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Over the past year, it seems as if every productivity tool has included AI as a part of its feature.

But in many cases, I've been very disappointed. Either they're adding AI to something that doesn't make sense or actually doesn't improve the product. And even when they do add it to something that might be helpful, the results are often very poor.

Fortunately, that's not the case with Walling. One of my favorite productivity tools especially when it comes to creating projects, proposals, and if you're wanting to share those things with other clients or people outside of your team.

So in this video, I'm going to show you how to use AI in Walling and get the most out of this new feature.

Getting Started

So here I am within my walling account and typically we have two options to get started. We can either begin with a completely blank wall or we can come down here to the many excellent templates.

But I think with this new AI generate feature you may never come back to these templated options because we can get so much further, so much faster by just giving it a little bit of instruction. So all we need to do is click on AI generate and tell it in a brief description what exactly it is that we are looking for.

So in this example, perhaps I want to create a marketing plan for a real estate business in Seattle.

I'm going to take on the role of a marketing consultant and I'm working with this client and I want to put together a quick plan so I can show them what I'm capable of doing for them and to get them to sign a contract by the end of the week. 

So I've given it just a brief direction here exactly what I stated marketing plan for a real estate business in Seattle. 

And all I have to do is hit enter and in just a few seconds it's provided me with a complete project proposal with all of the details necessary for me to get started.

It's even included a checklist, bullet points, a table, even a Kanban board, in terms of how we can move forward with this project, even has included pictures that I can use as a part of this proposal. And unlike using a generic template where we could probably find a marketing plan.

In fact, there's probably a number of marketing plan templates out there if we read in the details here of the overview, the objectives, if we go into the actual bullet points, these are things specific to both the Seattle area but also the real estate market.

If I come down here to the bottom under market analysis it knows a little bit about the Seattle real estate market and the strong economy, low employment rate yet a high demand for real estate. 

So this is a lot more specific. It allows me to not have to fill in so many blanks. I can focus on the key points and move on with my proposal. So let's quickly go through the different sections of this wall, which it has provided.

And remember, for each prompt or each instruction that you give it, it's going to come out with a different layout depending on what you are wanting. So here at the top I have the combination of a cover image and a title.

Of course, if I want to come here and change this cover, let's see if we can find something that is a little more specific to Seattle. Yes, that speaks Seattle to me. So we can quickly and easily change these images.

We've got an executive summary which is going to cover the overview and the objectives of this marketing plan. It goes over some of the metrics that we are going to use and a combination of bullet points and a checklist here.

And of course, if I want to change something, I can click on absolutely anything and delete or add it or edit.

In this example here of evaluation and measurement it might not make that much sense to have a checklist here unless I'm wanting to work through this with the client. 

But because I'm going to be using this page as a proposal I'm going to come over here and I want to turn this into a bulleted list. So again, in just a few keystrokes I can make those simple changes here. It's even provided me with a budget and a timeline.

And think with just that one key prompt, it's given me a couple of tasks to get started on. Here's the estimated time or estimated cost who it's assigned to, and then the due date.

Of course, I can add as many additional columns or additional rows as I would like but it's already got me started with a fantastic beginning. And then below under marketing strategies it's given me a great view here of the different areas the online marketing, local advertising and partnerships.

It's put it into a Kanban style board here so I can clearly see the differences that we are going to engage in or the different possibilities that we have for this plan. 

And then lastly, we have our market research area here at the end. And don't forget, it's not just easy to edit the text but we can completely edit the layout and swap out other pieces of information.

So for example, since we're talking about market research for a real estate project, it doesn't make that much sense that it's given me these microscopes here. So I'm going to come up here and say replace.

Let's type in something like real estate, see what it comes back with. And I think this makes a lot more sense. But if I want to go and grab images or video here, I've got a video to show how I do my market research I can simply drag and drop it directly into my wall.

So now when they receive this proposal they'll be able to quickly and easily play this video when they view this screen. And then if I want some other things to stand out such as maybe this competitor research I want to have just a different shade just so that they see the difference between these sections.

