Last but not least, the agenda and all of the components which I've been showing you in this video can be saved as a template. So if you're delivering the same training

or the same workshop again and again you can access all of your materials and start that next session in a matter of seconds. And best of all, Butter is absolutely free

for up to 100 participants and a 60 minute meeting. So if you'd like to get started with Butter, go to butter.us, or click the link in the description down below. And if you'd like to learn even more free websites to help you with your workday, be sure to click on this video next.

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

Create email distribution groups This video is brought to you by Crmble, the powerful yet easy to use CRM. Want to get more out of Google Contacts? Well, in this video, I'm sharing with you seven tips and tricks so you can work faster, smarter, and get the most out of Google contacts.

Tip number one. Let's use labels to make email so much easier. Now, labels here within Google Contacts is a great way to organize all of your contacts information. For example, I've got a label called Follow-Up so I can quickly see the individuals I need to follow up with.

And I've got another one called New Leads. But these labels are so much more than just organizing our contacts or putting contacts into different groups. For example, I have one here called Client Team. But this really becomes powerful when I combine it with my email.

Here within my Gmail account, when I go to select who I'm going to send this message to, all I have to do is start to type in the name of that label. And here it is, Client Team.

And it shows me, it has six members. By selecting this, all six members of my team are added to my email and now I can continue to write this particular message.

Make your group labels stand out

Tip number two. Making our labels stand out. Now you can add as many labels as you want. But as you can see here, it's hard to distinguish between our different labels. Google Contacts doesn't give us the ability to add a color like we can within Gmail.

And if we look at our list here on the right hand side, it's very difficult for me to see how many different labels are actually displayed here. And even reading between the different ones can be often confusing.

Well, there is a workaround that we can use that will make things stand out so much better. So for example, maybe I want my New Leads label to stand out not only on my list here on the right hand side,

but maybe also here in my list of labels on the left side menu. What I'm going to do is select Rename Label and I'm going to put my cursor at the very end of the label. Now, on a Windows keyboard, if you select the Windows Key + the Period key, that will bring up the emoji dialogue.

And if you're a Mac user, you can select Control + Command + Spacebar. And in this case, I'm going to select this red circle here and I'm going to hit Save. Now we have a very distinctive color and shape at the back of this label.

It will not only appear in the list, but it will appear here on the left hand side as well. So it's very easy for me to see these new leads. Now you can either do this for just some of your key labels or you can do it for all of your labels if you like.

Here within my Client Team, let's do this again. And perhaps I'm going to select this laptop or keyboard and hit Save. And once again, it makes it that much more distinct.

Now, the reason why I recommend adding your emojis to the end of your label is because if you add them at the front, it will reorder your labels based on the actual name of that emoji. So for example, if this emoji is named laptop, it's going to treat this label as an L. And that would be sorted now down further below. So put your emojis at the very end and make your label stand out even more.

Customize the display order

Number 3. Let's customize the display order of our contacts. Here in the top right hand corner, you will see these little three dots which will reveal our list settings.

We have two options available to us. Number one is display density. By default, it'll be set as comfortable. But if you'd like to see more contacts at a time, you can select Compact. It essentially will remove the little picture profile icon and make things that much closer together. But if you don't like that, we can always come back

to Display Density and come back to our comfortable view. The second option here has to do with changing the column order. If I select this option here, you can see the five different choices we have available to us.

So for example, maybe I want my labels to come before the email address. I can drag and reorder these columns any way that I'd like. And instead of the job title and company, maybe I would like the phone number displayed instead. All I need to do is select Done.

And now both my order and what is displayed is changed based on my preferences. Sticking with customizing our view, remember that you can also view your names in either first name or last name order. To do that, we want to move up up to the gear icon

‍

and select More Settings. Within this dialogue, we can change the Phone number Country code, but also choose how we want our name sorted either by first name or by last name.

Delegate access to others

Tip number 4, delegating access to someone else. Now, if you use Google Contacts within your work, school or other group environment, you can delegate access to someone else within your domain. This is very helpful if you work with a virtual assistant or someone else who would like to have access to your contact list.

In this case, what we need to do is select the gear icon and then select Delegate access. And here you'll have the opportunity to invite one or more people to have access to your contacts so that they can view, edit, delete,

Open contacts shortcut key

and also create contacts. Now, the next tip in our list is one of my all time favorites

and probably the one that I use most frequently. More often than not, I want to access my Google Contacts while I'm dealing with my email here within Gmail.

Now, it's true. I could come over here to the sidebar and select contacts, but I don't have all of these same options available to me here. I could also come up to the very top, select Google apps and then select Contacts.

But the fastest way to get into Google Contacts from Gmail is to select the keys G C on your keyboard. By entering G C on your keyboard, it will immediately open up Google Contacts in a new tab. This is a quick and easy way for you to get exactly what you want whenever you are within Gmail.

Find and merge duplicates

Tip number 6, merge and fix. One of the strongest features of Google Contacts

is its ability to look out for duplicates, so you can do your best to keep your contact list clean and accurate. Here in our menu, just below contacts and frequently contacted, you'll see an area called Merge and Fix.

