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Tell me if this sounds familiar.

You're about to set up a meeting with someone, so you sent off an email, and you asked the following question: "Hey, can you meet with me this coming Tuesday?" And they reply back, saying, "Sorry, I've got another commitment. How about later on the same day? How about Tuesday afternoon?" And you received their email and say, "Mmm, sorry, I'm leaving work early that day. How about Wednesday? Wednesday afternoon?" To which they reply, "Nope, no can do. I've got another meeting at that time," and they suggest another time, and you suggest another time, and there's an awful lot of back and forth, back and forth as you try to find the ideal meeting time.

Well, today, I want to share with you a tool that is going to eliminate all of this back and forth, and it's called Assistant.to. You can find it at assistant.to, not .com, but assistant.to.

And what this Gmail add-on does is it helps you to not only invite someone to find the ideal time, but it actually creates that meeting for the both of you, all with just a single email.

Now, Assistant.to is only for Gmail users at this point if you want to create the invitation, but you can send this invitation to any user. It doesn't matter what the receiver is using. As long as you're using Gmail, you can use Assistant.to.

First steps, you'll need to install it, and Assistant.to comes as a Chrome extension, so it will be installed here in your browser. But let's go into our email. Let's see how it works here.

So I'm going to open up a new message. I'm going to find my test account here, and let's say I'm doing a new meeting. "Can we meet this week?" And I say, "Hi, Scott, looking forward to talking with you soon."

So at this point, I'd like to propose a few different times. You know, in the past, I may have suggested one time or two times, you know, just here in the description or just here in the subject of the email. But Assistant.to makes it so much easier.

At this point, I'm going to come down to the lower right-hand corner of my screen, and once you have Assistant.to installed as your extension, you're going to see this icon in the lower right-hand corner of the message that you're writing.

So I'm going to click on it, and what's going to happen is I'm going to see a new dialog box, which looks very, very similar to any calendar event or any other meeting that you may be setting up. We've got a title up here. It comes with sort of a stock title here. I'm going to change that. I'm going to say this is "Scott and Scott Chat."

Location: it is going to be phone-based, so I'm going to leave that there. Here, you can add one or more invitees, so I'm going to add the email address of the person that I'm sending it to. I could add additional ones if I wanted to as well. This is going to be helpful, so it adds it to their calendar as well.

And then, of course, we've got a description area where you can add phone numbers, maybe a link to your video conference, whatever else you'd like to include in the description.

Now, down below, we've got a snapshot of our calendar, and we can change the meeting length if we want. But the great thing about seeing your calendar is you can see the other commitments that are already on your calendar at that time.

So I'm going to push this out a few days. I'm going to look ahead at the following week, and I'm going to make a few suggestions. So all I need to do, with my 30-minute meeting length selected, is I'm going to select a few possible times.

I'm going to say 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday. I'm going to say 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday. And also, let's drag that one down, 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday. And then I'm also going to suggest 10:00 a.m. on Thursday. So I've got four different times that I'm available, and I'm hoping that that's going to be enough variety for the person that I'm sending it to.

So at this point, with all the information filled in and a few different choices, I'm going to select "Insert Times into Email," and what happens is you can see I've got a little bit of additional text here. It automatically adds this line in: "I'd like to set up a 30-minute meeting. Click on the meeting start time that works for you."

This is text-based, so if you'd like to alter this or change this, you certainly can. But down below, now we've got some clickable options for the person receiving this email, and the great thing is that they can take a look at this, make their selection, and immediately you will be notified, and it will also be added to your calendar.

So I'm happy with this here. All I have to do next is select "Send."

And now, let's go back into my test account here. It might take just a few seconds for me to receive that email. This is who I sent it to.

There we go. "Can we meet this week?" I'm going to open up this email, and this is what it looks like to the person receiving it, just like what we saw when we created it. So I can take a browse down here and say, "Well, I'm busy Tuesday. I'm away for a conference on Wednesday. Hey, Thursday at 10 a.m., that works for me."

So the receiver clicks on the link, clicks on their selected time, and look at that—it gives me a confirmation. "You're all set. You've successfully scheduled a meeting. Here are the details."

I can always select a different time—maybe I made a mistake, or maybe I'd like to change it. I can always select a different time, but I've confirmed, I've selected that meeting time.

Let's go back now to our original email, right? This is the person who has sent it, and this is what we receive. Assistant.to gives us a confirmation email telling us that that person has selected a meeting time, and here's the bonus: it's been added to your calendar.

So now if I go to November 16th, look at that—here is that invitation. It has been added directly to my calendar, all with a single email. So I've got all of the details: if I added a description, phone, the title of my meeting—it's all here. Here's the person that I've invited.

And Assistant.to will also add an additional link here, so if I want to reschedule, if I need to make some changes, I can always select this link, and the receiver will also have this link, so if they want to make a change, they can do so as well.

Speaking of which, let's go back to the receiver. Let's see what happens on their end. Let's go back to their inbox, and they receive an invitation from me, almost as if I had gone and created this meeting invite, right? This looks just like a regular meeting invitation. Do I accept? Am I tentative? Am I going to decline? But I really haven't done any of this; Assistant.to has done all of the work for me, all from that single email. I gave it some options, I gave the meeting details, and all the receiver had to do was select one time, and now we are all set.

I've got that meeting in my calendar, they can select "Accept," they will now have the meeting in their calendar, and we are ready to go.

So I would suggest you take a look at Assistant.to. It reduces so much of the back and forth, back and forth, as you are trying to find the ideal meeting time with the person that you are wanting to meet with.

Again, Assistant.to is only for Gmail users if you want to be able to invite people, but anyone can receive Assistant.to invitations. As you saw in my example, I was using Outlook.com as the person who received it, so it doesn't matter who you're sending it to—they can take advantage of this functionality.

So try out Assistant.to and let me know how it goes. Maybe you're already using Assistant.to. I'd love to hear your experience in the comments below.

If you enjoyed today's video, I would encourage you to give it a like, leave me a comment, and be sure to subscribe right here to Simpletivity.

Remember, being productive doesn't need to be difficult; in fact, it's very simple.

