76. Tools Check – In 2022

Transcript

Automatically transcribed and lightly edited. Timestamps omitted for readability.

Morten: Hi and welcome to another episode of the Getting Things Done podcast from Vital Learning. I am as always Morten Røvik, and I am as always here with my good friend and colleague Lars Rothschild Henriksen. Privet, Lars.

Lars: Privet, Morten. Good to see you as always and good to be with our listeners out there. We always start off by reminding you of the purpose of this podcast, which is to help you learn GTD or become even better GTDers. So as always, we hope that this episode supports you in that. If you're new to GTD, we recommend you go back and listen to episodes 1 through 6 to get an introduction to the basics of GTD. And today's episode number is 76, and today's topic is a tools check-in for 2022.

Morten: Exactly. And as we did last year, we do a check-in. What are the tools that we are using today to get our world to move around? And has it changed anything? And I've changed something but not everything. So there is some news for people and some repetition. But for those of you who are interested in tools, this might be a beneficial episode. And we divided it up in different categories. And we are going to start with the big picture when it comes to tools. Talk hardware setup. So, Lars, what is your hardware setup these days?

Lars: Yeah, so today at the office I still have my old trusty Mac Mini back from the Intel days. So it's a few years old now, but still works fine for me. At home, at the home office, I have a Mac Mini, the M1, so that I can feel that's a bit faster. Considering switching them, but for now, that's the way the setup is. When it comes to phones, I have an iPhone 14 on the way. Morten, you showed me your cinematic mode at the summer camp this year, so I had to go and upgrade. No, I have an iPhone 12, and it's getting a bit old, and it seems like it's going to wear out soon.

Morten: Trust your technologist, Lars. Trust your technolust.

Lars: No, but I had a, you know, it did feel like it was saying, you know, you need to change me now. You need to change me now. When I plug in the cable, it doesn't always work. So I felt that was sort of a sign for me to upgrade now. And then I have my iPad Pro, which I, you know, vary really a lot whether I really like it or really am bothered by the things that it doesn't do. But again, the things that it does well, I really appreciate the things that I then miss when I'm out and about. That's when I wish I maybe I had a MacBook instead, but overall happy with it and trying to figure out how to work it best into and integrate it into the way that I work. And then the key, I think the key difference since last time was that I now have a nice screen setup. I have a good keyboard, good mouse, and then the dual screen, which has really made a big difference for me. One of those things that I had for a long time when I was back when I was an IT consultant in a previous life. It was so nice to get that up and running. You know, having those dual screens, having been able to split them into two different screens and having one item on one side, the other on the other, and then really, really helped my productivity. I'm 27, I think they are both of them.

Morten: 2 times 27, that's good.

Lars: Yes, yes, exactly. And then they are hovering over the desk with a nice Ergotron. I don't know, it sounds like a Transformer to me, so I just had to mention that as well. Ergotron, aluminum arms. Yeah, it looks good, looks good. So no, it's, it's been really, really nice, and it's, you know, cleaned up my, my desk a lot to have them floating. And, um, just the ability to have those two screens, it's just made a big difference. So, um, that's, um, I think the, the key sort of change. Um, other than that, um, I have the TV as you can see behind me. Um, I'd like to have that available as, you know, for, for meetings or just when you're in a different mode of working sometimes. So I have an Apple TV.

Morten: You mean Netflix mode?

Lars: No, yeah, I wish, I wish, but no, not for Netflix mode, for, you know, screen sharing, connecting that, walking through in meetings, planning or bigger things when I really want that big resolution or, you know, it just makes a difference for me to see that. So I have that there. I have a whiteboard on the other side so I can go go and play and draw. And yeah, for me, that's been really helpful. So I think those are the sort of the key highlights, I think, of the hardware setup that I have at the moment. What about you?

Morten: No, just before we continue, I just want to ask you, you have an Apple Watch as well? You have another one coming, or did you?

Lars: Nope. No, I managed to— it did not look old enough for me to switch, and I don't Okay.

Morten: So you didn't go buy an Ultra?

Lars: Yeah.

Morten: Since you're an ultra runner, are you not? I think you are.

Lars: History of ultra running, I think is the right way to put it. So, oh, I did look at that and I actually did think about getting one, but I figured I'll pass on this one for now.

Morten: Yeah. Yeah. Me too.

Lars: I still have my old, old, old Apple. I don't know what it is. It's not that old. 2 years old, maybe.

Morten: Yeah. I think I have the same model as you, but it is, when I said trust your technolust, when I was, well, you know, when I started my GTD understanding of, back in 2006, I started looking for tools, and I understood very quickly that I do have some sort of technolust that I have to listen to. It makes me happy. It's like, what makes you happy? Buying gadgets and playing with them, it's fun and cool. So I'm trying to look for excuses for having them. And in the meet, I don't know if you know this, but, or you know this, of course, but when you meet clients, especially one-on-one or even through virtual, is that you need to understand the tools. So you need to not necessarily have exactly the latest model, but you need to have a fair understanding on how it works. And that makes a big difference in coaching because then you can teach clients something that they don't know they can do. Like place reminders using your Apple Watch or, you know, yeah.

