119. My Top 10 Favorite Tools for Productivity and Organization
Episode 119
The work we do is more important than the tools we use. But that said, having the right tools can make a difference in how productive and organized we are.
In this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I’m sharing with you my 10 favorite tools that I use nearly every single day to manage a busy business, family and life.
No affiliate links or promotions here … just an honest peek behind the curtain of what’s on my desk and on my computer (oh, and on my nightstand!).
What You Learn:
The most critical web-based tools that I depend on for managing time and tasks
What I keep on my nightstand that makes my mornings smoother
My favorite tool that goes beep
A tool I made for myself that improves my productivity just as much as any other tool
My favorite productivity/tool of all that’s…well…not really a tool
🔗 Resources + Episodes Mentioned:
Episode 52 - How to Make and Use SOPs for Better Productivity
Episode 76 - Google Calendar Power Moves
Episode 101 - Digital Declutter Strategies
Episode 117 - How to Create a Personal Operating System
Never stop learning.
❤️Connect:
-
The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I choose not to spend my time fixing them 😉
My 10 Favorite Productivity and Organization Tools
===
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to another episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast. I'm Katie, and this is episode 119. Today I am gonna share my top 10 tools for productivity and organization that I personally use. These are 10 tools that I use almost every single day, and I thought it would make a really cool episode just to share them here with you.
Now, there is not a single tool in my list today that is fancy or expensive because if you know anything about how I operate in my own life, in my business and in the strategies I teach, I keep it simple and I think that the more complicated the tools we use. Oftentimes, the more we distract ourselves from the work that we should be doing.
Also, none of the tools I mentioned today, do I have any connection with, I have no affiliate links. I'm not promoting them. I'm definitely not saying you need to go out and get them all. I'm just giving you a peek behind the curtain about some of the things that are on my desk and on my computer that help me run a successful business and a busy family.
And to be honest, most of these tools are [00:01:00] actually things that I also used when I was a student getting my master's degree too. So I think that today's episode should be relevant for students and professionals. If you're watching this on YouTube, I would love to hear what some of your own favorite tools are.
Well, actually, even if you're listening to this on a podcast app, I want to know what they are. But if you're watching on YouTube, just let me know in the comments what you're using. 'cause I think that we all have a lot to share here, even though I'm the one behind the mic. and then if you are watching this on YouTube, don't forget to subscribe to the show.
If you're listening in a podcast app, don't forget to follow the show if you haven't done so already and you can find me on Instagram at @schoolhabits. And without any further ado, let's get into my own personal favorite top 10 tools for getting things done.
[00:02:00] All right. First on my list can't come as a surprise to anybody who's been with me for a while, but it's my planner. I use a disc bound planner. I get one. Um, I get the covers from a company called Levenger, but they make less expensive ones that you can find on Amazon. The Staples brand used to have one called Staples Arc.
I think they discontinued it, but I think Office Depot or whatever, you can totally get cheaper ones. I have splurged over the years and got myself a lavender cover. It's not the cover that matters, it's what's inside. This planner is my task management system. You know that we talk a lot about task management systems on the show, I have an entire program called the Assignment Management Power System, which essentially teaches you how to create a task management system, especially if you're a student.
But this is where everything goes. Every single thing that I have to get done for my business and for my personal life and for my family [00:03:00] gets put in this planner. I have five sections separated by like these vinyl dividers that I had custom made. Yes, because this is what makes me happy. I have, um, inbox, calendar and tasks, notes, clients and numbers.
Those are just things that are, you know, align with my life and where I am and my work. If you have a different life, which you do, your sections could look different. The most critical section for me is calendar and tasks. I have some inserts that I purchase from a small business up in Canada called Rosie Pepper Tree.
It is so simple. I open my planner and I can see the whole week. These are the like, um, weekly inserts that I get from her. You can see the whole week. It's like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, on the left. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I think are on the right. So it's like an open spread and everything that I have to do goes right.
