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YouTube is such a fantastic place to find new tips and techniques to be more productive.

I mean that's precisely why you're watching this video, isn't it?

Of course, it can also be a pretty big time waster.

New Simpsons videos? No thanks.

The funniest table tennis match in history? Maybe later.

I want you to be at your productive best, so today I'm sharing with you three of my favorite YouTube channels that focus on productivity.

The first one is Doto TE.

Dottotech

And it's hosted by Steve Doto.

Now Steve is a longtime technology enthusiast and his specialty is reviewing and showing you interesting ways to use new pieces of technology.

Now when I say productivity, I'm not just talking about task apps or to-do list managers.

No, Steve reviews everything from Dropbox and Evernote to office suites to operating systems, even social media.

In fact, I'd be hard pressed for you to find an application that Steve has not reviewed when it comes to personal productivity, some way to help you stay more organized or help you stay more productive.

Now Steve is also a very engaging and entertaining individual and I love how he brings in real-world examples as a part of his demos.

So I strongly encourage you to check out Steve Doto on his channel Doto TE now.

Productivitygame

the second channel is relatively new to the YouTube Universe productivity game no it's not a game it's not a app that you're going to find on the Google Play

store or the Apple App Store productivity game is actually a collection of book reviews books that focus on productivity or or creativity or leadership or innovation the video is usually average somewhere around 6 or 7 Minutes in length and what I love about productivity game is that they do not try to summarize the entire book instead they focus on one or two really key points that the author was trying to get

across as you can tell by the thumbnails here they are an illustrated summary or

an illustrated video which keeps it very entertaining keeps it very uh interesting as you watch the concept that is being displayed to you I've used productivity game many times as I'm searching for the next book that I'd like to check out at my local bookstore so be sure to check out productivity game lastly one of my favorites from

Lifehacker

Many years is Lifehacker.

Now you may be familiar with lifehacker.com, which is a fantastic resource of blog articles and other tips and tricks on how to be more productive.

Now unlike the first two channels that I've recommended, Lifehacker often has a slant on personal productivity in the home, not just in the office, not just as it pertains to your career.

As you can see by some of the more recent videos, many of them have to do with being more efficient or effective in the kitchen or how to effectively clean your bathroom or organize kitchen drawers, that type of thing.

Still, you'll find some great inspiration at the Lifehacker YouTube channel, a great place to check out and find new things.

I would encourage you to subscribe, so check out three new...

Conclusion

Productivity channels if you haven't already done so.

Join Steve Doto at Doto TE.

You can check out Productivity Game and find out what’s the next book that you're likely to pick up to make you more effective.

And of course, Lifehacker, not only to make you more productive at work but also in the home.

And of course, if you want to be at your productive best, be sure to subscribe right here to Simpletivity so you can be more productive and not just busy.

Until next time, it's very simple.

Boomerang is a very powerful extension to help you be more efficient and productive with your email and manage your inbox in a better and smarter way.

Now, Boomerang allows you to bring emails back into your inbox if you don't want to deal with them right now, and that's a feature that we're seeing more common in other email clients as well—an ability to defer an email. But Boomerang is so much more than that. It adds some additional powerful features to help you manage your messages.

I'm using Gmail, so I'm using Boomerang for Gmail. You can see below my send button, within my message dialogue, I have an additional row that Boomerang adds to all of your messages.

With this, I can schedule messages for the future. Maybe I don't want to send this email right now or I don't want the person receiving it to get it today. Maybe I want to schedule it for an optimal time. So, I'll schedule it for tomorrow morning. Boomerang allows you to do that.

It also allows you to bring a message back into your inbox if the person who receives this does not reply in a certain amount of time. Here, you can see it says "two days." I can pick any time that I would like, and then it will reappear in my inbox. This is fantastic for follow-up.

Well, Boomerang has introduced a brand new feature as part of its extension called Boomerang Respond. As the little help text tells us, it uses artificial intelligence to help you write better emails.

So, what does that mean and how can that be helpful? Well, most of our emails, we want a reply. We are desiring a response. We're asking a question and we want someone to reply to us with an answer or at least to continue the conversation.

So, Boomerang is giving you a score to see how likely it is that that person will respond to you based on what you've written—based on the combination of your subject line and what you've actually written in the message.