And if there's a number beside it, it means that it's identified one or more that it may think is a duplicate. By selecting this option here, you can see that I have two different contacts here with the exact same name and they also share one of the same email addresses.

Now, I have the opportunity to review this first and decide whether it is in fact two separate people

and then I could select Dismiss. Or, I can see that wait a minute, this is the same individual, but I want to keep the information. I'd like to combine these new email addresses along with this phone number. In that case, all I need to do is select Merge.

And if you have multiple duplicates, you can always select Merge all here in the top right corner.

Undo changes from the past

Tip number 7, undo Changes. A little known fact among Google Contacts users is that you can go back in time. So if you've made a number of changes, if you've given someone else access, or you just want to go back to the way things were, you can do so right here within Google Contacts.

Up in our Gear icon, if we select this and then select Undo Changes, it's not just going to revert the last thing that you did. By selecting this option, we will get a new dialogue where we can select a timeframe.

So maybe you just want to change the things you've done in the last 10 minutes. You can select this first option here, but you can extend it out to a few hours to a week to even a custom timeframe within the last 30 days.

Now note, contacts that have been deleted forever from trash cannot be recovered. But all other contacts and changes can by selecting this option. But what if Undo changes is just not enough? And perhaps you're struggling to manage all of your clients and customers here within Google Contacts.

Well then crmble CRM may be a better solution for you. Here I am within my crmble contacts where I can quickly and easily search for any of my contacts. But beyond just seeing their contact information, I can get valuable insights

into my relationship with my clients. On the right hand side, I can see the deals associated with this individual including where they are and the value of those deals.

In addition, I can see valuable reports and information about my sales funnel

so I can be sure to reach out and connect with my clients when and where I need to.

If you are looking for something more than just a contact list and needs something simple and easy to use, you should check out crmble CRM. To learn more, just go to crmble.com or click the link in the description down below.

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

Create areas of focus

Do you want to create a plan that will stick but also evolve with your changing needs? Well, in this video, I'm going to show you how to use an online whiteboard to create a plan that you can come back to again and again.

So, let's dive in. Now, in this example, we're using a tool called Miro. And one of the reasons why I love using an online whiteboarding tool such as Miro is because of its flexibility.

As you can see here, I've broken out my yearly plan into five different categories just using a very simple diagram structure. I've got work, finances, health, personal, and relationships.

Now of course, you can add many more categories than this or change these all together depending on your needs. But one of the great things about using a online whiteboarding tool is that I can group these activities together.

So for example, maybe I want work and finances on the left-hand side of my screen and then I can just move these ones up over here on the right-hand side. Any way that you'd like to order or perhaps reorder these areas, you can quickly and easily do so.

But before we start planning for the coming year, let's do a super quick year in review.

Take a look back

In order to do so, what I'm going to do is actually copy this first diagram and paste it down below. The reason being is that I want to come back to this in just a few minutes time, but we're going to come back up to this top one and I'm going to rename this.

I'm going to call this now Year in Review because if you want to plan your best year ever, I think you need to take just a few minutes to take a look back at the previous year.

So here, what I like to do is go through each category and just highlight some of the wins and losses or pros and cons. So when it comes to work, maybe, I'm going to highlight that yes, we hired an editor, that was certainly a win.

I can just hit enter on my keyboard. Maybe another win is that we hit 300,000 subscribers on the channel. That was another big win, but I also like to highlight the cons as well. And so maybe we missed our revenue target, for example.

So, that was something that was a bit of a disappointment. Now, in order to separate out the winds from the losses, what I'm going to do here is highlight these first two and I'm going to give them a slightly different color.

I'm going to give them this greenish color here. But for the loss or for the con, I'm going to choose this reddish color so I can highlight both the things that went well and then the things that didn't go so well.

Now remember, the key reason for spending time on this year in review is so that you can set relevant goals for the coming year based on things that have been either successful or maybe not as successful in the past. In fact, I've found that some

of my most important goals have come from this review process.

Identify important goals

Next, we can scroll down and start to plan for the coming year.

And one of the nice things here when it comes to focusing is that we can zoom in and out quite easily. So if we just want to focus on our work goals, we can do so. But if I quickly have an idea

about a goal for my relationships or my personal life, I can add that here quickly and easily.

So when it comes to planning for the future, all I need to do is hit this little plus button, and this time around, I'm going to start my goals with a G and A colon to signify that this is going to be a goal for that area. I'm using this G at the beginning

because I'm going to separate this out from the actions which are actually going to be the tasks or specific projects that I'm going to engage with. So maybe one of my goals is to increase revenue by 10% in the coming year. I'm going to hit Enter here.

I'm going to again select G and A colon and I'm going to say I'm going to hire a virtual assistant. That's another one of my goals in the coming year. But remember, goals are really hard to achieve in the short-term, so we want to be able to break this out even further.

Decide actionable steps

So the next level down, I'm going to use the letter A for action. And so maybe the action here, how am I going to increase my revenue? Maybe I'm going to launch a new course is one way that I'm going to do so.

