🥇 Badge of the Month: Productivity Tools/ February

Miša Hennin

Hey,

With January drawing to a close, it's time for the next Badge of the Month. As part of our Rewards Program, Badge of the Month gives you an easy way to join in and connect with others, and earn a new badge! Your answers don't have to be Meister-related, we'd just like to hear from you 😃.

Want to know the rules? Check out this post.

Already know the rules? Read on to find out what this month is all about!

Badge of the Month: February 2023

However much you may cringe at the teddy bears and chocolates of Valentine's Day, February is undeniably the ❤️ month of love ❤️ and, like other badges, this badge will be seasonal.

To earn this badge, tell us about a productivity tool you love, a tool for which you care above all others, a tool with which you're a match made in heaven 👩‍❤️‍👨.

I can't wait to read!

Best,

Miša

Joerg Koper

Hi @Miša 👋🙂

It may seem a bit strange, but my favourite productivity tool that I always have with me, that hardly ever lets me down and that I know better than anyone else is...my mind.

Let's be honest. It is our inituition with which we make quick decisions and with which we select the right tools for pretty much every requirement. Therefore, with a raised cup of tea, I would like to share my favourite saying "sapere aude" 😊

OK..I do of course have a few nice tools too for my productive workflows:

First place goes to the system I built up, called SINA (Super-Intelligent Network Assistance). SINA is a cloud-based system that uses various AI components and automation systems and handles almost 80% of my agency's routine tasks.

Close behind are my tools (scripts and apps) for generating text modules, which I control via shortcuts. Both on the computer and on my mobile devices.

Best, Jörg

Channing Kelly

I love my Postbox mail application (https://www.postbox-inc.com/). I get an absurd amount of email, much of which must be filed and retained for compliance purposes. Postbox allows me to (mostly) tame my inbox and readily segment things. The things I like best?

• The ability to automatically add topics to emails and then easily search/segment using those topics.
• The ability to quickpost emails into other systems such as Slack or Meistertask that have email automation features.
• The ability to view email by set timeframes (today, yesterday, last week) helps me narrow down the bulk.
• Easily moving messages into folders either based on rules or with a quick keystroke.
• Saved templates and responses -- which can be formatted -- to easily drop into emails since my job involves the same process over and over again.
• Saved email templates reduce the time spent drafting an email.

I much prefer it over the default Mac mail app. Though I wish it had a mobile version -- as or right now it does not.

- Channing

Rooster McNugget

Hello all

What a cool idea for this badge @Miša!

I also love @Jörg Koper’s statement: my favorite productivity tool that I always have with me, that almost never lets me down and that I know better than anyone else is...my mind. Which tool is better than that?!

For me, GoodNotes is currently one of the tools, apps, I can't be without. Since I am often on the road at meetings I like to write the notes by hand! This way the written notes stay better in my mind and when I transfer them into tasks I can decide at the same time if the task is still important for me or not or if I do it myself or delegate it.

As a second tool, and I'm not saying this because I'm here in the community 😉, is MeisterTask dor me. MeisterTask helps me to organize all my projects, to prioritize and delegate tasks and at the same time to keep the overview. And I‘m looking forward to the MeisterNote app!😉

Yes, I have only the two tools/apps because I like the phrase: keep it simple... so the less I need different programs the better.

Best, Samuel

Admin BSF.company

TL;DR --> #TheLinuxTerminalForTheWin!

However much you may cringe at the teddy bears and chocolates of Valentine's Day, February is undeniably the ❤️ month of love ❤️

☝ that was hilarious @Miša, you made my day!

I enjoy reading what other fellows use to drive their productivity, and I believe this BOTM thread will be fascinating to follow (bookmarked already).

• SINA: Impressive stuff @Jörg Koper, let me know when you implement an affiliate system to sell it in this side of the world 💵💵💵👍
• @channing, I can feel the pain. I'm challenged with the same issue, and my best strategy so far has been using filters; however, it's good to know there's an alternative. Thanks for that!
• @Rooster McNugget I too agree with you and Jörg about the role of our mind. It's so precious, we must take care of it and cultivated it since it's the main productivity tool we'll always have.

In my case, maybe I could spend hours talking about so many productivity tools I've known through the years and those that I use today, but the mother of them all is:

The Linux Terminal

To put it simple; my professional career is divided in two major parts: before and after the Linux terminal.

The amount of productivity applications, and open-source solutions one can implement locally or in the cloud using just a command line interface is really hard to put into words.

For example, in the Linux terminal you have sed and grep, two command line utilities used to manipulate text and search text data inside the file system, respectively.

Then you have the pipes (|) that allow you to chain the output of several command line utilities like sed and grep, for example.

