021 Digital Decluttering – ProductivityCast

Clutter is a pernicious problem for many people. And, so is its cousin, digital clutter. Across your many desktop and mobile devices now prevalent in daily life, we house files piled high (metaphorically speaking) that as Art Gelwicks aptly notes, lives on "without a clearly defined purpose." Clearly this is a complicated issue and the ProductivityCast team has a healthy debate about the practicality of managing our digital worlds, and what awaits us in the future for digital information management. Join us for this fascinating discussion into digital clutter and the need to do digital decluttering. This is surely a topic we'll revisit in the future, as the more information we have about us living both locally on our systems and in the cloud grows, almost exponentially. Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). What are your thoughts on your digital information and performing any kind of digital decluttering? Do you suffer from digital clutter? Or, do you have a particular area where you manage your digital information well (say, at work), but very poorly elsewhere (like, home digital photo organization)? You can comment below, or let us know via our contact form (audio or text) and we'll be glad to help as best as we can in a future episode. In this Cast Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Francis Wade Art Gelwicks Show Notes Resources we mention, including links to them will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. Trello for Mac Evernote IFTTT Amazon Kindle e-Readers Survivorman Instapaper Pinterest Minimalism (documentary) ProdPod: Episode 68–Digital Clutter: Out of Sight Is Not Out of Mind Otixo MultCloud OneNote Google Drive Dropbox Getting Things Done by David Allen Raw Text Transcript Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is h:mm:ss.ms to h:mm:ss.ms (e.g., 0:00:00.000,0:00:04.000 starts at 0.00 seconds and ends at 4 seconds in the cast's audio). 0:00:00.000,0:00:03.870 are you ready to manage your work and 0:00:02.159,0:00:06.120 personal world better to live a 0:00:03.870,0:00:07.350 fulfilling productive life then you've 0:00:06.120,0:00:09.599 come to the right place 0:00:07.350,0:00:12.090 productivity cast the weekly show about 0:00:09.599,0:00:14.299 all things productivity here are your 0:00:12.090,0:00:16.699 hosts Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto 0:00:14.299,0:00:18.720 Pinaud Francis Wade and art Gelwicks Read More 0:00:16.699,0:00:20.609 welcome back everybody to another 0:00:18.720,0:00:24.420 episode of productivity casts this is 0:00:20.609,0:00:27.480 episode 21 and so we are in full steam 0:00:24.420,0:00:29.189 ahead and how are you guys doing how are 0:00:27.480,0:00:31.230 you guys doing today doing well this 0:00:29.189,0:00:33.450 morning's good weekend busy weekend 0:00:31.230,0:00:34.950 productive well that was productive as 0:00:33.450,0:00:36.899 I'd like but a good weekend everybody's 0:00:34.950,0:00:39.000 doing well I think good I was on travel 0:00:36.899,0:00:42.239 this weekend and because of work I had 0:00:39.000,0:00:45.989 to be in New York and so I'm still 0:00:42.239,0:00:49.530 adjusting to the hecticness of the 0:00:45.989,0:00:52.020 weekend being somewhat personal you know 0:00:49.530,0:00:54.719 social stuff and then trying to get all 0:00:52.020,0:00:57.300 the work stuff in so for those listeners 0:00:54.719,0:00:58.829 who have to deal with that know that 0:00:57.300,0:01:01.410 you're not alone there there is that 0:00:58.829,0:01:04.710 balancing act that you have to have so 0:01:01.410,0:01:06.150 in the news this this past week and by 0:01:04.710,0:01:08.850 the time this is out and recording it 0:01:06.150,0:01:12.600 it'll have been about a month Trello has 0:01:08.850,0:01:14.430 come out with a desktop application for 0:01:12.600,0:01:16.290 the Mac and so it's had mobile 0:01:14.430,0:01:19.369 applications for quite some time now on 0:01:16.290,0:01:22.860 iOS and Android and has been a primarily 0:01:19.369,0:01:25.020 web-based application and for those 0:01:22.860,0:01:28.860 listeners who don't know Trello is owned 0:01:25.020,0:01:31.049 by Atlassian and which also owns HipChat 0:01:28.860,0:01:34.110 and several other products but they were 0:01:31.049,0:01:38.340 purchased us maybe last year early this 0:01:34.110,0:01:41.939 year by them and so I was curious your 0:01:38.340,0:01:43.880 reactions gentlemen regarding web 0:01:41.939,0:01:46.590 applications that are choosing to create 0:01:43.880,0:01:48.780 desktop applications and in reality you 0:01:46.590,0:01:52.350 know the desktop application is probably 0:01:48.780,0:01:54.270 just a shell the web app with some some 