Fewer Tools, Better Organized: The Brutal Truth About Time-Saving Apps

Do you find yourself checking out new app after new app in an attempt to get organized, or be more productive or efficient? Are you saving article after article about The Best Way™ to do whatever it is you’re doing? If you’re analog, how many notebooks are you using right now? Or have you followed the exact same tools that your online guru has decreed?

Researching apps, software, and tools make us all feel like we’re getting something done and accomplishing something. We’ve taken action! Which automatically means results, right? Right? I’ve gone down the online rabbit hole, “researching”... I get it.

And then we’re shocked, shocked, to find that with all these tools at our fingertips we’re not actually accomplishing more!

Get crucial

(Sorry. Heathers is one of my fave all-time movies.) 

One of the best things you can do to get organized is to get real about what you can and can’t expect from productivity apps.

You’ll only be more productive if you actually use them, for one thing. Why clutter your screens with app after app when you’re not going to use them? Researching which exact type of software you need for hours on end is counterproductive. 

Most standard business software tools - customer relationship management (CRM) systems, bookkeeping, social media schedulers - they’re all the same. Pick one that meets your price and your parameters and learn how to use it.

Think you’ll be more productive the more “productivity” apps you have? That’s gonna be a “no” from me. You might not need any of them to be super efficient and get results quickly.

“Organizing” apps will not magically make you into a digital Marie Kondo. They can potentially improve your existing systems. But if you can never find anything in your notes or on your computer because you save everything willy-nilly to your desktop or you have 17 different notebooks that you take notes in, no technology is going to make you into an organized person. 

If you already don’t have time for reading and your email box is piling up with things that you “should” get to, why are you fiddling around with apps like Evernote or trying to figure out if Pocket is better for you? Saving articles that you won’t get around to reading because you have other things going on is another waste of time and space. 

KISS

Keep it simple, silly. The most organized people do not have 37 different notebooks, 22 different calendars and email addresses, and 16 different ways to pull and save info off the Internet. They don’t split their time between several different CRMs or use multiple accounting software applications or schedule their social media on more than one app.

Instead, they have one app they use for each topic. One CRM, one social media scheduler, 1 calendar, 1 business email (plus maybe a personal email), one notebook (if they’re analog.)

I will confess, I haven’t been able to get my email addresses or calendars down to one each. I have two business emails, one from my prior business, and a couple of personal emails. (One is the junk email address that I use when I sign up for things so offers and ads don’t clog up my other inboxes.)

I also have a paper planner. I would love to get down to one calendar, but I can’t. I need the paper planner to jot things down and to see everything laid out in the timeframe that I choose, but I still need my e-calendar so people can schedule time with me automatically and so forth. 

The problem with having too many notebooks and apps is that you forget where things are. Is it in this notebook, or a Google doc attached to this Gmail address or the other Gmail? Where is the idea you jotted down that was so brilliant and guaranteed to make your business stand out, now that it’s a week later and you can’t remember it at all? 

Then you have to initiate the search and waste all that time finding it. You may never find it, or you’ll get distracted from the important thing you were working on that would have an impact if you completed it… which you don’t, because you’re looking for something else. 

Organization means less overwhelm

When you have a giant list of 317 to-dos, it hangs over your head, and your brain can’t let go of it. Likewise, if you have a whole bunch of unread articles sitting in your Pocket or Evernote, it’s almost a physical weight on your brain, one that you can’t permanently let go of. 

When your brain is trying to keep track of multiple things, it’s overwhelming. That’s part of the reason why modern life feels so hectic.

Rather than add another app or another piece of technology to everything you already have, think about reducing overwhelm first. 

Turn off your email notifications while you’re doing important work so you can get through it without interruptions. Make to-do lists (if you must) short and easily accomplished in the timeframe you’ve got. You can’t do 250 things in eight hours, so pick the most important ones that need to be done sooner rather than later, maybe three, and put those on your daily list. 

I don’t use apps specifically geared toward productivity, so I don’t have specific recommendations. However, there are a few online helpers out there for those who need a little more help getting started.

Pick one (just one, and pick it in an hour or less) app that prevents you from surfing the web while you’re working. Pick one, just one, in an hour or less, timing app that lets you work for some period of time before reminding you to take a break. 

The human brain can concentrate for about 45 minutes to an hour at a time, so don’t even bother trying to go over that. Now go and do likewise! (Yes, I like Glengarry Glen Ross too!)

Recap

Too many tools clutter up your mindspace and makes you less productive, not more. Simplify and reduce the overwhelm wherever you can, which does not require more apps in most cases.