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Right Inbox

Do you sometimes wish that you could do more with Gmail, or maybe that you could view your inbox in a different way? Well, in this video, I'm sharing with you seven of my favorite Gmail extensions so that you can give your email some superpowers.

Hello, everyone. Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

Now, the first extension on our list is called Right Inbox. And as I open up my Compose menu, you can see right away I've got a number of additional options.

I've got four different buttons here within the message itself, and then down below, just below my Send button, I've got a number of additional options down here as well.

So let's take a look at some of my favorite features here within Right Inbox.

In this case, I am sending an email, and I'm asking someone a question. You know, how does Thursday look for you?

I wanna meet with this individual, but I wanna track when they open this up, and if they click any of the links within my emails as well. Well, Right Inbox, one of its features is the ability to track those emails.

Here, you can see, I can choose if I either want to track the clicks or the opens, or maybe I want to do both. Now that this button is green, when I send this message, I will be able to see when this person actually opens or if they click any of the links within this particular email.

If I open up my Sent folder here within Gmail, I can see this email, which I sent earlier, and I see that I've got a notification. I've got this little green check mark with the number two.

This is letting me know that this individual has opened up this email two times, and I can see exactly when they did so. This can give me some further insights, some further information as to what I should be doing next with this particular client.

My second favorite feature with the Right Inbox extension has to do with using its template feature. Why? Because it's so easy to access. It's right here at the top of my messages.

How many times have you written the same email over and over and over again? When in reality, all you need to do is use the same template.

So in this example, I've got a number of templates that I've already created. In fact, Right Inbox sets you up with a few defaults as well.

Maybe this is a follow-up email. I'm gonna select this option here and then select the button itself, and now you can see, I've got this templated message ready for me to send.

Lastly, before I send this email, I wanna make sure that I'm reminded if this individual doesn't follow up with me. And don't worry, Right Inbox has this built right in.

Down below, we can see this reminder option here, and I can turn this on and choose when I would like to be reminded. For example, I wanna know if this person has not responded to me by tomorrow afternoon.

So I'm gonna select that option. I have a number of other options available here as well.

Maybe I want to make sure that it comes back even if they do reply to me, or I can check this box, and it will watch and see if a reply comes within that timeframe. So you can really customize the way that this reminder works.

Now, I can confidently send this email, and I'll be reminded if this individual doesn't get back to me within that timeframe.

Gmail reverse conversation

Now, the next extension on our list is something that so many of you have requested or asked me about in the comments.

Here, within Gmail, we know that the oldest message will be displayed at the very top, and sometimes you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom to read the most recent message. If you go to Reply, you're gonna be replying at the bottom of the screen.

What if you could change that? Well, the good news is that you can, and you can do it with the Gmail Reverse Conversation.

Here, I'm gonna open up that exact same email, but what? The most recent message is now staring at me in the face on top with my oldest message at the bottom.

Look at this. My reply is at the top as well.

If I hit Reply, I can now reply to that message very traditionally, very much like we see in Outlook and some other email programs, and the rest of my message is down below.

So if you prefer to read your messages with the most recent on top and be able to reply on top, Reverse Gmail Conversation is the extension for you.

Inbox When Ready

Now, the next extension on our list is great for anyone who gets distracted with all of the messages that are staring back at them. As a productivity coach, I encourage my clients to ignore their email for certain stretches of their workday.

Our next extension helps us to do that right here. Inbox When Ready allows you to hide your inbox with just a click of a button.

Here, in the top left-hand corner of the screen, I can select Hide Inbox and now everything is out of the way. I can still compose my messages as I would naturally, but I don't have to see all of the existing messages or new messages as they come in.

This can give me a heightened sense of focus and keep me distraction-free as I go about my day. But it gets even better.

If I click on the Inbox When Ready options here, I can choose the frequency for when I auto-hide my inbox. For example, I can hide it by default when I first get into my Gmail account.

I can hide my inbox after 10 minutes of inactivity, or I can even choose the Enable Impulse Check, meaning that I can dictate how often do I want to check my inbox today.

There's a number of other settings, including time of day and scheduling, in which you can include here as well, but if you wanna be distraction-free and just toggle your inbox on and off, Inbox When Ready might be the solution for you.

Gmail Tabs

Now, the next extension on our list got so many rave reviews and comments when I first introduced it two years ago that I thought I'd bring it back for today's video.

You may have a very long list of labels and categories here on the left-hand side, but there's probably some that you use more frequently than others. So wouldn't it be nice if you could just pin a few of your key labels at the top of the screen?

Well, you can do so with Gmail Tabs. Here, you can see I've got my Inbox tab, but I can quickly and easily go to my Action Required and my Newsletter tab.

These are the exact same labels as you would see here on the left-hand side, but they're just a little bit easier to get to because I have them pinned at the top of my inbox.

At any time, I can go over here and choose to edit these labels if I want to add further ones, or if I want to change the name of the label, but now, I can pin any of the categories or any of the labels that I have over here and easily access them at the top of the screen.

Clearbit Connect

Now, our next extension is ideal for anyone in sales, marketing, entrepreneurship, or maybe just anyone who needs to find a particular email address.

Perhaps I'm wanting to reach out to someone at a particular company, but I don't know their actual email address. All I know is their name.

With the Clearbit Connection extension installed, on the right-hand side of your panel here, we can open up this option and find specific emails. So in this case, maybe I've already typed in a company name, in this case, I'm gonna use Trello as an example.

I'm gonna click on this. What Clearbit is going to do is it's going to give me all of the known email addresses of all the people who work at Trello.

As I sift through this, not only can I see their name, a profile picture in most cases, but I can also see what their title is.

In this case, I'm gonna select this individual. It's gonna open up and give me some further information, including links to their Twitter account and their LinkedIn profile, and now I can email this individual directly.

