'Digital workspace' refers to the virtual applications and sevrices that you use to get your work done. While employees and students may not have a ton of control over their physical workspaces, they do have quite a bit over their digital ones. Just like physical workplaces, organisation and fixed systems can help boost one's efficiency in doing work with digital tools.

Importance of Digital Workspaces

<ul><li>Cal Newport is a professor and researcher that writes about productivity and living a more fulfilling lifestyle. </li><li>In his books Deep Work and Digital Minimalism, Cal criticizes the increasing digitization of Workspaces and the rise of attention hogging services like Social Media.</li><li>He recommends certain strategies to limit the interference of these services into our lives</li></ul>

Digital Minimalism and Deep Work

<ul><li>Step 1: Write down your core responsibilities and general work use </li><li>Step 2: Is this the best way to fulfill these tasks? Is there a better alternative? </li><li>Step 3: When you come across a new app, ask yourself: </li><li>Who was this app made for and what is a unique feature it offers?</li><li>Is this additional feature(s) compelling enough for me to migrate my present system there?</li></ul>

How to choose the right digital tools to use

Notion is an all in one workspace that can be tailored for individual uses. In the article the author uses Notion for:<ul><li>Task Management</li><li>Homepage</li><li>Notes</li></ul>Notion is available at: https://www.notion.so/

Notion

Super Productivity is an app that allows you to track time spent on tasks and also doubles as a Pomodoro Timer.It's available at: https://super-productivity.com/

