Podcast Transcript
00:00
I am right now offering a $10 Starbucks gift card if you are willing to jump on a 20-minute call with me because right now, I’m trying to make sure that I create content that you want. And I think that, for me to do that, I need to really understand what you want to have. So if you’re willing to jump on a call with me, please reach out. I will put my email in the show notes. I would love to hear from at least five people, please; I really would love to hear from you. Okay, well, that’s all I wanted to say is, please.
01:01
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the productivity pie podcast. My name is Shevonne. And here we talk about productivity and organization and ways to boost those. So then, you can have a work-life balance that works for you. So welcome, everybody. So today, I wanted to talk about what would make the perfect productivity app for me. I have used so many different to-do apps and project management apps, and I still haven’t found one that really embodies everything I want. And I’m going to share one of my goals with you. One day, I hope to work with a development team or learn how to do it myself and create the productivity app that I love and share it with everyone. So that is a goal that I hope can come true in the next couple of years. But for now, I have to use the available ones. And there are some great ones out there. I’m not trying to say that there aren’t some great to-do apps and project management apps out there. Some of my favorites are Asana, Trello, Notion, Todoist, Wunderlist, and they were bought by Microsoft. Still, I loved Wunderlist is probably my favorite. And then there’s also Google task, Google reminders. And those types of iPhone reminders. If you use an iPhone, I will go ahead and just go through the list that I created of what I think makes a perfect productivity app. And I would love to hear from you to hear your thoughts on what you want out of a productivity app. So let’s go ahead and get started. The first thing can have descriptions. Some don’t allow you to do that. And I think that that is a missed opportunity because that gives people the chance to add more detail about that task. And as well as put links in there, add photos, just make it useful to them. And if they work in a team, it’s also a great way to have the team know in more depth what that task is about. So definitely having the ability to add descriptions that include adding links, photos, and even the ability to add icons if they’re using their phones, emojis, and pictures. I think that is so useful. The other thing I have on my list is the ability to have recurring dates. And one thing about recurring dates is there are the ones that are standard, like let’s say if you create a task and add for it to happen on Wednesdays, but some to-do apps take that as the date instead of the weekday. So that is where when I love that, you’re able to customize it. So Google does a great job of this. You’re able to indicate if you want it to be, let’s say October 2 or every Wednesday, and have the ability to pick the different days of the week. So just having the ability to have recurring dates with the ability to customize the frequency of those dates. Next is the ability to have two-way sync to a calendar, and preferably for me, it would be Google because that’s what I use. But Asana does that as well as to do it. And that’s very useful because instead of it staying on your Google Calendar, or let’s say on the to-do app, you’re able to have that two-way sync that if you do complete it on your to-do or project management app, then
04:59
It syncs in that way. So that is always great. I know some do like one-way sync, but to me, that doesn’t really help at all. The other thing is notifications. Having the ability to have notifications on your phone, and customize the sound of the notification, a lot of the to-do apps and project management apps, don’t allow you to change the sound. So it sounds like the default one on your phone. And that it’s just too much if you’re able to customize the sound of that notification. So you know, that is a reminder that you set your for yourself for a task; I would love that so much. I also think the ability to color code. So I will say that I love Google Tasks, but the main flaw is that I don’t use it much anymore because you’re not able to color code it. What I mean by that is, if you’ve ever seen my Google Calendar YouTube video, I color code my Google Calendar by the different life categories I have or projects. And the thing that sucks about Google tasks is that you’re able to have separate lists, which are great, but you’re not able to color-code them. So all the tasks are the same color. And you’re not really able to differentiate between if this is on, let’s say, the family list or is it on the personal development list. So a way to color-code those tasks is amazing, Asana, and that’s why I’m starting to use Asana more and more Asana allows you to do that. And what’s even better is the fact that even within that list, so in Asana, it would be like your project, you’re able to add tags. And on that specific project, you’re able to even see color-coding of that calendar based on those tags. So to me, color coding is handy because I can visibly differentiate between the different tasks. The other one boards, project management tools have that like Asana Trello. And to do is just recently added that I think maybe like a year ago to start adding boards. I love that you can also do boards on Google, but it’s a third-party tool. It is called task boards, I believe. And that helps because instead of just being one long list, you’re able to see them broken down by boards. They’re using the inspiration of the Agile methodology, which is like the scrum or the Kanban boards. So I think that that’s where those boards have come into play. And being someone who is a certified Scrum Master, I find boards very useful. So yes, boards are always a must to have also a calendar view. So I like the fact that on Asana, you’re able to see List boards and calendars. And you can pick and choose which one notion also has that as well as to do is. And I just love the fact that you’re able to have different views for your task. The other one is mind-mapping; the only project management app I have found is task aid. So if you haven’t heard of task aid, check them out. They’re great, as well. And I love the fact that you’re able to mind map for those people who are huge users of mind mapping. I know that I do that. I love that they have mind mapping as one of the views for your task. Of course, have a phone app, don’t just have iPhone or Android; have both versions. And I understand that development-wise, and also because of some of the guidelines and rules you have to follow for each. That’s why you don’t see some companies off the bat offer both. But yeah, if you can start off with one and then eventually offer the other one. That’s great. But yeah, having both phone and Android apps for your to-do or project management, I’m just going to go ahead and call it a productivity app because I feel like I just want one that embodies both. And that would be really nice. One thing that to do is has that I love is gamification. So gamification is basically if you’re a gamer like I am. It’s just the ability to feel like, oh wow, I got this badge, or I got like I know to give you like a unicorn. When you achieve the number of goals you want to like, tick off for the day. So I think that that is something that it
09:59
It would be helpful for people who need that extra arm to feel like they did something. I think gamification is always good to have.
