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How to create a new form This video is brought to you by SaneBox, the easiest way to manage all of your email. Do you need to make a Google Form? Well then, you are in the right place, because in this video, I'm going to show you how to create, send, and review your responses right here within Google Forms.

To get started, you'll want to log in to your Google Drive account, and at the very top, you'll click this New button, and then come down here and select Google Forms. But there's actually even an easier way to create a new form.

Simply open up any new browser tab and click in the word form or forms, it doesn't matter which, .new, and then select Enter, and immediately you'll be brought to your new form. Now, the very first thing that we want to do is come up here and give our form a new name.

Adding a Title and Description

So instead of Untitled, I'm going to say Survey Example in this case. Now you'll notice in the top left hand corner, it is still titled Untitled Form, but if I click on this, it will immediately take whatever I've written here and give it the name for that file, but they don't have to be the same thing.

So for example, maybe I'm going to call this Survey Example No. 1, just so it's easier for me to find or keep organized within my Google Drive account, but that's not what respondents will see.

They're only going to see the name of the form here. Down below, we have the option to add a form description. So maybe I'm going to say, please take two minutes to fill out this form. It's not required, but if you'd like to give a little bit of instruction, or a bit of a description of what this form is all about, you can include it here.

Adding different question types

Now we can get started with creating our questions. Now this first untitled question

may look like a multiple choice answer, but we can change it to anything we want.

So for example, maybe I want them to include their full name. So I'm going to enter that in as the question here, and Google Forms will do its best to try and identify

what type of answer I'm looking for. In this case, they are correct that I am wanting

a short answer, just an open text field where people can include their name. But of course, if it's incorrect, I can choose this dropdown menu and choose from a wide variety of answer options. In most cases, it's these first five options that are the most popular or most common, but you can always come back and change that later.

When I'm ready to add a new question, all I need to do is come over to the right

and select this plus button. So for my second question, maybe I want the respondent

to add their email address. Once again, Google Forms is automatically going to try and identify, and they've changed it to a short answer, which is perfect for this email address. One thing to note is that if we come down to the bottom of each question, we have the option to make it a required answer. In this case, I want to make sure

that I collect their email address, so I'm going to select this Required toggle button here, and if I've forgotten to do so, I can come back up to the full name and I'm going to make that required as well, meaning that they will not be able to submit this form

unless they fill in these required fields. I'm ready for a third question, so I'm going to select this plus button here, but because I was last editing the full name, it's included that question down below.

On the left hand side, you can see this little blue highlight here, meaning that this is the active question. I've got a cursor here, this is what I'm actively engaged with at the moment. So if I was to hit the plus button again, that new question would be down below.

But you'll notice as you hover over each question, there's a little six dot area here. So if I click and drag, I'm going to bring that down, because I want that to be the third question so I can quickly and easily rearrange my questions.

Editing multiple choice questions

Now for this third question, I don't want a short answer. I'm going to ask them what is your favorite color in this case? So again, it's going to try and identify what I'm looking for, but I don't want a short answer. In this case, I do want a multiple choice option.

So now I can start adding my options down below. I'm going to start with the color red. I can either at this stage hit enter on my keyboard or come down here and select add option. I am going to type in the word blue.

This time I'm going to hit enter on my keyboard, which is going to give me a third option, and I'm going to say yellow in this case. Now, you will always see this add option or add other as the last choice when editing a multiple choice question.

At this stage, the viewer would only see these three options down below, but if I want to allow them to type in their own answer, I can select add other. In this case, they will see a fourth option where they can type in pink, purple, or any other answer that they wish.

But if I want to go back and just limit them to just the three above, I can come over here to the right and select the remove icon. And I can do that for any of my questions here.

And maybe if I want to put blue in front of red, I can come over to the left, click and drag, and I can reorder my options here as well. In this case, I'm going to leave the required to the left hand side,

because maybe I only really care about collecting their name and email address, and not necessarily what their answer is to this particular question.

How to preview your form

Now at any time, you can preview what your form will look like by coming up here

and selecting this eye icon. By selecting this, it will open up a new tab within your browser, and then you will see exactly what respondents will see. Here you can see that we have this red asterisk beside the full name and email address signifying that these are required questions.

But my last question down below, what is your favorite color, is not required. And you can test this out by putting in your cursor, by adding a name, for example, just to see what it will look and feel like for your respondents.

But one important note, if you do select submit, your form will record that as an actual answer. So if you're only looking at this screen to preview, be sure not to hit submit,

or to remember and go back and delete those responses.

Changing fonts and color themes

Now, just before we send out our Google Form, let's change some of the colors and add a header, so it doesn't look like every other form. To the left of the preview icon,

we have our customized theme option. And here we can change the font and the font size for the header question and text areas of our form. We can also come over here and choose a header image.

If I select this button, I can either choose from one of the default themes right here within Google Forms, or I can choose to upload my own image from my computer.

Since this form is about colors, I think I'm going to select this sort of jelly bean colorful icon or colorful image here, and I'm going to select insert. Now you can see that that image has been added to the top of my form, and it's also changed some of the other colors as well based on that header image.

But below the header area, we can come down here and choose different colors that we would like to apply to our particular form. Now, it's going to try and pull some of these colors from that image, but you can also select this plus button and add your own custom color.

We can also change the background, and I typically recommend choosing a darker background, so it contrasts with your questions on the form itself. When you're happy here, you can just select the X, and then we return to our normal editing view.

How to send your form to others

With our form looking the way that we want, let's go and send it so we can start collecting responses. This big purple send button is what we want to select, and then a new dialogue will open up.

Now you can send your form directly via email and paste in your email addresses and give it a subject and a message, but perhaps the most popular way of sharing your form is via a link.

So let's choose this second option here, where we have this link to share. I recommend selecting the Shorten URL, so we have a shorter link to share. I'm going to select copy, and now I can paste that into any email, or social media, or really anywhere where I would like.

Reviewing your form responses

Once people have started to fill out your form, you will see a number beside the Responses tab here at the top of your screen. By selecting Responses, we can now go and review those answers. So in this example, I've already collected two responses.

I can see the names of the two responders, I can see their email addresses, and I can currently see the outcome of this favorite color question. So far, it's a dead tie between red and blue.

Now, these responses will be updated live, so you can come back and review them as often as you like. And if you want to turn off your form and stop accepting responses, all you need to do is select this toggle in the top right hand corner of the screen.

Receive email updates for new responses

But if you want to be updated when you receive new responses, on the Responses tab, click on the more button and then choose, Get email notifications for new responses.

Now with this check mark beside, I will receive an email notification

each time someone submits this form. Now with this email setting turned on in Google Forms, you may see an increase in the number of messages on top of all of the other messages you manage within your inbox. And that's exactly why SaneBox

may be a better solution for you. SaneBox provides you with a number of smart folders which learns from your behavior which messages are important, and which can be saved for later, and which you may never want to see ever again. In fact, I particularly like this SaneBlackHole option. When I get a message from someone

that I never want to hear from again, and I don't want to have to go searching for the unsubscribe link or button, I can simply drag it over here into one of my SaneBox folders, and it will do the rest for me.

And best of all, you can use SaneBox with any email address, including Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail. Just go t sanebox.com/simpletivity to start your free trial and you'll get a $25 credit if you choose to continue with the service. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.

Note-taking alternative

You've heard all the hype and you've tried it out for yourself. But are you a little disappointed when it comes to Notion? Well, don't worry because in this video I'm going to show you the top five alternatives to Notion.

So whether you're a note taker, project planner, or team collaborator let's find the better software for you. Number one, Evernote. If you like a more traditional approach of both capturing your ideas but also reviewing your notes Evernote may be the better solution for you.

Rather than having to manage everything in a huge hierarchy, which Notion forces us to do,

we have a more simplified structure here of seeing your notes here within this panel.

But then being able to quickly drag and manage them within your notebooks here on the left-hand side. So whether you're reviewing, whether you're searching for a particular note, Evernote makes it extremely easy to do so.

And yet, despite its focus on note taking abilities, such as scanning documents or web clipping, Evernote includes a variety of task management and project management features.

So whether I'm keeping track of a checklist here, or maybe something more like a traditional to-do list I can do so right here within Evernote. If note taking is your primary use and you do like a more traditional approach Evernote may be the better solution for you.

Visual workspace alternative

Number two, Walling. Now, Walling may have the most similar look to Notion with its black and white branding, and its menu here on the left-hand side, but what sets Walling apart is its flexibility and its focus on a more visual layout.