Here, you can see Boomerang has given me a relatively poor score. I've only got two of these green bars out of, I think it's a total of eight. It's unlikely that someone's going to reply to me with this hypothetical email that I've written here.

So, you see my subject line is "Meeting." No surprise there; that's pretty boring. I'm not even sure if they're going to open this email, let alone reply to me with that type of subject line. And then my two sentences here that consist of the body are pretty basic and really don't have a call to action.

I was planning to attend the meeting this week to discuss the collaboration opportunities with our vendor. Let me know if we can discuss. Again, there's no really concrete call to action. I'm not surprised that Boomerang is giving me a low score.

So, what exactly is it looking at and how can I improve my score? Well, by clicking on this meter, it's going to open up a small dialogue that will show you what it's looking at.

Right at the top it says, "Not very likely to receive a response." Why? Here are the criteria that they are looking at:

• Subject Length: I've got a one-word subject. Well, that is relatively poor. The recommendation is going to be to increase my subject length, and you see they've got some nice color-coded bars to see if you're below or maybe even above a certain level.
• Word Count: Sometimes email messages can be too short, right? Too short to grab the reader's attention. They just skim over it or they don't give it the full attention that it deserves. Maybe they don't think that you're very serious if you write an email with so few words in it.
• Question Count: Of course, this is a big one. I don't have a single question in my email, so it shouldn't be surprising that the chances of me getting a response are so low.
• Reading Level: I think this is really interesting. While the first three we could probably count ourselves if we wanted to, might as well let the AI do that for us. But reading level, you know, I don't have an English background. I don't know how they're calculating reading level, but in this case, they're suggesting that my reading level might be slightly too complex. Maybe I'm using some words that could be simplified or some words that are too long, and that will increase my chances of getting a response.

They have a nice little help icon beside all of their criteria, so if you want to find out more about reading level, I can click on it. Here, the recommendation is to consider using simpler words and sentences. It goes into even more detail in a short paragraph below. But these little help windows are available for all of the criteria.

• Subject Length Recommendation: Consider a longer subject line. They say that around two to six words is the sweet spot—that's the ideal length.

Now, there are some additional pieces of criteria that they will add if you subscribe to their Pro or Premium subscription. These are the advanced features. They will also look at positivity, politeness, and subjectivity.

I am not currently a Pro or Premium subscriber, so I can't really comment on these pieces of criteria, but some additional things to help you craft an even better email.

So, we only have a two-bar ranking right now. Let's see what we can do to increase our chances of getting a response to this email.

Let's start with the subject line. "Meeting" is pretty bland and boring. How about "Can you attend the meeting?" With a question mark. So the question mark is probably very helpful. You'll notice that Boomerang actually doesn't look at the question count in the subject heading; they're only looking at the question count in the body itself. But from a subject length perspective, we are in good territory. "Can you attend the meeting?" That's much more attention-grabbing. The chances of someone clicking on this and opening this email are that much greater.

I'm going to reduce some of the complex words I've got in here. "Collaboration opportunities" sounds a little too technical. I'm going to assume that this person is a colleague—someone I know quite well. This sounds a little too formal for my case. Let me review some of the things in here.

"I'm going to attend the vendor meeting in the Smart Room on Thursday." As you can see, as I'm writing, it's checking this dynamically. My reading level has just reduced. Remember, it was about 7.2 because I've gotten rid of some of those more complex words. Now my reading level is 2.5, and it's saying that that's a good thing. Already my chances of getting a response have increased a little bit.

So it's actually doing this as you write, which I think is fantastic—giving you that feedback immediately.

"John will be attending as well." And I've got to have a call to action, right? I don't have a question count here. "Can you actually, you know what, let's talk a bit more details about what is happening in this meeting." You can see that my word count is a little low.

"Why should this person reply to this meeting if they don't know exactly what we're going to be talking about? We will be talking about the upcoming conference and how we can serve them better."

So now I'm a little more specific as to what the meeting is going to be about. My word count is a bit higher. They know exactly which meeting and what the meeting is about.

Let's end with a call to action because we still don't have a question count. You can see my response level is still very low.

"Can you please let me know if you will attend?" Question mark.

Wow, just with that last piece of information, you can see I've got greens and really all of these areas of criteria. But it was that last one, the question count, that really put me over the edge. I've got full bars down below and at the top it says it is very likely for me to receive a response with the email that I have crafted right here.

