Anything But Idle
Apple Announces New Devices, Anything but Idle’s 100 Episode
Apple Announces New Devices, Anything but Idle’s 100 Episode and the Productivity News This Week
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In this Cast | Apple Announces New Devices, Anything but Idle’s 100 Episode
Dr. Frank Buck
Julie Bestry
Trevor Lohrbeer
Art Gelwicks
Francis Wade
Headlines & Show Notes | Apple Announces New Devices, Anything but Idle’s 100 Episode
Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.
How to Practice Self-Care as a Busy Entrepreneur
New Microsoft Defender preview now available for Windows Android and iOS
Microsoft Google and Mozilla to Work Together on Better Browsers
Clipchamp is Microsofts new video editing app for Windows 11
Onyx Boox improves PDF Rendering Speed
Business & Finance Segment
Productivity Resource of the Week
Peptoc – 707-998-8410 (Yep, an analog resource for motivation, as part of the idea of practicing self-care. It’s a phone hotline of sage, upbeat advice from kindergarteners.)
https://autoscreen.sourceforge.io/
Hihello.me
Featured Story of the Week
Apple Event March 8th and their new devices
Announcements
We’re posting our poll again to vote on the Top Female Productivity-Organization-Technology Experts for Women’s History Month
Other News
IKenna Method
https://ikenna.com/
Raw Text Transcript | Apple Announces New Devices, Anything but Idle’s 100 Episode
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Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:00
Hello personal productivity enthusiast and community Welcome to Anything But Idle the productivity news podcast. Today’s show is brought to you by co working space by personal productivity club. I’m Ray Sidney-Smith.
Augusto Pinaud 0:12
I’m Augusto Pinaud.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:14
And we’re your hosts for Anything But Idle. This is episode 100. For March 14 2022, Apple announces new devices, Anything But Idle turns 100 and the productivity news this week. Each week we review and discuss the productivity and related technology news headlines of the week. And this week, we have a whole bunch of friends on the podcast joining us today for the show and so bear with me while I get everybody up here and introduce them onto the stage. And so first and foremost, we have Frank Buck, Dr. Frank Buck is currently ranked number one in the time management category by global gurus top 30. Welcome to the show, Frank.
Frank Buck, EdD 0:55
Glad to be here guys.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:57
Next up we have Julie bestiary. She is a certified professional organizer, a productivity coach, and she’s in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and she’s the owner of best results organizing. Welcome on.
Julie Bestry 1:09
Thank you and congratulations.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:14
Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Trevor labia. He is the founder of day optimizer. It’s a time management Progressive Web App. And it helps you create daily plans that align with your priorities. Welcome on, Trevor,
Trevor Lohrbeer 1:28
thank you so much. Great to be here.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:30
And last but not least, and I know that Francis Wade is joining us a bit later. But last but not least, is art Gelwicks. He is a digital transformation coach. He’s a consultant. He’s a podcaster, and writer at Gelwicks. Tech. Welcome on to the show art.
Art Gelwicks 1:43
Thank you for having me. I love the fact that Julie’s 100 was on an index card. How suitable
Frank Buck, EdD 1:49
That’s right sheet of paper. Yeah.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:52
Well, we there are three out of four of us for ProductivityCast on the show. And I think Francis is going to round us out when we when we get there lots of lots of index card folks with us today. So what we’re going to try and do is try to herd cats on the podcast today and get through the news of the day. And if anybody wants to share any post it notes on screen, if anybody wants to share any anecdotes or anything like that about maybe when they were last on if you remember that even and we can kind of cover from there. But okay, so what is our first headline this week,
Augusto Pinaud 2:25
on the we have headlines today, I don’t know how to practice self care as a BC intrapreneur. And I love the topic of self care, mostly because that was something that I didn’t have. And that was something that I needed to learn the hard way. I grew up in an environment where self care was for the weak. So only the weak people, you know, do self care. And well, I massively burnout at some point because excess of self care or lack of self care. So it is a topic that is close to my heart and is a topic in which I believe that we need to learn not only to make that a priority, but to learn what are the activities that help self care, have them in written and this is where the index card helps so much. But not only have a random list of them have a random list, and really what they provide you because when you are on those exhausted moments, and you read, watch movie, listen to comics, or read a book, your brain is too tired to decide, oh, this in this order, this is what it’s going to produce me the better effect based on what you are aware I am. So I’m a big believer that it’s not only important to have that list of what are the activities you need to do for self care, but also what these activities give you back because when you are there, you are not going and that’s one of the things that article mentioned. And he talks about six types of sale care, the emotional, the practical, the physical, mental, social, and spiritual. My list is not divided on those six even that I can see that it is but incorporate this into your routine. Our automated or automated your life is part of this. outsource your stress. So if any of you is interested in stress, let me know I have plenty. Okay. Boundaries. I don’t do that really well. And then the finally is do it. Plan is good. But action is better.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 4:49
Yeah, so I would turn this over to the folks here. What do you do for self care and since there, those of you who are listening there, they’re more than just to Gousto and I on screen right now. So If you want to say something, just raise your hand and I can, I can then let you speak in, in an order so that we don’t have everybody talking over one another. But like, I’m curious, what do you do as folks who are steeped in the personal productivity space? What do you do in terms of self care? What What’s the one or two tips that you would give to folks? In that sense?