0:01:52.350,0:01:56.250 fancier tie-ins to some of the desktop 0:01:54.270,0:01:59.909 components but it just gives you a an 0:01:56.250,0:02:01.350 icon in the taskbar and how that affects 0:01:59.909,0:02:03.649 people's productivity when they might 0:02:01.350,0:02:05.490 have many boards open in their browser 0:02:03.649,0:02:08.970 versus having a desktop application 0:02:05.490,0:02:11.069 where the tabs the boards are open 0:02:08.970,0:02:12.750 inside of a desktop application I think 0:02:11.069,0:02:14.940 is a matter to expand 0:02:12.750,0:02:18.660 your target market more than anything 0:02:14.940,0:02:21.000 the reality is that it will not make a 0:02:18.660,0:02:23.420 significant difference having the web 0:02:21.000,0:02:28.470 browser first having the local 0:02:23.420,0:02:31.470 application but for certain people of a 0:02:28.470,0:02:34.680 certain age it feels like it's real 0:02:31.470,0:02:38.310 first asad of what I'm saying sound for 0:02:34.680,0:02:41.250 certain people the web and online and 0:02:38.310,0:02:44.340 all that as we understand it for for the 0:02:41.250,0:02:47.970 techie point it's not mainstream and it 0:02:44.340,0:02:49.680 doesn't give them the idea of a solid 0:02:47.970,0:02:52.500 application even when you go to 0:02:49.680,0:02:56.640 corporate Trello is making their way you 0:02:52.500,0:02:59.390 know especially into development and the 0:02:56.640,0:03:02.400 agile work and all that and for some 0:02:59.390,0:03:04.980 corporations they need to have the feel 0:03:02.400,0:03:08.520 that they can control where the stop and 0:03:04.980,0:03:11.520 where the stuff goes so giving them or 0:03:08.520,0:03:15.510 giving them access to on an actual 0:03:11.520,0:03:18.090 application may give them a push into a 0:03:15.510,0:03:21.750 corporate world where is that there is 0:03:18.090,0:03:24.060 an impression that just online is not 0:03:21.750,0:03:26.700 secure enough I don't think it's gonna 0:03:24.060,0:03:29.640 add a whole lot to the individual user 0:03:26.700,0:03:31.260 experience I don't think they the person 0:03:29.640,0:03:33.060 sitting is at his computer trying to be 0:03:31.260,0:03:36.060 more productive is going to experience 0:03:33.060,0:03:37.950 any mega boost in productivity as a 0:03:36.060,0:03:39.840 result I think I agree I think it's four 0:03:37.950,0:03:42.299 with what gusto said I think it's four 0:03:39.840,0:03:43.829 not marketing but reasons of 0:03:42.299,0:03:45.540 implementation I think that's the 0:03:43.829,0:03:48.570 primary I imagine that's the primary 0:03:45.540,0:03:50.579 driver as opposed to really changing the 0:03:48.570,0:03:53.430 user as experience yeah I don't I don't 0:03:50.579,0:03:54.840 know that I totally agree with its being 0:03:53.430,0:03:57.239 on the marketing side of the equation 0:03:54.840,0:04:00.840 with it lasya n-- having purchased 0:03:57.239,0:04:02.790 Trello and their presence within the the 0:04:00.840,0:04:04.980 enterprise environment having an 0:04:02.790,0:04:08.400 application at the desktop level gives 0:04:04.980,0:04:12.180 them a much more compelling footprint to 0:04:08.400,0:04:14.430 get Trello into environments where being 0:04:12.180,0:04:16.919 a web only solution isn't all that 0:04:14.430,0:04:18.690 endearing to the companies because that 0:04:16.919,0:04:20.910 does happen a lot of larger legacy 0:04:18.690,0:04:23.580 companies the other aspect though is 0:04:20.910,0:04:25.020 just purely from the user side because 0:04:23.580,0:04:25.990 it's on the desktop level they're able 0:04:25.020,0:04:27.789 to in 0:04:25.990,0:04:30.550 more functionalities such as lots more 0:04:27.789,0:04:33.310 desktop shortcuts or keyboard shortcuts 0:04:30.550,0:04:35.380 rather which keeping in mind that tools 0:04:33.310,0:04:37.930 like Trello do have a habit of being 0:04:35.380,0:04:39.550 used by more technical people they tend 0:04:37.930,0:04:41.650 to gravitate towards more keyboard 0:04:39.550,0:04:43.660 shortcuts therefore their catering to 0:04:41.650,0:04:44.830 this particular audience I don't I have 0:04:43.660,0:04:46.690 to agree though I don't think you're 0:04:44.830,0:04:47.949 gonna see a major upswing in Trello 0:04:46.690,0:04:51.580 adoption just because they have a 0:04:47.949,0:04:53.650 desktop it's more of a price to play in 0:04:51.580,0:04:55.810 the space but it's still a nice feature 0:04:53.650,0:04:58.120 for them to add in the the interesting 0:04:55.810,0:05:00.940 thing that I found about the change was 0:04:58.120,0:05:03.009 the desktop application from the very 0:05:00.940,0:05:04.389 cursory review of it that I've done so 0:05:03.009,0:05:05.800 far I've installed it and started 0:05:04.389,0:05:07.509 ...