How to organize your smartphone storage for efficiency and fun – 2
In the first post in this series, we cared about managing pictures and videos on your mobile device. Although storage on our devices is getting bigger but so does the data that we create or receive. So being organized helps to keep storage under control. Lesser data eases everything, like finding things on your phone, the performance of your device, the backup process, and stress on your mind.
In this post, I will talk about text messages.
Businesses still use SMS to provide important notifications and OTPs. Most people tend to retain all these messages forever. Some crafty marketing guys find some legal or illegal way to reach out to you. People helplessly watch those messages piling into their devices.
If you are part of chatty messaging groups, you see 100s of messages on a small trigger (You know this, if you use WhatsApp!)
One of my friends said that he agreed that this is all clutter but he did not find cleaning it worth his time. Point taken! So here is a strategy to keep the clutter away and without creating a new job for you. This is how it works.
- Once you open a message
- Delete it right away, if it is useless (ex. unwanted marketing messages)
- Read it and after reading if you are sure that you don’t need it, delete it (ex. OTP, bank transaction notification, etc.).
- Read it and if you think that you might need the message later, STAR the message (most Apps provide this feature)
- Sometimes you get many messages from a single source and you could read all and delete them in bulk. That is when the starred messages will be skipped from deleting. (Note: You get a check box asking to delete even starred message, never check that box. That is our safety catch.)
- Once you realize that a starred message is no more required, you first UNSTAR it and then delete it as per the usual procedure.
This process does not add any major overhead as you do that while staying in the App and in the context. But it helps you to keep your device clutter-free. (As of writing, in my SMS app, I have just one starred message! That’s all!).
Endnote: In the initial days, take a little extra time to decide before deleting. You don’t want to get into trouble by deleting something very important.
(featured image: Photo by Roman Pohorecki from Pexels)
Why E-books are good for you?
How to Convert your Goals to Actions using Mind Maps
We are always striving to attain a few goals, some professional and some personal. The secret behind achieving a seemingly big goal is to start dividing it into doable actions. This old adage exemplifies the spirit – How to eat an elephant; of course one bite at a time. So, now the question is how do I break down a goal into doable actions. That is where we need brainstorming — alone or with a team.
The outcome of a brainstorming session is a list of actions and the success of a brainstorming session depends on how creatively we come up with those actions. One of the ways to facilitate this creative thinking and capturing those action ideas is by drawing a mind map, a technique popularized by Tony Buzan. A mind map essentially is a tree structure, at the root of which is your goal and the leaf nodes as your finest doable actions, as worked out during your brainstorming.
FreeMind is a computer App that helps to draw mind maps digitally. Although a mind map can be drawn with a pen and paper, a digital tool will always be a better choice with obvious benefits:
- As you brainstorm, you frequently change the order of nodes, introduce a new higher-level node, or group some nodes together. All this works very well in a digital tool like FreeMind. You could move around nodes simply by drag and drop.
- Sometimes, you may have slightly longer text and to keep your diagram compact you may want to make it a multi-line text.
- You may fold other nodes around when you are focusing on one node. A simple click allows you to fold all the child nodes into a parent node.
- You could save a mind map in a file with a .mm extension. A mind map can be exported as a picture to share with others who do not have FreeMind App or into an Open Office Writer document (.odt extension) to view in a text form but in a hierarchy.
- You could always search for some text in your mind map.
- You might find it useful to embed hyperlinks to web pages or documents on your computer, in your mind map nodes.
FreeMind is user-friendly, powerful, free of cost, and runs on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS. This is where you download it. There is also a Mobile app for you to view mind maps on mobile phones. Try it out!
One of the lessons from David J. Schwartz’s classic book, The Magic of Thinking Big is “Action cures fear”. Fears are part of life, but the way to deal with them is to find actions to cure them. Mind maps should be your preferred tool to discover the actions that could cure your fear?
Stay Current with Google Alerts
We like to stay current on various topics of our interest by keeping a tab on web sources. Google Alerts is a free tool that could help us with it. Google Alerts, in its own words, “monitors the web for interesting new content”. Don’t worry if someone tells you that Google Alerts is meant only for marketers.
Let’s say, I want to know about Machine Learning content, as soon as someone publishes it. I would configure an alert for Machine Learning. Google will then start sending me emails regularly with links to Machine learning, from the latest content from news, blogs, websites, Google books, etc.
It is very easy to configure. You need to provide the search words with the usual Google search syntax. You could additionally provide, language, region, quantity (How many), and frequency (How often) options, although the best strategy is to leave the default settings. As you make these settings Google Alerts generates a preview dynamically. If you think the results are too few, you may like to set “how many” to “All Results”. You could create as many alerts as you want. Read more about creating alerts here.
A life hack to process a long-winding email with alerts is to do it in two steps. The first step will be to simply skim through all the links and identify the content which might be worth “reading later” and “save” them to Instapaper. The second step will be to read them in Instapaper when you have the suitable time & energy level to do so. Of course, don’t forget to bookmark the good ones into your browser for future reference. A side benefit is to come to know about informative websites, related to our topics of interest to follow them up systematically.
