Episode 8
It’s not me, it’s you: Breaking up with your tech stack
Over the years, I’ve tested way too many productivity tools in the name of "getting organized"—and spoiler alert: half of them made my life more complicated, not easier. So in this episode, I’m officially calling it quits with the tools that just aren’t cutting it anymore. I’ll share what I’m ditching, why less is more when it comes to your tech stack, and the handful of tools I’m actually keeping. If you’ve ever found yourself switching between three different to-do list apps in a single month (guilty!), this one’s for you.
In This Episode:
✅ Why having too many tools can actually hurt your productivity
✅ The project management and to-do list apps I think you should let go
✅ How to streamline your tech stack without losing functionality
✅ The tools I am keeping and why they made the cut
✅ A quick challenge to audit your own digital clutter
Resources for This Episode:
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Helpful Links:
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- My Favorite Tools
- Instagram (@mirandamerten)
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Music credit: Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/the-pop
Transcript
Welcome to Holistic Productivity with Miranda Merton, the podcast for Gen X women that blends nostalgic 90s vibes with modern strategies to help you create solid routines, align your goals, and simplify your life.
Speaker A:Get ready to make productivity personal, practical, and oh so powerful.
Speaker A:Over the last couple years, I've been thinking about how how I do business and how I move through life, and it's really caused me to streamline not only my tools and my apps, but pretty much everything that I've been doing.
Speaker A:I'm not going to go minimalist per se, but I definitely am going more essential.
Speaker A:So let's talk about the productivity tools that I'm officially leaving behind.
Speaker A:The types of tools and maybe in some cases specific tools and what I'm going to replace them with, or more what I am just keeping going forward because sometimes simpler is really better.
Speaker A:We live in a world where there's literally an app for everything.
Speaker A:If you need to track your water, there's an app you want to plan your whole agenda for the day, there's an app for that.
Speaker A:And a few months ago, I was trying to find just one app to do a number of different things for me really well.
Speaker A:And unsurprisingly, I couldn't really find one that really fit the bill.
Speaker A:I was looking for an app that I could track my habits, track my to do lists, do my entire agenda for the day and a few other things.
Speaker A:And it really was frustrating because I ended up settling for stuff that I didn't really want or I didn't really like how they worked for me.
Speaker A:You have to download like 10, 10 to 12 different apps or tools.
Speaker A:But here's the thing.
Speaker A:When you're using 12 different tools to stay organized, are you really organized or are you just more overwhelmed?
Speaker A:So before we get into the specific tools that I'm saying goodbye to, let's talk about why this even matters.
Speaker A:The paradox of choice tells us that too many options actually makes us less productive, and we waste time deciding which tools to use instead of just getting things done.
Speaker A:And sometimes fewer choices will give you more clarity and more peace of mind.
Speaker A:So that's what we want to get to.
Speaker A:And if you have ever switched between three different to do list apps in a single month, then you know what I mean.
Speaker A:And I'll give you an example.
Speaker A:At the beginning of this year, I really wanted to find a great app that could do all of those things really well as far as a to do list manager goes and a life manager goals.
Speaker A:And there aren't a shortage of to do apps in the App Store.
Speaker A:I can promise you that I downloaded over 20 of them trying to find a really good one.
Speaker A:And you would think that after trying so many apps I would have a hard time deciding between which one was the best and deciding among a handful that were like so good I couldn't pick one, but it was actually the opposite for me.
Speaker A:I couldn't find one that I loved in over 20 apps.
Speaker A:And the problem was that in order to decide if they worked for me, I had to add my to do lists and my projects over and over again to make sure I tried out the features and got a feel for how they worked and saw if they had the features that I wanted.
Speaker A:Which was super frustrating.
Speaker A:And not only frustrating, but it was also a waste of time having to keep adding my same projects over and over again, my same to do lists and checklists over and over again so I can see how these app apps work.
Speaker A:And at the end of the day, unless you build an app yourself, it's never going to have exactly what you need and how you need it to work.
Speaker A:So ultimately what you have to do is decide on your must haves and then move on.
Speaker A:What's going to be the most important, what's going to keep the ball moving as far as your productivity is concerned?
Speaker A:And if you're stuck in the land of trying everything under the sun and trying to find that one needle in the haystack that's going to be perfect, or if you just have analysis paralysis when it comes to deciding on the tools that you want to use or the tools you want to get rid of, then this is the moment to make a decision.
Speaker A:All right, so let's get into it.
Speaker A: y tools that I am ditching in: Speaker A:So first of all, let's talk about the over complicated project management tool.
