98. GTD Tools Check-In 2023: A lot of Apple

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 Morten Røvik, and I'm here with my good friend and colleague Lars Rothschild Henriksen. Privet, Lars.

Lars: Privet, Morten. Good to see you as always, and it's always good to be with our viewers and listeners out there. We always start off the episodes with a quick reminder of the purpose of this podcast, which is to help you learn GTD or become even better GTDers. So we hope that today's episode supports you in that. If you are new to GTD, we always recommend you go back and listen to the first episodes, episodes 1 through 6, to get an introduction to the basics of getting things done. Today's episode number is number 98, slowly approaching the 100 number, and today's episode is our annual GTD tools Check-in.

Morten: It is, and we've been making lists of all our hardware and software that we are using to, you know, get our stuff done. And hopefully you, the listener, will find this interesting. I'm, you know, I'm often asked, what, what kind of note-taker do you use? You know, what, what, what are your tools? So hopefully you will find it interesting. I don't know, should we start with software or hardware?

Lars: I think we usually start off with hardware, at least that's where I started off. And yeah, hopefully this will be interesting and inspiring for people. These are some typically some of our most viewed episodes actually on YouTube at least. So hopefully there'll be some good tips and tricks for you listeners and viewers out there.

Morten: Yeah. So would you go first? What's on top of your hardware list?

Lars: Yeah, well, as I went through, I realized I really should be investing in Apple stock because it really wouldn't make sense at this point. So I'm at the office here. I have my trusted old Mac Mini, Intel-based still, so still looking to upgrade that at some point, but for now, still works fine at the the home office, we have the M1 Mac Mini. I can clearly see a difference between these two. So I'm looking forward to upgrading this. Yeah, but time will tell when that happens, at what kind of M number we will be at that point. But yeah, that'll be nice to upgrade that as well. Otherwise, when I'm on the go, it's typically the iPad Pro, still using that. Working more and more with it and becoming more and more friends with it, especially with the most recent iOS updates. It's now working very well. For example, being on the go, the integration between Apple Mail and Reminders, for example, which is something that I rely heavily on in my system, that works just fine. Drag and drop things, and it just works well for me too, that tactile way of working with it. So I'm more and more happy with that, but obviously still has the limitations of being iOS only. So So whenever we do, for example, seminars in Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue, Crucial Conversations for Accountability, which I was just certified in now a month or two ago, whenever we do that, we have custom software running on macOS. So we need the full version. So that's when I had the MacBook Air, I think M1 or M2, forget which one it is, but definitely a very nice machine to work on. Other than that, I think it's, yeah, I'm still on the iPhone, the old one from last year, 14, is it? Or was that the one that just came? I don't know. I have no desire to upgrade this year, at least, like I think most people out there who have the one from last year. Same goes for the Apple Watch, the Ultra, still very happy with that. So also no desire to upgrade. Scattered across home and office, some HomePod Minis as home hubs and for music and just the occasional conversation with Siri. Slowly improving, but still also, I don't know if it's the Danish language version or just Siri in general, still room for improvement there, but we still use it. I think that's almost all the hardware. Other than that, here at the office, I have the Elgato Key Light, which I'm still very happy with, very stable. And the camera running is the Canon EOS DSLR. I don't know which specific version it is. I'm still very happy with that one. I think when I upgrade this machine, I will start to play with the iPhone as a webcam, because from what I've seen going forward, the integration with depth of field and how you can integrate in Keynote or other applications. I think there are, you know, we're at that point where for me there are so many cool tricks now that the iPhone can do as a webcam as opposed to the Canon camera that I may actually be switching to that. But for now, still on the Canon. I think that's about it on my end. What about you?

Morten: Well, to start where you left off with webcam. I'm using an Elgato Facecam 4K, I think it is called. It's the 4K version which I'm downscaling a little. I can zoom and move where I am depending if I'm sitting or standing. You know, we both have sit-stand desks where we can sit and stand, and then that's really good. You can create then scenes. So if I want to show you something that's below where you can see now, I can show you that, like I can show you a thing. And I like that. And there's good software following this. And I think the camera is decent. It could be tweaked the colors a little for this video, but it's okay. For my main computer here at the office, it's Mac Mini M2. M2, which I'm super happy with. Yes, I know you will be jealous, or maybe envious, but, and it is, you know, I'm very normally when I have a Mac, because I've been having Macs for forever, I think, and they last between 5 and 7-ish years for me. So this is an upgrade. I will have this machine for a long time. So I then opted in to have a lot of memory and a big hard drive. So it's not the cheapest Mac Mini M2, but it is, it's a good one. And I have a 27-inch LG monitor, which is big enough for me. I'm using, for those of you who are familiar with Macs, that you have the possibility to do Spaces, I think they are called, where you can then just create as many screens you want and swipe through them with the, you know, a three-finger swipe. You can change to see another screen and have a set of applications there. Like I have now the Ecamm software that we're using to record this is on its own space. My communication is in another space, so I kind of compartmentalize them. Like if I'm doing some video editing that I will be doing later, that will be a separate space where Premiere Pro will live. So that's my Mac Mini.