Grammarly

Now, you've probably heard of the next extension on my list, but I really can't emphasize how important it is to use this on a regular basis.

Grammarly has been helping people craft better messages for many, many years, but chances are you do most of your text-based writing right here within Gmail.

With the Grammarly extension installed, here, you can see, just before I send this message, I've got a number of underlined words. It's very easy for me to see what Grammarly is pointing out to me.

All I need to do is hover over each one and see if I need to correct something. Yes, that's not how you spell wasn't.

I wasn't sure if we. Yeah, I missed a spelling there. I missed an entire letter.

On the next steps. Yeah, that makes more sense if I add, the next steps.

The reason why Grammarly is so important is that you're probably already a very good writer, but sometimes we do things very fast. Sometimes we forget to double-check our work, and that's precisely where Grammarly comes into place.

You can look so much more professional and increase your chances of getting a response by making sure your emails sound and look the way you want.

Zoom for Gmail

Now, the last extension I have on my list today has to do with setting up meetings that much quicker and faster. This is especially if you use Zoom meetings.

Here, on the right-hand side, under the Google taskbar, you can see I have the Zoom extension already installed. When I open up a particular email message, what I can do is have the option to either start a meeting immediately, or I can schedule a meeting in the future.

Not only is this going to allow me to quickly and easily create this meeting and send that link to whomever it is I'm speaking with, but I can access it here without going to a new tab.

Well, I hope you enjoyed today's video, and I would love to hear from you next. What are some Gmail extensions that I missed, or what are some of your favorite extensions that help you get more done as a part of your day?

Be sure to let me know in the comments down below. Thank you so much for watching today's video.

Be sure to give this video a thumbs up and subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel.

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

Why forwarding email in Trello sucks

The ability to forward an email into Trello is nothing new, but it's also not very helpful. Let's take a look at this card as an example.

Here you can see there's an email thread which I've forwarded into Trello, but what am I gonna do with it now? Beyond being a reference place, I can't respond to it, I can't reply to it, and what if this person emails me again in this thread?

Nothing's going to be updated here. Well, fear no more because SendBoard for Trello changes absolutely everything when it comes to email.

Let's take a closer look and see how it's going to benefit you and your business. Hello, everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

Who is SendBoard for and how does it work?

SendBoard for Trello is designed for teams who want to take incoming emails and turn them into actionable items right away. For example, maybe you are managing a support team, maybe you need to create tickets, or maybe you're managing a business like we see here, a pet grooming business, and we want to convert these emails directly into scheduled appointments.

When I open up this card, for example, at first glance, you may say nothing looks terribly different here, but when I scroll down to the activity area, you can see that there's an entire email thread, an entire email conversation, that is not only going on that I can reference it here, but the best thing is, I can reply to it as well.

When you have the SendBoard Power-Up enabled, you will have this button included on your incoming emails. If I click this button, it's gonna open up the SendBoard dialogue, and now not only do we see all of the emails that we saw before, but now I can write this reply directly from within Trello.

For example, in this case, maybe I just wanna send a reminder, "Please remember to show up 15 minutes in advance," or something along those lines. I'm gonna hit Send, that message is now sent using my standard email address, including my proper email signature, and I can see that I've sent it right here as well.

I can view it, other members of my team can view that that email has been sent as well, and if this individual replies to me, I'm gonna see that reply right here within Trello.

Email replies and how they work with SendBoard

Let's continue and take a look at how that looks and feels so that you can see the full benefits of the SendBoard extension. Here I am within the client's inbox and I've just received the email we sent a moment ago.

As you can see, there's nothing here that says Trello, it's coming from the email address that I've always known, the one that I've been using all along, it even includes the email signature. So the client has no idea where that message is coming from.

If I choose to reply to this and say, "Yes, confirmed," something along those lines, I'm gonna keep it nice and simple, and then I'm going to hit Send on this end. Let's go back to our Trello board and see what happens to those who have access to this board.

In just a few seconds, here you can see this exact same card now has a notification bell. Why? Because we've just received a reply to our message.

Now myself or someone else who may be watching this card can open up this card and see a "Confirmed." Perfect, they're ready for their appointment. If I need further detail, I can always click this button and access the full message.

If I want to see more details, including the full thread, all I need to do is expand or collapse this More option. As you can see, all of the features and functionalities that you've come to expect from your email client, including forwarding, replying, or even starting a new email, I can do right here within Trello, using the SendBoard Power-Up.

Viewing all messages and merging emails

Another great feature of SendBoard is being able to see all of the messages from a single user and the ability to merge different cards together. In this example, we can see that we've been having a conversation with someone about bringing their dog in for an appointment.

However, this exact same person has just emailed me, asking if they can reschedule. It actually has to do with this appointment down here, but now we have two different cards.

When I open up this card and if I want to see the full details, I can click on the SendBoard button, and now on the left-hand side, I can see right away that this is another conversation from the exact same person.

So it could be complicated for either myself or for my team to treat these as two different appointments when in reality, they're talking about the same thing. In order to merge cards together, all I need to do is open one of these cards and come over here and select the SendBoard button.

Here, I'm gonna select Merge Card. What it's going to do is look for the current card and say, if I want to keep this card or merge it with another. Because this is the shortcut here, I'm gonna choose to merge this card with another and select Next.

Immediately it's gonna give me this suggestion, because this is the only other Trello card that has a message from the same sender. I can either select this card, which I'm going to in this example, or I could search for any other card on this board.

Here, I'm going to select Next. Lastly, I can choose if I want to keep or not keep any of the comments, attachments, or archive the merged cards. This last option I think is very important.

We may still want to reference this original card somewhere down the line, but we just don't want to see it on the active board. It's also going to include a comment here, which I can edit if I like, just so I know the history of this.

