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View only specific calendar dates

Do you want to look like an expert and save time with all of your meetings, appointments, and reminders? Well, in this video, I'm sharing with you seven tips and tricks that I think every Google Calendar user should know.

So let's dive in. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And the first tip has to do with navigating and viewing only the days that you want.

Now you're probably already familiar with the dropdown menu in the top right hand corner of the screen. We can alternate from a day view to a week view,

or a month view, whatever you would like. But if you would just like to see a specific set or a specific group of days? Well, a little known tip is to use the mini calendar here

on the left hand side. And if I just want to see Wednesday through Friday, I can click and drag across those dates, and now I'm just seeing Wednesday through Friday.

What if I just want to see Tuesday and Wednesday of next week? Just those two days, drag across them, and now I'm just seeing those two days. How about the last two weeks? Well, just drag over top of them and now I've got that view in front of me here,

Not the full month view, just those specific two weeks. So if you're just after a few set of days, be sure to make use of this mini calender under view here by just clicking and dragging your mouse.

Create & dock new calendar events

Now, the next tip on our list has to do with creating new events while still seeing information that is relevant to you. Now, for most of us, when we're using Google Calendar on our desktop, we're going to click on the area where we'd like to add that new event and I'm just going to give it the title of New Event.

Now immediately, it is blocking some of my calendar.

Now I can click and drag this if I want to move this around on the screen, if I want to reference perhaps other information or other events, but another thing you can do is either drag it all the way over to the left hand side, you can see that it gives us a bit of a highlighted area in order for us to do so,

or you can click this little dock to sidebar icon in the top left hand corner. And what that is going to do is to dock that new event here on the left hand side while you can see your entire calendar here on the right, and yes, we can continue to navigate to other weeks or other days.

We can even switch to a day view if we want to, but still have that new event listed here. Now you will also notice in this dock view that it will provide you with a bit of a flashing shadow here on your event calendar.

So as you're adding details here, you can see exactly where this event will appear once you have saved it.

Now you can always click this icon again to undock that event if you want to go back to that traditional view but either you can click this icon here or click and drag it all the way over to the left hand side, if you want to dock this event, if you want to go and use and see other things in your calendar while you're creating such an event.

Adding notes to meetings with Meetric

Now the next tip on our list is all about adding notes to a particular meeting. Whether you're wanting to do that in advance or maybe you want to go back and review the notes for a particular meeting.

And for this purpose, we're going to be using an extension called Meetric. With the Meetric extension installed within your Google Calendar account, when you select any of your events, you will now see a take notes button available to you as well. By selecting this, we get a small slide out which allows us to add as many detailed notes here on the right hand side.

And you can add anything, including links, bullet points, really anything that's going to help you prepare or perhaps if you're taking notes during the meeting.  And the great thing is that all of the notes that you record here will stay synced to this particular event.

So whether you want to share something in advance or if you want to review something that has happened in the past, you can do so right here with the Meetric tool. Best of all, you can also do it in full screen. So for example, later today, I've got my team standup meeting and maybe I want to add some more details to this list

or maybe we're going to ignore a particular question for this particular meeting. I can view and access all of my events because remember it's synced directly to my account. Let's go down to this coaching session, for example, and I can review the things that I want to discuss with this client. I can even assign myself specific tasks

and give them a reminder or a due date so I can use it for more than just notes,

I can use it for a to-do list and to remind myself of certain tasks. And when the meeting is over, I can always choose to share those notes either via a link or send them directly via email. Now, if you'd like to start using Meetric with your Google Calendar, you can go to Meetric.app or see the link in the description below.

Google Calendar keyboard shortcuts

Next up on our list, let's see how we can save time by using the variety of shortcuts

right here within Calendar. Now, I could tell you about some of my favorite shortcuts

but if you want to see the full list yourself, all you need to do is select the question mark key on your keyboard. And that will bring up the full list of all of the great keyboard shortcuts right here within Google Calendar.

Now note, you may have to go into your settings menu and then come down to keyboard shortcuts and make sure that this is enabled. If this check mark is not checked, you will not be able to see this quick reference list.

So be sure to check this first and then you can choose to use the question mark key. Now, one of my most used shortcut keys is the letter G, as in go to date. By selecting G on your keyboard, you're presented with a small dialogue here

where you can type in basically anything that you want. So if someone's asking me, what am I doing in November, I can type in November and immediately jump to November of this year.

If I want to go back to today, I can simply say today and it's going to bring me right back. And what about, I don't know, Christmas 2024? Well, let's go and find out, no, it looks like I'm pretty free at the moment.

So the next time you want to jump back and forth quickly and easily, simply select G on your keyboard and jump to the specific date that you want.

View the Google Contacts sidebar

Now, if you're dealing with a lot of meetings, that also means that you're dealing

with an awful lot of people, and sometimes we can forget in terms of who we are meeting with and why, and what exactly is the relationship with that individual?

Well, instead of having to jump back and forth between your email account or your contacts tab, we can actually access that information right here from within Google Calendar and in order to so, we're going to use the sidebar feature here on the right hand side.

You'll notice that there's a Google contacts icon in which we can open up. Now, if you don't see this sidebar come all the way down to the bottom right, and make sure that you've expanded this little arrow, that's going to allow you to see this sidebar on the right hand side of the screen.

So for example, maybe I am looking at this meeting with Scott and I'm not exactly sure who this Simple Scott is and what is the relationship. Yes, I'll get some details by hovering over here but if I click on the context on the right hand side and then click that meeting I will also see the full list of all of the attendees.

And here I can go one step further, I can click on the individual itself, I can see their full list of information but I can also see some of the recent interactions.

So here are some of the other meetings that are coming up with this person, here is the last email that we've had and I can click on that and go directly to the email.

I can even read some of the notes down below and yeah, maybe I want to stay away from this guy at the next cocktail party. And when you're done accessing

or reviewing all of the information here, all you need to do is select the contacts icon again which will close that sidebar. So a quick and easy way to find out more information about those whom your meeting with.

Share Google Calendar with others

Next, let's take a look at how we can share our Google Calendar with others.

Now, why would you want to do that? Well, of course, you may want to share your calendar with your coworkers or maybe with just someone that you're working with for a period of time.

Now, the good news is that you don't have to share all of your details. Google Calendar gives us a lot of options.

So whether you want to share just a read only version, or maybe you just want to show when you're busy or perhaps you're working with an assistant and you want to give them full control, Google Calendar gives us a lot of flexibility.

The first thing that you're going to want to do

is pick the specific calendar which you want to share because maybe you don't want to share everything here but just your main booking calendar, for example. So I'm going to click on the More button and then select Settings and sharing.

We can still get to this from the main icon from the home page, but this is going to bring us directly to that particular calendar. Then we want to go and select Share with specific people. And here you can see we can add as many additional people as we want.

So yes, I am the owner, but I'm going to say add someone, and I'm going to add that Simple Scott, once again, I can add multiple people here if I want but where we want to pay careful attention to is the permissions dropdown.

So here we've got a few different things to consider. The first choice is to see only free or busy information. So they're not going to see the name of the event. They're not going to see any of the guests, they're just going to see when things are booked on your calendar.

The second option is to see all event detail. So yes, they are going to see absolutely everything as a part of that event but they won't be able to edit anything. Next, we have make changes to events, which yes, they're going to see it, and they're going to be able to make changes to those events.

And lastly, we're basically giving them full control, by selecting this option, they will also be able to share your calendar with others. So make sure that you're making the best choice for yourself.

We can select that here and then select Send which is going to send them an invitation so that they can have access to your calendar.

Change calendar email notifications

Now, one of the biggest pet peeves for many calendar users are the number of notifications and email alerts that you receive for all of your calendar events,

whether you're invited to something new, someone changes their response, or gives you an accepted confirmation, sometimes we don't necessarily need all of this email data and it can really contribute to email overload.

So in order to make these changes for a specific calendar, once again, we want to select on the More buttons, then select Settings and sharing. And this time we're going to come down to Other notifications.

Now here, you can see there are five different events or five different triggers, which will send an email. But the good news is that you don't have to receive all of these events. So for example, event responses is one of my pet peeves. I can always go back into my calendar and see who has accepted or who has declined.

I don't necessarily want to receive an email response when someone has committed to that meeting. So I can come over here and select none as an alternative. And we've got a few other options here as well including new events, changed events, or canceled events.]

So if you want to customize how many emails and for what purposes you are getting in your inbox, be sure to come to the Other notifications area and choose what's best for you. Now I'd love to hear from you next.

What was your favorite tip from today's video or what other problem are you facing in Google Calendar and you can't quite seem to figure it out? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

And if you enjoyed this video, you'll love my other content right here on the Simpletivity channel.

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

Analyze your Trello list workflow

This video is sponsored by Rewind Backups for Trello, more about them a little later in the video. If you clicked on this video, you're probably already using Trello for your project management needs, but are you getting the most out of this tool?

Well, in this video, I want to show you five different things you should be thinking about so you can get the most out of Trello whether you're managing a small business or an entire team, five different steps you should take so you can optimize your Trello setup.

Hello, everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And let's dive in with the first step or the first thing I want you to think about and that really is your lists or your different stages.

At its core, Trello is based on the Kanban method, the method of moving cards or moving tasks through different stages. However, I find that far too many Trello users are not using it or optimizing Trello in such a way.

In this particular example, you can see I have a fairly straightforward setup. I've got five different lists, Ideas, Tasks, In Progress, Pending, and Complete and the goal is to create cards on the left hand side of the screen

and move them over to the right hand side. However, you want to be very specific

as to what each of these stages represent, making sure that you don't have too many or too few for your needs. So for example, many people ask me, "Scott, why do I have a Pending List, or sometimes I'll label this Waiting For?" I find this can actually be one of the most valuable list in all of my Trello setups.

Sometimes there can be a card which is simply out of your hands at the moment. Maybe you've ordered these books and there's nothing else you can do at this point in time until they arrive, or maybe you're still waiting to hear back from these vendors so I don't want to leave them in In Progress because this might build up very, very lengthy and may not tell the entire story.

