How to Have Fun and Create Serious Play at Work, Home Launches in Evernote, and More Productivity and Technology News This Week

This week, we discuss the importance of fun and play at work, the launch of the new Home feature in Evernote 10, and more productivity and technology news!

(If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://anythingbutidle.com for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.)

Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!

If you’d like to continue discussing any news from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).

In this Cast | Play at Work

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Art Gelwicks

Art Gelwicks, a productivity and collaboration consultant, blogger at theideapump.com, and host of the Being Productive podcast as well as ProductivityCast Podcast.

Headlines & Show Notes

Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.

Stories of the Week

Extra Stories

New Tools of the Week

Announcement

SaneBox & Partners Present Productivity Gold For 2021 ($200+ in savings)

Raw Text Transcript | Play at Work

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio).

[read more=”Read the raw text transcript” less=”Close the raw text transcript”]

Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:00
Hello, personal productivity enthusiast and community Welcome to anything but idle. The Productivity news podcast. Today’s show is brought to you by co working space by personal productivity club. I’m Ray Sidney-Smith. And we’re your hosts for anything but idle. This is Episode 41, how to have fun and create serious play at work. And we’re recording this on January 25 2021. Each week, we cover and discuss the productivity news and technology news headlines of the week. And to do that, we usually invite some folks some productivity and organization experts onto the show in order to do that. And today, we have our galaxy. Our galaxy is a productivity and collaboration consultant blogger at the idea pump.com. And he’s also the host of being productive podcast, as well as he joins us each week on ProductivityCast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, and so with that, welcome to anything but idle art.

Unknown Speaker 0:58
Hey, guys,

Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:59
how’s it going? I

Art Gelwicks 1:01
I don’t know if I take it personally or not that you invited me to the show. That’s all about fun and foolishness in the workplace. Because, yeah, that’s kind of my thing. But okay.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:11
I think I think we’ve we’ve talked about this before on ProductivityCast. But I thought what we would do is bring this topic to anything but idle because it’s it’s one of those topics that I think is often misunderstood and maligned by corporate in, in this perspective, that somehow having fun is antithetical to productivity. But what I want to posit here is that there have been several studies now that have shown this most recently, I came across a study that was called it pays to play, which was by bright HR, a software company, and based out of the UK. And what they noticed was that, in essence, when we looked at surveys of employees from across the UK, those who were given the opportunity to have fun, in essence, basically have serious fun, that created productivity at work, it helps to reduce absence, it increased productivity, and it actually overall reduce the stress of the employees in the organization. And this included massage days to having pets at the office, pet companions, and all kinds of other kind of progressive programs to be able to bring people more, I don’t know, if you want to call it levity at work. And in another study, the University of Warwick measured happiness, quote, unquote, happiness, and I don’t like that word on employee productivity, and found a 12% spike in productivity among those workers, and a 10% drop among the unhappy ones. And so clearly, there is evidence out there now mounting evidence that shows that when we create fun at work, we’re actually capable of increasing productivity. And I’m curious from from you. Why do you think it is that we have this notion still out in the market, that somehow fun equates to a lack of productivity or that people are goofing off when they should be working?

Art Gelwicks 3:08
Fun and frivolity is one of those things that if I want to dig into it quick and fast, it goes against that classic Quaker work ethic. If you’re playing, you’re not working, you’re not cranking out the widgets, you need to you’re not doing the ticking the boxes that you need to. And it’s unfortunate, because on the flip side, you’ll always have the mantra that if you do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life, which I disagree with that. But I still think the concept is sound. If if there’s personal pleasure in what you’re doing, the inertia and the friction of doing those things is much lower, it’s much easier to feel like you are able to go ahead and continue to work and execute. Again, though the challenge is it’s a it becomes part of a measurement, and then the reaction to increasing productivity by increasing people’s happiness. I mean, if I could wrap this whole thing in air quotes, I would when we look at it around that increase of happiness, we then get into this whole forced fun mindset of, oh, we’re gonna have pizza day. No fun and frivolity and enjoyment in the workplace has to be recognizes the fact that it’s an aspect of humanity. It’s not an aspect of work. I mean, if if you want something that’s not going to have a good time at times, and just do work, look at the computer sitting in front of you because that’s what it was built to do is just do things. Our greatest benefits come from those opportunities to not only interact, but disengaged, disconnect, revitalize and re motivate Add into the work that we’re doing. And a lot of times that takes a complete wipe of the slate. I don’t know how many times that I’ve had just complete brainstorms. Because I’ve stopped what I’m doing done and taken a tennis ball and gone and bounced it against the wall for a while. It’s just that mental reset that comes. And it’s unfortunate because it becomes corporatized. You know, we get this mindset of you have to have, you know, we’re going to gamify this, or we’re going to get you to have a good time. Well, we all know how painful that is. That Matter of fact, that’s less fun than not having any fun at all. So I think it’s extremely important. And the greatest way that we can, we can allow it to happen is to do just that, allow it to happen, create the environment, and encourage it, but don’t try to force it to occur.

Augusto Pinaud 5:59
And I think you make a good point in in the forcing of that, but also, in what is the definition of fun. And that’s one of the problems when you try to make these corporate now the definition of fun. If we will ask a survey of three, right now, we will get three completely different definitions of what that fun means. Okay? Not only that, if you ask me today, or ask me in two weeks, the activities that I may want to do for fun, depending on how everything is on my life may change. So that make it really difficult. That’s one of the understanding that is one of the issues that I saw, again, I’m coming from I came from a sales background. And salespeople have a lot of fun. That’s reality, okay, we we play hard, but we also have a lot of fun. So it is important to, to understand that and I remember at the beginning of my career, having fights with between means the salesperson or me in the sales department, and other departments who didn’t understand why some of the stuff were were fun, you know, I, I will never remember, forget that our counting guy on my first traveling sales job, every time I come back really mad about my peel some what why the company needs to pay for you to eat with the client, to the boss. It’s, that’s, but for him, that was something really fun that I did, that he could not understand or comprehend or anything, why I had that, to have that fun in my job what he needed to crunch numbers.

Art Gelwicks 7:59
Go ahead, I was gonna say its, its value. And it I think that really demonstrates it right there. We consider fun to have no value within a work environment. being productive, generates work products, which ultimately result in the generation of revenue concept. You know, conceptually, fun doesn’t do that, unless your business is fun. I mean, if you’re a content creator, who’s producing entertaining content, or I don’t know, you run an axe throwing place, whatever you measure is, yeah, there you go. That’s your business, your work to do it, but you’re not, your fun isn’t tied to that. We have to recognize and this is, it goes broader than just fun. And I go back to the humanity aspects of work anymore, especially now, especially with what we’re in now, how critical it is to recognize that we can take this gray matter up here and just turn it into jello, if we’re not careful. We have to be able to give ourselves the opportunity to be human, not to be a machine just cranking out the work products that have been dictated for us. And that’s where that value has to be not only shared, but accepted. Which I think is the biggest part that acceptance is the hard one.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 9:30
I wanted to I wanted to take a step back to what you were talking about earlier or an underscore that as I am want to always say habits or to individuals as culture is to organizations. And setting the stage setting the environment for having fun is actually really much more important than you trying to force particular fun programs on people. And so in order to create that kind of environment, you really do need to work on it on a cultural level. And that may mean including putting infrastructure in place that you might seem to think to be frivolous. For example, putting a games in the break room, or, you know, in a virtual world, adding games into a virtual environment, like your slack or otherwise, the goal for you is to be able to create opportunities for people to socialize in ways that they otherwise wouldn’t when it comes to work. Remember that when we are using faculties that are misaligned, with our work faculties, or you know, the faculties we use every day for work, we’re actually creating new connections, mentally, you know, brain wise. And that also means we’re creating new connections socially. And those different patterns, excite a whole bunch of other ideas. And those ideas can then be applied in a work environment. Because, you know, think about it from this perspective, when when any animal is young, including humans, we use play as a mechanism for learning. And by recognizing patterns that work and don’t work, we then become better at various skills, whether that be running, walking, and otherwise, there’s a reason why we play. And by turning that off, in the work environment, we’re actually we’re stifling the ability for employees to grow in those capacities. And so I just really want to impress upon everybody, especially those of you who have to have to kind of educate your upper management on the importance of this. Remember to start small, and take these small reward systems, and then build on top of them. So, you know, it may be something as simple as being able to say, Hey, listen, let’s have a game night. For the team, we all jumped into an A game of among us. Those of you who know, that reference, I think we, I think a gousto somebody used it as a new tool the week in past weeks, you can check a past episode for that. And then use that as a mechanism to say, listen, look how fun that was for our staff and look at the cohesion that was built upon it and grow from there, don’t try and invest in a whole new, you know, Google esque, you know, slides down the middle of the the office building, you really need to start with something very, very small, show the quick wins there, and then build upon those programs. But that means you are slowly but surely changing culture, you’re not changing individuals, you’re changing culture.