In this case, I'm gonna proceed and select Merge. What's going to happen is that I am brought back to the original card, where the original message started, and here we can see that now I have that message so everything is kept nice and clean.

I have that history of that secondary card, but we no longer have the second card in this list. Myself and my team can provide the best service possible and not be confused by separate incoming messages.

Templated messages with SendBoard

Of course, when managing your email within your business, it's common to receive questions that can be answered by templated answers. The great thing about SendBoard is that you can create as many email responses or templates as necessary.

Let's say in this case that this customer is asking a very common question. I don't wanna waste my time or my team's time replying by writing out the same thing again and again.

So in this case, when I open up the email details, I'm gonna choose to reply to it, but what I'm gonna do is add a template. Here, I've got a couple of different templates that I've created already in advance.

In this case, they're asking about price, so I'm gonna insert this price response. The great thing is, is that we can use merge fields. So I can address that individual by name, I can even sign it by my own name and just have SendBoard do the work itself.

If I include this template, here you can see I've got the link to the pricing plans, I'm addressing to people by their name and in this case, it's my name as well, because I'm the one who is responding. I can add further details if I want, but I can save so much time by having ready-made templates right here from within SendBoard.

SendBoard settings and advanced features

Now that you know how SendBoard works, let's take a look at some of the additional settings that are available to us. On any Trello board, where you have SendBoard enabled, you'll have access to SendBoard here in the top right-hand corner.

The first place we wanna go to is the mailbox, just to show you how easy it is to set this up for yourself. When you start off with SendBoard, you will automatically get a SendBoard address.

In this case, the name here will be the name that you choose for your account, and then you can choose whatever you want in front of the at symbol. In this case, I've got it listed at hello@petcuts.sendboard.com. So you don't even have to create a new email address if you don't want to.

But if you do already have a custom email address, you can input that address here. So people can continue to email the standard address that you're used to.

On the Board tab, we have the choice to choose where we want incoming emails to appear, because perhaps you don't want them to appear on the very first list on your board. So we're given an easy dropdown to choose where we want those emails to arrive.

Lastly, on the Templates board, we have the choice to create an auto reply, which is especially helpful for help desks, or if you're receiving a large quantity of email and you wanna make sure that your clients or customers get an automatic reply.

We can also change the email signature so that it looks professional and matches the signature that you want to display to your clients. Last but not least, in the bottom section, we can edit and change our saved replies.

Just like we saw with our templates, we can create as many as we want so we can customize and be as efficient as we can when it comes to our email messaging.

Using SendBoard with Butler automation

An additional benefit of using SendBoard is that you can use it in combination with Trello Butler automations. That's right.

For example, you could send a templated email when a card is dragged into a particular list. This not only cuts down on so much time, but makes sure that those emails are being sent out when they move to the next stage.

Lastly, let's take a quick look at SendBoard pricing. Good news, you can use SendBoard absolutely for free. Your only limitations is to use it on a single board, but you have no limits when it comes to the total number of users.

Of course, if you need some more features and functionality, their essential plan starts at a very affordable $6 per user. So if you want to send and receive emails in Trello without any friction or perhaps you're using Trello for a help desk, a support team or a CRM, SendBoard is for you.

Be sure to click the link in the description below, to find out more details. Thank you so much for watching today's video.

I hope you subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple

How to start a new website

Are you ready to build your first website with Google Sites? Or perhaps you just need a refresher of all of the features and options.

Well, in this video, I'm gonna give you everything you need to know to get started with Google Sites. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here, at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

First off, if you don't know where to go to access Google Sites, all you need to do is go to your browser's address bar and type in sites.google.com and you'll come to a screen which looks very similar to what you see here. At the very top, we can start a new site by clicking this plus button, or we can choose one of the templates available here.

But down below is where you're going to see all of the sites that you have created, or perhaps websites that others have shared with you. For example, if they've given you editing rights.

So in this case, I have one existing website, but we wanna get started with a new website. I can either hit this plus button and start with a completely blank page, but in some cases I wanna get started a little bit faster.

So I'm gonna choose this template. Either way, you're going to be brought to that website.

You're gonna be brought to a brand new web page. Now, the great thing about starting with a template is that you have many of the features, many of the images and themes and text, things that are ready to go as you start to build out your site.

Using the Insert tab on Google Sites

But let's get familiar with the different menu options and choices available to us. Here on the right-hand side of the screen, we have a tab format with things such as insert, pages, and themes.

Now the insert tab is where you're probably going to be spending most of your time, why? Because this is where we get to add content, where we get to drag and drop different types of content onto our various web pages.

So for example, let's say under this learn more button, I would like to add in this sort of carousel style of these three images with some text down below. All I need to do is click on this and drag it over onto my webpage.

You can see that there's going to be a blue line, which hovers wherever I drag my cursor. That's telling me that that's where this will be inserted when I release my cursor.

So I'm gonna release it right here and here you can see now I've got a few boxes where I can start to add images or possibly a video, and I can edit my text down below. On the right-hand side here, we've got a variety of different things in which we can add to our websites.

Everything from collapsible text, all the way to other Google-related functions, such as maps, Google calendar, YouTube, slides, docs, and a variety of other things, which you will find in Google Drive. So this insert tab is obviously a very important part of the Google Sites menu.

Managing Pages on Google Sites

Next up, we have our pages tab, which is gonna show all of the pages that are included on our website. We started here in the home screen, but if I want to go to my projects pages, all I need to do is click that here.

Now you can see I've got a different page that I can edit and start to manipulate.

Using Themes with Google Sites

And if I want to click the three dots to the right of any of these pages, I can change their functions such as making this the homepage, I can duplicate this page and I can also change its properties such as changing the title or the name of that page as well.