Speaker A:I love a good system as you all know.
Speaker A:But when your project management tool takes longer for you to maintain and understand than your actual projects, that's a problem.
Speaker A:And this is especially a problem when you have team members that don't know how to use the darn thing properly.
Speaker A:If you are using something like notion, I want you to stick to simple dashboards that anyone can understand.
Speaker A:If you bring in new people, they are immediately going to be able to use it.
Speaker A:And resist the urge to download the those massive templates.
Speaker A:You might see that you basically have to take a masterclass in order to customize them.
Speaker A:Especially if you're not Really a complete master in understanding your project management tool, because you're going to download the templates and you're not really going to understand how it works and it's never going to look the way that you thought it was going to look.
Speaker A:For me, I do use Notion.
Speaker A:I've got notion boards that are easy to use and if anyone I hire down the line, I know they'll be able to look at it and jump in right away and take over.
Speaker A:Secondly, the complicated to do list app.
Speaker A:Of all the apps I tried earlier this year, I can say that I did finally find one that I am loving right now.
Speaker A:It's simple enough to use and to understand right away.
Speaker A:The esthetic and the UI are very pleasant for me to look at.
Speaker A:It's what I was looking for.
Speaker A:And I know that you guys will understand sometimes an app works, but you just don't like how it looks.
Speaker A:And I find that I do that a lot.
Speaker A:I will find some apps and I'm like, this kind of does what it does, but I really don't like how the UX looks or how the UI looks because I.
Speaker A:I want to like what I'm looking at.
Speaker A:I don't know if that's just me or if it is a thing that other people deal with, but that is also part of my problem.
Speaker A:So the one I'm using right now, it has the features I need and I like how it looks.
Speaker A:If you're interested to know which one that is, it's called Task Flow and I'll drop a link for you down in the show.
Speaker A:Notes number three, the habit trackers.
Speaker A:If you have habit trackers that you are forgetting to use all the time, get rid of it.
Speaker A:I have tried habit trackers as well.
Speaker A:I've tried streaks, habitica, fancy ones.
Speaker A:I tried bullet journaling a long time ago back in the day, which obviously take too long, unless you're super into bullet journaling.
Speaker A:And of course I even have trackers available for you guys because I know you love them.
Speaker A:So if you have one of my Google tracker sheets or notion sheets, then of course you can keep using it.
Speaker A:If they work for you, then great.
Speaker A:But to be honest, habit trackers don't really motivate me.
Speaker A:If I need to drink more water, then I should probably just keep a giant water bottle on my desk.
Speaker A:And if I need to take more steps, then I should set a recurring alarm on my phone that reminds me to get up and stretch every few hours instead of forcing myself to track every little habit.
Speaker A:When I do that I notice that I actually get more stressed out because it feels like every single part of my day is planned out and if I forget a part then I'm stressing out about it and I don't like that.
Speaker A:So what I'm doing instead is focusing on working habits into my routines more naturally, similar to habit stacking, just do them alongside things that I naturally do throughout the day.
Speaker A:And for me it's less stressful than seeing all of those missed check marks at the end of the day or at the end of the week.
Speaker A:Okay, so those are the basics we're going to get rid of.
Speaker A:The over complicated project management tool, the complicated to do list app, and then any apps that you really aren't doing or not using, like habit trackers and things like that.
Speaker A:We don't need those unless they are actually a motivation for you.
Speaker A:All right, so let's get into the list of things that I think are worth keeping for your business and streamlining for your business and what you can do to possibly let go of for simplicity.
Speaker A:So before we get into the keep list, I want you to notice it does sound like I'm going to go through a lot of tools here, but once you set these up, they kind of run in the background of your business.
Speaker A:So even though it might sound like a lot, they actually all work in tandem and you're going to.
Speaker A:Once you set them up, most of them are kind of set.
Speaker A:It won't forget it, especially if you're setting up automations for these.
Speaker A:All right, so going along with the project management software, if you're using, if you have a business of any kind, especially if you have a team of any kind, you're probably going to need to keep your project management software.
Speaker A:But I want you to pick one and actually use it.
Speaker A:You're not going to bounce around between platforms.
Speaker A:They all do the same thing essentially.
Speaker A:But you just have to pick one again that feels best to you and you feel good using it and then just stick with it because it is a pain to migrate all of your projects and your tasks every six months or every year when you get the itch to switch it up because you're not quite sure if Asana or Trello or Notion or ClickUp is the one for you.
Speaker A:So once you've figured it out, just pick one and stick with it.