Art Gelwicks 12:31
And there’s there’s two parts to that. If I think back to the old.com days, I remember when the dot coms were first starting up in the big talk was, ooh, they’ve got foosball in the break room, they’ve got a you know, a basketball hoop in the break room. And that’s what made them new and edgy. Know what made them new and edgy, is they allowed people to use that foosball table and that basketball hoop, they created an environment that it was okay to not be heads down on the grindstone all day long. But that’s as we look so many years past that we still have that mindset of are you getting your work done? We individually we as leaders, we as coaches have to lead by example with that and have fun, not be as formal not be as you know, as I hate to say it, but tight asked about some of this stuff, and just allow people to be the way they are. I’m a huge now, I come partially from a training and education background, but also from the ideation fields. And in both of those cases, a relaxed mindset is a more powerful mindset. Tension creates difficulty, and it creates drag. So being able to get people to relax, was always a big thing. So I I would do sessions lunch and learns, which is the phrase my wife thinks is hysterical, because she just learned that phrase about six months ago. And she goes, that sounds terrible. And I’m like, Yes, it is. But I used to take Legos, I had a bag of Legos, and I would dump them on the table before the meeting. And we’d start and the Legos were just laying there. And I could guarantee that unless I sat down and started playing with the Legos during the meeting, nobody else was going to pick them up. But once I started playing with it, somebody else would reach over and take a couple and start snapping them together. And then at some point during the meeting, I took whatever I made, I made and I went over and I stuck it on top of whatever they need. And they’re like, well, that’s not what I built. I’m like, well, that’s what we built and then move on from there. But that’s the kind of thing it’s it’s a difference in mindset and culture and we have to be willing to encourage that. Get away from did I have eight hours of productive time. I it’s really I’ve been thinking about it a lot the past the past couple of weeks. And I think the term productive is done. Really, my focus is on effectiveness now. It’s going to be is what we’re doing effective to whatever we want to be. and fun is an effective tool to get through roadblocks and things. Well, we

Raymond Sidney-Smith 15:19
can debate that topic someday soon.

Art Gelwicks 15:23
Oh, I’d love that,

Raymond Sidney-Smith 15:24
I’d love to take down on that, we’ll probably have to be for ProductivityCast luck with that. Any final thoughts, quick tips that people can walk away with, regarding really how to have fun and create serious play at work. Other than what we’ve talked about. So far,

Augusto Pinaud 15:40
you know, I’m going to mention I consult coach for organization that one of the cool things that had was that, you know, they had a person who could give you a quick massage on your desk, once a week, they do once a month. The company put a keg of beer, but then people bring your appetizers. And basically, they have this area where everybody was welcome to come. And I’d have a after our, you know, time together or whatever. But he, he was part of the plane and he was not like, oh, the cake was at 6pm. After work? No, no, that was the sign. So they get earlier technically on Friday, so they could go to spend some of that working hours into that. So does that work for some more large organization, it also worked for a smaller organization. So it is important to understand that play will bring a lot more creativity to your team. So embrace it, you know, I am a color guy. So I have always have colors or markers with colors on my desk. Why? Because there are a moment that even if I need to think for work, having that ability to play with colors really can change everything.

Art Gelwicks 17:11
I agree completely when when you think about ways to get this started with people, like I said, Give yourself permission, give them permission, and raise absolutely right, take little steps. I was in involved in a team recently that just in our conversations, we discovered we all like tea. So we started having tea times. And we just say, yeah, and we all share which teas we liked and which one we were having that time. And it was five, maybe 10 minutes, maybe 15 people could hang out and chat. But that team became much more effective because they trusted each other. And that’s one of the things that fun, unfortunately, being the loaded term that it is, helps build is trust in each other, that if I’m not my normal, polished, you know, folded up business self, if I’m going to be a little bit human, you’re not going to slap me for it.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 18:13
Yeah, and and also recognize that I come from that personal space, where as an executive, for most of my adult life, I have always been very guarded about showing myself quote, unquote, you know, having fun, in front of my staff in front of colleagues, I just never really showed that part of myself. And after I left less left my last company, I decided to actually kind of like, you know, let things uh, you know, be a little bit more organic about me. And that has been an education in a number of different things. And it does require work when you are so used to being in a very corporate or, you know, stodgy environment where everyone goes to work and suit and tie. And the culture is that you don’t talk about personal life inside the hallowed halls of your office. And, you know, those kinds of things that I was just used to, and quite honestly, I was very comfortable with doing. And so I’ve had to work very hard to kind of be more human, as it relates to people because all I want is I’m efficiency and effectiveness. I’m all about like, let’s get things done. And what I recognized over time, is that if I’m too dogged about that with people, then they’re actually not as productive. And so I need to draw back and say, Oh, how are your kids and what’s your dog’s name, and you know, things of that nature that are not necessarily about work, but lean so much into how work gets done. And as soon as I recognize that component, I really found myself really hitting stride in that perspective. So thank you, gentlemen, for this conversation. This has been a lot of fun. And with that, we’re going to switch into our next phase of the show, which Our headlines are stories of the week. And so let’s get through and into our stories of the week. A gusto, what is our first story this week?

Augusto Pinaud 20:12
Our first story this week is finally Google finish all day. Acquisition of Fitbit, so Fitbit is now officially part of the Google world. And it’s been something coming in. And I’m particularly excited about it. Because I think I love this smart watch technology, I think there is so much potential that I still have, and Google Come in and join there, I hope it’s going to really step up the game for many people.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 20:49
I think there’s a lot of opportunity here for Google Fit to be able to access this data over time, and to be able to use that. So if I’m a Google Fit user, and I’m also a Fitbit user, being able to get that data to work together and be understood together, I think is going to be really profoundly useful. Right now Google Fit can take sleep data from many different applications. And it can take all kinds of other health data. And now to be able to use the Fitbit line of products in line with that, I think is going to be very, very useful. Because healthy body is a productive body. And so we cannot decouple the biology of productivity from the principles, methods and tools and skills of productivity. So I’m excited to see this this happen. I know that there are regulators out there who are obviously concerned and should be, and should be continuing to push forward. But I’m excited to see Fitbit connected with it.

Art Gelwicks 21:45
Yeah, I mean, that’s the reason why Google went and got honestly data cuz Yeah, sure as heck we’re Oh s isn’t stepping up and doing it.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 21:52
We’re always isn’t dead. By the way. I know that a lot of people keep saying that. But I, you know, it has not obviously taken off and gotten as much traction as the Apple Watch ecosystem. And the whole concept of watch OS, but where OS is, is, is going to beat out watch OS for the mere fact that it is it’s open, anyone can build upon watch OS. And that’s the always the innate difference between Android and iOS, is that I

Art Gelwicks 22:21
disagree with you there.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 22:22
Now. Think about think about this art go back 10 years ago, and everybody said, Oh, my goodness, you know, here it goes, the the iPhone, this brilliant, new device, it’s taking over the market, it will be the leader. And all that time I said, Who’s going to win, it’s going to be Android. Why? Because Android is an open platform that allows everybody to have access to it from the lowest level product all the way up to the highest end products. Where are we today? Android, Android is the dominant platform on the planet. And we’re gonna see the same thing happen with watch OS, as wearables become more and more, you know, capable, and, and, and on more devices, we will see, we will see the proliferation of at least in the in the watch wearable world, the warehouse takeover, and the only probable maybe risk there is that there are others, you know, like coyotes and others that can potentially be morphed into the watch format. And we have some we have some minor OS players who are trying to take over the wearables watch space. And potentially they may take over if they stay open and are capable of proliferating

Art Gelwicks 23:31
your eyes. If, if where OS has an EKG meter, it’s because it needs to know if it has a pulse. Because, I mean, I’m a Samsung guy, and I don’t make any bones about it. And Samsung runs ties and they don’t run where OS. And if you’ve if you’ve worn both, and I got to wear OS watch in my drawer back there. And there’s a reason why it’s back in the drawer. It’s sitting next to my remarkable to know I said, but there it is a tool. It is a platform where iOS is the mobile version of Google messaging, can we just go with that they have no idea what they want to do with it, they have no focus. They went and bought Fitbit to provide try and provide the the fitness connection, which could save the platform, honestly. But they really, really need to give it a kick in the pants because they’ve got so many. They’ve never truly supported the hardware properly. The battery life has always been anemic at best. And until they really have that definitive thing. This is one of those things that I hate to say Apple has the advantage in because they have the locked closed ecosystem and they basically have one type of watch. So it’s either going to work or it’s not everybody else. If you have fossils if you have you know, Kors watches, I mean all over the place. Yet everybody’s got them but nobody’s particularly successful look at them, and this is not one those platforms, I think that wins by attrition, I think it something has to differentiate for it to really take control.

Augusto Pinaud 25:07
Well, and I’m, and I’m going to take art side in this one. Sorry, great side and this one. Sorry, but I’m going to use you as an example of this when when we begin recording ProductivityCast. Okay, the difference between having an iOS versus having an Android was significant. Okay. And that difference came to a more equivalent devices now. Okay, even to the point that when that discussions, you know, Biggie first episodes, we had those discussions that the parity and features and certain things were really significant as it is, with the watch us right now. The thing is, the watch was still being it’s not a masterpiece product yet. It is fancy is for certain people who who are but it’s not yet break into any category good where people will consider Okay, I need now to get one is getting there. Okay, I was reading, you know, they’re talking about measuring sugar, you know, the EKG measuring blood pressure, okay, so it’s getting, since he could not get from the exercise side, it’s trying to get to the medical part, fantastic. But as soon as those things start coming, common, then I agree that it may not get the high end unit to go to the Google, but most people will start getting some of these products into and because of the volume and the cost, Google will win the battle. And another one to win that battle. I don’t know.

Art Gelwicks 26:54
Well, I mean, they have that closed ecosystem. And it’s just one more way to tie people in, for Apple, at least within their device. But I do have to agree with you, Ray, I think wero S will probably go away, there will probably become a new name at some point. Because I think Google is at some point going to recognize the fact that the most important thing about their wearable devices, is the person wearing them. It has it has little to do with the original concepts. When we saw these come out. This is like a mini phone on my watch. And I can do this. I have yet to actually watch somebody take a call on their watch.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 27:33
You need to come like come to my house. Man.