In the planner. Now, on a recent episode, very recent, it was episode 117, and this is 119. We talk about information management and having a [00:04:00] personal operating system, and how we have all of this information coming at us all day long from all of these different inboxes, whether it's our literal email inbox, our people telling you to do things, or your student portal that's giving you, you know, assignments or maybe conversations you're having in the hallway, text messages, things that come in come up at meetings, um, ideas you have, whatever. And the key to task management, whether you're a student or professional, is to collect all of this information, all of these tasks from our various inboxes and put them in one place. And I personally think that an analog planner, for most people is the easiest and simplest way to go. Even if you're super techie and digital, like I actually have some legitimately solid digital skills, considering half of my business is digitally based, but task management, I'm convinced for most people is better off analog. I would have no idea what I would do without my planner. So that is number one.
Okay. Productivity tool number two that I swear by this one can't be a surprise either, but it is a notebook. [00:05:00] I already mentioned a second ago that I use a disc bound system for my planner. A disc bound system, if you're unfamiliar with it, you can Google it, but it's basically a series of little circular discs and the paper sort of pops into those discs. Um, but you can easily peel off the paper, reposition the paper, move it to another disc bound system, move it to it, uh, move it to another. Part in your planner. It is not like a three wing binder where you have to sort of like pop open the sides and you know the, the rings open.
It's not like that at all. There's no holes in the paper. It's more like these little, I'd say cutouts in the paper that just slip onto the disc. Anyways, I have disc bound notebooks in all the key places that I need them. The first one is on my night table because we all know that the moment we're about to go to bed is the exact moment that all of our unmanaged thoughts from the day reappear or appear for the first time.
So I have one on my night table where when these thoughts arise right before bed, I can just download them and I can go to sleep. [00:06:00] In the morning. I tear that piece of paper out of my nightstand notebook and I bring it downstairs to my home office where I deal with it.
If they are tasks, they go into my task management system. If they're full out ideas and more like, you know, developed notes on things, then I pop them into my notes section of my planner. I also have one of these notebooks at my office, which is outside of my home, like where I run my private practice and I see coaching clients.
So during the day, if something pops up or I'm taking notes on something there at the end of the night, I will remove that piece of paper easily, 'cause it's, you know, a disc bound planner over there too. And I put it into my planner, of course, that I bring with me to the office and I bring that planner home.
Like I said, the planner or the task management system should always be one source of truth, so I don't move these notebooks from where I intentionally set them. The nighttime or nightstand notebook stays there. The office notebook outside of my home that stays there. I actually do have one of my home office desk as [00:07:00] well, and I have a mini one in the glove box of my car.
Yes, I do.
Okay, so my productivity tool number three that I don't think I could go a single day without. It's Google Calendar. I use Google Calendar for work, for personal stuff, for family things. My family recently, well maybe like, maybe like six months ago, got the skylight calendar that we now have on our kitchen counter so my kids can see what's coming up for the week.
They also have access to their own Google calendars. I have teenagers, right? So they should be in charge of their own calendars, at least the way that I operate my family. And when they add events to their Google calendars, it shows up not only on the family Google Calendar, but also right there on the skylight.
So if they're getting their breakfast in the morning, my daughter is making her decaf coffee in the morning. She has no excuse to not know what is coming up that week. All right. And that to me helps me be more productive. 'cause I'm not the family management person. I mean I am, but I don't have to act like it all of the time.
Calendars are different from task management [00:08:00] systems. Remember, task management systems are what we're doing and like kind of when we're doing it, like if you're gonna write down on Tuesday's section that you're gonna work on, you know these things, that's when you're doing it.
Right. But I use my Google calendar for places that I need to be, or deadline based things. So appointments, all the soccer games and baseball games and track meets and scout meetings and haircuts and orthodontist appointments, all of the family stuff. For business. I don't put individual client sessions in there because I block off just on my Google calendar, just a full eight hours on my Google calendar to represent the time that I am out of my house in my office, working one-to-one with private clients.
They're a back to back sessions for eight hours, and then the specific client schedule goes in the calendar in my analog planner. There was a point for a long time where I actually was the only person in my family using any calendar whatsoever. And I realized, again, not that long ago how [00:09:00] absurd and burdensome that was.
