Guys, I love my iPhone. I really, really do. AND I love a good app. There are so many great apps out there for literally anything you want to do and "getting stuff done" is no exception. I use a variety of apps on a daily basis to help get things done faster + more efficiently. Hustle and 30/30 are by far my favorites.
Hustle
I wanted to share this app because it's a lot like a website I shared awhile ago called Liltup, but in app form. Hustle (and Liltup) are super awesome because they're to-do lists with one simple-but-genius twist: a timer. Clearly, I only get things done with a timer going. This app is great for when I get back home from classes in the afternoon and I want to organize my crazy life + make sure I get everything done, from my design to blogging to classwork. And it's so easy! All I do is input all my to-do's into the app, add a time estimate/goal for each task + voila! I have a clear picture of my afternoon + how much work I have on my hands.Once I get started, I use the timer to push myself to finish everything faster. When I finish something a few minutes early, I treat myself to a little blog reading, a little TV or something else fun. As an added plus, I can see everything I got done at the end of the day. So I get to give myself a little metaphorical pat on the back before bed!
My favorite part about Hustle is that it helps me think realistically about how much I can get done in a day. If I get home at 4 pm and try to get in bed at 9:30 pm, I can't plan six hours of work to do. I just can't. In my head, I might. But when I plan it out like this, I have no choice but to be realist about my time.
30/30
I use 30/30 to help me stay on task in the mornings so that I can be on a tight time schedule but so that I'm never late. Like Hustle, you put in all your tasks + a time limit. But unlike Hustle, 30/30 is really well suited for routines. I find myself trying to beat the clock + often times I'm able to finish my routine up to ten minutes early!
My favorite part of 30/30 is that, unlike Hustle, it runs continuously. Meaning that if I take too long on one thing, I have to make it up by speeding up on the next thing. It's impossible to ignore if I'm way off track! So I end up on time for class, exercised + prepared for the day. Win-win-win!
Here's the thing about productivity: I had someone in a comment on an old post ask me why I'm always rushing to finish things. Why I always want to "get stuff done" (which is literally my favorite phrase ever). And I thought about her question for a really long time--it's really a good one!
As I thought about that, I kept coming back to a quote that I remember from Cheaper By the Dozen. For those of you that have only seen the Steve Martin movie (which is nothing like the actual book), it's the biography of two time and motion experts, which is old timey language for professional productivity nerds. And near the end of the book, someone asks Frank why he's always rushing, why he wants to save time as much as possible. And he responds with this:
“For work, if you love that best…For education, for beauty, for art, for pleasure…For mumblety-peg, if that’s where your heart lies.”
And I just wanted to leave you with that today as a reason for posts like this. I believe in working productively so that I can have time for play, for designing for fun, for laying in my ENO doing nothing, for watching Law and Order.
Do you use any apps to help you get things done? Share them, share them! Really. I want to know your favorites.
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