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Our sponsor for today’s podcast! Setapp. Setapp is a revolutionary new service allowing you a hub of more than 100 Mac apps all in one spot for one monthly fee! Download it today for Mac using this link: Get Setapp here (https://stpp.co/ttu418) Learn more about Setapp with this helpful YouTube review (https://youtu.be/US0ybmf36Bw), created by your host, Francesco D’Alessio. What does your day-to-day job and work look like? - It depends on John’s life season, now it’s mostly recording YouTube videos at his office, answering emails, and planning his week using the Pomodoro Technique (https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique). What to you use to tally all of your most important tasks together? - KanbanFlow (https://kanbanflow.com/) (Web/Mobile) (For managing tasks using the built-in Pomodoro timer) Do you take notes across your day? If so, what tool do you use? - Drafts (http://getdrafts.com/) (iOS) (For taking notes on the go) - WorkFlowy (https://workflowy.com/) (iOS/Android/Chrome/Mac/Windows/Linux) (For lists and plans) What do you use when it comes to organizing your calendar? - Fantastical (https://flexibits.com/fantastical) (iOS/Mac) - Google Calendar (https://google.com/calendar) (iOS/Android) - Assistant.to (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/assistantto-scheduling-as/ndddjdifcfcddfdgedlcmfjamionaago) (Chrome) What hardware do you use every day? (phone, laptop, pc) - iPhone X (https://amzn.to/2JwduPj) - Custom gaming laptop - Dell XPS 13 laptop (https://amzn.to/2Fi3XsD) - Canon EOS C100 camera (https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/products/details/cameras/cinema-eos/eos-c100) - LG Ultrawide monitor (https://amzn.to/2HqWLQG) What are your 3 favorite apps/tools for work? (Eg. marketing, designing) - TubeBuddy (https://www.tubebuddy.com/) - MorningFa.me (https://morningfa.me/) - LastPass (https://www.lastpass.com/) (Windows/Mac/Linux/iOS/Android) Outside of work, what three apps do you use love to use? - Audible (https://www.audible.com/) (Android/iOS) - Strava (https://www.strava.com) (iOS/Android) - BodySpace (https://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/) (iOS/Android) What is your planning process for the week ahead? - John makes fitness and exercising a priority and schedule it in his week, he also tries to avoid decision fatigue planning his meals and exercises. Do you get moments to pause in your day, if so, what do you do? - John mostly goes through different phases of his life and tries to change it to avoid monotony. Filming YouTube videos is like keeping a personal diary and coaching to himself. He also keeps his morning routine very simple to avoid failure. What book are you reading at the moment? - 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson - Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Where can we find you and all of your wonderful things? - YouTube - here (https://www.youtube.com/jsonmez/) - Blog - Simple Programmer (https://simpleprogrammer.com) - Books - Soft Skills: The software developer's life manual (https://amzn.to/2vOhY1F), The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide (https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Software-Developers-Career-Guide-ebook/dp/B073X6GNJ1/) Thanks once again to Setapp. The sponsor for Series 2 of Tools They Use. Setapp is a game-changer when it comes to saving money and getting things done. All the most useful Mac apps, available under one monthly subscription. No one-off fees, no in-app charges, just one set fee for more than a hundred apps. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through the link, I will earn a small commission at no extra charge to you. If you choose to use them, thank you for supporting the podcast! All opinions expressed are my own. Special Guest: John Sonmez.
What sort of work do you do day‐to‐day? Alexis runs her business theming her days doing some batch work. She takes care of the customer service and content creation aspect of her job, writes blog posts, creates videos and Instagram photos, works on new products and manages her online courses. What is your daily to‐do list tool? And why? Charmed Life Planner (http://www.strangecharmed.com/shop/product-category/printable-planner-inserts/charmed-life-planner/) How do you go about taking notes? Note section in her Charmed Life Planner (http://www.strangecharmed.com/shop/product-category/printable-planner-inserts/charmed-life-planner/) Apple Notes (https://www.icloud.com/notes) (Mac/iOS) (For notes and ideas on the go) What do you use when it comes to organising your calendar? Charmed Life Planner (http://www.strangecharmed.com/shop/product-category/printable-planner-inserts/charmed-life-planner/) Apple Calendar (https://www.icloud.com/calendar) (Mac/iOS) Do you use a certain tool for tracking projects? Or do you solely use a task list? Functional Planning Bundle (http://www.strangecharmed.com/shop/product-category/printable-planner-inserts/functional-planning-bundle/) What hardware do you use for work? (phone, laptop, pc) 11-inch MacBook Air (https://www.apple.com/it/macbook-air/) iPhone 8 (https://www.apple.com/iphone-8/) Western Digital Hard Drive (https://www.wdc.com) What are your 3 favoured apps for getting the work done? (Eg. marketing, designing) Adobe Photoshop (https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop) (Mac/Windows) Adobe InDesign (https://www.adobe.com/products/indesign) (Mac/Windows) Final Cut Pro X (https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/) (Mac) Afterlight (https://afterlight.co/) (iOS/Android) (For editing photos) Clear (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clear-todos/id493136154) (iOS) (For lists and ideas) Canon Camera Connect (https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/explore/solutions-services/mobile-apps/camera-connect/) (iOS/Android) What app do you use for handling emails? Apple Mail (https://support.apple.com/mail) (For personal and work) Mailchilmp (https://mailchimp.com/) (For newsletters) What's your planning process? How do you plan for the week or month ahead? Alexis layouts all her projects at the beginning of the year, each quarter and each month she reviews her goals and projects, she also performs monthly and weekly reviews. Each Sunday she plans her top 5 projects for the week and then her top 3 tasks for the next day. Do you use any analog/offline processes? Meditation in the morning Walking her dog Exercising at home Listen to audiobooks on Audible Changing her working space around her home Find Alexis: Website - here (http://www.strangecharmed.com) The Charmed Shop - here (http://www.thecharmedshop.com) YouTube - here (https://www.youtube.com/user/MissTrenchcoat) @misstrenchcoat - Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/misstrenchcoat/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/misstrenchcoat) The Productivity Alchemist Kickstarter Campaign - here (https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/68262-the-productivity-alchemist-doc) Special Guest: Alexis Giostra.