Art Gelwicks 27:39
I’m sorry, there’s just gonna be there

Raymond Sidney-Smith 27:40
and 95

Augusto Pinaud 27:43
actually, actually, I’m going to say with the combination of the airport and the 3g watch, okay, you can go take these two things, walk around, get the calls in the headphones, or in the airports. Okay, and you don’t need to watch for anything. I’m actually continue complaining about the fact that Apple made me buy an iPhone when I could really, if they allow me to have an independent Apple Watch, and something to set up my iPad on my watch without having a phone. I could survive without the phone these days. It just

Art Gelwicks 28:21
seems like such an edge case.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 28:23
Yeah, no, and but I will say that I’ve had I’ve had a fair share of circumstances where the watch has been so useful in so many regards. But I think the best case scenario for at least the premium market that would want a watch in on the Android side, I’m never going to get an Apple Watch. I mean, it’s just not going to be something that I I I’ll do the iPad, I will get Mac minis I will get MacBooks and MacBook Pros I’m happy there. But I will never go to the the tied to the to the Apple ecosystem in terms of my phone or a wearable, I just don’t trust Apple that way. So the the goal for me is to be able to utilize wear OS in that particular regard, which is that there have been times when I’ve been able to take a phone call, you know, I’m I’m washing dishes I’m cleaning, I’m doing other things. And I could take that phone call directly on my watch. And the audio is competent enough that you know, my mother doesn’t care. You know about the audio quality of my phone call as long as he can understand me, we can have that kind of phone conversation. And now I can get things done hands free, and didn’t require putting on headphones. It didn’t require having the phone within arm’s reach. And it is tied to the phone. The second is that I’ve been locked out of my house several times now. And and being able to have the watch opened up my garage door so that I can unlock to get myself back in has been let’s just say beyond measurable.

Art Gelwicks 29:53
I can see that. I mean I I admit I use the messaging capability on my watch quite a bit because I can respond to text messages that way and react to them when you’re out in the shop or something like that. But again, these are such these are such edge cases. And this is not a mass adoption. You’re right. Okay. So this is not a mass adoption level yet on either platform, I don’t think

Raymond Sidney-Smith 30:16
and I don’t think it ever will be in terms of mass adoption in terms of watch wears, I think those people who are interested in watch wearing will have them and they will be always a minority because your phone is your watch. And so it’s very difficult to have someone bleed over into wearing a watch when they otherwise didn’t. And that’s why I think that what Cousteau is talking about in terms of using it for health and fitness as well as as well as medical type things where these devices are becoming that much more sophisticated. You know, one of the big things at CES this year was there were multiple ECG EKG, you know, mobile ones that tied to your phone, the more that becomes kicked into something like a wash, it becomes more useful for a population that can want afford it and also population that will want that kind of data. And so I think that’s, that’s really key here. I know we’ve gone a little bit off off the rails here, go for it. And that was just one

Art Gelwicks 31:06
quick thing. The one product I’ve always wanted them to bring out is the digital pocket watch. I think it’s the right size form factor. I think it’s the right design, you’ve got a bigger thing bigger battery, you could put LTE in it you could do the whole thing and just slip it in that little extra fat number five pocket on your jeans that we never put anything in anymore. It’s got a pocket already built into there so I want that out

Raymond Sidney-Smith 31:29
there people and there’s a whole fashion market for that as well. I’m sure you can you could skin them different ways you could have to sell silicone sleeves lots of good stuff there. I’m with the art all right on with the next story this week. Thank you so

Augusto Pinaud 31:43
our next story of this week keeping keeping this discussion is going to be on peloton and peloton users can now have their own custom workout routine so peloton Have you have this massive library of videos and they have now extended to yoga and other things so you can now instead of need to search you can go and plan what is that video that you want that stack those classes or those videos and have them all run together using the bike and everything else.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 32:16
I just heard that the new president of the United States has a special peloton that has been put into the into the white house so that he’s able to work out securely and so very interesting to see peloton

Unknown Speaker 32:30
design of it.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 32:31
I have not I have

Art Gelwicks 32:32
it has four little treadmills around it for the Secret Service guys to run with it. So

Augusto Pinaud 32:42
I don’t know. I don’t know about that. But this is not the first time actually peloton did that peloton did that, also to meet Obama and Michelle Obama had also a peloton bike on the White House. I don’t know if the secrecy and conditions are different than what Michelle Obama had with Joe Biden. I don’t know. But But she had one when when she was on on the White House.

Art Gelwicks 33:09
What I have found interesting about peloton because they’ve always had, you know, the high end bikes and multi $1,000 gear and setup. So the fact that they released their training classes through a subscription base where you could sign in through it, sign up through a tablet, and then use whatever bike you have at home. It doesn’t have all the same features. But that’s the next logical step with that type of thing because of the environment we’re in and we have to be active even though I spend the majority of my time in my chair. Those types of services are just going to continue to grow and, you know, peloton has the brand recognition so good on them for that.

Unknown Speaker 33:48
Absolutely. All right,

Unknown Speaker 33:50
next up Okay,

Augusto Pinaud 33:51
next up oops. Next up is market cap cast is up to sale and we have been discussing a lot of other podcasts

Raymond Sidney-Smith 34:01
are having some audio issues. Augusto Can you hear us?

Art Gelwicks 34:06
Yeah, I’ve lost his audio but from what I see on the document pocket casts being up for sale for After three years of having been acquired by public radio. I’m saying I’m not entirely shocked this is happening when they when pocket casts originally announced that they being acquired by a public radio group to and I forget the exact details but you can you can google and easily enough and saying that they were going to work as part of this greater can court Consortium. I’m like, yeah, that’s not gonna go anywhere.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 34:40
No, it’s a it’s just a reality. Yeah.

Art Gelwicks 34:43
Which is a shame because like the platform

Augusto Pinaud 34:46
it’s not a surprise for anybody but it’s, it’s what it is, you know, there. I never understood the initial purchase either.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 34:57
See what happened. So pocket cast is an amazing podcasting app. So if you are trying to utilize a great podcast app and really work through podcasts so that you can get more in, it’s got all the great functions and functionalities that you need in a pod catcher. So it’s not that podcast, pocket cast is bad. It’s just that, you know, there’s not much of a business model behind podcast apps, when there’s such a proliferation. I mean, there’s just a lot of competition in the market. And so I think that that’s just a reality factor, I think it will land on solid ground in some kind of ecosystem that can support it and that kind of thing, it’s just not going to be a moneymaker. It just has to be something that an organization wants to use for purposes of running it, and it hosts it not hosts, but it has a lot of podcasts, you know that that there are a lot of people who use pocket casts, it’s a widely used tool. So there’s a lot of costs associated with something that is not itself income generating, while at the same time, something that a lot of people use. And so that’s kind of the part to it,

Art Gelwicks 36:00
I could, I could see some big Podcast Network, picking it up using it as their client, which also expands into other podcast platforms. But you’re right. And it’s like saying that I’m going to make money as the popsicle stick not as the popsicle.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 36:15
So Right, right, and hopefully, you know, like, with pod, bean pod, bean has their own podcast app that you can install and listen to podcasts within maybe one of those podcasts hosts would take that as their own, and then you utilize the tool, there may be some natural connection there that I think would be useful. Moving right along at gousto, the world’s first iPad OS style Linux distro,

Augusto Pinaud 36:39
you know, this is really exciting for me, as a person who believe on the tablet who love the tablet, seen this kind of thing, seeing the first you know, really rich, super rich interface iPad only style for, for a Linux distributor, you know, these means for me that the tablet finally are going to go to the next level where we are not going to compare them as on their power, and machines that are not capable that they have been capable. But now it’s getting to the point that even people who who do those Linux distro, understand that they are fully compatible, and perfectly capable machines. So I’m excited about it.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 37:31
Yeah. So this. This is called Jing LS. And it is, was created quote, with the goal of improving the functionality and performance of tablets in general. In essence, they want it to be able to take the iPad OS and create that simple, powerful environment that is known in the tablet ecosystem as it relates to Apple’s tablet device. And so I’m looking forward to seeing the fact that, you know, here, here’s a full featured Linux distro, just for poured it into the tablet format. And so this is really interesting. I’m glad you brought it to my attention. And now I have something to look forward to.

Augusto Pinaud 38:11
Me too.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 38:12
All right, next up.

Augusto Pinaud 38:14
Next one is my note, that’s one of my favorite apps for mind mapping, talking about fonts seems completely on topic, but I love mind maps, I love the ability to do many things with them. And now the Mac version allows to convert that mind map into an outline, and you can insert into the outline or sort into the mind map. And we’ll update that. And it is really cool to see my notes really getting the mind map to, to the next level make them a lot more powerful. You know, I remember the days where I leave on mine jet. And, you know, before they were acquired, and he was, you know, there’s there is something to say about a really powerful Mind Map application.

Art Gelwicks 39:07
That’s one of the things I always liked about the application free mind is that it had a built in outline export capability. And that, that made it so much more useful for me to create mind maps, and then share them with non mind mapping people. So to see something like mine known also adopting that just I think, broadens the horizons of the type of application and can get people to cross that bridge into visually thinking through a mind map model.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 39:36
Yeah, I don’t consider mind maps until they’re able to have opml format, I need to be able to see that file. I need to download it and see it in both an outline view and then to then explode it into the Mind Map View. I love being able to toggle between the three I’m a huge free mind, fan and user and it’s just one of those things I don’t need. You know, a lot of these other tools are just there. They’re statically pleasing. But that also creates a whole host of of weight on the application that keeps me from actually just getting the mind mapping done. I want to get the brainstorming creative thinking, the organization of thoughts out of my head. And I want I don’t like that friction. And some are really doing a great job. simple mind, I think, is doing a really great job. I don’t have a lot of experience with my note. But a lot of mind mapping software are out there and doing really great jobs. And so I’m looking forward to seeing more and more tools adopt this outline features, as you talked about.