Are you tired of feeling busy all the time? Are you feeling swamped with your workload right now? Or are you sick of your staff complaining about all the things they need to accomplish by the end of the week?

If you said yes to any of those questions, you may want to hear from a busyness killer.

Hi, my name is Scott Friesen, and I'm the founder of Simpletivity Training and Consulting, and yes, I am the busyness killer.

What on earth is a busyness killer? Well, I find...

What is a busyness killer

that we often use that word busy synonymously with being productive

yet nothing could be further from the truth

it is so easy for us to fill our days with pointless and unnecessary activities

so I help individuals and organizations to work at their productive best

I help them to get more done and enjoy it less stress at the same time

you know I spent the first

About Scott Friesen

part of my career in the IT industry for many years

I helped to develop solutions and software so that businesses could communicate more efficiently and effectively with their clients

now I work directly with business owners, entrepreneurs, and their staff so that they can be more efficient and effective with their workday

are you wanting to optimize your schedule

are you wanting to ensure that your team hits their project goals by the end of the quarter

or perhaps you're just looking for new ways to avoid distractions and interruptions

if so, let's start a conversation

my name is Scott Friesen and being productive does not need to be difficult

in fact, it's very simple

Hi everyone, Jamie Keith from Teachers Tek here. Today, I hope everyone's having a great day. I'd like to thank Scott for having me on his channel. I've been coming to Scott's channel for a while to get productivity tips, checking out his Trello content, and I'm glad to be able to work with him on this one.

Today, I'm going to be showcasing some of my favorite reasons to use Google Drive. If you can think of any other reasons, make sure to write them down in the comments below. But let's get started!

Sharing and CollaborationSharing and collaboration are two of the best things about Google Drive. I'm already in my Google Drive here, and I want to show you how powerful this can be.

For example, if I go up to a folder, I can share the entire folder or the contents inside it one at a time. I prefer sharing folders because the permissions apply to all files within the folder. If I right-click on a folder, I can go to "Share" (or use the share icon up top).

I can share this folder with someone, such as another account of mine, and decide whether they can organize, add, and edit, or just view. If you go to the "Advanced" tab, you get more options, like making the folder public on the web. This lets anyone with the link access the folder.

After sharing, I can copy a shareable link and send it to anyone. They can access the folder or document based on the permissions I set.

Document SharingWhen working on a document, such as Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides, you can quickly share it using the "Share" button. You can add people, set permissions (view, comment, or edit), and send notifications. Comments can be added right on the document, and you can assign tasks to collaborators, making it easy to manage group work.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)OCR is an often-overlooked feature in Google Drive that can save you time. For instance, if you have a PDF, you can right-click on it and open it with Google Docs. Google Docs will convert the text from the PDF into an editable document.

Similarly, for images or scanned documents, you can use OCR to extract text. Just right-click the image or scanned document, open it with Google Docs, and the text will be extracted below the image in the new document.

Sending Large FilesGoogle Drive is great for sending large files. In Gmail, you can attach files up to 25 MB directly, but for larger files, you can use Google Drive. Compose a message, click the Google Drive icon, and select the file. Google Drive will handle sharing and permissions, so your recipient can access the file.

Revision HistoryRevision history is a valuable feature in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. If you need to revert to an earlier version of a document, go to "File" > "Version History." You can view and restore previous versions of your document, which is handy for tracking changes and recovering lost information.

Voice TypingVoice typing in Google Docs is a fantastic tool for speed and convenience. Under "Tools," select "Voice Typing" and click the microphone icon to start speaking. Google Docs will transcribe your speech into text. It supports commands for formatting, making it a powerful feature for dictating documents.

Google FormsGoogle Forms is another great app connected to Google Drive. It's perfect for collecting information, whether for business, quizzes, or feedback. You can start from scratch or use templates to create forms. Customize questions, colors, and settings, then send the form via email, link, or embed it in a website.

So, those are some of the best reasons to use Google Drive. If you have more reasons or features you love about Google Drive, drop them in the comments below.

Thanks for watching! If you found this video helpful, be sure to subscribe to Scott's channel, give this video a thumbs up, and leave a comment. Remember, productivity doesn't need to be difficult—it's actually very simple!

Google Chrome is nearly 10 years old and boy has it come a long way. So much so that Chrome is now the most popular web browser.

In fact, as of this recording, 2/3 of us are using Google Chrome to browse on the web each and every day. So today I want to share with you my 5 tips for getting the most out of Google Chrome, getting the most out of your browsing experience.

Separating your tabs

We're gonna start by separating our tabs and learning a few different things about how we can manipulate and do more with our tabs up top. The first one has to do with actually taking something outside of your tab.

Sometimes you may want to just focus on one particular website or perhaps one particular application. To do so, all you need to do is click and drag.

I'm gonna pick this tab here, I'm gonna start clicking and dragging it outside, and now when I release it, I am now focused exclusively on this particular tab, just the one tab. Now I haven't gotten rid of the rest of my files or the rest of my tabs over here.

Split view tabs

Now I have two browsers open as you can see down in the taskbar, but if I want to, I can just focus exclusively on this particular webpage. Often when I'm working on a large screen, I may drag it over to the right-hand side, and I can enjoy sort of a split view of two different browser windows open at the very same time.

If you want to bring this back into your original configuration, you can do so with the same technique. I'm going to click and hold, and this time I'm just gonna drag it back up here.

Here you can see it's brought it right back into my browser window. So now I'm in my original view, I've got my four different tabs listed at the top.

Pin tabs

Another great thing that you can do with tabs within Chrome is that you can pin certain tabs or keep them in the same place and don't be fearful of accidentally closing them. In this case, I usually want to keep something like my Google Keep open at all times or at least accessible at all times, and I don't want to accidentally close it.

To pin a tab to your browser, all you need to do is right-click on the desired tab, come down and select pin tab. You'll notice a few different things change.

Number one, it took that tab and brought it all the way over to the left, but it also condensed it. Now I can just see the logo here, I don't have an X anymore, so I can't accidentally close it.

It's always going to be accessible here in the left-hand corner. The added benefit of pinning important tabs that you use frequently is that even if I close the browser, even if I close everything here, the next time I go to open up Chrome, this Google Keep tab will appear right here.