Lars: That's worth just mentioning because I don't think we'll get back to that. I think that's one of the places where we differ. So I just checked and this Mac Mini that I have is 2018. So that about lines up with your estimate on how long this will last me, probably another year and then upgrade. But I'm on two screens. I think they're both 24 or 27, and I just really, I really, you know, at home I only have one screen and I always miss having two. I really, really like having two screens.

Morten: No, but I switched at some point to a 27-inch iMac, and I have the possibility to add, you know, four screens to this M2 or something like that. You can have as many screens almost as you want because it has the capability. But I don't miss it. It's like, what will I do with the side screen? For me, that will be information that will just distract me. So I'm more into space.

Lars: That means that I can send you my old Mac Mini, right? Because you don't need them. You don't need them. No, but I always seem to have, you know, one thing that I want to reference and one thing that I want to work on, or at least, you know, not throughout the day, but there will be multiple times during the day where I'll I'll want to have, you know, information on one screen that I need to cross-reference with some information on another screen. I'll have my lists on one side, and then I'll have the activity that, you know, I'll look at my list, I'll choose to do one, and then I'll head over and do that one. So I'm— but it does seem to differ for me because that's— if I, you know, know what to argue on, you know, sticking to one screen, and that's part of what I like with the iPad, that it really forces me to just focus on one thing. So I can argue both ways, but definitely when I'm at the office here, I want to, you know, look at the CRM system and then I want to head on over to the mail system and send an email, you know. So I like having both of them on at the same time.

Morten: Yeah.

Lars: Sorry. Back to you.

Morten: That's okay. No, one of the things that I try to find the name of this app that I'm using to set what we call trackpad actions for my computer. And I use something called Swish. It's part of the Setup suite of programs, so that might be something our listener would like to look into. And I use something called— let me see if I can find this. It's in the tab bar. Yes, it's called Yoink. Y-O-I-N-K. Yoink is also part of this setup. And then the reason I'm using this is because then I can program keyboard shortcuts. So I have, I open, I can have a keyboard shortcut that opened, for instance, my weekly review happens on a specific space. And when that space is open, I can just open the apps very quickly with a shortcut. And then I will use another keyboard combination to arrange them the way I want them, that resizes the windows and places them exactly where I want them. And instead of doing that manually, I'm super lazy. So I don't want to spend time doing that. It's like, and then I'm ready for weekly review. Okay. Continuing on my hardware setup, I have a MacBook Air M1 that I used as my main machine to drive this screen, and that was my main machine for a long time. But I wish, you know, I ended up buying the Mac Mini because I didn't have the brains or maybe the economy to buy the harder, bigger hard drive for the M1 MacBook Air, because as I said, the MacBook Air with a big drive and enough memory is just as fast as this M1— sorry, Mac Mini. And it is— and I'm super happy with the Mac Mini. Even the M1 is a good buy. I would buy it today if I wanted to buy a new Mac. I would opt for a little more memory and a bigger hard drive, but it's a super machine. And I have, as you, the iPhone 14, and I think we both had the Pro model with, you know, the good cameras.

Lars: Yeah.

Morten: And I'm using that to take, you know, professional photos when I'm doing, you know, doing something like I do recording with I have a setup with a teleprompter, a small teleprompter that uses the iPhone as the camera, and then an older Android phone I have for, you know, give the prompter. And that works really well. And it's been with many of the videos we made last year for promotion and for the miniseries where we, you know, the free miniseries course that we gave people before. All the videos there is recorded by that. And I have, as I think you also have that, the Apple Watch Pro. You forgot to mention that.

Lars: Ultra. No, I didn't mention it.

Morten: Sorry.

Lars: I did mention it, but yeah.