Like that's, I'm not the family secretary, that's not my job. I've never signed up for it, and I have very strong feelings about that. And so now my kids both have Google Calendar. My husband's using it more and ask anybody in my family if they say, what time is this thing? Or when do we have that? My go-to response, like it or not, is you have access to calendars.
I know it's annoying and they think it's so annoying, but like that's what it is. That's my go-to answer. As I was saying earlier, I have all of my calendars in Google Calendar.
So that does mean that I have created distinct calendars for work and for personal because there's some things that I'm doing in the day that I don't need to show up on the family skylight calendar on the kitchen counter, so I can toggle things off and on. You know, put people's birthdays in there, But When I'm in ultra productivity mode, I am gonna toggle off birthdays and Patriots game schedules and things that I don't need to see. I do have my business content calendar in there [00:10:00] loosely, but I do use something else for my content calendar when I get really nitty gritty with it, and I'm gonna talk all about that next. But yeah, a digital calendar. And I also do have an analog calendar. This didn't make my list. I also recently got a really awesome wall calendar. Um, it's got on Amazon, but you can see all the year.
It's like a giant poster and you can write on it and you can see all 12 months at a time. And I have just, I, I put it on my wall kinda like behind the door so I can see it when my office door is closed. But when the office door is open, you can't really see it 'cause the door covers it on the wall. I really like that.
It's just kind of a new addition for this year. Um, and I do have an analog calendar, as I was saying in my paper planner, but the only thing I use that for is client sessions.
Okay. Moving on to the next productivity tool I use all the time. I've mentioned it probably like, I don't know a whole lot here on the show before is Asana.
A-S-A-N-A-I use the free version of Asana. There's a paid level. I have never felt [00:11:00] the need for it. If you're curious, is a really simple project management tool. So there's task management and there is project management. Okay. Those are two totally different things. Tasks are the things that we have to do.
They're like our, you know, our to-do list items. They're usually pretty singular. Projects are larger in scope, usually larger in in scale, and they're composed of discreet individual tasks. They're definitely more complicated and whenever I have a big project I. To handle, let's say a YouTube video. There are so many tasks involved with that, that if I just wrote Make YouTube video and put that on my to-do list in my planner, like that would, what does that even mean?
That would never happen. That's actually what I see happen with students all of the time. They're gonna look at the school portal and see the teacher added, like, great Gatsby essay due, I don't know, like next Friday
that I've said this before and I'm gonna say it again. Task management is not project management. And so that's why students need their own task management system to break down that Great Gatsby [00:12:00] essay into the discrete components that are actually involved in completing it. Same thing with my YouTube video example.
it's do the research for the topic. Write the outline. Schedule a day to go down to my recording studio, film it, edit. Do the B roll stuff. Make the thumbnail, write the description box, do all the marketing for it. That is far more than just do YouTube video and Asana is a really simple way for me to take these projects and let them, let me see them all mapped out and what status they're in.
That's the key to any task management or project management is to see the status that they're in. So you could Google like Asana tutorial just to see what it looks like to see if it's something that you're interested in. Again, I have no affiliate link out. You know, I'm not saying you need to go out and do this or get this program or whatever, but it's kind of, the interface is cool.
It's these little cards on the screen and you can drag and drop them and move them around to indicate your progress on them.
Those tasks can easily be converted into a calendar, so you can see what you're doing, when. Earlier I said that I use Google Calendar [00:13:00] loosely for my content calendar. But in Asana, that's where I know exactly what Instagram post is going up and when, what YouTube video is going up and when, and again, all the individual tasks that have to be completed to make that YouTube thing happened, this podcast, episode 119 that you're listening to right now, that was put in Asana, probably a good, maybe a good month ago with all of the individual tasks of figuring out what topic I want to talk about, doing a general outline, doing my research for other episodes that I want to reference in this one, and then when I'm done, recording and then it'll be editing the audio, editing the video version of this, doing the thumbnail for YouTube, writing the description box, putting it up in my podcast software host, uploading it to YouTube. All of the things. A podcast is a lot of work. I hope you like it guys. Anyways, most students do not need anything like Asana.