Of course, you can pin more than just one tab. There might be three or four applications that you always want to be accessible when you're browsing.

The other great thing about pinning tabs is it keeps them nice and small, right? It keeps it nice and uncluttered, and if you want to unpin it, you can simply right-click and select the unpin option.

The next tip I want to share with you has to do with zoom and actually taking a closer look or maybe getting a further look depending on the type of website or webpage that you're dealing with. When I'm dealing with Trello, sometimes I want to get a higher-level view and maybe I want to see more cards at one time.

Zoom

If I want to change the zoom level, all I need to do is go over to the three dots here and come down to zoom. I can either zoom out a bit, maybe I'm going to zoom out to 80% so I can work with more cards.

Or depending on the website that I'm working with, maybe they have really small text. I can zoom into a higher resolution.

I can get a closer peek at the words and the images that I'm looking at. The great thing about zoom in Chrome is that it's actually going to remember this zoom level with the website that I'm on.

The next time I come to Trello, it's gonna remember that I was viewing it at 80 percent the last time. Maybe that's my preferred view.

You can have a variety of different websites at different zoom levels and customize them to the one that is most appropriate to you or the one that you like the most. For example, when I'm reviewing my online banking, and I've got lots of lines and different financial statements that I'm looking at, I will often take a smaller view such as eighty percent or maybe ninety percent so that I can see more of those items on a single screen.

Zoom allows us to do that and we'll actually save that zoom level depending on the website that we're on. Last but not least, my fifth tip for you today is about browsing in incognito mode or secret mode.

Most browsers allow you to do this. I just want to make sure that you know how to do this within Chrome.

Incognito mode

Let's say, for example, that you're wanting to buy a special gift for your wife, your son, your child, someone else, maybe even a roommate, someone that you might just share this computer with. Well, of course, you don't want them to find out accidentally that you've been shopping on Amazon and that they see the purchases or the things that you've been browsing.

So what you can do is browse in incognito mode. To do so, we're gonna go back to the settings area and select new incognito window.

You're gonna start off with this screen which may look a little scary, but Chrome gives us a little helpful description of what this means. Chrome won't save our browsing history, it won't save the cookies and site data, and it won't save information entered in forms.

This is a great way to give yourself a bit of a clean slate as you're browsing the internet. You'll also notice in the top left-hand corner that we have an incognito icon there just to let us know that we are in this mode.

Now when I go to amazon.com, you will notice that I am not signed in to my account. Usually, we would say here hello Scott, but it's never going to say that when I enter into incognito mode because it doesn't know me yet.

This is like a brand new browser window as if I've just logged into it freshly. None of these advertisements are specifically to me or based on my browsing history because it hasn't followed me here.

Of course, you can use the incognito window or the incognito mode for other purposes as well if you're wanting to hide your browsing history. But this can also be a great way to test certain sites, not only if you don't want to be followed but to see what the sites are showing you when you are not signed into your account or when you don't have cookies that are following you around the Internet.

Of course, when you're done, you can just close this browser and your existing browser remains open. It doesn't replace what you were doing before in the past.

I hope you enjoyed today's video and if you did, be sure to give it a thumbs up and also subscribe right here to Simpletivity. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Scott Friesen

Hello everyone! Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, and if you're wanting to work at your productive best, you're in the right place. Sometimes in order for us to focus on the task at hand, we need a little help with music or at the very least, maybe some background noise or soundscapes.

This is especially true if you work in a noisy office or if you're distracted by the other conversations which may be happening around you. But even if you work at home, studies have shown that music can be a very powerful way to help you focus.

So in today's video, I want to share with you five of my favorite websites to help you find both music and also background noise so you can have the most productive day yet. The first website I want to share with you is called Noisli, and Noisli has a very simple interface.

Noisli

Here you can see it's only a single page, and it's made up mostly of a number of different icons. Now these icons represent different sounds.

Here you see we've got some rain, thunder, the sound of a forest, and if we scroll all the way down to the bottom, we even have three different flavors of white noise. The great thing about the Noisli interface is that we just need to click on one of these, and now you can hear a bit of a forest in the background.

Maybe I want the sound of a forest in the rain, so I'm gonna select the rain, and now I've got a combination of those sounds. Now I'm gonna take the rain down a little bit.

Each and every one of the sounds has its own volume slider, so you can find the mix which is best for you. Maybe I want to add in some nighttime sounds.

Oh, there's the sounds of some crickets in the background. I'm gonna take that down just a little bit, so you can customize your own combination of sounds here on the screen.

Let me just turn those off for a moment. They do have a few presets here, both a Productivity preset and a Relaxation preset, or you can just choose the Random button.

Here you can see I've got "Summer Night," "Fireplace," and a little bit of waves, a little bit of seaside waves in the background here. So a very simple interface, very quick and easy for you to find something to either help drown out that noise or help you focus on the task at hand.

Brain.fm

The next website is called Brain.fm, and they categorize their sounds into three different areas: one for Focus, one for Relaxation, and one for Sleep. Now if I start by clicking on the Focus one, it's going to load a pre-loaded sort of soundscape.

There's a mix of some background noises along with music in the background. Let me just give you a listen for a few seconds.

Now, as you can see at the bottom of the interface, you can choose if you want this for a predetermined set of time or if you just like it to go on forever. But this is a continual passage of music which will change over time.

I was really amazed at how effective this particular playlist and some of the other playlists that I experimented with, how much of an effect it had on me in just as little as ten minutes. Now of course, you can explore more playlists which they have here categorized under Focus, Relaxation, and Sleep.

Maybe I want a Night Sounds Relaxation mix, and I'm going to choose it for 15 minutes to perhaps help me get to sleep. So a variety of ways in which you can find different mixes, different sounds.

Here we have some of the similar background, maybe forest or animal sounds in the background. Of course, the great thing is that most of them come with a preset timer, so you can determine when they finish.

In this case, if you want to help yourself get to sleep, this will shut off in just 15 minutes' time. Now the next one on my list is called MyNoise, and you'll find it at MyNoise.net.