Now, of course, Boomerang Respond—this feature—is not going to be necessary for all of your emails. In fact, it's probably just the minority of your emails. But think of the four or five really important emails that you are going to be writing today. Think about those individuals that perhaps you're reaching out for the very first time. Think about a project that has an upcoming deadline, and you need an answer by the end of today. That's where Boomerang Respond can come in really handy to make sure that you're crafting a message to ensure that you get a response.

From an efficiency or productivity point of view, think of how much more efficient you are by crafting one really well-written email where you will get a response versus crafting or writing three or four messages just to get that one response a few days later or several messages later.

So, check out Boomerang and try out the Boomerang Respond feature. It's very.

Perhaps the most important meeting that you'll have all week is the one that you have with yourself.

I highly recommend that everyone set aside time for a weekly review.

What's a weekly review?

A weekly review is a time set aside just for you so you can take a look back at the previous week, see if there is anything that you need to follow up on.

Take a look at your core projects and your key commitments, see if you're going to be able to meet those pre-negotiated deadlines.

Also, it's a great opportunity to take a look at the week ahead, see what's coming up, and make sure that you're prepared.

Now, a difficult thing can be to find a time, the ideal time for you to have a weekly review.

You may need to do some trial and error to find the best time for you.

Initially, I started doing my weekly reviews on Friday afternoon.

It still gave me enough time if there was something that came up during that review, that I could reach out to someone or follow up with someone.

However, I realized that my energy levels started to drain at that part of the day, that part of the week.

As a result, I was much more prone to defer or just skip the weekly review altogether.

Therefore, I decided to change it, and now I do it first thing Friday morning.

I'm fresh, and the chances of another meeting or something else conflicting with that time are very, very low.

So find a time that's ideal for you.

It can be as little as 30 minutes, but don't skip out on your weekly review.

It's very simple.

Earlier this summer I found myself walking downtown and I was there at around noon so it was very very busy. Many hundreds if not thousands of people out grabbing a bite to eat, going out of their buildings in and out of their offices at this very busy time of day.

As I was making my way from point A to point B on these busy streets I passed by a couple who were speaking to one another. As I walked by all I could hear was the gentleman say yeah I know what you mean I'm just so...

Im just so ADD

Im just so ADD. That phrase I'm just so ADD really stuck with me the rest of that day it's actually stuck with me for a number of weeks since that particular episode.

Now I don't know the context of the conversation that was happening. I didn't stop and try and EES drop any longer all I heard was someone say in a joking manner hey I'm just so ADD.

I think this is stuck with me for a few different reasons. Number one ADD attention deficit disorder is an actual disorder.

Millions of children and adults suffer from attention deficit disorder and it can make it very challenging very difficult for people to acquire new skills and to learn new things. I guess I was a little disappointed and I'm always disappointed when someone is joking about a real disorder which has negative effects on other individuals.

But I think the other reason why this phrase stuck with me is that I have heard it before and I continue to hear it in some shape or format that hey I'm I'm losing my focus or I don't have a lot of attention or I need to get this done right now CU if I don't do it right now I'm never going to remember to do it later. It seems that we have sort of given up on improving our focus and improving our attention span.

We sort of say to ourselves listen we live in an interconnected world my phone is vibrating or beeping at a constant rate what are you going to do. I can't focus on anything for any given time.

Focus is a scarce resource

Well I believe quite strongly that focus is the most scarce resource we have in the world right now. I believe it's more scarce than oil it's more scarce than uh clean air and a clean environment it's more scarce than polite political discourse.

The lack of focus that you and I see on a daytoday basis is a little scary and you might be feeling this yourself a lack of focus a lack of attention either forgetting some simple things or maybe some bigger things or just jumping from one thing to the next. If you have an experienced this yourself you have certainly observed others with their lack of focus or their lack of attention span jumping from one thing to the next glancing down to their foone back up at you trying to conduct a conversation.

Well I hope to share with you a few different ways in how you can improve your focus and get your attention back. Maybe you can share some of these tips some of these techniques with those that you care about or those that you work with as well.

Multitasking

One of the biggest factors that affects our focus is multitasking. Multitasking hurts our productivity in so many different ways.

Number one I hope to convince you to stop actually using the term multitasking because what we're actually doing is switch tasking. You know we never actually multitask we are only going back and forth quite rapidly between our tasks.