Lars: Yeah. And when you need those, you know, there's also a good reason. One of the things that takes up a lot of my mind these days is Level 3 seminar. And in that seminar, we talk about affirmations. And of course, that's a great excuse to go out and buy new tools because that's just an affirmation on your, you know, staying in on top of the news and in control of things and yeah, all that good stuff. So it's a great, great excuse to buy some new tools.

Morten: Then turning to my hardware setup is that I have a MacBook Air M1. It's a little low powered by the means of memory. I only have the 8 gigabytes, but this is supposed to last until October. Until— as my main machine until Apple releases hopefully a new Mac Mini. That's going to be my main office machine, and I'm going to then add quite some gigabytes of memory. I don't know how much it will cost, but as much as I feel I can afford, because that's going to be the main machine for maybe 5, 6, maybe 7 years. I had my last iMac was 7 years old when I put it into retirement. But it works, worked, worked, and kept up for 7 years. You can't say that a lot about other computers, so I'm happy for that. And I also, as you, I have a 27-inch monitor, but I only have one, and I'm happy with that because I'm, I am back in my IT days, I, I did not like the, you must turn your head, you know, for look at what you need to look at. So no, and I'm, and I'm, I'm using Spaces, is that what it's called, when you can swipe between different desktops? I use that a lot and that works for me. So I set up one setup for, for if I'm going to do something to do with the website, I have a setup for that. So I have one specific space for this. So that's where all the apps are open and ready. If I'm going to send something from the capture wallets, it's another setup. So this is another space where everything is ready. Nice. Like that. So I do understand, but I don't like that head flicking. It doesn't work for me. So, and I have an iPhone 13 Pro, which is a fantastic machine, and I'm not going to get the 14, so I'm relying on you to keep me on my toes and show me what I can do with that. I also have recently bought some microphones, 2 lapel mics that you can use, one for 2 people. You can interview people with lapel mics with a dongle for your iPhone. You just put it into the Lightning port and then you can have external mics, which makes it possible to use that capability of, you know, interviewing people or making a good audio of people, and sorry, yourself as well. And I have an Apple Watch, a couple of years old, that's still running good. It works fine. I have a reMarkable, and we'll get back to that, but that's a reMarkable note-taking device. And I have a ScanSnap iX500 for scanning on my desk. And I also have a Hama, H-A-M-A, Hama or Hema, I don't know how to pronounce that, but H-A-M-A. How would you pronounce that?

Lars: Your guess is as good as mine, I think.

Morten: Yeah, but it is a standing desk, it's not a standing desk, but it is a a module for creating a standing desk. So you have your monitor on the stand and you have your keyboard on a keyboard lower down, and you can, you know, sit down and get up really fast. So now I'm standing and I can sit down. It will take 3 seconds to go sitting. That I'm really happy for. And yeah, I think that's my main hardware setup.

Lars: Yeah, so I should probably add I have a standing desk as well, from just a basic one from IKEA to get up and down. Yeah, but it takes like 8 seconds, so it's a bit— there's a productivity improvement opportunity there.

Morten: Yeah, efficiency, efficiency. You must have faster, faster.

Lars: Yeah, I need to change the voltage on this one. I'll go in there and make some adjustments.

Morten: That's funny.

Lars: Okay, well, you see that funny, but I was actually— now that we're gonna anyway geeking out on tools, I was actually investigating how to integrate a hardware device so I could control it with focus modes, as we're also going to talk about, because there will be sort of two. I need it for standing and sitting, and those are the two different levels. So if I could get it to automate to actually just go to that level, not having to find the right level every time, and perhaps integrate that with shortcuts. And yeah, That's how we can.

Morten: Pick out something. Yeah, the desk that I'm at is manual. It's just a little lever you push and then you push down on it, then I'm sitting. It will take less than 3 seconds. But it is, it doesn't have, you know, it's not the full desk that gets up, it's just the stand that the monitor is on and the keyboard is on. But I have a place here for note-taking, a mobile phone stand, and my reMarkable is also here. So it's easy to take notes when I'm standing as well. So that's my hardware setup. And we decided then to go to look at, you know, in categories. So capture. What is your capture tool right now? Or capture tools?

Lars: Yeah, no, well, good old paper still works for me sometimes. So I have my trusty capture tool next to me, which is just a pad and a good old GTD Nordic pen that I use for just the ad hoc stuff, especially in meeting spots that come up there. For the most part, they will end up on paper. Still, and I have my Capture Wallet as well. So I have that available when I need to. I think most times it will be in situations where other people are around. Yep, that's the one you're showing. And for me, it makes sense to have, like, let's say in a seminar, if something comes up and people are doing a mind sweep exercise and, oh, that reminds me that I have a tool like that, that I don't want to flip out my phone and start to bring that up because that might send the wrong signals to people and wonder what am I doing right now. So So for those scenarios, Paper works really, really well for me. Then again, for the most part, I think when it comes to capturing just ad hoc ideas, I still use Todoist as my list manager. So most of the things will go in there. At times, I will use Apple Reminders primarily for the location-based reminders. Remind me when I get home to do blah, blah. Remind me when I get to the office to do blah, blah. I think those are sort of the key things for me there. And then, you know, these days I do tend to drive a lot. And as stuff shows up there in a safe way, I have my memos app on my phone or my watch to just capture these things. And that's been a lifesaver now in these last 6 months without being driving significantly more than earlier. That, you know, I had a day recently where I captured, was it 13 or 14 things in the Memos app in one day? And, you know, deep briefing on a client meeting, oh, that reminds me, and yeah, all that kind of thing. So use that to capture.