I can do so here as well but the AI doesn't stop with just generating your wall.

Adding more sections 

We can continue to add further sections and add further content within our wall. So for example, maybe at the bottom of the wall I want to stress why they should be working with me and maybe what do they stand to lose if they don't work with my organization.

So I'm going to click on new section here and although I can start to add my own details I'm going to continue and select AI generate. Now again, we are asked for a prompt but here we don't have to give as much detail.

In fact, instead of giving it instruction I'm just going to give it a simple title for this section why you should work with us. I'm going to hit enter, and now in just a few seconds

Sharing your project

it's given me a great summary paragraph,a great way to sign off and encourage them to complete this proposal or at least continue the conversation. Now, you may be asking how do I share this with others safely? And without having to confuse my clients or the people that I'm working with adding them to walling, giving them a login.

Well, remember, you can share your proposal your page, your wall, whatever you built here with or without AI using the publishing tool at the top of the screen. So here I'm going to come up to the top and I'm going to select publish.

And when I'm happy with it, all I need to do is select publish to the web. And now I can safely share this link. If I open up a new incognito window I'm going to paste in this link. This is exactly what they will see but in a much nicer format.

In fact, what I really love about this formatting is that it gives a nice clickable table of contents on the left hand side so they can quickly and easily go to different sections of this proposal than just a few clicks. 

But wait a minute, maybe I don't want to share the budget and timeline because we haven't discussed those details yet and I didn't want to introduce a budget at this point. Well, no problem.

When I go back to my Walling account and access the publish page, I can choose which sections I want or do not want to include when sharing the page. So in this case, I'm going to uncheck budget and timeline.

Now, when I go to share this wall with others they will see everything on this screen except for this particular section. So you can create something full and complete but only share the sections that you desire.

And since more and more people are doing more of their work on a mobile device such as a phone or a tablet, don't worry. Walling has got you covered with a completely responsive design. 

So no matter what device they use your proposal or project will look professional and contain all the information that you've included.

So now that you know how quickly and easily you can create a project or a proposal and share it with others what do you need to get done today? What's something that you are behind on or something that you're dreading getting started? Instead of staring at a blank page why don't you let AI generate something for you which will get you 80% of the way there? To get started with Walling, go to Walling app, or click the link in the description 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 is the best way to name your files? Well, here's a simple three step formula you can use by adding a subject, a date and a code to each of your files, it will make it that much easier for you to both organize and find your files in the future.

Here on the screen in front of you, I've got three different folders with different examples, all of them including a subject, a date and a code and a great thing about this formula is that you don't have to keep it in this order, you can mix and match it based on your needs.

So for example, in my first folder, I've got the subject name, followed by the code, followed by the date. In the middle folder, I have the date, followed by the subject name, followed by the code. 

And in the last folder, I have the code, followed by the name, followed by the date. Now let's take a closer look at what makes this file naming system so powerful.

Of course, when it comes to the name or the subject of your file, that's going to differ on each and every file type, but you will notice that I've included a dash between the file name anywhere where a space would normally appear.

Instead of writing a new space hire space process, I've included a dash. Why? Many applications still will not accept a file or process it correctly if you've included a space somewhere within your file name and in some cases they will add special characters in between those spaces.

So in order to make sure that your file can be used or shared with almost any application, I encourage that you include these dashes. 

You'll also notice that I've included an underscore which separates these three components. In this example, I have the date, underscore, the subject name and then underscore and then finally the code.

That makes it a lot easier to read and also to see the distinction between these three different parts. Now, when it comes to the date, I highly recommend that you use the following date format, the full four digit year, followed by the two digit month, followed by the two digit date.

And it doesn't matter what country you live in or what the standard date format is for your region, we want to follow this order so it can sort properly. By using the year, month, date format, we can always sort, especially if you've included the date at the beginning of that file name. 

Lastly, let's take a look at the final component of our formula and that is by adding a unique code or a unique identifier. Here within the left folder, the special code is as a version number.

