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Productivity app criteria

What productivity apps am I using most often on my phone?

Let's find out in today's video.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

And in today's video, I'm sharing with you seven apps that I'm using on almost a daily basis.

And bonus, all of them are either 100% free or have a free forever version.

Presentation Timer

So let's dive in with number one, and I'm going to open up here something called Presentation Timer.

Now, don't let the name fool you because I think you can use this for a lot more purposes than just presenting.

But if you do happen to be speaking in front of an audience whether live and in-person, or just virtually just over a Zoom meeting or video conferencing this app can be a lifesaver.

Now, one of the things I love is that it's so simple to use.

You simply pick the time, the duration that you want and then the timer gets going, but it's very, very visual.

And what's so great about this is that it's non-distracting.

Here you can see I've just set up a very simple 30-second test and you can see almost like a sand timer, the blue, is starting to encompass and takeover the entire screen.

Letting me know that it's almost time for me to wrap things up.

But at the very end here you'll see that there's a few different colors which can alert me that I'm getting closer to the end, a little bit of a warning, a bit of a yield light.

And then once I go over, it continues to count this time counting up and flashing a red sign letting me know that, hey, I'm over my duration.

So let me stop this for a second and let me show you some of the settings that we can change here.

So if I go into settings, the number one thing that you're gonna look at here is the theme and intervals and that's right up top here.

So here you can see, you can set it by percentages.

So here are the default colors, you can change them if you like but I've set it that at 80%, 80% of the maximum time that I set, I want it to turn green.

Then at 90%, I want it to turn yellow to give me sort of okay we should probably start wrapping up.

And then with 95% left, I want it to turn red.

Now again, you can change all of these intervals including the colors, depending on your needs, depending on your comfort level when you are presenting.

But keep in mind you can also use this tool for other purposes as well.

So for example, maybe you have a meeting, right?

And it's gonna last an hour.

So let me just take that off there.

We can remove our seconds. You can also click on here as well to enter in your time.

And I'm gonna say start.

So now I've got a one-hour meeting.

I'm still gonna get those reminders, those visual cues.

Now I can just lay this on the side of my desk or if I am giving a presentation I'm standing at a lectern or some other podium, for example, this could be completely hidden.

Only I can see what's going on and letting me know how close I am to ending my presentation.

The other nice bonus with the presentation timer is that you can keep running in the background.

So if you need to go to something else you can go back and the timer is still functioning.

AppBlock

Let's go to number two on my list and that is AppBlock.

And I add this to my list of productivity tools because it really helps me with my focus and staying on track and not being distracted by things such as social media.

So here you can see, I've already set up a profile here, which is called daily usage limit.

And a while back, I found myself spending maybe a little too much time on Reddit.

So I've set up a rule here on my phone that I'm only allowed to spend 30 minutes per day using Reddit.

Now, the nice thing is that it not only applies to the app but it will also apply to the website itself.

So I can't do a workaround and just go to reddit.com, it's gonna apply that limit to both.

Now, let me show you how easy it is to set up.

So when we open up, create a new profile the first thing that we need to do is select what are the conditions going to be?

An Appblock gives us five great options here, time. So for example, maybe I only want to block things during working hours, like prevent me from accessing Facebook between 9:00 and 5:00 for example.

I can block based on location. Maybe when I'm in the office I want to block certain things, or if I want to get away from work, when I'm at home maybe I can block certain things here as well.

You can block by a wifi network. You can block by a usage limit, that's the one that I just showed you a moment ago or you can block by launch content.

This last one I think can be very helpful especially when it comes to something like email.

And if you find yourself checking email far too often you can select that as well.

Now, speaking of focus, number three on my list

‍Buffer

does have to do with social media but it also helps me prevent checking and having to visit my social media pages in order to post.

And that is Buffer.

Now you may have heard of Buffer before.

You may have heard me talking about Hootsuite in the past, which is a social media manager, a social media scheduler that I've used in the past.

But I've actually started using Buffer more often recently because of its simpler interface.

And that continues here on the mobile tool.

Here, you can see that I've got a number of different posts scheduled to my business Facebook page.

How this helps me with my productivity and focus is that I don't have to log into Facebook in order to post something new or to post something in the future.

I am preventing myself from being distracted by going into those social media profiles whenever I want to post something.

All I need to do is open up Buffer and I can create that new post and you can manage a variety of accounts.

Here you can see on the left-hand side I've got both a Facebook page, my LinkedIn profile and my Instagram profile all linked up to my account meaning I can post different things to different social media channels, or if I want I can post the exact same thing to all of those channels as well.

Not only is this helping me create a bit more thoughtful content because I can just open this up wherever I am and schedule a post but I don't have to worry about being distracted and being sucked down a rabbit hole by logging in and actually browsing and swiping through one of those social media profiles.

Now my next favorite productivity app

Adobe Scan

helps me to stay paperless so that whenever I receive a receipt or a paper document, I can convert that easily to either an image or a PDF and then file it away or send it off to where I need it to be.

So in this example, I'm taking a look at Adobe Scan.

Now I know there's a number of different scanners out there. I just find that Adobe Scan happens to be one of the best ones out there.

So here I've got a receipt and I wanna be able to convert this cause maybe I need to file it away.

As you can see, I've got relatively low light and I don't even have to press anything.

It is capturing that receipt for me, it's finding the edges, it's going to adjust it.

So it actually looks like a piece of paper in just a second.

I'm gonna say continue here.

And what we're gonna do now is open up this document. I just wanna show you how great looking this receipt looks, even though we had relatively low light.

So this has already transformed it.

It looks almost identical to my paper receipt that I have standing next to me here.

Now, what I can do is I can rename it up top here if I need to, or I can save it as a PDF.

Now at this stage, what I can do is I can share it to a variety of different apps, I could text it to someone, I can email it to myself, I can send it directly to Google drive.

So many different things that I can use here directly from Adobe Scan.

So if you're looking for something that is quick, easy and free to use, make sure you check out Adobe Scan.

Keep Notes

Now next up on my list is something that I use much more frequently on my phone than I usually do on my desktop and that is Keep Notes.

Keep Notes continues to be my go-to note-taking tool especially if I wanna keep track of something really, really quick.

So here you can see I've shared a few different lists here with my wife, so you can collaborate with other individuals but I've got some other things here down below as well.

So I can keep those quick notes and quickly reference them and search them when necessary.

The reason why I continue to use Keep Notes even though there are a number of other tools that are much more fully featured, have many more bells and whistles is because it's fast.

And when I'm on the go I wanna be able to take a note very very fast. Just by hitting that plus button, we are immediately brought into the note.

I don't have to give it a title.

I like that it already places the cursor there in the note field.

However, if I am wanting to take a more detailed note

Notion

with a lot more information, maybe branch out and brainstorm and start a new project, I am going into Notion.

Now Notion is something that I have used and toyed around with for a number of years but recently I've been using it much more frequently and primarily for its simple database and table tools.

So here, for example, I've got a work page called ski gear rental ratings.

I'm looking to buy some new ski gear.

And so I've been testing out some things at my local ski shop.

And the great thing is that I can create a very simple table here where I have the date and when I took out these rentals I can click on the pictures that I took so I can remember specific details about the boots and the ski size, etc, ski length.

And then I can add up my ratings here to see, you know, what did I think or add some simple notes.

It's a great tool for this purpose.

Here's another quick one I'll show you here about restaurant reviews that my family and I have been using.

We recently moved and so we're trying to find out a few different pizza places that we can rely on.

So we are just sort of adding up and creating our own ratings in this simple table here.

When did we last order?

What were our notes and so forth?

And it can even do simple averages such as the average cost of the meal.

And when was the last time that we ordered out?

So if you're looking for something to create these very simple yet powerful tables and branching out a project, Notion may be the tool for you.

Google Podcasts

Last but not least on my list today has to do with learning.

Because if you wanna work at your productive best you need to be listening to helpful educational content.

And for me, I simply use Google Podcasts.

Now Google Podcasts is the place that I go to search for all of my podcasts.

I know there's a lot of places you can go to manage all of the things that you're listening to and all the things that you're subscribing to, but the great thing I find about Google Podcasts is that it is quick, fast, and easy and the search capability is very, very powerful as well.