I'm going to use that A and A colon again. And maybe another thing is I'm going to deliver more workshops or more live workshops in the coming year as well. So here, we have the high level goal under my Work category but these are some of the ways, these are some of the actionable steps I'm going to take in order to increase my revenue by 10%.

Now, you may be asking yourself as you start to add more and more things to your plan, you're going to have quite the spider web of details. And although you can drag things around

to make it look a bit neater, don't forget you can always minimize any of these areas.

So if I want to minimize that goal here, for example or if I want to minimize all of my goals and actions, I can do so under the Work category and then maybe I can come down here and focus on finances. But if I want to expand that, if I want to see what those actionable steps are,

Connect the past to the future

I can do that here as well. The other nice thing I love about using an online whiteboarding tool such as Miro is that we can make connections between different parts of our plan.

So, maybe I want to remind myself, why are we increasing the revenue by 10%? Well, the big reason is because we missed our target last year. So, what I'm going to do is come over here and choose this line tool And I'm going to make a connection between these two. So now, if I need to go back or realize, "Oh,

why are we doing this? Or how are we going to overcome this particular missed target? I can see that connection here. Last but not least, as you keep coming back to your plan throughout the year, there is that satisfaction of crossing things off.

Complete your tasks

So in this case, I'm going to come up here and I'm going use the strike through feature so I can say, "Yes, I've launched that new course, that action has been taken." Now, if you'd like to start planning with Miro for free, just go to Miro.com and if you'd like to learn other ways on how you can make use of an online whiteboard, be sure to watch this video next.

Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.

How to create a new form This video is brought to you by SaneBox, the easiest way to manage all of your email. Do you need to make a Google Form? Well then, you are in the right place, because in this video, I'm going to show you how to create, send, and review your responses right here within Google Forms.

To get started, you'll want to log in to your Google Drive account, and at the very top, you'll click this New button, and then come down here and select Google Forms. But there's actually even an easier way to create a new form.

Simply open up any new browser tab and click in the word form or forms, it doesn't matter which, .new, and then select Enter, and immediately you'll be brought to your new form. Now, the very first thing that we want to do is come up here and give our form a new name.

Adding a Title and Description

So instead of Untitled, I'm going to say Survey Example in this case. Now you'll notice in the top left hand corner, it is still titled Untitled Form, but if I click on this, it will immediately take whatever I've written here and give it the name for that file, but they don't have to be the same thing.

So for example, maybe I'm going to call this Survey Example No. 1, just so it's easier for me to find or keep organized within my Google Drive account, but that's not what respondents will see.

They're only going to see the name of the form here. Down below, we have the option to add a form description. So maybe I'm going to say, please take two minutes to fill out this form. It's not required, but if you'd like to give a little bit of instruction, or a bit of a description of what this form is all about, you can include it here.

Adding different question types

Now we can get started with creating our questions. Now this first untitled question

may look like a multiple choice answer, but we can change it to anything we want.

So for example, maybe I want them to include their full name. So I'm going to enter that in as the question here, and Google Forms will do its best to try and identify

what type of answer I'm looking for. In this case, they are correct that I am wanting

a short answer, just an open text field where people can include their name. But of course, if it's incorrect, I can choose this dropdown menu and choose from a wide variety of answer options. In most cases, it's these first five options that are the most popular or most common, but you can always come back and change that later.

When I'm ready to add a new question, all I need to do is come over to the right

and select this plus button. So for my second question, maybe I want the respondent

to add their email address. Once again, Google Forms is automatically going to try and identify, and they've changed it to a short answer, which is perfect for this email address. One thing to note is that if we come down to the bottom of each question, we have the option to make it a required answer. In this case, I want to make sure

that I collect their email address, so I'm going to select this Required toggle button here, and if I've forgotten to do so, I can come back up to the full name and I'm going to make that required as well, meaning that they will not be able to submit this form

unless they fill in these required fields. I'm ready for a third question, so I'm going to select this plus button here, but because I was last editing the full name, it's included that question down below.

On the left hand side, you can see this little blue highlight here, meaning that this is the active question. I've got a cursor here, this is what I'm actively engaged with at the moment. So if I was to hit the plus button again, that new question would be down below.

But you'll notice as you hover over each question, there's a little six dot area here. So if I click and drag, I'm going to bring that down, because I want that to be the third question so I can quickly and easily rearrange my questions.

Editing multiple choice questions

Now for this third question, I don't want a short answer. I'm going to ask them what is your favorite color in this case? So again, it's going to try and identify what I'm looking for, but I don't want a short answer. In this case, I do want a multiple choice option.

So now I can start adding my options down below. I'm going to start with the color red. I can either at this stage hit enter on my keyboard or come down here and select add option. I am going to type in the word blue.

This time I'm going to hit enter on my keyboard, which is going to give me a third option, and I'm going to say yellow in this case. Now, you will always see this add option or add other as the last choice when editing a multiple choice question.

At this stage, the viewer would only see these three options down below, but if I want to allow them to type in their own answer, I can select add other. In this case, they will see a fourth option where they can type in pink, purple, or any other answer that they wish.

But if I want to go back and just limit them to just the three above, I can come over here to the right and select the remove icon. And I can do that for any of my questions here.