That's because as human beings it is impossible for us to focus on two different things at the exact same time. The keyw there is focus.

I'm not talking about patting your head and rubbing your tummy I'm not talking about chewing gum and walking down the street at the same time. I mean focusing on two different tasks at the exact same time.

We can't do it we're going back from our email to the conversation to something else that we're working on we are switching back and forth switch tasking. But as a result all of this switching all of this back and forth wastes an awful lot of our time and effort.

You know going back and forth we we keep asking ourselves you know what was I working on next what was I what was I doing here oh that's right let me let me try and engage in this again before I jump back to some other type of activity. Another thing that wastes a lot of our uh a lot of our time with switch tasking is the time itself.

Study after study will show that you are much more efficient if you complete your tasks try to complete task number one in its entirety before going to task number two. Otherwise you will spend as much as 50% longer completing both of those tasks if you go back and forth.

This also tends to add a lot of stress and a lot of burnout in our work lives as well. As we go back and forth it takes a lot more energy a lot more mental power a lot more mental energy to go back and forth between all of these tasks.

Well there's something else that is really dangerous about switch tasking because as we get used to switching between these microtasks as we continue to do more and more smaller things at a time it gives us a bit of a high. It gives us a shot of that dopamine that that pleasure sensor in our brain.

So we may reply to a short email which really is relatively meaningless it wasn't very important uh could have been done later but we reply to the email and because it's sent off because that's another email that we've sent today it says hey I I've done something I've I've done something good and that gives us a bit of a shot a bit of a high in our day. So we continue to do similar things like that think of your checklist or maybe your to-do list.

Many people get this same type of high or this same type of pleasure by Crossing something off or checking something off of their to-do list even if it is a meaningless task even if it's not very helpful uh to your job to your organization to your family to your personal life just the act of Crossing things off gives us this High. Well here's the thing the more we do this the more we engage with these microtasks these very small tasks our brain starts to become addicted to these microtasks.

If these very small tasks such as replying to a quick email or doing something very very quick very easy off the side of our desk is that gives us this High we start to Crave we start to want to more do to do more of these types of activities. As a result it becomes a lot more difficult for us to engage in the more uh focused the more big project work our our deep work.

How do how do we fully engage with a uh piece of written content or a big project that requires a lot of intense focus a lot of intense concentration. So this is not a theory this is not just my observation.

This is coming from many many scientific studies showing that maybe that individual that I saw on the street earlier this year maybe he was on to something. Maybe more of us are in fact losing our intention span having more difficulty with Focus because we're doing it with ourselves as we go back and forth between these microtasks.

So what is one way that we can uh get our attention back. How can we regain some of that focus and stop being so addicted to multitasking to switch tasking and all of these microtasks that we tend to engage with on a daily basis.

Well I think a big factor is our devices and the notifications that we receive. So I want to share with you three notifications I think you should turn off right now.

Three notifications that I want you to review. I want you to look at how often are they buzzing are they beeping are they attracting you to them when you should really be focused on other work.

Number one turn off your email desktop alerts. Let's start with our computers.

Email Desktop Alerts

What is an email desktop alert. Well it usually looks something like this what you see in the bottom right hand corner.

It gives you the name of the sender it gives you the subject line it gives you usually the first sentence of the email. It is extremely distracting because most email clients such as Outlook like we see here have it turned on by default.

So every single message comes in and says here I am look at this here I am look at this here I'm a piece of spam come check me out. Time and time again we get these notifications whether we want to see them or not and it just distracts you.

Look at this it's in the front of the email that perhaps I was trying to read. I may not even have my email open.

I could be in a separate document I could be somewhere else and I get these annoying notifications. Now some of you may be saying well Scott once in a while those notifications are are helpful.

Well what you may not know is that you can turn off these notifications but then set a rule so that only certain ones come through. So is there a particular sender or maybe a small group of senders that you would like to see their messages.

Maybe it's your boss maybe it's your significant other. You can set up a rule so that only those messages come through.

Is there a keyword that you always want to make sure if it appears in the message or if it appears in the subject you want that to come through. You can set up that rule.

How about if it's a high importance message. They've thrown on that red High exclamation mark.

You can set up a rule for that. So you don't necessarily have to get rid of all of these desktop notifications but you can set it up for only particular ones or particular scenarios.