But if you're a working professional, I think it could be something really cool. Like I said, I've used the free version forever and I've never felt the need to use anything else.
[00:14:00] Okay. Number five. I have one more kind of computer-based tool. So there was Google Calendar, Asana, and then we're gonna say google Drive for this next one.
Now, for some people this might be Microsoft Drive, it might be OneDrive. It literally doesn't matter. Whatever you're using for your digital storage that can make or break your productivity and your organization. I teach digital organization Inside School Habits University in depth.
I've touched on it here on the show as well, particularly in episode a hundred in one, which is called Digital Declutter Strategies for School and Work, five Clutter Zones and How to Handle Them. By the way. I should have mentioned that for Google Calendar. I do have an episode about that too. It's episode 76.
It's 10 digital calendar power moves for students and professionals.
So if you haven't nailed down your digital calendar skills, check that out. I'll leave the links, like I leave all the links in the show notes and in the description box, episode 76.
But anyways, back to digital file management. There's got to be some kind of organizational strategy there. [00:15:00] I am always saying this on the show.
You have to be the scientist and the experiment. So I can share what I use and do like I am today. But you have to figure out the particulars for yourself. The way that I like to teach digital file management is to have things, no more than two folders deep. So if you're a student, that could be something like the year, that's one folder. And then within that folder could be folders for all of your classes. So it's 2026 right now. So last year would be 2025. And if you clicked on that and you opened it, you would have individual folders for all of the courses that you took in 2025.
If you're currently in the year 2026, which is when I'm recording this podcast, I wouldn't put this year's class folders inside a year folder until the year is over because that's just one additional click you'd have to do. Open the 2026 folder, and then to access all of your individual course folders.
Don't recommend that. Reduce the friction.
Working professionals. You might have to have some more nuance to the way that you organize things, depending on your job and [00:16:00] your role. But maybe it's by clients. Maybe it's by year, maybe. I have no idea.
But the rule of only having two folders or less deep still stands pretty strong,
any more than that, and we're creating friction
in any, anytime there's even a little bit too much friction, we don't do the thing even if in the back of our minds, we know what's good for us.
All right. Moving on to number six. This is a quick one, but it's a timer cube I have on my desk. You can find these on Amazon for like $10 or something, maybe even less. You can find them with all different intervals of time as well, so it picture it as a little cube. Okay, and there's multiple sides to the cube.
I have myself a timer cube where one side is five minutes. Another one is. 10. Another one's 20 and another is 30. So it's all four sides of the cube. The top and bottom are different there. There's no timer on those. So the way these work is that you turn it on and then for however long you want to set the time, so let's say I want to do a 30 minute work session, I place the timer on my desk with the number 30 facing up. [00:17:00] And then after 30 minutes it beeps and I can either take a break or maybe reset the timer for another session. the reason I like these particular intervals is 'cause it has a five minute timer as well.
And when I'm doing any kind of Pomodoro variation, a five minute break is a good amount of time for a break. They have timers where they're smaller like one minute, but that's not really practical for the type of work I do. I know a while ago I bought my kids one for their desk at home when they were a lot younger, and I think theirs has smaller intervals.
It might be like one minute, three minute 15 and 20 or something like that. But I think these are really great for focused work sessions like for using the Pomodoro technique. On my School Habits YouTube channel, which is different from the Learn and Work Smarter podcast YouTube channel, I just put up a video called Three Alternative Pomodoro Techniques, or three Advanced, I think it's three Advanced Pomodoro Techniques, where I share three different work to rest ratios that could be useful for different kinds of work. And I think that the timer can be really helpful for that.
I will put the link for that video [00:18:00] in the description box as well. Plus the timer looks really cute, like I got it to match the colors of my office, and it's a great way to track the time without another reason to touch my phone. 'cause when I'm doing a focus to work session, like my phone is nowhere near me.
