Time Management 181 - How to Cho

Hello everyone, this is Helen Huang @ Organizing, based in Beijing, China. In order to better learn and practice the YiXiaoNeng Time Management System, after finished publishing 100 Chinese articles, I decided to continue writing and publishing a daily English article in another 100 days based on the "YeWuBin Time Management 100 Episodes" audio program. Today is the 181st day.

Today's topic is: How to Choose the Right Tool

Recently, we talked about effective "tools". Remember sharp tools make great work, so we must be careful to use the right tool for the right job. Peter Senge, founder of the Society for Organizational learning, once said: "To teach people a new way of thinking, we must give him a tool, and develop new ways of thinking through the use of the tool."

Yixiaoneng attaches great importance to the combination of theory and tools. You can listen to lessons 1-13, for a review of these important concepts. It is very important that you combine what you learned in lessons 1-13 with the content of the most recent "tools" topic. It is not particularly convenient to talk about tools in Ximalaya, so you must listen to the preceding lecture about tools and begin to practice yourself to get a real understanding of how to use the tools. Today, I'm going to talk about how to choose the right tools. Only to practice, can you really understand it.

In the last few lessons, I have talked about tools such as calendars, lists and notes. These three are in fact just a strong foundation. Today, we'll talk about how to choose the right hardware and software tools, so that beside those three tools, you can learn to choose other tools to support your organization needs. When considering the right tool, it's quality, not quantity that you aim for.

Adhere to the following principles:

First, choose tools that offer a platform for you to use rather than singular tools that stand alone.

If there is no software that incorporates a platform, then you're left to choose the best single functionality within a platform and that's inefficient. For instance, most of the software I recommend are from full platforms. But only one I currently use has a list system. This of course is OmniFocus, which is the best in the world today, and provides an out of the box complete system for you to use. You don't have to change anything – you simply use it as it's intended to be used. And this is what I mean by a platform.

What kind of hardware should we choose? The best hardware is one that integrates well with other hardware and is thus systematic. My current choice is Apple's suite of products. You can choose the various products you want, but they all integrate with each other no matter what you choose.

That's the first priority – the ability to integrate and provide all of your needs.

The second criteria is that it should be the most modern, most expensive and the best.

When I say expensive, I mean that you buy high quality for the price. We should not waste our time looking for second-rate, or pirated products. We will waste a lot of time searching for these things and you don't have time to waste.

Free software can't be upgraded, supported, or synchronized and so you'll waste a lot of effort setting up these systems only to have it fail you in the time of need. Some companies will offer free software on a trial or promotional basis – but these are often temporary and again require later effort to maintain. This is time that is wasted and we cannot afford.

So for choosing tools and software, you should select those you can afford but are high quality. That's what I did. And when I did, I found a lot of good software. And finally I become an expert in this field of choosing the right tool for the right job.

So why should we choose the latest one, the most updated one? It's because the latest version of each software or hardware device will contain the most complete package of tools.

Third, if you have many to choose from then choose only one or two. Do not buy multiple versions if can buy just one.

In my home, we have many different bottles with some containing vinegar, and other salt and sugar. Combining bottles leads to simplicity. And the same is true of tools. Fewer tools that integrate better, are better than having so many tools.

While you can combine some things, be careful to use a single tool for a single major task. For example, only one detailed list tool; only one calendar tool; and only one note system tool. For example, Omnifocus for the lists, the iPhone for the calendar and Evernote for the document management system or note system. It's the strategic use of these tools together that make it effective.

Fourth, focus on unifying your company and your team together.

Qin Shihuang, the founder of the Qin dynasty and the one credited with unifying China, was able to do so by standardizing languages, walls, roads, and other facts of life and by doing so created productivity in the country.

So for your company and team, be sure to choose the same type of system. Do not think of democracy. Do not think of personality. And don't think of diversity. In other words, don't buy so many different tools and apps that are too difficult to integrate. The integration is key. By choosing software that has a built-in platform you will simplify your task immensely. Take it slow. This is a process that will come after some trial and error.

All Yixiaoneng students use the same system, which allows us to study together easily, allows us to focus on the important few things and do it better than if we focus on so much.

Fifth, choose function over form. Choose what works over what is popular.

This is also an important reason why we choose Apple system. Many people insist that we should be patriotic, and choose only Chinese products since we are in China most of us. But in fact, we should choose what works and what works for you and your style.

Sixth, look at ranking lists and reviews online to see what software is available and recommended by other peers.

You can also go on Internet and Baidu and search for other examples of software that you might consider. Unfortunately, I can't recommend everything to you here. You can do a search for the phrase "Software Inventory" or "Soft Storage" to get other recommendations. Ask friends what works for them, take their recommendations as well.

Seventh, don't be afraid to try new software products as they emerge.

Younger people are usually better at technology because they always want to try the newest thing. Try to adopt this spirit and energy as well.

Many of us older folks are not from this "information age". Instead, we are like immigrants so to speak, so it is more difficult to pick up on new methods quickly, but you must try. You will find in fact that using these new pieces of software is actually very simple. Take your time, be adventurous, be curious, and calm down. Open the software, try each feature, click each button, and you'll find it's much easier than you thought.

Go now – explore, try it out and share with us what you find!

That's all sharing today. Thank you being with me together. Have a wonderful day!