To Do List and Pomodoro Timer

A list of tools to get the most out of your day<UL><LI>Post author</LI></UL><figure><img width="800" height="1113" src="https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/blog-cover-2.png?w=966" alt="" srcset="https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/blog-cover-2.png 966w, https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/blog-cover-2.png?w=108 108w, https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/blog-cover-2.png?w=216 216w, https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/blog-cover-2.png?w=768 768w"></figure>It’s almost been a year since the pandemic started and we’ve gone through various stages of lockdown since then. Apart from learning how to cook for and clean after ourselves, most people have also developed deeper skills when it comes to being productive and completing tasks. The simplicity and autonomy offered in one’s own home helps them plan and execute tasks with relative ease. However, as workplaces open back up and people are once again summoned to their assigned places of productivity – this comfortable autonomy may cease to be. However, even when one’s physical surroundings are taken out of one’s control, there is one environment that you still control – your digital world. With most workspaces and classrooms moving online, the influx of documents, messages and applications have increased dramatically. At times this can result in cluttered home screens, unorganized files, lost information, reduced system performance and stress. Organizing and optimizing your digital space is one of the most important steps that you can take in order to minimize these pains, further the apps and services you use to do your day to day tasks can also impact your productivity.In this post I’ll share my steps for deciding how to best use my laptop, and then I’ll go through my laptop and showing you the apps I use frequently to structure my work and help me stay productive, while best optimizing them to ensure their effectiveness and efficiency.(I’ll mention all links at the end of this post)My processCal Newport is an author, podcaster and college professor that studies and writes about productivity and productive habits. In his seminal book ‘Deep Work’ he criticizes the increasing digitization of workspaces in the name of productivity, like employees being forced to use Instant messaging apps to communicate, etc. The point I draw from this is that in the current day, people are optimizing their workflows and habits to facilitate their technology use, instead of vice versa. With the growing number of ‘productivity’ tools and apps that are available today, and the subsequent endorsement of these apps by the creators that work within the ‘productivity’ genre like Thomas Frank and Ali Abdal, it often gets confusing and overwhelming for the average person that is receiving these messages. I remember before creating and implementing my system of selection and use, I used to constantly question whether not using a particular tool is hindering my productivity. This often led to me downloading, learning and then subsequently trying to somehow squeeze certain tools into my life, even if they weren’t helping me in the long run. In an effort to be more productive, I was being less efficient.I developed the following system to select the tools I use; the process may take a while to nail down, but it’ll be worth it in the long run.<UL><LI>Step 1: Write down your core responsibilities and general work use</LI></UL>Ask yourself what you need to get done on an average day of work/school? how do your devices help you fulfill these tasks? Do you use any special apps for these tasks?<UL><LI>Step 2: Is this the best way to fulfill these tasks? Is there a better alternative?</LI></UL>For example, if you’re using one app to take notes, another to share these with your friends/colleagues for comments, and then a third to combine both of these into one file, then that’s probably not the best practice for your productivity. Although specialized apps and tools may give a wider range of features for one specific task, do you really need to use all those features on an average day? The best way I find to answer these questions is by thinking along the lines of, ‘If the developer decides to charge money for this service tomorrow, would I be willing to pay for it?’Do your research and figure out whether there is some app that can do all of these functions (and maybe even more) so that you don’t waste time switching apps, save storage space, and make your life easier, for the example taken above – Google docs would work perfectly, and another option with more features would be Notion.<UL><LI>Step 3: When you come across a new app, ask yourself the following:</LI><LI>Who is this app intended for?</LI><LI>What does this app offer that my current apps don’t?</LI><LI>Is this additional feature(s) compelling enough for me to migrate my present system there?</LI><LI>Will I have to change any other parts of my system because of this new tool? How long would that take?</LI></UL>A similar system is defined by Cal Newport in his book ‘Digital Minimalism’, however that applies to most other digital services too. To read more about that, go here.Now let’s look at my laptopMy LaptopI am a law student (which means I have a lot of research and typing based work), that has an interest in Graphic Design and Self-improvement (Which means I have a lot of reading and note taking related tasks).So, my core responsibilities and use cases are:<UL><LI>Typing notes from classes, and from research articles, news articles, etc, and organizing them in a systematic manner.</LI><LI>Setting tasks and maintain a schedule to meet deadlines properly.</LI><LI>Work deeply without procrastinating and burning out.</LI><LI>Browsing the internet while minimizing distractions.</LI><LI>Designing posters and graphics for my blog and other uses.</LI></UL>in order to best fulfill my requirements, I use the following applications on a daily basis for the following purposes:<figure><img src="https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image.png?w=602" alt="" srcset="https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image.png 602w, https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image.png?w=150 150w, https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image.png?w=300 300w" width="360" height="202"></figure>Notion (Note Taking and more) Notion is an all-in-one workspace tool that is great for taking notes and other text-based work. I use Notion as a college notebook, journal, reading list and much more. I also use its calendar to make to do lists and organize tasks.