Once again, it may not have all the bells and whistles of some of the other podcast services out there, but I want to get in and start listening to something or continue to start listening to something as soon as I possibly can.

So that's why my choice is Google Podcasts.

Now I would love to hear from you next.

What are some of your favorite productivity tools and apps when it comes to your Android device?

Be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Thank you so much for watching today's video.

Remember to subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel and remember being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.

AirSend Overview (logo zooming - When it comes to the world of productivity apps, we often throw out the term all-in-one rather loosely, but in today's video, I'm revisiting AirSend. I wanna show you five reasons why you should take a second look or a first look at AirSend to help you be more efficient.

Hello, everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And yes, I've actually reviewed AirSend before here on the channel, but I've used it a little bit more over the last few months, and they have added some new features that I wanted to share with you.

Now, firstly, just a very quick overview of the AirSend layout. On the left-hand side, we have our different channels, which could represent different projects, maybe different departments or different groups of people that we are working with here.

They make it really quick and easy for you to jump in between these channels as you go about your workday. Here in the middle part of our interface is where we are going to be communicating, but also receiving updates from our colleagues as well.

A little bit more on that later. And then on the right-hand side, we've got a section which is really helping us to condense, but giving us quick access to things like all of our tasks, which AirSend refers to as Actions.

We can refer to all of our files, which relates to this channel. It even gives us a Wiki. So if we want to highlight or update something that everyone can see and everyone can access, we can do that here as well.

Built-In Video Meeting

The first feature that I want to highlight in today's video has to do with starting a video meeting. How much time do you waste sending out links, like a Zoom link or Microsoft Teams link? And then you gotta get the right password and invite the right people.

Well, if you're already working with them right here, if I go up here and look at the other members of this channel, see that Steve is online right now. So why don't I just start a video call right now? And we can start to collaborate in real time.

And just like you would with any other video meeting software, I can choose to share my screen, or I can share a particular application window as well. I don't have to go anywhere else, I can do it right here from within AirSend so that we can stay on topic.

And remember, you can do this any time that you wish. So as long as someone else is online and working at the same time, you can initiate this video call meeting.

Reference Tasks Directly in Comment Section

Now, the other thing that I like here is the interaction between your tasks, which AirSend refers to as actions. And we've got our action list here on the left-hand side, with the way that we are communicating with others here.

Now, you're already gonna be very familiar with using the at symbol to find the person that you want to speak with. So if I wanna talk to Steve, I can just use that at symbol and I can make sure that he gets a notification directly.

But what if I want to reference a particular project or action? Hey, Steve, let's talk about this project. Okay, and then at this point what I can do is I can use the hashtag symbol.

And what that's gonna do is bring up all of my actions that you see here on the right-hand side. So maybe I wanna talk about this designed new landing pages, I can do so, I can hit Enter and hit Send.

And so now, he knows exactly what I'm talking about. Not only is he being notified because I've addressed him directly, but he knows exactly this project that we're talking about as well.

And the great thing is, is if I come over here to this new landing page, for example, and if I want to look at the action details, I get a complete history of that conversation.

So, no matter where this is mentioned, back and forth between my different colleagues, I can see that conversation history here as well.

Adding Sub-Tasks and Filtering Actions

Now, the other thing that I love about the new actions here within AirSend is that we now have true sub-tasks, right? Because your projects consist of a lot of smaller tasks that are going to accumulate to that bigger task.

So here I've got something called the New Homepage Logo and I can expand this and I can see the other sub-tasks, which are listed down below. And I've got different people assigned to those sub-tasks.

It's really easy for us to add new sub-tasks as well. Let's get started. Let's review, let's find out where we went wrong. All the things that you would typically find in a typical project management scenario.

So I can quickly and easily add these things. I can assign people, if I wanna assign myself, for example, in this particular case, I can do so. And I can have that all here within my Actions setting.

See Tasks in Kanban Board View

Another great feature that AirSend has added here within the Actions section is the ability to View Board. Now, by selecting this option, we get more of a Kanban style view of all of our tasks.

And this is especially helpful when we're talking about those sub-tasks. Here is that action item I created just a moment ago. And now I can see all of my sub-tasks down below, compared to some of my other tasks or projects which do not have any sub-tasks.

Now, I can sort this by a couple of different ways, but the other great thing about this view here is that I can view it across all of my channel. So if I need a to-do list or a task list for all of the things that I'm working on, I can view them, and sort them and interact with them right here.

AirSend has also made it very easy for us to minimize the things that maybe are not relevant to us as well. So here at the top, we've got a few quick icons here. This first one is only gonna show my actions.

So I'm only going to see the things that I have assignments to because I don't wanna be cluttered down by everything that's staring back at me here in my face. I can also sort it a few different ways if I wanna sort it by what's due next, or what's been most overdue here, but I can also take a look at the things that have been completed.

And I like any type of productivity tool which will get rid of the things or hide the things that have been completed. And AirSend's gonna allow us to do that by default right here.

Quick File Access and Convert Files to Tasks

But let's stick with this right-hand section and move over to Files. Because another common question that I get on a regular basis is Scott, should I be using Google Drive? Should I be using Dropbox?

Where should we be managing all of the files that we're collaborating with? Well, wouldn't it be a lot easier if you didn't have to integrate with another tool, but actually access those files right here.

So, under Files, anything that you upload, anything that's been shared here within your AirSend community is gonna show up here. So if I look under my Press images, I've got a history of where these images are, and if I need to mention them, or if I need to call something out, all I need to do is click and drag it here into my communication pane.

So I can say, let's take a second look at this design, something to that effect. So now they know exactly what I'm talking about. They can access this image as well.

Now, if I want, I can also take this to the very next stage, and convert this into an action, because sometimes we do an awful lot of talking. Now, it's great that we have a full history here within AirSend, but what if I don't wanna just discuss this image?

I wanna make sure that someone does something about it. Well, here you can see there's this little lightning icon which refers to our Actions area. And if I select it, I can create this into an action.

So, let's say, let's call this one, REdesigned the blue logo. I can add some notes, I can add some other members, and let's include a due date as well to make sure that we get this done by the end of the month.

Now I can create that action. Everyone here within my channel can see that I've created this specific action here, and I can go directly to it as well. So I can update those details or I can see what other activity has been happening when it comes to that particular action.

So again, I don't have to be switching tabs, I don't have to be going in and out of different applications. I can manage my files, I can assign them tasks right here from within AirSend.

Advanced Search Results

Now, another area where AirSend has put a lot of new focus is on their search capabilities. Now it's true, over here in the Actions pane, we could search through our specific actions, but what if we're looking for a key word or a file and we wanna search across the entire channel?

Well, if we come up here to the very top, I can type in something like logo, for example. And what it's gonna do is not only bring back those results, but it's going to separate it out, so I can see the differences between the messages, the actions which contain the word logo and the files which contain that keyword as well.

Now, it also gives us the ability to select this Show All option, so we can view sort of the same results here, but we can see it in a bit of a different format. This is especially helpful if you have a lot of results for that particular keyword, but now I can zero in on exactly what I want.

Here's my REdesign the blue logo, and I can start to take action on it. So having a very robust search capability, which is not just searching your actions, not just searching the comments, but searching across the entire channel is so valuable to keep you on top of your tasks.

Now, the last feature I wanna highlight here within AirSend may seem rather small, but I think its significance is rather large. And that has to do with read receipts. How often have you been contributing on some type of communication platform, and you just don't know who has actually read or seen that piece of communication.

Well, AirSend has made sure to build that right in. Here you can see on my last few posts, I have this little seen by Steve Fisher, seen by Steve Fisher. So I don't have to be worrying if Steve has laid eyes on my comments here.

And if I scroll up a little bit further, I can also see the ones that have been seen by myself. So if anyone is calling me out, well, didn't you get that update, or didn't you see what I posted yesterday? At least AirSend is going to keep me honest.

So, something rather small, but something that can go a long way, give you some reassurance that people have seen what you are sharing. Now, if you'd like to learn more about AirSend, be sure to click the link in the description below so you can get started using all of these features and staying on just one screen within your browser.