Lastly, we have our themes and here you can see, we can change the theme that we're looking at right now. Currently, we're using this impression theme, but what if I prefer this diplomat theme?

I'm gonna click on it and I'm immediately going to get a preview of that theme. As you can see, not only does it change the title or the header of my websites, but it's also going to change the font and the text and sometimes the layout of other things as well.

If I don't like that color, which it chooses, I can choose another color if I wish or I can actually insert my own hex code if I have something that is particular, let's say to my branding. It'll also give you some choices as to what type of text or what type of font that you would like for this particular theme.

You can change these themes at any time when you are editing your website. However, when first starting off, you might want to actually start by looking at the themes before you get too heavily involved with editing the other components of your website.

We're gonna come back to this insert area in just a moment so that we get comfortable with moving things around, within our respective webpages. But before we do so, let's jump up here and see some of the other options we have available to us.

How to Preview and Share your Site

We do have the ability to undo and redo. Another important area here is the preview button.

Why don't I go back to our homepage just since there's a lot more to look at here. I'm gonna click on the home screen and I'm gonna select this preview icon.

What it's going to do, is it's going to basically show us what this website will look and feel like to people who are actually visiting our website. So here you can see I've got the menu on the left-hand side of the screen.

I can see how things are going to look and feel, and I can even test out and click on the buttons or any active links that I have. Now in the lower right-hand corner, we also have the option to preview our website.

Not only just on a large screen, such as a desktop or perhaps a laptop computer, but also on a phone. This can be very important because your images, in particular, will be laid out and displayed in perhaps a different format than what you're used to when viewing it on your desktop.

You can also preview this in tablet mode, which can be helpful because a tablet is not quite the same as a phone and presented in more of a square format. So you can toggle between these three to make sure that your website looks and feels the way that you want to.

Lastly, we just need to hit this X to exit the preview, and we are returned back to our editing window.

Next up, we have the ability to share a link or copy the link to our website. However, in this case, we can't because we have yet to publish it.

More on that in just a moment. Here we have the option to share this website with others.

Meaning if we want to add collaborators or people who would like to give permission so they can edit this website, we can do so here. If you've shared documents on Google Drive, you'll be very familiar with this window.

It acts and behaves just like you have experienced within Drive. Next up, we have our settings icon, which is gonna give us some important things to consider.

Number one, we can adjust our navigation. For example, in this case, I have what's called a side navigation where I have this collapsible menu on the left-hand side.

But I can change this to top navigation, which might actually be easier for my users where they can actually see the names of all my pages here in the top right-hand corner. So you can toggle that based on your preferences.

You can also adjust the color of that title area. If you want to upload some brand images, such as your own logo, you can do so and/or a favicon.

A favicon is the tiny icon that appears within the address bar. Lastly, we have these three dots where we have a few further options to take a look at including a version history of all of the changes which have been made on your website and you can quickly and easily duplicate that site.

How to Publish your Google Site

Now the most prominent button on the top part of the menu is our publish button. Remember, none of the changes that we make here on any of our web pages will take effect until we actually hit the publish button.

So you can confidently experiment with things. You can use the preview option here, and when you're happy with how everything looks and feels, we can select the publish button here.

Because I haven't published this particular website yet, I'll need to give it a web address. So in this case, let's call this an awesome website for cool people, something like that.

So this is going to be the name of this particular website. As you can see, because I haven't registered a custom domain, I'm going to have this sites.google.com/view in front of that website name.

This is going to be fine when you're first starting out and first putting your website together. But later on, you will most likely want to add a custom domain.

I can hit publish and in this case, now this website is live and if I want to share this link, I can copy this link and share it with whoever I would like to. Let's return back to our insert area here,

How to Add and Edit web page content

because really when it comes to creating a website, it's all about the content on the pages themselves. Below the header area here, you can see that things are divvied up between different sections and they're identified by these little dotted lines, these little gray, horizontal dotted lines.

Now these are not gonna be visible to viewers, this is just for your needs so you can see the spacing and the distinction between these different areas. Now, if you'd like to move any of these sections, so for example, if I want this learn more button to come first, all I need to do is come to the left-hand side, click and drag and now I can move this to a different section of that website.

You can do that with any of the sections here. Google Sites also makes it very easy for us to move and add things around.

So let's say I would like to add a second image to this section here. Over on the right-hand side, all I need to do is select images and I'm gonna say select in this case.

It's going to immediately go to my Google Drive, where I may have an image that I would like to upload here, or I can do so by URL or a Google image search. Of course, I can upload my own images as well.

In this case, I'm gonna grab this image here. I'm going to double click on it and it's going to bring it in at the bottom of this web page.

All I need to do is click and drag it if I want to bring it into this section of the webpage here. Now, if you need to resize any component, all you need to do is select that component so you can see these blue dots, which will surround it.

Now I can click and drag and make this image larger. Although it looks as though it's going to overlap the image on the left, when I release it, what's going to happen is it's going to automatically resize the image beside it.

Each content type will also have further options when you click on them themselves. So here, for example, when I click on this image, I have the choice if I want to crop this image, if I want to uncrop it, if I want to add a link so that when someone clicks this image, it goes somewhere else. Or I can remove this image as well.

The same goes for anything that is text-based. So here you can see on the left-hand side, I've got a description area for this photo.

If I click on it, I can change the text type. I can change the font and size and do other formatting as you see here.

So make sure that you click on an image, click on any type of content to see the other options that are available to you.

Adding and Organizing Pages

Of course, as you continue to build out your website, you're going to want to add new pages and perhaps not all of them need to be listed here within the menu. So let's get comfortable with adding pages, subpages and changing our navigation options.