Morten: You did mention it. Okay. I didn't pay attention then or something. And I have my trusted, which is still serving well. It's an old but very good Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 scanner, which I still use for scanning things. I don't use it very often, but it's still very reliable and it's fast, and I love this machine. And I have a reMarkable 2 to make notes, the digital notes. It's like an e-ink note-taker and PDF viewer. That's how I use it. I use it with integration with Google Drive, so I can pick up any document from Google Drive and from the reMarkable, in the reMarkable. And then as long as I have Wi-Fi coverage, I can do that and then pick it and annotate it and just save it back up or send it to someone, which is good when we are handling translations and we need to look at them. I have to read. I am so easily distracted. Don't ask me to look at something on a normal screen. If you give me the reMarkable, I'm less distracted. It helps me focus and I can annotate and I can yellow marker everything. Thing I want there, and it's a useful way of handling things. And last but not least, I have my trusted Ember mug for keeping my coffee hot. This is a Bluetooth-connected coffee mug which has a stand that charges it, and it has a battery in the bottom that keeps the coffee warm., and I've been really irritated for a long time that my coffee got cold and I had to just pour it out and get— never. Now it's always for 1.5 hours, it will keep my coffee warm. So for all the things you didn't know you needed, Ember mug. I think I have the version 2 or something. I don't.

Lars: Know. You can clearly tell that this really is more Morten's episode than mine. Mine is very simple and basic, straightforward. I think there's nothing, you know, all the cool software and tips. I try to stay sort of very basic and, you know, simple, straightforward. I don't know what the right word would be. Morten has all the cool tech and gear and tips and tricks. So, yeah, always fun to see.

Morten: Yeah, I don't know if I'm going to say this, but I have just had a friend.

Lars: It sounds like you're going to say it.

Morten: Yeah, friends over a couple of weekends ago where we had, I dubbed it the nerd out party where everybody, you know, there's a bunch of beautiful nerds that I know and they brought all their tech and gear and gadgets. And it was a tech fest. It was really cool. We ate good food. We drank good drinks and enjoyed our techs. Show and tell. That was really— it was— and we will do it again. So I will try and involve you in this, Lore, so you have some excuse for buying some new tech. Tech if you need.

Lars: That. Yeah, it sounds expensive.

Morten: Yeah, it probably was, but it is a lot of cool tech I've never seen before. Like, you attach something to a physical object. I think we both have seen this before. We saw it in 2019 when Ulrik Kenneth Nielsen, aka Årsjø, Norwegian a musician who played his bicycle. It means he touched this and you can then assign different sounds to the different parts of the bicycle. When you hit it with your fingers or something, you will understand it gives a sound and you can play it like a rhythmical instrument. So he played a bottle of gin. Nerd out.

Lars: Yes. Very specific use case, I think. Not a lot of people who are looking to play a bottle of gin, but if you need to, now you know how to.

Morten: Yeah, it was. And we had a good friend of mine who is, we call him in the family, we call him the Gin King. He's a gin enthusiast here in Norway who brought the bottle of gin.

Lars: We were talking about.

Morten: Yeah. So he, and he bought a very specific brand of gin that's very rare, and he played that bottle of gin, and he, he, he then made a video of that and sent it to the, the, the producer of the gin. So I don't know what the result has been. Probably he will get a free bottle or something. I don't know. Nice. Okay. Okay. Switching to, to software. Would you like to go first, Lars?

Lars: Yeah, let me go first because I will again, intentionally sticking to a very basic Apple ecosystem approach. So I am still on Apple Reminders. I know a number of people were curious to see whether I would actually stick to this coming from Todoist. Would I be able to actually leave the Todoist platform behind? But that's working very well for me. So especially for capturing, if we take that approach, then certainly Reminders is the key place where I capture things. I also use the Memos app. So again, standard Apple Memos app, corresponding things on Android as well, just to record whatever's on my mind, typically when I'm driving. Right now I'm experimenting with a shortcut where it records into Apple Notes, the Notes app, instead of through the Memos app, because I I anyway use the Notes app as a capture location as well for me. So just to simplify that and not having to open the Memos app would actually work better for me. So playing around with that, hopefully that will work. I don't think it works yet on the phone, so that's why I'm sort of still undecided on whether I will go with that as my standard approach, but something I'm playing around with at least. And then in You know, the Notes app has really— I'm starting to use that as my key storage location for capturing things like meeting notes, for example, or notes for this podcast. They will always go there. And I actually, I've started to really like that now, really become friends with that. So having all the meeting notes there, the default Notes location, the folder where things end up, that's where I'll throw all the different kinds of stuff. And as I clear out the inbox in my Reminders app, I'll head on over to the Notes app as well and go through that that and, you know, capture any actions that I need to take or any waiting for or whatever it might be that I find in those notes. So I'm really liking that actually. It's been very, very, you know, a good addition to my system. Something that I sort of a bit more complex capture tool than in the digital space than reminders would offer me.

Morten: Then I'm sure I can hear our listener asking, why don't you use Siri? And capture straight into Reminderist?