Thank you so much for watching today's video. Be sure to give this video a thumbs up, and don't forget to subscribe right here to the Simpletivity Channel. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Why Pitch is different from other presentation apps (text whirring) (text chimes) Creating effective presentations that are eye-catching and impressive are essential in today's business world.

But what if you could do it that much more productively, do it from the mindset of a to-do list or a project management tool?

Well, in today's video, I'm gonna show you something that's gonna help you make that awesome presentation in a fraction of the time.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

Now, don't get me wrong.

There's an awful lot of presentation tools out there, including some of the standards like PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides.

But what Pitch does differently is that it puts productivity first so you can stay on track, you can collaborate easier with your colleagues, and also create fantastic-looking slides in a matter of minutes.

Now, Pitch was actually created by the same founder who created Wunderlist.

Now, for those of you who don't know, Wunderlist was one of the most beloved to-do list apps of the 2010s.

In fact, so beloved that Microsoft acquired it and then abruptly canceled it for its own Microsoft To Do.

Why is that important?

And why does that make an impact here on Pitch?

Well, Pitch has certainly put time management

Track your presentation status with Pitch

and productivity at the forefront.

You'll notice here on the right-hand side, I've got something called a status label or a status tracker.

So that means that as I'm working through my slide deck, I can come here and say, "You know what? "Yes, I've been working on this in progress, but now it's complete. "I'm going set it to Done."

Maybe I come down to this slide and say, "You know what? "I haven't started this.

"I need to get on top of this.

"I'm gonna set it to the status of To do."

So how many times have you been working on a slide deck, perhaps you have 30 plus slides, and you jump back in, and you forget where you last left off and where you need to be putting your attention?

Or maybe more embarrassingly is that you've started your presentation, you get near the end, and there's a blank slide or something that you forgot to update.

Well, Pitch makes it that much easier with this status control, even if you're a team of one.

But if you happen to be working with others, not only can you set the status for each and every one of your slides, but you can make those assignments as well.

So I can come down here and say, "You know what?

"I'm gonna take on this one here.

"But on second thought, I'd rather have my teammate, Jane.

"I'd like her to start on this one, the slide before."

So we can track and decide who's gonna be doing what and really stay focused on where we're going with this presentation.

Video collaboration from within Pitch

But it gets even better.

If you wanna collaborate with others in real-time, the natural thing would be to set up a Zoom meeting or maybe a Teams or Meet meeting, and then collaborate via video conferencing.

What if that was built right in?

Pitch has something called a live collaboration feature.

So if I select this Live button here, what I can do is I can start a live collaboration meeting with others.

I'm gonna say Start.

And now what I get on my screen is actually a little video bubble which is anchored to my cursor so I can meet with other members who I give access to the slides, and we can start to talk about this figure here and why I didn't like the way that this graphic was appearing over here.

No, I don't have to set up anything else.

I don't have to open up another application, and I don't have to worry if they're not going to see me or if I can't interact with them on a direct basis.

I love this type of functionality where we're having video built into more and more of our applications so that we can collaborate in real-time.

Maybe I just notice that someone else is working on this presentation deck at the same time that I log in.

We can quickly and easily start this type of live meeting and start to collaborate together.

So a great way of keeping you and your team that much more productive.

Adding content quickly and easily in Pitch

But beyond just collaboration and time management and productivity settings, if you want to save time when creating your next presentation, you need to be able to do it quickly and add new templates, images, and create your content in a matter of minutes.

What I really love about Pitch is that you can see that it has boiled itself down to just the essentials.

I don't have an unlimited toolbar where I have to go through a variety of different menus.

Let me show you how easy it is to create and grab quick-and-easy graphics.

So if I wanna come in here and grab an image, let's say, of a keyboard, it has built-in functionality directly with Unsplash.

So I don't have to worry about getting a low-resolution graphic.

I don't have to worry about copyright.

I don't have to worry about jumping to my browser tab to grab these images.

I can do so right here within Pitch.

But it gets better than that.

You can see that I can also add some quick gifs.

I can add some custom icons here, which I've been using a lot more frequently, but also brand logos.

So for example, maybe I want the Google logo.

All I need to do is search for it here and click it.

And now I've got a PNG logo, which is gonna look great no matter what I size it to, but also it has that transparent background.

So no matter what the logo is that I'm searching for, I don't need to go grab it and then paste it and then realize, "Oh, it's too small," or, "It doesn't have a transparent background."

I can do so and grab that right here within Pitch.

The other nice thing is that they have this stickers feature where Pitch has actually designed a number of 3D graphics to help make your content stand out.

So for example, wouldn't this make something really stand out on my slide if I had a graphic, something like this?

So these are exceptional graphics that you can use.

You don't have to go anywhere else.

You can grab them directly here, right from within the Pitch software.

Connect content directly to Google

Let me show you another way that's gonna help you save time, and that is direct integration to things such as Google.

Now, creating or adding a chart is obviously going to be standard or should be standard in any presentation software.

And you can create one from scratch if you need to.

But here I can integrate directly with Google Sheets.

All I need to do is select the account that I want to integrate with.

And now I can select the spreadsheet file that I created earlier.

I can say Select.

And now I'm back within my Pitch interface.

I can select what I want to show.

Actually, I'm gonna show units sold in this case.

And then the category is my four different quarters.

All I have to do now is select Create chart.

And now I've got my information right here within my slide deck.

Style builder and presentation templates

And because everything works seamlessly with the templates within Pitch, even if I decide to change the color scheme.

Maybe I don't want the white background, maybe I want the red background.

It's going to change my graphing information.

It changes all of my texts automatically so it goes with the rest of my theme.

I don't have to come back in here and change my graph, even if I change that graph to something else, like a pie chart or something along those lines.

Let's say I come up here and say, "You know what?

"I'd rather have a pie chart format of it."

That looks great.

But what if I want the red background?

No problem.

It's gonna make those changes for me automatically.

So I don't have to be wasting my time changing each individual color or changing this particular graph.

I can let the template do it for me.

Now, if you wanna take advantage of some of these presentation productivity tools with your existing slides, no problem.

You can import anything from PowerPoint, Slides, and Keynote.

However, if you want to start from scratch, you can also choose from one of the many different professional templates which Pitch has created right here for you to get started.

If you wanna learn more and start using Pitch today, be sure to click the link in the description below.

Thank you so much for watching today's video.

And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.

Problems with Productivity Music Playlists

For years, I've had a bit of a love-hate relationship when it comes to productivity music, what is the best for my needs and what's gonna help me focus on the work at hand. And I've always struggled with the concept of canned productivity playlists because they change abruptly.

And if you're not paying for those services, often you'll be interrupted with ads. Well, I found something that not only is going to minimize those disruptions, but it's been scientifically proven to help you stay focused.

So in today's video, I wanna share with you those results and see how they've improved my productivity over the last two weeks. Hello, everyone, Scott Friesen in here at Simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

And for a number of years, I've experimented when it comes to productivity music and music and soundscapes to help me be more focused. And number one, I learned that anything with vocals, anything with lyrics distracts me.

And that's not uncommon for many of us when there is someone who is singing or who has lyrics as a part of their music. It can really detract you from what you're trying to focus on and what you're trying to accomplish.

But as I've experimented with other playlists, whether that's on Spotify or Apple Music or really anywhere where you may find music, I found what was jarring is that just after a nice soundscape, something that has made me ultra focused and zero in on the task at hand.

If it switched to a new song with a completely different beats per minute or a completely different feel, suddenly my attention would be on the music and not on the work that I was trying to accomplish.

How Endel Works and Why It's Different

Well, I have discovered something that not only is not jarring, in fact, it's almost seamless, but it will actually listen to me whether I want it to listen to my surroundings, whether I want it to tap into my local weather, my energy level, and to other smart devices that I may own.

Or if I just want to tell it the type of work that I'm working on. So I wanna introduce you to Endel, I'm gonna show you how the app works and how it's been scientifically proven to help you focus on the tasks at hand.

Okay, so here I am within my smartphone and on the very top row, you'll see I have an app called Endel, gonna open that up and here we are, and I've already got something set up called Morning Energy Rise.