Here you can see at the very bottom, we have a plus symbol, so we can add a new page. Now by hovering over it, we have the choice to either add a new page or a new link.

Remember, sometimes you may want an option here within the menu, but you're going to link them to an external page or maybe another website altogether. That's where you would use the new link option.

But in most cases, you're gonna want to select a new page. I'm gonna click this button and give this one a name, and I'm just gonna call it new page, for this example.

I'm going to hit done and now you can see, I have this new page within my pages view, but it also appears here within the menu option. Now, if I come over and select the three dots, I can choose to hide it from my navigation.

Meaning if I select this option, now new page is hidden from the menu. You can also see that there's a little line through it, letting me know that it is no longer in the navigation.

But if I want to change that back, I can go here and say, show in navigation. Now, one of the options available to us here is to make something a subpage or to add a subpage.

But in this case, let's say, I want to make this new page, a subpage of my contact page. All I need to do is select it and drag it and hover it over top of any of the other pages that I would like to have it nested under.

So in this case, I'm going to release it and now you can see that it is indented underneath the contact page. Now, what has changed is that if I hover over a contact, you can see that I can go directly to that new page.

But maybe I think this style of menu option is a little messy, and I don't want them to see this new page option here. Well, just as we did before, we can come here and say, hide from navigation.

Now you can see that I no longer have the new page option when I hover over a contact. So depending on your needs, depending on how you want your visitors to access your menu, you can choose this option below.

If I want to, I can also click and drag this and put it in a different section of my website. So in this case, if I hover over the entire page, it's going to be nested or create a subpage there.

However, if I want it as its separate page, I just need to find a line, in between one of my other sites. I'm gonna go ahead and say, show this in navigation.

So it's back in that third position and that's how we can easily and quickly manage all of our pages right here within Google Sites. Now, if you have any further questions about how to use Google Sites, be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Thank you so much for watching today's video and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

PDFescape

I like free, I like simple, and I like to save time. So in this video, I'm taking a look at seven websites that cost absolutely nothing to help you save time as a part of your day.

Hello everyone. Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

And let's jump right in with editing a PDF document.

Now, the first one we're looking at here is something called PDFescape.

Now, what I am needing in many cases is the ability to add fillable fields to existing PDF documents, and PDFescape is great for this purpose.

You can either use the online version or the desktop version, but we're gonna keep everything online for today, so I'm gonna select "Free Online."

Now, in this case, I'm gonna upload a PDF document that I've already created on my computer.

All I need to do is come here and choose that given file.

Here it is. I'm gonna upload it to PDFescape.

And at this stage, I can edit it and add things in a variety of ways.

But what I'm really after is a simple and quick way to add fillable fields.

Here I've created a homework assignment, and I want my students to be able to answer right here within the PDF document.

So all I need to do is come up here to the insert tab and I'm gonna select "Form Field."

Now I can choose if I want to add a checkbox, a radio button, dropdown, whatever I want to add here.

Well, in this particular document, I wanna add a paragraph.

So I'm gonna select text paragraph and then hit the Select button.

And now I can just click and drag with my cursor the area where I want them to be able to provide their answer.

So I want them to answer in a short paragraph form here.

If I wanna duplicate this, all I need to do is right-click and hit duplicate.

Now I've got the exact same size, which is great, so it's nice and uniform.

I'm gonna do that one more time.

I'm gonna hit duplicate, and I've got my third answer down below.

Now I can continue to add things if I want, but in this example, I'm just gonna leave it at these three things here.

On the left-hand side, I'm gonna click this Save and Download icon.

It's gonna download it to my computer, and I'm gonna open it up here.

And look at this, now I've got a fillable field ready for me to use, and I can send this out to my students.

A great website which is absolutely free and easy to use.

GetHuman

Next on our list has to do with finding customer service faster and getting the results that you need, and hopefully, maybe even speaking to a live customer service representative.

How much time have you wasted going to websites trying to find their toll-free number or to get in contact with customer service?

Well, gethuman.com cuts that time down drastically.

So in this case, I'm gonna type in something like "PayPal," for example.

I'm gonna see if I can get some customer support when it comes to PayPal.

What this does is for any company that you type into that search field, it's going to give you its customer service number so you don't have to go searching for it itself.

It's also going to show you the current wait time, how long your average wait is, and the current wait.

And if you want to, you can skip by calling and get the callback right away from this screen.

So this is a fantastic way to get to exactly what you're looking for.

All of the relevant information here that you need.

In fact, if you're wanting even more targeted help, it's even going to show you some of the most common things that people are asking and provide you with a quick solution.

So a great way to find the service and the support that you're after.

Headline Analyzer

Now, the third free service on my list today has to do with creating content or creating catchy titles.

Now, this goes more than just if you are writing a blog or creating videos.

Think of a presentation that you may be giving, think of a headline or the title of a webpage or a website or something else that you're creating.

Well, Headline Studio is a service brought to us by CoSchedule.

And what this does is it analyzes your headlines and gives you some great feedback, telling you if you should improve it, how you can improve it, and how it can stack up against other headlines.

So let's take a look at a few examples here.

Let's say if I say, "These websites are great."

What if I think that that's gonna be a great title?

Let's see what the headline analyzer has to say.

Well, in this case, it's giving me a score of 52.

Which is really not that great because this score is out of 100.

It's telling me that I probably am using too few words, I don't have a great word balance, and it goes into a lot further description and details as to what all of these figures actually mean.

Let's see if we can improve this a little bit.

In this case, I'm gonna say, "How about 7 websites that you should use today?"

What about that?

Is that a better headline than the first one that I typed in here?

A little bit.

It says 59.

What if I take a slightly different approach and I say, "5 reasons why you should stop using these websites."

How about that?

What's that gonna give me for a score?

Hey, that's quite a bit better.

