Ask Me Anything

with Unnested Folders

Ask a question

Manage new apps and tools

Hi Rose and Scotty! Fan of your work, so keep it going! My question is, obviously as you, I like to try new apps, but my problem is when I try new app I want to know all about it. It can destroy my workflow because I will end up with playing around with an app in several days, which I actually don't have any problem to solve with. For example setapp. Great service, but I use only few utilities from their catalog and feel like I'm not getting value out of this service. So leave them is not so difficult. But at the same time I like to try new apps and it's a lot to explore in their catalog. Do you have any advice how to stick with one app and get work done instead thinking or waste time on another application which have 1 feature you maybe need or maybe this app will take my productivity on another level?

How to separate things to track and my tasks....

I just listened to your fire inspector podcast and felt a complete connection with it... So I am a military officer in charge of logistics for a brigade (2000 solders and equipment). I have to ensure this brigade is constantly ready for anything. I track their equipment, incoming and outgoing, the maintenance for it all, their monthly requests for sustainment (e.g. food, fuel, etc), and their accounting for it all. I have built OmniFocus using some of your ideas and also the shortcuts you guys have developed to set it up, and it seems to work great for tracking my Brigade steady state items. However, I am trying to use it also for my personal tasks and I feel overwhelmed trying to do it this way. I listened to your podcast about the splitting work and home and bookends and wondered if the fire inspector worked something out. I too have the cross platform issue (Windows at Work, IOS for personal). My Windows is also a government issue computer so I can’t upload anything on it, download, or go to certain websites (e.g. can’t do OmniFocus on the Web). I am hoping to try the Analog thing you mentioned in place of digital apps. Replace OmniFocus with HipsterPDA version, Agenda with the “Army Green Notebook”, Replace Evernote/file app with a Zippered Binder with pocket tabs, and try to use the PARA method on all of this. Sorry, this seems like a dump, and a possible, but bottom line is that how can I setup Analog on this to make this work? I feel like I have so much in my “steady state”, on top of my boss coming in with his “good idea fairy” ideas out of the blue, and then activations for various things from wildfire support to civil unrest. Help! I feel like I am overdoing it with Digital and looking for how to scale it back

Moving from autonomous/IC to management

I used to have a very autonomous individual contributor dev/dev advocate role and a few months ago moved to management. The switch has proved extremely overwhelming as the nature of the job is now radically different, even though I'm managing the team I used to be on. There are many more meetings, many more admin tasks, and a lot more overall chaos in my schedule. Do you have any advice on how to adapt systems for this kind of change? I'm not sure if Rose has ever made this change, but I know she's also gone between "indie" and "jobby job," which seems similar to experiences Scotty may have had moving to management. Thanks!

spontaneous focus

First, thank you both so much for the wonderful podcast! I have several health issues, including ADHD, and I can't predict my energy and focus levels. I try to work around it by having several options available, but it makes it particularly difficult to do deep work since there's always something easier to do. What advice would you have for choosing to do deep, focused things when I can't plan ahead for them? Thank you so much, Judica

Toxic Productivity

Hi Rose & Scotty, I've been thinking about what some people call toxic productivity. Recently, I got frustrated with my system and workflow again and did a complete productivity system detox. I started a rebuild from the ground up, only adding components I really needed. So far so good. I have a long history of fidgeting with my system, app-hopping, probably wasting time, etc. No system is perfect and at some point you simply have to decide: this is it, no more fiddling, accept what is and get on with it. So, at what point is that? What is the optimal point along that productivity spectrum that spans from no system at all on the one side and toxic productivity on the other side? Thanks for considering!! Peter