So for example here, if I want to add a new note to this section, all I have to do is double click and I can immediately add it over here in the right-hand side. I don't have to re-sort or to drag things around. And if I want to move things, well that's pretty easy as well.

I can reorder it any way that I like. Another fast advantage of Walling is that we don't have to waste our time by opening up certain elements to get in and out, and see those details. Looking at this note, for example, if I don't want to see all of these bullet headings, I can simply collapse that if I like. But if I want to add additional information

I don't have to open up the note, or have a new dialogue exposed, I can just add a new bullet point immediately. Like Notion, you can have a variety of different sections

but unlike Notion, you can collapse those sections. So if you only want to see a certain section, you can do so at any given time. And for those who are more visually inclined, or need to manage a large quantity of graphics Walling keeps things nice and simple and also, nice and big and large. So if you need to see the full preview,

or if you need to see those thumbnails in a more condensed view, you can do so easily. Now, I'm such a big fan of Walling that I've teamed up with them to offer you something special. If you use the discount code SCOTT22 you'll receive $15 off of their annual plan. Just go to walling.app, or click the link in the description below.

Kanban board alternative

Number three, Trello. If you prefer the board style, or Kanban style of management

then Trello may be the better option for you. Trello was really the first software to bring board style management to the masses. And I would argue if this is where you like to work this is perhaps still the best software for your needs.

Now, you can create as many lists or columns here at the top of your screen, and then include your notes, or tasks, or whatever you would like these cards to represent.

And, in many cases, the objective is to bring them through a series of steps to the very end, which will often be something labeled as Complete, or Finished.

Now, within Trello, you will need to open up your cards in order to access additional information, such as a due date, a description, or maybe a checklist down below.

But it can be a great way to keep things simple so you can see a high level of what's going on and then be able to collaborate with others within the card itself. If you prefer this type of board style management then Trello may be a better solution for you.

Database alternative

Number four, Airtable. If you like the comfort of a database, or a spreadsheet style format then Airtable may be a better solution for you. Although Notion does give us a simple database with Airtable, we have a lot more flexibility when it comes to filtering, and grouping and sorting our pieces of information.

It also makes it super easy and super quick for us to apply labels, or to apply defaults when we are managing our tasks, or managing our work.And unlike many of the tools on this list, we have access to many more versatile views here within Airtable including this calendar view, which I'm using for social media content purposes, and also this Results tab where I can zero in on certain campaigns, or certain key pieces of information.

Lastly, if you're needing to engage with numbers, or money on a regular basis, Airtable gives you the flexibility to create specific formulas and equations so you can calculate sums and keep tabs on those key numbers.

Team workspace alternative

Number five, Confluence. If you you prefer a more traditional document style of keeping track of your notes and projects then Confluence may be a better choice for you.

In this example here, I've created a one-on-one meeting template and you can see I can add a variety of different elements. But another advantage of Confluence

is that I don't have to worry about making changes, or adding things to this template

until I'm ready to publish. For example, perhaps I want to take my time in filling out these fields or filling out the priorities down below and I don't want my coworkers,

or my teammates seeing me actively working on this live because I want to come back and make some changes.

Here on the top right-hand corner, I can select that Edit button, and now I am brought into an edit mode where I can start to add information to this template, but nothing will be viewable until I choose Publish here in the top right-hand corner.

So if you would prefer to make changes, take some time before you go live and share with others Confluence may be a better solution for you.

Now, I'd love to hear from you next. You most likely clicked on this video because you're looking for an alternative to Notion, so why is that? What is it that you just don't like about Notion? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple.

Problem with to-do list apps

Are you frustrated with your to-do list? Well, then this video is for you, because I'm going to show you a more effective and easier way to manage all of your tasks, and best of all, you don't need to install anything new.

No, all you need is your calendar. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And whether you use Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, or really any other calendar, you may have the very best to-do list already.

So why should you use your calendar? Well, one of the biggest problems with to-do list apps is it forces you to go somewhere else or to check in on yet another app, whether that's another tab in your browser, or perhaps another app on your phone, you have to remember to go there and to update it and engage with it.

But when it comes to your calendar,

you probably never have to remind yourself to go there. You're always engaging with your calendar to take a look at what's coming up and where you need to be. Now, in today's example, I'm going to be using Google Calendar, but you can apply these exact same steps with virtually any calendar app.

Adding tasks to any calendar

So here within my calendar, at the very top, there is always an All-day event area.

And you may be familiar with this, for example, this Friday is a holiday, so maybe I'm going to signify that it's a holiday by listing it here, or maybe if I have some upcoming vacation time or I want to remember someone's birthday, I'll put it up here as an All-day event.

But this area can be an extremely effective place to manage your to-dos and to keep them in line with the specific days that you'd like to accomplish them.

So for example, here on Tuesday, I'm going to come up here to the All-day event area, I'm going to say email the team agenda, maybe that's something I need to do today, maybe I want to call Jane regarding the upcoming meeting, and maybe I need to review the budget proposal.

Okay, so just a couple of tasks that I need to accomplish today. So the first key benefit is that all of the tasks that I include here

will not go away. Whether I scroll up and down, those tasks will remain front and center. And even if I switch to my Day view, you can see that those tasks will remain front and center.

And remember, if you want to improve your chances of accomplishing the things you set out to do, you need to make sure that they are visible. So this is a great way to make sure that your tasks are front and center.

And just like a traditional to-do list app, if I go and edit any of these tasks, don't forget

that you have a full description area down below, so if you want to add some bullet points, if you want to add some text, if you want to add some links, for example, or if you want to add some attachments, you can do that here, as well.

In fact, many calendar apps will allow you to add those attachments directly here, not only via a link, so you can have that information at your fingertips when you are creating or when you come back to engage with this task.

Relationship between tasks and events

But the second big benefit of keeping your tasks here in the All-day event area is that you can see their relation with everything else on your schedule.

Too often, we are engaging with our to-do list in a bit of a vacuum, without our calendar front and center, but really, I need to be able to determine how many tasks can I accomplish today, based on my schedule, based on how many meetings I have, and also what's happening in the coming days?

So for example, as today draws on, maybe I come to this task and say, "I don't really feel like doing this today," so I'm going to click and drag it and move it to tomorrow. But wait a minute, that quarterly budget review is tomorrow, and these two things are related.

Am I going to have enough time tomorrow morning to review the budget proposal? Or do I need to ensure that I accomplish this task today? Seeing that relation can be so important when we are managing and also changing the date of our tasks.

For example, maybe I want to email the team agenda to my team about what's happening on Friday, but wait a minute, I'm going to be at an all day conference on Thursday, I'm going to be busy traveling and networking.

Am I going to remember to do this with all of the other things that I have going on? No, maybe Wednesday is a better time for me to accomplish this particular task. We can even go one step further and color code our tasks with some key events on our calendar.

So here you can see this weekly review meeting is in a green color. I could come in here and I could simply change it to the same color, so I can see the connection between this task here and what's on my calendar in just a few days' time.

Prioritizing tasks within your calendar

Now, when it comes to managing any to-do list, it's important for us to be able

to prioritize certain tasks. And you may be wondering, how do we do that within a calendar app? Well, there are a few different methods. So in this example, maybe I need to make sure that I review this proposal today.

What I'm going to do is open up this task, and at the very front, I'm going to add a special character, such as a period. And when I hit save, that's automatically going to sort it to the very top of my list. And this is the case for almost all calendar apps, including Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook.

Another way in which we can apply prioritization to our list is by changing the color.

So for example, maybe this task number three, I'm going to change to this red tomato color, and I'm also going to do the same thing to this budget proposal here, I'm going to change that color to a red color, as well.

Now they stand out that much more and I'm going to do everything in my power to accomplish these two tasks first before I get onto anything else within my list.

Deeper engagement with your to-do list

Now, at this point, you may recognize the many benefits of managing your to-do list right here as a part of the All-day event section of your calendar, but there's one thing that might concern you.

If you get to the end of today, what's going to happen to all of these tasks? They're not going to automatically move to the very next day,

because they're listed as an All-day event. And that's absolutely true, nothing is going to automatically defer or push these events into the very next day, but I actually think this is a productivity positive and not a negative, and here's why.

Sometimes all of the automation that we have in our tools makes us a little lazy,

and we don't engage with our tasks as closely as we should. That's often why we find ourselves with a large quantity of tasks, because they've simply collected all of the things that we haven't accomplished, and pushed them into the current day.

With this method, it forces you to engage with your tasks at the end of the day, and decide, does this deserve to be moved over? Yes, I do need to accomplish these two things, but you know what? Task number four, I can do that on Friday.