Lars: Well, for me in meetings, it would be a bit tricky to talk to Siri. No, it'll be— So I have a.

Morten: Reminder, but you said for capturing on the go, you still use the memo app or the recording app on your watch. Exactly. But why don't you use that into reminders?

Lars: It's the question. Yeah. So when it's meetings, for example, so I'm looking at a sales meeting now that I had earlier last month. So as I was preparing for that meeting, I was reading about the organization. I had my own notes that I wanted to share with them. I had an agenda that I wanted to walk through with them to share different ideas on how we could certify a trainer with their company or whether I would come and deliver something, whatever, you know, would work best for them. So that was my agenda. Then I had notes from the actual meeting, some of the things that she shared that were critical for them, requirements for how we would deliver the seminar if we were to move ahead with that. So things like that were just captured there.

Morten: And I like having them separate. It's not strictly like capture on the go, but it's more like capture ideas around the subject or a meeting and.

Lars: Support material for the meeting from a GTD perspective. And then I'll capture, you know, there was, we talked about perhaps they wanted to do a questionnaire. So I have a sort of a snapshot before and after. I said, well, I know, I know someone in Norway who made a really nice one. Let me share that with you. So that's one of the actions here. And there was some other actions to share the course information and things like that.. So that'll be in my, just the one called notes in the notes app. And then I'll just put everything in there and walk through that and grab those actions. Less than 2 minutes, do them right away. Longer, get them into the CRM system or get them onto the list depending on what it was. So that's working. That's probably the most recent change to my system. And I'm actually really, really enjoying that, that there's a lot of flexibility flexibility in using the notes there. So really, really happy with that. And then I have my good old-fashioned paper next to me. This is actually the one I started using now. I ran out of paper with the— oh, what's it called? The one you have as well, the French one, the Exacompte something, something that we got. Yeah, something like that. I ran out of paper and I did not order it yet. So right now I am using the GTD Summer Camp 2022 notes, notepads that we had made back then. A lot of good ideas ending up on, on that paper. So actually enjoying using, using that. And then it goes into my new in-tray since last year. It's— I think I've had it for about 6 months, but we both have it now here at the office. It's from MUJI. M-U-J-I. Has this wooden two-layer in-tray, really nice. Just, you know, yeah, it's just, it looks good, it's nice to have, you know, fancy tools for something like this. So really pleased with that one.

Morten: Don't underestimate the attraction of the things you will use if you like.

Lars: Yeah, exactly. No, and I just, you know, it looks good, it's very sturdy, it's, yeah, I'm very happy with it. Other than that, from a capture perspective, yeah, OneNote still for general reference, but don't really capture anything into OneNote. It's really more of an organized thing. Of course, Apple Mail for emails. It all ends up in there. Able to integrate that with reminders, that works well, like I said, both on the Mac and on the iPad. So, so happy with that as well. I think from a capture perspective, that's pretty much what I use: the Reminders app, the Memo app, or the shortcut to Notes, the Notes app itself, Paper, and Mail. I think that is what I was able to bring it down to. That's the minimum level. Obviously, we have other communication channels that we would use internally, like the Google Suite and things like that. But I think these are sort of the most the most common ones for me. What about you when we talk capture, if we were to take that approach?

Morten: Capture, well, I use my Apple Watch for capture into reminders for, you know, everyday remember to buy cat food kind of stuff. And I do agree with you that Siri has a long way to go, but she is slowly improving, especially with the last iOS 17. I think she's been becoming more and more intelligent, which I'm fascinated by. You can actually ask follow-up questions, which is kind of like she was— you asked her a question, she asked before she was notoriously forgetful because she will not remember what you said 3 seconds ago. So it's like you never said it, so you can't ask follow-up questions. Now you can. But for reminders, I use that, and I use my iPhone sometimes, but mostly my Apple Watch because it's on my wrist all the time. And it will capture into my reminders inbox where I will then clarify and organize it later. And I also capture on paper here in the office on the Exacompta Block Faf— it's a very strange name, but it is a sturdy— it keeps it still on the table, it doesn't move. And it's— yeah, and I use just a— let's get nerdy— a small— now it's small, but it is a Faber-Castell pencil. I like pencils for note-taking. And then I I also use my Capture wallet sometimes, and I use my, I have a wallet with a very small pad. Now you should be on the video. If you're not on the video listening to this, you should jump into morterovic.gtd and you see what I'm showing you. It's called, can I show this? Mini Moto. Sorry. It's a minimal, very small and very thin, what do you call it, a ballpoint pen with a small— let's see if I can do this. And you can— and it's remarkably sturdy. And it is a little— if you have big fingers or big hands, this will not work for you. But it is— if you have medium-sized or small hands, this works really well.. And it sticks into the side of my wallet. So I always have it with me. And this has been with me for more than 2 years, I think. And this plastic thing that is, you know, I stick into the side of the wallet like this. It's like new. I don't know what they made it of. It looks like super plastic or something. So that's my capture tools. And, uh, should I continue in like a reference or where do you want to go now?