There should be no dearth of creativity in creating your alerts. It is equivalent to doing your favorite search every day, automatically for you. You could create alerts for topics, companies, authors, thinkers, or even your own name.
How to NOT miss reading good content
Imagine this: you glance at your mobile device and discover a flood of notifications. Among them are LinkedIn notifications. Swiftly sifting through them, you pause at a post containing a link to a lengthy and intriguing article. However, your original intention was to simply clear the notification, and now you find yourself unable to dedicate the time to read those ten pages and return to your notifications. In such situations, it is common to promise yourself that you will revisit it later. Unfortunately, when leisure time eventually presents itself, we often forget what we had planned to read, resulting in missed opportunities to consume valuable content. It’s easy to understand the significance of reading a compelling article or the disappointment of missing out on one.
The same scenario unfolds with the constant influx of content we receive via email from friends and colleagues, newsletters, and various social media platforms. Moreover, once you begin reading an article, you’ll notice that almost every piece of online content is laden with hyperlinks leading to other related material. Consequently, it becomes overwhelming to keep track of all the cross-referenced content.
This is where “Read Later” apps come into play, aiding in the management of your reading material. Two popular apps in this category are Instapaper and Pocket. While both apps offer similar features, I personally prefer using Instapaper. Here’s how Instapaper works:
First, install Instapaper on all your mobile devices that you use for reading. Whenever you come across a webpage you wish to read later, simply “SHARE” it to Instapaper. On computers, you can visit the Instapaper page (https://www.instapaper.com/u) and use the “Add Link” option in the top menu. To make the process even more convenient, you can install the Instapaper Chrome extension. Once installed, you need only click on the Instapaper extension icon in the Chrome address bar to save an article for reading later. Regardless of the device on which you save an article, it will be accessible on all your other devices as long as you are logged into the same account.
In some cases, certain social media apps have their own in-app readers that load articles within the app instead of the browser. Even in such instances, you can share the article to Instapaper using the share menu. Alternatively, you can open the article in your browser and then save it to Instapaper.
When you finally find a longer window of time for reading, open the Instapaper app on your mobile device or visit the Instapaper homepage in the Chrome browser on your computer. There, you can peruse all the articles you have collected from all your devices. Instapaper’s own reader provides a pleasant reading experience by eliminating distracting banners around and within the article, presenting a linear format for easy consumption. However, if you prefer the same vibrant experience while reading, you can also open the article in the browser through Instapaper.
One of the most interesting features is the weekly summary of top content. 1. It helps you stay on top of what’s trending among readers. 2. And occasionally, you get access to articles that are usually behind a paywall.
Additionally, Instapaper offers a “Speak” function, enabling you to listen to the saved articles if you prefer audio consumption.
After reading an article, it is advisable to delete it from Instapaper to declutter your reading list. In certain cases, you may choose to bookmark the article in your browser for future reference.
Adopting this habit not only enhances your reading organization but also boosts your productivity by splitting your workflow into two tasks: 1) scanning your inputs and saving articles for later reading, and 2) dedicating a focused time slot with minimal distractions to read the articles. You can utilize small time slots throughout your day to clear your inputs and reserve longer, uninterrupted periods for reading.
The Morning Routine Blueprint: Steps to Design Your Perfect Start to the Day
Do you know how Jeff Bezos starts his day? Well, I don’t know. Frankly, I don’t care also. All of us have different body clocks and different profiles, no one knows you better than yourself, and so you are the best judge of when and how you start your day. I know you are wondering, where this is leading to. Hold! I am coming to the point. I want to talk about rituals at your desk, at start of your day and those matter to you:
The first step in your morning routine should be to check your calendar to get an idea of your schedule and commitments for the day. This would clarify the time slots that are taken and the ones that are available to work on other important tasks, flexibly.
Next, do your daily routines, which may include tasks such as charging your devices, reading the news, or checking your favorite comic strip. It’s essential to maintain a list of these daily routines to ensure that you don’t forget any.
The next step is to scan all your sources of work, including emails, chat messages, phone calls, and meeting notes. Check that all commitments are added to your to-do list. It’s crucial to maintain a list of all your sources of work to avoid missing anything.
Review your list of weekly routines, which includes activities that you do on a particular day of the week, such as writing a progress report or ordering groceries. Similarly, review your list of monthly routines, which includes less frequent activities that you do on a particular day of the month. Add any relevant routines to your to-do list for the day.
Next, review your list of other routines, such as cleaning up files on your cloud storage or organizing your workspace. Finally, prepare your day-specific to-do list based on the information you’ve gathered.
It’s crucial to keep a written inventory of all these routines and lists to avoid relying on your memory. Choose a spreadsheet, document, or notebook to make a precise checklist of all the categories mentioned above. This morning routine will help clarify your work scope, ensure continuity in your work, and free your mind from anxiety about missing something important.
In conclusion, although our body clocks may differ, we all have the same limited short-term memory that cannot to entrusted to remember our work. The above morning routine aims at protecting you from that serious handicap which is the common cause of an unproductive and stressful day.
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