Labels

Work Productivity Instruments

I am no longer in uni and actually working and it’s still surreal!!!! Right now, most of us are doing what it’s known to be remote working, or working from home due to the pandemic. The pandemic has been really messing with a lot of people’s plans… But as much as I hate to admit it, this is a great time to catch up on laptop works such as reports, papers and data analysis.
My team leader is all the way across the globe from where I am, and the team is scattered in three different continents. Funnily, due to the circumstances, the team and I are used to doing our laptop work long-distanced… So I thought I’d share with you guys the applications and instruments I use for working long-distance.
Time Management

Weekly Planner
I have a weekly planner, and I bought mines at Mossery. I always use a weekly one instead of daily or monthly ones, because like what Sean Covey wrote on his book ‘We think in weeks and because daily planning is too narrow a focus and monthly planner is too broad a focus’. This is my second time using Mossery planners and I love the layout and the paper. Having a weekly planner really helps me see my week in advance, and help me distribute my responsibilities into smaller tasks and schedule them into specific times. It really helps me get a hold of the big things.
My planner is horizontally designed, while my brother’s is vertically designed. Vertical-designed planners are more specific because they have the time span, while horizontal-designed planners are more spacious to write or draw in. I use the horizontal one because I use my planner mostly to track work and summarise my day. My brother uses the vertical-designed planner because he uses it to schedule his uni classes, tasks due dates, sports practices, etc., and it makes everything more organised.


Instead of having a vertical-designed planner, I use Google Calendar to schedule my tasks into more specific activities. My schedule is very flexible and a lot of things get reschedules, so having to change a lot of things in my weekly planner is a bit too much. Of course Google Calendar has so many features that made everything easier. You can invite people to add a schedule to their calendar, you can sync Trello end dates and Zoom appointments, add other calendars such as your office calendar or your parents’ vacation plans… GCal has been very, very helpful in reminding me of everything (as I am quite the forgetter)… From virtual meetings, flights, workout classes, to reminding me to have lunch! (important when you’re working from home because sometimes you tend to overwork yourself).
I used to have my GCal automatically open in Google Chrome because I don’t like using Apple’s iCalendar… But now I have my GCal opened in an app called Spark, which I’ll tell you more about a few paragraphs down.

Note Taking, Planning and Storage

Before going back to Evernote, I switched to Notion. Notion is fun because you can colour code a lot of things, and have various type of documents in one file… It’s a lot of fun. But it’s also super heavy and has a content limit. With my day-to-day activities include writing for my blog, note taking while on a phone call or a webinar, listing the places I want to visit on my next trip to Surabaya… I can’t really work with a limited content. So I turned back to Evernote because believe me, it is so much better than everything else I have used. Of course, with Evernote it’s best to use it when you’re online so it’ll sync with your other devices sooner. I once made something so long, and the internet was done and it wasn’t synced to any of them devices… And then when I closed the app (silly me), it was gone. Vanished. Poof. Lesson learned. But Evernote is still the best note taking experience I’ve ever had.

I have used Trello for more than a year now I’m sure… I’ve used this app since I was in uni and it really helped me get a better hold of myself and my uni tasks. With its ability to sync to my GCal (yaaaaz), it reminded me of the many things I have to do. For me, Trello is like a to-do list. But within each list, I can add more in-depth information to it. For work, our team sometimes use Trello as well to make sure we’ve done our assigned tasks. Other than a to-do list, Trello also acts as an idea storage for my Youtube videos and blog posts. There are so many features in Trello I haven’t explored yet as many of them can only be accessed using the business account, but nevertheless… It’s still a gem.
Notebook
I also have a blank notebook that I use for anything… Scribbles, doodles, figuring out how to make the bar graph of my dreams… I also use the notebook as a self-reflecting book, where I do writing prompts, the ‘current me vs. future me’ exercise, and other bits and bobs.

Ever since uni, the role of internet storage has been bigger than ever. I share excel sheets, presentations and documentations through Google Drive. Same things goes for work… Google Drive is storing so many information and data sheets that the team and several external parties too can access. Manta Matcher, Internet of Turtles, Dive The Data, editing newsletters… We do all that through Google Drive. And don’t get me started on Dropbox. That box stores our manta and turtle IDs, and without it, I won’t get any work done. Online storages have played a very important role for everyone, as back-ups, as co-working storages… Bless you online storages.

Communication

I was browsing through my AppStore and found an app called Spark. It’s basically Mail from Apple but a more advanced? I didn’t really like Mail from Apple, so all these time I kept opening my emails from web and it takes much time… Especially when I have to switch between accounts. So as soon as I downloaded Spark, I instantly fell in love. Everything is so easy to use, and there are plenty of how-to videos on customising our very own Spark. I have four (I repeat, fOUR) email accounts synced to Spark and it’s amazing how easy everything is. What’s even cooler, is that Spark has a built-in calendar that you can sync to your existing calendar. Again, I dislike the iCal on Apple, so I have my Google Calendar open on web every day. With Spark, I can open one app and have my four emails and my calendar in one screen. It still amazes me how compact everything is!
Who doesn’t use WhatsApp? It’s a light app and easy to use. The team communicates through WhatsApp a lot, especially for easy work, like setting up a meeting schedule, sharing new mantas ID, telling our R codes, and those light conversations. When only needing to talk to one person, I like using WhatsApp call because, again, it’s easy and it’s good enough to use as long as you have good internet. Although WhatsApp can be quite a struggle when your phone isn’t well, because you need your phone to be on and online to get WhatsApp desktop running.. but I think that’s an inconvenience I can put aside because this app is just the bomb.
I honestly dislike video calls. I just feel like they’re invading my personal space… But since this pandemic, I have to tolerate video call appointments. GHangouts is really good for a group call, and it’s easy to invite anyone to the call because all you need is their google email. Zoom is awesome for group video calls, classes, and webinar (as I experienced). I use Zoom to join my muay thai/boxing classes and several webinars. I also use it to call my friends who are scattered around Indonesia. For Skype, I sometimes use it for work purposes, but more on the personal purposes. I use Skype to video call certain friends. Any who, these video calls applications are worth trying.

So those are basically some of the things that have kept me sane in the midst of all my working, for MMF and for myself. Especially in this current pandemic situation, there are so many things that are out of our control. With these productivity instruments, I can at least have a control of my own working situation.
For my uni-related instruments, click here!
Tagged

Comments

Post a Comment

Tell me what you think