Morten: When you say Memo, it's the audio recording app that's native on your iPhone and your Apple Watch. Yes, the standard voice recorder, I think it's called in English. Memos. Okay. Voice recorder. You have it on your phone already if you have an Apple Watch or Apple phone and Apple Watch. Yeah.

Lars: So those are really the key ones for me.

Morten: I also use my, I showed it earlier, my CAPTUR wallet, which is, by the way, for those of you who have bought from us at capturwallet.com, this is cool. I just want to let you know that we are going to phase those out. We are not going to carry them. We're not going to make them again. So if you want to have one, you are, we are going low on stock. So that might be a good idea if you are interested. So, so the Capture Wallet, this is the business wallet. This is, I think, 3, since 2019, 3 years. It's kept up good. So just for those of you who are interested, not to plug that too much, but for those who want to have something and has already bought and knows the quality. But for capture, I also use my Apple Watch and I use Siri as well on the phone for the same idea. I've been having— I made a shopping list in the Reminders app of my iPhone and I use that by calling Siri and ask her to to add something to my shopping list, and that works really well. And I use also the location-based reminders. So if I'm, especially when I'm on the go, you know, when I get in the car, remind me of this. When I get to the office, remind me of this. Remind me to call my father at 5 tonight, or in the afternoon. And this is where you need location-based or specifically timely-based location or time-based reminders. That's where I use that.

Lars: Yeah. And we, by the way, we use that as well. The shopping list works really well. And we also have a Google Home where I've set up an if this then that integration. So you can speak to that and it can still add to your reminders-based shopping list.

Morten: Oh, okay. That was new for me. Technology lust. Yes. So, and I also have, when I travel, I have a travel wallet where I have one of these. —what do you call them? Apple— what are those? AirTags. AirTags, thank you. The AirTags, because I, you know, I just don't want to lose my wallet. And I have on the side of this, I bought a very cute, very small little pen. It's inside a card like this. It's put the card inside, and this is the pen. Look at this tiny little thing.

Lars: So for those of you listening, it's a very small pen. But I, yes, you probably, yeah, it's.

Morten: Just, it's the length of a little longer than a credit card. And it's maybe 2.5mm in diameter. And it's a ballpoint pen. So, and I have this stuck into the side of my wallet so I can have it ready And I always have some paper inside a wallet. I tear off a couple of sheets from my Capture wallet and put it inside there. Yeah, that's Capture. Anything else I capture with? Yes, I capture on the reMarkable when I take notes. And I then make, we'll get back to that, but I make tick boxes, 1, 2, 3, to make sure that I have when it's something I need to get done, it's in there and it's highlighted so I can find it again. So that's capture. So any other things you were reminded of capturing, or should we go over to note-taking? Are you ready?

Lars: Yeah, let's go for the notes.

Morten: Yeah. So where do you take notes, Lars?

Lars: Yeah. So I take notes in in various places. Most of the time it will be— almost all the time it will be digital. So I will use different, different tools for different things. Part of it because it is sort of a legacy kind of thing that I've been using tools for a long time and some of the stuff just stays there and I still use it for particular aspects of GCD because that still makes sense for me. So it might sound complex that they are split across 3 different systems, but just for me it's just how I am used to working and still haven't found the specific need for me to go in and transfer it all into, into one system. So I still have Evernote in place for mostly for sales calls and for podcast notes. Those are really the two, two key ones that, that, that go in there. But that might actually be by the time we talk next year, might be, might be transferred over to OneNote because I will tend to use that mostly today for my coaching notes and my general reference archive, both A shared one I have with my wife. I have a GCD-related one. Checklists are found in OneNote. And last one, as I mentioned to you before we started, I've started using Apple Notes more, and it's just to try and stay a bit more in the Apple ecosystem because that's where all my devices live anyway. So some of it goes into Notes. And I find that especially, you know, just the, the ease of use and the quickness of using it. For example, to, let's say I was making notes this morning for, for the podcast that we're recording now. And the easiest place for me to record it was simply to open Notes, hit a new note, and then just start typing all the notes that I wanted to have for this, this episode. And it, for me, it's just, I think, the simplicity and the, the ease of use that really is the deciding factor. And you know, it's very well synchronized across the different platforms. I find that to be mostly the case. The only place where I struggle a bit with that is for the Memos app. Sometimes it doesn't synchronize well to the Mac, but otherwise it's always available across the platforms. A simple example, before we started, I needed to reboot my machine. A thing came up that I wanted to be sure to add to the notes for today, so I could just open my iPad, hit the notes, type it in there, and as soon as the machine had rebooted, it was already there and ready for me to to make sure that I had in today's episode. So simple things like that, but that's what I'm playing around with. And it's, you know, nice and flexible. And you can— I can draw with my pen when I need to do that. And I can add my images and tables and all that. So I think based on the things that it has added over the last probably year or two, now I think is probably the time where I will start to transition more and more to using that. But let's see.

Morten: Next year, people will understand if Lars is still using 3 tools or less.

Lars: So, more or less.