And maybe if I want to put blue in front of red, I can come over to the left, click and drag, and I can reorder my options here as well. In this case, I'm going to leave the required to the left hand side,

because maybe I only really care about collecting their name and email address, and not necessarily what their answer is to this particular question.

How to preview your form

Now at any time, you can preview what your form will look like by coming up here

and selecting this eye icon. By selecting this, it will open up a new tab within your browser, and then you will see exactly what respondents will see. Here you can see that we have this red asterisk beside the full name and email address signifying that these are required questions.

But my last question down below, what is your favorite color, is not required. And you can test this out by putting in your cursor, by adding a name, for example, just to see what it will look and feel like for your respondents.

But one important note, if you do select submit, your form will record that as an actual answer. So if you're only looking at this screen to preview, be sure not to hit submit,

or to remember and go back and delete those responses.

Changing fonts and color themes

Now, just before we send out our Google Form, let's change some of the colors and add a header, so it doesn't look like every other form. To the left of the preview icon,

we have our customized theme option. And here we can change the font and the font size for the header question and text areas of our form. We can also come over here and choose a header image.

If I select this button, I can either choose from one of the default themes right here within Google Forms, or I can choose to upload my own image from my computer.

Since this form is about colors, I think I'm going to select this sort of jelly bean colorful icon or colorful image here, and I'm going to select insert. Now you can see that that image has been added to the top of my form, and it's also changed some of the other colors as well based on that header image.

But below the header area, we can come down here and choose different colors that we would like to apply to our particular form. Now, it's going to try and pull some of these colors from that image, but you can also select this plus button and add your own custom color.

We can also change the background, and I typically recommend choosing a darker background, so it contrasts with your questions on the form itself. When you're happy here, you can just select the X, and then we return to our normal editing view.

How to send your form to others

With our form looking the way that we want, let's go and send it so we can start collecting responses. This big purple send button is what we want to select, and then a new dialogue will open up.

Now you can send your form directly via email and paste in your email addresses and give it a subject and a message, but perhaps the most popular way of sharing your form is via a link.

So let's choose this second option here, where we have this link to share. I recommend selecting the Shorten URL, so we have a shorter link to share. I'm going to select copy, and now I can paste that into any email, or social media, or really anywhere where I would like.

Reviewing your form responses

Once people have started to fill out your form, you will see a number beside the Responses tab here at the top of your screen. By selecting Responses, we can now go and review those answers. So in this example, I've already collected two responses.

I can see the names of the two responders, I can see their email addresses, and I can currently see the outcome of this favorite color question. So far, it's a dead tie between red and blue.

Now, these responses will be updated live, so you can come back and review them as often as you like. And if you want to turn off your form and stop accepting responses, all you need to do is select this toggle in the top right hand corner of the screen.

Receive email updates for new responses

But if you want to be updated when you receive new responses, on the Responses tab, click on the more button and then choose, Get email notifications for new responses.

Now with this check mark beside, I will receive an email notification

each time someone submits this form. Now with this email setting turned on in Google Forms, you may see an increase in the number of messages on top of all of the other messages you manage within your inbox. And that's exactly why SaneBox

may be a better solution for you. SaneBox provides you with a number of smart folders which learns from your behavior which messages are important, and which can be saved for later, and which you may never want to see ever again. In fact, I particularly like this SaneBlackHole option. When I get a message from someone

that I never want to hear from again, and I don't want to have to go searching for the unsubscribe link or button, I can simply drag it over here into one of my SaneBox folders, and it will do the rest for me.

And best of all, you can use SaneBox with any email address, including Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail. Just go t sanebox.com/simpletivity to start your free trial and you'll get a $25 credit if you choose to continue with the service. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.

Note-taking alternative

You've heard all the hype and you've tried it out for yourself. But are you a little disappointed when it comes to Notion? Well, don't worry because in this video I'm going to show you the top five alternatives to Notion.

So whether you're a note taker, project planner, or team collaborator let's find the better software for you. Number one, Evernote. If you like a more traditional approach of both capturing your ideas but also reviewing your notes Evernote may be the better solution for you.

Rather than having to manage everything in a huge hierarchy, which Notion forces us to do,

we have a more simplified structure here of seeing your notes here within this panel.

But then being able to quickly drag and manage them within your notebooks here on the left-hand side. So whether you're reviewing, whether you're searching for a particular note, Evernote makes it extremely easy to do so.

And yet, despite its focus on note taking abilities, such as scanning documents or web clipping, Evernote includes a variety of task management and project management features.

So whether I'm keeping track of a checklist here, or maybe something more like a traditional to-do list I can do so right here within Evernote. If note taking is your primary use and you do like a more traditional approach Evernote may be the better solution for you.

Visual workspace alternative

Number two, Walling. Now, Walling may have the most similar look to Notion with its black and white branding, and its menu here on the left-hand side, but what sets Walling apart is its flexibility and its focus on a more visual layout.

So for example here, if I want to add a new note to this section, all I have to do is double click and I can immediately add it over here in the right-hand side. I don't have to re-sort or to drag things around. And if I want to move things, well that's pretty easy as well.