Frank Buck, EdD 5:18
Yeah, I’ll I’ll jump in one with physical and one with mental. I’m not a big one for you know, lifting heavy things over my head or anything like that. But I do try to walk on a regular basis, you know, get on the treadmill in front of a TV, a TV show that I wanted to watch anyway recorded, so that I’m you know, so that it’s enjoyable enough, I’ll actually do it, or getting out and walking the dog around the neighborhood. So that, you know, I know myself well enough to know that I will, I will do that on a regular basis. And then the the mental is just, yep. As being a productivity person having everything in the system, so that you’re not worried about what slipping through the cracks. And that every day, you just get up and work the system. And the next day, work the system. And just stick with it. For Julie,
Julie Bestry 6:17
so I would say the two main methods, and all of the methods mentioned in that article are fabulous. But for me, boundaries are huge. So so many of my clients feel like like everything in their life is bifurcated. They can’t pay attention, any one thing because they’ve got notifications going on, they’ve got kids, they’ve got spouses acting like kids, they’ve got their their co workers, everybody coming in and dividing up their attention. So for me, it’s a little bit easier because my space is my own. But I have set boundaries, both physical and sort sort of in terms of what I allow into my headspace. So for example, you guys know, I am not a morning person. So I send everything you know, and you’ll people will often get emails from me 3am, that’s fine. They know they’re not going to be calling me or getting any kind of response back at like, seven 8am. Also, in addition to boundaries, and it’s sort of a satellite of that, being able to say no, and being confident in saying no. So if somebody asks you to do something, no matter how awkward you feel, it is easier to say, no, but let me tell you who I think would do a great job, or no, but circle back to me in three months, rather than saying yes, and then letting somebody down at the last minute. So being able to confidently say no, it’s part of that boundaries. The other thing is walking. It’s like no matter how tense you are, when you feel like all of your limbs are going to sort of fly off in disparate directions. If I get outside and start walking, whatever is upsetting me, whatever is going on, in my head, I can talk through it as I walk through it. And 98% of the time, by the time I’ve made it all the way back in a circle, or sometimes several circles, back to my home. I am at peace with whatever decision I’ve made whatever I’ve had had to work through that stressing me out. So like crank, I’m not lifting, I’m not lifting a piano. But But I am constantly moving forward even that if that means pacing, if it’s raining outside pacing back and forth in my living room, because your body doesn’t know where you’re walking, it just knows that you’re moving and it’s getting oxygen inside and and keeping everything limber.
Art Gelwicks 8:53
That’s what I do. Yeah, I’ve got two rules that I follow. I follow redirect and disconnect. And redirect is in circumstances where I find I I’ve hit a route roadblock or stress point on a particular type of work I’m doing say it’s something creative. I’m creating something for Instagram, for example, and I just can’t get over that hurdle. I’ll redirect that creative effort into something else, but not that original thing. So maybe I’ll do some writing. Maybe I’ll work on some video editing something else that still is in that same space. That helps me alleviate the frustration, but also maintain that same process. So then I can circle back to the first one say okay, well, I can still actually do this. So I might as well go back and try that first one. The second part is disconnect. And just like we were talking about with the physical walking and things like I’m not a big exerciser, but I do like to have that physical disconnect. So I will go out say to my workshop and work in my workshop or I’ll work on my truck or something that requires a physical presence of location. tactile interaction, it requires a different sense, engagement allows me to disconnect from the box in front of me, and allow a whole different portion of my brain and my psyche and my energy levels to just work on their own. And a lot of times, like Julie says, amazing ideas come up when you are working completely disconnected from that first state of being. So as I said, I follow redirect, then disconnect.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 10:29
Wonderful, I’m, I am a runner. So I am the guy who enjoys the physical exertion to be able to both destress but also to find a clearer form of thinking, like I have most of my my self reflection time, my best ideas, all of those happen when I’m out on the road. And rarely, rarely, I will get a phone call during those timeframes. And I’m a long distance runner, so most of my runs are fairly long. So, you know, they get a little mundane, if, if, you know, you get into the 10 miles, and then 20 miles and so on and so forth. And at that point, a conversation with someone is, is, is possible and enjoyable. And so that can be very stress relieving for me, especially if, you know, you get toward you know, the half marathon mark, in terms of distance, and you might find yourself a little fatigued or feeling a little bit of pain, you know, being on the phone with a friend. And laughing is just a really great form of anesthetic. And, and so then it becomes a really nice way to to enjoy an experience. So for anyone who is, you know, of the fitness mindset, I think it’s really good to keep in mind that sometimes, you know, it can be fairly useful to to de stress in a physical way, and you don’t have to be running long distances, or biking or swimming or doing any of the crazy, you know, gym techniques that are out there from CrossFit to you know, hydroplaning or whatever you people are doing out there. You have to do all those things in order to just get your heart elevated, and and seeing the positive benefits of that. And so I also wanted to note for anyone who is joining us live, you can chat live, either on YouTube or, or our Facebook or otherwise. And we can see your chat. So Hi there, John. Hey, Pietro. So feel free to chat along while we are making our way through the episode. And feel free to ask questions, and you have a lot of great productivity intellect here. So take advantage of it while you’re here live in and on the show. All right. Okay, so anything else before?
Augusto Pinaud 12:33
Yeah, before we jump I since we have a luxury that we have so much productivity minds in here. I would love to get what is your favorite self care? Practice? Or what is it? Maybe not the favorite because that we should be? What is the one that you are one or two that you can give people? Because I think one of the difficulties with this is I come and say this is what it worked for me. And we mind is one of them is reading. But you may be on the on the place where reading that will never work. For me. I think the more you listen to what worked for others, or what others recommend, the better. You get to open that menu of ideas and have them hey, you know, I may try that and get Meridia. So if Frank and Julie and Trevor and art, don’t mind sharing a couple that will be awesome.
Trevor Lohrbeer 13:32
So I guess one of my key ones and I started this a couple of years ago is taking the weekends off, which is easy enough to say, but specifically, I schedule. I schedule Sunday as a non scheduled day as a free day. So I tend to do my chores on and catching up with stuff on Saturdays, and try to make Sunday like just kind of open day. So I’m like to let go of all the stress. And so I can just play. It’s like a play day, I create Sunday as a play day. So that’s one of the key things to do. The other thing I do do, like I walk every day, and I’m a big fan of the don’t break the chain. So I’ve got this whole app to help me not do that. But I have this rule that after five days, I’m a lot of cheat. And my app allows me to have a cheat day in it. And I don’t break the chain. And so the idea of having cheat days, and I’m a big fan of Tim Ferriss, so carb diet as well, which has the concept of Tuesdays. So cheat days, help give a release valve to any build up stress and help me then maintain my self care practices, because I don’t have to think about them. Oh, I have them every single day. But also if I don’t have that idea that I’m doing every single day, I then skip and then I skip and I skip so that never skip twice. Some people use that role, but I do I must do five days in a row before I’m allowed to cheat day. And then that allows me to have this rule stuff.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 15:01
By the way, Dr. Abraham Maslow wrote a book called habits. And that’s where the Don’t, don’t skip two days comes from that that phrase comes from that from that book, as far as I’m understanding, maybe somebody knows differently, but but he writes, he writes in the book, you know, you can, you can skip, you know, if you’re trying to develop a habit, you could skip, you know, a day, but don’t skip to it. It’s kind of how he says it in the book. And, and it’s in very, you know, old, you know, English.