Within the middle folder, I've got a combination of different things. I have some, which are the initials, perhaps of the last person who edited or who created this file. It could be a version number or, like in the last two examples, I'm identifying the difference between a draft and a final version.

And then in the right hand side folder, the unique code happens to be a purchase order number, which again makes it nice and easy for me to sort everything that is going on within this folder.

The other thing that you will notice is that I recommend that that unique code is in all capitals. 

By using capitals for your code, it will stand out that much more and you can better see the distinction between the three different parts of our file name.

Now, one thing to note, if you are using version numbering, I highly recommend that you use a two digit system like we see here, version zero one followed by zero two and so on.

Why? Even if you don't think that you will get to version 10 or greater, if you do, you want to make sure that this will sort or can be read easily if you do get two double digits. This will save an awful lot of headache and an awful lot of edits in the future.

So the next time you go to create or save a file, just remember this three-step formula of adding a subject, a date and a code, it will make organizing your files and folders so much easier.

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.

This video is brought to you by SaneBox More about them a little later in the video.

Are you tired of staring at a blank email wondering how you should reply or create a new message? Well, if you are a Google Gemini user, we can take advantage of AI directly here from within Gmail.

We're going to get started by coming all the way down to the bottom and to the right of your send button, you will see that there is an icon called Help me Write By Selecting This, we get this Help Me Write button and a few other buttons that will become available once we've added some text or once we've input some information.

So I'm going to go ahead and select Help me write, and this is where we can enter in our prompt. Now it's only a single line. I don't know what the maximum number of characters are, but of course you don't have to give it a whole lot of detail to get something worthwhile.

So here, I've given it this prompt. I wanted to write an email to a potential client who is wanting to pay at the end of the project instead of a deposit upfront. Express that I'm hoping we can revise the agreement to reflect this here. I can go to the right and select Create. 

And of course, AI is going to do its magic and it's important to note it's not going to input it directly into my email just yet. So before we get to the content of what it's come up with here, you can see that there's this line around the content and there's even a little X here, which I can use immediately to close or remove this.

But down at the very bottom of the email, you can see that we now have this big blue button, which will allow us to insert that content. Nothing will go into the email itself until we say so, but we also have a few other options available to us here as well. We can recreate, meaning we can ask it to do another version of this using the exact same prompt that we did, but we can also choose to refine it.

I'm going to come down here to this refine dropdown, and here I've got three options available to me. I can make it more formal. I can choose to elaborate, or I can choose to shorten. Now if I find that I haven't given it the most appropriate prompt, or perhaps it's not coming up with what I'm looking for, I've got one of two options. I can hit this X button here and this will close everything down and bring me back to the beginning where I can enter in a new prompt, or I can come right up here and select the prompt itself.

So in this example, I'm going to say an email to a new client who has not been satisfied with my service. Suggest that we set up a free consultation. I'm going to go ahead and select update in this case.

And you will notice by the response that it's given that there is no mention of the agreement or the contract from the previous prompt. Just keep in mind, every time that you go to change the prompt, it is not going - To the previous one. You are basically starting fresh, or this is a single prompt line each and every time.

Let's say I am happy with this one. I can't edit anything yet until I select insert, and now it has been put into my email. I can go ahead and either add my name here or just remove it since I have my signature down below.

And of course, I'm also going to come up here and make sure that I mention them by name. You may want to do a double check in terms of how many brackets or boilerplate information is there.

The last thing you want to do is send out an email that says Hi client's name. So make sure to do a double check before you hit send.

Now, if you'd like AI to make managing your email that much easier, I recommend you check out SaneBox with AI technology. SaneBox prioritizes essential messages, saving you hours of time each week, and by learning from your behavior, same box will clean up your inbox, get rid of spam, and organize your emails into relevant folders. Best of all, same box works with any email provider.

To get started, go to same box.com/simplivity or click the link in the description below.

I love seedless watermelon.

Who wants to deal with those pesky seeds (spitting sounds).

So when I found out that there was such a thing as a staple-less stapler, I had to check it out.