Augusto Pinaud 40:31
So our next article, it’s an article on make use of any seven best Apple Pencil alternatives that you can find for your iPad and your iPhone. So the good on this article are the ones that are really a comparison to the Apple Pencil on the iPad. The bottom of this article are people who are trying to make the iPhone to be a device sorry, until you can get precision writing on the iPhone. is a waste of time. I don’t care if it’s Android or, or you know, that big, you know, bowl that is like your finger. After you play with this. It’s never going to happen again.

Art Gelwicks 41:20
Yeah, it’s got to be, it’s got to be an active device. capacitive ones are just not worth the aggravation.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 41:27
So in this particular case, just so that folks know, the highest rated items here, I didn’t understand it. So maybe you can, you can give me some thoughts here. So that so there were there were ratings. It was a 10 point rating scale. And there was a premium pick Editor’s Choice and best value as make use of typically does. And the premium pick had a 7.6. Whereas we had a 9.4 on the list that didn’t even make either of those three top choices. So I’m, I’m interested to know why the premium Editor’s Choice and best value. And I’ll just list them for folks who were listening. The adonit note M was the premium pick. So the that was that one Editor’s Choice was the Logitech crayon, which seems to appeal to me, and I don’t know why. And then the best value was the moko active Stylus Pen, which I had never heard of before. I’ll be curious to check that out a little bit more. Why?

Art Gelwicks 42:22
The adroid has always been popular, for some reason, because when they did the original design of that, if you look at it, it looks like a regular ballpoint pen that has a flying saucer attached to the end of it, it creates a larger capacitive area that you can write with, it still doesn’t have active level of response, but it’s definitely more accurate than the big rubber ball. The last one you mentioned and you’re going to find if you do a, like an Amazon search on that type, you will find tons of those. And what they are is they are actually powered pens that use a USB rechargeable device and creates a an active tip. But it’s active with a small array. So instead of it being like the big capacitive rubber ball, it creates the same effect. But it has a small tip. That does not mean it is more accurate, though, that’s part of the challenges when you go to use that on inking applications or something like that, you’re still dealing with the same level of resolution that you are with any sort of capacitive tip. So it’s, I think your crayon would probably be more accurate than this.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 43:29
It turns out, it doesn’t work with my iPad, but that’s okay. Yeah.

Art Gelwicks 43:32
A goose has absolutely right. If you compare any of those devices, to a true active device, like an Apple Pencil or like an S Pen, there’s no going back. I mean, it’s literally the difference of between of using a crayon and a fountain

Raymond Sidney-Smith 43:47
sticking to the Apple Pencil.

Augusto Pinaud 43:49
And I thought it was an incredible product. I used them before the Apple Pencil. I use them I even work with them. I distribute them in Latin America. They were a really good product, but can compare with the active pencil. Hello. Sorry, next up the next news should make our to smile for the people who are listening. Sorry, you’re missing the smile. But for the people who are watching us live artists is smiling now that Samson has officially and I’m sure he read about this saying that he’s they’re expanding the S Pen support to much more devices. So

Art Gelwicks 44:28
yeah, the whole s 21 line or no the ultra is getting the support. They’re updating on the s6 and the S seven. You’re going to see it on more and more Samsung higher end devices. And I have a theory about this. Because they finally got themselves over the mental issue of where to put the pin. If you think about the notes for the longest time you had internal storage on the device and that’s always been the hang up is that you’re chewing up internal real estate to store this pin. If you look at the 21 ultras, they’ve got the pin on the outside. It’s not optimal, it’s not perfect, but it’s also no different than what anybody else does. When they have an external stylus, the fact that they’ve mentally crossed that bridge, and now they can start to get people to cross that bridge with him, I think you’re gonna see this even more and more. And it’s about time, not so much from the hardware standpoint. But from the software support standpoint, the more devices we can get out there that are that have active pen support on the Android side, and on the Chrome OS side, the more applications we’ll see to support that, and that, to me, there is just a wasteland of applications that are just waiting to be developed in that particular space, but there just hasn’t been the hardware desire for it. So I think it’s a great thing. I still think, you know, we’re probably a year to two years before we truly see it starting to creep out in the space. But yeah, it’s it’s a good thing, that in the fact that s pens, you don’t have to charge them. You’re completely unpowered. So for anybody who really cares, I’m going to geek out a little bit there based on wy comm er, M, er EMR technology, so it’s actually sensed by the device. And I can use the same stylus on my phone and on my tablet at the same time. So it’s a it’s a game changing approach. It’s about time they did it. My only concern is guys, don’t kill the note line just because you’re doing this.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 46:37
So it’s been back and forth. I’ve been hearing different different things about it. So we’ll see what happens. All right to gousto. What’s our we’ve got a few more before we hit the break. what’s what’s our next story this week.

Augusto Pinaud 46:49
So our next story is from life hack, how to quickly calm your mind and refocus when you are stressed. So this is an article that I should have read daily, the last seven days as it’s been a crazy week. But

Raymond Sidney-Smith 47:04
yeah, so this is actually written by force, fatale, or Talley, he is a clinical psychologist and fully well worth reading the article. So when you when we put out the show notes, I highly recommend that you actually sit down and read this article, because it uses some really interesting methods, including the stress inoculation training that the military uses. And so this is some really interesting stuff that you can use in terms of being able to start to reduce your fight flight or freeze response, as it relates to, you know, all kinds of things in your world. And I know that when I read this, I thought, Okay, I need to start doing some of this stuff, because it can be really useful to me in amongst all the various stressors in my own life. And that, of course, remember, stress is both categorical and volume based. So bad types of stress are categorical stress, right? Something happens negative in your world, that’s a that’s a stressor, but also good stress, just normal stresses in life, once they reach a certain volume then also becomes negative. And so we need to remember that categorical and volume Based Stress needs to be dealt with. And so this idea of being able to de stress in every capacity, especially now, while we’re still in the in the midst and grips of this global pandemic, we need to we need to have every tool in our toolkit to be able to reduce those kinds of stressors and increase our productivity thereby. And so let’s move on along Augusto to our next story this week.

Augusto Pinaud 48:34
Next Door is Indiegogo there is a new phone called the Astra slide. And I don’t understand this product, because I don’t know a lot of people who type on their phone on landscape. I know a lot of people who do it portrait I do. But I don’t see my phone and has like all of us the ability to type landscape. I can think on once that I have actually done that and, and I have had this phone larger phone. So why do it that way. That’s all I’m going to

Art Gelwicks 49:09
ask. There were a few phones back in the day that that was the layout they were a landscape clamshell design to make it easy and I can’t remember the the manufacturer or somebody I’ll have to post in the comments because they that was a thing that you could do that I have.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 49:30
Yeah, the T Mobile sidekick is what comes with Motorola, Motorola line of phones. The sidekick

Art Gelwicks 49:36
there’s, there’s I’ve seen clip on versions of it. This thing. I don’t know about this thing. I mean, it’s trying to be a smartphone and a pocket computer with a keyboard. Yeah, okay, let’s This is another solution in search of a problem. That’s not the horizontal keyboard. Maybe I don’t know.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 50:00
I have to say I, you know, I was a very heavy blackberry user back in the day. And the ability to type on screen without looking at your, without looking at the screen is next to impossible on a touchscreen phone, there’s always going to be some desire to glance at the phone. And having this kind of tool where you can actually type and not have to look up, look down in order to see the screen, I think can be very useful. Think about being in someday,

Augusto Pinaud 50:32
right. But in portrait mode, never in landscape,

Raymond Sidney-Smith 50:36
it will be very difficult to like slide the whole thing up fully so that you could have that portrait and the keyboard big enough, it’s no I

Augusto Pinaud 50:45
see a pope who flips and then you get the screen, but then the keyboard is its portrait. Now Now you’re going to make me look into the device,

Art Gelwicks 50:54
what will make or break this thing is weight distribution. And the reason why I say that is is because I have a clip from my phone that hooks to an Xbox controller. So I can play stadia games and Xbox games on my phone. And the weight distribution of that heavy phone on top. Even with the monster Xbox controller, it’s still top heavy and leans back and introduces fatigue, this if they don’t get the weight distribution, absolutely right will be a bear to work with for an extended period of time. And it’s not something you’re going to put it on the desk and tight like this, I’m sorry, I got little hands, and that’s not gonna cut it.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 51:35
No, this is for being in a in a in an environment where you were seated. And you want to be able to type and keep your keep your gaze up at whatever the content is on screen, I can see, you know, people who are attending conferences, I can see people who are in in school environments, classroom environments where they want to be able to take notes, or play a game. While the professor’s speaking, this is a this is a potentially really interesting tool, I can also see myself utilizing this in a plane environment where I’m I’m on the road and I want to be able to get work done. But I don’t want to have to carry a laptop. And this becomes the the best, you know, kind of argument for having this kind of thing I’m currently waiting waiting for my text blade from way tools, way tools, get me my text blade. I’ve been waiting for such a long time. And what it does is it pairs This, of course, by by wirelessly to my phone so that I’m able to type what is supposed to be on a natural kind of full keyboard feel like, you know pops out the two pieces that clips onto a central piece. And then I can go ahead and start typing. But the idea of having the keyboard just kicked right into the phone, I really am all about a physical keyboard, there are just keyboard shortcuts and the ability to be able to to execute things on a touchscreen that can’t happen really all that easily. I presume you can do keyboard shortcuts on a on a digital screen. But it’s just not as common and therefore not supported in a lot of applications. If we had that keyboard functionality be able to do it. I mean, I use my external keyboard. And I’m capable of executing those shortcuts. And it makes for changing between applications on my phone and doing all those kinds of things that can be really so this is this has been funded, it’s raised $1.7 million from 2600 backers. And so clearly the astroglide 5g transformer is wanted by some some people I agree.

