Our senses are under constant attack both at work and at home, which can sometimes make it difficult to focus and get shit done. This past year has been especially hectic for me having become a father for the first time, a split job role, organising my wedding, writing my thesis and organising events for the startup community.
Being able to manage all this at once hasn’t been easy, but there are certain tools that I use everyday that help me along the way. Below are just 5 tools that I use almost every day to make my life that little bit easier.
1. Audible
There are people who read, and people who don’t. I fall under the second category. It’s not that I don’t enjoy reading, absorbing the knowledge, or the escape provided through reading. I just don’t seem to have the attention span that allows me the time to invest in reading a book from start to finish.
When looking for a way to help me overcome this I decided to go down the route of audio books and discovered audible by Amazon. The subscription model is great as it gives me a credit for a new book monthly, which means that hopefully by the end of this year I will have listened to at least 12 books start to finish – more than I have read in my entire life. During my commutes to work I listen to my books and the usual distractions of looking out the window or replying to a message don’t stop the flow, the sweet sound of knowledge keeps coming! It’s great, I can learn something new in the morning and already apply it in my workplace in the afternoon.
So far I’ve listened to work-related books “The Toyota Way” by Jeffrey K Liker and “Tribes” by Seth Godin and “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries, I can highly recommend them for anyone interested in Lean leadership.
2. Slack
To improve our internal communication we introduced Slack to Agile Search just over a year ago – since then 153K messages have passed through our channels and private messages. We have learned a lot since we started using Slack; not only has it become an integral part of our internal communication, it has been able to create efficiencies through Slack’s numerous integrations.
Slack has become one of our colleagues at Agile Search, he’s the guy that reminds us when we have a meeting coming up, or tells us that we should be doing something. Slack’s also the guy that introduced a great GIF culture in our company, not a day goes by that we don’t get comic relief through inappropriate GIF placement.
3. Trello
Sometimes when you have many projects ongoing at once it’s great to use tools like Trello. It’s also collaborative and can be used by the whole team involved. What I love about Trello is its simplicity. Trello can be used as a simple visual representation of all the tasks to be completed in a project and what stage of completion they are at.
I’ve most recently been using Trello in collaboration with my wife-to-be, who is not accustomed to using online collaboration tools, but is very accustomed to assigning me tasks. Most of which are forgotten and incomplete. By using Trello we are able to assign each other tasks at any time of the day before they are forgotten, and can also see the progress of the tasks. By using the members and due date function I know exactly what I’m responsible for, and when to complete it in order to keep myself out of trouble!
4. Calendly
Calendly is one of my favourite tools of all. Being a recruiter and a leader most of my time is spent booking meetings which quite frankly is a pain in the ass!
Calendly takes the sting out of booking meetings by doing all the hard work for me. Now all I need to do is set my preferences such as how many meetings I want to have in a day, and the time period in which I want the meeting. Calendly will check my calendar and the invitees will only be shown what’s currently available. Once they pick the best time for both of us, it’s all booked into our calendars! Hey Presto! It’s so simple but saves me hours of running back and forth trying to schedule meetings.
5. Hario V60 Coffee Dripper
I get a lot of stick for this one around the office, let me introduce you to the tool I cannot live without at the moment. The Hario V60 is a manual coffee machine powered by the human heart and soul. I could much more efficiently make myself a coffee using our Moccamaster drip machine or Cupsolo instant coffee maker, which I do sometimes when I’m in a rush for a hit of the coffee power.
I use the V60 for much more than just making a cup of coffee, it’s my time to take a moment away from all the electronic devices and tools. The process of making my coffee with the Hario V60 gives me a moment to clear my mind and focus on something much more innate. The flowing of the water has a relaxing effect and the smell from the carefully brewed coffee rewards me before the drink even hits my mouth. In my opinion the coffee also tastes so much better, but that might just be because I was part of the process from beginning to end and was reaping the rewards. Our senses are under constant attack both at work and at home, which can sometimes make it difficult to focus and get shit done. This past year has been especially hectic for me having become a father for the first time, a split job role, organising my wedding, writing my thesis and organising events for the startup community.