<figure><img src="https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-1.png?w=602" alt="" srcset="https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-1.png 602w, https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-1.png?w=150 150w, https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-1.png?w=300 300w" width="360" height="202"></figure>Super Productivity (To-Do list and Pomodoro Timer) The Pomodoro technique is a time management system that recommends you to divide your tasks into work and rest sessions in the ratio of 2:1 respectively. i.e., you could study for 40 minutes at a stretch and then take a 20-minute break. Of course, the exact times can be changed according to those most suited for you.Super Productivity acts as a to-do list with a built-in customizable Pomodoro timer. The application lets you schedule tasks and reminds you to take a break every 1 session. It also has tools to help you minimize&nbsp; procrastination.Firefox (browser) I use the Firefox browser over Google Chrome because Google Chrome causes power drain and sluggish system performance. Firefox also has offshoots like Pocket and Lockwise that make it a more wholistic package as opposed to Chrome.<figure><img src="https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-2.png?w=191" alt="" srcset="https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-2.png 191w, https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-2.png?w=58 58w" width="151" height="393"></figure>E-mail Apps I deleted the built-in Window’s email app after Linus from Linus Tech Tips said, “Why would you want an app for something you can use from your browser?” and so far, I have not found any objection to the thought even though they may exist. I have two main email accounts – Outlook which I use for work and professional commitments&nbsp; and the other, Gmail, which I use for&nbsp; my personal stuff. Both accounts are maintained separately as I found that merging inboxes makes it too complex. Both follow the same organization system, that is implemented through Labels and folders, all e-mail services have some sort of categorisation feature, so spend some time figuring it out and implementing it.<figure><img src="https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-3.png?w=602" alt="" srcset="https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-3.png 602w, https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-3.png?w=150 150w, https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-3.png?w=300 300w" width="360" height="202"></figure>Notion homepage Notion’s ability to embed links allows me to make thumbnails to various different websites and online apps, this along with the ability to access my Notion notes and pages from a web browser allows me to make a home page in my browser for the most important and frequently visited websites. This helps me with three things:<UL><LI>It saves time as I can directly launch websites from my homepage</LI><LI>Minimizes distractions that can be caused by looking at your recently visited pages, a feature most browsers provide.</LI><LI>It prevents my bookmarks bar from being cluttered and messy</LI><LI>I can access this page from my phone and tablet as well, so adding a link here adds a bookmark across all my devices that use different browsers.</LI></UL><figure><img src="https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-4.png?w=602" alt="" srcset="https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-4.png 602w, https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-4.png?w=150 150w, https://thepuranikhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/image-4.png?w=300 300w" width="360" height="202"></figure>Zotero (Citation Manager) Like I said, having research topics and essays comes along with being a law student, and citation formats for the same have a lot of variations and different professors may have different preferences for the same. Therefore, having a robust citation manager for the same helps with managing and ultimately writing citations while researching.Zotero is my citation manager of choice because it is completely free with several neat features. My favorite one is the web-clipper which essentially saves a website (along with meta-data like author, date, etc) with one click.Although Zotero doesn’t have a mobile app that would let you read resources on the go, it has a web app that can be accessed from your phone.Power Toys Power Toys is a suite of tools from Microsoft that is intended to make your user experience more convenient. The tools are intended for Power users and are currently open-source, available on Microsoft’s GitHub Page. Some of the tools included in this suite are:<UL><LI>Fancy Zones: This tool divides your screen into several sections that you can snap windows too. It is immensely useful when referencing or referring to multiple documents while typing.</LI><LI>Colour Picker: This tool allows the user to pick colors from anywhere on their screen and obtain relevant information like the hex code, etc. This allows me quickly note down and recognise colors that I want to use in my future designs and graphic design work.</LI><LI>Power Rename: A batch renaming tool that is useful if you need to sort through a large number of downloaded or rendered files.</LI></UL><h3>My Workflow</h3>On a typical day of college, I’ll attend class through MS Teams (the college choose this application so I had no say in the matter) and take physical notes during the classes, later in the day or during my breaks, I’ll type my notes into Notion while also refining them. I also upload all resources and documents onto Notion so that I can access them remotely. After I’m done with writing my notes, I open Super Productivity and schedule tasks for the rest of the day such as:<UL><LI>Do homework for ABC</LI><LI>Find Research Problem for XYZ</LI><LI>Make Designs for next week’s Blog Post</LI><LI>Follow up progress on Group Projects, etc</LI></UL>I usually dump as many tasks I can think of into Super Productivity and start working, each task can be tagged with some specific project, so I usually finish one project first before moving on to the next one, or if two projects have similar tasks, I’ll batch them together. My Work and Break intervals are set to 30 Minutes of Working with a 5 Minute Break. After 4 cycles of this (2 hours of work and 20 minutes of breaks) I take one long 20-minute break during which I grab some coffee or a snack.Irrespective of the task involved, Notion does get involved somehow. If it’s related to Homework, I use it to look through my notes and resources, if it’s related to the blog – well all my first drafts are planned and written in Notion, I usually upload my designs to notion so that I can access them from my phone later, which makes it easier to share them on-the-go.That concludes a look at my digital workspaces. Do you use any of the apps mentioned here? Or do you have some other recommendations that I should check out? Do you have any questions about anything related to productivity? Leave them in the comments below. I hope this post brought you some value and gave you some ideas to tweak your workflow too. Have a great day!Links<UL><LI>Tags</LI></UL>