And the great thing about this, is that Endel is actually going to learn from my needs including some of my surroundings. Now we're gonna get to the music in just a moment, I can hit the play button here at any time.

And I'm actually in the first mode, which is called relax. So the tone of this music, the sounds are gonna be a little more down tempo perhaps not much percussion at all but the one that I'm using the most is F for? You guessed it, F for focus.

And that's gonna give me the energy that I need at this time of day to focus on my most important work. And even the visuals are very, very entertaining.

I must admit that I was actually taken aback at first that I can actually see the visuals such as this as a part of my day, but something just a little more entertaining, I found that it brought me back to the app more often than not.

Let me just press pause on this. We're gonna come back to some of the more detailed soundscapes in a moment.

Endel Settings and Features

But at the very top, you can see it's actually using an average heart rate to help me get into that focused mode. So this is not just pulling things from out of the sky. There is a lot of research that is going into customizing these soundscapes.

If I click tap for details, you can see that just like our circadian rhythm, as when we have the most energy and the least energy throughout the day, Endel is actually learning and making use of that.

So instead of just hitting play on a standard playlist which is just gonna start that music and finish that music whenever it pleases or whenever it was written, Endel is actually gonna be learning from me and taking things down and up as I need.

And you can see a bit of the schedule here, rise until 10:53. It's gonna peak in roughly 28 minutes. And then it's gonna start to fade in roughly an hour.

But down below here, you can see some of the real-time inputs, which I've allowed Endel to use to help guide my soundscape. So what I'm using right here is my local weather.

So you can see now that it is roughly 10:30, the sun is up in the sky, I'm getting some full natural light. It's even taking a look at some of the weather as well, right? Is there a cloud coverage? Is it a rainy day or is it bright and sunny?

But you don't have to stop there, down below, you can see that you can allow Endel to tap into other pieces of important information including your Google Fit data, body sensor data or even motion data.

So even if you just throw your phone, for example into your pocket, as you go about your day, you can use this as you're wearing your earbuds, depending if you're doing other activities in and around the house.

But let's go back to the main screen here and show you some of the other simple functions to help you stay more focused as a part of your day.

Specific Soundscapes Based on Activity

If you don't want it to just use the custom inputs which I've just shown you, you can also pick specific activities. And there's no surprise that deep work is the first one in this list.

Now we have several others to choose from including meditation, a power nap, maybe reading or a workout, et cetera. But deep work is definitely one that I've been using most frequently.

When I select deep work, the next step here is just to choose a duration. So maybe I want to select the next 25 minutes to focus in on a very important task on my computer, I can select the duration and then just hit start.

And now it's time to go. Now it's time to focus in on maybe 25 minutes of email or maybe 25 minutes of scanning, reviewing, and responding to a very important report.

Whatever that task may be, I can have this timer working in the background and just focusing in on that task at hand. The other ones I think of using music and using an app such as Endel.

Even if you do work from home, as opposed to a noisy office, chances are is that you have other distractions that are going on around you as well, right?

You may have a spouse who is trying to work in the other room. You may have pets or small children who distract you from time to time as well.

Endel can be a great way of having that type of music to help you focus in on what's most important.

The Science Behind Endel Sounds & Flow

Now, I've already told you how Endel has increased my focus as I've been using the app over the last several weeks, but you don't have to take my word for it.

In fact, science is starting to prove how Endel is helping you to increase your focus more than a standard playlist. And this graph really stood out to me here.

Here you can see how a static or traditional playlist can affect our focus and don't get me wrong, there may be times or peaks as a part of that playlist where that music is helping you to focus.

But I think the main issue here is that most playlists are just a random collection of songs or soundscapes. It really doesn't know what you are doing or the time of day or listening for other inputs versus Endel, which can keep your focus that much higher above this line as it's listening to you and just how fluid it is.

In fact, as I was using the app, I was so pleased that there were no abrupt starts or stops. Even if I changed my mood or changed my selection, it was all seamless as it flowed into the next soundscape.

Now, it can be really challenging to give you a sample of the music and the variety of sounds on Endel, why? Because your needs are going to be different than mine.

And it's all about customization, but if you'd like to take out Endel for a test drive and see how it can help you increase your focus, I encourage you to click the link in the description below.

Thank you so much for watching today's video. I hope you give it a thumbs up and subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel.

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

Introduction

There are an awful lot of website builders available but which ones are best when you're starting a new business or building a brand new site? Let's find out. (upbeat music)

Weebly (Best Simple Builder)

The first website builder on our list is Weebly. Now I first started using Weebly back in 2013 and what I loved about it was just how intuitive it is when it comes to creating your web pages and really adding anything to those pages.

Here on the left hand side, you can see that we've got all of our building blocks, all of the different components that we can add to a page and almost everything is drag and drop. If I want to add an additional button here because you can't have too many buttons, I can do so.

And even if I want to drag things around, the spacing is very natural as well. Here you can see when I pushed this button to the right hand side, it evenly spaced things out.

Now, that can sometimes be a drawback as well because what you can't do here within Weebly is adjust everything just precisely. As you'll see in some of the other website builders we're going to take a look at, Weebly does not have a grid aspect.

So you can't just drag anything everywhere but what it lacks in that it really makes up for in great looking design especially when it comes to their mobile view. So here at the top, we can preview our site in this mobile view.

Now note you cannot edit most templates or most themes in the mobile view, but I actually think that that is a plus in many cases because you want to be able to edit your website in one format or one place and just have it look beautifully in its mobile view.

And I think Weebly is very strong in that category. No matter what you create in the desktop view, things are responsive and look very, very good here in the mobile view.

So if you're looking for something that is very, very easy and quick, something that you can start to use in a matter of minutes, Weebly may be the choice for you.

Google Sites (Best for Google Users)

Now second on our list is Google Sites. And if you're already a Google Workspace user or if you use other products such as Google Drive for example, Google Sites may be the solution for you because one of Site's great aspects is that you can quickly and easily import information from your other Google tools.

So for example here, I'm going to come down here and I'm actually going to add, what I want to do here is I want to add a form. So if I come up here, I'm just going to select this section so it's highlighted here and I'm going to select forms.

And what I can do is I can select, let's say this survey and say insert and immediately I've put it right here within my homepage. It's listed here. It's ready to go. People can now fill out this survey when they visit my website.

In most other editors, you either have to use their survey or their form builder and if you want to use something like Google Forms, well then you'd have to use their embed code in order to place it here.

So if you're using things within Drive, if you're already a frequent Google user, Google Sites may be the option for you. Google Sites may be a little more limited when it comes to its drag and drop capability.

You can see that they do have somewhat of a grid format here, but it's maybe not quite as flexible as I would like to see. And that pertains to the colors as well.

If you're wanting to change the color of certain buttons and backgrounds, it will keep you within your theme. Here you can see, I can change this to the yellow or move it back to the white, so forth.

But what I like to do is a button test. And can I change any button to any color I like? And unfortunately, as of this recording in Google Sites you cannot do so.

So one of the cons of using Google Sites.

Zyro (Best Design Elements)

Next on our list is a website builder called Zyro. And Zyro really gives us an awful lot of flexibility.

Unlike the first two website builders we've taken a look at, what Zyro does is actually give you a true grid style. So for example here as I drag this image you can see all the different places where I can place it. It gives us these little squares.

And what I love about this is that I can do something like this. I can stagger my videos. I think that's a little more eye-catching as people are scrolling down this website.

This is something that is almost impossible to do in programs such as Weebly or Google Sites. Maybe I want to bring it up even more. Maybe I want to stagger them. How about something like this? Hey, that's kind of eye-catching as well.

See how easy and quick that was for me to do. The other thing that I like to do is like I said, a button test.

And if I come in here and select, edit this button, I've got my standard options such as, you know, what do I want to name this button for example, maybe I want to name it register now. But it goes more than that.

When it comes under style, I can stick with my standard button style of either dark or light but I can come down further and I can say, you know what? This is a registration type of thing so I want to make it sort of a bit of a green. Yeah, that looks pretty… That looks pretty good right there.