This is a perfect opportunity to split or separate these lists so I can tell this information not only to myself but to every member whom I'm collaborating with.

So if you happen to have a list which is growing exponentially, that may be a clue for you to split that list into another list, making sure that you can come into Trello at any point in time and get a great snapshot view of what is going on.

Add estimated effort on Trello cards

Now in step number two, we want to add some more valuable information to our cards. You're already going to be familiar with adding things such as a due date

or labels or members to your cards. These are essential aspects to get the most information out of the tasks and the things that you're managing here within your Trello board, but often something that is missing is how much time or how much effort is going to be applied to those cards and how much time been spent actually working on those cards as well.

So in this case, we're going to make use of a Power-Up called Card Size by Screenful. Now the good news is is that this is a free Power-Up so it will not cost you anything additional.

So let's go in here and look at this card here and let's say there's this New Article, it's assigned to me but I want to estimate how much effort it's going to take. Well, here under the Power-Ups header, you can see that there is the Card Size button.

If I open this up, it gives me three different fields which I can start filling in. So maybe in this case, I'm going to say that this article's probably going to take me a total of six hours. Immediately, it's going to fill in the remaining slot here, meaning that there are six hours remaining.

I'm just going to hit Save here so you can see what this looks like on the card itself, so not only can I see it here within the card, but if I close the card, I can see that it has an estimated time of six hours.

Now, if I come up here to the Card Size icon, I can click on Settings, and I can choose to add other things to the front of the card as well, including the amount of time spent or the amount of time remaining, but I'm going to leave those unchecked here just at the moment.

Let's go ahead and add another one here. I'm going to add a size here to this one. Maybe this one is going to be only three hours in case, I'm going to hit Save here and let's go back, and maybe this Redesign website which is going to take an awful lot more time.

I'm going to come down here to Card Size and I'm going to pick another number.

One of the things that I like is that it will include some of the more recent sizes as well.

So maybe you have some standardization or some common size durations, you can easily click them down below here. In this case, I'm going to say 12 and I'm going to hit Save. So not only can I see the differences in these sizes between these cards

but Card Size also allows us to view this data in a few different ways. So I can see that I have assigned about six hours of work, but there are a total of 15 hours which are not assigned.

I can also filter this by label or I can filter it by list so if I want to see where the bulk of that load is. But let's go back into this first one where I said it was a size of six but maybe I've spent about two hours today on it so I'm going to select two.

You can see right here it's immediately going to show me how much is remaining

so it's going to calculate this data automatically as I adjust the amount of time spent

on this particular project so I can keep track of it along the way. This is a fantastic way to get the most out of Trello and making sure that you're not overallocating

or underallocating your staff along the way. Now, whether you choose to install

the Card Size Power-Up or some other Power-Up, you may be fearful that those changes may alter your Trello boards, or maybe you're a little worried about inviting new members to your boards and what they might do as a part of the editing process.

Well, that's nicely why I use Rewind Backups for all of my Trello boards and why it's one of the top three most installed power ups right now. If you want to back up all of your Trello data, if you want to go back in time in case you make a mistake,

you can do so with Rewind Backups for Trello. And if you're not already using Rewind

for your Trello boards, you can go to rewind.com/scott-friesen and get $50 when you subscribe on this page. Be sure to see the link in the description for more details.

Add automated Trello rules

Now, the next step in getting the most out of your project management right here within Trello is by adding automation.

How often have you told your team or maybe just told yourself that when I move something from this list to this list, I need to remember to add this label, I need to remember to add a due date, I need to remember to add myself or do something else along the way, and how often have you or some member of your team forgotten.

Well, by making use of Trello Automation, we can add a variety of rules to any Trello board

which was going to make your life so much easier. No more forgetting a certain step,

no more forgetting to add a particular individual. Let's go back to my board here

and show you a quick example. So let's say in my case, when I drag something into my Task List, I want to remember to add the New Project label, I want to remember to add a due date of let's say three days from now, I also want to remember to add myself to that particular project. Well, that's a lot of things which I could forget

or I could waste an awful lot of time with, but with Trello Automation, it is so much easier. Let's add a new card for this example here. So this is a completely new task.

It's fresh, It's got nothing else on it but when I drag it over into the Task List, watch what happens, new project, due date three days from now and I'm assigned to it and I didn't do any of this manually. Maybe you have a certain step or a certain phase

within your project where you need certain things to happen on a regular basis.

Add dashboard metrics to Trello

Now, speaking of making our lives so much easier, the fourth step in our process

is adding some quantitative data directly to our Trello board so we don't have to go looking for it or do some other type of manual count. Wouldn't it be nice if we could put some dashboard information directly here within our project management board.

So here at the top of the screen I've installed the Dashcard Power-Up Dashcard/Track. And with this power up, we can add a number of different customized or template information so we can keep track of what's going on

not only in this board but perhaps across multiple boards. So in this case, maybe I want to take a look at some of the cards which have not been touched in a while.

So in either case, I can choose to customize the options here or I can just add it immediately to this board so it's going to place it in the first list at the very top,

but of course I can drag this and move this wherever I want. Maybe, I'll even want to create a separate list just for my tracking cards. In this case, it's telling me that I have five stale cards on this board.

And yes, this is going to be dynamic so as I edit or change things, this number is going to change as well but it's more than just a number. If I click on this extra special card, you can see down below, it will tell me exactly which of those five cards are stale and if I click on it, it will open up that card directly as well so I can go in, take a look around, and maybe update that particular card.

Now, if I don't like the way that this is displaying this information, no problem.

I can edit this card as well. If I come down here and select Explore and edit, I can take a look at the details So for example, here, it is looking at any card that was last modified earlier than 14 days ago.

Well, maybe that's too much, maybe I want to look at anything that hasn't been modified in seven days or something like that, I can select Edit filters and I can say, let's, yeah, let's bring that down to seven days and save it here and then down below, it's going to show me which of those cards fall into that category so you can be very, very specific.

Keep in mind, you can add as many of these cards as you like. If I come back here to the Dashcards button, I can select Customize, and now I can upload my own background, I can give it my own name

and filter this information any way that I like. So this Dashcards feature can really enhance the level of information and the amount of detail which is shown on any of your Trello boards.

View Trello project timeline

Now, the final step in our optimization process is to look at your Trello data in a different way. Although you may be very comfortable in working with your cards and your lists in this Board View, keep in mind that Trello also has what they call a Timeline view, and it's very much like a Gantt chart view where we're seeing the exact same information that we saw in the Board View, but perhaps in a more meaningful way.

If we jump back to the Board view,  it can be difficult to see that this is actually spanning over a few different days, and this one is actually spanning over several weeks, but if we look at the Timeline view, we can see that a lot more clearly and the great thing is, is that we can work within this view as well.

So maybe this create this onboarding letter is actually going to take a little bit longer than I thought, so I'm going to stretch it out here across the weekend into next week. If I need to adjust the timeframe for this project, no problem, I can drag it and move it to maybe next week sometime.

In addition, Trello gives us the ability to filter and view this information

in a variety of different ways. So whether I want to break it down by member or maybe I want to break it down by the different labels that we have, we can view that information here as well. And of course we can click on any of these cards

and start to work and look at the details within it as well. So for some of you, you may actually end up spending more time here within the Timeline view even than the Board view itself. And don't forget to back up all of your Trello data with Rewind,

go to rewind.com/scott-friesen to receive $50 when you subscribe. Now, if you found this video helpful, you might find the other content right here on the Simpletivity channel helpful as well.

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

Best Website Integration

Calendly is certainly one of the most popular scheduling tools available, but it's certainly not the only option for you. So in today's video, we're taking a look at five Calendly alternatives, many of them offering a completely free version and determining which one is right for you.

Hello, everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And as we go through this list, I'm going to be handing out some awards.

So whether you're looking for the best website integration, user experience, or what integrates directly with your email provider, you'll have a better idea of which scheduling app is best for you. So let's dive in.

Now, the first app on our list is Squarespace Scheduling, also known as Acuity Scheduling. Now there's some confusion over those two names. A few years ago, Acuity Scheduling was acquired by Squarespace.

So if you're a Squarespace website user, you're going to have this functionality built right in. But if not, you'll be using Acuity Scheduling as a part of your interface, basically, still two different names

but the exact same software. So here we are within our dashboard. And what I do like about Squarespace/Acuity, is that it keeps things relatively simple. It's very easy to navigate around. Here, you can see this is my booking screen.

So not only can I see what's happening with my real calendar embedded, but I can quickly and easily add appointments directly here as well. But let's jump to what the client actually sees with our scheduling page link.

And what's really nice about Acuity scheduling is that it keeps it very, very clean. Yes, you can add your own branding up here, but it really walks you through the process nice and easily. So let's say I want to book a coaching session, here's my available times. I'm going to say 1:00 p.m. next week.

I'm going to say Continue. I can start filling out my information here and complete the appointment. Again, Acuity is going to give us the option to add it to our calendar, whether that's Google, or whether that's an iCal Outlook calendar,

and we can even register for an account. So very simple and easy. Now when it comes to some of Acuity's greatest strengths, I would say its customization is great,

especially if you want to make changes here, and then, see a preview of those changes right here on the right-hand side. Too many scheduling apps I find force you to make these changes without having to look or see, so you have to have another tab open, sort of waste a lot of time, and it may not look the way that you're wanting to.

But when it comes to its greatest strength, I would have to go with its website integration. So you can embed your Acuity or Squarespace Scheduling page directly onto your website and give your clients a seamless experience. Next up on our list we're taking a look at SimplyBook,

Best Website Replacement

an ideal solution, especially if you're a service-based industry. So whether you're a personal trainer, maybe you run a beauty salon, are you a coach, a consultant, an accountant, maybe you're offering medical or health services, SimplyBook is especially designed for those who are wanting to book services.

And one of the main reasons for that is because SimplyBook can replace your entire website, or maybe you don't even have a website yet, that's fine. You can create a very simple, but professional website right here within SimplyBook, with a focus on scheduling time with you.