MyNoise.net

Now the interface may seem a little more intimidating compared to the other websites which I have shown you, but MyNoise is a series of noise machines which are a little more complex. There's a few more things going on, but for all of you audiophiles out there or for all of you who would like to tweak your sounds in a little more detail, this just might be the website for you.

Here you can see that they have a variety of noise-making machines or noise-making generators in different categories. We've got natural noises, tonal drones, we've got transport, and if you hover over any of these noises, it will actually give you a brief preview of what that sound is.

This one's called "Sleeping Dragon." Now that's all good to give you a preview of what these sounds sound like, but the real power of MyNoise.net—I'm going to click on Airport Terminal because sometimes that sound of bustling activity or people talking in the background can actually be most helpful depending on who you are.

Here you see this terminal noise generator, and in front of us, we have a number of multicolored sliders. Well, each and every one of these sliders represents a different component of this Airport noise.

So let's say I want to hear a little bit more of the airport restaurant. Well, I just move that slider up, and I can get more of that in my mix.

Maybe I don't want to hear the sound of people moving around or walking down the terminals. I can take that out of the mix.

So you can get really customized with your sound depending on what you select. Again, MyNoise.net has a few hundred different sounds that you can play with.

You can even build your own. Another nice thing with the MyNoise.net interface is that you can save this as a URL.

Not only will it just save this particular noise generator, but it will also save your particular settings. Now this may be a little more time-consuming for those of you who are just wanting to quickly look for some background noise, but for those who like to dive a little bit deeper into the controls, you might really enjoy playing around with MyNoise.net.

Now the fourth one on my list might just be my favorite one, and partly that's because it rhymes with Simpletivity. Let me introduce you to Coffitivity.

Coffitivity

What you may have guessed from the name is that Coffitivity aims to recreate the sounds of a coffee shop. Let me play you just a little bit of an example.

So here you might envision yourself at your local Starbucks or your favorite coffee shop. Studies have shown that recreating this sound can often help a number of people be more productive and be more focused on their work.

In fact, I'm sure there's a number of you watching today's video who actually get their most work done at their local coffee shop. It's not just because they're away from the office; it's not just because they're away from other individuals.

But there's something about that noise. There's something about other activity going on in the room.

Now, Coffitivity has a few other sounds that you can choose from, including the sound of a Lunchtime Rush. University Undertones is the sound of a campus cafe.

So a few different sort of eating establishments, restaurant environments that you can play with here on Coffitivity. They give you three to start out with, and if you'd like to hear their entire playlist, you can subscribe to their premium version.

Spotify

Now last but not least, I don't want to leave this list without mentioning Spotify. Now many of us are probably familiar with Spotify as a place to go to listen to our favorite music and maybe listen to the latest hits or our favorite albums.

But Spotify is so much more than just the Top 100 on the Billboard charts. If you select Genres and Moods and scroll down, you will find that there is an area called Focus.

Here you will find 12 different curated playlists, all intended to help you gain more focus and help you be more productive with whatever it is that you're doing. Whether it's work-related, maybe it's something related to a hobby or something that you do in your off-hours.

Everything from "Productive Morning" to "Peaceful Piano" to "Instrumental Study." Let's click on "Music for Concentration" for just a few seconds.

Here you can see that this particular playlist maybe has a lot of piano or music-based songs as a part of this playlist. But you know, you can play around with the different ones here—a lot of variety that goes on within these playlists within Spotify.

So I might encourage you to play around with a number of the websites which I've mentioned in today's video. I know for myself, sometimes I'll start off on a Monday with one of these playlists within Spotify.

Then on Tuesday, I might want to recreate a coffee shop. You know, it really depends on the mood that I'm in.

It might also depend on what else I'm trying to drown out or trying to mask in my own environment. So I would love to hear from you.

How do you combat the noise around you, or what types of music help you to work at your productive best? I'm looking forward to your answers in the comments below.

And if you haven't subscribed to the Simpletivity YouTube channel, I would encourage you to do so. I upload new videos each and every week.

Thank you so much for watching today. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.

Hello everyone! Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, and today we are taking a look at the brand new Gmail and my favorite features in this latest update. Now, it is pretty significant.

This is the biggest update we've seen to Gmail in many, many years. But just before I dive into the new features and new areas, let's make sure you know how to get this new look.

So, if you are still using the older version of Gmail, all you need to do is come up here to the Settings, and your first option is "Try the new Gmail." By selecting that option, you will be updated to this new look.

Probably one of the first things that you're going to notice is that things look a little bit bigger in the new Gmail. Everything from the new larger and taller Compose button, here in the top left corner, to even some of your messages.

So let's start with the inbox itself. Here you will notice I have a couple of emails that are about two, almost three times the height of other emails here in my inbox.

What is up with this? Well, there's some pros and cons to this.

Attachment Access

The pro is that now we have direct access to attachments. You'll notice that both of these emails have an attachment.

Not only can I see the type of attachment, in this case they are both pictures, but I can also see a preview of the attachment name. If I hover over it, I get the full attachment name, but I can even select these attachments directly without even having to open up the email.

Here you just saw that I selected this attachment, and this email is still showing as unread because I actually haven't opened it up and read this message. You can go directly to a PDF, to a picture, to any other document that is attached.

So this might be most helpful to those who are receiving a lot of contracts or other documents where you just want to get to the goods. You don't really care about opening up the message.

You wanna go directly to that attachment; however, if you don't like this look, and if this feels a little jarring to have some of your messages bigger than others, you can always go back to a more traditional view. If you go up to Settings, we can select Display density, and here you see a preview of that Default view.

But you can always go back to a Comfortable or Compact view where the attachments will show as a traditional paperclip on the right-hand side. But the one thing that I do wanna point out with this new Default view is that not only do you see the attachments, but you also get a preview of the type of attachment directly from your inbox.

Whether it's a Word document, a spreadsheet, an image, something along those lines, that can be a great benefit for many of us. So let's stick with the top of the inbox here, and you will also notice some new things on the right-hand side of your messages.

Quick Buttons

So whenever you hover over any message, you will notice that there are some additional icons here on the right-hand side. Now, this first one happens to be an add-on that I use from Boomerang.

So unless you also use Boomerang, you're not going to see this. But one of the reasons why I wanted to highlight this is that depending on the types of Chrome extensions or Gmail add-ons that you use, you might find some other helpful icons here.