Trevor Lohrbeer 15:27
Well. And the reason I developed the five day rule is, is if you take that rule, literally, you can do okay, do my habit, then I skip a day, I do my habit that skip day, right? So having the you have to do five days in a row before skipping is the second level to that that says, Okay, you have to gain some momentum before you’re allowed to skip.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 15:45
Yes. And and John is noting that, that don’t break the chain might work for him. And that actually comes from Jerry Seinfeld, remarkably. So while I’m, I’m okay with don’t break the chain philosophy. I’m a fan of Jerry Seinfeld. So as a fan of don’t break the chain. I’m a fan of Seinfeld. Anyone else, uh, Julie, go for it.
Julie Bestry 16:10
I don’t know that this will work for everyone. But my big issue that leads to my problems and leads to my needing self care is I get too into my head, I can’t stop thinking about things I’m, I’m good about standing still. But I’m not walking. And, and prioritizing, I’m good at focusing what I’m not good at are the quiet moments, because my head is never quiet. And so the key for me is to have somebody else’s words, something else going on, as my self care. So for me, that means I watch shows that just make me laugh. So I can watch TED lasso over and over. But my big thing these last few years, particularly during the pandemic is I’ve been on Duolingo learning Italian. So I have completed all but the imperfect, the subjunctive imperfect, I have completed everything in the Italian course, on that side, and my voice my voices in my head, were still not quiet. So I am now on the other side, learning English from Italian. And since I already know English, that’s some of that is a little bit easier. But it presupposes that Italian is your primary language. And so you’re learning it, the classes put together very differently from the Italian class. And just because I’m having to operate in another language, it’s forcing me to focus on the language, and not all the other voices. Oh, when am I going to get that done? Or what if this doesn’t work? Or what if they don’t laugh at my jokes, because I don’t have all of the vocabulary to think that in Italian yet. And that’s that’s very helpful.
Augusto Pinaud 18:06
No, that is an awesome idea. I came to this country 22 years ago, and I did not speak any, any English. What I did to learn was cartoons, and kids books. So I used to go to Barnes and Nobles and grab books from the kids section and read them with a dictionary. But there is a different you read a book design for a little kid, you know, two, three years old. The sentences are really simple. So you can start grabbing that. The other thing was watch TV, again, cartoons or Disney Channel, and put the closed captioning in there. Because then you could use to read that how their pronouns how they are written. And it helps and those Disney channels in general are basic enough to help. But I did not learn to find a course on how to learn Spanish from an English perspective that it will have been really, really interesting. That’s awesome.
Frank Buck, EdD 19:11
Yeah, that the closed caption that is wonderful. A friend of mine, Danny pre-sale, who is America’s leading reading Ambassador speaks all over the world and he said, you know, if you really want to do something to help your child with reading, turn on closed caption. Simple, simple. I’ll jump in looking back on my career, having a community of people that do what you do. You know, I was a band director. Well, you’re the only band director in your school the other people in that school can’t really relate to the problems you’re having and really help you with what you need help with. Another band director can that may be in the neighboring community it may be course these days it could be in another state it could be in another person. Country lighter. I’m a school administrator where you’re the only principal in that school. So when you got a principal type problem, you got nobody to turn to within that school. So you got to make an effort to find those people to find yourself a community, regardless of how far you have to go out geographically to do it. And it makes all the difference in the world.
Art Gelwicks 20:26
For me, it’s always been when I hear the first I want to throw a tip for Duolingo, I’m a drops fan myself. So just another app, I really like the way they do things. I find anything that has a rhythmic, rhythmic activity that requires focus without intellectualization. So running would fit into that category, other things like that, I actually do something that’s a little bizarre, anyone who’s ever seen a woodworker use a hand plane, which is a smoothing tool used to shave bits of wood off, right? It is just, it’s kind of like rowing a boat, it requires you to focus to get those little paper thin curls, but you really can’t think about anything else while you’re doing it because you make a mess out of it stutters So it’s that kind of rhythmic, repetitive, all of a sudden, 10 minutes have gone by 1520 25, you got a skinny board now, but all of a sudden, everything’s cleared out. So I really recommend to people find something that requires focus without intellectualization, gardening, you know, any anything like that.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 21:34
So, I’ll note that, for me, it’s reading, reading is hands down my favorite activity. And it’s, it’s more, it’s better than breathing, I’m breathing, I don’t like I just I really enjoy the, the experience of being with a book. And, and so yeah, it’s my, it’s my favorite activity, it’s the the way in which I start my day, it’s the way in which I end my days, and I find it to be the most engaging conversations outside of what I’m podcasting with all of you have in any given day. I it’s it’s like, you’re you’re in dialogue with someone, right, because the author is is is, you know, putting their best effort into it, you hope, right? If they’re, if they’re writing, well, they’re putting their best effort into communicating something to tell you most of my reading is is also nonfiction, although I have picked up in some of my book clubs, some some fiction pieces. And so I hold my nose and I read, but most of my reading is nonfiction. And so I feel like I’m in a true intellectual dialogue with that individual who’s writing, and it’s just incredibly stimulating to be the only person capable of responding. And so talk back, you can have whatever thoughts you want about what they’re what they’re saying in the book, and you get to have a level of intellectual rigor that I just find to be very therapeutic for me, because the rest of my day, I’m interacting with people, and, you know, my advice is, you know, potentially not going to work for them, or, you know, they, they change the model, because they feel like they need to do it differently than the way in which I’m explaining it, you know, all of those things are happening, which is human and natural, and so on, so forth. But with a book, there’s none of that they can’t tell you that what you just thought was, you know, not right, or you can tell them as much as you want. In the in the margins of a book. Or if you’re on a Kindle, you can highlight and write all of your comments. But there’s just no talk back. It’s like a dog. Dogs are wonderful creatures, because give them love, they give you love and affection back but they don’t ever talk back. That’s wonderful.