Augusto Pinaud 53:30
I’m talking about the LG wing who which screen, but instead of have that second screen, they will have they should have put a keyboard in their physical keyboard in there that will make it

Art Gelwicks 53:43
now I agree with you there that would have been a better form factor to do that. Now I was not a blackberry guy, but I had the Samsung blackjack two which was the same basic thing and I could just crank on that thing and not have to look at the keyboard so you’re right there is a lot of validity to that physical proximity on the keys themselves.

Augusto Pinaud 54:05
I was actually Oh guy and I agree with

Art Gelwicks 54:08
Yeah, I don’t know I I kind of mourn the day shed a tear for when they got rid of the physical keyboards but think about all the real estate we picked up and the prize that companies have had to create like a sleeve for the phone or something none of that’s ever worked well. So

Raymond Sidney-Smith 54:26
onward and upward. Next up, Augusto, what’s our next story

Augusto Pinaud 54:29
wattpad is being sold to Navarre. And actually I think art was on the show when we were talking about color ink. And we were talking about cartoons and comics on the E ink with the colors. And it is interesting because part of what Nevada does is exactly that is the art is it’s all you know all that in the Korean market, but given that anime and an older thing, so what parts seems to be a good match for them, it was a 600 million in cash. And I’m excited to see where they’re going to take this now.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 55:10
So what pad are wattpad is a social storytelling platform, and it has a whole community of people who really utilize it has its own awards thing called the wadis. And it has a writing contests and and writers Can, can really come together and help, you know, produce materials for readers. And so wattpad had its own community. It’s interesting, that Naver, which is a which is, as you know, to a South Korean company, decided to buy this. And neighbors is kind of I don’t know what the equivalent is here in the United States. It’s it’s kind of like Facebook here. Or think of think of kind of like, sign a Weibo or Tencent or WeChat. You know, those kinds of large conglomerate technology companies in Asia neighbor is that kind, they also are a web host. So they host a lot of websites. So it’s interesting that they they purchased, this is clearly a movement into that market to get more social eyeballs. And so I’m curious to see how this really works out. And, and so yeah, really cool. There. Okay. Next up. My story before the before the break,

Augusto Pinaud 56:18
the BBC having an article on how the pandemic called redefine our productivity obsession, and we discussed this a year ago, and how there was going to be people who was going to discover the love of working from home, even with coworkers who print in your office in the middle of the live show, okay, and people who were going to die, they go back to their office as soon as possible. But also the people who are going to be able to discover that their life wasn’t fulfilling, you know, that they don’t want it to that other crowd, overpack life anymore. And they discover that there are other things. And that’s basically what the article discusses, you know, put on account executive and remind me, she’ll start at 630 in the morning, drink a lot of coffee until 10pm that collapse I, I remember that life, and also remember exactly what the feeling she is doing now that she’s doing all this in a different way. Well, she’s questioning, should I come back, um, I think that’s one of the things that are going to be fun. Now that we are going to come back as a coach, as a productivity coach, on people understanding and trying to get to the people to the company to the places they work, what is what they want now, because as many companies are going to start calling the troops in, not every soldier will come with a smile.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 57:47
I think there is a clear reckoning that needs to be had. And in the corporate world, as well as in the mid size enterprise and in small businesses related to what productivity looks like in a dynamic environment. We weren’t prepared for this. And now that we’ve experienced some level of it, once we go back into this, off ramping from everyone having to work remotely except for essential workers and frontline workers, we need to decide what is equitable for, you know, people in this regard? How do we create for remote hybrid environments that are that are capable of being inclusive and dynamic in that sense. So I think there’s a lot to be understood, I think that none of us can understand what the future holds. We can’t predict that in that sense. But at the same time, I think it’s important for us to be having these conversations now. Now is the time to be talking to both staff direct reports, as well as upper level management to kind of figure out what does post pandemic work look like? And how do we actually maximize productivity? And does that mean for your unique workforce? Every one is going to be different for but for your unique workforce? will it mean having four days in the office and three days, three day weekends? Or is it going to mean having some kind of hybrid environment where people are capable of doing either? Are we going all remote, everybody goes remote, and you’re going to work completely remote? You know, for me, we’ve chosen to go all remote, we’re not going back into the office after this is all done. And that was a that is a purposeful choice. And I think one that will actually be productively positive for my company. But is it going to be the case for yours? I don’t know. And, but it really makes sense for you to start having that conversation now. And don’t wait till the next, you know, wall is in front of you, for you to hit it. Now’s the time for you to be able to kind of slowly but surely prepare all of the infrastructure to ramp up your productivity to for the staff and everybody else in the organization get the technology in place to be in that next phase that we’re coming towards with that We are going to come back after the break and continue our stories of the week. But in the meantime, we are going to take a quick break and have a word from our sponsor this week, co working space by personal productivity club.

Sponsor Voice Over 1:00:15
Well, working in person may be normal for you. It’s unlikely your co workers are as interested in being productive as you are, or working remotely or from home can be isolating. And there’s something powerful about being with productive people, even virtually that helps you be more engaged. If a flavor of these sounds familiar, co working space by personal productivity club is for you. co working space is a virtual work community designed to help members be more effective and efficient in their work and personal lives. At its core, we provide goal tracking and host focused action sessions throughout the week for accountability and camaraderie. We also host social and networking events and fireside expert chats, as well as member discounts for other programs, products and services, visit anything but idle.com forward slash co working to learn more, we have a special offer going on that ends on January 31 2021. That gives you a month of free trial and 50% off the membership rate. co working space lives inside personal productivity club, a digital community for personal productivity enthusiasts. So you can find people who use methods and tools you do to again, head over to anything but idle.com forward slash co working to see how co working space can help you be more productive, get this special offer before January 31. And now back to our show.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:01:48
Welcome back everybody to anything but idle. And we have a gousto pinout, of course and our guests are galax. Joining us today for our show. And before the break, we were discussing the first part of our stories of the week. And now we are getting into our second half of the show and continuing our stories of the week. Basically headlines, Part B, Part D. So what is our next headline this week.

Augusto Pinaud 1:02:15
The next headline came from Jessica john how a 55 Christmas gift turbocharged by productivity. And she’s talking about journal and talking about paper and paper planner with additional pages. If you’re a lover of paper planner, please, by all means read the article.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:02:38
Specialized yet this is a specialized planner. It’s called the organized life planner. And it’s specially noted $55 USD. And it’s actually really unique. It comes with some interesting kind of organizational components for being able to look at your day, week month, and it gives some prompts to be able to help you organize throughout the planner. I liked it, it seems high quality, it seems like it would be a very interesting product for somebody who really just needed a change of pace and wanted some other kind of structure for their world. And there’s a monthly budget tracker for expenses and other things. Just some really interesting things behind it. Seemingly, someone gave some thought to this. And I appreciated the idea. It’s not my flavor, but I think it can help people if you’re really looking for a new planner of sorts.

Augusto Pinaud 1:03:29
No, I completely agree with you that’s recently made it into the news. I’m not a paper person I have, I have a list aside you do not buy paper product because you love them in the concept you love the concept, but execution has been the same since 2001. But, but I agree with you there is a lot of thought put behind this one. So if you are a paper planner person, and you like paper and you enjoy those kind of things, check the article, I think you may find something interesting for you.

Art Gelwicks 1:04:03
I just think it’s worth getting a gousto to say paper planner person three times fast.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:04:12
As long as he doesn’t make me say it in Spanish, I bet. All right, next up, we have an HBr article entitled productivity is about your systems, not your people. What do you think? So I’ll leave a summary here I’ll read the summary this will this will help start the conversation. So the summary says the pursuit of individual productivity is healthy and worthwhile. However, unless you work independently outside of an organization, the benefits of most tricks will be limited. To make a real impact on performance. You have to work at the system level. The author recommends for ways to improve productivity and efficiency by making changes at the organizational level. Create a system of tiered huddles that allow issues to be escalated to the next level of responsibility in a timely manner. You systems that visually represent where Work is so that collaborators have visibility into where a project stands, make it clear how people should communicate, depending on the complexity and urgency of the issue. And make sure that people responsible for getting tasks done, also have the authority to make necessary decisions, and quote, and so the article itself posits something that I’ve been speaking about for years, which is that nothing happens in in a vacuum, we live in an interdependent world. And we need to be able to take a step up to systems design, for everything in life, I don’t actually think the article goes far enough in terms of my, my views, which is that everything in your life is a system, you have many, many systems. And if you want to be able to increase your productivity, you need to bring higher awareness to the systems in your life. And the more awareness, you have to the fact that there are systems in place, the actual greater efficacy of any change you want to make in your life, you actually don’t need to know or care about habits in order to be able to, to understand there are systems in place, and to take advantage of those systems. That’s really where I, where my mind went with this article, as opposed to thinking about this in an organizational structure. But I’m interested to hear your thoughts. So

Augusto Pinaud 1:06:12
I jumped up and down was this article when it came to to my attention for the same reason I it’s not about Inbox Zero, getting things done Eisenhower matrix. Now all those are great. But if you don’t have all those systems, actually across the board, and that people don’t understand the systems and how the system works? Well, it’s what you hear, you know, you hear in beginning things on world how people have making their system and they’re so efficient and work and when they come home and fall apart and it fall apart. Because it’s a system that doesn’t work at home, not because the system doesn’t work. But because in order to work, everybody needs to play in the same way. And when others don’t play when others on checklists, when others don’t care about the list, the system fall apart. And it is really challenging to half for the person who have those systems to have systems that don’t match on the efficiency that don’t match on the level of activity between one place and the other. Between the two things.