Of course, we've all experienced the joy of unjamming a traditional stapler or, if we've run out of staples, being frustrated that we didn't have enough to finish the job.

Well, a staple-free or staple-less stapler solves both of those problems.

There's no staples!

So there is nothing to un-jam, there is nothing to run out of.

So how does a staple-less stapler work?

It uses a cut and fold method.

Let me staple these 2 pages together.

You'll see that it makes 2 cuts, a larger cut here and then a tiny slit at the top, which it uses to slip that piece of paper up to the top.

That's how it makes the bond between pages.

As a result, this is not going to be nearly as strong as a typical or a metal stapler.

But I find for most things around the house, whether it's receipts, most of the things that I need to staple are only 2 or 3 pages in depth anyhow.

This is perfect.

This is perfect for most things around the house.

Because of this cut and fold method, it's interesting that it actually makes a stronger bond the more pieces of paper that you use.

Here I've got a stack of 4 sheets, and this is actually an even tighter bond between the pages than it was between just the 2 sheets of paper.

You'll see right on the front that this is limited to 5 sheets, so you're not going to be stapling a booklet together.

You're not going to be stapling something that has a lot of pages together.

It's also very convenient.

As you can see, it's quite small and really designed to fit easily in your hand.

It doesn't take much effort to use and is very safe if you have a family with kids around.

You don't have to hide this away.

No one is going to pinch their fingers in there.

It's only paper that can fit into that slit.

A staple-free stapler can be purchased for less than $10 at your local office supply store.

So if you don't already own one, you can easily pick one up and check it out for yourself.

No staples and easy to use?

It's very simple.

The headphone industry is a two billion dollar a year industry, and that's just in the US alone.

So chances are you have not only one pair of earbuds, not only two pairs of earbuds; you have probably more like half a dozen pairs of earbuds lying around your home at any given time.

Now of course, we get our earbuds when we purchase a new smartphone or perhaps an mp3 player.

But chances are you've probably upgraded your earbuds to something that's of a bit higher quality or something that just fits a lot better.

Well today, I want to show you what's the most efficient way to travel with your earbuds.

So we know if we take our earbuds without a carrying case of any kind, if I just wrap them up against my finger like this and I throw this into my bag, that's going to be a knotted mess when I go to use them.

It might wrap itself up with whatever else I have in my bag, and I'm going to be spending time taking out knots and uncoiling this when I want to listen to my music.

So what's the solution?

Well, it's something that you might already have lying around your house.

It's a coin purse or a change purse.

You may have had a few of these when you were a child.

I know I had lots of fun with these.

They have a spring opener, just a gentle squeeze opens them up on the top; otherwise, they always remain closed and they're very, very thin—extremely thin.

So when I'm traveling, I use the same method.

I'll take my earbuds and I'll wrap them up against my finger like this, but then I can just tuck them into my change purse.

And look at that—it keeps it very, very thin.

I can slip that into my backpack, slip that into my briefcase, almost anywhere.

They're safe, and they're easy to get to.

But the added bonus is that they do not knot up.

The way that I put them in is the way that they remain.

So when I go to use them, I pull them out; I don't have to untangle anything.

I just pull them out, and I'm ready to listen to my music at any given time.

You can pick up a coin purse or a change purse at most dollar stores.

If not at a dollar store, you can certainly find them for less than five or six dollars.

They're usually made out of leather or synthetic leather, and they can also be used for many other purposes.

So there you have it—the most efficient way to carry your earbuds.

Until next time, it's very simple.

It's become far too easy for us to look at a dashboard to determine if we slept well last night or if we had a high-intensity workout.

But how do you actually feel?

Do you feel well rested?

Do you feel good?

Stop telling me how busy you are! I don't care and it sounds pathetic.

When someone makes a request of your time, do you catch yourself saying, "Sorry, I'm just too busy"?

Now it's bad enough if we stop there, but for most of us, we continue on with some kind of story like, "I'm working 80 hours a week, and I'm on this very special project, and I'm also working in this organization, and I'm volunteering on the weekends, and I'm helping my neighbor with project X, Y, and Z, and my kids are involved in this, that, and the other thing so that pretty much books up my Tuesdays through 2027."