Morten: Yeah. So, but the best practice is for those of you who want to, you know, it's, you have freedom within the framework of Getting Things Done to find a solution that works for you. But the best practice is just to be clear about that is that you should use, especially for the reference systems when we get there, where you take care of all the stuff that you need to take care of or keep. The best practice is to have as few as possible, as many as you need. The same with note-taking. So, you don't, you know, the idea is that you should not make notes on sticky notes, in the back of napkins, on the back of an envelope, and then you don't toss it around, you can't find it after, which is normal for a lot of people that we meet. Which is not a very good system because you're confusing yourself. Where did I write that down? I remember I wrote it down somewhere, but where? And yeah.

Lars: Unless you have a portable entry, then you'll be right.

Morten: Yeah. If you have a way to capture them, you know, or to rally them into one place, you know, so corral them. I think that's the English word for this. You do it with horses. Your wild notes need to be corralled into one inbox. So as long as you have that, I'm fine.

Lars: And that, ladies and gentlemen, was today's Norwegian analogy in the GTD world.

Morten: Yeah. So thank you. So note-taking for me happens basically, or most often, on my reMarkable, where I jot ideas down. I even am doing my— I'm experimenting, and it feels good to change. But I don't have in my task management system, I don't have an active at-home list anymore. It's on my reMarkable. I know, but it works.

Lars: My post just went up. There's an alert on my Apple Watch that I need to—.

Morten: Send an ambulance.

Lars: Are you okay?

Morten: Lars needs defibrillation. So no, but I have a notebook there called at home because, and I have things that are on pause, you know, someday maybe this is a specific sheet. And because the Remarkable now have become a tool where you can move things around more easily than before, I can cut and paste things that I've ticked off as done. And I just, I have a, you know, a few pages that I call done where I put all the things I've done so I can look back at them and say, "Hmm, you actually made something." I don't know. I don't know if you have this feeling. I have this sometimes that, you know, you're doing a lot of stuff in the home, but you're doing it by impulse. Now I see this, I need to do this, and then you fix that, and then you go somewhere, and then that leads to this, and then you don't remember what you've done after, and you feel you've done little or nothing because you just follow the intuitive hunches. At least I have it like that. I don't know if anyone else than me have it like this. But anyway, long story short, it helps me to see what I've done. That at-home list. But, um, it's a note-taking tool. And I have, um, you know, a scratchpad tool. It's just a pad of paper, the one that we got by, you know, the GTD Summit. Yeah, which is, for those of you who are interested, that's called an Exacompta block. With a C. Faf. F-A-F. So I think it is French. And it's good, stable, easy tear-outs, the notes. It's good, easy to use. And I also am dabbling with— for those of you who can see this, this is— let me see, now I can show that this is leather-bound. I bought this from Atoma, a-t-o-m-a.be, I think it is Belgium, atoma.be. And it is, um, note-taking, it's just lined paper where you can easily get the paper in and out. You know, the system where you just take one and you just pull it out. Like this. You've seen that before, I guess. You've seen this, this system.

Lars: So maybe not the specific one, but.

Morten: Yeah, no, Staples had this before called ARC, or ARC, and I, I like that because then you can actually, you know, you can take out, you can remove, you can, you can take something out very easily and you can put it where it belongs. So you can actually build a GTD system out of this by just pen and paper. And I have my Lamy fountain pen that I love. And that's more for when I want to feel inspired notes, because when you write with a fountain pen, it's a little more— the ink sets. It's not very easy to move things around after. But it is to just, you know, think aloud. It helps me. Yeah. So, and that is, I think, my capture tools. I'm sorry, and note-taking tools. And should we move on to reference system?

Lars: That was the reference I think we were building on. So I walked through my Evernote, OneNote, and Notes app.

Morten: Yeah, you're jumping ahead, bad boy. No, no, no, it's okay. My reference system is, for me, it's— I have Evernote. I have an old Evernote database that's just there for historical data. So if I ever need to retrieve something from 10 years ago, I can. But I stopped using it. I stopped paying for that service. I'm just keeping it locally. And I use now DevonThink as my database for reference material. And I use the folder system on the Google Drive for anything else that I need to keep that's more active. I use it for— as a reference system where there is anything that goes into DevonThink is finished. It's not set in stone, but it is finished. So it could be I have a database for coaching clients where all the clients have their own book, and in that book I put all the notes I take, you know, based on my Remarkable. So when I'm finished with a client, I would export that as a PDF and drag it into their book in the DevonThink. And then archive it on the Remarkable. So I can have it both ways. I can look at it in the Devonthink app and I can look at it in the Remarkable. And Devonthink also lives on my iPhone, so I can easily reference this on the go if I need to dig up something. But in Devonthink I also have PDFs, I have HTML files for, you know, links to interesting places on the web. That might be something I need to get back to. But I'm, you know, I've changed my way of taking notes. You know, back in the Evernote days when I got started, it's like, oh, I can take care, I can, you know, I can save everything. So I did. I think that is a very beginner's problem with references, that you are very happy to just collect everything that you might want to use one day. But it is, I use it through my bullshit filter seriously. Are you ever going to look at that again? Does it have a future value that you will actually want to see? Or is it just going to clutter your system? That is a very good question to ask yourself. And I do that. I ask myself this often. So that's reference system. Moving on to scanning. Do you scan?

Lars: Very little. Just for my needs, it's about just using an app. So I have a— it used to be called Scanbot. Not sure what it's— I think they changed their name. I don't know what it's called today, but I know when I swipe down and write scan, something shows up and that's the red app that I will use. So, that's what I use for scanning.

