Three tools I love.
Hint: It's not only HR tools.
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Happy Friday!
I can not thank you enough for the feedback on last week's article. It was the result of some late nights, and I am glad you found it helpful!
In two weeks, I'll be hosting a webinar on the future of work—the future of work in terms of DAOs, NFTs, and other very, very cool acronyms. If you want the calendar invite, you can sign up here, but it will also be live on YouTube, and you can watch it there without having to sign up or anything.
Enough of all that and back to today's article, which will be shorter than last week’s.
It's about tools that I use more or less daily. They are not special HR tools, but useful digital tools if you are one of those who work more in front of the computer than you would like to admit.
Do you remember Cesar Millan? Yes, the dog whisperer who was on TV back in the days when we all watched linear programs that ran at a set time. He trained badly behaved dogs; imagine if he was the HRBP for dogs. In almost every episode, he came back to one of the best questions I know;
It's not about the tool, it's about how you are when you are holding the tool.
That pretty much sums up every digital tool I have ever used. No matter what the tool is, it's up to its user to make the tool work for them, not the other way around. Remember, not only when I introduce you to the tools I use, but also when it comes to digital HR tools in general. There are very few magic tools out there.
Okay, enough about mindfulness and stuff. Let us take a look at the tools.
1. Instatext
If you forced me to choose one tool besides email and Slack that I could not live without, it would be Instatext. And it has nothing to do with Instagram. So what do they do? They describe themselves as;
InstaText is an easy-to-use writing and editing tool that helps you rewrite your text so that you are understood and perceived as a professional. InstaText improves styling and word choice, corrects grammatical errors, and enriches your content to make it more readable and understandable.
It has all the bells and whistles around artificial intelligence (AI), but, oh boy, those whistles are delivered, too. It's insanely good. My English writing workflow is now Grammarly → Instatext → Publish, and it makes me look so much better, and I am also learning to write better in general. Amazing.
2. Notion
I thought it was just hype, but Notion has not disappointed me since I switched to it last summer. It's a notebook on steroids.
The text you are reading right now was first written in Notion. Three things make Notion my first choice for taking notes, recording actions, and writing things.
First, it makes Google Doc look like something designed by a GDR bureaucrat in the late 80s. Second, it's so easy to structure notes and create hierarchies, etc. Third, the search function actually works. You no longer have to spend hours trying to find the document THAT.
3. Todoist
Todoist keeps me on track. It has been with me for several years now and has served me well over the years. It's a to-do tool that integrates with your email, Slack, and basically any other tool you use. As soon as a task takes longer than five minutes, it ends up in my ToDo list and I check all my ToDos twice a day to make sure I am working on what's most important. There is also a part where the tasks are playful and you get a pat on the back when you complete your daily task. And who does not like a pat on the back?
These are the tools I currently use and like the most. But as I said, all tools need to be learned in order to use them to their fullest potential, and how you choose to use them is what matters most.
What tools do you use?