79 as my headline score.

So it doesn't mean that I'm necessarily going to use this for my next video or blog or whatever content that I'm creating, but this can be a great start, and it's an absolutely free tool.

So I can read through this data, I can look at some of the other suggestions that it gives as I try to craft the ideal title or headline for my content.

10 Minute Mail

The next website on our list is all about email.

Especially if you need an email address to sign up for a newsletter or maybe to access a particular tool, but you don't want to be inundated with all of the marketing and all of the other email that you're gonna be receiving from that website.

So this website is called 10 Minute Mail.

And the idea around it is that it gives you a throwaway email address.

Something that you're only going to use for the next 10 minutes or so.

So here you can see I've been given this temporary email address which looks rather nasty, but it's gonna work on almost any site.

So all I need to do is copy this email address and use it to sign up for a new application or a newsletter or to download a free guide.

And what I will do is I will actually receive that email right here on this page.

So I can access the information, I can download the links or the files that are sent to me, but after those 10 minutes are up, I would no longer have access to this email address.

I can move on and be sure that I receive nothing in my actual email account.

So this can be great if you're just needing a quick email address, maybe if you're testing out a service, you can use 10 Minute Mail for those purposes.

Ninite

Now the next free website on our list might just save you the most time of all.

At Ninite.com what you're going to see is a selection of applications.

Applications that you know and love.

Now, the purpose of this site is really when you are setting up a new computer.

Whether you've purchased a new computer, you've acquired a new computer, and you know how time-consuming it is to start from scratch and you have to download and install or update all of the applications that you're already using or you know you will use.

What Ninite does is give you a list of some of the most popular applications.

So for example, let's say I'm setting up a new laptop and I'm gonna say I want both the Chrome and the Firefox browsers here, I wanna use AVG for security, I definitely want Zoom and Skype and maybe I'll just select a few other things such as Paint.NET and maybe a document reader as well.

Now you can select as many of these files and applications as you like, and the very next step is to say Get Your Ninite.

And what you're going to receive is a custom installer/updater.

Meaning that you'll just have one file which will allow you to install all of these applications at once.

You don't have to go from each and every site, first to Chrome, then to Firefox, then to AVG, you can do it all in one page, all in one screen and get you started with that new machine or that new computer that much faster.

G2

Next up on our list is a website that I use all of the time when I am researching new applications and new software for my business, either on my behalf or for someone else.

And it's called G2, formally G2 Crowd.

What G2 does is that it gathers reviews, real user reviews, from a variety of different software.

So, for example, let's say that I'm interested in learning more about ClickUp.

I'm gonna click on this ClickUp icon here, and I can see that there's over 3000 reviews for ClickUp.

So I can either read those reviews here on the left-hand side, but I can also look at the other ratings and breakdowns that it gives.

I especially like the ClickUp comparisons.

They have these comparisons for almost every piece of software that it reviews.

So I can see how ClickUp is going to compare to some of these other options.

But you can also look at things in different categories.

So, for example, if we click on Project Management Software, now it's gonna gather all of the project management software together so I can compare and see how they rank against one another.

So, for example, if I wanna look at the ratings here on G2, I can see that Monday, Trello, ClickUp, and Asana seem to be near the top of the list.

But of course, I can dive in that much deeper and click on how does this rate on quality of support versus ease of use and everything else that is important to me and to my team.

Even if it's a much more obscure piece of software, chances are you will find it here on G2.

AlternativeTo

Now sticking with software, sometimes when you find the ideal software for you, you realize that it costs an awful lot more than you were prepared to pay.

And that's where AlternativeTo comes into play.

You'll find it at alternativeto.net.

So, for example, Adobe has a wonderful suite of many different products, but they're also very expensive.

So, if I'm interested in using Adobe Photoshop, but I really want something that has almost all of the features, maybe even more features than Adobe Photoshop, but I want it for free, I can click on Adobe Photoshop or use the search bar up here and find out what it suggests for me.

Here you can see that each of the alternatives is ranked by likes.

So the very top one here is something called Gimp.

Something that I have used many times in the past as well.

I can click on that link, and I can read more about what this particular piece of software does, and I can even go directly to its official website.

So now I can read the further details if Gimp is the right product for me and to see if it will be a great replacement for Adobe Photoshop.

Well, I hope you enjoyed today's video and I would love to hear from you next.

What are some of your favorite websites that help you save time?

Be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Thank you so much for watching today's video.

I hope you subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel.

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

In fact, it's very simple.

Why you should create online courses

If you provide advice or your expertise as a part of your business, you should be selling online courses. Why? Because you can reach a much wider audience and profit from it at the same time.

So in this video, we're gonna take a look at LearnWorlds, an online course platform for creating, selling, and promoting your online courses.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

Now, when it comes to choosing the best course platform for you, you have a lot of features and a lot of options to choose from.

Marketing features that course creators need

But we're gonna start somewhere where perhaps you didn't expect, and that's gonna be with the marketing side of your course. Any course platform is going to give you the ability to upload videos and PDFs and create quizzes and questionnaires as a part of your course content.

However, a place where a lot of course platforms drop the ball is when it comes to marketing and showcasing your content. Why is this so important?

Well, you can create the absolute best course in your specific domain, but if people can't find it, or if they're not encouraged or enticed to buy your course, it can be all for naught.

Site Builder options in LearnWorlds

We are actually going to start with the site builder part of the LearnWorld interface. So here we are with a template that I've just started working with a few minutes ago.

And one of the things that I love about LearnWorlds is that they're really thinking about you in terms of selling and marketing your course right away.

They have a number of fantastic landing pages like you see here. In fact, you can create an entire website right here within the LearnWorlds interface.