Otherwise turn the rest of them off. Ignore these types or eliminate these types of distractions from your day.

App Badges

The second one I want you to turn off right now are your app badges. App badges usually are in the form of a circular number on the top rightand corner of your apps on your smartphones or on your iPad or a tablet.

Here is a screenshot from my iPad and you see I've got a couple of badges uh just for demonstration purposes here on my LinkedIn and my Facebook app. These can be extremely annoying because I find more often than not they are only tempting you to open up that app more

often than you actually need to.

Hey you've got a couple of new invites here hey we've done a few new things with the with the app here hey look at how many unread messages you have in your inbox. Who cares.

We receive email all the time we receive email 247. You should expect to have some new email on a regular basis.

Why do you need a number showing you that at all times. So my suggestion go into your settings change your notifications and remove these badge app icons.

Now there may be one or two such as your phone app your text messaging app where that might be helpful right if you have a message or a missed call if you have some unread text messages maybe that will be useful. But by default most of these applications want you to have their notifications turned on.

They want to be screaming at you they want to be saying hey come open me up come inter with me right now. Well you don't need that distraction so go in and turn off all of your little red pimples on the front of your device reduce another form of distraction from your mobile device.

Mobile Alerts

The last one I want to speak on today is about turning off your mobile alerts. Again very much like the badge app icons we get a lot of these.

Here's an example from a iPhone user we've got reminders messages we've even got news updates. Now just like I said about the badge app icons there may be a few such as your phone app such as your messaging app that you may wish to see here.

But if your home screen is full of reminders if it's full of messages from apps that you didn't even remember that you had go in and make the change. Turn them off.

You don't need these many things buzzing at you or vibrating at you or getting in the way from you wanting to access other apps on your device. So stop being interrupted so frequently with too many messages too many unnecessary messages and turn off these notifications.

Summary

So in review three types of notifications that I would strongly encourage you to turn off right now. One your email desktop alerts.

You don't need to see an alarm you don't need to see a signal for every single single email that arrives. Turn off those little red annoying circles those app badges on your smartphone or your iPad or a tablet.

Then carefully review be brutally honest with your mobile notifications. You don't need to be notified about everything that's going on in your phone.

I hope some of these tips some of these pieces of advice will help you regain your focus help you to focus on your most important work. Remember if you would like some more tips some more techniques be sure to subscribe right here to the simpletivity YouTube channel.

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

Did you know that the average professional spends 6.3 hours dealing with email each day?

That's right, 6.3 hours.

That's about one third of our waking hours, and I think that's far too much time spent with email.

Well, I don't want you to spend that much time with your inbox ever again, and I'm here to show you how.

My name is Scott Friesen and I'm the...

Who am I

Founder of Simpletivity Training.

And for nearly a decade, I've been helping people be more effective and efficient with their work.

You see, as a former IT manager, I know firsthand how busy our inboxes can get.

I know how it feels to receive hundreds, if not thousands, of new emails each and every day from bosses, co-workers, customers, and people from all over the globe.

But I realized by applying a few simple but powerful techniques, I could drastically reduce the amount of time I dealt with email.

And I want to show you how to do the exact same thing.

So where do we...

Where do we begin

Begin.

Well, it starts by checking our email less frequently.

You see, for most of us, our relationship with email looks something like this:

We start dealing with email before our head even leaves the pillow.

And then we continue to do so throughout the day.

We check our email over meals.

We check our email as we commute to and from work.

We check our email before meetings, during meetings, and right after meetings.

And this just goes on and on throughout our day, right up until the moment that we retire to bed.

Well, I want you to spend so much less time with emails so you can focus on your most important work.

By checking email this frequently, it doesn't leave enough time for you to focus on your most important projects or your most important people.

What can you accomplish if you spend just as little as three or four times a day checking email?

How much more could you get done if your...

What can you accomplish

Relationship with email look something like this.

Now, I'm sure some of you are saying, "Scott, you don't understand. You don't understand my industry. You don't understand my boss. You don't understand my customers. There's no way I could check email just three or four times a day."

Well, you're partially right.

You can't make this leap overnight without the tools and techniques to help you get there.

So in my very next video, I'm going to show you how to do just that.

I'm going to show you the exact steps so that you can go through a large volume of email in just a matter of minutes.