I can reorder it any way that I like. Another fast advantage of Walling is that we don't have to waste our time by opening up certain elements to get in and out, and see those details. Looking at this note, for example, if I don't want to see all of these bullet headings, I can simply collapse that if I like. But if I want to add additional information

I don't have to open up the note, or have a new dialogue exposed, I can just add a new bullet point immediately. Like Notion, you can have a variety of different sections

but unlike Notion, you can collapse those sections. So if you only want to see a certain section, you can do so at any given time. And for those who are more visually inclined, or need to manage a large quantity of graphics Walling keeps things nice and simple and also, nice and big and large. So if you need to see the full preview,

or if you need to see those thumbnails in a more condensed view, you can do so easily. Now, I'm such a big fan of Walling that I've teamed up with them to offer you something special. If you use the discount code SCOTT22 you'll receive $15 off of their annual plan. Just go to walling.app, or click the link in the description below.

Kanban board alternative

Number three, Trello. If you prefer the board style, or Kanban style of management

then Trello may be the better option for you. Trello was really the first software to bring board style management to the masses. And I would argue if this is where you like to work this is perhaps still the best software for your needs.

Now, you can create as many lists or columns here at the top of your screen, and then include your notes, or tasks, or whatever you would like these cards to represent.

And, in many cases, the objective is to bring them through a series of steps to the very end, which will often be something labeled as Complete, or Finished.

Now, within Trello, you will need to open up your cards in order to access additional information, such as a due date, a description, or maybe a checklist down below.

But it can be a great way to keep things simple so you can see a high level of what's going on and then be able to collaborate with others within the card itself. If you prefer this type of board style management then Trello may be a better solution for you.

Database alternative

Number four, Airtable. If you like the comfort of a database, or a spreadsheet style format then Airtable may be a better solution for you. Although Notion does give us a simple database with Airtable, we have a lot more flexibility when it comes to filtering, and grouping and sorting our pieces of information.

It also makes it super easy and super quick for us to apply labels, or to apply defaults when we are managing our tasks, or managing our work.And unlike many of the tools on this list, we have access to many more versatile views here within Airtable including this calendar view, which I'm using for social media content purposes, and also this Results tab where I can zero in on certain campaigns, or certain key pieces of information.

Lastly, if you're needing to engage with numbers, or money on a regular basis, Airtable gives you the flexibility to create specific formulas and equations so you can calculate sums and keep tabs on those key numbers.

Team workspace alternative

Number five, Confluence. If you you prefer a more traditional document style of keeping track of your notes and projects then Confluence may be a better choice for you.

In this example here, I've created a one-on-one meeting template and you can see I can add a variety of different elements. But another advantage of Confluence

is that I don't have to worry about making changes, or adding things to this template

until I'm ready to publish. For example, perhaps I want to take my time in filling out these fields or filling out the priorities down below and I don't want my coworkers,

or my teammates seeing me actively working on this live because I want to come back and make some changes.

Here on the top right-hand corner, I can select that Edit button, and now I am brought into an edit mode where I can start to add information to this template, but nothing will be viewable until I choose Publish here in the top right-hand corner.

So if you would prefer to make changes, take some time before you go live and share with others Confluence may be a better solution for you.

Now, I'd love to hear from you next. You most likely clicked on this video because you're looking for an alternative to Notion, so why is that? What is it that you just don't like about Notion? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

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

Problem with to-do list apps

Are you frustrated with your to-do list? Well, then this video is for you, because I'm going to show you a more effective and easier way to manage all of your tasks, and best of all, you don't need to install anything new.

No, all you need is your calendar. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And whether you use Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, or really any other calendar, you may have the very best to-do list already.

So why should you use your calendar? Well, one of the biggest problems with to-do list apps is it forces you to go somewhere else or to check in on yet another app, whether that's another tab in your browser, or perhaps another app on your phone, you have to remember to go there and to update it and engage with it.

But when it comes to your calendar,

you probably never have to remind yourself to go there. You're always engaging with your calendar to take a look at what's coming up and where you need to be. Now, in today's example, I'm going to be using Google Calendar, but you can apply these exact same steps with virtually any calendar app.

Adding tasks to any calendar

So here within my calendar, at the very top, there is always an All-day event area.

And you may be familiar with this, for example, this Friday is a holiday, so maybe I'm going to signify that it's a holiday by listing it here, or maybe if I have some upcoming vacation time or I want to remember someone's birthday, I'll put it up here as an All-day event.

But this area can be an extremely effective place to manage your to-dos and to keep them in line with the specific days that you'd like to accomplish them.

So for example, here on Tuesday, I'm going to come up here to the All-day event area, I'm going to say email the team agenda, maybe that's something I need to do today, maybe I want to call Jane regarding the upcoming meeting, and maybe I need to review the budget proposal.

Okay, so just a couple of tasks that I need to accomplish today. So the first key benefit is that all of the tasks that I include here

will not go away. Whether I scroll up and down, those tasks will remain front and center. And even if I switch to my Day view, you can see that those tasks will remain front and center.