A list of tools to get the most out of your day

productivity

Productivity

A list of tools to get the most out of your day

<ul><li>Post author </li> </ul>

It’s almost been a year since the pandemic started and we’ve gone through various stages of lockdown since then. Apart from learning how to cook for and clean after ourselves, most people have also developed deeper skills when it comes to being productive and completing tasks. The simplicity and autonomy offered in one’s own home helps them plan and execute tasks with relative ease. However, as workplaces open back up and people are once again summoned to their assigned places of productivity – this comfortable autonomy may cease to be. However, even when one’s physical surroundings are taken out of one’s control, there is one environment that you still control – your digital world. With most workspaces and classrooms moving online, the influx of documents, messages and applications have increased dramatically. At times this can result in cluttered home screens, unorganized files, lost information, reduced system performance and stress. Organizing and optimizing your digital space is one of the most important steps that you can take in order to minimize these pains, further the apps and services you use to do your day to day tasks can also impact your productivity.

In this post I’ll share my steps for deciding how to best use my laptop, and then I’ll go through my laptop and showing you the apps I use frequently to structure my work and help me stay productive, while best optimizing them to ensure their effectiveness and efficiency.

(I’ll mention all links at the end of this post)

Cal Newport is an author, podcaster and college professor that studies and writes about productivity and productive habits. In his seminal book ‘Deep Work’ he criticizes the increasing digitization of workspaces in the name of productivity, like employees being forced to use Instant messaging apps to communicate, etc. The point I draw from this is that in the current day, people are optimizing their workflows and habits to facilitate their technology use, instead of vice versa. With the growing number of ‘productivity’ tools and apps that are available today, and the subsequent endorsement of these apps by the creators that work within the ‘productivity’ genre like Thomas Frank and Ali Abdal, it often gets confusing and overwhelming for the average person that is receiving these messages. I remember before creating and implementing my system of selection and use, I used to constantly question whether not using a particular tool is hindering my productivity. This often led to me downloading, learning and then subsequently trying to somehow squeeze certain tools into my life, even if they weren’t helping me in the long run. In an effort to be more productive, I was being less efficient.

I developed the following system to select the tools I use; the process may take a while to nail down, but it’ll be worth it in the long run.

<ul><li>Step 1: Write down your core responsibilities and general work use </li> </ul>

Ask yourself what you need to get done on an average day of work/school? how do your devices help you fulfill these tasks? Do you use any special apps for these tasks?

<ul><li>Step 2: Is this the best way to fulfill these tasks? Is there a better alternative? </li> </ul>

For example, if you’re using one app to take notes, another to share these with your friends/colleagues for comments, and then a third to combine both of these into one file, then that’s probably not the best practice for your productivity. Although specialized apps and tools may give a wider range of features for one specific task, do you really need to use all those features on an average day? The best way I find to answer these questions is by thinking along the lines of, ‘If the developer decides to charge money for this service tomorrow, would I be willing to pay for it? ’

Do your research and figure out whether there is some app that can do all of these functions (and maybe even more) so that you don’t waste time switching apps, save storage space, and make your life easier, for the example taken above – Google docs would work perfectly, and another option with more features would be Notion.

<ul><li>Step 3: When you come across a new app, ask yourself the following: </li><li>Who is this app intended for? </li><li>What does this app offer that my current apps don’t? </li><li>Is this additional feature(s) compelling enough for me to migrate my present system there? </li><li>Will I have to change any other parts of my system because of this new tool? How long would that take? </li> </ul>

A similar system is defined by Cal Newport in his book ‘Digital Minimalism’, however that applies to most other digital services too. To read more about that, go here.

I am a law student (which means I have a lot of research and typing based work), that has an interest in Graphic Design and Self-improvement (Which means I have a lot of reading and note taking related tasks).

So, my core responsibilities and use cases are:

<ul><li>Typing notes from classes, and from research articles, news articles, etc, and organizing them in a systematic manner. </li><li>Setting tasks and maintain a schedule to meet deadlines properly. </li><li>Work deeply without procrastinating and burning out. </li><li>Browsing the internet while minimizing distractions. </li><li>Designing posters and graphics for my blog and other uses. </li> </ul>

in order to best fulfill my requirements, I use the following applications on a daily basis for the following purposes:

Notion (Note Taking and more) Notion is an all-in-one workspace tool that is great for taking notes and other text-based work. I use Notion as a college notebook, journal, reading list and much more. I also use its calendar to make to do lists and organize tasks.

Super Productivity (To-Do list and Pomodoro Timer) The Pomodoro technique is a time management system that recommends you to divide your tasks into work and rest sessions in the ratio of 2:1 respectively. i.e., you could study for 40 minutes at a stretch and then take a 20-minute break. Of course, the exact times can be changed according to those most suited for you.

Super Productivity acts as a to-do list with a built-in customizable Pomodoro timer. The application lets you schedule tasks and reminds you to take a break every 1 session. It also has tools to help you minimize  procrastination.