So let's make it that green. That's the kind of button that I want. And again, just like other elements, I'm using this grid style. So if I want this register now button to appear somewhere else within this screen, I can do so.

The other nice thing that is flexible with Zyro is that you can continue to edit in mobile mode. Now I know you just heard me say a few moments ago that this may not be a desirable feature because you have to keep track of the two, but let me just show you a quick example.

Let's say when it comes to the mobile view here you want this button to come first. You want it first and foremost. I'm going to put it at the top of the screen but that's not going to change it here on my desktop view.

So depending on your needs, depending on the level of customization, you can change things, also add and remove certain things between the mobile and desktop versions. Now Zyro is a website builder provided by Hostinger.

Hostinger is one of the most popular and reliable web hosting platforms. So if you need a safe and a secure place to host all of your websites, you should check out Hostinger.

For just a few dollars a month, you can get their premium shared hosting where you are going to host up to 100 websites and get a 100 gigabytes in storage. Hostinger also is one of the most reviewed web hosting platforms and currently has a 4.2 rating on the G2 website.

If you'd like to learn more about hosting your websites on Hostinger and get a special price, be sure to click the link in the description below.

Squarespace (Best Templates)

Now number four on our list is Squarespace. And Squarespace is popular amongst many entrepreneurs and many businesses. Why? Because they have a lot of wonderful templates to get you started.

And if you're looking for a very clean website then Squarespace may be the choice for you. Here what I need to do is actually click on edit to get into my editing mode.

And what makes Squarespace a little different than the other website builders we've looked at is that we do not have a dropdown menu or a side menu to put in building blocks. Instead, what we need to do is look at these little plus symbols which are scattered around all throughout the website.

So for example, if I want to add a button here I need to click this little plus and that will open up all of my options available to me. Now Squarespace does have a lot of elements that we can add, they even give us a handy search bar here at the top.

But if I want to add that button for example, I need to come down here and now I can start creating that content here. And it does give me some design options, but you're typically locked into that template.

Again, this may be a pro or con depending on your needs. How much do you want to go outside of the box? How much control do you want to have when it comes to changing this image for example, or do you want to make sure that it's gonna look good in the template that you're using already?

If you want something that has almost ready out of the box then Squarespace may be the right choice for you. Now, Squarespace does give us a mobile preview as well as we've seen in other areas.

And as we just saw with Zyro, you can edit this text here within the mobile view as well.

Wix (Best Flexibility)

Last but not least, we are going to look at Wix which is giving us perhaps the most flexibility of the five website builders that we've taken a look at here. Here I've uploaded a pre-made template within Wix which looks really, really good.

And if I want to come in here and change something when it comes to this image, including sizing, et cetera, et cetera, I can do so here as well. Wix gives us an awful lot of flexibility when it comes to changing our content.

But the other nice thing that Wix does here is that it gives us some other business-specific tools available to us. So for example, if I click on plans and pricing, here you can see they've actually created elements and even entire pages that are prebuilt just for our business needs.

So we're already familiar that this is perhaps the most common way in which we can sell something or put something up on a sales page. Instead of trying to design this for yourself with the little boxes and making the numbers bigger here and then adding your own buttons, you can come in here and edit this content directly.

So if I want to come in here and edit the content, you can see here on the left hand side I can edit this pricing plan. The other nice thing is that it has things such as booking online, which is not just exclusive to Wix, but what I like about it is that it's more than just an element.

They give you a full template to work with. So you can start to book immediately here within your Wix webpage and start adding that to your own calendar.

So Wix is certainly very business centric or can allow you to add these additional tools as a part of it. It may take a little bit longer for you to get comfortable with the ability to edit the different elements here within Wix.

Again, if I click this edit icon here you can see that everything is here on the left-hand side. One of the things that I don't really enjoy about Wix is that if I want to edit this text, I actually have to edit it over here on the left hand side and then I will see my changes appear here.

What I do like about some of the other tools that we've looked at today, including Weebly and Zyro, is that we can just edit that text in place. So you can see what it's going to look like live rather than going back and forth, left to right.

Now, pricing does vary among these five options and each have multiple packages, too many for me to include in this video, but I've included a link to each of their pages in the description down below.

Now is there another website builder that you think I should have included on this list? If so, be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Thank you so much for watching today's video and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

What this video is all about

Believe it or not, I have never actually used ClickUp before. Despite its popularity over the last few years, this is one project management tool that I've never laid my fingers on.

So in this video, I'm gonna use ClickUp for the very first time. Now, usually I'm the one doing the teaching, but I'm looking forward to your comments so you can point out where I went wrong and what I should be looking for here as I evaluate this tool.

So ready to take a look at ClickUp for the first time with me? Let's go. (electronic whooshing)

Okay, so here I am within ClickUp and I have literally just signed up a few minutes ago. Now I've purposely decided to evaluate and to play around with ClickUp here without using a template.

I know that ClickUp has a variety of templates and that can be a great way to get started here. But in order for me to get familiar and really sort of feel my way around ClickUp, I purposely decided not to use a template.

Now I do realize, or at least I have read that ClickUp does have a hierarchy which is very flexible. So if this is my main workspace account, I've got something called a space, and then I can create folders within that space, and then lists I'm gonna assume within the folders themselves.

I'm not sure if we need a folder each time or if we can just go directly to a list, but here I've got a space, or I guess that would maximize it here. If I click up here on space, I'm assuming I can rename it here.

That seems to be just like a search for an icon here or something like that. Well, why don’t we give it an icon? Let's give it like a power.

Okay, but I want to change the name. I can't do it there.

Space, settings. Okay, that makes a little more sense. A few clicks there to get that.

But I guess if this is your department name, then that's a bit different, right? So let's say that this is marketing, review changes.

Okay, you're probably not gonna be changing this that frequently, so I get that. So let's say that is marketing.

Creating a new ClickUp Space

If I want to create a new space, do I click on everything? That's gonna show me everything.

Oh, here, spaces. I'm gonna say, add new. And I'm gonna add a new space.

I kind of like the graphics here that we're looking at a planet here or Saturn or something like that. And let's say that this is my sales department or my sales space.

And for sales, I'll give them a key and a color. That's kind of nice that you can add a color to the icon itself.

Okay, and we can either make it private or a workspace. Let's keep it open.

Okay, so it looks like there's quite a few things here when you're creating a space. But I guess that makes sense. Again, like I said before, if this is gonna be sort of a department level or higher level.

So we've got some templates here, Kanban. Yeah, I’m kind of.

Okay, so if you toggle between these things, you'd get different types of statuses. I guess you can add your own done statuses to consider.

Oh, okay. So you can choose what is done and closed. Okay, well, let's keep things fairly basis.

I’m gonna choose a Kanban. How about that? Keep it nice. And I’m not gonna add anything new here.

I understand that yeah, I could add something new here if I wanted to. I guess you could add a done and then create that as a done status.

Not exactly sure. I’m not gonna waste my time clicking on learn more. I’m having more fun exploring here.

So I’m gonna hit next in this case. And then we've got a variety of click apps which I’m gonna assume are sort of power ups, extensions, things that are added on.

I’m just gonna leave it as is hoping that some of those things will help me.

Required views versus a default view template. So again, I’m gonna stick pretty standard here.

I’ve got a board view. I like a calendar view when I’m working on my projects.

So maybe I’ll just turn that one on. We’ll just take a look at those three at the first place.

And then here, we've already seen this menu when I renamed that first status here. Or that first space, I should say.

Okay, let's create it. Let's create that space. And so now I've got sales and I've got marketing.

Sales has a list, right? Because I guess that's the list that I created with those different levels or statuses.

So let's start adding a few things here.

Adding tasks to a ClickUp List

This is sales. So let's review our sales numbers. How about that? As a task, I’m just hitting enter.

And I like, I can go directly to the next task. Let's call our former clients and let's add something else here.

Let's say, let's set up, set up new phone campaign, something like that.

Okay, so quick and easy. I like that I can just hit enter and select the next task. This does, it treated that as another task, didn't that?

Oh, no, it didn't. It’s just waiting for a task. Good. It always bugs me when something like a sauna where you create a new task and then it just, it keeps it as an actual task here.