All right, next one. Number seven. Hear me out on this one. It's not necessarily a tool in the sense of being a Timer, cube or Google Calendar, but it's most definitely a tool that I use to stay productive and organized, and that is all of my SOPs and workflows. SOPs, meaning Standard Operating Procedures. I have an entire episode dedicated to what these are and how to create them for yourself.
That is episode 52. It is literally called SOPs and Workflows, how to create and use them to increase productivity. So these are essential for how I run my business. I can't say that I have any for my private life or my family life or whatever, but I am a one woman show. I literally do every single thing that you guys hear and see me put out, whether it's for the podcast or YouTube or my courses or Instagram or [00:19:00] videos and the editing, my private practice.
And I'm not bragging about that. It's, it is definitely way too much. But the reason I'm telling you is that I have a lot of different hats and I feel like sometimes I essentially run a media company in addition to running my private practice. Where I'm working with clients plus running SchoolHabits university, which is like a full-time job too.
But each of these roles comes with multiple jobs, and sometimes there are jobs that are complicated, and I might do them infrequently enough that every time I return to do that task, I kind of like forgot the process for it. So I've created myself some SOPs for all of those types of tasks. For example. I have an SOP.
Actually, this is kind of a funny one. It's not related to my job, but well sort kind of, sort of, I don't know, whatever. I have an SOP for filing my estimated taxes. I do them online and obviously I have to pay federal and state, and there's different login credentials and different amounts and different dates or whatever, and so I have an SOP that has all of my login stuff, exactly what to click on because I found myself, I [00:20:00] think it was on the state website, I kept clicking on the wrong thing and it would take me down a rabbit hole in the wrong direction. So I was like, this is dumb. Like every single time I went to file my state taxes, like I would do it. I wouldn't like do it wrong, like I would eventually do it, right? But I always went in the wrong direction.
So I made an SOP that was like, click on this, click on this, enter this, enter this number. Boom. Paid. Done. I have SOPs for creating vertical videos, which are things like shorts and reels inside of Adobe Premier Pro.
For all of the shorts and reels you guys see related to this podcast, I use a very simple editing software called descript, which lets me create vertical videos pretty easily, but Premier Pro, which is like an editing software that's a lot more robust. Don't ask me why, but I use that to edit my school habits youTube videos and creating vertical videos from there is more complicated and I always forget the settings and the dimensions and the export settings or whatever, because I do that way less frequently than I do for this show, which is weekly. I made an SOP for that. I have a folder in my Google Drive.
Yes, of course I do called SOPs, and inside [00:21:00] that I probably have 20 SOPs. Some I haven't used in a while because I used the SOP so frequently that I got the process down pat and I didn't need to come back to it again. But I am also in the process of creating SOPs in case I ever hire somebody that I don't have to reinvent the wheel.
I can just give them access to the folder and be like, here, do the things the way that I want them done. Right. So my question to you is. Are there any processes in your life, whether you're a student or a professional, where you're doing them infrequently enough that you keep forgetting how to do it?
Maybe for work, maybe for school, maybe for your own life? Could you create a simple document outlining the steps that you need to take to complete that task and store it in your Google Drive, which you organize, and the next time you go to complete that task, you'll be so glad that you have a step by step way to do it.
Okay, the eighth productivity tool that I swear by, and this one might also be a little strange considering it's not a tool in the classic sense, but it's my work bag. I work outside the home and I need a bag to bring things to and from like most of us [00:22:00] do.
And I have found over the years that a tote bag works best for me because it doesn't require a lot of friction. I have a bagalini bag that's the brand. It's like a tote style and although it comes with a zipper across the top, I never zip it. That is too much friction. I wanna be able to reach in and pull things out and put things back with one hand.
It's got plenty of pouches that also don't need to be zippered and zipped, zippered, zipped, whatever, and not even gonna edit that. And I think that this is a bag that I've purchased twice, maybe three times now. I've probably been using it for like 15 years straight.