And you know what? I'm going to spend some time calling Jane, despite how busy I should be with this conference. It forces you to think about what you are doing and what you can accomplish in a given day.

So while at first glance that may seem like a con, in reality, this can help you to be more productive and more in tune with your to-do list.

Now, I've seen firsthand how this calendar to-do list method has changed the lives of thousands of people, but I'm sure you may still have questions or maybe additional suggestions. If so, be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

And if you're looking for even more ways to be more productive and to enjoy less stress, be sure to subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.

Check for Chrome updates

Is Google Chrome slowing you down? Does it take a little longer to open a new tab

or launch a new website? Well, in this video I'm going to show you six easy steps

that will help you make Chrome run as fast as possible. Step number one, make sure

that you're running the most recent version of Chrome. Here in the top right-hand corner, we can select these three dots and then come down to Settings. And within our Settings menu, we want to come all the way down and select About Chrome.

And this will let us know if our Chrome version is up to date. As you can see here, I am up to date, but if you're not, it will give you the option to download and install the latest version of Chrome. This simple step may actually make a huge difference in the speed that you are experiencing.

Remove unused Chrome extensions

Number two, let's remove any unwanted extensions. Google Chrome extensions are incredibly helpful, and you'll probably find your most used ones here in the top right-hand corner. But extensions can make our browsers slow down a lot.

So let's review what we have installed and see if we can remove any. Here within the Settings menu, we can come down and select Extensions, or from any screen, we can come back here to our three dots, select More Tools, and then select Extension.

And this will show us all of the extensions that we have installed. Now, as you can see in my example, I have only a handful which are actually enabled. Step number one, I'm going to want to review if I actually need any of these that are currently enabled.

But, even if something is disabled, it could be slowing down the performance of your browser. So take a look and see if there's anything else that you can remove. This step of removing unwanted or unused extensions can have a dramatic effect on your Chrome experience.

Clear your browsing history

Number three, let's clear our browsing data and all those cookies which may be slowing us down. From our three dot menu, we want to come down and select More Tools and then select Clear Browsing Data. Now, when you first open up this dialogue,

you'll probably be viewing the Basic tab, but I want you to click on the Advanced tab.

Next up, take a careful look at the time range. We don't want to be limited by just the last few hours or days. I want you to come down here and select All Time. Next, make sure that you have the first four check boxes selected, especially these last two.

Look at this example, I have nearly 1,000 cookies stored on my browser and a whole bunch of images and files. This is certainly slowing down my performance. And then at this stage, all we need to do

Turn on Hardware Acceleration

is select Clear Data. Number four, let's make sure that we've turned on hardware acceleration. Here within our Settings menu, we want to come down and select System, and the second option here is Use Hardware Acceleration When Available.

Now, this is usually turned on by default, but I still want you to come here to the System's menu and make sure that this is toggled on. Having this option turned on can give you

Remove Chrome browser themes

A little boost of speed when needed most. Number five, let's return our theme back to the default. It can be a lot of fun to come to the Chrome Web Store and install manyof the creative and innovative themes for our browsers.

In my example here, I've got a dark theme, which not only is applying to my tabs, but it is applying things to certain webpages as well. However, these themes can take up an awful lot of space and wear down on the performance of your browser.

So within the settings menu, we want to select Appearance. And here you can see where I have that particular theme installed. In order to get the best performance from your browser,

you're going to want to make sure to reset it back to its default state. This may make a significant difference as to how fast your pages load here within Chrome.

Clean up your computer

Number six, let's clean up our computer so we can perform at our optimal speed here. Within the Chrome settings, we want to come down near the bottom and select Reset and Clean Up. And the second option here is Clean Up Computer.

By selecting this Find button, it's going to look for harmful software on your computer and remove it so that your browser and also other functions can perform at their very best.

Now, in addition to these six steps, if you want to work smarter and faster, be sure to watch this video next where I show you a free extension which just might change the way you work right here within Chrome.

Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Flexible note-taking

If you think that mind mapping is just word clouds and circling things together,

think again. Because in this video, I'm going to show you four new ways in how you can use mind mapping to work smarter, faster, and a whole lot freer. So let's dive in.

When it comes to note-taking, you're probably already familiar with taking your notes within a document or some other note-taking software. But this type of note-taking forces us into some very linear thinking where we start at the top and add things at the bottom. And no matter how I list things out here within my notes,

I'm always going to be drawn to the things at the top of the screen. And maybe if I want these use cases at the top, I'm going to have to select all of this. I'm going to have to cut it, hit Enter a few times, and then paste it just to bring it up here to the top.

Now, I've got this ugly space down below, which I can fix, but then I've got another problem. Maybe I want to reorder the things that I've listed here.

If I want "develop sales strategy, "once again, I've got to sort of copy or cut and paste just to put things in the order that makes the most sense to me. Well, there's a much easier and faster way to take our notes. Here I am within Miro, and I have essentially the same notes

that we saw on the previous screen. But the great thing is that I can quickly and easily reorder anything that I want, and I can move things around as well. If I want these mind mapping features down below and this over here, maybe I want to switch this over here to the left-hand side, I can do so with ease.

And if I want to add new ideas, well, that's pretty quick as well. I'm going to hit this Plus button. And let's say there's a new section that I want to start adding here. I'm going to hit Enter, and I'm going to hit Plus.

And now I can start adding those new ideas.

So maybe "New idea number 1," hit Enter. "New idea number 2," hit Enter. "New idea number 3." You get the idea. But here, right away, I can start to rearrange things in the order that I like.

But not only does this make it easy for me to rearrange information within the section which I've just created, but maybe I feel that this second idea actually should be featured under Other features. Well, all I need to do is drag it, and I can bring it up here into Other features. Maybe this idea as well needs to be grouped up here.

I can drag them both here. And now they're all in the section that I desire. So taking your notes here within a mind map can not only be faster, but also allow you to group your information any way that you like. So if you want to keep like-minded things maybe on the right-hand side, put other things here on the left-hand side.

Another nice benefit is that with just the scroll of your mouse cursor, you can dive into one of your sections and just focus on them. As opposed to a traditional note-taking tool where you're going to be forced to see all of your notes on the same screen,

this can allow you to zoom in just on the information that you want to view at any given time.

Creative brainstorming session

Now, another way in which we can take advantage of mind maps is by using it for brainstorming purposes. Often we'll think of word clouds or word bubbles for brainstorming, but here's another creative way in which you can do so.

Here within Miro, I can set up a list of sticky notes. And what I've done is actually created a grid here just waiting for me to input information.

Now instead of grouping like-minded things together right from the beginning, the purpose of this board is just to freely get out those ideas, and then I can move to a secondary stage of grouping things together.

So for each of these sticky notes, I can start to click inside. And again, like we saw before, I can start to input another idea. Maybe I'm going to click over here,

and here's a secondary idea that I'm thinking about doing as well. And I can just freely create and add things to these notes. In addition, Miro's going to allow me

to share this board with others. So if I want others to contribute or maybe to contribute in real time, we can do so as well. But it gets even better. Once I've input all of my ideas and all of my brainstorming sticky notes, I can start to pull out the ones that are perhaps related. So maybe I'm going to grab this focus group over here

and create a chorus, because maybe I'd like to put these together. I can select them all and maybe give them a similar color in this case. I can also give them a tag if I want. Maybe they're all related to my development team, so I'm going to add that tag here as well.

And just like we saw when it comes to collaborating, we can also add comments and notes. So here I'm going to add a comment. "Let's ask Tim to look into this." Maybe something like that. So now this comment is going to be attached directly to this note.

I can change its color. We can even decide to resolve it maybe at a certain time in the future. But we can go further with this. And maybe opening a new store is related to one of these other ideas. But I want to leave them over here,

sort of in its incubation state. What I'm going to do is grab an arrow, and I'm going to draw something here so I can connect it over here. So no matter what I do with this particular group, no matter where I move it, I can see that there is going to be a relation with this note up above.

So it gives me a lot of flexibility. And depending on how you think or how you do your best brainstorming, Miro gives us a lot of different options to work with.

No more boring meetings

Next up, let's take a look at how we can improve something that most people dread, meetings. First things first, Miro allows us to leave PowerPoint behind. We can include as many images and design elements directly to our boards, including inputting video, so we can keep everything in the same place.

Whether it's a meeting agenda or key points, you can include that right here within your board. But if I simply move over here to the right, you can see that this is so much more than just a presentation.

I have an opportunity to make this engaging and very, very productive. On the right-hand side of my board, I have four different areas that I want us to work through so that we can improve on the past and look forward to the future.