10:12
Also, a widget, a lot of the productivity apps now have widgets. But I think that that is definitely a must-have. Chrome Extensions, so I can clip things and have it for later, especially for my true crime channel. I love that I can see news articles and stuff and clip it to that productivity app and then know that I can work on it later. So I think that Chrome extensions are excellent integrations. Additionally, it can have integrations, whether calendars, notes, type of apps, or just those types of integrations. So like IFTTT, Zapier, Automate.io, I think they were just bought by Notion, have the ability for me to integrate with stuff. So even though this is not a productivity app, Google Keep. And I noticed that Google does that. So just let me integrate the stuff with other things, please. This should probably have been the first one, but it has a nice streamlined user interface that is easy to use. Don’t make it so complicated to the point that I just give up. Because even if you have a great productivity app and your user interface is a mess, I’m not going to look at it. So definitely have an easy user interface that anyone can understand. The other thing, too, is that when someone is starting out, give a quick tutorial using the functionality of the productivity app. I love when apps do that. I’m someone who is a kinesthetic learner. So I’m hands-on, which helps me a lot. So I love that it has a bunch of templates. Oh my god, I love when productivity apps have templates. Because sometimes people need something to start off with. So if you give them templates, that will make their life so much easier. Definitely, I use templates all the time, have great tech support.
12:16
Oh my gosh, luckily, I have not encountered any productivity app that has crappy tech support. PayPal is probably the worst tech support I’ve ever had to deal with. So if you have something like PayPal tech support, you need to revamp your tech support. But yeah, definitely have excellent tech support, can have rules. So one of the reasons why I stopped using Trello was because they had a cap on how many roles you can have. And I was paying for Trello. And they had a cap on the roles that you could use. So I was using roles as if I finished this one task, it would automatically push it to another board. But then I found out after they were like, hey, you’ve reached your cap that they had, I think it was like 500 actions. And that really sucked. But I am assuming that they did that because of performance issues. Like if people have multiple ones, it could affect the performance of the system. I honestly don’t know. But that really sucks. So just give people the ability to have those rules, and then not have the cap below, make it like 1000 or 2000. So I know that Trello is changing its structure. And I think that now it’s higher. But yeah, definitely give me the ability to automate some of the processes and don’t leave the caps for each of the actions to be so small. Also, have Alexa and/or Google Home integrations. As you all know, if you’ve watched my YouTubes, I am a huge Google Home user. And I also have a Google Assistant. And just giving me the ability to use that to create new tasks would be great. Also, Siri, because I’m starting to use Siri more and more because I’ve noticed that they’re improving series, I use Siri like crazy. And the ability to also, if you’re using an iPhone, have shortcuts. And then last but not least, can create subtasks. Also, have those subtasks have their own separate dates and the ability to assign them if you aren’t part of a team. And then as well as allow each of those subtasks to have their own separate rules if you have that automation. Yes, that is all I want in a productivity app. As you heard, it’s a lot because I’ve used so many and then I realized what I missing. So I would pay for a productivity app that has all of this stuff.
14:59
I really would write now the closest that I’ve found to the perfect productivity app is Asana. Asana has the majority of it. So yes, give me all of that, and I will be happy. Let me know what would make a perfect productivity app for you. I would love to hear it. Not gonna lie. I would probably use it to create when I’m ready to develop my app. I probably use some of your ideas, because believe me, I just find a productivity app so helpful. So please share it. The pandemic has made us realize that we want to have the flexibility to work at home, whether full-time, part-time. We just want to have that there. It helped a lot of us with our work-life balance, spending more time focusing on our families and other hobbies. And so we want to continue that. So what if I told you that there was a job site primarily for people looking for those Remote Jobs? Well, I have the job site for you. That is flex jobs, calm. They are mainly focused on providing job seekers, companies, and jobs focused on having that flexibility that people are looking for. They have a great website, easy to navigate, great tools. And what’s even great is that they even have events, webinars, and job search articles to help you navigate that job search process you’re currently in. So yeah, definitely check them out. And if you want, go ahead and use my link, link dot productivity pi.com slash flex jobs. I’m telling you, you won’t be disappointed. Thank you so much for listening to the productivity pod podcast. Be sure to visit productivity pie comm to access the show notes, check out the videos, check out the other content. And also, if you can, please subscribe, give it a five-star rating and review, and I will talk to you next week. Bye for now.