Morten: Yeah, I use that too on the go for receipts and things that has a potential value. And I use an app called Scanner Pro, two words, and it's by Readle, Readle with a double D. And they, this app is, I'm really happy with. I had it for years and it's keeps getting better. It has edge detection so that, you know, it crops automatically. And you can also set up shortcuts. So, like, for instance, if I wanted to always send you my receipts of something, or I want to send you something, I can then, when I finish my scan, I can do a— they have, you know, an automation part where I can automate sending that to you in an email, so it will pre- pre-put you inside the email and an attached PDF of the scan. So that's, that's really nice. And it also has integration to all the major cloud services for storage. So I can, when I, when I do done, it automatically puts into my, my inbox. I have an inbox folder on Google Drive that I then go on my, do my weekly review. I go visit that and that's pull and drag, you know, the papers where they belong.

Lars: Exactly. Yeah, no, and then what you just described, the functionality and the way of using it, it's the same. And I just checked, mine is called SwiftScan.

Morten: SwiftScan.

Lars: Okay. SwiftScan. That was the name that they had.

Morten: From?

Lars: I don't know.

Morten: From someone.

Lars: Okay.

Morten: From someone. Okay. SwiftScan. I'm sure Lars will put that in the show notes. If you're lucky. If you're lucky. If Lars captures it, you will be lucky. And for scanning, I also use my old and trusted, trusty ScanSnap iX500. This machine is really good quality. I don't know if they make it anymore, but it is, it's been working. I think I had this for 10 years and still works smoothless— smoothly. Smoothlessly? Smoothly. Okay, scanned English. So, but it is, it is, you can put almost anything in any order there. It can be a mixture of paper and receipts and everything and just hit scan. It comes out in the other end, says scan, and scan file on my PC, and it works really well. Mainly I'm using it for credit card statements that we still need to do partially manually. But yeah, and for evaluation forms from when we do seminars, I also do them there. It's super fast. So that's my scanning. Should we move on to task managers, calendars, and email? I don't know if you want to start on top. Task manager, what are you using?

Lars: Like I said, I'm still on Todoist. I still have my trusty setup there as I've had for the last— was it 5, 6 years now? 7 years maybe? It's been there for quite a while now. Moving things around, not settled on a specific way that I want to do it. So this summer I reorganized, for example, again. So I'm still playing around with it, even though it's been part of my system for that long. And, you know, that's for my sort of work-related items. And then for, for personal use, we have started— I used to have my wife was on Todoist as well, and we have switched now to Reminders. So the standard Apple Reminders have that set up there. So we have some of the shared projects that we have, so projects around the home, for example, we will have them in Reminders. So she'll, she'll have her system there. It was more easy for her to have it in a in a more simplified setup, which you can set up in Reminders, more easily accessible than, than for her to use Todoist. So, so for, for us, it makes sense to, to put it there. And as she also started working for Vital Learning in Denmark, we also use that for the different actions for her as well. So there are some different actions in there. She has— we have our shared agenda lists in there. We have a shared projects list in there as well for her to, to work on.. So we use reminders for that part. Then when it comes to email, I'm on Gmail. One of the reasons that I stick to Todoist is that I really, really, really like the Chrome plugin that they have for Todoist. It just works so, so well. So when I have an email, there's an action associated with it. It's an invoice that I need to to pay, I can just hit that button and it takes me, you know, 5 seconds for it to end up in my system with the link back to the email. So it works really, really well. So I'm very happy with that part. And then of course, since we are in the Google environment, it's Google Calendar, I think for the most part. When it comes to— I'll actually switch a bit around. So I'll use both the Apple Calendar application with showing the Google Calendar items. And I'll also still sometimes go to the website in Chrome. So the calendar.com or whatever the URL is, and then look at it from there. Typically, when I need to, you know, cross-check some calendars, I need to speak with you yesterday, when, when, when are you available in your calendar? So it's more easily accessible for me in there. And also the integrations with the different meeting systems that we use. So Microsoft Teams or Zoom, or Google Meet, those will be more easily accessible in there. So when I schedule meetings, meetings, I'll typically head over to the website. And I think then the last component is one that we both use with the scheduler. So when people want to book meetings with us, at least I have a— and I know you have too— scheduler URLs. So people can go in there and it'll check your calendar and it'll find a slot that hopefully works for both of you. I've set up separate ones for Teams or Zoom depending on what— how people prefer to talk to me. So. So both options are available and I still find that very useful as well. I think for the most part, the last couple of months, it's been pretty hard to find a slot in my calendar because I also block out time for myself. So in some cases I'll still go the manual way and email back and forth with people to find the right slot, but still a functional, very handy tool as well.

Morten: Yeah.

Lars: So I think those were the key ones on my end when it comes.