Julie Bestry 23:41
Ray, you make you make a good point. And there’s a there are different. There are different flavors of reading, reading, reading a book, even reading a long read from from a magazine printer or digital, very different from reading social media, which is having that that dopamine hit that that’s addicting you to to novelty over and over. I think so much of what we we read when we’re in the social media is conditioning us to read more social media and also to have difficulties reading, that, you know, that long form. So, you know, we’re used to getting, you know, we’re getting angry, or we’re agreeing or we’re doing something in these tiny bite sized reactions in social media. Whereas we almost get angry sometimes when we’re reading a long form book because it’s like, he’s still talking about the same thing, three paragraphs later. And then you realize, oh, and now I have depth and nuance to think about and then you know, whether you want to get angry and talk back to the book, or enjoy it, but investing yourself in whatever you read. You know, I think our brains work very differently. When we’re reading fiction versus nonfiction. We we You can forget what we think about what’s going on when we read fiction, because we are engrossed in, in an in a new world, whether that’s a science fiction world or historical world or just somebody else’s life. Whereas when we’re reading nonfiction, I think we’re we’re sort of reading each thing and seeing how each item reflects our experiences, whether they’re our personal experiences, our experiences that we know that our clients have said to us. So we get this rich tapestry from reading and the fact that you go, you know, I like you read mostly nonfiction, but when I do read fiction, I find that it’s much more memorable. It’s like you, you guys have heard me say it’s sticky. It’s like, because these these characters are like, other human beings. And so during the pandemic, I read much more fiction, because I was missing that connection with humanity. And so these are, these are great ways for us to do move that self care forward. Because when we’re only in our own heads, you know, we, we sort of get stuck there. But when we encounter fictional people, we’re taking along on their rides, and it’s kind of like going and listening to a friend complain about his or her problems. It’s such a relief, to have a release from from your own
Raymond Sidney-Smith 26:32
issues. So yep. Frank, you wanted to say something?
Frank Buck, EdD 26:36
Yeah, raise digital, as you are, I was just wondering, when you read, is it usually paper is it usually digital?
Raymond Sidney-Smith 26:44
Yes, it’s a mixture of based on the material that I’m reading. So for example, I, I’m a heavy newspaper reader, I actually don’t particularly like reading the news in other formats nowadays. So I’m trying to read in that long form single source space, where you know, you’ve paid someone to have deep knowledge, or at least deep critical thinking, to do that thinking for you, so that you can then reflect upon it. So that will be usually on a tablet, you know, like an iPad, where I’m reading in the news organizations application. And then if I am in the reading space, then it’s, it’s a mix I have, I have 1000s, of books, and physically, and then of course, I have probably equally 1000s of books digitally. So it just depends on what I happen to be reading when. And what I found myself doing is actually taking photographs of pages, as I’m, you know, writing notes on books, and actually capturing those into Evernote so that I have a single source where all of those notes are, I haven’t done backmatter Because, you know, there’s probably 1000s of books that are backmatter in that sense. But going forward about, I don’t know, 15 years ago, or so I started, you know, photographing, generally what I was annotating in the books, and that allowed me to centralize into a single space. So it’s, it’s definitely a mixture. And you know, if I get a book out of the library that’s on on digital, then I’m going to do it digitally. If I get it out physically, then I’m going to get it out physically. But many times if I like a book, and I’m going to reread it, then I’m going to I’m going to have the physical, you know, harder or soft back. And I’m going to have that in hand. And I do I will say I still enjoy a physical book more than the digital. But I’ve gotten very comfortable with the digital reading now that I didn’t once upon a time, and I think it’s about foreign factor, like I got a I got the Kindle cover, that’s, you know, it’s very comfy to hold, you know, those kinds of things, it just makes it a little, you know, like, I like the ability of holding a book and you feeling the weight of the book, you know, kind of like resting there in your hands and reading. And so having the Kindle kind of have that same rough weight was really important for me to be able to have that that same experience that I wasn’t having before.
Augusto Pinaud 28:55
Good luck. That’s interesting. No, no digital completely for me. And actually, there are many books that I’ve received in paper that I go on buying digital, I can highlight it and have them all all there. I think I’ve been doing digital, since the times of the peanut press. We’re talking about maybe 2000 2001 when they were in really expensive. And before even the Kindle, the first Kindle came out. There is something I carry a book or two with me most of my younger years. So when I was finally able to carry the whole library, and the dictionaries and all that in that little device, I was really, really excited actually. December this year, this past December, I was looking into all papers and find a gold sheet from the 90s. And I was reading that and say, someday I want to have a library like the father of a friend of mine I was reading that and I was sitting here in my office I’m looking around, say, Oh, well, I don’t have that many books. And suddenly it hits me. Well, I opened my Kindle collection. I may have may not be there yet, but I’m getting pretty close. And that was really, really excited for me. It’s great.
Trevor Lohrbeer 30:22
Before Trevor, just gonna jump in and say like, it was like, maybe five, six years ago, I was there like, I have all these books. And you know, now I live in two different countries is annoying to have lots of paper books. So I actually sent them all off to get scanned, except for like a handful of books that were really special. So like, because it was cheaper for me to scan the books than to rebuy everything as Kindles. So, like, I took this huge library and just shipped it off and have it all scanned. So now everything, except for a couple special books are digital.
Frank Buck, EdD 30:56
Great, guys, I’ve got some family things to attend to. So I’m gonna have to bail out with this one, but I’m gonna watch the replay. This is good conversation. And I hate to have to hate I have to say good evening, but no worries,
Raymond Sidney-Smith 31:08
no worries. But thanks for joining us for part of the show, you know, drop in drop out. I understand that. So thanks for joining and helping us celebrate 100 episodes.