I've got four different sections titled Continue, Stop, Invent, and Act. And what I'd like my team to do is spend the next few minutes to input additional ideas for these different sections. Again, I can share them with as many individuals as I want.

And then they can come in here and add their own sticky notes to each section. So maybe under Continue, what's going to help us move forward? Maybe we need to hire some new staff, something along those lines.

We can take some time and add that information here within these areas. And if you want to make sure that you keep on task, Miro also gives us some additional meeting features here at the top of the screen.

So for example, if I want to set a timer for three minutes or any duration that I like, I can do so right here. And I know from experience, by having a countdown clock on the screen in front of you is one of the best ways to make sure that you keep your meetings from going over time.

But another incredibly helpful feature is the ability to vote on those ideas once they've been submitted. Here I'm going to open up the Voting tab. And first off, I can choose what the section or what that voting area will look like.

So maybe I don't want to look at the top two quadrants. I just want to look at these two areas down below. After I've selected my voting area, I can choose how many votes I would like each individual to have and how long it's going to take us to complete that voting.

When I'm happy with these settings, I can come down here and hit Start. Now it's telling me that the voting session has started. And yes, votes are anonymous. Now, I don't have to participate if I'm just the organizer, but I'm going to select Join the voting so I can show you what this will look like to participants.

So maybe I'm going to give one vote for this one. I'm going to give another vote over here. And actually you can give two of your votes to the same task, or in this case, the same sticky note, if I want. I'm going to say that I'm done. I've submitted my votes.

And I'm also going to choose to end this for everyone. I'm going to say End this session. And in just a few seconds, it will tally up those votes and give me a result

so I can see which is the winner or who is in the lead. Now, of course, in this example, it was just myself. But this can not only be an incredibly engaging exercise, but a very productive one as well. By selecting See all the votes, I can see the breakdown here.

And you can also have multiple voting on these same Miro board. So maybe I had a different focus group or a different part of my team earlier yesterday, and then I have other teams or other meetings. I can keep track of that all right here within my board.

Setting goals that stick

Now, yet another way in which we can use mind maps is for setting goals or planning for the future. Here I've created something in a bit more of a hierarchy structure, and I've titled this 2023 Business Goals.

Rather than putting this in a project management system or just using bullet points within a document, I've decided to do something a little more visual and also a little more colorful.

And again, the great benefit here is that we all think a little differently, and sometimes just visualizing things in a different way can lead us to much better outcomes. So I've decided to hire some more development staff earlier in the month, and I'm going to start a weekly podcast.

And I've decided to break these things down by different categories. So I can see perhaps the difference in terms of what it's going to take to start a podcast versus how we're going to reduce client turnover a little later in the quarter.

And just like we saw with our initial notes, all we need to do is hit this Plus button down below, and we can immediately start to add new ideas. So maybe we want to focus on some keywords here such as "productivity." I'm going to hit Enter here.

Maybe "business tools" is going to be another one, and maybe a "software app." So again, quickly and easily I can input that information. And if I need to move things around, well, that's quick and easy as well.

If I want to change these dates and visualize this in a different way, Miro makes it super easy. Now, to get started with Miro and to explore all of the templates that Miro has to offer, go to miro.com or click the link in the description down below.

And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Viewing deal value and won data on Trello cards

 I've said it before and I'll say it again, please don't use Trello as a CRM without Crmble installed. At first glance, you may think that this Trello board looks pretty typical. But if we take a bit of a closer look, you can see that there's some very important differences.

Number one, we have the deal value listed here on the front of many of our cards so we can see at a glance the value of these clients.

And second of all, and perhaps even more apparent, we have won and lost data visible on the front of the card so we can see which deals we have won and we can also keep track of the deals and why we lost those particular deals. But let's go one step further and open up one of our cards

Adding and editing customer data within a card

because maybe the biggest difference with using Crmble with Trello is that we have access to contact information right here from within the card. No longer do you need to copy and paste things here in the Description field or try to create a large number of custom fields which you can't report on.

You can't really do anything with custom fields that you create here within Trello. Rather, we have that contact information at our fingertips. We can create new contacts directly from each Trello card. And then, we can repurpose them as these customers perhaps come back to us for future sales.

Best of all, we can keep track of that won and lost information. And you know what? I just won this deal so let me select that button so we can keep track of that,

and more importantly, report on that information at a later time. Now these features alone make Crmble essential for using Trello as a CRM but it gets even better.

Accessing the Crmble dashboard

If I come up to the top of my board and select the Crmble button, I have access to the all-new dashboard. Now I can take all of that information, all of the contact information, all the deals that I've won or lost and view it here in something that is so much more meaningful.

Within the Crmble dashboard, I have a win summary in the top left-hand corner so I can see that we've won eight deals, which is better than the five that we won last month, and that we've just surpassed our goal of $20,000.

And even that is a little better than what we did last month at 20 and a half. On the right-hand side, I can see exactly who those eight leads are. If I click on any of these,

they will take me directly back to my Trello card. But here within the dashboard,

I can see which members of my team have been assignedwhen that particular deal was won and the value of the deal. At the bottom of this screen, I can also see a timeline view as to when those deals were won, seeing that certain days and certain weeks in particular have been better for us.

But keep in mind, when it comes to reporting your Trello information, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Reports menu with filters

Here within the Reports menu, we have even more data to look at including our complete sales funnel here on the left-hand side.So at a glance, I can see that we have 28 new leads, 24 in-proposal review, and 18 as a part of a discovery call.

On the top right-hand of the screen, I can highlight and make sticky some of the most important numbers to me. So for example, maybe I want to make sure that we have at least 20% of our leads in proposal review.

I can keep this number visible to me at all times and if I want to change that to something else, I can maybe change this to a discovery call, for example, that's only at 11%, and I can save this view if I want to. We can also filter by that won and lost information.

So if I want to dive down a little bit deeper just into the deals in which we have won, I can use this filter as well. But speaking of filters, that's the real power of Crmble. Here on the top right-hand corner, I can dive deeper even further. I can specify the time range.

I can specify a member of my team. I'm just going to click on Alberto here so I can see what he's been doing recently and I can filter by label. And the great thing here is that you don't have to manage two different systems.

When I select Select labels, these are the labels which I've created within Trello. These aren't specific to Crmble. No matter how many labels I create within Trello, I will have access to them here within the Crmble dashboard

Include or exclude archived reporting data

and reporting features so I can make use of them. But the last checkbox here may be the most powerful and something that we don't want to ignore. As a Trello user,

you will know that you will need to archive certain cards after a certain period of time. For example, after you have won X number of clients, you don't want to necessarily keep them here within the finalized list, or maybe the same could be said

for your future call list. Eventually, you'll want to archive and remove them from the visibility of this board but you certainly don't want to remove themfrom its reporting capabilities. So if we go back to the Crmble interface and select Filters, you can see that I can choose to include the archived information or exclude it. In default mode,

you can see that this has been excluded. We have 28 leads but if I check this box,

it's now going to refresh that data. I now have 40 leads in total and all of my other information has been updated as well. With this simple checkbox, you can keep your Trello boards uncluttered but still always have access to that information right here from within Crmble.

View and import/export contacts

Continuing on the left-hand side of the screen, we have our complete contacts list.

So all of those contacts, which you or members of your team have added within those Trello cards, will remain here so you can quickly and easily find them and dive in a little bit deeper. In this example here, I can see that Ahmed is actually attached

to four different Trello cards here. So I can quickly see at a glance where they are,

the dates related to them when they were created, and the information related to them as well. And of course, if I click on these cards, they will take me directly back to that Trello card. Here on the top right-hand corner, we can also add new from this screen but perhaps more importantly, we can import from any other CRM system

or maybe some other spreadsheet that you are maintaining. And if you ever need to export your Crmble information, you can do so via CSV or Excel.

Send email directly from Trello cards

But if you're still not convinced that Crmble is the best CRM solution for Trello,

let me show you a feature which is my personal favorite. Here we are returned to our Trello board and I'm going to go back and open up this card. Here's this card which we just selected as won a few moments ago. Now it's great that I have access

to their contact information directly here, both their phone number, their work, email address and of course, I can customize as many additional fields here if I like to.

Now I could select this little link here which would open up my default email client but why waste my time when I can email them directly from within the card? If I click on this Gmail icon here, you can see that I can write a message directly from within Trello.

It'll even give me the option to choose from which email address I would like to send this message if I happen to be managing several. Crmble also allows us to create and store as many different templates as we like.

So in this case, I'm going to choose the follow-up template and automatically that customer information is input directly within this template. Last but not least down below, the signature at the bottom, that's coming in directly from my Gmail account. I didn't even have to create this within Trello or within Crmble.