Lars: Yeah, that's a good question. And I could just add that I also still have the, uh, the Capture wallet and I still use that sometimes as well. For example, when, you know, delivering a seminar and someone says something or they're doing an exercise and I'm reminded about something, I'll, I'll still pick that out of the, the bag and, and, and write things down because, yeah, it's just a, a nicer way to, uh, to, um, to stay present.

Morten: Let's put it that way. It is. We are easily distracted.

Lars: Don't show us any notifications. No, and also, you know, people will have different ideas of what you're doing if you're standing there with your phone. So to be safe, I like to stick to paper. Yeah, so if we go to organize, I'm, like I said, still on the Reminders app. I think it's working well for me. I think the integration with Apple Mail is is a key piece here, and that's, that, that is very solid. I am not missing the link between projects and next action, so I know that's one area where you and I will, will differ in our system setup. I don't have that link, and I am really liking it, but, but that may— I think we referenced it in an earlier episode— that may be because I have relatively few projects in my system right now, so that's maybe why I'm okay with, without that link. But for now, I I really appreciate the simple lists and the simpler they get, the better for me. So without that link, I'm still very happy. Many of the projects that I have will either have checklists, so they'll be in a Google Sheet right now. That's where they are placed, or they will be in the CRM system where we still use Pipedrive to manage all of that customer activities. So very happy with it. One thing that I'm playing around with is how I want to organize it. Good thing that was added to Reminders was the ability to group lists, which enabled me to distinguish between the work-related lists and the personal-related lists. So having them in separate groups really helped me. So I have a work group where I have all my different lists. I have a personal one where I have all my different lists as well. And the way that I've grouped it right now, just to go into a bit more detail is that I have my inbox at the top as usual. I actually have a short list of the most important things for me to focus on right now from a work perspective. So I actually put that in a separate place just below the inbox. It's a new thing for me. I did that I think last week or the week before. So something I'm playing around with. But like I said, I want to really have very simple lists. And as soon as my lists grow to 15, 20 next actions as my Mac list might do, then I'll pick out some and put on that high, you know, focus on this first kind of, kind of list. So playing around with that, see how, how that works. But otherwise, I have a list of my projects, work-related coaching clients, work to do at the Mac, sales-related work, finance list, my trusted old zombie list, some videos to watch, and my, my waiting for list, of course. So you'll find them in my in my work list. Then I have my personal stuff, personal projects. I have split my stuff I need to do at home into, you know, one list, and then the hobby things. I'm really trying to focus more on hobbies and becoming better at spending time on my hobbies again, which I have sort of fallen off. So they have a separate list because for me it just, it annoyed me that I had you know, this fun hobby thing to do next to, you know, cleaning the drains or whatever things in the kitchen. It just— not some funny things. Those weren't the options that I wanted to choose from, right? So they ended up on separate lists actually. So I have my hobby list there, stuff to do at the summer house, waiting for something, maybe personal as well. They go on those lists. And then actually, I'm guessing this is different from yours as well, or perhaps it's the same as yours. I don't remember, but I have created a separate group group for agendas because I have so many agenda lists that I just, it was just overwhelming to see them when I opened up the, all right, time to do some work. Let me look through my work list and see what's there. And there were, you know, 7 different agenda lists that would clutter up the space. So they actually have their own group now. Not ideal, but better than it, it was before. Last 2 groups, one is just other lists that I did not want to see anywhere else. So they have their own space to, to go to. And one group for error parents because we have different errands lists that we both utilize. So they have their own group. And the last one, the bottom one, is one just called planned. So I don't know if this might be helpful for some of you out there listening, but I had, you know, I have a number of next actions that are either time-based or location-based, and they needed to live somewhere. And they don't, they're not really a tickler because some of them are sort from, yeah, like I said, location-based. For example, next time I'm at the summer house, the neighbor asked me to check if the gardener had been there to do X, Y, and Z. Those kinds of things. So they have the bottom list where all the stuff I have planned with either reminders from a date perspective or.

Morten: Geolocation, they all go in there. Can I ask a question there? Because are you using then just a list for the location, or are you using location-based notifications? Or both. Location-based notifications. Yeah. Okay. So when you arrive at your summer.