Now at first glance, it may sound like we're complaining about how busy our schedule is. But I think often we find ourselves boasting about our schedule in an attempt to try and out-busy someone else. I think we do this because unfortunately, we correlate busyness with importance and that's simply not true.

When we say, "I'm too busy," it sounds like we have no control over our schedules. When I hear someone go on and on about how busy they are, I don't think, "Wow, they sure must be important"! No, if anything, I feel sorry for them because it sounds like they have no control over their schedule.

The other problem with saying, "I'm too busy," is that it's usually a lie. If we really wanted to do the request or the activity that was being asked of us, we would make time for it. But the easy excuse is to say, "I'm too busy" or "I don't have time."

So let's stop saying, "I'm too busy." Instead, we can tell the truth by saying, "That's not a priority for me right now."

Changing the words that we use can remind us that time is always a choice. And if we don't like the way that we're spending our days, well then, let's change our priorities.

It's not that difficult, in fact, it's very simple.

Thank you. Pomodoro—it's the Italian word for tomato. It's also the name of a very powerful time management technique.

Here's how it works.

Step number one: be very specific about what you want to accomplish in the next half hour.

Number two: get yourself a timer and set it for 25 minutes. 25 minutes is a traditional Pomodoro time interval. You can use your app, you can use a desktop timer, you can even purchase a tomato Pomodoro timer online.

Then work exclusively on that task for the next 25 minutes without interruption, without distractions.

When the timer goes off, stop. Take a short break. This is the real power of the Pomodoro Technique—taking short mental breaks before returning to that task or perhaps a new task.

Once you've finished your break, again be specific about what you want to achieve and repeat the Pomodoro interval.

Until next time, it's very simple.

Wallets. We need them to carry around our cash, our coins, ID, credit cards, and loyalty cards. But how can we slim back? How can we reduce the bulkiness and the weight in our pockets? This used to be my wallet. Big, bulky, thick. It felt uncomfortable and chances are you could probably see it in my pocket a mile away.

So here are my 2 tips for slimming back: Number 1: Reduce the amount of plastic.

Reduce the amount of plastic

Reduce the number of cards that you carry in your wallet on a day to day basis. Can you get by with just 7 essential cards? 7 or fewer. Chances are that is going to drastically reduce the amount of bulk in your wallet. If you can't, I suggest using an app such as CardStar.

Use an app

CardStar allows you to scan in any card that has a bar-code and then you can use it at checkout. As long as it has a bar-code, such as a loyalty card, a library card, anything with a bar-code, you can put it into your smartphone.

Slim wallet design

Second tip: Consider investing in a slim wallet design. I'm a big fan of Bellroy. I currently use one of their slim wallets. They are designed to fold flat. They are designed to be very, very thin. I even like the fact that they have designed it so that they have only 3 key cards at the

Conclusion

front of the wallet. They have other places where you can store additional cards. But even their design of where to store cards have been very, very efficient. So, 2 tips: One, cut back on the number of plastic and number two, consider purchasing a slim wallet. Until next time, it's very simple.

Toothpaste—we've been producing it in tube format since the year 1880, and ever since that time, we've had this same problem: trying to squeeze all of that toothpaste out of the tube.

You know what I'm talking about—you get near the end of your tube of toothpaste, and you keep pinching, you keep squeezing, and thinking, "I know there's more in there."

Well, today I've got a tip to help you solve that problem. You probably already have this tool in your kitchen—it's a plastic bag clip. And if you have one of the larger kinds, you can open it up, squeeze it on the end of your tube of toothpaste, and then just gently roll it down the side.

Not only will it squeeze all of the toothpaste up to the top, but it stays in place. Now you can get all of that wonderful toothpaste out of the tube.

Until next time, it's very simple.

Pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato. It's also the name of a very powerful time management technique. Here's how it works.

Step number one: be very specific about what you want to accomplish.