Art Gelwicks 1:07:24
I like the idea of the tiered structure, my only hesitation is is that there has to be buy in that each tier is actually going to contribute to solving the problem, rather than adding just another layer of people that now demand updates around what the person at the bottom of the tier is going to do to resolve that issue. That’s off so often where this stuff falls apart, is you wind up picking up more and more layers of well, what are you going to do about it? And the next group? Well, what are you going to do about it? Well, none of that helps in the escalation structure. And most of the time, it doesn’t need to be escalated the making work visible. I agree with you, Ray, I’ve been jumping up and down about this myself, my position is always, you know, think out loud. That’s what these tools are designed to do. That’s we have the discussions in a communal environment, we’re able to leverage the common mind around approaches and develop new perspectives. And that can only happen if people have visibility into the information. And so often we fall into those restricted information channels, and we just suffer from it. So you know, I, I don’t know that there’s necessarily anything particularly new in this article. I think it’s all pretty much the same hash stuff that we’ve talked about before. It’s just one of those things that I get into an issue with these kinds of articles, that people will read this and say, oh, okay, if I do that things will get better. Oh, no, that’s, I put air in my tires. But it doesn’t mean that I put gas in the car yet. It’s always a piece of the larger perspective. So

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:08:58
absolutely. It’s a good article to read, by the way, I think I think it’s well worth checking out. And the article author Daniel, Marco markovitz provides a really interesting perspective here that I think is harkens back to Dr. Stephen Covey’s work with the eighth habit and many other principled views on this. Dr. Ken Blanchard’s work. I think there’s a lot of that mixed in here. And I think that we need to remember how both individual and organizational productivity work in Confluence as opposed to in opposition, and the more that can happen, I think the greater all organizations and also individuals create more capable environments to be efficient and effective. Okay, so what is our next story?

Augusto Pinaud 1:09:45
Your next story comes from business tech needs, how to negotiate a permanent work from home arrangement. And I don’t know I mean, obviously, a lot has changed as the article said, you know, the study That shows that nearly one third of the co workers, you know that we’re working from their home, you know, don’t want to come back to the office and guess we’ll know. I don’t know if both sides are ready for this, okay, either coming home or even some companies, not their employees not coming home. And, you know, there is employees who feel that they don’t have that contact in the office, and they have not been able to how they showcase their work so they can get a promotion down the road, and these kind of things, and you have other people who are not afraid of that and simply don’t want to go back to work. But their companies are not even considering that they are looking to the time where they can go back to having the people in the building and have those kinds of interactions, can you will be able to renegotiate the permanent work from home. I don’t know, I I don’t know what’s going to happen with

Art Gelwicks 1:11:06
it. It’s a tough thing. Because often, I mean, up until this point, working from home was considered a perk, a luxury in many cases, you were lucky in many in many organizations, Oh, you got to work one day a week from home. And that’s, that’s what you negotiated as part of your yearly review. So they were giving you that in lieu of something else? Well, now this whole situation is demonstrated that, you know, having to go into work for some people, is completely unnecessary to maintain a high quality work. But often you’ll get into situations where and I can see this happening with this type of negotiation, you may be negotiating with a person who doesn’t have the latitude to work from home all the time. So resentment creeps into this, or the Okay, you want this benefit, you’re going to have to give up something else, we’re not going to give you the pay raise because you don’t have to make the commute in. And there’s businesses doing that. Google’s realigning pay scales based on moving out of Silicon Valley. So when we look at this type of a thing, and this becoming a negotiated thing, personally, you can’t negotiate my book around, where are you going to work? You have to get nailed down, what are you going to do? And what’s the value of what you’re doing? Once that’s nailed down, then then the location becomes a different conversation. But there’s baggage that comes along with this. And right now everybody, you know, or large chunks of people working from home, make it easier, because you don’t have that segmentation of the people in the office together talking and the people outside the office outside of the loop. Therefore, they get left out of things like oh, I don’t know, promotion discussions, that comes into play. And it’s an active thing. So you have to look at it. It may be comfy to sit in your pajamas and work all day and have the latitude to be able to do that. But don’t let that determine the value of the work that you’re doing. The work has the value on its own, and it needs to stand on its own. And that should be what the negotiation is about.

Augusto Pinaud 1:13:16
You know, I don’t know, I’m going to say I think a lot more people have discovered that you don’t you know, some person who has been working from home for a really long time, people has now discovered that you don’t work in pajamas every day. Actually, I don’t work in PMS. I don’t remember when is the last time I work in pajamas. But But I agree with you that is that negotiation, it is going to be and also it’s going to be for the employee difficult, but it’s going also going to be for many corporations, where some they are going to need to look how they’re going to do with the talent and which talent and how they’re going to try to avoid that resentment. Yeah,

Art Gelwicks 1:13:53
I think the prospective change is going to be for the longest time the businesses were looking at, well, how do we work with the people who want to work from home? Now it’s going to be how do we work with the people who have to come in? And it’s a it’s a completely different approach, not only for the people doing it, but for leadership to try and rebalance those expectations. And they’re going to struggle, this is going to be a struggle that goes on for a long time.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:14:22
Yeah, so this ties in really well with the CEO insider article about for office trends that CEOs should have on their radars in 2021. And there were four interesting kind of observations that were made in the article. One is that the return will be gradual, into 2022. The spotlight will be on workplace experience managers in essence, helping a role within larger companies figure out the real estate needs of those particular organizations. Filling productivity gaps will be an technology imperative. It says just reading a little bit here it says data that understands how people use the office And can predict behaviors will be the thread that ties resources to employee productivity together. And I think that’s really quite key. And then finally, it says, interconnected offices will emerge. In essence, smart buildings, smart office buildings will start to come about because you’ll be able to connect different offices together in the sense that, you know, meeting room solutions, where, you know, you have different distributed workforces, and even Matt Mullenweg, the the, the originator of WordPress wordpress.org, the software, he has this kind of, you know, distributed scale. I think we’ve talked about it here. The the idea, though now is is he’s even talking about it in terms of calling it distributed work, as opposed to calling it remote work. And I really like that notion that we’re not just talking about working remotely, we’re talking about distributed workforce. And that means distributed technologies are what we’re what we should be considering, and how we actually create a, a an equitable environment for that all to take place.

Augusto Pinaud 1:16:01
Yeah, I agree with you. I love that that term of distributor instead of remote, I think, and I think that’s where we need to push the discussion into that because it’s not remote is really distributed.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:16:13
Right. So we have time for one more of those articles. Oh, go ahead. Art. You’re muted.

Art Gelwicks 1:16:18
Sorry, I was just gonna say it’s interesting, because he Yeah, gousto got out of it. This time I took that talking while muted. Think about how manufacturing handle handles it and distributed production. That’s the model that’s starting to carry over into this information space. And I think we can learn a lot from how manufacturing handles a distributed model and how we can take advantage of it.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:16:43
Absolutely. So we have just a little bit of time to handle one more article this week in our stories, and we’ll put the rest in the extra stories for purposes of the show notes, everybody. So gousto. What is our final story this week before we go into new tools of the week, and now Agusta was muted to culprits our robot karumba.

Augusto Pinaud 1:17:05
I just didn’t want to be the only one who was muted. So I do I do my effort. You know the the last article comes from Business Journal, the Nashville Business Journal specifically and employers the articles title employers must prioritize work life balance for remote workers to remain competitive. And under recent is there it’s I think those three articles tied really well together with this discussion. And it is it’s we are coming to a new set of challenges. You know, a year ago, I remember talking to art, how the implementation of certain things that were radically impossible happening a weekend. And then you know, over the rest of the month, you know how many corporations learn how to manage the remote people, the firewalls did all those things that were changed practically overnight. And now we are seeing the coming back and how all this is changing and how people go, you know, the skirt rediscovering cooking and rediscovering home life violin, rediscovering as many challenging things has come from this also good things has come and people have discover other things that they really enjoy, and they now are looking into, okay, I don’t want to lose this into my work life balance equation.