Frank Buck, EdD 31:16
Yes, and maybe here’s to 100 more.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 31:20
If anybody wants to keep up to date with what Dr. Buck is doing out there in the world, you can find him at Frank buck.org. And so thanks for joining us, Frank.
Frank Buck, EdD 31:27
All right.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 31:30
Have a good evening. I’ll put I’ll put links to everybody in the in the, in the show notes so everyone can can find you later. And so Okay, so are we done with our first act we are. Alright, so with that, everybody, we’re going to take a quick break for word from our sponsor today. And then we will be back after the break for the rest of our news. We’re gonna actually talk about news at some point during this show, but we’ll be back after the break in a minute.
Sponsor Voice Over 31:55
Now working in person may be normal for you. It’s unlikely your co workers are as interested in being productive as you are, or working remotely or from home can be isolating and there’s something powerful about being with productive people, even virtually that helps you be more engaged. If a flavor of these sounds familiar, co working space by personal productivity club is for you. co working space is a virtual work community designed to help members be more effective and efficient in their work and personal lives. At its core. We provide goal tracking and host focused action sessions throughout the week for accountability and camaraderie, visit anything but idle.com forward slash co working to learn more CO working space lives inside personal productivity club, a digital community for personal productivity enthusiast so you can find people who use methods and tools you do to, again, head over to anything but idle.com forward slash co working to see how co working space can help you be more productive. And now back to our show.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 33:05
Welcome back everybody to Anything But Idle. I’m Ray Sidney-Smith joined with acoustic pinout Julie bestiary art Gelwicks, Trevor labia, and maybe at some point, Francis Wade will join us for the back end of this show. But we’re going to get actually into the for our 100th episode, we are going to talk about some news. And we’re gonna talk about some of the technology related news this week, you so what’s our first story this week in tech vote
Augusto Pinaud 33:29
brave, is trying to dethrone Microsoft Teams and Google meet. And it was interesting that the article didn’t mention soon, but brave if you don’t know what Brave is brave is another browser or that’s how they start based on the Chromium concept. And now they have you know, multiple things. They have crypto, they have a news, they have come with a lot of products on their their Bray brand. And the next thing is a product. The premium version is around $7. And what they are trying to do is to get into the business and help businesses to stop using Microsoft Teams and or Google meat. I don’t know many business who use brave us their main thing even that their product offering is pretty robust. You know, VPN firewall, crypto wallets, newsa. Greater search engine, still, are they there? I don’t know.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 34:33
I can answer that. No. It’s a pretty easy one. They have a very small share of the of the browser market space. I think they’re it’s great to have a an option, right? Like this is really wonderful, especially for privacy. Folks who really want high levels of privacy when they’re browsing. They’re going to get a more you know, secure environment, not secure but more private environment by virtue of Using brave if they if they really wanted to, I like the innovation here. And I think this will inform both Firefox and Mozilla Foundation’s project. And it’ll probably inform the Chromium project, you know, backwards toward what Google Chrome is doing, what Microsoft Edge is, is doing, and so on and so forth. For those, you know, who don’t know, I’m one of the Google Chrome product experts. So I spent time volunteering in the Google Chrome, you know, Community Help Forums, helping folks out with Chrome issues. And so, you know, the reality is, is that you see some of these issues paying paying forward in terms of productivity, because you see the benefits of, you know, of folks who are using some of these more innovative products like Vivaldi, and Opera and otherwise, and, you know, they see what they’re doing out there. And then they, they help inform the Chromium project, build out some of those security features going forward. So I’m all for them doing these things. I don’t see this taking over, you know, like, what is it Jitsi? Right, like, which is the eight by eight product, you know, like, look at all of these free, open tools that are that are open source and great. I mean, it’s fantastic that Jitsi gives that capability. But you think that’s going to take over zoom or take over Google meat? Absolutely not. It’s just, it’s just not kicked into the ecosystem, certainly not going to take over Microsoft Teams, because of its enterprise. You know, it’s an embedded enterprise tool there. So I don’t see it, I don’t see as being anything other than cute, it’s cute to see them doing these kinds of things. And I love them for doing it. You know, that’s, that’s great. Anybody else have any other thoughts?
Art Gelwicks 36:35
I agree, it’s good to see an option, but from a business space. Yeah, the only place you’re gonna see this is on one of the test machines in the IT department. While some long hair long beards going, I want this and I won’t lie next Linux, on the desktop, you know, you’re gonna have that kind of thing. So
Trevor Lohrbeer 36:54
yeah, I would just say that, like, in my experience, Google meat is a pretty bad experience. Like I’m almost completely on Zoom. And every time I have to use Google me, I’m just like, Oh, God, I got to do that, again. Because it’s just so bad, and so brave, and say, oh, yeah, we’re gonna try to take over Google meat, I’m like, you’re working all the way at the bottom. You’re not gonna just never gonna get there.
Julie Bestry 37:17
From from that kind of experience, I don’t know if any of you have tried butter. But it’s, it’s another, you know, Zoom meat, you know, in that, and, and it’s not perfect, but I, you know, I found it on on Product Hunt, and try and tried it, I don’t know, like a year ago for the first time. And each iteration of it is better. And it’s, it’s cute. It’s not very businesslike. So it makes, you know, if you want, if you want to invite like grandma to something, you know, if so, you know, from, from the, I mean, it’s designed for a more Gen Z, business experience that’s more laid back less less corporate feeling, you get like these little cartoons, to cartoon avatars of yourself that are sort of 3d, they kind of look like the Fisher Price little people from the 70s. Me It’s, it’s got charm. The problem is the term almost never be, it’s where the big money and and, and the big attention is. So you got big money in something like, You know what Microsoft does, but nobody likes, you know, you know, like, yeah, teams and meat and all of these big things other than zoom, nobody seems to really enjoy a lot of the video experiences.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 38:49
Prescriptive though, Julie, like I, you know, like, I don’t have much of a problem, I don’t have as much of a problem with Google meat as Trevor does. Except for that I sometimes find the quality of the video to not be as good as as zoom, which is why I’ve just chosen zoom as my primary video product. I think part of it is that it’s prescriptive.