So stay tuned and watch for my next video.

Thank you so much for watching this.

Outro

Video and please be sure to leave a comment below I would love to hear.

What you think what's your story with email and inbox overload remember being productive does not need to be difficult in .

fact it's very simple

Hi, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity. I want to thank you for all of your comments and questions on my last video.

It's been great to see people get so excited about spending less time with their email. You know, for nearly a decade, I've been helping people be more effective and efficient with their workday, and that's exactly what I want for you.

I want you to be at your productive best, and sometimes it's email that gets in the way of our most productive day. On average, we spend 6.3 hours checking email each and every day, and that doesn't leave an awful lot of time for our most important work or our most important projects.

In my last video, I showed you how to get through a large number of emails in just a matter of minutes. I showed you how to quickly identify which messages deserve your attention and then get rid of everything else so that you can reference it later but get it out of your inbox.

Managing Email Folders

Now, one of the most common questions I received was, Scott, what is the best way to manage all of my email folders? Well, this is a fantastic question, and I get this quite frequently.

We tend to waste an awful lot of time and energy managing all of our folders, subfolders, and subfolders of subfolders as we try to deal with all of our email, and it's simply not necessary. Here's why.

The search capability in your email application is far too powerful for you to categorize and label every single message that hits your inbox. In fact, you shouldn't need to search more than two times to find the exact message that you're looking for.

So don't waste your time dragging and dropping every single message into a new folder or labeling a new category. Start using search to find your email.

If you have further questions or comments, I would encourage you to add them in the comment section below. I'd be happy to answer them in an upcoming video.

Now, I want you to think about more than just email. I know I've been talking about spending less time in email, but this is really about spending more time elsewhere.

Spend More Time Elsewhere

What else could you accomplish today? What else could you do if you spent half as much time in your inbox?

How many more projects could you complete this month? How many more quality conversations could you have with a customer or maybe someone else on your team?

Remember, the less time we spend with email gives us more time to spend elsewhere. In my very next video, I have something special to share with you.

Learn More

I'm about to release the Own Your Inbox online training course. That's right, I've put together everything that I've learned and everything that I've taught over the past 10 years about email management and about spending less time with email in a single course.

Now, I want you to spend so much less time with email that I've decided to offer the Own Your Inbox program at a very special price. But I won't be able to keep it at that price for very long.

So if you would like to learn more, be sure to subscribe right here to the Simpletivity YouTube channel or join our email list at simpletivity.com. And if you have further questions or comments, be sure to include them in the section below.

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

There are so many different places on the internet where you can go to find productivity app reviews. I mean with the hundreds upon hundreds of solutions that are available to us, it can be hard to keep track of what's best for you and what is the latest news when it comes to task apps and other things to help us get more done.

Well, when I am looking for the latest news and reviews when it comes to productivity apps, I only go to one place. That is the channel of Francesco D'Alessio.

Francesco has been reviewing productivity apps for nearly two years now and doing a fantastic job. Not only does he have in-depth tutorials of all of the applications that you see here and many, many more, but he keeps his content really fresh and up-to-date.

When a new release or a major new feature is introduced, Francesco is very quick to share that news with the rest of the world. Well, today I am very excited to have Francesco here on Simpletivity.

Recently, Francesco has been experimenting with the bullet journal, which actually is not a productivity app at all. In fact, it's probably the most traditional format of managing our to-dos and where we need to be.

So, I'm excited to hear about what Francesco found out with his experiment with the bullet journal. So without any further ado, take it away, Francesco.

Hey everyone from Simpletivity, thank you for letting me on this channel to share a few of my bullet journaling thoughts. Now, for those who don't know, bullet journaling is a technique used by a lot of people.

There are some amazing Instagrammers out there, and I'll share a few photos now of those Instagrammers that are sharing some amazing bullet journaling techniques. Some really beautiful illustrations and some really coordinated good uses of bullet journaling.

I was able to experience bullet journaling about three weeks ago. I started using the classic technique by Ryder Carroll, and I tried to really distill a basic experience of that.

I didn't get along brilliantly with it, so what I did is I started out with a bullet journal. I'll go get it.

So we started out with this bullet journal, and it's a great bullet journal. I started out with the pages, and really, the great qualities are fantastic.