Being able to manage all this at once hasn’t been easy, but there are certain tools that I use everyday that help me along the way. Below are just 5 tools that I use almost every day to make my life that little bit easier.
1. Audible
There are people who read, and people who don’t. I fall under the second category. It’s not that I don’t enjoy reading, absorbing the knowledge, or the escape provided through reading. I just don’t seem to have the attention span that allows me the time to invest in reading a book from start to finish.
When looking for a way to help me overcome this I decided to go down the route of audio books and discovered audible by Amazon. The subscription model is great as it gives me a credit for a new book monthly, which means that hopefully by the end of this year I will have listened to at least 12 books start to finish – more than I have read in my entire life. During my commutes to work I listen to my books and the usual distractions of looking out the window or replying to a message don’t stop the flow, the sweet sound of knowledge keeps coming! It’s great, I can learn something new in the morning and already apply it in my workplace in the afternoon.
So far I’ve listened to work-related books “The Toyota Way” by Jeffrey K Liker and “Tribes” by Seth Godin and “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries, I can highly recommend them for anyone interested in Lean leadership.
2. Slack
To improve our internal communication we introduced Slack to Agile Search just over a year ago – since then 153K messages have passed through our channels and private messages. We have learned a lot since we started using Slack; not only has it become an integral part of our internal communication, it has been able to create efficiencies through Slack’s numerous integrations.
Slack has become one of our colleagues at Agile Search, he’s the guy that reminds us when we have a meeting coming up, or tells us that we should be doing something. Slack’s also the guy that introduced a great GIF culture in our company, not a day goes by that we don’t get comic relief through inappropriate GIF placement.
3. Trello
Sometimes when you have many projects ongoing at once it’s great to use tools like Trello. It’s also collaborative and can be used by the whole team involved. What I love about Trello is its simplicity. Trello can be used as a simple visual representation of all the tasks to be completed in a project and what stage of completion they are at.
I’ve most recently been using Trello in collaboration with my wife-to-be, who is not accustomed to using online collaboration tools, but is very accustomed to assigning me tasks. Most of which are forgotten and incomplete. By using Trello we are able to assign each other tasks at any time of the day before they are forgotten, and can also see the progress of the tasks. By using the members and due date function I know exactly what I’m responsible for, and when to complete it in order to keep myself out of trouble!
4. Calendly
Calendly is one of my favourite tools of all. Being a recruiter and a leader most of my time is spent booking meetings which quite frankly is a pain in the ass!
Calendly takes the sting out of booking meetings by doing all the hard work for me. Now all I need to do is set my preferences such as how many meetings I want to have in a day, and the time period in which I want the meeting. Calendly will check my calendar and the invitees will only be shown what’s currently available. Once they pick the best time for both of us, it’s all booked into our calendars! Hey Presto! It’s so simple but saves me hours of running back and forth trying to schedule meetings.
5. Hario V60 Coffee Dripper
I get a lot of stick for this one around the office, let me introduce you to the tool I cannot live without at the moment. The Hario V60 is a manual coffee machine powered by the human heart and soul. I could much more efficiently make myself a coffee using our Moccamaster drip machine or Cupsolo instant coffee maker, which I do sometimes when I’m in a rush for a hit of the coffee power.
I use the V60 for much more than just making a cup of coffee, it’s my time to take a moment away from all the electronic devices and tools. The process of making my coffee with the Hario V60 gives me a moment to clear my mind and focus on something much more innate. The flowing of the water has a relaxing effect and the smell from the carefully brewed coffee rewards me before the drink even hits my mouth. In my opinion the coffee also tastes so much better, but that might just be because I was part of the process from beginning to end and was reaping the rewards.Our senses are under constant attack both at work and at home, which can sometimes make it difficult to focus and get shit done. This past year has been especially hectic for me having become a father for the first time, a split job role, organising my wedding, writing my thesis and organising events for the startup community.