View sent and incoming email from Trello

It is linked directly to my account. Now by hitting Send, this email is sent to that particular client. And if I come down to the Activity section of my Trello card,

I have a preview, a snippet of that precise email. Best of all, if this client decides to reply to my message, their email will appear right here within the Activity section as well. I said it earlier and I'll say it again.

Please don't use Trello as a CRM without Crmble. To learn more and to start your three-week trial, go to crmble.com. And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Sidebar you can access anywhere

You probably spend much of your day here within your web browser, but what if I told you that there was a free Chrome extension that could make your life a lot easier and a whole lot more productive?

Well in today's video, we're taking a look at Manganum, a free Chrome extension which just might change the way you work within your browser.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and to enjoy less stress. And if I go back here to my Drive account,

I really do appreciate the Google side panel. Here on the right-hand side, I can access things such as my calendar, my notes, and my tasks, but the problem is, is that if I go to any other website, if I'm not within Drive, Gmail, or Google Calendar,

I don't have access to that information. Maybe I want to take some notes on the webpage that I'm on, maybe I want to access my calendar, I have to keep switching back and forth or going back to other tabs.

Well with Manganum, no more, because if I slide my cursor just to the left, guess what is revealed? A whole slew of wonderful tools which I can use to make my life that much more productive.

So let me give you a quick tour, here on the left-hand side as you can see, if I just drag my cursor to the left, it will automatically expand, and if I'd like to keep it permanently there, I can come down here and detach the sidebar so it's always available to me.

Don't like it here on the left-hand side, no problem, I can click and drag it, and really put it anywhere that I like. So what are the different features of Manganum? I thought you'd never ask. Let's go through each one of them one by one.

Launchpad for your favorite sites and apps

Starting at the top, we have our launch pad, and remember, all of these features will be available to you on every single page or every single tab that you access.

Here within the launch pad, we start with a Google search, and if we don't like Google search, no problem, we can also change our default to something else such as DuckDuckGo.

Down below, we have our favorites, where we can add the websites that we access most frequently or that we want to have access to, we can quickly just add a website here by entering in the URL and giving it a custom name.

Down below, we have websites that have been most visited, so these are the places that I've been to recently, and if I want to jump back in it, is quick and easy for me to do.

If I want to remove something, I can do that here as well by selecting the trashcan icon. And below that we have Google services, now, I've customized mine to show Gmail, Maps, and Docs, because maybe that's what I access most frequently, but if I go show more, you'll see the other options available to us as well.

If I want to bump up photos, no problem, let me just drag that up over here, I can say show less, and now I am just a single click away from getting to my favorite Google services as well.

But here within the launch pad, perhaps the most helpful tool I believe are the Chrome tools down below where I have one click access to some of the most frequently used or maybe things that you don't use that often but you forget how to get to them, such as clear browsing.

Let me just remind you, if we go the traditional way, I have to click once up here, then I have to click again for more tools, and then I have to click again for clear browsing data, so that's a total of three clicks to get to this screen.

Alternatively, with Manganum, all I have to do is select clear browsing,

and I'm brought immediately to where I want to be, so this is very, very helpful as you quickly get to the places that you would like, quickly get to the places that you want to access.

Add and view calendar events anytime

Next up, within the Manganum toolbar, we have our calendar, and even before I click on it or expose it, I can see that I've got something coming up in 36 minutes, so I can even see that at a glance to make sure that I don't forget any upcoming event.

If I click on that, that's going to expand my calendar, and here I have access to my complete Google Calendar, so I don't have to go switching back and forth or always keeping my Google Calendar tab open, I can have access to all of my events here

and even scroll through to look at a glance as well. If I want to create a new appointment, I can add an event here as well, and I find this especially helpful

when it comes to maybe jumping into a meeting, rather than digging into my email

or going back to my Google calendar tab, I can access that video conferencing link or phone number directly here by clicking within Manganum. The other feature that I particularly like with the Manganum calendar is that beyond just telling me when my next meeting is coming up, it will actually give me a pulsing warning.

Here under settings, you can turn this feature on or off, but if something is coming up within three minutes, you'll see a gentle glowing, a gentle pulse here on the left-hand side of your screen.

Let me show you how that works in real time, here you can see with the Manganum toolbar completely minimized, I've got this soft little amber glowing flash

in the left-hand side of the screen, notifying me that I've got an upcoming meeting. And the great thing is, is that it doesn't matter where I go, if I go to another website,

I'm still going to see that flashing] in the left-hand corner. I can come over here and be reminded, oh, that's right, I've got that meeting coming up in just two minutes time.

Translate language on or off screen

Now below the calendar option, we have a translator, so if we want to quickly type in something and translate it into another language, we can do so here with just a click of a button.

But Manganum makes it even that much easier, here I've come across a website where I'm not exactly sure what the language is and what it's all about, so what I'm going to do is I'm just going to select this text here, and automatically without even clicking anything, it's going to put it into this box, identify that it's Italian,

and translate it for me automatically.

I don't have to do a single thing, all I had to do was select the text that I want translated and it will do the rest for me. And if I need to copy that, it gives me a helpful copy link as well, if I need to paste that somewhere else. It even has audio if I want to listen to it in its original language, or in the language which I've chosen.

Easy access to your task list

Below the translator, we have our tasks, and yes, these are our Google Tasks,

so regardless of where you create the task, it will remain perfectly in sync. In fact, in some ways, I almost like the layout of Manganum's tasks better than the original Google Tasks.

I can still rearrange anything here, I can create a new task here, let me just add a quick new task here. I can add further details, I can go ahead and add a due date, and if I want, I can add sub-tasks as well. Even the sub-task feature seems almost a little more intuitive, a little bit easier to use than the original Google Task.

But have no fear, regardless of where you create these tasks, either here within the Manganum side panel or within Google Tasks themselves,

Quick notes on any page

it will stay perfectly in sync. Now below our tasks, we have our notes section, now unlike the calendar option and tasks, notes are not synced with the familiar Google product, Keep notes.

These notes are only available and attached to the Manganum sidebar, but I still think it can be a great asset as you're wanting to take some very quick sticky notes or other pieces of information, depending on the website that you're visiting.

And just like Google Keep, you can make additional edits such as changing the background color, and of course, we can drag and move these notes

in any order that we like. I find that the notes area is ideal for daily quick notes, maybe things that you're going to remove or declutter once a week or once a day,

but it's so much easier to grab them here rather than having to go to another tab

and find them somewhere else.

Read text messages

Now, the final option available to us within the Manganum taskbar is brand new,

just release this month, and that is SMS, yes, if you would like to access all of your text messages, you can do so right here on the sidebar as well. Now as of this recording,

you cannot respond to your messages, but you can link it directly to your phone

and also receive the same type of pulse that we saw earlier with the calendar if you want to be notified of a new message. So you can view your contacts and view all of your SMS incoming messages directly here from within your browser.

New tab to stay focused

But wait, there's even more than the options here on the left-hand side of our panel.

When you open up a new tab with the Manganum extension installed, you'll be brought to this screen here where you can customize your background and the other options available to you. Here you can see I've got a nice pleasing video background here, I also have the local weather and my local time in the top right-hand corner,

but I can also help myself to be a little more focused and productive by putting in the next task that I want to accomplish, right here at the bottom of the screen, so maybe for me, it's recording this YouTube video, and when I'm complete, I can check it off,

and then add a new one to focus on for the rest of the day. Manganum also gives us an option if we want to view a motivational quote, if we want to have an affirmation,

or in this case, a life timer, which tells me that I have an estimate of about 35 years left, so I better keep on keeping on. Now if you'd like to start using Manganum for yourself, you can go to the Chrome Web Store and install it for free, or you can also go to manganum.app to learn more and install it from the official website as well.

And if you'd like to learn the seven most valuable Chrome browser shortcut keys,

be sure to watch this video next. Thank you so much for watching, and remember,

being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple.

Tag and filter ideas in Walling

Do you want to capture your ideas quickly and easily and then be able to visualize them in a way that makes sense to you? Well, in this video I'm showing you five different ways to organize all of your ideas right here within Walling.

One of the reasons why I keep coming back to Walling is just how easy it is to capture and input information. In this example, I'm looking at redesigning a website homepage and the very first section which I've created is Ideas.

Now in this example, I already have a couple of bricks where I've started to input many of my ideas but if I want to add more all I have to do is double click anywhere on the screen. And maybe I'm going to suggest that we get rid of the slideshow on the homepage.

I can give that as a title here. And then if I want to add some further details, this is slowing down the load time of our home screen, something along those lines there.