Okay, so I've got my different tasks. Let's assign it to me. I’m the only one here.

So we’ll assign, how about two of these to me. Let's give a couple of these a due date.

Hmm, a lot of information here with the calendar. I really like that you can scroll. That's a nice touch here that I don’t have to hit an arrow over or something like that.

So that's a nice touch. And I also like this as well. This is one of my favorite things when it comes to some of my email extensions.

So this is nice. Later, tomorrow, this weekend, next week, again, rather than always having to use a calendar, I like that ability.

So let's say tomorrow, let's hit tomorrow. So that's nice and quick. I do like that.

Due date, when is it? Uh, it's next week. Boom, I don’t have to open up the calendar and select a particular day. I like that a lot.

And then we've got a priority here. Urgent, high, normal, low, clear. These look pretty static.

I wonder if these are editable. If you know if these are editable, let me know in the comments.

Let's just say that this one is high and let's say that this one is normal.

And just for fun, let's say that this one is low. Okay, now the plus is going to allow me to add, okay, so we've got custom fields here, which I haven’t set up any of these, so maybe I’ll stay away from that for now.

So these are the hidden fields. Okay, so we've got all these other things available to us here.

So it sounds like I could add that to, oh, sorry. This is just adding it directly to the view here.

But if I want to come in here, let's click and open up this task

Viewing Task details in ClickUp

And I’m sure I can add all that information within here if I need to.

So let's see, if I wanted a start date, or do I have to add that at the beginning?

Maybe I have to add that? Dependencies, edit tags, attachments, add a checklist, history.

Hmm, okay. So if I need to add further, oh, it knows that I’m using Toggl. So there we go. Great.

And I wonder if that has to do with this timer. Toggl is a time-tracking app that I've been using on a regular basis, but it looks like you can track your time right here within ClickUp, which again, is a nice feature that you don’t have to do that with a third party or something like that.

So I can track how much time I’m spending on this. I guess the next step is open or it's in the open status, let's say in progress.

Okay, and it gives us some helpful click or some quick keys, which because this is my first time today, you're probably gonna see a lot of those suggestions, right?

I've got a little undo there if I needed to go back. So let me see, if I close this now and let's say, okay, so it's gotten my different list in progress and open.

Can I drag open to the top? I would have, I almost would've assumed, or I guess it's doing it by due date.

I guess I can sort these by different, no, due date is further out than this one. So I can collapse it, but can I actually move?

I would have assumed that open would be first and then moving into in progress, but let's open up something else and let's move it to review.

Now let's see, where does that show up on this list? So, hmm. Okay, I’m a little confused or I guess I’m just not clear on this ordering here.

If it has something to do with the last time I clicked the option here or if this is default.

If I drag this, I understand I could probably drag that into in progress. Can I? No. Oh, there.

Oh, that's a sub task. Okay. What if I don’t want it as a sub task? I guess I can undo.

That's the nice thing about undo. But yeah, curious about these orders.

If I can change the order or is the completed always gonna be on the top first?

Maybe list settings. That makes a lot of sense. I wonder if there was probably a default, a default sort order or something along those lines.

But let's come over here and hit plus because maybe I want to, I guess this is mostly just lists, right?

This actually is an additional field, start date. So if I say start date, so I've got one there.

So if I open this up, is that something new that now appears? Did I not see that before?

Or was start date somewhere else? Can I view the start date here? I don’t see a place, due date.

A due date. But that is different than a start date.

So definitely a lot of options I can see. There's a lot of places that you can click on.

I've been told many times before that there is a bit of a steep learning curve here

Viewing ClickUp tasks in different ways

Within ClickUp. So, okay, well, let's leave this at that.

I've got my different lists here. Let's take a look at some of the other boards or the other views I should say.

So if I click on the board view, sort of expecting, exactly, I’m just sort of expecting what I want here.

I should be able to click things over and put them in a different level here.

So pretty standard stuff. If I can click on that.

I do like that. You can click directly on the calendar.

It looks like you can do quite a few things directly from sort of the card front or the task front itself.

So that's sort of quick and easy. And of course, I’ll be able to expand it and edit the task there as well.

Calendar view. Yeah, pretty standard. Looks almost very similar to Google Calendar.

And I imagine that you can sync this with your calendar via a URL or something along those lines.

Sync with calendar. I’m not gonna dive too far into that at this point. But, okay. So we've got a list here.

How does that differ from a folder? So if I go back to sales here, this is where we have this list.

Create a folder or a list. I’m gonna say folder this time. And so I dunno, let's say this is team A.

Okay, so this is the team A folder. Lists. Yeah, that list can be underneath it.

Share folder with task statuses. Okay, so I’m gonna say create folder.

And so I guess I've got this list is within this folder. So I can add more lists, right?

So I've got lists there. Let's add, yeah. Well, let's add list two 'cause we've got list one here.

Create that list. And maybe just one other one.

I’m probably not doing this as quickly or in the most efficient manner. There's probably some other quick keys in which you could create further lists here.

But okay, so I've got my different lists here. Can I drag those in? Yes, I can drag that into a much better order.

So these are all under this folder of team A. And then I don’t have any lists under marketing.

Let's create something called the marketing list. How about that? And say, create.

Okay, so now I've got at least one list but I don’t have many tasks here.

Let's say task number one. How about that? And task number two.

Okay, so I've got a list there and I've got a list here. So if I want to click on sales, I’m gonna get everything within sales.

I’ll admit that these sort of pop-ups here in the lower left-hand corner are relatively large. I’m sure they don’t change just because I’m a newbie.

They're almost sort of blocking my view here. So this is my list within sales and I’m not gonna see anything under, oh, and then here's my other list, team A.

Yeah, list. Oh, team A list. Oh, so I didn’t get everything.

Yeah, this list is outside side of team A. So I guess if I created another folder, I could put my first list, this list underneath it.

So a different way of grouping things. But I’ll admit, giving you a lot more flexibility in terms of how you group that information.

It's still gonna allow you to, I guess change what you see here and the statuses and everything else that comes along with it.

Okay, well, let's open up something here. And let's add a sub task, which it looks like we can add right from the beginning of the card.

So this is gonna be sub task one. And yeah, that's pretty fluid that you can just quickly and easily enter in additional sub tasks here.

And I imagine the sub tasks have all the same capability as a regular task. They're just gonna be grouped together under this master task.

We've got tags here, which makes a lot of sense. So if I say this is an email task, I can just say email.

Let's say that this is, for some reason, this is a phone call perhaps in this case. So I hit phone.

And hmm, can I change the, I’m sure I can change the color. There we go. Change the color.

I’m surprised that by default it made it such a close color to the one above.

If I say something here like this is a meeting, wow, it's really going with that reddish, pinkish, almost forcing you, I would say, forcing you to come in here and change the color, right?

Because you'd want it to stand out a bit more, right? Wouldn’t you want your tags to stand out a bit more?

And then we could group it by, can we group it by tags? Yeah, that's nice.

Although I guess they're all in the sub tasks here. So that maybe isn’t the best example to show or to use in this case, but we can do the sub tasks there as well.

If I click on sub tasks. Okay, collapse, expand all. Gotcha here.

Now I’m sure that there are many of you who have been using ClickUp for some time. I’d love to hear from you next.

Where did I go wrong? And what should I be looking for next? Especially since ClickUp does have a relatively steep learning curve.

Be sure to share your feedback and your thoughts in the comments down below.

Thank you so much for watching this video. And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

The criteria for this list

What if your web browser could help you save time? Well, in today's video, I'm sharing with you seven Chrome Extensions, which do just that.

And the best news of all, they're all absolutely free. Hello, everyone. Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

And that's right, every single extension that I'm sharing with you today is either completely free or has a free forever option. So, let's dive in.

Awesome Screenshot & Screen Recorder

How often have you been wanting to share something with someone else and you know it'd be a lot quicker if you just sent a quick video recording?

Let's say, for example, I'm redesigning my website and I wanna tell my web designer that, you know what? I wonder if we can change this image here, and change the title of this, and I like what's going on here.

Do you know how long that would take me to write in an email or include in a text message or a chat? Wouldn't it be easier if I just took a quick screen recording?