Speaker A:All right, the second one, your email marketing platform.
Speaker A:If you don't have an email marketing platform, you're going to need to get one.
Speaker A:Along with checking the features, you want to check the future pricing to anticipate when your audience size grows, some of them increase based on your customers, so you want to keep that in mind depending on your current audience size or list size and then how you foresee yourself growing in the future.
Speaker A:If you think you're going to stay more niche and small business, then that probably won't matter.
Speaker A:But if you're looking to collaborate with a lot of people and get on podcasts and use other people's lists to help you build your platform, then you're want to go to make sure that you keep an eye out on that pricing.
Speaker A:Currently I am using Kit, which is formerly Convertkit and I would also recommend Mailerlite or maybe even Beehive.
Speaker A:Flodesk is very pretty, but I don't usually recommend it to people just because it does have limited features and limited integrations.
Speaker A:There's a few ticks with Flow Desk that I just can't stand as far as features go.
Speaker A:All right, next up, your CRM.
Speaker A:And when I say CRM it's your Customer Relationship Manager.
Speaker A:So think like Dubsado Paper Bell Honeybook.
Speaker A:If you work with clients and do one on one work or contract work, you probably have a CRM or something similar.
Speaker A:Keep your contracts, your invoicing, your workflows all in place.
Speaker A:So you want to set up something that has a client onboarding to make it easier for you and your clients.
Speaker A:This is more important if you send invoices and contracts out specifically, you don't want to continue doing those manually all the time.
Speaker A:So you definitely want to look into something like Dubsado Paper Bell.
Speaker A:The next thing I would Recommend is an AI powered writing assistant like ChatGPT or Google Gemini or definitely if you have Grammarly on your computer you want to use something like that.
Speaker A:So this is great for brainstorming, drafting your initial drafts of your content.
Speaker A:ChatGPT is literally my best business bud now and personal bud for that matter.
Speaker A:I should name my chat pal because I talk to them all the time.
Speaker A:Anything from definitions, blog ideas, recipes and meal plannings y'all.
Speaker A:And travel planning.
Speaker A:So good for planning things and travel and things like that.
Speaker A:I even asked ChatGPT to help me find some new TV shows over the winter because I was bored and looking for something to watch based on what I liked and it did pretty well.
Speaker A:So another one that I want you to look into keeping your scheduling tools like Calendly or Tidy Cal if you do not have a CRM like Honeybook, which will include your scheduler.
Speaker A:So if you already have a Honeybook or paper bell or something.
Speaker A:You likely already have a scheduler attached to that, so you can keep that.
Speaker A:That's going to be one less tool that you need to do.
Speaker A:But if you don't have one of those CRMs, you definitely want to have a scheduling tool and you can link that to your calendar.
Speaker A:Instead of trying to go back and forth with people through email, you can just give them your schedule link and they can pick a time and you don't have to deal with it.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:It sends automatic emails and confirmations and attaches to your zoom and it just makes it super easy.
Speaker A:The next one is your digital payment processors like Stripe or PayPal.
Speaker A:Again, if you do not have a CRM, which will usually include your invoicing, then you need a payment processor of some sort.
Speaker A:I use Wave apps for my client invoicing, but most of you probably already have Stripe or PayPal, so you can use one of those because they do have invoicing and and they do have products on those as well.
Speaker A:Your next one is cloud storage and organization.
Speaker A:Many of you will already have something like Google Drive, Amazon S3 Notion.
Speaker A:You're going to want to keep that obviously to keep all of your docs and your files organized.
Speaker A:And lastly, something to do your automated workflows with.
Speaker A:So this would be your zapier or make make dot com.
Speaker A:If you have tools that are mentioned that do not work natively together, then you want to use zapier or make to connect them together.
Speaker A:And then once you know how to use them, they're super easy.
Speaker A:You just set up the automations and then they kind of run in the background.
Speaker A:If you're a small business, you can get very far on the free versions.
Speaker A:But once you start using more zaps and connections, then you'll probably want to subscribe to the monthly ones to make sure you do not run out of zaps.
Speaker A:And then it pauses your automations until the next month renews.
Speaker A:All right, and I'll throw in an honorable mention here.
Speaker A:I don't use it right now personally myself, but if I do decide to add more social media down the line, I will probably add manychat to my list.
Speaker A:I have set it up for multiple clients and it is a very useful app.
Speaker A:So if you are heavy into social media, you want to have something like ManyChat that can respond and send your links out automatically because you don't want to have to manually do that yourself.