So here you can see I've got all of the relevant information for this sample business, but book now is front and center.

And what I like about SimplyBook is that you can walk through a variety of different scenarios, but also add visuals to those scenarios, whether you've dealt with Calendly in the past, or maybe some other scheduling tool, often you don't get these types of visuals. So in this case, yeah,

I want to select the San Diego location and I'm interested in the blogging for beginners option here. And I want to do the Lifestyle blog course, and I want to do it with Lawrence. So again, you can add a full bio here, you can add descriptions here.

I'm going to add Select. And now that I'm on Lawrence's screen, I can either register for the wait list for today in case there's a cancellation, this is an especially nice feature, which you won't find in many other scheduling tools.

But I'm going to say I'm available tomorrow at noon and I can complete my booking. The other nice benefit for service providers is that you can have your clients create an actual account

so that they don't have to input their information in again and again and again.

This really enhances the level of service and also how professional you look as a part of your clientele. And within the administrative side of SimplyBook, you get so much data that's going to help you make changes and make smart decisions for your business.

So for example, here, I can see how many bookings I've had today. I can see how much revenue I've had this particular week, and I can even go down and filter by who is being booked more often than someone else.

This is especially helpful if you're managing a team. So a lot of great data and reporting here within SimplyBook that you simply won't find anywhere else.

Best User Experience

Now, the next scheduling app on our list is called SavvyCal. And if you want a very simple user experience for both yourself, but also for those who are booking with you,

SavvyCal may be the best choice for you. From a navigation standpoint here in the backend, things are very, very simple so it's easy to get around. We only have a few different menu headings here and it's also easy to edit.

So for example, if I want to edit my coaching session details here, I can come into my calendar and immediately start to edit the different changes here. But let's dive into a user experience because that's really where SavvyCal shines.

So here we are taking a look at a preview of what one of my invitees would see, and everything is nice and clear.

A few things to highlight. Number one, the user can choose different minutes or different durations, which I have selected in advance, where many scheduling apps will force you to create multiple events depending on the duration, here I can offer one event, a coaching session, and then the user can determine what length they would like to choose from.

The other thing I like about SavvyCal is it gives you both the immediate week in turn of the weekday here for them to choose and to click on,

but also a nice mini calendar down below here, as well. So there are fewer clicks,

maybe a little less intimidating for many users, but the last key benefit here is that users don't have to go back and forth between this SavvyCal page and their own calendar. Up here on the top right-hand corner, I can select Overlay my calendar,

and now my calendar, my personal calendar, is overlaid over these available slots.

So I don't have to be switching tabs, I don't have to be going back and forth to seeing when I'm available. SavvyCal helps make it that much easier for me. So I'm going to hand out the award for best user experience, best end user experience here to SavvyCal.

If you need something very simple for your users, this might be the best choice for you. Now, the next scheduling app on our list

Best Email Integration

is specifically designed for those who want to input or embed options directly within their email accounts, specifically for Gmail users. So here I am within my Gmail account and I'm crafting a message, and I'm wanting to set up a meeting with someone else.

Now I could go and input my Calendly link, or some other scheduling app link here, so that they're taken to another page, but wouldn't it be easier if I could just embed the options directly here within the email and then they could click and make that selection without having to leave their inbox?

Well, with the boomerang extension installed, you can use the new bookable schedule option. So here down below, you can see there's a Meet button. And I've got a few different options, 'cause I can either suggest sometimes, I can share my free or busy time, or I can set up my own bookable schedule which I can use and repurpose again and again.

For this example, I'm going to choose the Share Free/Busy time. And I've already asked if we can meet next week. So here I've given a few different options, so I'm going to choose next week. I want to give them those options.

I can include weekends if I want to, and of course, I can adjust my hours here. It's already going to pull in my availability from my synced Gmail calendar. So all I have to do is select Insert at this time.

And now, that calendar is going to be embedded directly within the email. So they're going to see when I'm busy. Of course, it's not going to display what those events are or the names of anyone who's involved, but they can book directly from their email.

You'll also notice in the upper right-hand corner that they can choose to overlay their own calendar. Something that we just saw a moment ago with SavvyCal.

So this can be a fantastic option, if you are primarily booking meetings with individuals and you want to give them the choice or the availability directly from within your email account.

Best Customization

Next up on our list, let's take a look at the scheduling app Appointy. Now Appointy does a lot of things differently, but in a good way. Let's get started right here in the backend.

So first of all, if you are spending most of your day in meetings or managing your service calls, Appointy is a great option. Here, you can see that we're looking at my dashboard, or really my to-do list for today.

So it's nice and clear that I've got two different sessions, one's a coaching session, one's a deep-dive session here, and I've got all the details at my fingertips. So if I need to, for example, check someone in, say if they arrive late, a no-show, if I want to issue gift certificates, for example, or coupon codes, I can do so right here.

So I really like this sort of dashboard view, something that you won't often find with many other products.

But the other thing about Appointy is that you have almost endless customization,

whether that's from a reporting standpoint. Look at this, we have about seven different just high-level reporting. And then we can get into different filters

and different details. But if you are looking at specific marketing options, such as discount coupons, gift certificates, and other special offers, you can do so here, as well. Now from an end user perspective, Appointy keeps things relatively simple, but also very easy for you and your users to walk through.

So for example here, maybe I want to book a coaching session. I'm going to select Next. Here, I'm brought to the calendar. I want to book something for later this week, let's say 10:30 a.m. And it brings me to this confirmation page, which is very much like a checkout page.

So if you are wanting people to pay upfront, or know exactly what is included in their package, here you can see some of these optional options, such as the gift certificate or coupon, well, then Appointy may be the best option for you.

It's very much a walkthrough process, making it very easy for your users to participate in. Now I'd love to hear from you next. Is there a scheduling app that I forgot or left off of today's list? If so, be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

And if you enjoyed this video, you'll enjoy the other videos right here

on the Simpletivity channel.

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

All the designs you need in one place

I'm going to be honest with you. When it comes to creating engaging social media,

I find it very, very difficult and also really, really time-consuming. So in this video, I'm going to show you how to create some stunning content that not only you can create in just a few minutes, but you can share it from the same interface.

So, let's dive in. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And we're taking a look at a website called PosterMyWall.

Now, yes, PosterMyWall can allow you to create so much more than just social media.

Whether you want to create something printed, or a PDF, or a logo, or almost anything, you can do it with PosterMyWall. But one of their best features is the ability to share it directly to your social media platforms, so you don't have to be bouncing around, and exporting things from here, and then uploading it somewhere else. So, let's dive in.

Templates that make creating so much easier

The first thing I want to point out is the ginormous amount of templates in which PosterMyWall has. In fact, they are approaching half a million templates in total.

And as you'll notice here, many of them are video or animated, which is really, really important when it comes to creating engaging social media. I mean, you know how long you're scrolling through your Instagram feed, how important is it for something to jump out and stand out for you.

Now, you can either search for a particular type of design or you can browse by using their menu here on the left-hand side. So perhaps I'm looking for something like a, maybe a corporate poster or something along those lines. Just going to type in those words and immediately, I've got hundreds, if not thousands, of different templates for me to choose from.

But one of the most engaging type of templates in which PosterMyWall offers is a slideshow. And in this case, we're taking a look at an Instagram slideshow, and you know how important that is that something stands out and pops out to your audience.

So I'm going to select Customize This Particular Design so that I can make some easy tweaks and edits for my own business needs, and then show you how to share it directly here

from PosterMyWall.

How to customize your graphic design

So now that I've selected this design, you can see that we're looking at something

that has a total duration of 30 seconds. Now, of course, I could edit that if I want,

but if I drag this slider over, you can see that there's a few different parts of this particular slideshow, right? So I can identify the different problems] and then, of course, my solution to this particular product or to this particular service. On the left-hand side of the interface, here, we can add or remove as many different elements as we want, whether that's a photo, or a shape, or adding extra text,

we can even add our own videos and audio, especially if you'd like some music

or maybe narration plane over top of your slideshow. And then depending on what we select on the template itself, of course, everything is editable over here on the right-hand side. And don't worry, if you go and try to move something around and say, "Oops, I made a mistake," you always have an Undo button to bring you back to where you were.

Editing and changing design elements

So let's make a few changes to this template. So for example, maybe I think this is a bit difficult to read having this text sort of border between the video and the background down below. So all I'm going to do is I'm going to move this up just a little bit. I think that's going to make it sort of stand out and punch up just a little bit more.

And the great thing is, is that that's going to apply to the other parts of my slideshow as well, so I don't have to go into each stage or into each section. I can just make the change on one end. Maybe another change I'm going to make is going to come up to this logo, and I'm not wild about the effect here. So maybe the opacity is a little too light for me. I want to darken that up just a little bit more.

I can move that to 80. And again, that's going to apply on everything else here within the template. Lastly, let's change the text here in this particular area here. So, "Take charge with," I'm going to say, "with the best online budget planner." How about something like that?

So I've punched up the text just a little bit more. Now I can make specific changes to other parts of the slideshow if I want. If I want to swap out the video here, for example, if I want to change the text, or if I just want to change the background for a particular area.

I can customize this template and add and remove as many different things as I need. Now, if you're wanting to collaborate with others

Collaborate with your team and others

when it comes to your design, PosterMyWall makes that very easy to do so as well.

You can share, either via an email or a link, you can also choose what exactly you are going to share. Do you want to allow them to edit the content or just view the content and give you some valuable feedback? But the other great thing about using a tool,

such as PosterMyWall, is that if you want to repurpose this for multiple platforms or for multiple different needs. So here near the top, we have a Resize option. And the great thing is, is you don't have to remember what are the standard sizes, either for video, for marketing, or for the various social media platforms.

So maybe I forget that Instagram post changed their dimensions a few years ago, or a Twitter header, or a YouTube thumbnail, I've got all of those options available to me here just at the click of a button.