Morten: To List Manager, email, and calendar. Yeah. I'm still on OmniFocus mostly for my tasks that are not related to sales or email. And the reason for this is because it works really well and it's there for me and I can do templates. So I create templates for projects that I know is, you know, I can repeat It's very easy, very handy to use the templates functionality that I have built there. And it has a good integration. I very— how do you say that— sparsely use notifications on OmniFocus, and I only have location-based notifications. So if I'm close to our shopping center here, we have a big mall close to us. When I go there or get close, I get a notification of what are your options for your errands list that's related to this shopping center. So, you know, I need to buy something, it pops up. And that works really well. When I get close to, when I know that we are low on fuel in my car, I can then just, you know, have a location-based. Next time I'm close to our local gas station, it will pop up, do you need to refill here? You know, consider the price. So, yeah, that's really, and we have a very good app that's in Norway that And it actually is in Denmark as well, I think. It's called Drievstof-Appen. This is the fuel app. And you can set up— and this is way off topic, but it's a very good app. But it's community-driven. So when you are filling gas at some gas station, you will, because you're a good community fellow, you will plot in the prices of the fuel that's available on that station, and you get points, and you actually can get paid money, real money, for this. And when you then— then others can have that price available, and it's timestamped. And if I come to the same gas station later, I will say, has this price changed, or is it the same? And I will say it's the same, then I get a couple of points saying it's the same. And it is, you can sort it for the closest to you or the cheapest within the range that you've set. So you can set, for instance, 10 kilometers range or diameter.

Lars: What do you call that?

Morten: The radius? Yeah, the radius. So what are the range you would like to have those stations? And they will rank on price and on how close it is to you and how long time since the price was updated. So it's an annual fee you have to pay for this, but I've already, I think I saved that enough for 12 months in one month, the price of this app.

Lars: So, okay. I haven't really played around with that. Yeah, but I think just in Denmark, I think you can just see it in Google Maps.. But I don't think it has that kind of easy accessibility to, you know.

Morten: Search for the cheaper ones, but at least the information. So when I travel to Oslo, I open that app when I travel and I see what's the prices now. And I have a limit. If it's less than 20 kroner per liter of 95 lead-free, I am going to stop and refill no matter what. So on the route. So, well, anyway, back to topic. Task manager. I am using OmniFocus, but I'm using Pipedrive for anything that's sales related. And because it has a really good follow-up function, so if I have a meeting with a client, let's say I have Lars as my client, I meet him today, and when this meeting is over, I have to tick it off as done, and then it will automatically pop, are you, are you finished with this? Do you have follow-up tasks you need to do? And then I can write that down and put it, for instance, I have a waiting for for Lars, so I have a waiting for category, and then I will have to decide how far in the future do I need to park this, or do I want to park this before I will send a follow-up email to Lars. And it then shows up on my calendar as a full-day event on the top there. And it is the idea of ticking something off as done, done, then it you get an extra cycle where you have, is it really done done or is it not done done, it's done and then something. So that's really good. And that also plays into the scheduler that you have or we both have and that's come from Pipedrive. And I'm using the Pipedrive calendar for most of my planning.. But for my, you know, for Look at Calendar, I'm using the Google Calendar layout on the web. And I'm using an app called Fluid where I am creating a single window for Calendar. So, it's a single app for the Google Calendar. So, you can show the Google Calendar inside there. That works really well for me. Because then I can drag the calendar around. It's not part of Chrome. It's not part of anything else. It's a freestanding, it's very fast. For email, I'm using, as you, I'm using Chrome, Gmail in Chrome, and for anything that's not related to sales. Anything related to sales is inside Pipedrive, so everything is integrated there, and it's easy, and I can then make notes on the client, I can then, you know, hand draw when I use my reMarkable, when I finished I can make an export of that and just pull it in as a note in the client field. That works really well. Yeah, I think that's my task manager.

Lars: Calendar, and email. Any questions? Cool. No, I think I just missed mentioning the Pipedrive sales work in there.

Morten: Of course, that's part of my flow as well. And Pipedrive is an online CRM system that lives in your browser. And on your phone and on your tablet and, you know, as an app. Yeah, and then we come to the last category that we've noted down is miscellaneous. I've noted down something I would like to mention, but I'm sure you have something too.

Lars: You will go first, Lars, on your miscellaneous, what you have. Yeah, no, so when I just drafted the, the things that I wanted to mention. I also wanted to just think a bit more broadly on what might have changed in the way that, that I work. And I think one, one, one thing that has recently, relatively recently, changed over the last couple of months is with part of the transition to, to the new company Vital Learning. It's been just essential for me to have a different way of planning and getting an overview of all the projects going on, both from a perspective of our sort of scheduled plans that are taking place right now. Um, you know, some things are already taking place next year as well, and new certifications. I'll be traveling to Greenland, I'll be traveling to the US. Um, we have longer-term plans now, all the way up to 2025. We have more people joining. Um, so that's really changed, and I really wanted to, to get that, that overview in a different fashion. So. So that's part of the idea with the TV behind me as well, to be able to just throw that big old OmniPlan up there and have that catch shot and have that all set up. That's been really, really critical for me. And of course, as part of the weekly review, that's at least once a week when I get to check in on that. Another thing that has not changed, but just in the way that I use it. So, 6 months ago and for several years, it's been me in Denmark. And now we are 5, 6 active, perhaps even more than I'm aware of right now and more people coming, I know. So it really has changed in how I work with my areas of focus. I think seeing that list of people and noticing things and it has impacted my system and how I set up my list and how I organize things. It just made it so much more clear. And just noticed how many projects came out of that. So really been playing around with that and figuring out how to work that.

Morten: Best in my system.