Art Gelwicks 1:18:37
Yeah, it’s it’s one of those key things that and I go back to the beginning of our conversation talking about fun. It’s not something that business can make happen. They have to provide the opportunity, they have to recognize the value of saying, look, take time, take time for yourself, do what you need to do plan the work accordingly. Because in the end, that increases the value across the board. But you’re right, right, that is a cultural shift. And that is something that has to happen, not only from the grassroots level, but from the top down. And until it gets to the middle, where everything seems to get bogged down. It’s going to be a continuous battle to get that recognition.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:19:22
Awesome. Well, with that, we have reached the end of our stories this week, we have some more stories that we will put into the extra story section of this episode. So you can check that out in the show notes. And that takes us on to new tools of the week. And so every week, Augusto and I we call the interwebs for all the various stories that we bring together for purposes of anything but idle. But we also come across a bunch of productivity tools and services that we think you might be interested in. And when we come across one or we use one that we think you might like we bring that up, but of course we give our panelists an opportunity to share tools that they may like and so I’m going to try Bring them up on screen for you while we talk about them. And what I’m going to do is I’m going to bring up our first one this week and try to do this with without causing too much trouble to my world. And let’s see where where are we? Okay, here we are. Hold on one second, because I clearly was not prepared to do this. And so it’s giving me a little trouble here. Let’s see if I can do this without crashing my system here. I think All right, great. All right. So I’m going to talk about my tool this week. And it is a tool called hub indica. And so hub indica is an RPG style game, because we’re talking about how to have serious fun how to have serious play at work. This is one of my serious play tools, in essence of indica helps you manage habits as well as tasks within a role playing game environment. I actually run a GTD party party dedicated to getting things done users inside of a Bitbucket. So if you’re interested, you can join us. But in essence, what happens is you create a character in this game, and then you identify what are the various habits, they have three types of habits in the system are three types of items in the system, habits, dailies and to dues, and they’re tracked a little bit different than the way in which you use them. So habits are things that you’re going to do every day. And dailies are also things that you’re going to do every day. But in terms of habits, it’s how many times you do them every day versus the dailies, which are just checking them off and doing them each day. So there’s only kind of one component of doing them. But you can have sub items. So you can say like, their hygiene items. And then underneath the hygiene items, you can have brushed your teeth, wash your face, take a shower, those kinds of things underneath that sub grouping underneath that larger grouping. And then of course, to dues which are more like regular tasks that you might do one off in the system, they all give you points, and they work toward various quests and other kinds of activities within the system. Now you would think, Well, why would I waste my time, you know, doing something like this, you would be surprised at how motivating it is for you to be able to check off those items and to be able to engage in productive activity with others who are also doing that productive activity. Now I’m not seeing their their work, I’m only seeing whether or not they’re being rewarded or punished for doing that work. And I’m frequently involved in them either doing that work and being punished alongside them, which of course, focuses me on kind of making sure that I make sure the team doesn’t get harmed. And that also makes those other people more inclined to get their work done so that the team doesn’t get harmed. And that kind of, you know, I don’t I don’t know, some of these people, you know, at all. I know some of the people in terms of their in my GTD meetups and other folks I know through the personal productivity community. But you know, this is just a group of people trying to get things done, we have a weekly review challenge that we do each week. So you perform your weekly review, you check it off, and now you know that the rest of the team is working toward that same goal. And it just keeps you motivated in that sense. So there’s all kinds of things going on in the system. But I really like this because it’s, it’s low overhead, there’s not a lot to the application that you have to do if you don’t want to. But if you really want to take advantage of it, you can and you can do a whole lot with it. So you can you can stay in the free platform, you can also buy different functions that give you greater gems, basically, so that you have greater capacity within it. But I really like a bit. And I like the RPG style games that allow you to be able to gamify your productivity. And this is one of those that are kind of best in class. Okay, with that. We have a few more new tools this week. And so gousto What is your new tool this week, and I will work to get it up on screen, as you talk about you are muted, sir. It’s like the whole beginning of the show. Everybody was great. And it devolved.

Augusto Pinaud 1:23:57
That happens. You know, it’s it’s, it happens. I was saying that the application says we’re talking about fun. It’s a mind mapping application. It’s my note. My note is my application of shows I have it on the iPads, I have it in the Mac. And I really enjoy work. There is something for me about thinking and working and planning on that visual way. So as we said today on the news, you know now the mag you can build other things, you can build the organizer, good organizer approach. So it is an app that I really, really, really like and really enjoyed. You can do context, you can do a bunch of things. It’s it’s a, it’s an incredible application. So that’s my App of the Week.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:24:53
Wonderful. And this is iOS and Mac. Yes. So it’s focused on on the apple ecosystem. Just so folks are aware. Wonderful, thank you Cousteau. Art, you have two new tools this week. What’s your phone? Yeah, I’m

Art Gelwicks 1:25:06
good. I’m gonna steal that bottom slot since it’s just me as the guest. So I’m taking two ones a really small, simple one that I love. And it’s called rotation control. It’s an app on Android. And it has one job in life. And that’s to lock the rotation of your device in whatever position.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:25:24
I think we’ve lost art for a moment there. Hopefully, we’ll get hard back. But it sounds like rotation control helps to control the rotation of your device. Yeah,

Art Gelwicks 1:25:35
so if you’ve got your device and portrait, you can click on rotation control, it will stay rotate. There we go. For some reason things are happening, can you still hear me because you’re

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:25:45
gonna be lost for about about five seconds. Yeah.

Art Gelwicks 1:25:50
Something just went nuts. But anyway, the rotation control works on Android and on Chrome OS, which is the thing I like about it. So if I have my Chromebook, and I’m using it to take notes, I can tell it to lock in a vertical portrait position, I can make it auto rotate, I can lock it in the landscape, I can lock it reversed, whatever I want. And then it just ignores the rotation sensor. It’s really simple, really easy. But if you’ve ever used on a tablet, maybe the tablets in portrait, and then you go to put it down, all of a sudden it flips. And then you got to wait till it flips back, that two or three seconds can get pretty annoying after a while. So I love that little thing. And I’ve used it forever. so

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:26:26
fantastic. Next up.

Art Gelwicks 1:26:27
Second one. And this is we’re talking about fun little gadgets. And I actually have this one here. This is a keyboard. This is we talked about portable keyboards and extension keyboards. Well, I’m gonna move my mic for a second here. This is a keyboard, it actually completely folds up and has a pop out stand, you can put any sort of mobile device on their Bluetooth keyboard. But what I like about it is it is an all aluminum body frame chassis, and it slides right in any bag. So if you’re thinking about mobile devices, what we have on the screen is not the exact same brand as the one I have because for some reason I can’t find the one I have anymore, but has a device for mobile keyboards, and I’ve had a ton of them. This is the one I keep going back to. It works well it works consistent. Hold your phone just fine. And it’s a great thing, throw in the bag. And it’s I think this one’s like under 30 bucks,

Unknown Speaker 1:27:21
something like that.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:27:23
It’s definitely 99 USD or so. So yep, those are two that I highly recommend. Wonderful. And with that, those are our new tools this week. And so gousto Let’s kick into our featured story of the week this week. And it’s near and dear to my heart. I’m biased. I’m just putting that out there. I’m biased that this is the the story of the week and we debated over whether or not it was but it really it turns out that it is so what is our story this week?

Augusto Pinaud 1:27:49
Well, the story of the week is Evernote home and as a person who has zero ties with with Evernote, it’s been

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:27:59
you have an Evernote account.

Augusto Pinaud 1:28:01
I have an Evernote account, but I don’t use it. Yes, I still

Art Gelwicks 1:28:04
got a MySpace account. What are you talking about?

Augusto Pinaud 1:28:08
geo cities I don’t know when you’re so now I lost my train of thought. Thank you. But as Evernote came in a lot of changes and they begin to roll in the new Evernote in September 2020. You know, obviously they have been planned for bigger things and on better things and Evernote home is one of those things so now in the 2021 day have come to finally make your Evernote home available for many people. So you are going to see notes you’re going to see now scratchpad things that you recently captured the notebooks and all organized in a better way. You will be able to use shortcuts. So even as a person who don’t use Evernote, I think they are trying to make a lot more practical, the Evernote as the one stop for everything you do. So if you are a user of Evernote, I think that’s incredible news.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:29:14
Yeah, so home in Evernote, for those of you who are completely unaware of what it is and where it came from, is that Evernote last year was actually held a dashboard contest in which people submitted how they created these notes to be able to springboard off of into their Evernote systems or outside of Evernote to be able to kind of get their day started or to start work on some particular project. So they created these very wonderful notes that were in essence, like a dashboard. It’s a it’s a cockpit control dashboard, in essence that helped them go to where they needed to go. Everyone saw that so what users were doing and decided to create something that helped users start their day. I call it a one stop dashboard. For you to be able to pull together those pieces as you are starting your workday. That’s where Evernote now starts. When you open it up, open the application it starts in home. And home is a series of widgets currently have seven widgets in premium basic, you have access to the three main widgets. And this gives you the capability of opening up the application. Having say a pinned note widget and being able to then enter that widget and start work, start getting access to the things you need when you first need them. And this is the first iteration first kind of step into new features in the Evernote world. And I think we’re looking forward to seeing many more over the over the near term. And it’s the first step for home as well I think home is the is now being the one stop dashboard to start your day. I hope that at some point, I don’t know, you know anything inside knowledge wise, but I hope that someday Evernote home or home in Evernote becomes a place where you can actually stay, you know, kind of dwell while and get things done in that space. So it’s just great to have a visual layout for notes and things of that nature. One of my favorite tools way back in the day was the actually the folks who created mind 42 also had this corkboard tool where you could connect your Evernote account to it and you had this infinite cork board, virtual cork board where you could pin notes anywhere you wanted to. And that visual capability is just so powerful. And Evernote is taking a little bit of like dipping their toe in the water in that direction. And I’m just very excited and full disclosure. I am an Evernote certified consultant and I am one of the Evernote regional leaders for North America. So as you can imagine, I love Evernote. So I’m biased in that sense, but it is just really exciting to see Evernote walking, you know, chewing bubblegum and walking at the same time here, they are working on stability and feature parity with Evernote legacy, while at the same time pushing out new innovative features that really will help them you know, gain back some market share that they perhaps lost in the process of this rewrite of the entire ecosystem of brass. I was

Art Gelwicks 1:32:07
going to ask you two questions. I’m going to try and avoid the Snark if at all possible, but it’s going to happen. So one does do you think this helps them regain or at least head in the right direction of regaining the momentum they had before they went off on a tangent and did things like selling socks? And second, notions. One of its big things is the ability to create these dashboards that’s been the the push in if you do some searching right now you’ll see that of all things Tick Tock creators are loving creating notion dashboards, which that shouldn’t last too long, but we’ll see. But the question I have is, do you see this being a differentiating feature in Evernote? Or is this more of an evolutionary feature?