Download design or share to social media directly

When you're finished, what we can do is select the Download button in the top right-hand corner. And yes, we can export an HD video so it's going to look as crystal clear as possible, especially on your viewer's phones, who probably have the highest resolution amongst their other devices.

But if we don't want to go through the process of downloading it to our machines, we can go ahead and publish it directly to, well, almost wherever you want it, whether it's an email campaign, whether it's a webpage, or embedded on a webpage, or link it to your social media.

What I'm going to do is actually choose the first option here, is to post it directly to my social media accounts. So, in this case, I've already created a link between PosterMyWall and my Instagram account.

Of course, I can add as many other social media platforms as I want, so I can create one post and then send it out to multiple different platforms. So before I post it, of course, I'm going to want to add some captions. "Are you struggling

with your budget?" That's what I'm going to say as the caption here. Of course, I can add as much as I want and let's give a title to the video. I'm going to call this the "Flow Finance Video," for example.

And if everything looks great and ready to go, all I need to do is hit the Publish button. And now, that is sent to my Instagram feed or to whatever other social media platforms that I have connected.

And now, if we jump over to my Instagram account, there you see the video that we created in just a few minutes. I can click on it. This is exactly what the viewer is going to see quick, easy, and simple to post to my social media accounts.

Free forever and pricing options

Now, you can use PosterMyWall for your social media needs for absolutely nothing. Yes, that's right, they have a Free version. But if you're needing just a little more, including unlimited high res image downloads, their Premium plan starts at just 9.95 per month.

If you'd like to learn more, be sure to click the link in the description down below. And if you enjoyed this app review and how-to, you'll love the other videos right here on the Simpletivity channel.

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

SMS marketing examples

Text messaging has become increasingly more important when it comes to communicating with your customers but isn't setting up such a system complicated, expensive, and hard to do? No, no, and no. In this video, I'm going to show you how easy it is to set up your own text messaging service for your business. So let's dive in.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And we're taking a look at a service called, TextMagic an incredibly easy way so that you don't have to be bogged down with all the complications of setting up a text messaging or SMS service. So, first off, what are some examples

for when you might want to use a service like this? Well, really the list is endless. Maybe you want to send out a reminder of an upcoming meeting or to make sure that they arrive on time for your appointment. Maybe you want to send out an announcement when it comes to a sale, or a discount or a special piece of news

that is happening with your business or maybe you want to send up some automated reminders so that they can follow up with you at a certain period after a point in time or an autoresponder, so that when they text message you they get a professional text message back even if you can't respond immediately.

How to send a text message with TextMagic

So here we are within the TextMagic interface. And we're going to get into some of these other areas and some of the other features here of TextMagic but let's start with the basics and that's just sending a text message. TextMagic keeps it very, very simple.

So first of all, we can either enter in the specific number but in many cases, you'll want to import a contact list. Now whenever you're dealing with SMS and text messaging you want to make sure that you have the permission to send them text messages.

So perhaps this is something you're going to want to include in your intake form or maybe a box that they check on your website just to make sure that you can send them text messages. But in this case, I'm just going to click my contacts here and let's select this recipient here as our demonstration.

Next, we can choose the, from phone number for where this text will be sent from. Now the great thing is is that TextMagic will set you up with a default number. And it really doesn't matter where you live in the world it match that number to whom you are sending it to.

So for example, in this case I'm going to be sending it to a Canadian mobile number. Therefore it's going to be coming from a Canadian number. A number which is actually going to be localized to this area code, so that this person when it receives my text message can feel com confident that it's not from someone out of country or from the other side of the world. They can be a little more comforted

that it's coming from a local address. Of course, last but not least we need to include our message. So here, we can type or copy and paste anything that we want into this area but in many cases, you may want to include a template. So in this case, I'm going to select, insert template.

It's going to bring up all of the templates that I've already created or I can create a new one on the fly. One of the nice things that you'll notice here is that yes, you can insert tag. So for example, if I want to address my customers by both first and last name or maybe just their first name I can do so here as well.

In this case, I'm going to pick a fairly simple one. I'm going to pretend that I'm an auto repair shop and I'm just letting this customer know that your car is ready to be picked up. So I'm going to insert that there. Now at the bottom of the message

it is going to keep track of your character count. There is a maximum of 918 characters per message but you'll also be notified of the cost in advance. It's going to cost me 4 cents per text message.

So I want to keep that in mind in terms of how many people I'm messaging and what types of things I'm using this service for. But the great thing is, is that I know this in advance. So in this case, I can either schedule this message for some time in the future.

This is great when it comes to things such as promotions. I can set this up a week in advance and then send it out at a specific time or can preview the message.

If I select preview it's basically just going to give me the different details in terms of here is the number it's coming from which is a local area code based on where I'm sending it to.

Here is what the message content is and then some of the other things that we saw on the previous page. All I need to do at this step, is hit send and now that message has been sent to this recipient.

Of course, I've got a full log of what is happening here. I can also view a complete history of all the messages which I've sent. I can dive into any of them again perhaps if I want to repurpose them or send them again some time in the future. But let's take a look at some of the other features

View and reply to text messages online

right here within TextMagic. One of the most helpful ones is the actual live chat menu here. And yes, it actually looks very much like what you would experience on your mobile phone.

What's so helpful here is that I can manage conversations from the convenience of my desktop computer. I don't have to go back to my phone and manage all of these responses. I can do it right here.

And in fact, you never even have to have your actual phone or cell number involved at all. So you're not distracted by incoming messages. You can deal with them all right here within the TextMagic interface.

So for example, here is that John Doe test account in which we just sent this reminder about their car being ready. And they've responded right away, saying "Great. I should be there in about 20 minutes." At this point, if I want to continue the conversation or maybe just send a confirmation that I received their message I can say, "Thanks. We will see you soon." Something like that.

And all I have to do is hit send and that message is sent directly to them. So I can manage all of those conversations here. And on the left hand side very much like your texting experience on your mobile phone you can have all of those messages listed here.

So you can manage them and respond to them as they come in.

Managing and importing contacts

Under the contacts menu we can create as many different groups as we like. So whether that's for a specific promotion whether that's a specific customer type

we can create a number of groups so that we are only contacting those whom we want to. And TextMagic makes it super easy for us to import that information

whether that's coming from a CRM tool or whether that's just a spreadsheet where you would like to include those numbers so you can start communicating with those customers. But perhaps one of the most powerful features

Create an auto-responder for incoming texts

of using a text messaging service is to set up an autoresponder to make sure that your customers feel heard or that you send them information relevant to their request. Here on the left hand side I'm going to click on services and come down to automation rules.

And we're going to set up a new rule so that if someone sends me a message with a particular keyword I can send them specific information back.

And we're going to continue with this auto repair shop example. So in this case, I'm going to call this an oil change request. Meaning that if someone text messages me

with the word oil in it I want to send them something back that maybe helps them along the way. So I'm going to call this an oil change request. Here, I can edit the numbers. Here again, is that default number which is going to be localized for my specific area.

And down here, all I need to do is add one or more keywords. So in this case, I'm going to say, oil. I'm going to say that if they mention oil in that message I want to respond with some information about an oil change. And then I can choose

if I want to identify that keyword either at the beginning of the text or anywhere in the text. In my case, I'm going to say anywhere in the text and then select continue. So now I can decide what type of auto response do I want it to be.

And yes, TextMagic gives us a variety of different choices. I'm going to stay with a text message. As for the body of the message I'm going to paste in some text, in which I created earlier.

It says, "Thank you for contacting our shop. If you are needing an oil change, come right on in there is no need to make an appointment. For all other car needs please reply to this message." It's important when you're sending an autoresponder with text messaging that you may not know the full extent of their message. Remember, we're just looking for that keyword, oil.

And we're assuming because of our business experience that they are asking about an oil change but of course we're inviting them to keep that conversation going if need be. Now we still have other options available to us here including inserting a template or attaching a file. This can be very helpful if there's a specific maybe document or picture, or something else

that you would like to include. And don't forget, you can include links within your text messages as well. And then below the message we want to pay special attention to this checkbox.

Trigger rule only once to new and unique numbers. Now in my example, I'm going to keep this checked. Why, because if this person receives this auto response message and then they reply with the word, oil again I don't want them to receive this message again.

I'm going to assume that they are talking about something else. So in many cases, you may want to keep this checked and only use this type of auto response for new or unique numbers. Under additional settings, we can take some further actions. So for example, I'm going to add a new action here

and I'm going to add them to my customer list because I want to collect that information. But we've got some other valuable pieces of information in which we can create as well including removing contacts from a particular list or removing a contact from all of your list.

Now by default, TextMagic already has built in in the ability to look for things such as, stop as the first word within a message which will automatically remove them from your list. But of course, you can edit that. If you want to add other words or if you want to add some other types of auto responses

maybe where you're asking them yes or no questions and they can be added or they can be sent further messages based on their responses. Then down below, we can also choose if we want to always run this rule or if we only want to run it on selected hours.

Now, in my case, I'm going to keep it as an always run. But maybe you want to tell them that listen, we're sorry that we can't respond to your message right now

we're currently dealing with other customers but you wouldn't want to send a message like that at three in the morning, or at least unlikely. Next, let it's hit continue and get to our finish point here which is basically a review screen just telling us what is going to be happening what that keyword is, and what that message is.

And now I'm going to select, finish and that rule is now in play so that the next time that someone sends me a message with the term, oil in it they're going to receive that professional response from me.

And if you want to see the value and the success rate of your messages TextMagic has an excellent reporting and dashboard system.

So you can see your delivery rate for example and to see how many of your customers are actually replying to your messages. If you'd like to start using TextMagic for free or to learn more be sure to click the link in the description below.

And if you enjoyed this app review and tutorial you'll love the other videos right here on the Simpletivity channel. Remember being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Create awesome visuals

Do you run your own business or maybe you're an entrepreneur, or perhaps you just like to save time while you are online? Well, then this video is for you because I'm sharing with you seven websites which are going to make you look amazing online

and help you save time. So let's dive in. Now, the first website on our list is Visme. Now Visme is a tool to help you create any design project that you want. And yes, we're talking so much more than just social media, whether it's presentations or documents or maybe even graphics for your own website, Visme has you covered and allows you to edit anything that they provide here with their templates, but perhaps my favorite Visme feature of them all are their branded templates where all you need to do is add your website address and it will pull in your logo and your brand color in just a few minutes.