Recently I bought my first thing ever off of Instagram, which I think is funny. Actually, I discovered it on Instagram, but like the almost 43-year-old person that I am, I went to the website on my desktop computer to actually buy it. It's called Norde, N-O-R-D-A-C-E, and it's also a tote bag, and that's absolutely divine.
Like I absolutely love that bag for traveling with, because that's the case where I am bringing a lot of devices and [00:23:00] things and I do wanna zip it up. And just so you know, I am not a bag person. I have two pocketbooks and I don't think I've gotten a new pocketbook in like 10 years. I'd rather spend my money on a yoga class than on a bag.
But I do think how we carry our things can make our work or school life easier for us. 'cause it contributes to the organization or the disorganization of our materials. That's why it made my list.
In my private practice when I'm working with students, they'll bring me their backpacks and things are so crammed in there.
You know, they're losing credit for missing assignments, but in reality there's like eight versions of that assignment at the bottom of their bag. But their bag has way too many zippers and pockets and components to it. And I know students need a backpack with a zipper, but especially if I'm working with someone with A DHD or executive function deficits where organization is a struggle, having a bag with all of these internal components usually is not the best system.
Outside pockets are good, but for the big inner component, usually just one works out a little bit better. [00:24:00] I was coaching a working professional, I'd say it might have been a few months ago by now. And one of the things that we addressed in the session was her work bag. She has multiple offices or multiple kind of like satellite offices that she has to get to.
Plus she works from home, plus she does like these site visits and so her bag matters and being able to reach in and grab the things and put things away, and all her files that she has to carry with her and having it being comfortable on her shoulder, all of that was important and it contributed to her productivity
and her organization. So this stuff really does matters, and again, that's why I've included it on my top favorite tools list. So my question to you is, is your bag working for you? Do you like it, or is it annoying? Is it easy to use, or does it just have a little bit too much friction than you would like?
Only you know the answer to that, but it's my job to ask the question.
All right. Moving on to number nine is voice tools. I find voice to speech an incredibly helpful way to get some of my work done. This is not gonna be a helpful tool for everybody because not everybody listening to the show spends a lot of time writing, but I do, and so this is a key [00:25:00] tool for my daily work.
Whenever I'm writing a blog post, I of course use Google Docs, but I use the voice typing tool that's natively built in there. It's just, you know, up file tools or tool, whatever. It's up in the toolbar. So I will have Google Docs open on the computer and I will voice type what I wanna say. Yes, of course it comes out mangled sometimes, but obviously I go back and clean it up if I need to do headings and spelling and all of that stuff.
If I want a new paragraph and I'm speaking, I just command it with new paragraph and it's usually pretty good. I also have Google Docs on my phone, and so sometimes I will go for a walk and I will voice type an outline for my next podcast, for example, or maybe even a blog post or a video script.
And yes, again, this is not like set it and forget it kind of thing because voice texting can be so highly inaccurate, but I just build that into part of the workflow. So voice type the thing, and then edit and clean it up. Like that's the whole workflow. That's how it goes. So I'm no longer frustrated by that.I'm actually a [00:26:00] really fast typer for some reason, but I still prefer to voice type it, and as quick as my hands are, my mouth is so much faster. Also I use a pc. Um, and for any of you listening, there is a keyboard shortcut for whenever you wanna voice type anything that's not inside Google Docs. It's built there for accessibility purposes, like it's an accessibility feature.
It is the Windows icon key plus the letter H. I'm sure Mac has one as well, because again, it's like a legal accessibility thing. And that will open a voice typing tool for whatever text field you have open on whatever website you're using. For example, if I have to fill out, let's say a Google form and there's like a whole paragraph I have to write, I'm gonna use that keyboard shortcut to open the voice typing thingy that will fill that text field on the form or from filling out my kids' camp documents, it's not Google Forms, it's just their like form or whatever. I'll use the Windows icon key plus H, and that little voice command thing pops up. Also, [00:27:00] I rile so hard against using AI for thinking and writing, so this might come as a surprise, but it's different.So hear me out on this. I will sometimes open a chat GPT window and use the voice typing mode inside there, but I will not submit it. I never press enter. So I'll voice type it, press the check mark, which turns the little audio wave thingy into words, and it just, my words appear in the, on the, uh, page.