Now of course I can add a lot more information here as well including the ability to tag this because this would really be more of an SEO issue in this case. And if I really want this one to stand out, I can also come over here and maybe give it a distinctive color. In addition to text,

we can also make images stand out as we're collecting our ideas. So for example, take a look at more 3D graphics. Maybe that's something else that I'd like us to include. So in this case all I'm going to do is paste an image that I found off of another website and it's nice and clear.

It doesn't just add it as a simple attachment

so I need to go and open it later. If I want to see the image in its full screen I can do so here, but it's just that much more stimulating. It's going to be that much more easier

for myself and members of my team to take a look. Again, I'm going to add a quick tag here because that would fall under the design category but we can also add more complex elements as well. Here you can see I've added a note about adding responsive images.

And if I come down here to the Insert tab you can see the wide range of different things in which we can add including a Code block. So in this case, what I'm going to do is paste a pieceof code, which I grabbed just earlier and now I have it right here as a part of my ideas.

So no longer do I have to reference something to someone else. Now they can come in here, grab this piece of code and actually add it directly to the project or the webpage that we're working on.

And maybe just for further clarity if I want these code snippets to stand out even more

I'm going to give each of these bricks just a different shade or a similar shade I should say, so that they stand out and we can see that they're grouped together.

But if we want to go one step further and be able to filter or save some specific views, we can do that here as well. And that's where the many different views and filters

and the ability to pin those filters become so important. In this case, maybe I want to add this All view to the top of my section, therefore I can just quickly click on this and see everything rather than having to disengage or clear a filter.

But let's add a few more. I'm going to add one here called SEO. I'm going to create that view here. And then what I'm going to do is apply a filter to it. So if I apply this filter her I only want to see the tags that have SEO applied.

I'm going to say filter. That filter is on. And what I can also do is now pin this to the top as well. So if I need to toggle between all of my ideas and see everything within this section or if I just want to narrow it down to SEO

I can do that here quickly and easily. And now just focus on the things that I want.

Board and Kanban view

Now the second way in which we can quickly and easily organize our ideas is by using a Kanban method. I'm going to add a new section down here called Copywriting. So this is where we're going to add some additional ideas here.

But instead of having it visual I'm going to select a Kanban option here as well. So for example, maybe I'm going to add a section called Taglines. I'm going to add another one here called Descriptions.

And then maybe a last one, which is going to be, Call to Actions. I think it's important for us to remember that the Kanban style of viewing your information doesn't have to mean, to do, doing and done or moving things together.

Maybe you would prefer a more column styl or grouping things together as in this manner. Let me go ahead and add a few examples. Now you can see that I've grouped my ideas under these respective column headings, so it's easy to see and easy to work with.

And if I want to, of course I can drag and rearrange that content as well. And don't forget, you're not limited to just adding colors to the bricks themselves, but you can add them to the headers as well.

So in this case, maybe I want descriptions to stand out a bit more because that's where we're lacking the most. I can give that an accent color here as well. And regardless as to how you structure or lay out your ideas, Walling makes it so easy for us to include images or other files.

Let's say in this note here, under descriptions, there's that PowerPoint which is directly related to this. All I need to do is drag and copy it, and now I've got that file directly embedded here. Easy access for myself and my colleagues when we're discussing this particular idea.

Detailed section breakdown

Now, a third way of organizing your information within Walling is by creating a section for one specific topic. Sometimes we can be tempted to create bricks

which have a large number of bullet points, but sometimes if they're too lengthy or too long, things can get lost. So in this case I want to discuss about our target audience here. So I'm going to create a new section called Target Audience.

And instead of creating one brick what I'm going to do is create several bricks

that have key headings or key statistics. So maybe my first brick will be called, Key demographics.That's where we want to focus on those specific numbers and specific data about our clients.

I'm just going to copy and paste the key information for this brick, and then I can add something next to it. Maybe something like, Preferred platforms. What are our clients actually using on a regular basis?

So in this case I can just list things such as, maybe Facebook and YouTube and if I have relevant information to go along with that I can do that as well. Maybe LinkedIn is another place that we want to focus on. And lastly, maybe preferred devices.

Where are people finding us? And should we be more focused on that when we're creating our new website? And maybe we understand that 82% of our clients are finding us on mobile devices. So things like this, we can organize in a bit more of a linear fashion,

key pieces of information that stands out without having to group all of this within a single brick. Also, keep in mind if you need to make edits or changes you can customize each of these sections.

Here you can see under my Target audience I've got three different columns, but if I need more I can come in here and adjust that to my needs. Now I can add another key metric or another key area of my Target audience, and again, keep things nice and slim, nice and compact before I add my next section.

Viewing files in a section

And for that, we're going to look at our fourth way of organizing our information. And for this, I'm going to call this section Files and Assets.

How often have you been looking for a particular file, a particular image, or something else that is relevant to the project that you're working on or the thing that you're brainstorming with?

And sometimes it can be difficult to find it within the brick or the area which you've created. That's where creating a Files or Reference section can be so helpful.

Now, rather than going to find things one at a time, again, Walling makes it super easy to bulk import files and assets. Here on the right hand side, I have a collection

of files that I would like like to add to this section. But just before I do I'm actually going to change the section view from visual to list, and I'll show you why. I'm going to select all of these files and simply just drag them into my list here under Files and Assets.

And what it's going to do is bring all of those files in here easy for me to see and access. Now, you could still change the view here if you wanted to but I find that the list view is perhaps the most functional.

Now because it's a list, it's going to show some check boxes and due dates and who it's assigned to. Don't worry, we can make some simple adjustments. At the top of every section we have the opportunity to customize that section.

So for example, I can remove the Mark complete I can remove the Due Date and the Assigned in this case. So maybe I want to leave the Tags because I'm going to be adding some tags later.] Whatever you are creating

or whatever section you are building out, you have so many different customizable options available to you. And just like with other bricks within Walling we can make our files stand out as well. Maybe I want this particular PDF to stand out.

I'm going to give it a red shade. And this spreadsheet over here I'm going to give it a slightly green shade just so people understand that it's a spreadsheet and maybe it's something that we use more often than the other files in this section.

Visual inspiration section

Now, the fifth way in which we can organize our ideas is by creating an inspiration section. And this is especially helpful if you're wanting to add a number of graphics, screenshots or maybe just links to other web pages or other resources.

Here I've titled this section Inspirations and I've got a number of images already on my desktop. I'm just going to click and drag, drop them here into Inspirations, and now I have them automatically added.

So I can come back in here and take a look at maybe some of the color schemes or some of the other things that we want to consider. But Walling also makes it super easy. If I want to grab this image, it's just click bring it up to my Walling tab and drop and immediately I have that image available to me as well.

So again, a great visual way of grabbing those graphics and keeping them nice and clean in their own section.

Now, I'd love to hear from you next. What questions do you have about organizing ideas right here within Walling? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below. And if you're already a Notion or Trello user you may want to watch this video to see why Walling may be a better solution for you.

Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

This video tutorial is brought to you by Rewind. Are you worried about losing your Trello data or not being able to go back to something you did days or weeks ago?

Don't, because you can always go back with Rewind Backups for Trello. A little more about them a little later in the video. If you go and do a Google search for Trello Consulting, do you know what you'll find? Well, you'll find me at the very top of the list.

No, not the advertisements here. I mean the very first listing. Trello training and consulting with Scott Friesen. Why is that? Well, I've been a Trello user for more than 10 years and I've been providing Trello Consulting for five of those years.

And along the way, I've learned what works and what doesn't when it comes to using Trello with businesses, with projects, really with any type of thing that you're wanting to manage within the Trello space.

So in this video, I'm going to help you build the ultimate Trello project management board, something that can be applied to virtually any industry

and even any size team. And best of all, it's not going to be some massive board. In fact, depending on your screen size, you'll be able to see all seven lists right here within a single board. That's right. We're only going to be using seven lists.

Now I'm going to be building this out live so you can follow along and also understand why I've designed this template the way I do. And yes, this is the exact same template that I use with most of my clients.

So let's dive in. Now, the very first list that we are going to create is not going to be called to do or tasks or projects. In fact, we're going to call it about this board. Why? Far too often, we are collaborating with members who are either new to this board or are managing many other Trello boards as well.

So it's important that we add some vital but simple details here so that they know what they're working with. Now, a few years ago, Trello added the ability to add an about this board area here where we can add a description to our board. But it's kind of buried here in the menu.

No one's coming here out of their own free will. We want to be up front and also be able to share other information here as well. So the very first card that we're going to add here is a description.