And remember, if you want to improve your chances of accomplishing the things you set out to do, you need to make sure that they are visible. So this is a great way to make sure that your tasks are front and center.

And just like a traditional to-do list app, if I go and edit any of these tasks, don't forget

that you have a full description area down below, so if you want to add some bullet points, if you want to add some text, if you want to add some links, for example, or if you want to add some attachments, you can do that here, as well.

In fact, many calendar apps will allow you to add those attachments directly here, not only via a link, so you can have that information at your fingertips when you are creating or when you come back to engage with this task.

Relationship between tasks and events

But the second big benefit of keeping your tasks here in the All-day event area is that you can see their relation with everything else on your schedule.

Too often, we are engaging with our to-do list in a bit of a vacuum, without our calendar front and center, but really, I need to be able to determine how many tasks can I accomplish today, based on my schedule, based on how many meetings I have, and also what's happening in the coming days?

So for example, as today draws on, maybe I come to this task and say, "I don't really feel like doing this today," so I'm going to click and drag it and move it to tomorrow. But wait a minute, that quarterly budget review is tomorrow, and these two things are related.

Am I going to have enough time tomorrow morning to review the budget proposal? Or do I need to ensure that I accomplish this task today? Seeing that relation can be so important when we are managing and also changing the date of our tasks.

For example, maybe I want to email the team agenda to my team about what's happening on Friday, but wait a minute, I'm going to be at an all day conference on Thursday, I'm going to be busy traveling and networking.

Am I going to remember to do this with all of the other things that I have going on? No, maybe Wednesday is a better time for me to accomplish this particular task. We can even go one step further and color code our tasks with some key events on our calendar.

So here you can see this weekly review meeting is in a green color. I could come in here and I could simply change it to the same color, so I can see the connection between this task here and what's on my calendar in just a few days' time.

Prioritizing tasks within your calendar

Now, when it comes to managing any to-do list, it's important for us to be able

to prioritize certain tasks. And you may be wondering, how do we do that within a calendar app? Well, there are a few different methods. So in this example, maybe I need to make sure that I review this proposal today.

What I'm going to do is open up this task, and at the very front, I'm going to add a special character, such as a period. And when I hit save, that's automatically going to sort it to the very top of my list. And this is the case for almost all calendar apps, including Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook.

Another way in which we can apply prioritization to our list is by changing the color.

So for example, maybe this task number three, I'm going to change to this red tomato color, and I'm also going to do the same thing to this budget proposal here, I'm going to change that color to a red color, as well.

Now they stand out that much more and I'm going to do everything in my power to accomplish these two tasks first before I get onto anything else within my list.

Deeper engagement with your to-do list

Now, at this point, you may recognize the many benefits of managing your to-do list right here as a part of the All-day event section of your calendar, but there's one thing that might concern you.

If you get to the end of today, what's going to happen to all of these tasks? They're not going to automatically move to the very next day,

because they're listed as an All-day event. And that's absolutely true, nothing is going to automatically defer or push these events into the very next day, but I actually think this is a productivity positive and not a negative, and here's why.

Sometimes all of the automation that we have in our tools makes us a little lazy,

and we don't engage with our tasks as closely as we should. That's often why we find ourselves with a large quantity of tasks, because they've simply collected all of the things that we haven't accomplished, and pushed them into the current day.

With this method, it forces you to engage with your tasks at the end of the day, and decide, does this deserve to be moved over? Yes, I do need to accomplish these two things, but you know what? Task number four, I can do that on Friday.

And you know what? I'm going to spend some time calling Jane, despite how busy I should be with this conference. It forces you to think about what you are doing and what you can accomplish in a given day.

So while at first glance that may seem like a con, in reality, this can help you to be more productive and more in tune with your to-do list.

Now, I've seen firsthand how this calendar to-do list method has changed the lives of thousands of people, but I'm sure you may still have questions or maybe additional suggestions. If so, be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

And if you're looking for even more ways to be more productive and to enjoy less stress, be sure to subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.

Check for Chrome updates

Is Google Chrome slowing you down? Does it take a little longer to open a new tab

or launch a new website? Well, in this video I'm going to show you six easy steps

that will help you make Chrome run as fast as possible. Step number one, make sure

that you're running the most recent version of Chrome. Here in the top right-hand corner, we can select these three dots and then come down to Settings. And within our Settings menu, we want to come all the way down and select About Chrome.

And this will let us know if our Chrome version is up to date. As you can see here, I am up to date, but if you're not, it will give you the option to download and install the latest version of Chrome. This simple step may actually make a huge difference in the speed that you are experiencing.

Remove unused Chrome extensions

Number two, let's remove any unwanted extensions. Google Chrome extensions are incredibly helpful, and you'll probably find your most used ones here in the top right-hand corner. But extensions can make our browsers slow down a lot.

So let's review what we have installed and see if we can remove any. Here within the Settings menu, we can come down and select Extensions, or from any screen, we can come back here to our three dots, select More Tools, and then select Extension.

And this will show us all of the extensions that we have installed. Now, as you can see in my example, I have only a handful which are actually enabled. Step number one, I'm going to want to review if I actually need any of these that are currently enabled.