Let me show you how it works. All I need to do is enter in my website's URL, so yeah, I'll use simplivity.com in this case, I'm going to select Go. And what Visme is going to do is extract as much information including my logo, my brand colors, even the fonts from my website, so that I can start to use that within the Visme editor.

After it's done pulling in a bunch of information, I may need to select which of these images is my logo. So that is my logo there. I'm going to select next. Next you can see it's identified the fonts from my website and it's even identified some of the fonts that it does not yet contain, but no problem. If I want to, I can upload them here as well.

So in this case, I'm going to add these two to my brand kit here, and I'm going to select Next. Next up, it's pulled in some of my colors and yes, that blue is definitely a Simpletivity blue. I'm also going to add that green and this black as well.

And yes, let's add this sort of off white that I use quite frequently. I'm going to hit Next. And then I can choose which type of theme am I most interested in? I really like this creative theme so I'm going to select that as well. Now, the great thing is, is that it's not going to limit me to just one or two templates.

No, it's going to bring back more than 30 different templates that I can use in a variety of ways. Now that the branding wizard is finished I can go through and take a look at some of the templates that it's created.

Here you can see that it's got my logo and my colors and my fonts directly within some of these templates. I like this one here. I've got my logo here at the bottom. I particularly like this infographic here on the right hand side, it's even about boosting productivity.

It's got my brand colors. It's got my logo here at the bottom. And of course, all of this is editable. So I can apply this and start to customize it for my own needs. So if you're looking for a quick and easy way to apply your brand to some amazing designs

Convert any file

be sure to check out Visme. Now, the next website on our list is called CloudConvert,

a free way to convert almost any type of file to any other type of file format. Whether you're talking about documents or images, or audio files, or literally almost anything,

CloudConvert can allow you to do so. First off, what I like is that we can select our file

from a variety of places. It doesn't have to be from our computer. You can actually go and just grab a URL from the web or connect it to one of your cloud services. But in this case, I'm going to grab an image from my computer.

I'm going to grab this logo here. So here in the top right hand corner it shows that it is a PNG file but maybe someone is requesting a WEBP file from me and I don't have any of this software on my computer that will do that for me.

I don't want to go searching for that. Why not just come right here to CloudConvert? So I'm going to select that type here. I can choose this little gear icon if I want to make a few additional adjustments, I'm going to say that everything is okay and then I can select the convert button.

Now, of course, depending on the size of the file and what is being done, it may take a few extra moments but now I have this image in the correct file format. I can download it and I can use it anywhere that I like.

So if you need something that is quick, easy, and allows you to convert up to 25 free files per day be sure to check out cloud convert.

Build websites fast

Now the next website on our list may not exactly be new to you but I've included it here because we often forget how fast and easy it is to create a website with Google Sites. When it comes to website creation, we're often talking about names such as Wix or Squarespace.

However, if you want to produce a website for free and do it quickly and easily, there is perhaps no better choice than Google Sites. Here I am within a template which I've created and I've named it Special Spring Event.

So even if you have zero experience with creating a website, Google Sites makes it super easy for you to do. Everything is drag and drop, or just click in a space, if I want to come up here and rename this event this is my special event right here, I can do so.

And on the right hand side, the ability to add different types of content or change the layout or navigate across my website makes it very easy as well.

I think perhaps one of the best uses of Google Sites is if you are needing to create a landing page or a very simple website, maybe you're hosting a webinar, maybe you have a extra special deal, or an extra special sale, and you don't want to include it in your entire website,you just want to send people to a special registration page, for example, Google Sites is absolutely excellent for those purposes.

And if you're already a Google user, you have the advantage of accessing your Google Drive account or all of your photos directly from within the editor.

So for example, maybe in this day three slot, I'm going to click on this plus button and I'm going to say select an image and it's immediately going to bring me to my Google Drive. I'm going to select this image here and bam, it's directly in my website. Couldn't be easier for me to navigate and find the images

and find that content that I want to include.

Make short links

Now, the next website on our list is going to make sharing your content and sharing other links so much more easier and also more inviting for your viewers.

And we're talking about Bitly. Bitly is the easy way to take a long and complicated and maybe messy looking link and create something so much shorter but also something that is a little more relevant so that your users will click and access that content.

For example, here is a lengthy and somewhat messy looking URL but with Bitly, I was able to condense it to just this. And it actually has some actionable words in it, get jot form app, for example. So let's show you how easy it is to create your own.

In the top right hand corner, all I have to do is select the Create button and here I can paste in any link I want. I don't have to be the owner of that link, it could be absolutely anything on the web. So in this case, I'm pasting in a blog post from my own website,

something that is going to be much too long to include in a social media post. I'm going to hit Enter. And what Bitly is going to do is create a shortened link, here it is, it's bit.ly/ and then we've got about seven characters here behind it.

But the nice thing is that I can go one step further and customize the back half. So in this case, maybe I'm going to call this chromeaddons, let's see if I can use that. Now, Bitly is going to warn me if this Bitly link has been taken.

So for example, this particular custom link has been taken by someone else. So I'm going to say, trychromeaddons, let's try that for a second and see if that one is taken. No, I can use that one. So now it tells me that the link has been edited.

All I need to do is hit this copy button and now I can paste this anywhere that I want and people will be able to go directly to the desired page.

On top of that, Bitly keeps track of your statistics. So if you want to see who has been clicking and where, you can keep track of your history here as well.

Share interactive polls

Now, the next website in our list is not only going to make you look great online but it's going to make your presentations really stand out so that they can be more engaging with your audience.

Here I am at the Mentimeter website and Mentimeter is all about creating content so that people can answer your polls, can answer your questions in real time. So for example, here, I've set up a new type of presentation

and I can choose from a variety of different options whether that's a multiple choice,

whether that's a scale, maybe a word cloud, or any of the options that are listed down below. Let's stay with multiple choice. So we need to start by asking a question,

which is your favorite social media platform, for example. Let's do that as our question. And then we obviously have to fill in our options. I'm going to put in Facebook, I'm going to put in Twitter, and then I'm also going to put in, well, yeah, it wouldn't be my video if I didn't say YouTube.

So I'm going to say Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. Now there's a variety of other options we can make here, including editing images. And of course changing the colors here on the screen as well.

Now, when you're finished editing your question, or if you just want to see how it's going to look like for the people that you send it to, all you need to come up here is select the preview presentation and whether they access this on their desktop or on their mobile device this is how it's going to look like to them.

So for example, if I select Facebook and select Submit, I'm going to see that in real time and others who go to this particular room, menti.com and then enter in this code will be able to not only participate but see the results as well.

So a very quick and easy way to make your presentations that much more engaging. Of course, if you don't want your participants to remember this address and to type in this particular code, you can also hit the share button and copy the direct link.

This is perhaps the easiest way for people to get into your polling slides, or you can choose to download the QR code so that they go directly to your poll just by scanning with their phones. So a variety of different ways for you to take advantage of Mentimeter.

Write awesome headlines

Now the next website on our list is something that I use on a very regular basis. And it's called Capitalize My Title. How often have you been putting together some content whether that's a blog, podcast, video, or maybe something else for your website, and you're not sure exactly how you should capitalize that phrase or that title depending on all of the various styles.

Well, Capitalize My Title makes it easy for you. Now you can either paste in your title idea right here or just start typing into the field. So I'm going to say how to create amazing designs for your website. And as you can see, it's going to dynamically change some of the capitalization based on what I've entered here.

Now, at the this point, I can select this copy and go and copy it and paste it wherever I like. But the other thing that I like is that Capitalize My Title has its own headline score. Here you can see down in small print I've got a headline score of 70.

So in this case, I can see I've received a readability score of 75 and an SEO score of 51. If I scroll down, you can read all of the details in terms of where you should be aiming and also maybe where I should be improving, in this case, when it comes to maximizing your titles and getting the most eyeballs on your content, it's always great to have a tool such as this on your side.

Easy photo editor

Next up, let's talk quick and easy photo editing. Have you ever wanted to make some touch-ups to your images but you don't want to either pay for or download an expensive photo editing suite? Well, that's precisely where Edit.photo comes into place where you have all of the features that you would expect from a photo editor, but right from within your browser. So in this case, I'm going to say select a photo.

I'm going to go and grab maybe this one right here. And let's say, yeah, I want to crop it maybe a little bit. So I'm going to come down out here and crop it to the way that I like it to be. Maybe I want to put a filter on this image.

I can do so as well, whether you're looking to make some small adjustments, or you want to add some annotation or resize your image, you can do it all right here with Edit.photo. So rather than downloading those images and doing it on your desktop, you can do it right here within your browser with Edit.photo. Now, of course, I'd love to hear from you next.

What are some of the websites that help you look amazing and save time online? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below. And if you enjoyed this video, you might also enjoy these videos as well.

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

Most Spreadsheet-Like

Not sure which Project Management Tool is best for your needs. Well, don't worry. In this video, we're looking at seven popular project management apps taking a look at their unique features, and I'm going to tell you which one is best for you or your team's needs.

Hello, everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And yes, I'm going to be handing out a couple of awards so you can get that much closer, to finding the perfect project management app just for you.

Now, the very first tool in our list is Smartsheet. And I've decided to start here for a reason. If you're brand new to Project Management Tools and applications, you're probably coming from a spreadsheet environment such as Microsoft Excel or Google sheets. And Smartsheet, of all of the apps on today's list,

is the most spreadsheet-like. Now that's not a bad thing. If you're already comfortable working within a spreadsheet you're going to be very comfortable transitioning and moving your project management over here to Smartsheet.