Lars: The better you get, the better you better get. Yes, I think that was the right quote for the moment. And then on that note, I've played a bit around also with more affirmations again, since I work so much with that in relation to the level 3 part. I think there was a, you know, we need to do long-term planning as we will do soon. But there is also a need for me to sort of reflect on which CEO is needed for the new company and how do I become that one. So that's, that's part of the things that I'm playing around with right now and figuring out. So how, how does that actually look? How do you become? Yes. And affirmations on that. So those were some of the things and just, you know, some of the other sort of minor things that showed up for me was one thing that I recently added was blocking Facebook and LinkedIn on my, my Mac and my phone. So the only time I get to go there is when I open my iPad and have specific, specific apps for it. But I'm just— I— it's things are just so much easier for me when they're blocked. I can use that for so many other things. I don't need to to do that for that kind of thing. So I've simply blocked them with the standard things that you can do on your iPhone, and that just translated to the Mac and to the iPad. So the only way I have out is using the apps. And the last thing I noted was just small automations and in relation to the focus mode that we also spoke briefly about. So I have different automations set up, and I just really enjoy that, coming back to, I think, the techno lust that you mentioned earlier. And I just really appreciate that. I have a HomePod here at the office. So when I walk in the office, it starts my playlist when I come in here. When we go into meetings, I have a shortcut set up that's called "Into Meetings," and that will pause the music. It will put on Do Not Disturb. It will start the camera. It will start the lights. It'll set everything up that I, that I need. And the reverse when I, when I get out. At home in the morning, so there will be— have some, we have some lights outside that will turn on at 6. We'll have some lights inside, they'll turn on at 6:15, 6:30. The, the music will start, and today's easy hits will be playing at the, the household at home. Yes, very much so. But just these small, you know, things that I'm playing around with. And again, not directly GTD-related, we can call them productivity, or we can just.

Morten: Call them having fun. Maybe that's more accurate. But it is, if it enhances your productivity and makes it, you know, you're finishing what you need to finish more.

Lars: Elegant, then hey, it's productivity. Yeah, it's just, it's actually something I've been playing with for a while. A few years back, I set up that there was a temperature sensor. So when it got below a certain threshold, before we had this automated heating, it would switch the light color. So I would know now it's time to start the heating so it doesn't get too cold in the summer. So small things like that. But I really like that, uh, what's it called, the ambient computing, that it's when it's just around you. And, you know, I don't need to look at the clock in the morning. I know when it's 6:30 the music will start, that kind of thing. It's, um, it's It could sound silly, but I think it's actually really helpful for me. And I think also for, you know, the family that they kind of just intuitively know this is a process.

Morten: It's relatively new, but this is a process. Yeah, I'm into automation as well.

Lars: And I'm smiling because I'm remembering all my automations now. Yeah, just, you know, silly things. And you mentioned earlier as well with your, you know, how it changes your focus modes and have that for work. For home. I have it for when we get to the summer house, it switches to a mindfulness and a simple watch face. Yeah, but I think you have a.

Morten: Similar or somewhat related setup. Yeah, well, when it comes to the shortcuts, I have been doubling with them now so that when we do a podcast, it blocks everyone but Lars, which is good because then nobody can get through. The only exception is my wife. When she calls me, she can get through because if she calls, it's an emergency. She knows I'm with Lars now, so that's good. But also so that, for instance, when I'm doing— I'm, you know, I'm an amateur pistol shooter competitor, and when I do my shooting, I have a focus called shooting where the screen goes black. I can't see anything. And my watch face on my Apple Watch changed to the most simple one with just the clock. There is no warnings, no notification, no nothing. So that makes me maintain that focus. I also have dabbled with the shortcuts in the Apple ecosystem, as you have, so that when my alarm goes off in the morning and I I don't snooze it. I said, yes, I'm up now, or I'm getting up. It will set my Hue lights in the kitchen and the living room to morning, which is a little, you know, not too harsh. So it's a little soft. And then 15 minutes after, when I get up, I go to shave in the morning and get ready for the day. And 15 minutes after I stopped, it will start the coffee machine, you know, when I get out, it's coffee ready. Makes me feel really cool. I use my coffee filter machine, make it ready the day before, and when I get out, the coffee is ready. What a luxury. And I've also dabbled with the using of NFC tags around the house and outside because we have an alarm system that's app-based, and we have an electronic lock that is Bluetooth-based and Wi-Fi-based. So when I go out the door and I have an NFC tag close to the door, so I just tap that with my phone and that will trigger a shortcut that shuts off all the lights in the house, it locks the door, and opens the alarm app so that I can trigger the alarm to turn it on. Then I'm done. And when I go home, the door automatically opens, and there is a push notification when I get close, "Do you want to turn the alarm off?" So, and when I go inside, the lights go on when I'm getting closer. It's maybe 10, 15, 20 meters away from home, it turns on. So, and that is automation that I like. It's little things, but it makes your home more personal and it makes you, I don't know, you use technology in.

Lars: The right way, I think. Small tip on that one, when it turns on the lights when you get home, you may want to notify the babysitter in case you have one that the lights turn on, because otherwise they might be a bit scared.

Morten: I may be talking from experience.

Lars: Experience.