What sort of work do you do day-to-day? - A range of things, find out what Mike Schmitz works on [here (http://mikeschmitz.me)]. What is your daily to-do list tool? And why? - OmniFocus 2 (https://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus) (iOS/Mac) (For Personal Items) - Jira by Atlassian (https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira) (iOS/Android/Web) (For Team Tool) How do you go about taking notes? - Drafts (https://agiletortoise.com/drafts/) (iOS/Apple Watch) (For capture notes) (Runners) - NvALT (http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/)(Mac) (For quickly note-capture on Mac) - GoodNotes (http://www.goodnotesapp.com/) (iOS) (For sketch notes) - Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/6rstvn/goodnotes_5/): GoodNotes 5 rumours - Drafts (https://agiletortoise.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202187234-Use-Siri-to-Create-Drafts): How Siri and Drafts work What do you use when it comes to organising your calendar? - BusyCal 3 (https://www.busymac.com/) (Mac/iOS) (Week views, no natural language) - Fantastical 2 (https://flexibits.com/fantastical) (Mac/iOS) (For Mac, uses the menu bar + iOS full time) Do you use a certain tool for tracking projects? - Jira by Atlassian (https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira) (iOS/Android/Web) (Uses SCRUM method) - OmniFocus 2 (https://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus) (iOS/Mac) (For Personal projects) - Asana (https://asana.com) (iOS/Android/Web) (For family goals/planning goals) What hardware do you use for work? (phone, laptop, pc) - 15-inch MacBook Pro (https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/goto/macbook_pro/15_inch) (late 2017) with Touch Bar - iPhone X (https://www.apple.com/uk/iphone-x/) - iPad 10.5inch Pro (https://www.apple.com/uk/ipad-pro/) (with Apple Pencil) - OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock (https://www.owcdigital.com/products/thunderbolt-3-dock) - Shure Beta 87 A Microphone (https://www.shure.co.uk/products/microphones/beta_87a) - Heil PR 40 (https://www.amazon.com/PR-40-Dynamic-Studio-Recording-Microphone/dp/B000SOYOTQ) Microphone What are your 3 favoured apps for getting the work done? - Logic Pro X (https://www.apple.com/uk/logic-pro/) - SoundSoap 5 (http://www.antarestech.com/product/soundsoap-5/): (For cleaning audio files) - ScreenFlow (https://www.telestream.net/screenflow/): (Screen-recording technology) - Ulysses (https://ulyssesapp.com/): (Beautiful, markdown editor for writing) - Blog (https://ulyssesapp.com/blog/2017/08/ulysses-switches-to-subscription/): Ulysses Premium announcement: - SetApp (https://setapp.com/): The netflix for app subscriptions What are your team communication tools? - HipChat by Atlassian (https://www.atlassian.com/software/hipchat) (Used alongside Jira and Confluence) - Slack (http://slack.com) (More for communities) - Zoom US (https://zoom.us): Video Conferencing Tool (We used this for the recording) - Shush (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/shush-microphone-manager/id496437906?mt=12): Mutes background noise (perfect for cafes + home offices) What app do you use for handling emails? - Escape your Email (http://www.asianefficiency.com/announcements/escape-your-email/) (Asian Efficiency) - MailMate (https://freron.com/) (Mac): (integrates with most productivity apps) - 6.3 Hours inside of Email (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/check-work-email-hours-survey_us_55ddd168e4b0a40aa3ace672) (Huffington Post source) - Dispatch (http://www.dispatchapp.net/) (iOS): (Email Manager) How do you plan? How do you plan for the week or month ahead? - 12 Week Year (https://12weekyear.com/) (For both personal/professional) - Calendar + to-do list app planning — around 12 Week Year Any of other notable apps you do like to mention that you use to get things done? - MindNode (mindnode.com) (For mind mapping, book notes, brainstorming) - Tapes (https://usetapes.com/) (Mac) (Records like CloudApp, screen recording demo) Do you use any analog/offline processes? - Baron Fig (https://www.baronfig.com/pages/confidant) Notebook Confidant - Morning Pages (https://medium.com/the-mission/3-pages-every-morning-why-i-started-a-daily-ritual-and-how-i-stuck-with-it-b19f7c659fd7) (For morning approach to journal) - Rhodia Notebook (https://rhodiapads.com/) (Quality of pages are good for sketching) Find Mike - @BobbleheadJoe — here (https://twitter.com/BobbleheadJoe) - Website — here (http://mikeschmitz.me/) - Asian Efficiency Blog — here (http://www.asianefficiency.com/) - The Productivity Show — here (www.asianefficiency.com/podcast/) Special Guest: Mike Schmitz.