But don't get me wrong, it's so much more than just a spreadsheet. Here on the left-hand side, you can see I can add notifications, comments, attachments,

and other attributes to any line item here. So rather than just filling in the text,

I can have a document attached directly to this line item. It also makes it very easy for me to make assignments to either myself, or other members of my team. But if you like seeing these start and end date and seeing other columns listed in a spreadsheet type view, Smartsheet may be the one for you.

Most Customizable

Next on our list, let's take a look at Asana. One of the most popular Project Management Tools over the past decade. Now here you can see, we're getting away from that spreadsheet look, and Asana has a fairly straightforward interface here.

In this particular example, I've got three different sections or three different stages for my project. But what's great about Asana, is that not only can you dive deep and actually see the components of any particular task, but you can still see what's going on here on the left-hand side of your project as well.

As we continue throughout today's video, you'll notice that often we have to either dive deep, or look at the project view. And Asana is one of the better components when it comes to viewing both at the exact same time.

Now, one area where I give Asana some particularly high marks, is when it comes to customization. Here in the top right hand corner I can click on this customized button, and easily add my own custom fields but also turn on or off other fields that I may not need.

Asana is also especially helpful if I want to create some customized rules. So for particular behaviors or particular assignments

when it comes to my projects. Now, Asana is certainly not the only one that provides customization, but I'm going to give it the label of most customizable. So whether your team is big or small, Asana has you covered with a variety of customizable options.

Most User Friendly

Now the next project management app on our list is Hive. And one of the things I love about Hive, is how user-friendly it is. It's really quick to get going and set up, but also has added some nice touches that you may not find elsewhere.

Number 1, when you open up a task I like how Hive has naturally created some separation. So we got some key things here such as assignee, date, status, and priority level, separate from the details of the task itself.

Often, this is where we want to go or the information that we need to see, but sometimes it can be buried in with the rest of our information,

as you will see in other applications. But I also like how Hive has included some additional features that really make things that much more handy. So for example, here, if I want to assign this task to myself, it's going to ask me if it also wants to assign all of the sub actions. What it refers to as subtasks here, within that task.

So I'm going to say, "Yes, update the subactions." And now you've can see, I'm also added to these as well. In most other project management applications, you'll have to come in here separately and add yourself to these subtasks.

So it's these little things that can go a long way. I also particularly like that Hive has some built in notes,

and not only can you take notes right from within Hive, but you can then convert them to actions or add them to existing actions. So for example, if I need to send this email reminder I can hit this plus button, and either create a new action which is essentially a task within Hive, or I can add it to an existing action and say that, "Yes, this is related to the product roadmap, "insert that as a subaction." So, some great features here.

Now, one of the reasons that Hive is so user-friendly, is because they actually listen to their users. Here in the top right-hand corner, I'm going to click on the feature request option. And here you can see, they welcome your feature requests in a very simple feature request form.

Now I don't have to fill in 7 different fields, and give the name of my firstborn child. But you also get to see all of the other feature requests as well, what people are saying, and how many votes they are getting.

For example, if I sort the feature requests from the top, you can see that the three most vote getting features are all in progress. Yes, Hive is actually building out

these features as we speak. And if I click on this first one here, you can see that this feature was requested on January 21st and then less than two weeks later, they were starting to build it out.

So if you want to use a tool where you know your voice will be heard, Hive may be the best solution for you. Now you can start using Hive right away

on their free forever version. But if you need more, be sure to use the discount code SIMPLE10, to receive 10% off your subscription.

Most Affordable

Now the next app on our list has gained a lot of attention and a very loyal fan base. And that is ClickUp. ClickUp, gives us a nice mix of being able to access certain things

and certain pieces of information, on the front or the project level, but also being able to dive in and give us lots of space to use this information. Whether we're adding subtasks and dependencies, or editing things here within our project.

I especially like that they give us so much room for the description field, and have even added a nice touch. If I want to minimize this information on the right-hand side, I can make this larger as well.

So, depending on your needs or the comfort level of your team, this might be a great solution for you. I also like that you don't have to stay in this high level project view, but we can drill down to different areas or phases of that project.

So, maybe I just want to focus on Phase 2 today, I don't need to see everything else in relation. If you are new to Project Management or perhaps your team is, this could be a great big barrier.

If they always have to come back and see so much information at once. ClickUp makes it very very easy for us to drill down, and just see the info that we're looking for.

But in terms of its greatest strength, I'm going to give click up the label of "Most affordable." Yes, it has a free forever version, which many of the tools do on this list.

But if you need more, their first pricing structure starts at just $5 per month. Most other Project Management Tools start at $10 a month. So you can gradually work your way up depending on your needs.

Most Powerful

Next up on our list, we are taking a look at Wrike. W-R-I-K-E. And at first glance, you may be saying that we're returning to more of a Spreadsheet-like view. But I would say that Wrike is a better balance between a spreadsheet view where we can make changes and edit things here on the fly, but also be able to dive into any of these details.

So, if we need to keep, for example, a checklist, or dependencies or other things hidden within that task, we can do so while still seeing that high level view here. And if you don't like the table view, don't worry, Wrike also has a list view, and a Gantt Chart view, so you can see the information the way that you want.

But another great feature of Wrike, is being able to have quick access to certain dashboards or snapshots of the way you want to view your data.

Here, under the tool section, I can set up a campaign calendar, I can set up a number of different dashboards for me to look at, I can also set up certain contracts or certain files.

So I can just zero in on what I want to look at. While you can achieve many of these views in some of the other tools in which we've looked at already, I think that Wrike makes it the easiest for us to access and get into these pieces of information.

When it comes to the label that I'm going to give to Wrike, I'm really going to say the "Most powerful." It's hard to just scratch the surface when it comes to Wrike in terms of what it can do,

and what it can also integrate outside of just the platform itself. This may be too complex or maybe too enterprise looking for some of you, but if you are needing a powerful Project Management Tool, Wrike can certainly meet your challenges.

Most Intuitive

Now, if Wrike is possibly the most complex and the hardest learning curve on this list,

Trello would find itself on the other side of the spectrum. In fact, most people can get started with Trello in just a number of minutes. Trello was really the first application

to bring to prominence this idea of a board-style view. Now almost every other Project Management Tool including the ones that we've looked at today, provide a board-style view or at least something very similar.

But Trello keeps things very, very basic. So you can get started in just a few moments. It's also very easy for team members who are needing to learn a new tool, in a short amount of time.

So for today's list, I'm going to give Trello the award or the label of "Most intuitive." It's going to be your quickest route to setting up a project, and manage the things that you need.

Now, while Trello does include some powerful automation and customization tools, Trello's real strength remains in its simplicity. So that you can focus more on the work, and the tasks and getting things done, rather than managing the system itself.

Most Versatile

Now, the last project management app on our list is monday.com. Certainly the most colorful tool that we've looked at so far. And in many ways, it's these visual indicators

which many Monday users love the most. Not a only can you manage your tasks in a variety of different stages or different workflows, but you can see at a glance how long something is coming along. Even this row called "Asset files," where it's actually showing me a small preview of that image can be very helpful rather than having to dive into each and every file.

And if I scan over here to the right, you can include as many different columns or as many different details as you need. So you can really customize your look and feel of monday.com. In addition to a large variety of project management features, you can create your own documents right here within the monday.com space. Or maybe you want a dashboard that you want to share with others.

A lot of customization, a lot of versatility right here within the monday.com space. In addition, Monday has one of largest libraries of integration. So whether you want to integrate directly with your CRM system, with an email client, an email manager or some other tool, chances are Monday has the plugin to allow you to do so.

Now is there a Project Management Tool that I didn't include on this list, but you would like to learn more about? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

And if you enjoyed this video, you might also like the other content right here on the Simpletivity channel.

Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.

Note-taking app

Recently, I asked you what video you wanted to see next here on the Simpletivity channel. And the suggestion that received the most votes was this one. I want to see your productivity system.

How you take notes, manage your tasks, calendars, projects, and how you use apps and devices for this. Well, you want it? You got it. In today's video, I'm going to share with you my five core productivity tools, how I use them and also what I'm paying for them on a monthly basis.

So let's dive in. Now for privacy reasons I'm not going to be sharing with you my actual tasks or my actual calendar and information. I of course have things that I do not wish to share or others do not want to share publicly with the rest of the world but I am going to show you each and every tool, how I use them and tell you specifically which version I'm using in case you want to know the features and functions available.

So let's get things started off with of notes. Now when it comes to note taking, I actually use a combination of digital and analog. I always start my day with a fresh single piece of paper off to the side of my desk.

I honestly find this the quickest and easiest way to jot down those little distractions and things that come up as a part of the day. It also allows me to quickly review those things as a part of the day and especially at the end of my workday. But when it comes to digital notes, my tool of choice is Google Keep. Now, there's two reasons for this. Number one, I feel that Google Keep is one of the fastest note taking apps out there.

When it comes to loading, searching, finding, or taking new notes, I find Google Keep can almost not be beat. Now there's a couple of reasons for this, Keep does not have nearly as many features or functionality as some of its competitors but when it comes to my note taking needs, if I want to quickly grab a new note or an idea

I can do it so quickly and easily and get back to the rest of my day. Now Keep allows me to arrange my notes in a variety of different ways. Whether I want to add labels,

pin specific notes, maybe add some color shading or adding checklists to specific notes. So there's enough versatility and variety for all of my note taking needs. And of course, a bonus of using Google Keep is that it is absolutely free.

Now know I'm not going to get into a debate in terms of what I am giving up for using this technology

and that Google does have access to some of my data. For the context of today's video, when I say free, I mean I am not paying anything from a credit card or from my bank. So let's move on to tasks.

To-do list app

Now, when it comes to managing my tasks, my core app is actually my calendar.

Longtime subscribers to the Simpletivity channel will know that I've made several videos on how to manage all of your core tasks right here from within your calendar.

Now for me, that's Google but you can do this exact same process within Microsoft Outlook or really any other digital calendar. In fact, I don't know of a calendar that does not display it's all day events at the top of each day.

And that's exactly where I store and where I manage my key tasks for the week and for the day. Now that's not the only place where I manage tasks. I also use a combination of time blocking and time boxing so I can manage tasks as a part of my calendar.