Lars: House, this will show up on your radar. Yes, exactly. Exactly. So that's really the full setup. Where can I still improve? I think I still put dates on too many things. I think that corresponds also to how my brain works. So that's still a focus for me, but I think that's improving. Right now I have a pretty full inbox, but that's also because I just I just came home last night from a vacation in Cyprus. So a lot of good ideas that showed up on the vacation that I did not clarify and organize while we were there. That's part of today's activities. Nothing in notes. Mails, I just, I did the emergency scanning and organizing on the vacation. So I have a number of mails that I need to get to, but otherwise I think this this works very well for me. I'm happy with the list, happy with the setup. Yeah, I think this is probably the best setup for me. And lastly, I don't think we covered it, the calendar. I use mostly the built-in Apple calendar. When I need more detail, I need to view your calendar, I need to schedule meetings, I'll head on over to the Google version on the website. But other than that, I think that's about it. Perhaps I'll be reminded when you go.

Morten: Through your list of other stuff that I still use. You can append at the end. Yes. No, I am, as you, using Apple Reminders. And I think our setup is more or less, you know, not identical, but it resembles each other's. I also use groups for group lists. Together and to be able to hide them. Like, I have a group for my next actions that I can open or close. I have also, as you have, an agenda for lists that can be opened and closed, which makes it easier for— I can then choose who I want to see. I also have some repeating tasks that I will do that will become active-as-day specific tasks. Something that I'm doing once a month, like clean the Roborock. I have some money I must send every month. I would like to weigh myself every morning to keep an eye on my weight. And then I have some water the orchids once a week. That's my job in the home. And, um, yeah, and, um, so, and, and I have ideas to nice things to do. That's probably something you also have. If you find something you would like to do with your, your beautiful wife, you will probably put it somewhere to be reminded of it at some— yeah. So, and we have things to do there. And then I have the Weekly Review Checklist, which is then just a— it's not a checklist itself, but it's linked to my note where I have the checklist. Because in Apple Notes, I do the checklist for the Weekly Review. And I do, as you, enjoy the integration between the different apps in the Apple ecosystem. And because of Notes becoming such a grown-up grown up. And Apple Reminders as well becoming grown up when it comes to what they can do and the stability and the integration with the Google Calendar. It makes it compelling. Like if I have something that I really just have to set outside time for today, I can do that by— this is iOS 17 specifically— but if I'm on the— or not specifically, but iOS I can, I can open up the calendar, I can open up the reminders app, and then I can take a reminder, tap and hold, and I can drag it out in the air, and then I can swipe so I get the calendar view, and then I drop it where I want to do that. And that is such a beautiful little thing to do. Now my focus is I will set aside 30 minutes or 1 hour to work on this next action. It's a way to prioritize. I use my calendar for making sure I'm doing the right things. Because hello everybody, my name is Morten and I sometimes procrastinate. I don't like that and I would like to do it as little as possible. So just push me to do the difficult things that I feel like, "Oh, do I really have to do this?" And then grown-up inside me says, "Yes, you have to." And I use, as you, Apple Notes, but for me the Apple Notes is the landing place for what I call active notes. Notes that I'm working on where I have some project I would like to, you know, like it's my project reference material like action support and project support. And it is a way to keep that and that could of course be linked to the project in the reminders so that I can, you know, easily to that information.

Lars: I can also— I've been using that a lot actually. You mentioned that, I guess at the summer camp, or perhaps at some other time before that when we met. But yeah, just, you know, the link, I certainly use that as well, where you just take a note, drag it into reminders, and then you have that link back. So whenever I have a project with the support material, that's how I'll create that project, my project list, by just creating that note. Adding the thoughts that I needed to capture there and then drag it to Reminders to make sure that I have it.

Morten: So, a really good tip. Yeah, it is. And it works really well and it's easy to do that. And you can also in Apple Reminders take a photo of something and then attach it to the reminder or just open the reminder, create a new reminder and take the photo. So, you have, if there's something specifically you would like to, like, you see some, something you like a gift idea or, you know, whiteboard you would like to reference as part of your reference material. You can very fast and easy both capture it in Notes but also in Reminders. That's powerful. And I also use the Apple Reminders for, as you do, location-based reminders. So when I arrive at my father's place, I'm reminded of things I need to get done there. And when I get to the office, if something really critical I need to do the first thing. Like if I get into the car, if something I need to do, and it is easy to say, call dad when I leave here. So when you're, you know, I think 50 meters from your location, it will automatically pop up, which is beautiful. It's easy and it frees up my brain for thinking different thoughts. And I use, I don't know if you use that, you mentioned OneNote, but I'm using Devonthink. It is more like— that's more my database of information that I need to get back to. I use Devonthink where I can then create notes. I can create a link to that note and put it in either, you know, the Action Support part if I wanted to use this in Notes, or more often in Reminders as a link to the project. Or I have a coaching client. My coaching client has a folder in that database where all the notes I take reside. My Remarkable notes also end up there when we finish the client's active coaching. And it is a trusted place for me to— and it syncs to my MacBook Air so I can have it with me if I I need that. And I use something that's, I don't know if you use that, but I use the Hook app for make connections between files on my computer or anywhere really to anywhere. Have you used Hook, Lars? Nope. No. No, I looked at it first one time and I said, I don't understand this. And then I give it a second try and I don't understand this. And then I took the time to see the videos.