This board is used for, and I'm just going to leave it at that for our example here. But this is really intended for you to fill out a couple of sentences, maybe a very short paragraph, just describing what this board is used for and maybe who should be involved in this board.

I'm going to select add card. But before we leave that, we're going to make it stand out even more because otherwise this is just going to look like any other Trello card. So I'm going to open up this card and we're going to make use of the card cover feature.

Here on the right hand side, you can see near the bottom of our add to card options. I'm going to select cover. And in this case, I want to select this full cover option. Maybe I'll choose the color yellow, and then I'm going to choose the right one here.

And the reason that I'm doing that is that I want this text to be big and bold. Not only do I want the color to stand out, but you can see anything that I write within this card, within the card title is going to be big and bold.

So we want to be clear and upfront as to what this board is used for. Now, the second card in this about this board list is going to be for reference, and particularly reference documents or maybe links to other websites.

And once again, I'm going to click on this card and make use of that card cover feature, because again these are things that we don't want to mix or sort or move with other things on this board. We want it to stand out.

So I'm going to use this sort of reddish shade, but maybe I'll leave this card cover here. I don't need it to stand out as bold. In fact, I'd like them to see if there are links to other documents.

Now remember, we don't want to replace Trello for our cloud storage system.] If you're already using Google Drive or Dropbox or OneDrive, that is really the ideal place to keep your files and important documents. But maybe there's something particular to this board that people will be needing to reference on a regular basis.

That's where we can use this card here] and attach certain documents. So under attachments here, we can either link to specific webpages, we can upload PDF files, maybe there's certain images that you would like to be included here as well.

It's that much more handy to have them all in one convenient card, or at least many of them in a single card, so people don't have to be switching between this board and other tabs or other areas on their computer.

The next one on our list is also going to be a type of reference, but here it's going to be labels used on this board. Of course, you can name this any way that you like. I'm going to open up this card, and in this case, once again, just so it stands out a bit, I'm going to make use of that cover feature.

Maybe I'll use the blue color this time around. Now, because this is a brand new board, I actually haven't added any labels. All of these labels are waiting

for me to enter in some options. But let's just say I'm going to give them a few different titles. Maybe this is a priority label here with green. I'm going to save that. Maybe yellow is going to designate that they are a customer. And then maybe one more here.

Let's just say that this one means urgent, something along those lines. Now what's important is that you want to apply all of the labels which you've created to this particular card so it will show up on the front of this card. So when people are looking at what's going on, they can see all of the labels that are available to them.

And don't forget this Trello tip that if you don't see the name of the label here on the front of the card, just click on the label itself. By default, you may only see the colors, but if you click on any of them,] it will expand and it will do that for the entire board.

So you can see clearly what labels are available. Now for our example, I'm going to stop adding cards to this about this board list. But remember, this is an ideal place where you can add reference material or other pieces of information that people would like to or need to go to on an occasional basis.

It's important that it's far left so that everyone can see it and also have easy access to it. But just before we start adding our next list, I'm going to do one more thing here to the title of this list.

And you're going to see me do this for all of the lists in this board as well. And that is to add an emoji at the front. This is something that I've started to do with really all of my boards to make them stand out that much more.

So in this case I've decided to add a little notepad just to make it look like it's a reference style or a reference emoji here.

This is not only helpful as we go through the other lists in this project board, but it's especially powerful when it comes to things such as sorting or maybe viewing your Trello board in the other views here within Trello.

Can also be very helpful when you're accessing Trello] on your mobile device. So something that stands out and makes each list a little more distinctive. So I'm going to start with my emoji here.

I'm going to look for something that's maybe a brain. Why? Well, the very first list where we're starting to take some action and I'm going to title this one brainstorming.

Now, you could title this something such as ideas or things to consider, but I think it's very important] that every tri board has a place where we can dump information, whether it's yourself, maybe it's a personal board, or especially when you're collaborating with a team, you have a safe place where you can input new ideas, new tasks, new things to consider.

But they haven't graduated to an actual task or perhaps an actual due date. So this first location here for brainstorming is going to be where you can maybe triage on a weekly basis, come back and revisit.

Maybe there's some things that will immediately get archived or be deferred to another time, but something that is related to this particular board, the type of work that you're doing, but you can input it on the same screen.

Our next list is where things start to get done, or at least we start to organize the things that we want to accomplish. And again, I'm going to start with an emoji and I think I'm going to pick this finger pointing down because this is where a lot of our attention should be.

Now, you can call this to do or task to accomplish. I'm just going to leave this as to do. But there's a great distinction here between things that we're thinking about or things that we're considering and things that we've committed to. I think it's really important

whether you're using Trello for your personal task list or working on a huge project with many other colleagues that there's a distinction that everything in this to-do list are things that we've committed to, not just ideas, not just things that we'd like to consider. That's what brainstorming or maybe a completely separate board is for.

To do means that we're going to accomplish it. Now at this stage, you may think that the very next list in this list should be done, right? Here are the things we need to do.

And then when they're complete, we move it to done. But there are more than one important list that we want to put in between our to do and our done or completed list, because there are many phases when we are working on a project or even working on given tasks.

So the very first one that I'm going to put in here is in progress, meaning that someone is actually working on this. And don't forget our emoji here, just to make it stand out that much more.

I'm going to use these tools that we're actually working on something here and add to this list. It's so easy to create a to-do list, but who is actually working on that task in the moment? Why are there so many things on our to-do list? Probably because other people are working on other tasks, and we want to spell that out and make it exceptionally clear right here within our Trello board.

Next, I'm going to add a little hourglass to this particular one here. Why an hourglass? Well, I'm particularly using this image here that says hourglass not done because the name of this list is going to be pending.

Now, what exactly do I mean? And what is the difference between in progress and pending? Well in progress means that it's something that you or someone else is actively working on.

But I always like to include a pending list for things that cannot be worked on any further until someone else either gets back to us, someone else delivers a part of work, or maybe replies to an important email.

How often have you been working on a task and you're working within a collaborative environment such as Trello and people maybe ask you, hey, why haven't you finished that task yet? I see that that's been assigned to you for some time.

Meanwhile, what you're doing is actually waiting for a response maybe from a vendor or from a client or waiting for someone else to finish up a portion of their work. Rather than keeping that task within the in progress list, I think having a pending list is much more appropriate.

Now, chances are you will only have very few things here within this pending list. But again, it's about making that distinction between our different stages and our different lists here within Trello.

Pending means that I am waiting for a response or there's nothing else I can do at this moment in time. And don't be afraid to move your cards back and forth between in progress and pending depending on that task, and depending on what information that you're waiting for.

We are also going to add a list which I'm going to start with a stop sign because this means that that particular task or whatever that card represents is actually blocked and you or perhaps other members of your team need some help.

Now, this is a list which is often not used very regularly, and hopefully there is never more than maybe one or two cards in this list at any given time. But especially when you're collaborating with others, I think it's important to have a place where you can call out something and say, listen, I can't get any further with this particular task.

Can I get some assistance? Can someone answer this question? Maybe someone else can bring another alternative. This can also be a safe space for you to put things that can be discussed perhaps at the next team meeting.

Or better yet, you could set up a Trello automation that whenever something is moved into the blocked list, perhaps everyone on the board gets an automatic email notification so that they are aware of that particular task and can jump in and help as needed. If you'd like to learn more about Trello automations,

be sure to click the video here in the top right hand corner of your screen. And now that we have our first six lists added, really there's only one more list that I think we need to add. And yes, that's going to be complete.

I'm going to select this checkbox here, and we can either title it complete, finished, done, whatever you think is most relevant to you and the needs of your particular project board.

As you can see, minus the about this board on the far left hand side of the screen, everything fits in nicely on a standard resolution desktop screen. So we can start our task here in the brainstorming mode.

They can graduate to a to-do and then work their way sometimes through pending, hopefully not very often through blocked, but always to its completed end so that you can efficiently get through your projects.

Now, one more bonus tip is what to add at the top of each of your lists. And what I would recommend is adding a brief description, something along the lines of this.

This list is for tasks that are waiting for input and cannot proceed without that information. After adding that card, I would recommend that you open the card and once again make use of that cover option.

In this case, maybe I'm going to use this green shade here so that this card stands out and won't be confused with other tasks or other cards within this list. Now, are you ever worried about losing your Trello data? Or about someone else messing up your Trello boards? Well, don't be.

That's where Rewind Backups for Trello come into play. Rewind provides automatic daily Trello backups and allows you to restore your boards in just seconds. And best of all is the price.