In their, in the field or whatever, but I do not click enter or the little arrow to give my words to chat. I just copy and paste what's from that text field and then I put it in Google Docs or whatever that I'm using. And then I'll delete it from that, the, the chat field. But I've never submitted it. I have found that the technology that chat GPT uses for voice transcription is a thousand times better than Google Docs.
But I don't wanna give anything to chat, you know what I mean? Like, I don't want it to have my thoughts or my content or rewrite anything I say, but I do want it to accurately capture my words into text. And [00:28:00] believe it or not, it lets you copy and paste the transcribed words without ever having to click the arrow or give it to chat.
Okay, my friends, we have a hit number 10. By no means is this the least important. In fact, I might argue that this one is the most important of all, and that is clarity. I think the most critical component of productivity is knowing what the heck you're working on.
Knowing what's important when it's due and how to do it. Because you can have all of the fancy tools and gadgets and apps in the world, but if you don't know what the heck you're doing or how to do it, those tools are useless. Now, it is true that some tools give us clarity, right?
Like Asana and my task management system in the form of my planner, right? Those things tell me what I'm doing each day. It gives me clarity, but that allows me to sit down and do the things, because if you think about it without clarity, what creeps in? Stress and procrastination. We might sit at our desk and feel the pressure and the burden of so many things that we have to do, and then we get overwhelmed, and then that overwhelm leads to paralysis and not doing anything at all.
And that's certainly not what calm productivity is. But instead, if you know exactly what you're doing, when to do it, how to do it, all you have to do is [00:29:00] sit down and do it. The drama is gone, the feelings are gone. It's just you and the work in front of you. So I know that some of you listening or watching, might not consider clarity a tool.
It might actually be the result of having some of the tools we talked about today. But I like to make the point here that I'm tool agnostic, which means I don't think it matters what tools you use at all. What a closing statement for an episode where I'm like my top favorite 10 tools. Tools don't matter at all.
I mean, I say Google Calendar, but you could use Outlook or a wall calendar. That's fine. I use a paper planner, but you might use some digital thing, majig fine. I use a timer cube. You might use a timer on your phone. I don't recommend it. I want you off your phone, but you could use like, um, timers on the computer.
I use Asana. You might have absolutely no use for it, or you might use something like Monday or Notion. Fine. Again, the tool doesn't matter. The more important picture is, are you using some kind of way, some kind of system to track and manage the things that you need to do for work, for school, for yourself, for your life, for your family?[00:30:00]
And are those tools and systems and structures working for you? That's the ultimate question. That's the ultimate skill, actually. The ability to self-evaluate and say, is what I'm doing, working. I have students tell me all the time that they don't need an assignment notebook because they're using their student portal.
And then I say, okay, well why don't we try this? And they say, no, like my student portal works. And then I make the point with love and compassion, of course, that they've got 19 missing assignments. And then I ask the question, well, if your student portal was working, then we wouldn't be in this situation.
Right. So the reality is it doesn't matter what tools you use. They could be so totally different than the ones that I use and the ones I just shared with you today. And that's fine, that's beautiful. But you have to stop and ask yourself what's working, what's not working, and where can I adjust? And that is ultimately how we all learn and work smarter.
Okay. My friends, it might be helpful to do a quick recap of the tools we talked about today in no particular order of importance, but in the order that I share them with you. For me, my top 10 favorite productivity and organization tools are my paper planner. Disc bound notebooks, Google [00:31:00] Calendar, Asana, Google Drive, a timer cube for my desk, SOPs that I've created for myself, my low friction work bag, voice to text tools, and clarity on exactly what I'm doing.
And that brings us to the end of the show today. Don't forget to leave your own tool recommendations if you have any in the comments if you're watching this on YouTube. Come and find me on Instagram at school habits. Keep showing up. Keep doing the hard work, keep asking the hard questions, and never stop learning.