Then you have the concept of regular expressions which act (in colloquial terms) like some kind of spells you cast to match certain text criteria for the commands you write.

Those are only 4 concepts one could spend a lifetime learning to master:

• sed
• grep
• pipes
• regular expressions

Use them together, and you'll know what is a powerful computer experience, for real. You'll find yourself doing stuff that you couldn't even imagine before.

Most interestingly is how those tools and methodologies are still relevant today, considering they date back to the '70s...

I wasn't even born when people were doing the stuff I described above.

Best regards.

Andrés D'Andrea.

Joerg Koper

https://community.meister.co/discussion/comment/2421#Comment_2421

Hi @Rooster McNugget and thanks mate 👋🙂

I like the way you think about tools Samuel. Keep it simple is the best way to stay independent in the personal workflow. And I do absolutely agree to your statement related to the Programmes of Meister.

Have a wonderful weekend

Jörg

Joerg Koper

https://community.meister.co/discussion/comment/2429#Comment_2429

Hi @Andres D'Andrea 👋🙂

I din't program SINA as a stand-alone software Andrés. But I was able to combine different cloudbased software programmes in a logical way (the good old "if - then - or - else" workflows) to work hand in hand in predefined steps. Triggered by related requests, SINA is doing a lot of cool things for us....including to react with voice messages to our clients 😊

I love the way you explained your Life as a Linux-Crack...I see your'e "nerdish by nature" too 😄

Thanks for sharing your way of thinking. Very sympathetic.

Best, Jörg

Admin BSF.company

Triggered by related requests, SINA is doing a lot of cool things for us....including to react with voice messages to our clients 😊"

Automation is the way to go, mate! You got it ✅

"your Life as a Linux-Crack"

I wish that would be true... too much to learn yet 🙄🙂

I see your'e "nerdish by nature" too 😄

Proudly, this has been a konstant (with K 😉) my whole life.

Happy weekend @Jörg Koper 👍

Andrew Lapidus

Wow, super excited about this thread! I've just started a free trial of Postbox myself, @channing - I'm always looking for new ways of organizing the emails, requests, notifications, meeting requests etc. which pile up my inbox every day! Bookmarking from my side as well.

For me, when it comes to apps that have significantly improved both my professional and personal life, I have to first think about the Waking Up app - I know it might seem a bit corny and "trendy" to recommend a Meditation app these days, (I can imagine @Jörg Koper, our resident accomplished mediator who's got so many years of experience sitting and learning from masters, might find the apps a bit silly 😊) but I simply can't ignore how much the app has changed my life!

I'm personally a bit prone to overuse of the kind of apps that have thrived in the modern attention economy (Twitter has been the death of my productivity and sanity 😁), so it has been life-changing to have an app on my phone which seems to work as an antidote to the others - instead of being endlessly pulled back and forth between senseless push notifications, the app contains a ton of vital lessons about the value undistracted deep work and mindful living.

On the more prosaic side of things, I'm an extreme fan of Slack. In fact, it's become so ubiquitous in my working life that I often forget how excellent it is: it just simply works so well that it kind of disappears into the background! And as remarked before, the ability to quickly send task-oriented messages into MeisterTask has streamlined my workflow like crazy!

Would also be interested to hear what insight you might have @Cathy Fanning as to your favorite tools these days! 😀

Best,

Andrew

Joerg Koper

@Andrew Lapidus

Hey Andrew,

The App "Wake Up" is absolutely interesting and seems to offer a lot of nice features. When I started meditating, we did not have those Apps...oh...we didn't even have smartphones at all 😅

So, in my opinion it's absolutely OK to use these Apps. That's a big advantage of the "digital transformation" 😉

Best, Jörg

Cathy Fanning

Hi @Andrew Lapidus & @Miša Great idea(s) to mention and feature a favourite app.

There are so many out there that it's hard to pick but here goes. For all the Google Apps users both business and personal is https://www.kiwiforgmail.com/ Handles multiple accounts, direct access to google apps, google drive and works very well on both windows and mac desktops.

In equal place would be Outlook, web or desktop versions. If your a Microsoft nut like me it will be your best friend.

I tend to be a little old fashioned when it comes to ideas, notes etc... I always have a pen and paper handy to note anything down that comes to mind.

Love the mention of chocolate for Valentines Day. Any excuse for chocolate. 😀

Cornelia Patscheider_is_Out-of-office

Hi all,

I love the tool Canva 😍.

What is Canva? It is a graphic design platform for creating graphics and presentations. The app includes ready-made templates for users, and the platform is free (and offers paid subscriptions).