This can be really important because even if you don't have a website right now, or if you don't want to spend all of that time revising your website and creating new pages, LearnWorlds has you covered.

As you can see here in this sample template page that I've created, I can edit any of the text that you see here. I can add images and move things around and immediately start selling my courses.

This is so crucial because if you want people to pay for your content, you need something attractive. You need something that people are going to be enticed to get involved with.

Beyond just having a page like this, LearnWorlds has other things that you can add as well. So for example, we know how important it is to have things such as popups appear to our users from time to time to either encourage them to subscribe to your newsletter or to be aware of new updates related to that course.

I'm just gonna open up this pop-up as an example here. So this is a pop-up, which I've determined I want to appear to my users after 10 seconds on my page.

I want to grab their email address in case they don't actually purchase my course. I can at the very least market to them and send them updates about that course in the future.

As any good marketer will know, you need several times to get your message across and let them know what you're actually offering before you can actually make that sale.

Here at the top of the screen, we can also see that we can add new pages to our site as well. So whether we want to start with a blank page or maybe a new landing page, about us page, even a blog, all of the elements that you have come to expect from any professional website you can do right here within LearnWorlds.

So no matter where you are starting, or maybe you just want to build a separate school just for your courses, you can do that here as well.

The other nice advantage of LearnWorlds compared to many of the other online platforms available is that LearnWorlds is completely white-label.

What does that mean? Well, it means when people come to visit your website, they're not gonna see the LearnWorlds logo up in the corner.

Even as they take your course, they're not gonna see the LearnWorlds logo all over the place. It's truly going to feel like your content and that they're learning directly from you.

Course creation features in LearnWorlds

But of course, no online course platform is going to be able to compete without giving you the ability to create great courses.

So here I am with a course that I started building out earlier this week called Build a Better Business, and right from the get-go, you can see that LearnWorlds helps us with this landing page.

Most online course platforms will jump you right into the content, so whether that's creating a quiz or a welcome message, or just uploading a variety of videos or maybe links to zoom webinars.

But where LearnWorlds directs you first is the sales page to make sure that you've got something that is going to be engaging, something that people are going to be interested in so that they can see how long it will take or what is included in that course.

Maybe an outline of the course itself, a bit about yourself, or whoever is teaching that course right here within this sales page.

So it looks professional. It looks ready for someone to hit this enroll button and get started with your course.

Adding content to your course

Now, up at the top here, we can see the different areas of our course editor. The second one is the content itself, and it's very, very simple to start adding new components.

So here I've started to add a few different sections to my course. Here I've uploaded a few videos and even linked things to YouTube.

I've uploaded a few PDF documents as well, including an audio interview.

All you need to do is select add an activity and then just decide what you want to either upload or link to in this case.

So perhaps I want to look for a PDF document. All I need to do is give it a name. Maybe this is going to be a new worksheet, for example.

And now when I hover over it, I can choose the settings option and upload that document right here.

I can upload it and add a thumbnail. I can give a further description if I want and immediately start to add it here to my course.

Editing uploaded content and video

But one of the great things about LearnWorlds is not only can you add and upload content that you've already created, but you can take that content and enhance it and make it even better.

So let's take a look at this first video as an example. Here to the right, I can select edit the video.

This is something that I've uploaded already previously. It's just a short video clip of me introducing the course.

But what I love about LearnWorlds is that I don't have to rely on my editing skills before I upload my content.

Here you can see on both the top of my editor, but also along the right-hand side, all of the additions that I can make to this video.

One of my favorites happens to be this add interaction option.

So for example, if I click on this, maybe I want to have my viewers click a particular link or jump to a particular part in my course, or maybe there's something outside of my course, such as a YouTube video.

And I wanna give them the option to click on that video right here. So all I need to do is click this, take me there option here, and I can drag it to wherever I want it on the screen.

I think right over here to the right of me, that seems about right. Over here, you can see I've got the option to choose as to when this will take place and I'd like it to happen near the end of this video because perhaps I'm going to be talking about it a little bit later.

So at the very end of this video, that's where I'd like it to appear.

And maybe I'm gonna change this text to something like "watch this video," something along those lines.

And if I hit that gear element, of course, I can add other such things such as when it is clicked, I want them to open a particular link. And this is where I would paste that particular link at this time.

So now when I go to play this video, what's going to happen is that this video, let me just drag it back just a little bit further here, just a few seconds prior.

If I hit play here, you don't see it until I want them to see it, perhaps when I'm actually talking about it. And now they have the opportunity to click that link.

Interactive tools for your participants

Another great interactive tool is the ability to ask your students questions during a video or a particular piece of content.

So for example, here I'm gonna choose this one here, where I'm gonna ask them a true or false question.

So I'm gonna make this selection and here you can see, it probably is best suited here at the bottom of my screen.

Just like you saw me do before, I can obviously change the text here and I can choose what happens when true is selected, or if false is selected, this is especially helpful.

If I want them to jump to a particular part in my course. Again, I can dictate exactly when I want this to appear.

I can even have the video auto-pause at that particular time to give them an option, give them the ability to answer this question.

These are just some of the great tools that can allow you to enhance and make your course material that much more engaging.

Course player view

Of course, as you continue to create your content, it's important to preview from time to time and up here at the top left-hand corner, I can select this preview option and it's going to open up the course player just as my students would view it.

So as you can see here on the left-hand side of the screen, it's easy for them to expand or collapse the different core sections and work their way through the content here.

And on the right-hand side, a nice large player, whether it's video, whether it's content they need to read or engage with, they can see it here all within a white-label experience.

So if you'd like to create your own online courses or perhaps even build your own online school, be sure to check out LearnWorlds.

See the description in the link below for more details.

Thank you so much for watching today's video.

I hope you give this one a thumbs up and subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel.