Being able to manage all this at once hasn’t been easy, but there are certain tools that I use everyday that help me along the way. Below are just 5 tools that I use almost every day to make my life that little bit easier.
1. Audible
There are people who read, and people who don’t. I fall under the second category. It’s not that I don’t enjoy reading, absorbing the knowledge, or the escape provided through reading. I just don’t seem to have the attention span that allows me the time to invest in reading a book from start to finish.
When looking for a way to help me overcome this I decided to go down the route of audio books and discovered audible by Amazon. The subscription model is great as it gives me a credit for a new book monthly, which means that hopefully by the end of this year I will have listened to at least 12 books start to finish – more than I have read in my entire life. During my commutes to work I listen to my books and the usual distractions of looking out the window or replying to a message don’t stop the flow, the sweet sound of knowledge keeps coming! It’s great, I can learn something new in the morning and already apply it in my workplace in the afternoon.
So far I’ve listened to work-related books “The Toyota Way” by Jeffrey K Liker and “Tribes” by Seth Godin and “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries, I can highly recommend them for anyone interested in Lean leadership.
2. Slack
To improve our internal communication we introduced Slack to Agile Search just over a year ago – since then 153K messages have passed through our channels and private messages. We have learned a lot since we started using Slack; not only has it become an integral part of our internal communication, it has been able to create efficiencies through Slack’s numerous integrations.
Slack has become one of our colleagues at Agile Search, he’s the guy that reminds us when we have a meeting coming up, or tells us that we should be doing something. Slack’s also the guy that introduced a great GIF culture in our company, not a day goes by that we don’t get comic relief through inappropriate GIF placement.
3. Trello
Sometimes when you have many projects ongoing at once it’s great to use tools like Trello. It’s also collaborative and can be used by the whole team involved. What I love about Trello is its simplicity. Trello can be used as a simple visual representation of all the tasks to be completed in a project and what stage of completion they are at.
I’ve most recently been using Trello in collaboration with my wife-to-be, who is not accustomed to using online collaboration tools, but is very accustomed to assigning me tasks. Most of which are forgotten and incomplete. By using Trello we are able to assign each other tasks at any time of the day before they are forgotten, and can also see the progress of the tasks. By using the members and due date function I know exactly what I’m responsible for, and when to complete it in order to keep myself out of trouble!
4. Calendly
Calendly is one of my favourite tools of all. Being a recruiter and a leader most of my time is spent booking meetings which quite frankly is a pain in the ass!
Calendly takes the sting out of booking meetings by doing all the hard work for me. Now all I need to do is set my preferences such as how many meetings I want to have in a day, and the time period in which I want the meeting. Calendly will check my calendar and the invitees will only be shown what’s currently available. Once they pick the best time for both of us, it’s all booked into our calendars! Hey Presto! It’s so simple but saves me hours of running back and forth trying to schedule meetings.
5. Hario V60 Coffee Dripper
I get a lot of stick for this one around the office, let me introduce you to the tool I cannot live without at the moment. The Hario V60 is a manual coffee machine powered by the human heart and soul. I could much more efficiently make myself a coffee using our Moccamaster drip machine or Cupsolo instant coffee maker, which I do sometimes when I’m in a rush for a hit of the coffee power.
I use the V60 for much more than just making a cup of coffee, it’s my time to take a moment away from all the electronic devices and tools. The process of making my coffee with the Hario V60 gives me a moment to clear my mind and focus on something much more innate. The flowing of the water has a relaxing effect and the smell from the carefully brewed coffee rewards me before the drink even hits my mouth. In my opinion the coffee also tastes so much better, but that might just be because I was part of the process from beginning to end and was reaping the rewards.