Well, that's where Awesome Screenshot & Screen Recorder comes into play. Here under Chrome Extensions, all I need to do is click on it, and I can start recording right away.

Now, just before I show you a quick demo, take a look at the variety of things that we can do here. We can record beyond just our desktop.

We can also record our webcam if we want. We can also take screen captures.

Now, in many cases, I find that many of you already have a screen capture tool that you like, but this is quick and easy if you want to record a video.

All I need to do is say Start Recording and pick what I would like to record. I'm gonna hit Share in this case.

It's gonna give me a quick countdown, and now we are recording. Now, just before I start to narrate here, what I want to point your attention to here is the bottom left-hand corner.

Because if I click on this mouse cursor, I can select to highlight the mouse. Now, you're used to seeing this here within my Simpletivity videos, but now you can do it yourself as you record videos for whatever purposes that you need.

So I can go over here and highlight something over here. If I want to, I can annotate as well.

So if I wanna say, you know what? I don't really like this one, this is not so great, but this image is great. Let's continue with that.

In the very top right, when we go back to our extension, you can see that we have a counter here, so we can see how long that video is lasting.

If I select this and hit Stop, we are going to be brought to the awesome screenshot page, where we can now preview our video here.

We can edit it if we like. The other nice bonus is that we can generate a shareable link.

So right now I can copy this to my clipboard and I can paste it in an email and share it with whoever I want. Awesome Screenshot also allows you to connect with other popular services, including Slack, Asana, and Trello.

Weava Highlighter

Number two on our list also has to do with interacting with things online, and that has to do with highlighting or retaining information for later.

How often have you been reviewing a PDF document, or maybe just a website and saying, oh, this is great? I love this quote here.

I'd like to include that maybe in my own blog article. Well, all I need to do when I have Weava Highlighter installed is I can highlight this section here, and now I am given a few color options.

I'm gonna use the traditional yellow here, and now I'm starting to highlight text directly on this website. Maybe I wanna come down here and say, you know what?

This is a great quote as well. I'm gonna highlight that as well, but maybe I wanna remind myself what this is all about.

If I click on this highlight again, I can even take a note. This is a great quote. Maybe we wanna include this in, like I said, a blog document or something along those lines.

Now this note is going to be saved with this highlighted option here. What we can do is go into Weava, and now we can see all of the notes that we've collected online.

So here you can see I've collected a few notes, a few highlights I should say, and my notes are saved along with it as well.

The great thing is that whenever I come back to this particular webpage, my highlights are going to be waiting for me here.

So it doesn't matter if I close this tab, if I refresh the page, as long as I have the Weava extension installed, I can come back here on all of my highlights and notes will remain.

Currency Converter PRO

Number three on our list has to do with something that I use quite often, and that is currency conversion. So we wanna take a look at Currency Converter PRO.

So it sits here along with your other extensions, and it's quick and easy, and you don't have to open up another tab.

So here I can just enter in a dollar value, I can select the currencies that I want to convert, and I can get an accurate up-to-date currency conversion.

So if you're dealing with international customers, if you're needing to know the true cost of something, if you're seeing something online, which is not in your own currency, you can easily use this here.

Now, the other nice thing is that we can actually add multiple currencies as well. So let's say there's a few different currencies that you use on a regular basis.

I'm just gonna select these four, for example, and now I'm gonna have them listed here in this window. So if I wanna type in something like $50 US as of today, well now I can see immediately the differences in these other currencies.

And the great thing is that it's just always there when you need it. If I come back here, I can quickly save these currencies that I use most often, and come back and forth, or maybe it's just the top two that I want to go through, or maybe I wanna convert them a different way.

Quick and easy, and I can get on with the rest of my day.

Momentum

Now the next extension on our list is gonna help us save time in a slightly different way. When we open up a new tab, we're often jumping and bouncing around from the variety of different things that we have open at any given time.

But watch what happens when I hit a new tab here. Instead of getting the traditional Google page, which is gonna show me some of my more recent apps or my favorite bookmarks, here, I'm going to get a reminder.

The Momentum Chrome Extension is not just gonna show you the time and give you a greeting and a nice background, which will change throughout the day, but it helps you focus so that you can enter in your number one objective.

So for example, here, I might type in something like, Make a new video. That's maybe my main focus for today.

So every time I open up a new tab, I'm gonna be reminded that making a new video is really what I should be doing today. Now, Momentum is quite beautiful, right?

It's gonna give me the temperature, and it's gonna give me a nice motivational message, and I can customize these things as well.

But what I really like is that you can have your number one task, or your highest priority always visible here so that you can accomplish it and not get sidetracked by everything else on your day.

GetColor

The next extension on our list has to do with colors, especially if you're ever designing or needing a particular color for a presentation, or a website or whatever it is that you do.

How often have you been trying to impress a client, and you say to yourself, boy, I'd really like to get this particular green color, 'cause I know they use it all throughout their website, I'd like to add it to my presentation, but how do you figure out exactly what this green is?

Well, that's where the GetColor Extension comes into play. Up here, if I select the GetColor Extension, I can play around and select a variety of different colors here, but what I use GetColor most often for is this Pick selection here.

So if I select Pick, you can notice that there's a little square beside my cursor. And when I hover over a color, it's going to grab that color.

So let's say I want this green, I'm gonna select that, I'm gonna click it. And when I come back up to GetColor, here is the exact hex color code, which I can select, and I can copy.

Now that it's copied to my Clipboard, I can paste it wherever I need to. So let's say I'm doing a presentation here, and I really wanna impress the client by using this text with their color.

So what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna go to my Colors, go to my Custom Colors. And all I need to do is paste in what I just selected.

I'm gonna say OK, and now I've got their exact green. It's not just close, this is exactly the green that I saw.

So, GetColor can not only help you save time, but make it so much easier for you to grab the colors that you need anywhere on the web.

Picture-in-Picture

Next up, let's go into YouTube for a second. And let's say that you're following a tutorial, such as, oh, I dunno, maybe my Gmail settings tips tutorials.

And one of the frustrating things is that as you follow along with any tutorial, you may need to switch back and forth, right? Someone is showing you how to do something here, but then you've gotta go to a new tab to actually make those changes and follow along.

Well, that's where the Picture-in-Picture Extension by Google comes into play. So here we are. I am perhaps watching this video, and I want to follow along as this person is changing these settings here.

All I need to do is come up here and select Picture-in-Picture, and it will take that video and pop it outside. So now I can go to any tab. I can even go to my desktop if I want, I can hit the play button, and I can start to follow along.

As they are making changes here, I can follow along and make my own changes. If I need to resize the window, no problem.

I can make it a little bit bigger, I can make it a little bit smaller. I can hit this pause button if I need to make the changes here quickly, and then come back here and hit play and follow along again.

So, Picture-in-Picture can be extremely valuable if you need those YouTube videos on a separate tab or on a separate screen.

Trim for Netflix

Speaking of videos, last but not least, my final extension today, it's maybe a bit of a fun one, but it helps me save a lot of time, especially if I'm trying to browse and find what I'd like to watch next on Netflix.

I get really tired browsing through Netflix, finding things that are actually worth watching. And I often use a website called IMDB to find their ratings.

And here you can see, I've got the IMDB ratings here, so I can try to filter out the things that are something that are a bit more interesting, or at least other people find interesting as well.

But you'll also notice that a bunch of the videos are grayed out. Why is that? That's because I can set the IMDB rating filter level.

So let's say I want to think look at things that are only, like a 7.8 or above. Well, now you can see, I've got a few more videos that are blocked out as I scan through and only see things with that number or higher.

Maybe you don't wanna use IMDB, that's okay. You can also set the Rotten Tomatoes Score here as well, and you can even choose a different date range if you only want to see things that are released after the year 2000, that will filter out things as well.

Last but not least, what this has is also something called a Trim Button. So if there's a particular category that you don't want to see here.

So for example, Critically Acclaimed Dramas, maybe I don't wanna see this as an option today. I can hit this X, and it's going to remove it.

So I won't see it anymore as I browse through these titles. A bit more of a fun one, but one that helps me save time as I try to find something worth watching here within Netflix.