Lars: Well, I think you've mentioned it in the previous two years, so perhaps now.

Morten: I will get it. So yeah, but it is, it took, it took me quite a while to understand why on earth do I need this. But imagine that you are in somewhere, you don't have to even know where it is, but you have a file on your computer or in the, in the cloud. And then you can just make, you have a shortcut I think mine is Ctrl+H. I can't even remember in my fingers, but if I do Ctrl+H, it will create a— comes up a little window with that name of that file or the folder, and then I can say Ctrl+Command+C to copy that location and then paste it anywhere, and it will be a direct connection to that link— sorry, to that file or folder.. And then I can connect several files. So I can have, for instance, I have 3 files in one folder relating to a project, and then I have another, you know, it can be a web link or anything really that you can create a link to, and then just combine them into one. So if I open one and I go down the shortcut for Hook, it will show you all the other files that's connected to that. So you can use it to connect to a plethora of different sources into one link that you can keep in your, for me, in reminders. And that works really well. But it took some time for me.

Lars: To understand how I'm going to do that. Yeah, still didn't.

Morten: Get me. Next year, maybe. Okay. And I mentioned, on the Mac as a productivity tool is one of the things I've always been super frustrated with is how the Finder works. Because if you have to move a file, let's say you find a file and you have to drag it into email, you have to attach it to an email, but the email is somewhere else, and then it disappears behind the window and everything is lost. I don't know if you have that frustration.. But this, and I gave you the wrong name before for the window layout tool that I used. It's called Moom, M-O-O-M, Moom. And it's part of the setup suite of apps that I'm subscribing to. So, but the file I'm going to talk about now is called Yoink. I remember that, Y-O-I-N-K. Yoink. And what it does is just any file you have anywhere on your computer and just click on it and drag it a few, you know, just a little short space outside where it is. Then the Yoink window shows up close to where you have this and you can just drop it there. It's just a small square with a, with some symbol in it and you drop it and then that moves it to the side of the page. Page— sorry, of your screen— and it's hovering over all our other screens. So when you find where you want to drop that, like let's say inside an email or another folder, or if you want to upload to the web, you can just then drag from the Yoink little window and wherever you want it to go. And just simple as that. Sounds useful. That is very useful. And I have one more app I to share with our listeners is called CleanShot, also part of the setup. It sounds like now I'm promoting setup, but it is a really good suite of programs. If you know, it's like an app store, you make a subscription for setup, and then you have access to all the programs in that, like iStatMenus. I use that all the time, a lot of other different apps as well. But the CleanShot is an alternative to screenshots. You know, the screenshot shortcut that you have on the Mac to create a screenshot, you can then just disable that and enable CleanShot instead. And it's a more versatile, more interesting way of doing it. It's— and it becomes, as I said with JoinQ, you have a little window that when you take the screenshot, it lives on the side It doesn't, it's not saved to the desktop, which is my main concern with, with the, with the built-in screenshot tool from Apple. It's like, where did that go? Well, it's on, then you have to do the 5-finger or 4-finger spread, and then you get to the desktop and then go back. And then there's a lot of, it's.

Lars: A lot easier, faster. I like that. I actually used to struggle with that one as well, but learned that if you just add control into that mix. So it does require that you, you remember one more, but then just it's copied to the clipboard. So it never creates those files. So that's what I use all the time. Shift Command Control 3 to make a full screen screenshot and Shift Control Command 4 to make it just to the clipboard, a smaller version of it.

Morten: So that's for those of you who don't have that app. Exactly. And what this, the CleanShot, can do as well is to do what we call a scrolling capture. So if you're on a web page, you can then start capturing that web page and you can scroll and it will take the whole page in one go. Do you understand? So the result will be the full page even though you can't see that on your Mac. And it has— you can also record your screen. So you can record screen and use that as a camera. If you want. So I could, I could use that now as a camera here instead, and I can show my screen. I can be as a little, you know, window on the side square, or yeah, it has a lot of extra functionality. And it has what I call the Capture History, where I can go back and look at everything that I captured and get back to it if I need to. So that's CleanShot. I think that was what I wanted to mention. I think we have a very close to an episode.