Julie Bestry 39:07
And I think the, my trouble is more with the audio than the video. So that’s interesting. So what I’ve done, I’m in a mastermind group. And what I’ve done every so many months, is said okay, instead of doing this kind of call, let’s let’s play in this sandbox. And I went through and when when I pulled up butter that was one where they were like, This is really neat that the sharing felt more intuitive. Everything about it felt low stakes and low stress. But like somebody had put a lot of thought into making it easy for for somebody new to use it. So if you were familiar with, you know, Skype or zoom or zoom or any of these things. It was so intuitive, that you felt more at ease playing with it, rather than just sticking with with You know, the steps that you knew how to do. So my concern is, you know, I want, I want more playing in all of these realms. You know, I remember many years ago, I mean, probably 20 years ago, I used a browser. Ray, my might remember what it was called, but it was, it was a German browser with a taxi cab theme. It was, it was this quirky sort of browser when everybody else was, was, you know, still using, you know, the mainstream ones. And it had all sorts of features that made it fun to use. And I think sometimes we don’t want to have that much fun at work, I don’t know. But I like the experimentation of the little guys. But I worry that, you know, it makes me sad. Sometimes I feel guilty if I’m not using their stuff, because I think they need me to keep up their their user base. And so I think it’s one of those things where we need a balance of little guys, even if they’re never going to become the big guys sort of like sometimes you want to stop shop at the big box store. And other times, it’s really nice to spend your Saturday afternoon going in and out of all of the little shops downtown. So I think as a place for all of these experiences, there’s just not necessarily money for all of these experiences.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 41:34
Yeah, look at the browser, but cammino comes to mind, but it’s not camino. I don’t know what it is. Well, you know, I
Art Gelwicks 41:41
was gonna say looking at butter. Yeah, it it. I hate to use the term. It’s adorable.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 41:47
As somebody put a link to that in the chat, because when I searched butter, I got a BTS video
Art Gelwicks 41:52
on us, yeah, butter.us. And it is it is very, you’re right, it is very Gen Z feel to it. And that’s the only thing that concerns me not that it is that it’s that businesses, unfortunately, from the top down will say, Oh, we want something to be hip, and with the times, and also, we’re gonna make everybody use this. And all of a sudden, it feels like forced fun. This is a perfect example of a product in a space that I think is approaching it the right way. But to get your people to use it, it actually has to come from the ground up, it can’t be something that’s pushed from the top down. Because as we all have seen forced fun in a business environment is the worst possible thing you can do to people. But it does look, it looks really neat. I I’m gonna play with it myself.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 42:45
I’m also Michelle Williams, I believe it is she had made a recommendation a few weeks ago for us for an application called volley. And and we have been utilizing volley both of Gousto. And I have been utilizing volley internally, just to kind of check it out and see what it’s all about. And it has been a I just feel like it’s been a really interesting experience. And something that I want to continue using, like I really feel the the, the way in which they’ve created the the platform has just been video first video forward, but it still gives you text and audio, it actually speeds up the video, if you wanted to put a little click on the little Rabbit icon, and it speeds up the video. So you know, you’re in an asynchronous communication mode. It’s it’s got a lot of really, really good features. And so I’ve been really pleased with it. And actually, for all the moderators for personal productivity club, I was thinking, well, we could actually use volley as a mechanism for being able to interact and engage. And so I’m just, you know, thinking out loud, but yeah, volley is also a really, really great app. I’m looking forward to playing around with butter, and I’m glad to know that it’s not a BTS video. So
Art Gelwicks 43:55
no, it would have more fans then.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 43:57
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, that’s why I’m sure that’s why it came up at the top of my Google search.
Augusto Pinaud 44:04
I was going to mention volley two, because it’s been quite interesting, especially when you want to send information and get the response, but the response is not critical. That said, it is you know, like any a synchronous communication. Interesting to change the dynamic, because there are things like I’m seeing this, I really want the feedback. So the shorter the message, the more effective barley is, but it’s been a really interesting thing to use.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 44:35
Justin. All right, on to our next story this weekend, we still
Augusto Pinaud 44:39
so our next story is Microsoft defender is previewing in Windows, Android and iOS. They’re saying the Mac will come soon. So Microsoft is making noise again into the antivirus and stuff. So with their defender app, what is interesting to me is it’s they’re coming with Windows, Android, and iOS with the idea of help protect your family data and devices against threats and malware and phishing attacks. And, you know, for your elders, this may be a great solution. Right now, it’s only available in English and in United States, but but it’s a good application.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 45:30
Yeah, I’m skeptical of the need for people to be putting any antivirus software on their systems that are not built by the operating system itself. So that’s just personally me, you know, you think of the need for antivirus means that it has has to have very low level control over your system. And I don’t know about you, but every patch Tuesday, when Microsoft puts out there, you know, umpteen patches to their to their systems, I don’t particularly think Microsoft has a control on security of their own operating system and their own products. It feels a bit Whack a Mole. And, and I and I believe this of Google, and I believe that’s Apple as well, Apple just has a much, much better job at controlling the narrative than Google does. Google’s concept of controlling the narrative is, it’s a bit of an anathema right there. Let it happen, and hope to hope that somebody doesn’t notice. Microsoft is a little bit more controlled about it. But you know, generally, it is what it is. But I just think that by by putting more applications on a system, you’re just increasing surface for someone to attack. And so Windows Defender doesn’t necessarily to me, especially on iOS, doesn’t seem to be more protection to me, I don’t know. But you know, that’s, that’s, that’s how I see it. And in terms of Android, there are some really good, you know, antivirus softwares, for Android, if you really feel like you are being targeted. Otherwise, keep your systems up to date, keep your applications up to date, and don’t click on links that you don’t know. Right, and that means about 90% of your links, right, just click on anything. And you’ll be fine. But you know, beyond that, then use common sense and a little bit of skepticism, as you approach you know, the outside world. And I think I don’t think I don’t really think it’s necessary to have this kind of kind of software on your systems. I I feel like it’s a little bit more more dangerous to have it on than not, that’s just my my kind of two cents of it.