Such as Boomerang, such as this additional add-on that I'm using. But let's look at the other standard ones that have been included in this update.

We can now archive, delete, or mark a message as read or unread directly from the inbox. I don't even have to click on the checkbox and make that selection up top.

I can do that directly here just by hovering over the message. So think about all those messages that you don't even wanna open.

You know who it's from, or maybe it's junk mail. You can just delete it with a single click.

So I really like the efficiency aspects of these new icons here over on the right. Of course, if you're wanting to do things to multiple messages, you're still gonna need to use this checkbox and make use of your action icons here on the top side.

One note, I do like the color scheme that they used here. It's very evident as to which messages I've check-marked here with the blue.

I like the high contrast, which they've added here as well. Now continuing down this line, you will notice that the last icon is something that is brand new to Gmail, and that is the Snooze icon.

Snooze Message

Now, Snooze is a feature that has been standard in Inbox by Gmail. In fact, you might say that Inbox by Gmail, for those who are familiar with that application, was built entirely around this Snooze aspect.

What Snooze does is, it allows you to bring a message back to your inbox at a later time. So if I select Snooze, I can select a number of different preset options.

Do I want to bring it back later today? Tomorrow, later this week?

I really like the Someday option. That's really rolling the dice, right?

It's gonna bring it back! You just don't know when it's gonna bring it back.

Or if I don't like any of these preset options, of course, I can come down and pick a specific date and time. But this can be a great way to keep your inbox nice and clean.

If you know you need to address this, or you want to address this but perhaps it's not urgent, you can address it at a later time. Now, there's a few other buttons that may appear, depending on the type of message.

If I go up to this first message here, you will notice it has an RSVP button. The reason being is that this message is a meeting invitation.

So here's another example of how we can be more efficient with our email messages. I don't even have to open up this message.

I can simply click on the RSVP button, and I can give my response, my Yes, my Maybe, my No to this particular message, and of course, it will add it directly to my calendar. So I love this feature of quick buttons.

I love the Snooze feature, which may actually make Boomerang a little more obsolete for me since Boomerang and Snooze essentially do the same thing for me. But RSVP, the ability to quickly respond to a message without having to open it, I love that aspect of the new interface.

Well, let's take a look further right, in fact, to the farthest part of our screen, over here to the Apps Bar. You will notice that you have some familiar icons and perhaps a brand new one here at the bottom called Tasks.

Apps Bar

If you click on any of these Google apps, you will now get a mini version of these apps available to you here. So if I click on Google Calendar, I can now browse through my days here.

I can add new meeting events directly, directly here from within this calendar view. So a great way to integrate both.

Let's add just a test event here. I'm gonna make that for, let's make that for later in the day.

I'm gonna hit save, and so there it is. It's gonna pop up directly on my calendar.

I can get that nice view of what's happening in my schedule right from within my inbox. We now have more direct access to Google Keep as well, not only to view our notes, but also to take new notes as well.

But lastly, and this is sort of the big update to the types of integrations with other Google products, is the new Gmail Tasks or Google Tasks. So this is a much more robust, a much easier-on-the-eyes version of the former Tasks here within Gmail.

We can easily check things off and add new tasks directly from this preview pane. Now, if you want to close the preview pane, you can just simply select the X in the top right corner, or you can select the app itself, and that will minimize this bar.

But it should also be noted that you can add other apps and other add-ons. If you select this plus button, you will be taken to the G Suite Marketplace.

Here you can add a variety of other Gmail apps, which will show up in this area, and just like we saw with Boomerang, may give you some additional functionality when it comes to interacting with your email. So, those are some of my favorite features when it comes to the new Gmail.

If you haven't tried it out yet, it's very simple to do so. Simply go to your settings, and you can try it out for yourself.

Now I would love to hear from you. What are some of your favorite features from the new Gmail?

Did they miss anything? Was there something that they left out?

Something that is perhaps on your email wishlist? And if you have been using the new Gmail for a little while now, I'd love to hear your feedback as well.

Do you like this new view? Do you like having access to attachments immediately?

Do you like these quick icons, these quick single-click actions that you can do without even having the need to select or open a particular email? Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.

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Let me know if you need any further adjustments!

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An easy-to-use notes app that is also an excellent task manager. Please tell me more.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. Today, I am taking a look at Taskade, a new way to organize, brainstorm, and get things done.

I've been very excited to take Taskade through a demonstration and give you a review because I've had a number of my colleagues in the productivity space say some very nice things about this application. Taskade comes in a variety of different flavors.

You can download it to your mobile device, download a standalone version to your Mac or Windows operating system, or you can include it as a browser extension. In today's demonstration, I'm going to be taking a look at it through my Chrome browser extension.

The reason being is that you have the choice to make every new tab a Taskade tab. What that means is that your latest note or your latest workspace is only one click away.

So let's jump into Taskade, and let me give you a bit of a lay of the land here. On the home screen, I've got a list of different workspaces here on the left-hand side.

You can have as many different workspaces as you like, and within those workspaces, here I have one titled "New Project," you can have as many lists as you like. I want to emphasize these are so much more than just lists or just a checklist.

You can complete an entire project within the Taskade interface. Yes, it does have true folder systems—you can have workspaces for personal or professional use, or however you'd like to split out your lists.

Within those workspaces, you can have as many lists as you like. Let me click on an example here—I’ve got one titled "Weekly Tasks."

I've just started to create a very simple checklist here. I've added a few things within my workspace, and I can check things off as I go down this list.

Look at that—it even brings up a nice handy completed percentage up above as I'm working through my checklist. But one of the great things about Taskade is that you're not locked into the type of list you've created.

For example, down below, I've added some text. Maybe I want a full paragraph or to add some notes below this checklist, or perhaps I'd like some bullet points.

It's so simple—all you need to do is select this dropdown here, and you can change your format. You want a bulleted list. You can do that.

You want text, a checklist, or to change what those radio buttons look like. You can do that here as well.

Maybe I want to start a new checklist—this time I want some circular checklists. I can do that as well.

The editing capabilities don't stop there. You can see at the top you can do true formatting—bold, italicize, etc.