The one thing that I experienced was that when I was setting up, I'll show a few things of me setting up, I did set up in the basic way. But I didn't quite get to grips with it because I'm so reliant on using Todoist as my task manager and also my calendar, which is Readle's 5.

I didn't quite enjoy the experience of doing it as much as I do with digital. Now, I did go all-in, and I did obviously put everything I did with tasks onto my bullet journal here.

But I didn't really have the same experience. There are a few things that I didn't enjoy about the bullet journaling.

So number one would be that it was sort of tough to keep up with it. Obviously, you have to scribble out when you've done and re-put it when you've done in my calendar.

Tasks are always changing, so I wasn't having much movability with some of the tasks inside the bullet journal. Number two, if you're someone like me that has really poor handwriting, then this is something that's quite difficult for you.

I had to write in capital letters on most of the content inside this bullet journal. That was tough for me because it made the bullet journal look less cool, like some of those Instagrammers out there.

Number three, a couple of concepts like the future log and things like that were quite hard for me to get my head around. I've been using task management apps and digital formats for quite a few years, so I've sort of been quite consistent with this.

Getting to know a new system was tough to understand, like every system is, but it was sort of a lot different from general productivity setups. The one thing I've learned from my bullet journaling experience is I won't be bullet journaling anymore.

I am now using this book to plan videos, plan content, and plan blogs and things like that, write ideas up. But I will be sort of using this very similar setup on my digital side because I do like the way it’s set up.

So I have transferred a few tips and tricks into my digital experience. But overall, I recommend bullet journaling for anyone that wants a digital-free experience, has an interest in using a notebook around the day, and has fun organizing their events as you go.

Anyway, guys, I hope you enjoyed this video. Please follow me on my channel.

Thank you very much, Scott, for having me on the channel, and I'm looking forward to sharing a few more videos with you here. See you guys very soon.

Please, in the comments, write about whether you are using bullet journaling across your day. See you guys very soon.

Cheers.

People often ask me, "Scott, you are a productivity expert. What is your secret weapon on your smartphone? What is the one app that you can't live without? The secret sauce, the secret tool that helps you stay focused and productive?"

And when I share with them which of my apps is my most frequently used one, they are often very, very surprised.

Often they'll guess, "Is my calendar that my most used app?" No.

"Is it email?" No.

"Twitter? YouTube?" No.

And you'll notice that I don't have a dedicated to-do list manager or a task app here on my home screen.

No.

When I reveal to them that my favorite and most used app is the exact same app that they have on their phone, often they look at me a little dumbfounded.

And that's because my secret.

The Clock App

Weapon is the clock app.

That's right, the clock app, the default app that comes with every single smartphone.

Whether you're an Android user or an iPhone user, we all have the clock app.

So what's with the clock app, Scott? Why is that your productivity secret or your most favorite tool on your smartphone?

Well, it's not because of the alarms.

Sure, you can preset a few different alarms to help you get up in the morning. Most of us are using our smartphone as our alarm in the morning.

No, I'm not just glancing at the time on a regular basis. That would not be a good use of my time.

The area of the clock app that I use more frequently than anything else is the timer function. This helps me stay focused. This helps me stay on top of my tasks and my work throughout the day.

So let me give you an example. Here you see I've got a timer set for 45 minutes. Often, when I sit down at my desk and, let's say, I want to focus on email for 45 minutes exclusively, I don't want to be distracted by anything else. I don't want to be glancing at the clock or the calendar or anything else. I just want to deal with email.

I'll set it for 45 minutes, hit start, and now I don't have to worry about anything else. I don't have to keep glancing at my phone or maybe the bottom right-hand corner of my tray on my desktop. I know I've got enough time. I've set it to that amount of time, and now I can focus exclusively on that task.

When 45 minutes is up, a small chime will sound. Then I can reevaluate—do I want to spend a few more minutes with email, or do I need to move on to something else? Or maybe I set it for 45 minutes because I had a meeting coming up in an hour, and I wanted to give myself just a little bit of time between finishing up some emails and getting to that meeting.

Now, a few other great things you can do with your timer within your smartphone app are setting a number of presets. Maybe there are certain lengths of time that you use quite frequently. I'll give you a few examples on my own phone.

Here you see I have a 15-minute length. I will use it for two purposes. One, you see it's even listed as my nap length. I try to fit in a power nap early in the afternoon when I can. I also usually take a 15-minute break once or twice throughout the day.

