1 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:06,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to How I Work, a show about the tactics 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:09,320 Speaker 1: used by the world's most successful people to get so 3 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:13,160 Speaker 1: much out of their day. I'm your host, doctor Amantha Invera. 4 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:18,200 Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist, the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium, 5 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:21,800 Speaker 1: and I'm obsessed with finding ways to optimize my work day. 6 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:25,959 Speaker 1: Today's episode is a mini episode, and specifically it is 7 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:29,640 Speaker 1: answering another listener question. So if you're a regular listener, 8 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:32,720 Speaker 1: you'll know I've been putting out a call for listeners 9 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:35,440 Speaker 1: such as yourself, to send in any questions you would 10 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:40,680 Speaker 1: like me to answer or tackle on the show. So 11 00:00:41,720 --> 00:00:43,839 Speaker 1: if you have a question, please send it through to 12 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:47,560 Speaker 1: Amantha at Inventium dot com dot au and my email 13 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:49,640 Speaker 1: is always in the show notes as well. So this 14 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:52,640 Speaker 1: listener question is what is the most productive way to 15 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:56,280 Speaker 1: store articles, reference materials, videos, images, and all sorts of 16 00:00:56,320 --> 00:01:00,320 Speaker 1: things relating to particular topics. So I've brought at this 17 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:03,640 Speaker 1: question a little bit because I want to talk through 18 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:08,880 Speaker 1: my filing system and how I think about things in 19 00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:13,120 Speaker 1: terms of all the different I guess documents and inputs 20 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:18,199 Speaker 1: that I have. So to start with email, So how 21 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:22,520 Speaker 1: I organize my inbox, and I use Superhuman that is 22 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: my email client for all things. Inbox is that I 23 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:31,319 Speaker 1: have my inbox where everything comes into. I then have 24 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:36,760 Speaker 1: a to do folder where everything that requires an action 25 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:40,959 Speaker 1: from me, so me plus time, goes into the to 26 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 1: do folder. I have a read later folder, so anything 27 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:47,600 Speaker 1: that I can read but is non urgent, I put 28 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:51,320 Speaker 1: in the read later folder. And then there's also a 29 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 1: folder that's just various non urgent things that actually Superhuman 30 00:01:55,440 --> 00:02:00,400 Speaker 1: files things into. So I adapted this system from my 31 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:05,720 Speaker 1: interview with Google's executive productivity advisor Laura may Martin, who 32 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: was on the show previously. In terms of having a 33 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:12,440 Speaker 1: better workflow for my email, then when I've dealt with things, 34 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:17,960 Speaker 1: I pretty much just archive everything. I don't have too 35 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:21,160 Speaker 1: many folders. I find that I don't find folders particularly 36 00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:24,320 Speaker 1: useful because I think that the search function in either 37 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:28,920 Speaker 1: Gmail or Superhuman is incredibly good and allows me to 38 00:02:28,919 --> 00:02:31,760 Speaker 1: find anything that I'm looking for, So that is email. 39 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: In terms of articles and reference materials, I use Pocket 40 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:38,760 Speaker 1: is an app. I think if you google Pocket app, 41 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:42,320 Speaker 1: you will find that. And it means that when I'm 42 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 1: trying to focus on a task, but I risk going 43 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:48,640 Speaker 1: down a rabbit hole of interesting articles. I can simply 44 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:51,800 Speaker 1: on my Chrome browser there's a pocket has a plug in, 45 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:54,440 Speaker 1: and I can save articles to Pocket. I can also 46 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:57,040 Speaker 1: create tags for those articles as well, and I find 47 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:00,919 Speaker 1: that a really useful way of storing any reference materials 48 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:04,640 Speaker 1: or articles that I want to read later. I all 49 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:09,920 Speaker 1: also for longer documents like PDFs of journal papers, I 50 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:14,480 Speaker 1: would file them in the Inventium drop box, where we 51 00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:19,239 Speaker 1: do have a filing system for research, and that's simply 52 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:22,200 Speaker 1: filed under the topic that it is most relevant too. 53 