Working Day Tips & Tricks — use the right tools to help you
Depending on what you’re working on or doing, there will likely be a myriad of tools out there to help you do it better, smoother, more efficiently, perhaps collaborate with others.
Whether you’re a pen-and-paper kind of peep, or it’s tech all the way, a fairly quick Google search will help you find one or more tools you might not have already come across that will make your life that much easier.
My personal favourites are a slightly complex combination (it seems overkill I’m sure, but it really works for me) — I have a physical notepad, I use Evernote for jotting stuff down on my phone/laptop, I have a physical diary, I have multiple online calendars (personal and work), several quick and dirty Trello boards, Jira (purely for my software project), and so on. You get the picture. I’m all for a free tool that can make my own life easier!
Anyone who knows me also knows I absolutely use copious amounts of caffeine and confectionery as my daily tools, too. Mmmm, cake…
(This post wouldn’t be complete without a shameless plug for Toovor (our own tool, my brain child) — if you’re a creative managing a busy studio, you absolutely need this in your life.)
Recently, I started looking into online whiteboard tools for facilitating online workshops. With the recent switch to virtual meetings and workshops, I’m sure lots of people have looked into this to one extent or another.
I’ve run all sorts of training and workshop sessions before (fairly small groups, I get stage fright so there’s definitely a limit for me there in terms of size!), but never all virtually. I’ve done online demos and screenshares and training — but again, these were never workshops. There’s definitely a distinction there, workshops are collaborative and need different tools to those I’ve used before and when you can’t just resort to sticky notes and bright marker pens…
So I hit Google hard. There are plenty of tools available but none seemed to be more suited to workshops than Miro. It’s essentially a whiteboard tool and it comes with lots of ready-made templates. Pretty nifty, as I found out. It’s got its quirks and faffs, but every tool does. It’s the most suited to what I was looking for though, for collaboration sessions (live or not).
I’ve spent years researching SaaS tools — most recently I’ve looked into workshop tools, DAM (digital asset management), project management, and helpdesk tools among others. If your team happens to be in a position where they’d benefit from a fresh pair of eyes and external advice as to best tools to fit your needs and processes, do contact me, I’d love to help.
If you’re looking for a nudge in the right direction for yourself, I can probably recommend a few free tools you could get going with pronto, too!