But, even if something is disabled, it could be slowing down the performance of your browser. So take a look and see if there's anything else that you can remove. This step of removing unwanted or unused extensions can have a dramatic effect on your Chrome experience.

Clear your browsing history

Number three, let's clear our browsing data and all those cookies which may be slowing us down. From our three dot menu, we want to come down and select More Tools and then select Clear Browsing Data. Now, when you first open up this dialogue,

you'll probably be viewing the Basic tab, but I want you to click on the Advanced tab.

Next up, take a careful look at the time range. We don't want to be limited by just the last few hours or days. I want you to come down here and select All Time. Next, make sure that you have the first four check boxes selected, especially these last two.

Look at this example, I have nearly 1,000 cookies stored on my browser and a whole bunch of images and files. This is certainly slowing down my performance. And then at this stage, all we need to do

Turn on Hardware Acceleration

is select Clear Data. Number four, let's make sure that we've turned on hardware acceleration. Here within our Settings menu, we want to come down and select System, and the second option here is Use Hardware Acceleration When Available.

Now, this is usually turned on by default, but I still want you to come here to the System's menu and make sure that this is toggled on. Having this option turned on can give you

Remove Chrome browser themes

A little boost of speed when needed most. Number five, let's return our theme back to the default. It can be a lot of fun to come to the Chrome Web Store and install manyof the creative and innovative themes for our browsers.

In my example here, I've got a dark theme, which not only is applying to my tabs, but it is applying things to certain webpages as well. However, these themes can take up an awful lot of space and wear down on the performance of your browser.

So within the settings menu, we want to select Appearance. And here you can see where I have that particular theme installed. In order to get the best performance from your browser,

you're going to want to make sure to reset it back to its default state. This may make a significant difference as to how fast your pages load here within Chrome.

Clean up your computer

Number six, let's clean up our computer so we can perform at our optimal speed here. Within the Chrome settings, we want to come down near the bottom and select Reset and Clean Up. And the second option here is Clean Up Computer.

By selecting this Find button, it's going to look for harmful software on your computer and remove it so that your browser and also other functions can perform at their very best.

Now, in addition to these six steps, if you want to work smarter and faster, be sure to watch this video next where I show you a free extension which just might change the way you work right here within Chrome.

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

Flexible note-taking

If you think that mind mapping is just word clouds and circling things together,

think again. Because in this video, I'm going to show you four new ways in how you can use mind mapping to work smarter, faster, and a whole lot freer. So let's dive in.

When it comes to note-taking, you're probably already familiar with taking your notes within a document or some other note-taking software. But this type of note-taking forces us into some very linear thinking where we start at the top and add things at the bottom. And no matter how I list things out here within my notes,

I'm always going to be drawn to the things at the top of the screen. And maybe if I want these use cases at the top, I'm going to have to select all of this. I'm going to have to cut it, hit Enter a few times, and then paste it just to bring it up here to the top.

Now, I've got this ugly space down below, which I can fix, but then I've got another problem. Maybe I want to reorder the things that I've listed here.

If I want "develop sales strategy, "once again, I've got to sort of copy or cut and paste just to put things in the order that makes the most sense to me. Well, there's a much easier and faster way to take our notes. Here I am within Miro, and I have essentially the same notes

that we saw on the previous screen. But the great thing is that I can quickly and easily reorder anything that I want, and I can move things around as well. If I want these mind mapping features down below and this over here, maybe I want to switch this over here to the left-hand side, I can do so with ease.

And if I want to add new ideas, well, that's pretty quick as well. I'm going to hit this Plus button. And let's say there's a new section that I want to start adding here. I'm going to hit Enter, and I'm going to hit Plus.

And now I can start adding those new ideas.

So maybe "New idea number 1," hit Enter. "New idea number 2," hit Enter. "New idea number 3." You get the idea. But here, right away, I can start to rearrange things in the order that I like.

But not only does this make it easy for me to rearrange information within the section which I've just created, but maybe I feel that this second idea actually should be featured under Other features. Well, all I need to do is drag it, and I can bring it up here into Other features. Maybe this idea as well needs to be grouped up here.

I can drag them both here. And now they're all in the section that I desire. So taking your notes here within a mind map can not only be faster, but also allow you to group your information any way that you like. So if you want to keep like-minded things maybe on the right-hand side, put other things here on the left-hand side.

Another nice benefit is that with just the scroll of your mouse cursor, you can dive into one of your sections and just focus on them. As opposed to a traditional note-taking tool where you're going to be forced to see all of your notes on the same screen,

this can allow you to zoom in just on the information that you want to view at any given time.

Creative brainstorming session

Now, another way in which we can take advantage of mind maps is by using it for brainstorming purposes. Often we'll think of word clouds or word bubbles for brainstorming, but here's another creative way in which you can do so.

Here within Miro, I can set up a list of sticky notes. And what I've done is actually created a grid here just waiting for me to input information.

Now instead of grouping like-minded things together right from the beginning, the purpose of this board is just to freely get out those ideas, and then I can move to a secondary stage of grouping things together.