Now, if you have a favorite Chrome Extension, I would love to hear from you. Perhaps I can feature it in a future video.

Be sure to let me know, and share it with others in the comments down below. Thank you so much for watching today's video, and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple.

Why I decided to give you a tour

What does my workspace actually look like? Well, in this video, I'm going to give you a full office tour.

Last year, I moved into a new home and thus, a new office. And after many requests, I've decided to give you a tour of my setup.

Now, this video is gonna be broken up into two parts. The first, we're gonna be focusing on my desk and what helps me to stay productive throughout the day.

And then in the latter half, we're gonna be looking at a few things that are a bit more video conferencing or YouTube specific. So, without any further ado, let's jump outside my office and let me welcome you to my workspace.

Desk setup for daily productivity

Here we are outside of my office, and I wanted to start here with a very important piece of technology. My handwritten cardboard do-not-disturb sign, very, very important.

Well, without further ado, let's open up this handle and welcome to my office space. The first thing that you're going to notice, is that the desk is placed in the middle of the room.

Yes, it prevents me from adding more shelving or more storage space, but that is by design, so I've got a lot of open space behind me for my videos. But more about that later.

Let's take a look at the desk itself. You're probably saying to yourself, Scott, you probably spent the last five or 10 minutes clearing everything up, maybe vacuuming the carpet making sure that it looked good for this video.

But the honest truth is, this is how my desk looks each and every day. I like an uncluttered workspace and have as few things on my desk as possible.

Let's take a quick look at the tech. It all starts with my ThinkPad Carbon X1 Laptop, which I have connected to a ThinkPad Docking Station.

This allows me to connect to a variety of other peripherals including my keyboard here and my mouse, both of which are Logitech. And of course, things like my webcam and my microphone.

Over here on the left-hand side, I try to keep things as cluttered as possible. You'll notice just a few things beyond my water bottle, I have my wireless earbuds, I have the cable to my mobile phone and I even have some wired earbuds, which I prefer when it comes to recording audio.

But beyond that, I like to keep things very, very sparse. The one piece of non-technology, at least not electronic in nature is this blank piece of paper accompanied by a single pen.

I like to have a single piece of scrap paper always available so that no matter what I'm doing here on screen, I've got something quick and easy that I can scratch an idea down or if someone gives me a call, something that I can input very, very quickly here and review later.

Of course, that piece of paper gets recycled at the end of the day. At the top of my monitor screen, which is attached on a floating arm, you'll see that I actually have two webcams.

I have a Canon Mirrorless camera, but I also have a Logitech HD Camera. Now, do I use them both at the same time?

No, but because I do so much video conferencing, it's nice to have the backup just in case. Well, with that, why don’t we transform my office in just a few moments?

Because you may have noticed that this is also a standing desk and when I conduct meetings and when I record my videos, I am always standing. So, let me adjust and give you a tour of my video setup.

Office setup for video meetings and YouTube recording

We are back at the entranceway of my office, just so I can show you the height adjustment of the standing desk and my standing mat. Now, I have a personal rule.

I do not take any meetings sitting down. If I'm on a consulting call, if I'm delivering any type of training, I force myself to stand up.

This makes it so that I am standing up typically at least 50 to 70% of my day rather than just sitting. So, coming over here on my standing mat, the lights are a little dim at this point in time because when I'm recording my videos, I do adjust my lighting.

I have a ring light, which gives me ample light here on my face, and then behind me, which I will use sometimes when I'm sitting in my chair, I have a very inexpensive floodlight from Home Depot, which I can adjust those colors.

It is a LED light. I can adjust it to anything that I like.

And then beyond the cameras, which I showed you just a moment ago, I have my trusty Blue Yeti Microphone on a boom arm so I can swivel it out and position it wherever I like when I'm involved in a meeting or delivering a video conference.

Now, just like my desk is rather sparse, you may also notice that my walls are relatively sparse but they also have sound paneling all around. Now, you're probably most familiar with this checkerboard design, which is behind me at all times when recording my videos.

This is much more than just aesthetics, these actually serve a purpose and I have these sound panelings on every corner of my walls. This helps to dampen the sound and reduce the number of echoes when I'm recording audio here within my room.

Beyond the desk itself, I do have a relatively simple carpet just to try and dampen that sound some more against the tile. I have a chair for a guest over here.

Just a few things, including my favorite candy Maynards Wine Gums here on my desk and other files, and pieces of equipment, which I store on this container.

Last but not least, the one thing that I do have displayed on my wall beyond just sound paneling, is my YouTube Silver Play Button. And I wanted to take this moment to thank you for all of your support, all of your questions and all of your comments right here on the Simpletivity channel.

Now, of course my needs are going to be different from your needs, but hopefully you enjoyed this office tour and maybe got some ideas of how you'd like to change your office space.

Now, if you'd like to learn more about any of the products or the furniture which I showed in today's video, be sure to check out the links in the description.

Thank you so much for watching. And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

What is the RESET Productivity Masterclass?

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

My goal is to help you save time and make your workday that much easier, that's probably why you're watching this video.

But what I really love is being able to work with people directly, and that's why I created the RESET Productivity Masterclass.

The RESET Productivity Masterclass is a four-week online course where I teach you all about how to get more done in less time and how to simplify your technology.

Now, if you don't know me, I'm a productivity coach and technology YouTuber.

For the past 10 years, I've helped thousands of people to get more done and enjoy their work so much more.

I apply these same principles to my own business, which allows me to work just 25 hours per week.

So if you're wanting to accomplish more and in less time, this course is gonna be really helpful to you.

Course Overview and Schedule

Now you can review the entire course curriculum at the official RESET website, but basically we'll be covering a new theme each week.

In week one, we're gonna look at all of those distractions that get in the way of our day and help you select a note-taking tool that works for you.

So if you're bothered by all of those interruptions, this first week is gonna help you solve that problem.

In week two, we talk all about focus and how to prioritize all your tasks and projects.

Even if it feels like you've got way too many things on your plate, I'm gonna show you techniques so you can keep your workload under control.

In week three, we'll talk about creating the ideal productivity system just for you.

We all work a little differently, so I'm gonna give you a framework for finding the perfect software setup.

Then in week four, we'll talk about mastering your schedule and creating a balance between your professional and personal life.

Because what's the point of being more productive if you can't enjoy your time away from work?

Online Community and Special Guests

Now, in addition to the course content, you'll also get access to the RESET online community.

This is a place where you can ask me questions directly and also get to know other students, including past RESET graduates.

On top of that, we will also have some special guests join us for some bonus sessions.

These productivity experts will give us some additional insight on how we can get the most out of our day and the tools that we use.

Best of all, you get to interact with them directly.

So if this sounds interesting, you'll find a lot more information and details at simpletivity.com/reset.

If you still have questions, let me know in the comments down below.

I hope to see you at the next cohort, and then we can chat directly.

Thank you so much for watching, and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple.

Intro

what if you could eliminate all those annoying distractions that pull you away from your work what if you could increase your focus and stop procrastinating over projects that you know you need to complete or what if you could manage all of your tools and technology with ease so you could get more done well i think you can do all of those things and i'd like to show you how hello everyone scott friesen here at

Reset Productivity Master Class

simpletivity helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress and i wanted to make sure that you knew that registration for the reset productivity master class opens friday october 1st now if you haven't heard about the reset

Course Curriculum

productivity master class it's a four-week online course where i teach you how to get the most out of your time and pick the right software for your needs we also talk about how we can increase our focus prioritize all our tasks and simplify our technology if you like you can view the entire course curriculum at simplitivity.com

reset in addition to learning from me

Special Guests

directly i also have some special guests who will be joining us francesco d'alessio from keep productive will share some of his favorite tools and also trends to watch out for in the coming year and mike vardy from the productivities podcast will share some of his best planning strategies and how we can stop overthinking all of our

tasks now i only teach this course three times a year so if you're serious about working at your productive best and finding the right software for your needs don't miss out registration opens october 1st for the fall cohort i hope to see you there and then we can chat directly thank you so much for watching and remember being productive does not need to be difficult in fact it's very simple