The main reason for this, is well, I never ignore my calendar. I'm always in here and you're probably always within your calendar as well checking on that next meeting, or what's coming up as a part of your day or later in the week. And the great thing about adding your task here

as an all day event. Let me just add one super quick here, is that you can't ignore them. It doesn't matter if I scroll up or down, it doesn't matter if I go to the debut here,

that all day event area is always going to be displayed at the top of the screen. Now, when it comes to cost, you can certainly use Google Calendar for free. However, I am a Google workspace subscriber and I'm currently on the business starter plan.

So I pay $6 a month. Now that subscription covers a variety of tools including Gmail, Google Drive, and several others but I've decided to include it here because technically my calendar is a part of that workspace account.

Project management app

Now, when it comes to my project management tool of choice, I am using Trello. Now Trello, I use very specifically because I manage my day to day tasks within my calendar, I use Trello for two specific types of projects.

Number one, if there's a recurring process which is going to happen again and again and again. While I'm not showing you my actual Simpletivity YouTube process board, this is where I manage all of my video content.

Everything from creating and coming up with ideas, all the way to recording, editing, uploading and scheduling it for release. So this is a recurring process that I'm involved with on a weekly basis. But then on top of that,

I may have some other larger projects. So for example, three times a year I offer the reset productivity masterclass. I create a new board or a new project here within Trello, so I can manage all of these steps, all of the things that I need to complete specific for that project.

So if the task is really not related to a larger or a bigger project, it's going to be placed on my calendar but for larger or recurring work,

I'm going to manage that right here within Trello. Now Trello continues to offer a free version. However, for my needs since I do need more than 10 boards to manage all of my projects and I also make use of some of the more advanced features within Trello

I am paying $10 a month for their premium version.

Scheduling app

Now another tool which has increasingly played a bigger part in my daily productivity is Calendly. Now you're probably already familiar with how Calendly works. You can send out a single link and then people can have access to your availability.

This can really cut down on all of that back and forth as you try to find the right time to meet with other people who don't have access to your personal or your business calendar.

However, Calendly can be used in so many other ways which is not only time saving for myself, but has also become revenue generating. One of the key reasons why I subscribe to the professional version of Calendly is because I can take payments as a coach or a consultant. If you want people to book time with you

and to be able to pay your fee up front, Calendly is an excellent solution.

If I come up here and click on the integrations tab, you can see all of the other apps

in which Calendly integrates with directly, but in particular it integrates with several payment processors including Stripe and PayPal. So if you're wanting people to book time with you and to pay for your services in advance, Calendly can be an excellent solution. I'm currently subscribed to the professional package which is $12 per month.

Email extension app

Now the last tool I'm going to share with you as a part of my productivity system also happens to be the most expensive. And that might be surprising because it's not even a standalone app. In fact, it's an extension. It's an add on for Gmail.

And what I'm talking about is Boomerang for Gmail. Now you may have heard me speak of boomerang for Gmail in the past. And yes Boomerang does offer solutions for Outlook users as well.

At first glance, you may think that Boomerang is not really much of a productivity tool. It doesn't fit into the category of project management

or task management or necessarily scheduling. However, it has saved me not only so much time but has allowed me to avoid tracking follow up in my calendar or in a task manager or in a project management system that I really do feel it's a core part of my productivity system.

Down at the bottom of any Gmail message, you will see the boomerang features displayed once you have the extension installed. And this remind me function, is something that I use constantly. Probably at least a dozen times a day.

So in this example, I'm following up with someone. We've had a meeting and I just want to see if they've had a chance to view my proposal. Now I could send this email and then give it a specific label or a flag or maybe copy it to my calendar

and remind myself to check in two days from now. That's an awful lot of work. And what if Jane replies to me immediately then I've got something I got to go back to

and remove or delete. Well, with Boomerang I simply need to check this box and determine the timeframe as to when I want to be reminded in the future. And best of all, it's only going to remind me if this person does not respond to my email.

If Jane happens to reply to me within two days, I'm not going to be reminded or receive a notification. This has become such a core part of the way that I deal with email

and don't have to track these follow ups and other things in other tools that it's really become a core part of my productivity system. Now, as I mentioned

I am using the paid version of Boomerang. I'm paying $15 a month for the pro version.

Boomerang does offer a free version, but you are limited to the number of times in which you can use this feature and some of the other functionality. However, they also have a cheaper version if you don't need everything associated

Total monthly cost

with the pro version. So if we review my total cost for these five apps, I'm paying $43 a month. That's less than $50 a month for tools that I find are essential for the way that I work, help me to get more done and to enjoy less stress.

Now that you have deeper insight into my productivity suite, I'd love to hear from you. What surprised you about today's video or what questions do you have and what would you include in your top five productivity tools? Be sure to let me know and share others in the comments down below.

If you enjoyed this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up and perhaps you'd be interested in one of the videos on the screen now.

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

DocuSign pricing explained

Having the ability to send out agreements and manage e-signatures has become essential in today's business world. And near the top of that list is DocuSign, perhaps the best known website and application for e-signatures.

However, depending on the size of your team and your needs, DocuSign can get quite pricey. Let's take a quick look at their pricing page. Now their personal plan starts at just $10 a month, which sounds quite reasonable. However, that limits you to just five documents a month.

So in most cases, if you're sending out more than five a month, you're going to have to upgrade to the standard edition, which starts at $25 per month. And yes, that is per user. And with all of the other subscriptions that you probably are engaged with,

that can add up really fast. Well, this is precisely where a tool like DigiSigner comes into play, offering you the same features and security of DocuSign, but at a fraction of the cost. So yes, you can get started with DigiSigner with their free plan.

Now it's true that's only going to limit you to three documents per month, but perhaps you're only sending out a small number of agreements. If you need to upgrade to Pro, it starts at just $12 per month. Yes, that's less than half the cost of DocuSign standard package.

And if you need to add more members to your team, you can subscribe for just $40 a month which includes up to five senders. In contrast, just two standard members here within DocuSign, will cost you more than up to five senders here within the team plan. So enough about pricing.

Let's dive into DigiSigner and show you some of the features and functionality.

DigiSigner document dashboard

So here I am within my DigiSigner account. And first off, I love the simplicity. DigiSigner is not trying to lure me in with a variety of different options or folders or links that are probably not necessary, because when it comes to documents and agreements, I want to come in here, I want to upload, I want to send it, I want to see what is waiting either for me to sign, or I'm waiting for others to sign, and then get on with my day.

I'm not running my entire business here within a document signing application, but it's important to secure those agreements and to secure those contracts. So everything is very easy and well laid out. Now let's get started by uploading a document, and you can upload almost anything.

It doesn't have to be a PDF. In this case, I'm going to come down here to a sample contract form and I'm going to upload this particular document. So here it is at the top. Now I haven't sent it out just yet.

Again, DigiSigner keeps it simple. We either can sign it ourselves, send it for signing, or we can have other more options which I think is great to be tucked away. More on this create link a little later, a feature which you will pay a bundle for within DocuSign.

Creating digital signing agreements

So after uploading your document, the first thing you're going to want to do is specify where you are going to want others to either fill in information or where to sign their name. So in this document I've got a few different fields that I'm going to want to specify.

And the great thing is, is of course I can create a template out of this. So I only have to do this once and then repurpose it in the future. So at the beginning of this document we've got a date field. So I'm going to come over here and select that date field so it's very easy to input there.

And then I've got some client information.

So probably yeah, a text field is going to make the most sense. Now you'll notice when I click on any of these fields, I have some other options available to me here on the right. So instead of just saying text, I could actually help them along and say client name, for example, then that will appear directly within this field.

Let's stick with a text field. We're going to put that down here for address and then we'll do for phone as well. And of course everything is essentially drag and drop. So if we want to line that up, we can do so. But let's go down to the signature part itself.

So here, I'm going to add a signature field and everything can be customized to the space or the document that you have filled in here. I want them to next input their name. So let's do that down below.

And maybe I'll give them a little more space here in this field here so it matches up with the signature line. The date field, in this case I'm going to choose the date sign, because why have them fill it in, when we just want to take whatever date it is when they actually sign this document?

Make it easier for them and also ourselves and last but not least, I'm going to put in one other text field here,

let's reduce the size of this just a little bit like that, perfect. All I need to do at this stage is select done, and now this document is saved and it's ready to be sent.

How to send and manage digital agreements

So in this step, I'm going to say, send for signing. So here, some of the nice features within DigiSigner is that just like in DocuSign we can set a signing order. So all of those more advanced features that you may be used to in other tools, you can do right here as well.

So if I'm going to be sending this out to multiple signers, I can say in what order it needs to take place. So after filling in an email address, let's fill in this email address here. I can check some of the other things including what the message will look like down below.

I'm going to say, send the document. And immediately I have a status of that document down below. I can see it's been sent to this email address, but it hasn't yet been opened. In this agreement down below, you can see number one, it has been signed by this individual here.

And just for my example, I used the same email address. It was also viewed, so I can see the status

of when someone has viewed it or not. The great thing is, is I don't have to dive into

any special folder or any special waiting area. In fact, if I want to resend the document or just remove the signer, I can do that all here as well. So the layout, the simplicity of it allows me to be more productive and efficient,

How DigiSigner looks to your recipients

so I can get on with my day. Now, when it comes to those who are receiving your documents, the experience is simple and straightforward. So here I've received a notification that someone has sent me the document.

I'm going to select open the document, which will pop it open in a new tab. And if you've signed anything in the last few years, you will notice what this experience looks like. I can add my own branding so here we can see they can be confident that it is coming from me.

I'm going to agree to use these electronic records and signatures which makes this signature binding in this case. So now you can see I've got all these fields here waiting for me.

I'm not going to fill them all out, I'm just going to jump down to this signature one here. And I'm going to say, yes, that's my signature. Or I could draw it, or I could upload a signature. In this case, I'm going to use one of the pre-filled ones.

It's going to remind me that, hey, you haven't actually come up here and signed or filled in the client space, so I can hit next as it will walk me through the different sections.