I've also got a shorter break that I may take more frequently. Here, it's set for five minutes.

So the great thing about punching in or having these predetermined times is that you don't have to go tapping in the time amount each and every time. You can just swipe to the length or the selection that you desire and hit go.

And you're often using that timer. The last one here is two minutes, just a short one. And you can see it's listed as power pose. If any of you have read Amy Cuddy's book Presence, you know exactly what I mean by a two-minute power pose.

So yes, more than a task app, more than email, more than even calendar or my Trello board, I use the timer. I use the clock app more than anything else.

And I would encourage you to consider using the timer function on your smartphone to help you stay more productive, help you stay more focused and engaged with your work.

Conclusion

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We produce new videos each and every week here on the Simpletivity YouTube channel.

If you would like to learn more about how Simpletivity can help you be more productive, check out Simpletivity.com.

You can find free guides, more videos, and lots of great tips and techniques to help you stay productive.

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

Warning: The following video contains a statistic about email that some viewers may find disturbing.

Viewer discretion is advised.

6.3 hours—what do those 6.3 hours represent?

Is that the amount of productive time we spend each and every day with our most important work?

No.

Is that the amount of quality sleep we get each and every night?

No.

6.3 hours represents the average amount of time we spend checking email each and every day.

I hope that scares you just a little bit, because it certainly scares me.

6.3 hours represents one third of our waking hours and that certainly doesn't leave us much time for anything else.

What do 6.3 hours of checking email each and every day look...

How long do you spend checking email

Like.

Well, it looks something like this.

Spread out over a 16-hour day, a 16-hour waking day, it looks something like this.

From the time that we leave our bed to the time we return in the evening, we are checking our email frequently, and I would argue much too constantly.

Look at this image.

There's not much time for anything else.

There are just slivers of time here, there, and everywhere to have those quality conversations with your customers or with your employees.

Where is the time to have some really good strategic meetings or some time just to think for yourself as to what's the next big thing, what's the new project you should be focusing your attention on next?

No, by checking email 6.3 hours each and every day, it leads to an awful lot of unfocused work, and we don't have much time left over for more important things.

I'm sure you know the routine.

How many hours is too much

Start your morning and you flip through your inbox as you're sitting at the breakfast table.

You either drive to your office or maybe you sit down at your home office.

And the first thing you do is open up your inbox.

Too many of us leave that inbox open.

Even when we take a break, we open up our smartphone and start sifting through more email.

And the cycle continues on and on and on as we're checking email throughout the entire day.

Well, I don't...

What would your day look like

I don't want your day to look something like this.

I hope that you're currently not spending this much time on email, but if you are, I hope to motivate you to spend that much less time with your inbox.

What would your day look like?

How much more could you accomplish if you dealt with email only three or four times a day?

If you only dealt with email once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening, how much more could you accomplish?

How much quicker could you get to those big projects and meet those important deadlines?

It's not going to happen overnight, but you can achieve much less time dealing with your email.

Question

So in the comments below, I would like you to answer the following question:

What would you do if you spent half as much time with your email?

If you spent only three hours a day checking email, what would you do with that additional time?

Write your answer in the comments below.

If you enjoyed this video, please be sure to LIKE and subscribe to the Simpletivity YouTube channel.

And if you haven't checked out Simpletivity.com, be sure to visit the website.

We have many more tips and techniques to help you stay productive.

Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it’s very simple.

hi Scott friesen here at simple tivity and today I wanted to do something just a little bit different because today is a very special one why is it special

Why is it special

well it's special because I'm wearing a simple tivity t-shirt but no I'm not about to start selling merchandise today is special because it marks the one-year anniversary of the simple tivity calm website yes it's been exactly one year

Thank you

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Thank you for all of your comments and questions as we continue to produce new content to help you be more productive.

Now, if this is your first time visiting Simpletivity.com, I encourage you to stick around.

Browse some of our other content.

We have workshops.

We have webinars.

We have some upcoming online courses to offer in just a few weeks’ time.

If you are looking for a quick and simple way to get more things done right now, I encourage you to download the To-Do List Guide.

It's a free guide, and I'll provide a link for it right here in the video so you can access it and get started right away.

It has been an amazing year and I want to thank you for being a big part of it.

Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it’s very simple.