I am certainly a creature of habit (as has been noted elsewhere), and I do love me some tools. So, for the two of you following me here, I thought I might make note of a few of the tools and systems I use on a daily basis.
I came to the FFP having been a Franklin Planner user for about 20 years. I’ve followed Michael Hyatt for not quite that long, and when he and his company release the FFP, I gave it a test drive and I’ve not looked back since. I find the combination of the weekly preview, daily pages, plenty of room for notes, and goal pages really beneficial. So much so that I became a Full Focus Planner Certified Pro! Let me know if you’d like to learn more!
This is my digital task and project management system. I was turned on to it by Hyatt (from one of his listicles, in fact!), and gave it a try. I operate in a hybrid task and project management manner, leveraging Nozbe for all of my tasks and my FFP for prioritizing and notetaking. Nozbe is incredibly flexible, and allows me to use my modified GTD methodology with ease. I’m so enamored of Nozbe that I became a Nozbe Certified Expert.
I love the ergonomics of this mouse. I’ve used a variety of mice over the years, and the MX Master has been simply the best. Other mice have led to strain in either my wrist or one or more of my fingers by the end of the day, but never this one. Two (very unstressed) thumbs up!
I’ve been a Mac guy since college, when I used to lug my Mac Classic II down Campus Walk to the library when I needed to work on research papers. I speak both Mac and PC, but I’ve always had a mac or two around the house. At present, there are six active Macs, four iPhones, and two iPads (plus two decommissioned Macs I keep meaning to recycle), so we’ve definitely had our fair share of Cupertino tea. I love the simplicity of the design, ease of use, more than adequate performance and interoperability my fairly new 14” M2 MacBook Pro delivers.
For fast, easy video and presentation creation and editing, I’ve been devotee of Camtasia since Day One. Each release adds quite a bit to the already extensive capabilities, and it couldn’t be easier to add in very professional fades, transitions, and callouts. Plus, simple publishing to YouTube and downloads to local files.
Now owned by Logitech, Blue makes some of the best gear for recording. I love my Blue Yeti, and often get compliments on the audio quality from Zoom, WebEx, Teams, and Facetime meeting participants. Easy to set up and adjust to your preferences, with several settings to accommodate various audio environments.
While Nespresso no longer sells the Essenza model, it’s my daily go-to. Two cups, one “lungo” shot each of decaf (Firenze Arpeggio or Volluto) and full-caff (Roma) per cup, a little honey or a scant teaspoon measure of sugar, and I’m good to go for the day. Until, you know, I have to talk to people and then the wheels fall off.
My Network
If it takes a village to raise a kid, it takes a network to support an adult. My friends and mentors include Sarah, Mandy, Steve, Trent, Ike, Matt, Steve (who hasn’t updated his LinkedIn profile in like 20 years, because he doesn’t need to, he’s that good, and IYKYK), Kevin, Al, Mack, Patrick, Thomas, and Christopher. To say thank you to this crowd is far too insufficient, but THANK YOU!