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:26,120 Speaker 1: Then when it comes to notes, I use Evernote for 54 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: note taking. Again, I don't actually use tags or the 55 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:33,600 Speaker 1: notebook function in ever Note. Everything pretty much just sits 56 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:37,240 Speaker 1: in my inbox, so I have I've tried experimenting with 57 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:39,560 Speaker 1: different filing systems, but to be honest, I find them 58 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 1: a bit of a waste of time. Again, because the 59 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:46,440 Speaker 1: search function is super powerful in ever Note, I find 60 00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:49,800 Speaker 1: that that is absolutely satisfactory, and I can ninety nine 61 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:53,840 Speaker 1: percent of the time find anything I'm looking for within 62 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:58,680 Speaker 1: about five or ten seconds. Something else I do is 63 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:02,000 Speaker 1: I use things so Things is to do list software. 64 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:05,279 Speaker 1: I used to use wonder List until I think Microsoft 65 00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:07,880 Speaker 1: bought it and did some stuff with it. So I 66 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:11,480 Speaker 1: use Things, and I tried out a lot of to 67 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:14,800 Speaker 1: do list software, but I like Things because you can 68 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: have projects and then categories and then subcategories, and for 69 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:21,919 Speaker 1: anything that is a list. So I use things for 70 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:24,160 Speaker 1: my deep work and shallow work to do list, but 71 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:28,120 Speaker 1: I also use things to store things that are lists. 72 00:04:28,279 --> 00:04:30,839 Speaker 1: So for example, books that I want to read, I 73 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:34,000 Speaker 1: have a book list, Podcasts that people recommend to me. 74 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:37,080 Speaker 1: I have a podcast list. TV shows that people think 75 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:39,680 Speaker 1: I should be binging on. I have a TV show list, 76 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:44,880 Speaker 1: listener questions for the podcast. I have a listener question list. 77 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:48,040 Speaker 1: So I find that it's really useful to organize anything 78 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 1: that is a list into things. Now. In terms of photos, 79 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:56,040 Speaker 1: I have not invested any time in having a filing 80 00:04:56,080 --> 00:05:00,880 Speaker 1: system for photos, which is slightly annoyed, but at least 81 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:03,800 Speaker 1: if I have a rough idea when I took a 82 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:06,560 Speaker 1: photo of something, I can generally find it in my 83 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:10,240 Speaker 1: phone or in the cloud. And finally, for images, like 84 00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:14,040 Speaker 1: images that I might need for a presentation invent teams, 85 00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:17,160 Speaker 1: Dropbox has an image folder, and generally I find where 86 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:19,640 Speaker 1: I source images from is generally Adobe Images, and I 87 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:22,080 Speaker 1: think they have inbuilt tags, so I find that that 88 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:25,719 Speaker 1: makes images easily searchable when I'm trying to find something 89 00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:30,400 Speaker 1: appropriate for let's say, a slide on a presentation. The 90 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:32,560 Speaker 1: other thing that I do that I find quite helpful 91 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:35,719 Speaker 1: is I use Finder because I'm a Mac user, so 92 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:42,240 Speaker 1: I think is Internet Explorer the PC equivalent? I should 93 00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:46,920 Speaker 1: know this, but anyway, I use a shortcut menu on 94 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:49,960 Speaker 1: the sidebar because there are folders that I need to 95 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:53,160 Speaker 1: access when I'm finding files very frequently, so there are 96 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:56,919 Speaker 1: about ten folders that I have shortcuts to, which is 97 00:05:56,960 --> 00:06:00,880 Speaker 1: just another thing that I find saves me time. That is, 98 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:04,719 Speaker 1: in a nutshell, how I think about storing and filing 99 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:07,760 Speaker 1: and saving things. I hope that has answered this listener 100 00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: question and that you found it useful. So that is 101 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:15,640 Speaker 1: it for today's show. If you are enjoying how I work, 102 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:18,560 Speaker 1: why not leave a review in Apple Podcasts or share 103 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:21,279 Speaker 1: the episode with someone else that maybe needs some tips 104 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:25,279 Speaker 1: around filing and organizing things. So that's it for today 105 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:27,760 Speaker 1: and I will see you next time.