You can even change the color. If my cursor is right here and I'd like to highlight that, I can just select this color, and it automatically highlights the text.

Now I'm going to show you some even further editing options, but before I do, I want to point out this window or area on the right-hand side of the screen. This is maybe one of the biggest bonuses of using Taskade—they have a chat window built right into the interface.

I can have a real-time discussion with other members or other people about this list, these meeting notes, this project, or whatever I have going on over here. They've gone even one step further than just having a text message communication system.

They've recently added both voice chat and video chat. With just a single click, I can bring up my video and have a live meeting—there I am—have a live collaboration discussion with other members of my team, built right into the interface.

Let me hang that up, and I'm going to go back to the home screen here, and I'm going to click on "Example Lists." Now, when you first sign up for Taskade, it's going to give you this example list workspace.

Of course, they do a really good job of showing off the different types of lists—everything from meetings to project roadmaps to bullet journaling or weekly tasks. The things you can do within Taskade are extensive.

Let me click on this first one, which I think is an excellent example of all the different formatting and ways you can create information within Taskade. Whether it's a header at the top of the screen, bulleted points, or not only checklists but look at this—we can even have sub-tasks within that checklist.

You want to add a due date. Well, you've got a due date beside almost anything here.

Here, I want to add a due date to next Friday—boom, it's done. Now I've got my due date attached to this task.

You can mention other members with whom you're collaborating. You want to add tags. Yes, Taskade has got tags as well.

Of course, these links are all live, so if you want to share things that are on YouTube or other parts of the web, you can do that as well. You're not limited by just having a list that is solely checklists or solely text-based work—you can combine all of this information at the same time.

Taskade is 100% free—all of these features come built into the application. I would encourage you to take Taskade out for a test drive.

The question for today is this: since we're talking about notes apps and task managers, I'd love to hear from you—what do you feel is the most important feature to have in a notes app, and does Taskade have it. Chances are it probably does.

I'd love to hear from you, so be sure to answer this question in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching today's video.

If you liked it, give it a thumbs up, leave me a comment, and don't forget to subscribe. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

What are my absolute favorite productivity books? Find out my top five next.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. You know, I've read an awful lot of productivity books, and there's an awful lot of good stuff out there, as well as some that are just okay or not so good.

Well, in today's video, I want to share with you my top five list. These are the five books that have had the biggest impact not only on my life but also on how I view time management and productivity.

Deep Work

The first book on this list is called *Deep Work* by Cal Newport. I read *Deep Work* when it first came out, and it absolutely transformed the way that I work.

One of the big messages in *Deep Work* is that we've lost our ability to focus. Cal Newport takes a look at some of the most prominent thinkers, inventors, and leaders of the past and shows how they spent a great deal of time alone in their thoughts, just focused on maybe one or two problems at a time.

In today's day and age, we've lost that ability. One of the biggest takeaways I got from *Deep Work* was the ability to actually shut down and finish my workday at a particular time.

In fact, Cal Newport shares how he does a routine of closing his laptop lid and saying to himself out loud, "Shutdown complete." Now, I don't do this every single day, but I do find myself doing it from time to time.

It's a great way to remind myself that I'm going to move on to other things and leave my work behind. So if you're looking to increase your focus, be sure to read *Deep Work* by Cal Newport.

The second book on this list is all about goal-setting or, perhaps more specifically, about goal-achieving. In the book *The Four Disciplines of Execution*, author Chris McChesney gives us a four-step template for achieving any goal.

Disciplines of Execution

One of the biggest takeaways I took from this book was having a visible scoreboard or a scorecard—something that I can't ignore, something that I see every single day to see if I'm winning or losing the game of my goal-setting. As Chris McChesney points out, you're either winning or losing.

This is an absolutely fantastic read, whether you want to achieve your own individual goals or if you want to achieve goals with a team or larger organization. So make sure you pick up *The Four Disciplines of Execution* so you can start hitting your goals out of the park.

Next up on this list is one of the few books that I've read multiple times. *The One Thing* by Gary Keller helps us to simplify our work life and helps us pinpoint and focus on our most important tasks.

The One Thing

Much of this book is based around one key question that Gary encourages us to ask ourselves regularly, but it goes so much further than just that one question. One of the biggest takeaways I took from this book was blocking out time in the morning for my most significant tasks.

It may sound pretty outrageous to block out as much as three or four hours for your most important goal. But as Gary Keller points out, if you're not blocking out large chunks of time, when will you find time for your most important work?

So be sure to check out *The One Thing* so you too can achieve extraordinary results. Now, the fourth book on this list may just be the most well-known: *Getting Things Done* by David Allen.

Getting Things Done

This was one of the very first books that I read on the topic of personal productivity or time management, and many of the principles that David Allen outlines in the book are still applicable today. I will admit there's a large portion of *Getting Things Done*—better known as GTD—that I don't agree with.

But one of the things that I think is an absolute staple is the idea of getting things out of your head and putting them into a notebook or a note-taking application. As David has famously said, "Your mind is for having ideas, not for holding on to them."

So if you haven't read *Getting Things Done*, you may want to at the very least browse through it, or you can do a Google search and see some of the other great summaries out there detailing the GTD method. The final book on this list is called *Essentialism* by Greg McKeown.

Essentialism

The reason I selected *Essentialism* to round out this list is that I think its message is very much in line with my message here at Simpletivity. You've probably heard me say in the past that it's not so important that you get everything done.

I care so much more that you're getting the right things done, that you're getting the important things done. Greg McKeown shares a variety of experiences from his own life where he almost missed out on some significant family events because he was trying to get too many things done.

*Essentialism* is an essential read if you're wanting to simplify your life and focus on the most important things. So there you have it—my five favorite productivity books that have had the biggest impact on my life.

Conclusion

What do you think of my top 5 list? How many of these titles would also be on your top 5?

If you have other titles that you'd like to recommend, be sure to include them in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching.

If you liked this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up, leave me a comment, and don't forget to subscribe. If you'd like to see more Simpletivity, you can watch another video right here.

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

What is the future of productivity tools? Find out in today's video.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity. I am very excited to have two of my productivity pals right here on YouTube with me for a future discussion of where productivity tools are going and maybe some of the features that we would like to see three or five years down the line.