Augusto Pinaud 47:32
I’m going to skip my opinions keep my opinion about Microsoft products. And
Raymond Sidney-Smith 47:36
no, no, no, but if anybody has any has any has any opinions other than mine, then I’m happy to hear those opinions other than a Gu says,
Art Gelwicks 47:43
No, I agree. You’re just asking for trouble with most of the other ones. It’s it’s more aggravation than it’s worth. There’s negative system impact and things like that we’ve gotten to a point where the third party add ons really aren’t necessary. The operating systems are basically taking care of what what they need to take care of. And the updates are coming when they need to. It doesn’t count when an operating system breaks itself. It’s other people breaking it. That’s the bigger issue. So
Raymond Sidney-Smith 48:11
totally, totally understandable. Okay, so I think we have time for one more story before we get into the back matter of the show.
Augusto Pinaud 48:17
Well, Microsoft, Google and Mozilla are trying to work together for better browsers and the world’s biggest browser developers and are trying to join the force to make a better browser capability as an effort call inter Rob 2022. So Microsoft, Google, Apple and Mozilla and a couple more are trying to see how they can make, you know, browsers to work better. And this is exciting news, because this is a battle that it come from the Netscape days, okay, the Internet Explorer date, who is making a better or a Boers browser instead of how can we collaborate to really have better browsers period, not mine better than yours, yours better than mine. This is something exciting.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 49:16
I think anything, you know, just like with matter, or any of the other cross platform collaborations among the big tech, more so than solidifying their position in the market, I believe that it actually helps smaller players in the market have a standard by which they can operate. And even if that means I need to adhere to, you know, Google apple, and who’s the other one Amazon’s, you know, standards as a relates to matter so that my IoT devices can connect to the system? I don’t mind that as much, as long as I’m allowed to be at the table. Right. I want to see that the table and I think that a lot of developers and a lot of companies are left out when there are all of these, you know, piecemeal standards. And so you know, While the web is the open web, and you can do anything you want with the protocols we’ve we’ve written for the web, it’s really important for everybody to come together and really choose some ways in which we’re moving forward, Trevor.
Trevor Lohrbeer 50:12
Um, so I was pulling up the actual thing, and it doesn’t feel like that is that big of a noose as it sounds like, because it’s a follow on the last thing, and the details there, what they’re really doing. So we already have specs on how browsers should be interoperating. But different browsers have implemented them in different ways. And so it looks like a lot of this seems to be like, either, like, we’re gonna make minor things to the spec or when to improve how the specs were interpreted. But when I’m looking at this thing, it’s like color spaces and viewport measurements. For me as a developer, I love this. But for the general user, I don’t think this is big news. Because they did they did what was it compat 2021. Last year, they don’t interrupt this year, we’ve been doing this for 2030 years now, like this has been a constant thing of their standards, and browsers go for passing standards and those standardized, I don’t see this as being any different other than, hey, we want to try to align some base level stuff here, before we move to the next level of in compatibility.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 51:13
Yeah, my only thought in whenever we look at this is that they are continuing to at least talk, right? Because that’s the worst thing that happens when these companies decide to go their own way. Think about Amazon with their mesh network. I forget what it what it was called, but it connected to the, to the various, you know, devices. And you know, by going their own way, it creates all of these silos whereby the other companies then go, Okay, well, if you’re going your own way, then we’re gonna on backchannel make you look bad in the media, and that kind of thing. And then it kills good technology. I’m just glad that they’re still talking, like,
Trevor Lohrbeer 51:47
yeah, I just saw a developer I’ve seen, ie 11. Once it has been out of the picture, it has dramatically fixed the landscape edge. Now using chromium as the base, basically, like they are tweaking around the edges, I can tell you because I have to test on all the different browsers. But there really isn’t this dramatic difference that there was back when we had I and everyone else. And you basically, we will just say like, you can’t use this on AI, or if we have to build for AI, we can’t build all these other features. So yeah, now we’re basically in a world where we’re tweaking at the edges. So this is sweeping at the edges.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 52:22
So I don’t want to throw us off too much. But Francis Wade has joined us So hi, Francis, how’s it going?
Francis Wade 52:28
It’s going well, great to be with you guys again,
Raymond Sidney-Smith 52:31
yes, happy 100th episode to us. And so we’re, we’re gonna, we’re gonna move on from tech stories just because we have limited time here. And there are many of us. And so let’s get into our, we just have, I think one or two business and finance segment items. So you just want to cover those quickly. And then we’ll head into our productivity resources this week.
Augusto Pinaud 52:54
There’s one and on the business and finance and it is no Santa, in course, on a queue for loss, and, you know, do some expansion and all that. But we have bring the point to try to bring, you know, more and more of this near so this is may not be a great one, but they lost 25 cent per share.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 53:17
Yeah, but I think I think, you know, again, this requires someone with a better background in finance, but the overall story to this while the headline sounds negative, it’s actually not it’s, it’s, you know, it’s very reasonable that the headline would would show this loss, but I think the underlying, you know, finances for Asana are very good and very stable. It’s just, you know, you know, if it bleeds, it leads, so they have to, they have to make it sound, you know, onerous, but it you know, or not owners, but um, you know, bad but, you know, the reality is, is that it’s it, Asana is going to be fine. So, alright, I’m actually not going to bring our tools up on the screen this week, just for, you know, stability of the call and audio and everything else like that. So I’m just, we’re just going to talk it out. But either way, every week, Augusto and I scour the interwebs, for the various news. And we’re gonna have a lot of extra news in the extra story section of the show notes. So when podcast comes out, and those of you who are listening to the podcast, check out the extra stories in the show notes, because there are a lot of them that we couldn’t cover today. But, yeah, we come across a lot of productivity resources we’d like to share. And so this is productivity resources of the week where we get a chance to share those with you. And so I, I’m going to start with mine, and then we can go down the line and everybody can share theirs. And and so my first resource is an application called thread it and this is actually a brand new area 120 project. So for those of you who are unaware, Google has a project they have a section of the company called area 120, where they go ahead and release these kinds of beta Tools? Well, thread it is actually a kind of like volley almost in the way in which you can do short video recordings, in order to share work that you’re doing. And you can then send it to your, you know, team, to a group of people, and they can then themselves respond back. So think about something like your, you know, your colleague says, You know what, something’s going wrong with me and outlook. And so they do a little screencast talking over the issue, they show you the problem, they then send that thread it to you, you see it, and then you asynchronously record back have a video clip showing how to actually correctly do it and say, oh, sorry, that’s a, you know, a little bit of a user error, and they go on with their day. Julie?
