The Recovering Perfectionist
The Recovering Perfectionist
My favourite apps for planning + productivity
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Hey, Recovering Perfectionists, I'm Claire Riley, and you are listening to episode number 73 of the Recovering Perfectionist Podcast. Today I'm just going to go through my four favourite apps, which are all free for productivity and planning. You can see the links and all of the show notes at clairey.co forward slash pod forward slash 73. This is the Recovering Perfectionist Podcast, and I'm your host, Claire Riley. So when I first started my business a few years ago, five and a half years ago now, actually, I did a um freebie, which was my 25 favourite apps. Talk about shiny object syndrome. So I have got these down. My the next episode is actually my favorite apps for customer service. So we'll talk about those in the next episode. But in this one, I just wanted to go through my top favorite apps for helping me to plan and be productive in my business. So the first one is, as you've probably heard, Asana. Now I feel like I'm basically a cult leader for Asana because I just love it so much. The interface is beautiful, it's easy to use, it's easy to share, it's easy to delegate to team members, you can set your time, um, like due dates and all of that sort of thing. There are so many amazing features on the free version of Asana, and I just absolutely love it. Um, some similar uh programs that other people really like are Trello and ClickUp and Smart Ask, Smart Task, sorry. Um, so there's lots of different similar ones that um different similar, there are lots of other similar apps that do the same sort of task or same sort of job as Asana. It's all just about a personal preference. How I use Asana for my planning and productivity is number one, it holds all of my to-do things. So everything that I need to do today for this work session, everything I'm working on this week or this fortnight, things that need to be done in the next couple of weeks or the next couple of months, and also my toy box, which is where I now put all of my shiny objects and things that I think I'd like to do or change or update in my business, go in the toy box until I have time to set aside some dedicated time to doing them as a project, or I can outsource them or automate them, or however that is going to work. So that's the first the first way that I use Asana is for my general to-do so that I can keep on track with my priorities and what I need to get done in my business. The second thing that I use it for is SOP, which is standard operating procedure or process and procedure steps. So anything that gets done more than once in my business probably has an SOP, and this is a very big passion project of mine. I know a lot of people's eyes roll back in their heads when we talk about boring things like policies and procedures, and that's okay. I'm here to make them pretty for you. So I have SOPs for how to publish a blog, how to publish a podcast, how to set up and run a webinar, how my CRM works, which is client relationship management tool, um, all of those sort of things. So anything that has a process that I do part of, sometimes my VA does part of, sometimes a project or a VA does the whole part of that process, however that is. So I store all of my SOPs in Asana, which means that they're a dynamic working document that it's easy to update, add details, add links, and it means that if someone from my team leaves and I get a new person, we can still maintain that beautiful consistency for all of the operations of my business. The third way that I use it is for project management. So similar to the SOPs where we've got steps laid out for things that happen on a rotational basis. With a project management tool, it's usually a once-of-sometimes you'll do it every now and then. But generally, if it's a project that I'm setting up something new, maybe it's a new course, maybe it's an overhaul of the website, that sort of thing, I can put all of the steps and delegate to my team and put due dates and that sort of thing for all of the different subtasks under one project. So to-do lists, SOPs, and project management is the main way that I use Asana and I absolutely love it. Bonus, if you set it up in the settings, you also get flying unicorns and cute little monsters that run across your screen when you complete tasks, which I mean, who doesn't love unicorns flying across your screen just for shits and giggles, right? The second um, the second type of app that I absolutely love is somewhere to take quick and easy notes. So I use Evernote fairly religiously, but usually for the big chunky things. So again, it's for show notes for my podcast, um, it might be for email templates that I use in various places and to store my promotional promo posts that I do for all of my free and paid services and products. But I really love iNotes. So if you are a Mac user, you've got iNotes on your phone and your laptop. There's um other similar ones if you're on a PC as well. And I just love the versatility and how they talk to each other and update and sync really seamlessly. It's a great place to just store all the information. If I'm on the run, you know, it's all those things that you think, I'll remember it later and you never remember later. If you've got somewhere that you can quickly just jot some details into, I think it's really, really helpful. As long as you've also obviously got the process of going back in and finding those things and putting them where they actually belong, maybe once a week or once a fortnight as part of your admin duties within your business. The third thing that I really love is Google Sheets and Google Docs. So I've moved away from Word and Excel or Pages and Numbers and whatever they're called on Mac, which I never really got my head around to be completely honest. But Google Sheets and Docs work so beautifully with things like Dropbox when you're using for your storage. Um, if you are also syncing with other people's um uh document um apps and tools and that sort of thing. But Google Sheets and Google Docs are just so fantastic for sharing and that dynamic kind of working document and planning and all of that sort of thing, really easy to access again across multiple um uh devices as well. And the fourth one, a bit left of centre, but I really love this. And yes, you could absolutely just use a timer, but there's a really great little tool which is free again, and it's called the Tomato Timer. So for anyone who's ever heard me do any sort of co-working or any sort of group uh workshopping, I am a bit in love with the Pomodoro style um work sessions. The basic premise is that most people work really well with a 25-minute in the 25-minute blocks, and you do a 25-minute block of very focused work on one task, you shut everything else down so you're really tunnel vision focused on one uh one task or one action for 25 minutes, then you have a five-minute break where you do something physically and mentally very different, then you do another 25 with a five-minute break, another 25, and then you should take a slightly longer break, 15 to 30 minutes ideally. So when you use the tomato timer, you can literally just toggle between uh the 25-minute work session and a five-minute break and a 10-minute break, and it just gives you that beautiful structure where it sets off a little alarm when it's time for you to jump into the next section. So they're the four things that I use every single day in my business to be as productive as I can and also to plan all of my work sessions and to plan my launches for sometimes three, six, or twelve months in advance as well. So I hope that's been helpful. I'll jot those things down with links at clairey.co forward slash pod forward slash 73. So jump over there if you'd like to get those notes and links. And as always, I'd love to hear from you. If you have any great apps as well, pop that into the comments under the show. Love to hear from you. Bye for now.