Today, I have Carl Pauline and Francesco D'Alessio from the Productive Channel joining me for this discussion. Now, this is a three-part series.

First, we've talked about the past and how did we get started with productivity tools. What were some of the first things that we used many years ago?

If you'd like to see that, I'm going to leave a link to that video, and you can watch it on Francesco's channel. Next, we talked about all of the tools that we are currently using and why we choose to use them right now.

If you'd like to watch that video, I'll also put that link in the description, and you can watch that on Carl's channel. But for right now, we are talking about the future of productivity tools.

There’s no one that I'd rather be talking to than these productivity tool experts. So Francesco, I want to throw things over to you initially.

You seem to be in the know. In fact, I don't think I know anyone else who knows about the latest trends, the latest updates, what's happening in the world of productivity apps.

But beyond just the next week or the next month, what are some of the things that you think are going to happen maybe three, maybe five years from now? Perhaps some of the things that you would like to see.

Future of Productivity Apps

Ivan, I think that the next year's gonna be quite an exciting one for all of us. I think the focus is going to be on something called mod to the productivity applications.

We’ve seen it a couple of times in recent app releases like the likes of Monday, A table, Notion, and Coder. All are very popular modular app sets.

I think that's gonna be a huge rave in the next year because essentially what people want to do, because they've gotten so specific about their software, is actually build their own software. People want to put together these parts to formulate their own task manager or their own note taker or their own board or their own calendar.

That's what's gonna be quite exciting. So that's my sort of behind year predictions.

I think that’s gonna be a big thing. But it is sort of part and parcel of that I think that's gonna grow in the next three or four years and something that will basically learn from you.

They will basically map to your needs and essentially do errands for you. This is a weird thing that I've been thinking of over the last couple of months.

When you're doing your work, it understands you and is able to do micro errands based on your experience. For example, during your day you're doing projects.

You're not necessarily communicating with people, but you're maybe you're a developer, and you're building an application. But during that period of time, you're getting stuff coming in.

You’re getting new work, you're getting things, people you need to email. I believe that those micro errands will be solved by your own application.

Your application will actually be reaching out to those people, stopping you from getting distracted, and keeping you focused on it. So that's my sort of thoughts a bit out there, but I definitely think that that's gonna be where it's going.

When it comes to some of that, you know, that's smart, that anticipation of what you need to get done, do you see anybody right now who is dabbling in that or is maybe going in that direction? Yeah, there's a couple of applications that are using AI and machine learning.

I've seen a lot sort of in the Google space because that's obviously where it all begins. But I think that startups will start to join in.

I know A table is becoming a bit more interactive. Once they are able to add that sort of interactive side of elements.

Todoist, again, I know that Any.do have experimented with an assistant bot that's able to communicate with you and finish micro errands. But again, it's all very buggy at the moment.

I think over time things will just flatten out and become easier. There's always gonna be some trial and error to get these things worked out.

Speaking of Todoist, there are a few people on YouTube that know Todoist better than Karl. Todoist and Evernote, I should say, his tutorials are legendary.

But Karl, I'd like to hear from you whether it's regarding those two apps or really anything in the world of productivity. What do you see in the future or maybe some of the things that you would like to see?

Better Integration

I think we're gonna be seeing a lot more better integration. We saw this back at the end of the 1990s.

Apple and Microsoft were completely separate. I mean you could never have Microsoft Word on your Mac.

You had to use Chorus Work. Am I showing my age again?

But everything was just not compatible. In 2002, when I first came to Korea, I had a Mac.

I’ve never owned a PC. In those days in Korea, nobody had a Mac except really high-end designers.

Everyone was using Microsoft Office. I could never use those documents at all.

I’d say can you send me a PDF? They would say what's the PDF?

This is 2002. We all know what PDFs are today, but back then they didn't.

Then what happened, I guess Steve and Bill got together and shook hands and said look come on guys we've got to be compatible here. Once they all became compatible, I saw things changing rapidly.

You could use Microsoft Word on Mac. You could create your Microsoft Word on your Mac and you can email it to somebody who's got a Windows computer, and they could open the file.

Now I know today we're thinking, yeah, but just 15 years ago that was not possible. I saw what happened when we went totally compatible.

If you look at the productivity fields today, like Todoist for example, we've got integration with Dropbox, Google Drive, and something else. I can't remember, I don't use it, maybe Box I think.

But there's no Evernote link there, and I'm just, I really hope that the Todoist guys are watching this because I would love to get that integration. Todoist and Evernote so that when you drop something from Evernote, I can just drop it into my notes field, and it would just automatically generate the link direct to that note.

Oh, you can do it, but you're hacking it at the moment, right? I think that's what's, over the next few years, we're gonna see more and more of that as well.

I think Francesco is right. There's gonna be quite a lot of applications coming in who are going to try.

I'm not saying they're gonna succeed at this, but they're gonna try and be the be-all and everything. I think that's a very very tough call.

David Allen has always said that is a very tough call to get all three parts of a productivity system, the calendar, to-do list, and notes working together within one app. He says he's been trying to do it since the 1990s and never been able to do it successfully.

I think that's a tall order for most companies because you end up having to compromise. That's where the problem is with trying to be all and everything.

But I think if these companies can move together to having like a much easier or better connection between each other, integration with each other, I think that's where I will see the future going. I hope to see it going that way too.

I can generate a link in Evernote today, and I can paste that into my calendar, which is great because then I can create all the meeting notes, and I can click on the link, and it's there. I would just like to see that a little bit better.

I wouldn't say I'm a techie, but I understand technology to a certain degree. I work with people who are not interested in learning all that.

They just want to type something and send it. If these companies really want to get involved in that integration, that's the area they need to be looking at.

Tap tap, a button choice, Evernote, calendar, Todoist, whatever, click. That's all they need to have to be able to do.

At the moment, I have to go, copy note link, copy paste it into... I mean I can do that, I don't think there's a problem there.

But I'm thinking of the people who are not really into technology. They're not gonna do that.

So if they really want to get our integration in, that's what I think the future of productivity apps is gonna go. Yeah, I think it's really...