Morten: Maybe talk from experience. I don't have a babysitter because I don't have children living in home. That might have happened. Yeah. But I have, I've had mother and father-in-law living with us. And I had to turn that off because when, sorry, my wife and I go outside the house, both of us at the same time, it turns off all the lights automatically. And they're suddenly there in the darkness. Like, what happened? How do we turn it on again? So that's cool. Yeah. No. So, yeah. So, but my other miscellaneous is I'm, my last miscellaneous, you know, trust your technolust is that I have, I bought a ring for those of you who are on video. It's just a shiny 6mm ring. Black ring that I have on my ring finger on my left hand because I am Norwegian. The wedding ring is on the other hand, it's on the right hand. Of course you have the right ring on the right hand. I know Americans have it vice versa, but that's okay. You can be different, it's okay. So can we. But this ring is basically a.

Lars: Credit.

Morten: Card, or is it connected to a my Curve card so I can change the cards in the Curve app and then I can pay with the ring. And I feel this is, yeah, maybe a little trust your technologist iPhone 14 ref Loris, but it is also, it feels, you know, I can leave everything and then I can go running if I wanted to and just bring the ring to buy, you know, something to drink in the convenience store. So, and that's, uh, it's called a Tapster from Tapster, uh, in Sweden. And, um, it's, um, Fidesmo is the name of the company who, who handles the transaction. And it's fee-free and works with all major cards in, at least here in the Nordic region. So I think that's it. We have ended everything, and it was a long episode. It's not— we are nearing 1 hour, so you get your value when you.

Lars: Listen, or at least your bang for the buck. New, new, new record. Yeah. Yeah. No. And, and hopefully this was helpful. And if you have any tips, we'd love to hear from you. So, you know, your favorite tools, your favorite optimization, favorite automation, be sure to let us know and we can share.

Morten: Them in an upcoming episode. Yeah, and for— I just want to mention one thing before we close, is that we got an email from a gentleman called Ivan Weiss. I think that's a correct pronunciation of his.

Lars: Name.

Morten: He gave us a tip on, uh, um, what do I call that, a task management email— sorry, task management slash calendar application that we will look into. I want to look into it.

Lars: I'm intrigued.

Morten: I will look into that. Don't you want Maybe next time, but maybe next time after this, we will do another tools check-in for this. Not for this, but for— because I'm intrigued on how you can schedule things, because it is a very good procrastination-killing tool, is to put things on your calendar. And how do you do that best? You know, how do you make sure that you're doing most of the right things? And, you know, okay.

Lars: Lars, will you take us out? I will, but before I do, I just had a personal request for the listeners out there. I may have mentioned it before, and some of you may already know I had this hobby, I would call it, of implementing a GTD list manager. It's been something I've been playing around with since 2011, so it's been ongoing for a while. It has taken many different shapes. I've programmers work on it and they've thrown out code and made some new one and then played around with how I would want it to look. How would I want my ideal list manager, at least for myself, and I.

Morten: Think what would be helpful for— So you're trying to find the holy grail.

Lars: Of getting things done. That's your— Well, I'm trying to make it— there are some things that annoy me with the task management systems out there. I think one of the key things is that I'm very sensitive to the amount of information presented. So that's why I am struggling to use things like OmniFocus, because there are so many things in there. That's why I'm struggling a bit with using Todoist, because as they add more and more features, as many programs will do, it'll tend to be more and more information, and that just easily overwhelms me, to put it that way. So we have a backend already set up. I have developed the frontend. It's written in SwiftUI. And I was curious if there might be any listeners out there who would want to help out with this. So again, this is a hobby project. It's not something that I'm looking for, you know, offers from development companies. But if there are anyone out there that would like to play around with building this kind of simplified list manager, let me know.

Morten: Lars@gtdnordic.dk. Would love to hear from you. And what would be the ideal candidate.

Lars: For making help on this project for you? Someone who is knowledgeable on SwiftUI, I think, would be a good starting point because that's how it's written. So, um, I mean, I'm not a programmer, so I'm kind of self-taught in this area. So it doesn't have to be a ninja expert at it, but ideally a programmer who knows his way around or her way around SwiftUI would be a good starting point. Then I have someone else.

Morten: Already working on the backend part.

Lars: Hmm. Okay, good. That's Lars@gtdnordic.dk. Yes, exactly. And now I will say that we will wrap up this episode with a quick reminder to head on over to vitallearning.eu to have a look around. It's, um, yeah, very well done now. I think we are very close to where we want it to be. The different country websites are slowly starting to emerge, working on those. So head on over there, have a look around, see all the different offerings that we can now help you with both GTD-related and other methodologies and seminars. You'll find all the information there, vitallearning.eu. If you're outside the Nordics, head on over to cruciallearning.com to find your local partners. And just a quick reminder on the GTD Summer Camp, as we did last time, we announced the dates. Just wanted to remind you in case you missed the last episode, June 17th to 18th, 2023, mark your calendars if you might be interested in coming to Denmark and hang out with Morten and myself and all the nicest GTDers in the world. So be sure to be there or be square, as the cool kids say. And lastly, we really hope that you find these episodes valuable. So if GTD has made a difference in your life, please help us spread the message to more people by giving it a rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Or Amazon or wherever you listen. It really helps discoverability.

Morten: So thanks to those of you who will do that. Lars out. Thank you, Lars out. Thank you, everybody, for listening. And until next time, stay safe and stay productive. Bye-bye.

Lars: Bye, Roy.