Dear Reader,
After a short foray into personal finance in the last Letter, we are back to our usual programming! Today, I want to talk technology with you.
Gadgets, they are so tempting, so alluring. Like magpies, so many of us are so enthralled with the latest gadget and are in awe at how technology evolves and what is possible today which wasn’t yesterday (don’t worry, I haven’t just discovered the Thesaurus this week, I just felt like being a bit dramatic for effect).
Truth is, technology can absolutely change the game for us. Many advancements have indeed changed it, and completely transformed what a life well lived means to all of us. However, it’s important to remember that technology cannot do everything on its own, and there is still a reliance on us knowing how to pilot it properly.
And that is the hardest part: knowing how to harness the power of technology to extract the value we need out of it. Knowing how to use it in a way that drives a genuine difference is easier said than done.
Productivity is a wonderful example of that fact. We all want to be more productive, to get more done in less time and many of us will believe it is all about finding the right app. If we aren’t productive, it’s not our fault, it’s because we haven’t found the right app to steer us. It’s technology’s fault. And there are SO MANY productivity apps out there, and even more videos comparing all the different productivity apps, that we could be forgiven to be fooled into thinking it is all about the tool.
Ultimately, if you have a block of marble, a hammer, and a chisel, but do nothing with it, you still have a block of marble, a hammer, and a chisel. Unless and until you get in the picture and make use of what you have, status quo will prevail.
The painful truth is: others can be more productive with post-it notes than you will ever be with the fanciest app the world has ever coded.
Productivity is not won by choosing the right tool, but by choosing the right system, and the right habits and behaviours. After all, none of Da Vinci, Einstein, or Shakespeare had the latest productivity app, and this did not get in their way of leaving a mark in this world. Tools are an enabler, but the game is won or lost on the system.
Systems are a huge topic, and a really exciting one, and one I’ll probably revisit in the future in more depth. For now, just bear in mind that someone that has the right processes will out-produce you day in, day out, regardless of how fancy your apps are. The fanciness of apps is almost a moot point.
My own tech stack
And to prove the point I am trying to make, I’m going to share with you my own tech stack, and how I run my entire life. If you are interested in how they operate together, hit me up, and I could well do a follow-up on this!
Calendar: Google Calendar
Knowledge base & brainstorming & resources & creating: OneNote
Task management & prioritisation: TickTick
The secret weapon & everything app: WhatsApp
Yes, you read that right. Not only am I not on Obsidian or Notion, but on good old trusty OneNote to manage my life, the most powerful tool of my tech stack is WhatsApp, the App sponsoring us wasting time every single day.
On WhatsApp, I have 3 pinned group chats, and from those, I make sure I never forget anything, and don’t let anything bother me for any longer than it has to.
Thoughts to Self: a general braindump of thoughts for articles (like this one), articles I want to read, or recommendations from friends. If I have something I don’t want to forget, it goes there
Hit List: actual tasks that need to be done. I put them here before they go into TickTick simply because it’s more expedient and WhatsApp is very often opened and requires less input than TickTick does. If I am on the go and think of something that needs doing, it comes here.
House Tasks: like the above, but this one is shared with my wife. We both put tasks for ourselves or each other and key reminders such as a bill going up or restaurants we’d like to try
Those 3 groups are at the core of my life and make sure I don’t forget about something, no matter how long it has been since it landed in there. Whatsapp doesn’t have much functionality, but it gives me all I need for that particular use case: send messages and delete messages (for when something is done). That’s all I need.
Believe me, I spent a ridiculous amount of time over the past 5 years chasing the perfect app. And when I thought I found it, I spent a week setting it up, only to abandon it 3 months later because it was too onerous, and repeated the cycle more times than I care to admit (TickTick is the exception to that, because it’s just that brilliant for my particular needs).
What I am telling you here is that the tool is secondary. I am telling you that WhatsApp can be superior to Todoist, Asana, Trello, Google Tasks, Outlook Tasks.
What I am telling you is you obsessing about tools is absolutely the wrong way to go about becoming more productive and more successful. Tools are well… tools. Nothing more, nothing less. Your behaviours will have a far greater impact than any tool you use. Sadly, we like to talk about tools and obsess about them as they are safety and comfort blankets.
It’s a lot easier to say “xyz tool is useless” than say “I am doing this wrong”. Unfortunately, the latter statement is far more likely to be right.
If you want to improve, don’t think tools
Real improvement comes from within. It comes from reviewing how you are currently performing, what routines you have in place, what mental models you use, and what processes, documented or not, you use and be critical of them all and ask yourself: How could I do better? instead of asking “Which tool can I outsource my frustrations to?”
If I can be productive with WhatsApp, imagine how productive you could be if you shifted your attention to where it really matters!