Why do I love it? For templates like this Gantt Chart. For example, I use this template to make an overview of the timeline and then include the image in my MeisterNote documentation. If you want to see that in action, check out @Miša's inspiring post here.

Cheers, Cornelia

Rooster McNugget

https://community.meister.co/discussion/comment/2682#Comment_2682

I would love to have something like Canva in MindMeister... 😏

Cornelia Patscheider_is_Out-of-office

uhhh, what an idea @Rooster McNugget 😍. If you add it to the feature ideas, then you totally have my vote!

Rooster McNugget

https://community.meister.co/discussion/comment/2686#Comment_2686

Thx for your kind words. I made the feature request a few seconds ago! 😉

Miša Hennin

Hey!

Thank you all for sharing your favourite productivity tools - It has been inspiring to read them all. I will definitely be trying the Waking Up app @Andrew Lapidus!

I've also been looking for a specific kind of app and maybe someone here can help me. I'd like to have a habit tracking app to help me build better routines, e.g. an automatic list of things I'd like to do each morning (stretch, take vitamins, read 5 pages of my book) where I tick off the item when I've completed it. But I'd also like to be able to share my list with my boyfriend and he shares his with me so we can both be more motivated to do the things we've said we're going to start doing. Any experience with something like this?

Richard Vitaris

One of my favorites is FollowUpThen.com. FollowupThen is an email reminder system. You can request as many email reminders for a task or event as you like for whenever you like. So if I am going to the theatre for a show on March 20, 2023, at 8 PM, I can forward my ticket confirmation with my etickets to Mar20.730PM@fut.io and I will receive the etickets in my email 30 minutes before the show or at whatever time I plan to arrive. That way I don’t have to look for it. I can send myself multiple email reminders of whatever I need. Most of the other productivity tools I use can be set up to send a single email reminder but FollowupThen can send multiple reminders, even every hour or at whatever interval I specify. And you can set different schedules for different email reminders. The system will even send an automatic email to somebody else too. It is a versatile tool and very moderately priced.

Miša Hennin

Hi @Rvitaris what a cool tool! Thanks for sharing the example too - I'm always panicking in queues at the last minute trying to find my ticket/ confirmation for something 😅.

Best,

Eva-Maria Schützeneder

Hi everyone! :)

A tool that is super simple but saves me some minutes at the beginning of my work day is toby. It helps organize my browser tabs and lets me access them all in just one click.

You will likely want to access the same 5 - 7 tabs each and every day, such as your emails, calendar, MeisterNote, MeisterTask, MindMeister, .. 😉 and this app just saves me those few minutes that I can use to get my first coffee of the day (maybe my second). 😁

Channing Kelly

https://community.meister.co/discussion/comment/2903#Comment_2903

@Miša you might consider Done (https://thedoneapp.com/). Not sure about the sharing aspect however.

Miša Hennin

Thanks @channing I'll take a look at it. Another I found is called Habit Share which sounds like it should be what I'm after 😀, but I'm not yet sure how well it works.

@Eva-Maria Schützeneder that's such a cool idea! I definitely have the same tabs open every day so this would save me returning manually to all these pages each morning.

Admin BSF.company

Hello @Miša according to your description, HabitShare by Luke Bickston, available on iOS and Android.

Great app with all the basics you need and a little more:

• Add Friends (even anonymous ones)
• Internal Messaging system.

It seems you already found it 👍

However, I have an additional recommendation that also has social components, called Habitica.

There's one column in Habitica named "Dailies". The example below shows a couple of daily habits:

• Check Linux Servers: routine maintenance of infrastructure with all mandatory stuff that should be done.
• Proficiency: list of available activities for daily practice with the goal of getting proficient at them.

As you can see, in Habitica, not only you have checkboxes to check for the habits you performed during the day, but also you have them to keep track in case the habit you're trying to build is complex.

Great for habit stacking as well.

Available on iOS and Android.

Wish you success with your habit building journey @Miša.

Best regards.

Andrés D'Andrea

Miša Hennin

Hey @Andres D'Andrea thanks for your input! I took a longer look at HabitShare yesterday and I think this is what I'm looking for. Today is the first day of my new habits though so we'll see how it works in practice 😅.

Habitica looks good too - Have you tried the 'share' function on it? How does it work? Can you see the boxes of your 'friends' or what? If you've not tried it out don't worry.

I think @Olaf Roeb also has some good insights on habit management 👀 👀.

Thank you!

Best,

Miša

Admin BSF.company

Congrats for the journey @Miša! Enjoy it 👍

I'm surely interested in what @Olaf Roeb could add to this conversation in terms of habit management.

Have you got some tools or habit building strategies that worked wonders for you, my friend?

Best regards.