Mobile Age : Creating Hot New Productivity Problems
A deep look into how unchecked growth of apps has invented new productivity challenges.
Just now, I got off an hour long phone call with my finace.
Soon enough, two of my friends pinged me on Google Hangout and Slack. Kashmira, via Hangout, wanted me to review an explainer video for her, and Anubhab, via Slack, wanted me to share the latest copy of the growth plan, which he actually has access to in Dropbox, but doesn’t know where to find.
Almost in no time, I shared the file on a Slack channel, made a note in Todoist about reviewing the video and created a followup action for Anubhab to review this very article in Trello.
Without even thinking about it, I just used multiple applications to get things done.
These apps give me superpowers. But they also give me information overload.
The traditional ways of applying GTD prove to be ineffective, as this guy, with balls of steel, pointed out in a GTD forum itself, and created a minor digital riot.
As the title points out, these problems, in their current form and magnitude, are new. They did not exist the same way even 3 years ago. But before I talk about them, let me mention how a many people bend softwares to their needs, or ‘Feature Hack’ the apps they use.
Feature Hacks
‘Feature Hack’ is usage of an app in a way it was not designed for, like using Calendar for task scheduling, instead of a traditional Todo list.
For example, Denise Hurd, responded to one of my questions at Google+ Productivity Forum.
“I keep my calendar sharp like +Jeff Causey and +Julie Wills but once a week during my weekly review I’ll turn on the view to my tasks so I see the true picture of what’s on my plate so I can adjust tasks to actually fit with the “hardscape”. I have a handful of apps with access to each other.
Feature Hacks are really intelligent, but they only get you so far. Denise Hurd is one of the rare smart users who can tweak the interplay between calendar and Todoist to fit her needs. But for most people, it is close to impossible to get more from their apps, by moving data around and seeing them in a new perspective.
3 Big Productivity Problems today
While doing our daily things, we sometimes feel overwhelmed, and more often than not, we overcome the feeling. That’s how life is. We accept it and move on. But if we stop by, and take a note, and wonder if this could have been done better, we can see through the cracks.
When I talk to people about how they work, they never tell me in exact words that these are the problems they face. So in many ways, these problems are based on my own experiences, interpretations, and of course, other people’s thoughts and comments, as quoted.
1. Lack of context awareness in emails, notes etc.
Mostly, information pertaining to any project tends to reside in multiple applications, and each object without its siblings becomes contextless.
The thread connecting them together is in my mind. Of course, I am not an idiot (or so I think !) so I can handle that thread. But when there are multiple such threads in my mind, my thinking starts to clog up. I need GTD to push that thread out.
But there is no inter-app GTD system invented yet.
Here is what Steve Daley says on Google+ Productivity Forum, in a related vein:
“I have experienced some friction in my capturing of reference materials. I’m a heavy user of Google Drive … reference materials … may include … : text from emails, pdfs and materials from others, content from websites, my own notes on the project.
The same problem gets translated heavily when you try to handle tasks within email. As email is still the prehistoric software, and we continue to abuse it for our changing needs, there is no obvious way to replace it, or make it play with shiny new applications.
2. Switching Apps is a Pain
Its very easy to see an explainer video, get impressed with an app and start using it. But deciding to use a new app, and abandoning something old is a scary proposition for many of us.
Many of us have what we call as our trusted system — a set of apps we use, some of which can talk to each other. Sometime, we do not want to tinker with that ‘Trusted System’ for fear of it disturbing our productivity. This leads to an eternal dilemma — whether I should keep using that great app which is becoming outdated, or should I take a leap of faith and start using this new Todo App that everyone is talking about. We get locked in our own systems, and breaking them seems, and perhaps is, extremely risky.
There is not easy way to abandon an app, without losing data
As Anita Neville pointed out in Google+ Productivity Forum
“ I am a GTD newbie and been using Evernote … I feel as though I am losing to dos and have been musing about +OmniFocus … the big question I am left with is about working with multiple platforms. Is there a disadvantage in the GTD system in using more than one app?
Think about the gravity of problem Anita faced. Losing todos, just because you have started using a new app, is scary. For many of us, this is reason enough to stick to older systems.
3. There are way too many apps that work really well for ‘just one thing’
Here is what Shay Shaked said in Google+ Productivity Forum about Evernote:
EN is far from great. … not the best note taking app, far from being the best writing experience, the tables in it are still terrible, and the reminders make a laughable to-do app. … But no app is a king in all of these categories.
I have a choice: I can use dedicated apps, and switch between them … ;or I can have one app which does everything, but in a minimal, often inefficient way. I’d argue the later.
So since there are various apps which may have better note taking, better reminders and better file handling, they just do not play well with each other. This means that Shay must keep using Evernote, even if it is inefficient for him.
To get more, many of us have to use multiple apps. And no matter what, with the SAAS wisdom of ‘doing one thing best’ and ‘finding a niche’, this trend will continue to become more ubiquitous. We will keep getting bombarded with newer, sexier and more specialized apps, which will be just too good to not try, and we might keep adding clutter to our information space.
So, what is the solution?
Well, nobody really knows. I think that we probably need a preconfigured combination of a few applications, with some ready IFTTT-like integrations, to just start getting on. Maybe an app for apps, which can keep context for the myriads of data streams it would get, and can translate data from one app to another, should we abandon one app.
Add a handy (but not overwhelming) reminder system to it, somewhat like what Shruti Gandhi points out here, it probably would be real gold.
But while this unicorn is yet to be found, let me go back to my Evernote and check whether my notes point to anything else I might want to add to this post, while responding to my cofounders on Slack and .. here my girlfriend calls again !!