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:32:54
I think this is evolutionary in the sense that the fact of the matter is, is that Evernote builds tools by virtue of paying attention to how users are using their data. And so it is about modifying the system in a very structured environment so that users are capable of getting more use out of their data. Again, evernotes kind of unofficial motto is remember everything accomplish anything. And so their first tool was their first objective was to be able to make it really easy for people to save everything possible into Evernote. And I would imagine that the new evernotes biggest chore this year into going into next probably is making sure that that can be done again in the new product, both on Evernote, desktop and mobile. But right behind that is paying attention to how users are using their data. And then making it easier to do that now different than notion or really any of the other no code tools that people are are using in order to flexibly create their own productivity systems. Evernote has a structured mechanism for being like a structured ecosystem. You have stacks, notebooks, notes, tags, and none of the none of the others may mix. You can have notes and stacks, you can have tags and stacks, you can have tags and notebooks. They’re there in that lateral. They’re in that hierarchical structure for very good reason. And the idea behind having now home is going to also fit that motif that is a structured environment, it’s not going to be something where you’re just dragging and dropping widgets all over the place and, and that kind of thing. People need certainty when it comes to their productivity. That means they need guardrails. And I think Evernote is going to hold to that perspective. I think it makes the most sense for them. Whereas notion and other tools that allow for this flexible environment where people are, you know, very interested in tweaking and changing things all the time. There are tools for that and I think the market bears out that multiple tools like that can exist. So I think that’s where it sends Evernote that where I sense Evernote is going with this and and yes, I think They’re they’re done producing socks, the merchandise emerges images over, although I have to admit, in the Evernote community, there is always there are several people, you know, multiple times a year who say, hey, I want a T shirt or I want this, why did Evernote take this away? So you know, there is that I always hear this at from the Evernote team, which is that there’s kind of the 5% problem, which is that many of the features in Evernote 5% of the user base uses those features. But it’s spread out all different features. And Case in point, I’m a huge tax user. I’m a heavy tax user, although I use stacks and notebooks as well. It’s not like it’s an all or nothing proposition for me, I believe in both using both of them. And I’m in that under 5%. Most people don’t. And so I’m on a mission to teach people how to use tags across their entire ecosystem. Because the more people who use tags, the the more people will use tags in Evernote, and therefore the more love hopefully Evernote will get in, in development of how tags really work. I want colored tags, I want tags that can tag every kind of element in Evernote, I really believe in tags as being able to really ontologically approach your productivity. And if you can’t do that, then it’s really not as flexible and adaptive. It really should be. And so I’m really happy to see home, I think home is a great new feature, I actually recorded a getting more done with Evernote podcast episode on that. So that’s available, I’ll put a link to that in the show notes, and a little walkthrough, just a you know, quick back of the napkin kind of recording that showed folks around Evernote home. So I’ll put a link to those in the show notes for anybody who is interested in seeing that.

Art Gelwicks 1:36:37
So this actually fits into your scheme of World Tag domination.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:36:43
Well, again, I think that tools like obsidian, and and others that really, you know, kind of force the hand of the user into zettelkasten methodology and others that are heavy tag associated, are brilliant. But most people are not going to lend to that modality of working, it’s actually really difficult to think about your entire world and that system. And so the people that it works for it really works for and for the rest of us. It just doesn’t quite. And so we need to recognize that fact that that’s always going to be a minority of users. But there are really useful ways in which we can use tags and we should use them for those purposes. I’m currently teaching a five week Evernote masterclass, and I’ll put a link to that and also in the show notes it’s a it’s a free masterclass folks can join. And the idea behind that masterclass is to show people all the features that Evernote has, in a basic sense, it is called Getting started with Evernote. So we’re not doing anything advanced in this first round. But showing people how to actually set up and use Evernote in its in a productive way means approaching Evernote understanding all of its features. And tags are one of those features that I think most people don’t actually think about utilizing, because they don’t understand how it can be useful to that. And as soon as they understand, Oh, you know what this can be useful to me, it’s all of a sudden unlocks doors that otherwise couldn’t be done. It’s also the way in which I structured notes, for example, that say OneNote doesn’t make sense to me. The fact that you can place anything in the OneNote ecosystem is really great for some people. But for me, I like structure, I like to be able to know where things are going to be and how they’re going to work each time. And any deviation from that is a productive, you know, disqualifier, for me, it’s a productive reduction. And so I want to make sure that as I’m teaching people, structure, it’s also being depended upon that the system itself provides that level of structure as well. So it’s not, there’s nothing wrong with OneNote. I think OneNote is great for the people who use it. I know you’re a OneNote user art, and and so it’s not that OneNote is bad. It’s just that Evernote itself. Evernote itself provides a structure that appeals to me and I think for the users of Evernote, it appeals to them by virtue of the fact that they found find themselves using Evernote. So that’s kind of my my piece on it.

Art Gelwicks 1:39:02
Just the thing about the tagging is interesting. I try to tell people, when they struggle with understanding tags, and look, if you go into your tool, and you type the same thing into the search box three times, you’ve defined a tag. And if you think about it that way searches just undefined tags, and now you’re just providing a structure to it. I agree completely. It’s one of To me, it’s one of the biggest weaknesses of OneNote. So to see Evernote, embracing that and using that as part of home and how it fits into their entire ecosystem, it makes perfect sense. Um, not very many tools do tagging particularly well.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:39:39
Yeah, I always think if you have a table of contents, Table of Contents is is is one level of tagging, right? We’re grouping things together. And and those page numbers are a grouping of those items. But if you flip to the back of the of the book, and you see that, that index, that index is in essence a set of tags, it’s Just showing you how to group together different content and find it faster. And so we can, we can do that. But we can also use tags for purposes of categorizing phases on a project or a set of criteria for being able to group together items that are across different notebooks so that we’re capable of really understanding the context of what we’re looking at when we’re looking at it. And so I just really, yeah, I think I think tags are an underrepresented and really powerful tool, when we make the opportunity where we take the opportunity to be able to understand how they can work in our systems across the board, and where I’m not talking specifically about Evernote, I think, across the board in our worlds, we can use this kind of of creating a taxonomy. You know, we could do it in Google Calendar, you can do it in email, you could do in all kinds of ways that can be really, really powerful.

Art Gelwicks 1:40:48
Sounds like a ProductivityCast episode that needs to be recorded.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:40:52
I will I will have to capture that

Augusto Pinaud 1:40:55
it will capture that. But I agree, I think you said something really important are on every search you have done more than three times should be attack should be contemporary, it should be like completely rude. Alright,

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:41:08
we’ve reached the end of our conversation, I have an announcement. And then we are going to say goodbye. And so the quick announcement is that sanebox and a bunch of partners are doing something called productivity gold for 2021. And I believe the the deal is still ongoing. So those of you who are interested, just check out the show notes and click on the you know, sanebox in partners productivity, gold, and there are a bunch of deals embedded in that productivity gold, you can get sanebox at a discounted rate, you can get all kinds of different productivity products at a discounted rate, including amazing Marvin and several others that are I believe amazing marvins in there. Don’t Don’t ask me if it’s not. But there are several different products that are in that, that discount program. And so check it out. I mean, if you if you’re going to use one of those productivity applications, why not get it at a discounted rate. So I just wanted to bring folks to bring that to your attention, if you were thinking about upgrading to any particular tools in the coming weeks or months. And so with that, that brings us to the end. And that means art, how can folks keep up to date with you and your work

Art Gelwicks 1:42:17
best way? either look for me over at the idea pump? or follow me on twitter at art galax? Either way, you’ll hear all the nonsense that I have to spew.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:42:28
Well, thank you so much for joining us on anything but idle today. Good to see you as always good. So it’s just us.

Augusto Pinaud 1:42:36
And there’s only two and I got the Christie will come again to the to be mentioned.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:42:42
Well, thank you as always for joining me on anything but idle and really making anything but idle happen in the background. And so with that, if we missed something if for some reason, we missed a story that was really big or important. Feel free to let us know you can go to anything but idle calm. And you can let us know on the contact page there. You can also tweet or DMS, on Twitter at anything but idle. We’ve got our DMS open so you can message us and we can read and respond there. If you have a question or comment about anything we’ve discussed on anything but idle, you can go ahead to the episode page there at the bottom there’s a comment section, leave a comment or question. And we will be happy to respond to you if needed. While you’re on anything but idle. You will also find on the episode pages, our show notes, which include a machine generated transcripts. So you can just follow along and capture items as you need to. We have our tools of the week any extra stories that we couldn’t cover. And of course, that text transcript which is downloadable in PDF, but it’s also explodable there’s a read more button, just click on that read more button. And you’ll be able to actually open up the the transcript and read it along while the thing is playing. If this is your first time watching the live stream, feel free to hit that thumbs up icon and subscribe. If you are watching the live stream live stream and this is your 50th time watching us feel free to click the thumbs up icon. And we appreciate your support there. And if you are listening to this after the fact in your podcast app of choice, great, feel free to leave us a rating review in Apple podcasts or Stitcher or otherwise, that really helps us to expand our productivity listening community. So thank you for doing that. If you all didn’t know we actually run a digital community for anything but idle that lives inside of personal productivity club. And you can find that by going to www dot personal productivity dot club. And so you can go ahead then go to channels you’ll find the anything but idle channel and we post the events there so you can RSVP to them and join us live and comment and all that other fun stuff. And so with that, see you all next time on anything but idle here’s to your productive life.

[/read]

Download a PDF of raw, text transcript of the interview here.