Lars: We are at 50 minutes soon. So, whoops. No, but it always, you know, we, we, we, there's a lot to mention. We use a lot of tools. I want to share some, some tips. I want to spend a bit of time going into the details of the list or whatever it might be. I think for me, one more thing to add. TextExpander. I think you just use TextExpander. I still use the one called aText. Works well for me. Also some shortcuts that I use, for example, for stopping and starting meetings. So I'll hit that and it'll send me to do not disturb mode and it'll turn on the switch, which turns on the key light, which turns on the camera, things like that. So that stops the music from playing at the office, things like that. Love it. That's, I like that one. I don't have many, but that one I really like. So definitely, yeah, play around with those shortcuts.

Morten: It can certainly make your life easier. Yeah. And I just was, I was just reminded of another app. I have to mention that. Sorry, guys. But it is a really cool one. It's a Norwegian actually who develops this. It's called Dato, Dato in Norwegian, which means date. And it has the possibility to live in your, what do you call that.

Lars: Taskbar, the top bar, what do you call that again?

Morten: Yeah, the top right.

Lars: Yeah.

Morten: Yeah, the taskbar. I think it is called taskbar. But at least on the top bar of your, where you can replace it, where it becomes, you take away your date and time symbol and it will take over that place. And when you have a meeting, like what I use it for is that it has a calendar. But what is really cool is that if you have an online meeting like a Zoom or a Teams meeting or a Google meeting, it will understand that it actually has that in it. And when I then look at, look at this on the side, it will give me— I think it is 1 hour before, it will tell you your next online meeting is 'Plus 1 hour and 30 minutes.' Okay, I understand that. But when it's 5 minutes over, you can— 5 minutes before, I've set it up to take over my screen, blank the screen, and say, 'In 5 minutes you have a meeting, prepare.' So you can dismiss that and/or say, 'Repeat when the meeting starts,' which I use. So when I'm— then I have— okay, I had to gather my head together and, you know, revisit the notes and make ready for that meeting., and it helps me to be focused on what I'm doing. And then it takes over and kicks me out of whatever I'm doing. It doesn't kick you out, but it blanks the screen and I can't see what's behind it before I dismiss that message and said, get ready, you have 5 minutes to the next meeting. And, and it then opens the meeting and starts, starts the program, opens the meeting, which is beautiful. Dato, D-A-T-O, and I think it is actually a free app. You can search on it on GitHub or somewhere. Search for Data Owl Mac app. I'm.

Lars: Sure you will find it. Okay. Finished. Okay. Right. And yeah, before we do the usual wrap-up, well, we've been doing this a couple of times now, but like I said in the beginning, this is episode 98, which means that 100 is is now pretty close. A quick reminder about a favor that we wanted to ask of all of you out there listening. We would really appreciate if we, you know, got an email from you with an audio snippet or a video recording or whatever it might be. Just any sort of greeting that you would like to give us on the 100th episode, then we will see how we can integrate them into the episode, have a bit of fun with it. Thanks to those of you who have already submitted submitted. We've both received audio, we've received video. There's room for plenty more. So, and now we are approaching the deadline. I know some of you asked me, so when is the deadline? When do you need them? Let's say now is a good time to record it and send it to us so we can put it all together. It doesn't have to be shiny, fancy, polished in any way. Whatever you can send us, we really appreciate. So you probably also know where to send it, podcast@vitallearning.com. @kallekraut.dk. That is the place to send it. So hope to hear from more of you.

Morten: Would be a lot of fun. Yeah. And thanks to all of you who write to us there and tell us about your experiences and how the podcast has helped you and your listeners' questions. That helps us keep.

Lars: It going for the next 100 episodes. Hopefully. And then I guess on to the usual wrap-up. Take us out. Unless you have anything. Let's do that. And we always do that with a quick reminder for you to head on over to vitallearning.eu because that's where you'll find all of the information about the company, the different offerings that we have regarding getting things done, the different seminars, coaching, speeches, also the other seminars that we offer: Crucial Conversations: Mastering Dialogue, Crucial Conversations for Accountability, Crucial Influence, The Power of Habit. You will find it all there, including links to the different country websites where you can read more in your local language. If you are not in the Nordic countries, head on over to cruciallearning.com to find your local partners as well to learn GTD in one of their really good seminars.

Morten: Now back to you. Okay, it's time for me to say what I normally say.

Lars: Until next time, stay safe and stay productive.

Morten: Bye-bye, bye everyone.