Speaker A:All right, so let's talk about a few of the things you can let go because like I said you don't need to hang on to every little thing.
Speaker A:Number one, going back to all the social media.
Speaker A:If you are not batch scheduling your social media, you can get rid of all those tools like later and Plan.
Speaker A:I use Plan.
Speaker A:But if you don't need to use something like that, go ahead and get rid of it.
Speaker A:Especially if you're paying for it.
Speaker A:If you are only using specific social media like Facebook and Instagram, you can use Meta Business suite for free to plan your things in there.
Speaker A:And if you have Canva.
Speaker A:I forgot to mention Canva earlier, but that's a fantastic one to keep, especially if you're doing designing all of your graphics yourself.
Speaker A:If you have Canva, they do offer social media scheduling as well.
Speaker A:So you can create it in Canva and then also schedule it in Canva so you can get rid of the extra schedulers if you don't need them.
Speaker A:All right, the second one is multiple messaging platforms for your client communication.
Speaker A:We've got WhatsApp, Slack, Voxer, email DMs, and I hope people aren't texting you, but pick one to keep your sanity.
Speaker A:Tell your clients where you are and that you only use one.
Speaker A:They will go where you are.
Speaker A:This is going to be easier if you're picking up new clients.
Speaker A:If you have been communicating with older clients for a long time, they're probably not going to want to move.
Speaker A:You're probably setting your communication styles, but as you pick up new clients, you want to just pick one.
Speaker A:Say my business is in Slack or My business is in Voxer.
Speaker A:You can reach me here.
Speaker A:Here's my user.
Speaker A:They will follow you where you are.
Speaker A:Just tell them where to be.
Speaker A:All right, so you want to cut out some of those.
Speaker A:It just makes it super easy to just have one place where they can communicate with you.
Speaker A:All right, the next one.
Speaker A:Too many analytical tools.
Speaker A:You don't need like insane analytical tools.
Speaker A:If you have Google Analytics, hotjar, there's the social media tools have insights as well.
Speaker A:But if you are not actually deep diving into the data or using it how it should be used, you don't need it.
Speaker A:It's just giving you a bunch of data that looks cool and you know you probably only need a few major data points and they can all basically give you the basic ones.
Speaker A:So all you need to know is my following, my following and my engagement increasing or decreasing.
Speaker A:That's the basics, right?
Speaker A:If you need a little more, you'll know that specifically for your business.
Speaker A:But pick one out that gives you the gist of what you need, because if you're not answering to stockholders, you don't need any.
Speaker A:All these bunch of crazy numbers, they just confuse you.
Speaker A:And, and again, they're giving you more work to like, look at when you don't really need it.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A: ing you need to get rid of in: Speaker A:And when I say anything, I don't mean like every single thing has to be automatic.
Speaker A: But it is: Speaker A:Set them all up in one of the previous tools mentioned, like your CRM, your scheduler, and forget it.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Once you set up those automatic emails, once you set up your automatic contracts, it's going to be so much easier for you.
Speaker A:So get on the ball with getting those set up.
Speaker A:Now.
Speaker A:Here is your mini challenge for this week.
Speaker A:Take 10 minutes to do your productivity tool audit.
Speaker A:Especially if you are paying for a bunch of different things.
Speaker A:So if I rattled off a bunch of those tools and you realize that you are actually paying for a bunch of those, I want you to go through those and see what you can get rid of.
Speaker A:See what you're actually using.
Speaker A:Ask yourself, does this tool actually make my life easier or am I just using it because I think I should?
Speaker A:If you wouldn't miss it, then let it go.
Speaker A:You should also check out all of the features of the tools that you think you use the most and then see if they have any features that overlap.
Speaker A:Because I guarantee you some of these tools have things that overlap.
Speaker A:I mentioned before, the scheduling tools and the CRM tools, they're going to have overlapping things.
Speaker A:I have clients that use multiple tools because they just like how different things work.
Speaker A:But some of them do have overlapping features.
Speaker A:And if you are open to change or open to learning how all of your tools work, you might be able to consolidate some of them.
Speaker A:Okay, so that is it for today's episode.
Speaker A:Until next time, keep it simple, keep it fun, and keep it productive.
Speaker A:Next time on Holistic Productivity with maybe the problem isn't you.
Speaker A:Maybe it's the system that doesn't fit your personality.
Speaker A:Productivity isn't about forcing yourself into someone else's system.
Speaker A:It's about understanding how you work best and building around that.
Speaker A:If you hate strict schedules, why are you trying to time block every second of your day?