So for each of these sticky notes, I can start to click inside. And again, like we saw before, I can start to input another idea. Maybe I'm going to click over here,

and here's a secondary idea that I'm thinking about doing as well. And I can just freely create and add things to these notes. In addition, Miro's going to allow me

to share this board with others. So if I want others to contribute or maybe to contribute in real time, we can do so as well. But it gets even better. Once I've input all of my ideas and all of my brainstorming sticky notes, I can start to pull out the ones that are perhaps related. So maybe I'm going to grab this focus group over here

and create a chorus, because maybe I'd like to put these together. I can select them all and maybe give them a similar color in this case. I can also give them a tag if I want. Maybe they're all related to my development team, so I'm going to add that tag here as well.

And just like we saw when it comes to collaborating, we can also add comments and notes. So here I'm going to add a comment. "Let's ask Tim to look into this." Maybe something like that. So now this comment is going to be attached directly to this note.

I can change its color. We can even decide to resolve it maybe at a certain time in the future. But we can go further with this. And maybe opening a new store is related to one of these other ideas. But I want to leave them over here,

sort of in its incubation state. What I'm going to do is grab an arrow, and I'm going to draw something here so I can connect it over here. So no matter what I do with this particular group, no matter where I move it, I can see that there is going to be a relation with this note up above.

So it gives me a lot of flexibility. And depending on how you think or how you do your best brainstorming, Miro gives us a lot of different options to work with.

No more boring meetings

Next up, let's take a look at how we can improve something that most people dread, meetings. First things first, Miro allows us to leave PowerPoint behind. We can include as many images and design elements directly to our boards, including inputting video, so we can keep everything in the same place.

Whether it's a meeting agenda or key points, you can include that right here within your board. But if I simply move over here to the right, you can see that this is so much more than just a presentation.

I have an opportunity to make this engaging and very, very productive. On the right-hand side of my board, I have four different areas that I want us to work through so that we can improve on the past and look forward to the future.

I've got four different sections titled Continue, Stop, Invent, and Act. And what I'd like my team to do is spend the next few minutes to input additional ideas for these different sections. Again, I can share them with as many individuals as I want.

And then they can come in here and add their own sticky notes to each section. So maybe under Continue, what's going to help us move forward? Maybe we need to hire some new staff, something along those lines.

We can take some time and add that information here within these areas. And if you want to make sure that you keep on task, Miro also gives us some additional meeting features here at the top of the screen.

So for example, if I want to set a timer for three minutes or any duration that I like, I can do so right here. And I know from experience, by having a countdown clock on the screen in front of you is one of the best ways to make sure that you keep your meetings from going over time.

But another incredibly helpful feature is the ability to vote on those ideas once they've been submitted. Here I'm going to open up the Voting tab. And first off, I can choose what the section or what that voting area will look like.

So maybe I don't want to look at the top two quadrants. I just want to look at these two areas down below. After I've selected my voting area, I can choose how many votes I would like each individual to have and how long it's going to take us to complete that voting.

When I'm happy with these settings, I can come down here and hit Start. Now it's telling me that the voting session has started. And yes, votes are anonymous. Now, I don't have to participate if I'm just the organizer, but I'm going to select Join the voting so I can show you what this will look like to participants.

So maybe I'm going to give one vote for this one. I'm going to give another vote over here. And actually you can give two of your votes to the same task, or in this case, the same sticky note, if I want. I'm going to say that I'm done. I've submitted my votes.

And I'm also going to choose to end this for everyone. I'm going to say End this session. And in just a few seconds, it will tally up those votes and give me a result

so I can see which is the winner or who is in the lead. Now, of course, in this example, it was just myself. But this can not only be an incredibly engaging exercise, but a very productive one as well. By selecting See all the votes, I can see the breakdown here.

And you can also have multiple voting on these same Miro board. So maybe I had a different focus group or a different part of my team earlier yesterday, and then I have other teams or other meetings. I can keep track of that all right here within my board.

Setting goals that stick

Now, yet another way in which we can use mind maps is for setting goals or planning for the future. Here I've created something in a bit more of a hierarchy structure, and I've titled this 2023 Business Goals.

Rather than putting this in a project management system or just using bullet points within a document, I've decided to do something a little more visual and also a little more colorful.

And again, the great benefit here is that we all think a little differently, and sometimes just visualizing things in a different way can lead us to much better outcomes. So I've decided to hire some more development staff earlier in the month, and I'm going to start a weekly podcast.

And I've decided to break these things down by different categories. So I can see perhaps the difference in terms of what it's going to take to start a podcast versus how we're going to reduce client turnover a little later in the quarter.

And just like we saw with our initial notes, all we need to do is hit this Plus button down below, and we can immediately start to add new ideas. So maybe we want to focus on some keywords here such as "productivity." I'm going to hit Enter here.

Maybe "business tools" is going to be another one, and maybe a "software app." So again, quickly and easily I can input that information. And if I need to move things around, well, that's quick and easy as well.

If I want to change these dates and visualize this in a different way, Miro makes it super easy. Now, to get started with Miro and to explore all of the templates that Miro has to offer, go to miro.com or click the link in the description down below.

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