Firefox (browser) I use the Firefox browser over Google Chrome because Google Chrome causes power drain and sluggish system performance. Firefox also has offshoots like Pocket and Lockwise that make it a more wholistic package as opposed to Chrome.

E-mail Apps I deleted the built-in Window’s email app after Linus from Linus Tech Tips said, “Why would you want an app for something you can use from your browser?” and so far, I have not found any objection to the thought even though they may exist. I have two main email accounts – Outlook which I use for work and professional commitments  and the other, Gmail, which I use for  my personal stuff. Both accounts are maintained separately as I found that merging inboxes makes it too complex. Both follow the same organization system, that is implemented through Labels and folders, all e-mail services have some sort of categorisation feature, so spend some time figuring it out and implementing it.

Notion homepage Notion’s ability to embed links allows me to make thumbnails to various different websites and online apps, this along with the ability to access my Notion notes and pages from a web browser allows me to make a home page in my browser for the most important and frequently visited websites. This helps me with three things:

<ul><li>It saves time as I can directly launch websites from my homepage </li><li>Minimizes distractions that can be caused by looking at your recently visited pages, a feature most browsers provide. </li><li>It prevents my bookmarks bar from being cluttered and messy </li><li>I can access this page from my phone and tablet as well, so adding a link here adds a bookmark across all my devices that use different browsers. </li> </ul>

Zotero (Citation Manager) Like I said, having research topics and essays comes along with being a law student, and citation formats for the same have a lot of variations and different professors may have different preferences for the same. Therefore, having a robust citation manager for the same helps with managing and ultimately writing citations while researching.

Zotero is my citation manager of choice because it is completely free with several neat features. My favorite one is the web-clipper which essentially saves a website (along with meta-data like author, date, etc) with one click.

Although Zotero doesn’t have a mobile app that would let you read resources on the go, it has a web app that can be accessed from your phone.

Power Toys Power Toys is a suite of tools from Microsoft that is intended to make your user experience more convenient. The tools are intended for Power users and are currently open-source, available on Microsoft’s GitHub Page. Some of the tools included in this suite are:

<ul><li>Fancy Zones : This tool divides your screen into several sections that you can snap windows too. It is immensely useful when referencing or referring to multiple documents while typing. </li><li>Colour Picker : This tool allows the user to pick colors from anywhere on their screen and obtain relevant information like the hex code, etc. This allows me quickly note down and recognise colors that I want to use in my future designs and graphic design work. </li><li>Power Rename: A batch renaming tool that is useful if you need to sort through a large number of downloaded or rendered files. </li> </ul>

On a typical day of college, I’ll attend class through MS Teams (the college choose this application so I had no say in the matter) and take physical notes during the classes, later in the day or during my breaks, I’ll type my notes into Notion while also refining them. I also upload all resources and documents onto Notion so that I can access them remotely.

After I’m done with writing my notes, I open Super Productivity and schedule tasks for the rest of the day such as:

<ul><li>Do homework for ABC </li><li>Find Research Problem for XYZ </li><li>Make Designs for next week’s Blog Post </li><li>Follow up progress on Group Projects, etc </li> </ul>

I usually dump as many tasks I can think of into Super Productivity and start working, each task can be tagged with some specific project, so I usually finish one project first before moving on to the next one, or if two projects have similar tasks, I’ll batch them together. My Work and Break intervals are set to 30 Minutes of Working with a 5 Minute Break. After 4 cycles of this (2 hours of work and 20 minutes of breaks) I take one long 20-minute break during which I grab some coffee or a snack.

Irrespective of the task involved, Notion does get involved somehow. If it’s related to Homework, I use it to look through my notes and resources, if it’s related to the blog – well all my first drafts are planned and written in Notion, I usually upload my designs to notion so that I can access them from my phone later, which makes it easier to share them on-the-go.

That concludes a look at my digital workspaces. Do you use any of the apps mentioned here? Or do you have some other recommendations that I should check out? Do you have any questions about anything related to productivity? Leave them in the comments below. I hope this post brought you some value and gave you some ideas to tweak your workflow too. Have a great day!

How I maximized by digital productivity

Importance of Digital Workspaces

Digital Minimalism and Deep Work

How to choose the right digital tools to use

Notion

To Do List and Pomodoro Timer

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