Give me a gentle reminder as to where I am in this document. And if we jump back into our DigiSigner account, I can now see that that document has been viewed. I can keep tabs on this just in case I don't receive that signature within a desired timeframe.

Create links to recurring electronic agreements

Now, another great feature within DigiSigner is the ability to create a link for any of your most used documents. So let's say for example, you're offering an agreement on your website, or maybe it's something that you just send out so frequently, you don't need to pre-fill it with their name or their information. Would it be easier just to get them to click on a particular link.

So in order to create a link, all you need to do is select the more dropdown and then select create a link. Now, the first thing it's going to do is create a template. Now, here you can see I've got the URL.

So this is the link that I can either embed in my website, I can add within an email, or wherever I would like them to access it. And I can set if you prerequisite, such as what I want them or need them to do before signing or after signing. In this case, I'm just going to keep it

nice and simple and hit save. Now I can jump down to the template section of my account and here I have that agreement waiting for me. I can click on the more button and say show link and copy this and send it to whomever I like, saving me time, but also saving many of my users' or my potential customer's time, if I want to give them access to an open document allowing them to sign it and fill in their information and then send it at their leisure.

And of course, all documents signed with DigiSigner are legally binding and they comply with all major e-signature laws including e-sign UETA and the European Union.

So if you'd like a simple and professional way to manage all of your e-signatures and do it at a fraction of the cost, be sure to check out DigiSigner. See the link in the description for further details.

Now, if you enjoyed this video, you might also enjoy the videos which are being recommended to you on the screen now.

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

Adding dropdown menu or checkbox

Are you ready to save time and learn some cool new productivity tips for Google Sheets? Well, then this video is for you because I'm sharing with you seven different tips, so you can get the most out of your sheets.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And let's dive in into tip number one. So, in many cases, we want to keep track of what is happening

with our data within our sheet. And for that purpose, it may be helpful to add either a dropdown or a checkbox. Well, it's actually a lot easier to implement than you might think. So, in this example here, I've got a a final column called Shipped and I want to keep track if something has been shipped or not.

So, all I need to do is select the range or select the cells where I would like that dropdown to be. I'm going to come up here to Data and then select Data validation. Now, the second dropdown here,

which currently says List from a range, I actually want to come down and select List of items. So here, in the field next to it, is where I'm going to put what I want within that dropdown.

Yes, you don't have to create that list somewhere else in the spreadsheet, you can do it right here. so I'm going to say, Yes, comma. I'm going to say No and then comma, maybe I'm going to put something like Delayed or something along those lines. So, you can add as many different options as you want.

We're going to leave this checked: Show dropdown list in cell, and I'm going to hit Save. Now, you can see we've got a little dropdown arrow beside each and every one of these rows. So, I can go down and say, "Yes, that was shipped," "No, that was not shipped," and, "We're still waiting for this.

That has been delayed." Adding a dropdown to your sheet will not only make it easier for you to make certain selections, but also prevents the chance of you misspelling something or having to type in the same thing over and over again.

But in some cases, all you need is simple checkbox

and we can add that quite simply as well. Once again, we're going to select the range of cells where we want that checkbox to appear and we're going to go back to Data and then Data validation.

Now this time, from the dropdown, we're going to come all the way down and select Checkbox and then hit Save. And now, we've got a simple checkbox waiting for us. So we can check things off, maybe in this case, meaning that they have been shipped and I can check and uncheck as I go along.

You can also apply conditional formatting to both of these options, which may just spruce up and make things pop that much more within your Google Sheets.

Apply alternating colors

Now, speaking of making things stand out, sometimes it can be hard to analyze a large group of data or a large number of rows and columns. It's really hard to distinguish the differences here and maybe if I want to point out or see a particular number.

Well, it's very easy for us to apply some alternating color. And you've probably seen this many, many times over in other reports or things you've seen in magazines or other places online. All we need to do is select the area where we want to apply this.

We're going to come up to Format and then we're going to come down here and select Alternating colors. Now, immediately, it's going to apply something here. It's kind of a grayish color here where we've got a deeper gray at the top for our header.

And then it's sort of alternating between light and dark, but we can also customize that color. So maybe I want something that's a little brighter, maybe with this orangey color here. Maybe I want something a little more bluish, which is in line with my own branding.

And now, it's that much easier to see the different figures here within our sheet. And, of course, if you don't like any of the default styles here, you can come down here to Custom styles and choose your header, color 1, or color 2 to suit your needs.

Sum up new rows

Now the next tip on our list has all to do with a formula that we all use on a frequent basis. And that has to do with summing up a particular set of figures. So let's say I want to sum all of the total cost here.

I'm going to go to this cell over here and I'm going to type in sum and then all I need to do is just select this area here. Pretty straightforward, right? I can hit Enter on my keyboard and there is the total sum.

But what if I start adding other items here? Let me add in, I don't know, maybe $250

and then $350. Oh, wait a minute. It's not adding things up because I selected just this range. So, anything below is not going to be added here. Well, if we come back to this formula all we need to do is come over here and remove the 20.

Remove the 20 from the row here and then hit Enter. And what it will do, it will continue to sum up everything within this particular column. It's essentially ignoring the row number over here and will continue to add things up.

So not only is it giving me the current value here, but if I add something like $500, yes, that's been added. Let's add $1,000, you see it will continue to add things up. So the next time you need to use these Sum formula, see if you need to put a specific end to your range or just to leave it blank.

Dynamic currency exchange

Now, this next tip is especially helpful if you are dealing with multiple currencies or currency exchange. So in this example, I have a total, which is listed in US dollars.

But maybe I want to see the value of these dollar figures in Canadian dollars. Well, what we can do is rely on the power of Google Finance to give us an accurate exchange rate right here within our spreadsheet.

So in this case, I'm going to start with this cell. I'm going to type in the equals sign. And, of course, I'm going to reference the cell that I want to convert. Next, I'm going to hit the asterisk, which, of course, means multiply, and then I'm going to start typing in Google Finance. Now, I don't even have to type in the entire thing. You can see it's giving me that suggestion.

So I'm going to hit Enter to complete that so Google Finance is in the formula. Next, we want to hit our open quotes and then type in the word currency. All right, currency and then colon and then in this case, I'm going to type in USDCAD.

Meaning, I want to convert from US dollars into Canadian dollars. If you're not aware of the currency code, you may need to look that up in advance. We are going to close quotes, and then close the bracket, and then hit Enter.

And now, we have an actual up-to-date currency exchange for this amount. If I want the entire row, all I need to do is drag this down. And now you can see, I've got an accurate currency conversion

of these US dollar figures on the left. So a great formula to know, especially if you want to have those multiple exchange rates live on your sheets.

Sparkline mini graph

Now, the next tip on our list is one of my favorites and such a great way to see some visual data without having to create a complete chart. You're probably familiar with the ability to create a chart, whether that's a pie chart, or a bar chart, or something else that may take up much of a particular tab.

But what if you just want to see a quick visual of a particular set of data? So in this case, maybe I want to see how our sales of units are trending over time and I just want to include that down here below.

Well, all I need to do is click on any cell, hit the equals sign, and then type in the word sparkline, and we are going to have a miniature chart. So sparkline, and then within the brackets, we just need to select the range that we want to view and then hit Enter.

And now, we've got a great visual of what is happening just within that particular set of numbers. So I can see that we started off quite strong, and then dipped, and we've sort of been going up and down with the sale of our units.

This miniature sparkline report can be a great way to see how things are trending without taking away and taking up valuable real estate from the rest of your sheet.

Pick date from a calendar pop-up

Next up, let's take a look at how we can make it easier to input dates within any particular cell. So you may already know if there is a valid date anywhere within your sheet. You can double-click on it and it will bring up a Calendar view.

So this can be really easy. If I want to change this date over here, I can just select it by double-clicking. But what if this entire column is a ship date and I want to just double-click in this row? Well, I can't do that. It's waiting for me to input a value.

So in order to add a clickable calendar for every single cell within this column,

first, I'm going to select the entire column or you can just select a specific range.

I'm going to come back up here to Data and select Data validation. Now, we've been here before, but in this case, what I'm going to do is I'm going to select this dropdown

and I'm going to select a date. Once we select Save, we can return to our sheet.

And now, anywhere where I double-click within this range, you can see it's going to bring up that calendar. No, there's no identification letting me know that this is a date field. But wherever I click, I can pull up that calendar, select a date, and then get on with what I'm doing.

You may need to adjust your date formatting to make sure that everything is in line, but this can be a much quicker way for you to select the date that you're looking for and then get on with the rest of your sheet.

View column stats

Now, this next tip is something that I have ignored for years, thinking that it was maybe too simple and wasn't actually helping me out enough. But since I've found it,

I've started using it a lot more frequently. Sometimes, when you have an awful lot of data here, it can be hard to decipher what you are looking for and rather than trying to come up with the right formula. So, for example, maybe I want to see, "Well, how many pencils are actually in this list? I don't want to come up with the formula.

I don't want to have to sort everything here. Isn't there a simpler way?" Well, all I need to do is select the range that I want to analyze, come up here to Data and then select Column stats. And then on the right-hand side, what it's going to do is show me a variety of different data.

So in this case, let's come over to our item and I can see immediately, "Oh, pencil, there are nine pencils, there are eight binders, but I've only sold three pens." And I can actually see that frequency down here below.

In fact, as I hover over these different sets, they will also highlight as well. So if I need to find out where is that desk in this set of data, I can just highlight it here as well. Maybe if I want to jump over to my representatives here, I can see that it looks like Jones is my most successful rep, but maybe Howard needs a little more help.

And again, I can have this option to filter through and highlight that information as well. So, column stats, a great quick and easy way to find what you are looking for. Now, I am absolutely sure

that there are some Google Sheets tips that you find helpful but I didn't include on this list. Well, if you'd like to share that with others, be sure to let us know in the comments down below. Now, if you enjoyed this video, you might also enjoy some of my other tips and tricks listed here.

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