Rewind Backups starts at just $1 a board per month, so you can be rest assured that your Trello information is safe, secure, and always retrievable. To learn more and get started, go to rewind.com/Scott-Friesen.

And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Getting started with Jotform Sign

Do you want to quickly and easily create documents that you can send to your customers to sign? Well, in this video, I'm going to show you how to create, send, and manage your legally binding documentsin just a few clicks.

To get started, we're going to go to jotform.com and come over here to products and select Jotform Sign.

Now, Jotform is best known as an online form builder, probably the easiest and most powerful builder on the market. And that's great when it comes to document signage because, really, what we're talking about here is a type of form, but we also want to keep track of what is happening.

And, yes, Jotform Sign is free for up to 10 signed documents per month. Once you've signed into your Jotform account, our first step is going to be to come up here and select Create Sign Document.

Now, you can upload any type of PDF document to start creating your signed fields, or you can come over here and select one of the 600 plus ready-made templates.

So, regardless, if you are creating a bill of sale, or a rental agreement, or some other legally binding document, chances are you'll find a template here. But let's go back and show you how easy it is

Upload a PDF and auto-detect fields

to upload your own PDF. So here, I'm going to upload a document. I have something here called a certification form. I'm going to select that. I could add multiple documents at a time if I wanted to. And I'm going to say Create Signable Document.

Now, what it's going to do is not only just upload the document at this point, but it's also going to try and detect those fields. You can see here, at the top of the screen,

it says, detect fields automatically? And we are going to say yes, detect those fields. Jotform Sign is now going to analyze this PDF and see if it can identify all of the fields where we need to sign. And it's done a really, really good job.

You can see all of these blue highlighted areas where it is going to allow the user to input information, whether that's a student number, whether that's a checkbox, and, of course, the signature and date details down below.

Now, I'm going to say Keep All, in this case,

but if there happens to be a few that are missing, no problem. That's where we can go and add our fields here on the left-hand side of the screen.

Add or edit your own fields

So it didn't capture this phone number here. All I need to do is drag this Phone field over and drop it in. Let me just place it here, and maybe I want to space it out just a little bit so it fills this entire field.

And then, on the right-hand side, I can make some additional options if I want to. If I want to change the field label here, or maybe I want to make it required, I can make that option here as well. Really, Jotform Sign gives us a number of advanced options.

So, for example, if I only want to accept phone numbers that match a specific format, I can choose that here and other advanced options as well. In this case, there's one other field that wasn't captured here. No problem.

I've got this little plus button. It recognizes that it's probably another checkbox. Let me just move that up here so that it is in line. And perfect, now I've got that option here as well. In this case, I'm going to want to add what that last option is.

It is the Change of Visa Status or Other. And this is going to be very important.

What I love, of course, is that Jotform Sign has already put in all of this text for me. I've only had to add this last one because it didn't quite catch this last checkbox. But remember, regardless of what you upload into JotForm Sign, all of these fields are now customizable.

Now, at the very top corner of the screen,

Preview document and mobile view

We can always go and preview our document. Let me just toggle this switch, and it's going to show me what this is going to look like for the person that I send it to.

Now, at first glance, you may say this doesn't look very different than what we saw on the other screen, but let me show you one of the key benefits of using a service like JotForm Sign.

Here, you can see, if I decide to click in the Last Name field, rather than entering it directly into this blue shaded area, it's actually going to prompt me for my first and last name, even though the order of the form is last and first. 

What I love about this is that it's making it a little smart because we're so much more used to entering our name first and then last. I can hit Next, but it will correctly put it in the right place.

But these smart fields make it even easier for the recipients who may be accessin or receiving this document on a mobile device. Let me go to the phone preview just to show you very briefly.

Now, of course, the field itself is going to be quite small because, yes, it's a PDF document. But no problem. I can't read these checkboxes. If I start to click on any of them, I am brought up with the full field, which makes it so much easier for me to select my options.

I'm going to select Next. Yes, my major is going to be a commerce degree. And yes, my second major is going to be in the arts. So I don't have to be constrained by zooming in and out of this form.

It makes it that much easier for me to fill out this form regardless of the device that I'm viewing it on.

Adding and managing signers

Coming back to our editable form, we can also highlight who is supposed to sign

or fill in which fields. In this case, you can see that everything has a shade of blue,

but if I scroll down to the very bottom, there's an academic advisor's name. Let's say, in this example, that is me. I don't want the student to fill out this information. I don't want this even to be available to them. Well, all I need to do is click on this field.

And down below, you can see that it's currently assigned to Signer 1, but if I select this dropdown, I can say no, I want to assign that to me. I'm going to go to this next signature. I'm going to make the same change, assign to me, and the date should be assigned to me as well.

Now, you can see that we have a different color indicating that this portion is for my signature, my input, but everything else will be up to the student. And of course, you can have more than just two signers.

You can have multiple signers and put them in a specific order. When we are happy with editing

all of our fields in our form, we want to next come up to Settings. Here, we can give our document a specific or different title than the one that you uploaded. You can also come up here and customize your email settings.

So the default subject will be your signature requested for the particular form, and I can add a custom message down below as well. Lastly, you can set up specific integrations.

So, if you want your signed PDFs to go directly to one of your favorite third-party cloud storage systems,

you can do so right here. So, if there's a particular folder in Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or many others, you can have those signed PDFs go directly to that location. Lastly, we want to come over to the Send tab.

And here, you can see the different recipients. Now, I'm, of course, the Me, that orange shade. Here is my name, and here is my email address. But who are we going to send it to? Well, in this case, I'm going to send it to a test account. Let me input that email address here.

And now, you can see I have Signer 1 and then myself. But we can also customize these options as well. So, for example, it's going to make the most sense in this form that the student, Signer 1, signs first, and then I sign second.

In that case, I want to select the signing order, where Signer 1 is number one, and then I will be number two. If I need to rearrange this, it's as simple as dragging and rearranging that order here.

But, in my case, I want to go back to that original order as we see. We can also select on the Options tab to set an expiration date. We can also send automatic reminder emails.

So, if someone doesn't sign that document right away, you can choose how many days, or maybe even every day, that you'd like to remind them until they've signed that document.

And now that we've double-checked all of our settings, we can select Send To Sign. Jotform Sign will then show us exactly when the form was sent and which signers have been included.

But remember, I won't receive the document just yet, not until the first signer has completed the document.

Managing the signing workflow

Now, within the Jotform Sign inbox, we can keep track of all of the forms which we have created and sent out and also see what the status of those forms are. For example, here you can see that Waiting for Others, we have the document which we just sent out three minutes ago.

So here, I can see that I am waiting for this individual to sign before I can add my signature to the document. You'll notice that I don't have anything waiting for me just yet because I need this individual to sign the document first.

Here, at the top of the screen, we can also make selections such as canceling the document or sending additional email reminders if necessary. But let's jump to our email inbox and see what the user experience is.

How it looks to your users

Here, within my test account, I've just received my invitation to sign that document.

Remember, this is the inbox of signee number one. If I open up this email, you can see it's clear and straight to the point. And of course, I can customize this message if I like.

By clicking the button, it will open up the Jotform Sign viewer, where I can quickly and easily start filling out this sign. Jotform Sign will also try to bring in relevant information,] such as my first and last name, which is already populated, and today's date.

So there are just a few less things that I have to worry about when filling out this document. Once I've filled out all of the required fields, I can come down to the bottom of the screen. Here, I can fill in my name, then add my signature.

Now, of course, I can either use one of the defaults here and change the style or color,

or I can choose to draw my own signature as well if that is preferred. And now, I can choose that date if I need to change it.

Otherwise, I can stick with the default. When I'm all done, all I need to do is select Sign & Complete at the top of the screen, and by accepting and send, this is a legally binding document.

And now, if I jump back to my Jotform Sign inbox, you can see that Waiting for Others has nothing, but now there is something waiting for my signature. And yes, here is the form that the student just completed and filled out below.

Now, what I can do is proceed with signing this document. At this stage, as the second signer, I can choose to review the document and then add my signature down below. And as you saw when we set up this form,

I only have these three fields available to me. So I can add my name here, and then I can add my signature, let's just go with that one there, and say Accept and Send.

Back within the Jotform Sign inbox, I can see the completed document with both signatures and also see a full audit trail and document history, so when the invitations were sent, when they were viewed, and most importantly, when they were signed.

So, if you'd like to collect e-signatures quickly and easily, be sure to check out Jotform Sign by clicking the link in the description below. And if you'd like to learn

how to create your own free mobile app, be sure to watch this video on the screen right now. Thank you so much for watching.

And remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.

In fact, it's very simple.