Final Thoughts

Interesting that over the years we've seen so much integration between the apps. It’s hard to find a productivity app worth its weight that doesn't integrate with at least ten other services.

Now it may not be the services that you want, but it may be ten popular services or other things that other people are using. I often cringe when I see a tool that proclaims that they're the all-in-one solution.

They're gonna do everything for you because I know we've all had first-hand experience of getting our hopes up, and then we get to one aspect or maybe a couple of components of that system. You're just like, you know what, so many other apps do this better than what you do.

Hopefully, we have some stronger integrations or maybe different types of integrations so that we can get the most of both worlds. To your comment Karl about David Allen still not being able to figure it out to get the right systems together.

I think that's a great highlight of the personal and personal productivity. We all are a little different.

We all work a little differently, so there isn't just one solution. Hopefully, we can find

that right mix.

Francesco, with your comments about some automation and some intelligent AI, I'm really hoping for that day as well. I'm eager for that future because I feel that we're still not quite there yet either.

Although we have a number of tools that proclaim to have smarter notifications, we now all have email that has some type of filtering or we're gonna put things up higher than others because we know what you're reading. I think we all recognize that they have their faults.

They have their drawbacks. I'm looking for that day where we have some smarter notifications, whether that's on our wearable devices when we're out and running errands, or whether that's in front of a desk computer, that our systems do get to learn from us that much better.

I just have one question on that. Sorry Scott, I just had one question.

One of the areas I thought about that myself is that AI and all that stuff. One of the things I think of is if AI is starting to complete tasks for me, I'm gonna feel like I have no control over my life.

Some robot is a bot is gonna be doing things I should be doing, and maybe because I got a human brain logically, I think no no no no. I don’t want to be doing that today.

There's a reason because I'm communicating with a human being, and if I send that at five o'clock in the morning, they're gonna be very angry with me. Just wondering about that control side of that because one of the things I find is when I see everything that I want to do and I choose when I'm going to do it.

That's how I feel in control. But if a bot is making decisions based on my past actions, it doesn't know what my future actions are gonna be or what I'm thinking right now.

The AI side of things is interesting to me, but I'm just wondering where is it actually gonna go. It does sound a little scary at times.

It almost sounds a little bit like 2001: A Space Odyssey. I’m sorry Carl, but that is not your number-one priority.

Have AI telling you what you should be doing today, but are you really sure you want to complete that task right now? I'm sorry Carl, but you have other important things to accomplish.

Exactly, myself impersonating, that's good. I want to thank both of my guests, Francesco and Carl.

Next, I'd love to hear from you. What do you think the future holds for productivity tools and productivity apps?

What are some of the things on your productivity wish list? Be sure to leave a comment below and tell us all about it.

Both Carl and Francesco are going to be reviewing these comments and responding as they come in, so we're looking forward to hearing from you. Once again, I want to thank my guests.

We covered a lot of ground, and I mean that literally. Carl from Asia, we’ve got Francesco from Europe, myself here in North America.

Yeah, we really did stretch the globe for this one. A reminder if you'd like to see part one, our productivity past, or part two, our productivity present, be sure to visit Carl at Carl Pauline and be sure to visit Francesco at the Keep Productive Channel.

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

How can you help a friend or a colleague improve their productivity? Let's find out in today's video.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, the place to get more done and enjoy less stress. And you know, I'm always looking for your comments and your suggestions as to what you would like to see next here on the channel.

Recently I got a great suggestion from Neil. Neil says how can I help other people get on board with productivity methods when they don't have much of a system at all?

Neil, I think that is a fantastic question and something that a lot of us can relate to. You may have a friend or a co-worker who is always complaining about how busy they are and how they can't get all of the things done that they want to get done.

So in today's video, I'm going to offer three suggestions on how you can help others improve their productivity. So when you want to help others with their productivity, here's my number one suggestion—don't share everything.

Dont Share Everything

Sometimes when we have found a method or perhaps a productivity tool that works really well for us, we get so excited. And as a result, we want to share all of the benefits and all of the features of that particular application.

However, there can be a negative consequence to this approach. The person who is listening to us may feel overwhelmed by all the information that they are receiving.

So instead of sharing everything, I recommend that you share one key highlight. What's the number one benefit that that system or perhaps that tool has been to you?

Just focus on that one key benefit and share that with the person that you're speaking to. In this way, there is a much greater chance that they may remember the things that you've shared and they may want to come back to you for further information.

Now my next suggestion relates to productivity tools or applications. Once again, we may get very excited about the tools that we use to help us stay productive and as a result, we may send out invitations to other people around us.

However, this may actually backfire. When someone else receives an invitation to a website or to an application that they know nothing about, they are less likely to actually install or even try it out.

Worse yet, they may actually be offended by your invitation when they don't have any prior knowledge about what it actually does. So instead, I recommend that you stay focused.

Stay Focused

Stay focused on sharing one key benefit. Show them how this tool makes managing your calendar so much easier.

Show them how this particular app makes capturing notes that much simpler. As a result, they may actually ask or request an invitation or for you to send them a link.

So don't send any unsolicited invitations to others. Wait for them to make the request of you.

Show Patience

Now my third and final suggestion for you helping your friends or colleagues with their productivity is this—don't get frustrated. It's important that we show patience as we extend an arm and help those around us.

I know it can feel frustrating to see other people struggle with their to-do list or to miss deadlines on a regular basis. But if we show patience, it's much more likely that they will want to continue the conversation and ask further questions.

Remember, it didn't just take you a few hours to find the perfect workflow or the right productivity app for you. Chances are it took several weeks or perhaps even months to find the ideal system for yourself.

And your friend or colleague may need just as much time to find the right individual system for them. So let's show patience as we share our knowledge about productivity with others.

So I would love to hear from you next. What has your experience been with sharing productivity methods or productivity tools with others?

And of course, I'd love to hear your suggestions as well as to what you'd like to see next here on this Simpletivity channel. So be sure to leave me a comment down below.

Thank you so much for watching. If you liked this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up, leave me a comment, and don't forget to subscribe.

And if you'd like to see more Simpletivity, you can watch another video right here. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult—in fact, it's very simple.