I talk a good bit about various digital tools on here, like my recent post about Pipedrive. At times I probably play with tools more than I should (testing tools instead of doing work), but in a lot of cases it can really pay off.
For example, I posted 12 years ago about Gmail’s “Send & Archive” feature, which I estimated saved me around four minutes per day. If that’s accurate, it’s saved me nearly 300 hours at this point. 300 hours for a silly little email feature? Sign me up!
Seth Godin had a recent post about finding the right digital tools for your job. He summed it up with this:
There’s probably a better digital tool for the thing you’re trying to do next online. It might be worth a few cycles to ask and discover and learn.
Beyond just finding great tools to help with your work (and here is my current list), there are things you can do to pick up little bits of time here and there.
Learning to type faster is a big one that would help a lot of folks, as would the related skill of learning keyboard shortcuts. If you see someone just flying through their work (like we often see with Ashlea), it’s not because their mouse is moving quickly, but usually that their mouse isn’t being used at all.
It really ties back to knowing that you don’t know everything, and being actively open-minded to trying new tools. Chasing shiny new tools can be a time-wasting rabbit trail at times, for sure, but often can pay nice dividends.