Julie Bestry 55:46
Is it kind of like what you see on tick tock when one person performs and then somebody else overlays their performance on the first is it is the entire first video does does it remain intact? When the second person responds?
Raymond Sidney-Smith 56:05
Yes, in a way it does. This is much more connected to your email. And there’s like all kinds of pieces that are kind of built into threaded. So so it’s like, yeah, volley is a little bit more like what you’re talking about, where you have one video after the next video, and they’re kind of stitched together. And you can see them one after the other and, and, you know, that kind of thing. Whereas with threaded, it’s a little bit more, like, a little bit more enterprising, right. And I don’t know if that’s the right way to, to describe it. But it is just helpful to be able to record a quick, you know, video and send it to somebody and dissimilar to say loom. This one is in a conversation, right? So the thread it is about the actual, hence threaded, it’s like you’re threading the conversation together. Whereas with Luma, they’re just independent videos. So they’re somewhat disconnected from one another. And so it makes for it makes for a way for you to have cohesive conversations just asynchronously.
Augusto Pinaud 57:04
And I think that’s one of the big things that differentiate Reddit with volley is that they are, at least on the books on the marketing, you know, do it from that perspective, you know, from Hey, we’re going to do it, you’re going to be able to define who can see it, who cannot see it in the same way. You do a Google document. So it’s trying to to bring from that confidential information coin.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 57:30
Register, what is your productivity resource this week.
Augusto Pinaud 57:33
So mine is telegram. Why? Because we have been doing 100 episodes of this show that we can document in a private telegram that you and I have. And we have never talked about telegram in this show. So that is the ship the product, I’m going to talk telegram is a message or message platform that you can do videos, you can do audio, you can do so many things. With security, it works on any device, including the web, it is fantastic. And it is what we use on this show to communicate internally between Ray and I all the time. So I was in shock as I was looking application. What we have not talked about telegram so here it is. Telegram is the App of the Week.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 58:25
Now I’m really surprised we haven’t talked about telegram because literally we use it every day all day long. It’s it’s pretty much the core part of what allows us to make make this show happen. And and yeah, it’s a really, really flexible and dynamic application. I’m really pleased with it. And, you know, and it keeps it keeps autocrats at bay. So that’s also a good part of it all. So all right.
Francis Wade 58:53
Montana, Graham, can you can you record a video and do a threaded type of discussion? Instagram? Yes. But on telegram?
Raymond Sidney-Smith 59:01
Yeah. So you have actually the ability to to record short videos. And they’re like, they’re in little circles. And you cannot share your screen in the same way. You could say with a volley or loom or even Vimeo record Vimeo records, Chrome extension allows you to share your screen and record with a video on top of it. And so you can’t do that. But if you go into a live streaming mode, say in a channel or in a group, you can share your screen in that live stream environment and and then also have video as well. So there are parts of the application where that’s possible. And I believe that there are parts where it’s not. And again, the applications updating all the time. So you know, I could be saying that and I just haven’t noticed the feature. But my understanding is that in a private chat, one to one, chat, I’m not able to share my screen with you. In that same sense in a live call say if a guru and I jumped on a live call. We can both video and share our screens in that live call one to one but it’s not being recorded. not to turn this into a telegram tutorial onto our next resource. Julie, I think you had a resource you wanted to share. That was a bit a bit analog.
Julie Bestry 1:00:09
It is so but it but it actually fits with what we were talking about in the a blog about self care. So imagine that you’re going to dial a phone number, which I’ll give you in a second. And you hear if you’re feeling mad, frustrated or nervous, plus, press one. If you need words of encouragement, in life advice, press two. If you need a pep talk from kindergarteners, press three. If you need to hear kids laughing with delight, press four, for encouragement in Spanish, press five. Well, if you dial 707-998-8410, you get all of those options. And I have cycled through all of them and then passed the different numbers on two different ones of my clients. Because when we’re talking about self care, different we talked about different things work for different people. Child children’s laughter, or advice from a five year old, or a little kid saying you can do it is amazingly freeing in a way that advice from your spouse or your therapist or your boss is not. And I have like I said, I’ve cycled through all of these. And I would strongly recommend when you’re having not waiting until you’re having a bad day. Do it now so that you’ll remember it when you are having a bad day and go back and listen, I get it 707-998-8410 And it’s pep talk, PP, to see kind of taki I guess is the way they they were. They were thinking of it. And it came out last week, I guess I guess. Yep, just like maybe nine days ago. And they have just had an amazing response to people calling it just these kids out of school, put this together with their teachers. And it’s delightful, and it’s great for your self care.
Raymond Sidney-Smith 1:02:17
Fantastic. I can only imagine that Twilio is underpinning some of that. So congrats to the Twilio team. Joking, even though it could possibly be totally Oh, underpinning it, I don’t know. Does anybody else have any resources they want to share, you don’t have to but you know, if you want to feel free to to go for it, art and then Trevor
Art Gelwicks 1:02:38
modwen minds a quick one. Since we’re all about trying to make things easier. I’ve started using a tool as of late called Hi, hello. It’s Hi, hello Dagny. And it is a replacement for business cards. Now if you go through Instagram or anything, you will see hundreds of these things listed and bracelets and everything else. This is one of the few that I found one is free up front, which is nice for its basic and implementati
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