4 Steps to Avoid App-Overwhelm and Make Sure Your Productivity Tools Actually Make You More Productive
A few weeks ago I tried out some new To-Do list apps to see if any of them worked better than my old standby ToodleDo.
The result? My productivity decreased. Within minutes of copying my To-Do list into each of these apps, I started to receive a half dozen notifications from a half dozens apps, all repeatedly pinging me with the exact same information. “Overwhelming” is an understatement.
I quickly deleted all the new apps and decided to stick with ToodleDo alone, realizing something important…
In the quest to optimize, we really complicate our lives.
We always want the perfect app to get the job done, but the reality is always seeking out that perfect app can distract us from just sticking with that one tool that works good enough. In the long run, sticking with that “good enough” app is far more productive then relentlessly pursuing the perfect tool.
With that in mind, I set down a system for avoiding app-overwhelm:
- Identify your Required Tools: On any given day, I have to simultaneously use:
- Outlook
- Central Desktop
- SmartSheet
- QuickBase
- ToodleDoo
- Lync
- And a suite of document-creation tools.
Why do I have to use them? Because my stakeholders and team members use them. You have your own non-negotiable programs you have to just come on board with and adapt to. These are your Required Tools.
- Migrate to your Required Tools. Evaluate your remaining apps. Ask: “Can one of my Required Tools do this?” It doesn’t matter if you like your app better, just ask: “Can this be done by one of my Required Tools?” If yes, migrate functionality to your Required Tool and delete the app.
- Remove redundant remaining apps. Look at what apps you have left. If any of them do roughly the same thing, pick one and delete the rest.
- Resist the urge to try new apps. Most apps won’t change your life. They just offer incremental improvements over existing apps, and you don’t want to create a cluttered workflow to receive incremental improvements.
The Takeaway: Instead of trying to find the perfect app, find the app that gets you 80% of what you need and move one.