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

What's covered in this video

Are you new to Acuity Scheduling? Or perhaps you're just not sure what some settings do. Well in this video, I'm gonna show you everything you need to know about all of the settings right here within Acuity Scheduling.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And I'm gonna show you how to set up your availability, how to create your different appointment types and even how to customize your scheduling page. So let's dive in.

Setting up your availability in Acuity Scheduling

Let's get started with setting up your availability. Now, when you first sign into Acuity Scheduling, you'll probably see your Appointment Calendar, whether it's in the daily view that you see here or with any of the views that you can toggle in the top left.

But where we wanna go is on the left-hand side of the menu, under business settings and click availability. This is really the core of your system and where you're going to want to make the most important changes. Now, at the very top, we have our Default Clients Scheduling Limits.

These defaults are going to apply to any of the number of calendars or any of the engagements that you create. Now, of course, we can always go and change individual engagements and individual days, but it's important to start with your default limits, so you don't waste time later. After opening up this tab, we're presented with this general view.

Our first option here has to do with the minimum number of hours before someone can actually book an appointment with you. This is an extremely important setting because if you reduce this down to an hour, this means that someone can click your link or view your calendar and book you as little as 60 minutes from now.

You need to ask yourself, is that enough time for you to prepare or be notified of such an appointment, or if you want to stretch this out? So for example, with my own calendar, I like to give myself 18 hours notification, meaning that someone can only book me at the soonest or at the earliest, 18 hours in advance.

But of course, you can change this to any duration that you like. Now, the next setting is also very important, this is the maximum number of days in advance that an appointment can be scheduled. Now by default, Acuity actually sets this to 365 days, meaning that right now, someone could book you a full year in advance.

But for most of us, we want to keep this in a shorter timeframe, of course, depending on your needs and your business. So in this case, maybe I want to set my maximum to just 30 days. So someone can't access my booking calendar and booked me for some time next year.

Down below, we have a few other options that we should review. Do we want to allow people to reschedule their appointments? This will be checked by default and in most cases you'll want to leave this on. If you have to uncheck this, then that would actually force the client to contact you directly, in some other ways, to let you know that they can't make that appointment or reschedule in some other way.

The second one down below, Cancel Appointments is also important as well. Do you want to set a minimum number of hours before someone can cancel an appointment? So for example, you don't want someone canceling just an hour or two ahead of time because you've already planned out your day.

In this example, we've set it to 12 hours. So we're going to give them the opportunity to cancel or reschedule within that timeframe, but if it's within 12 hours, maybe we are going to charge them for that time nonetheless. The last option here is not gonna be applicable to many of you, at least when you're starting.

It has to do with creating intake forms, which we're not covering here in this particular video. When you make any changes here within Acuity, we wanna make sure that we hit that save button, otherwise none of these changes will be applied.

Now under Default Limits, we have Block Off Time, which is going to allow us to block off either a few hours or multiple days on our calendar. This setting is great, if you have an upcoming vacation, maybe multiple days that you'd like to quickly and easily block off on your calendar.

Remember this is not a default and this is not going to apply to your recurring calendar either. These are just for specific days or for specific hours that you don't want to make available to those who have access to your calendar. Down below, we also have two other important options here.

This first one is our location name. As you can see here, what I have added is my Zoom video conferencing link, meaning, when someone books an appointment with me, they're going to have this displayed within their meaning invitation on their calendar so that they know it is a Zoom video conference, and they can just click the link to access.

To edit this, you just need to click this, which will open up a text box. Here you could include a phone number, here you could include the address of your office, whatever you like. Don't forget to hit save once you've made those changes and you'll be returned to this screen.

To the right, is your direct scheduling link. Now, when you're first creating things, this may not be as important, but this is the link that you're going to want to share with clients, either via email, via text messaging, or however you want to share your calendar.

All you need to do is copy the text, copy the link in this field, you can hit the copy link down below as well, which will copy it to your clipboard, and now we can paste that anywhere that we like. Now down below, this is really the meat and potatoes of our settings here within Acuity Scheduling.

This is where we're going to set both our default hours, but we'll take a look at what our calendar looks like dynamically right now. Here, you can see I have regular hours each and every week. I want to be made available between nine and five, Monday through Thursday.

If I uncheck this option, then I can change to specific days, but in most cases you're going to have a set number of hours or at least regular hours that you're going to be made available for your booking calendar. Now, let's say I'm not available in the afternoon on Wednesdays.

All I need to do is click on this box, and instead I'm gonna type in 12:00 p.m.. I can click outside of this box and it will set that, however, it hasn't saved it until I hit this button down below. The nice thing about Acuity Scheduling, if I need to adjust something else here, it does take natural language.

So if I just put nine dash two and hit enter on my keyboard, or click outside, it's going to convert that to 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.. It's just always a good rule of thumb to double check to make sure that Acuity has the right time set for you.

I'm gonna save those regular hours and now if I scroll down below, you can see my actual calendar has been updated to reflect my regular hours. So this is what people will actually see when they hit my booking calendar.

Now, the nice thing or the difference between this calendar down below, is that we can override specific hours on specific days. So for example, let's say that coming Friday, I want to have availability. I don't usually, and I've set that here as closed on this particular day, but maybe on the 23rd I'm going to make an exception.

All I need to do is click on this box and I'm going to say nine to five, in this case, I'm gonna say set hours. And now you can see I will have availability on that Friday. The same thing goes if I want to remove a particular day, maybe next Wednesday.

I'm gonna come in here and I do not want any availability on that day. All I need to do is delete the amount of time, I can either hit closed or enter the word enclosed, or I can leave it blank and select set hours. Now you can see it's going to view that as closed, no one will be able to book me on that particular date.

Now, before we leave this page, there are two other areas that we want to cover. The first is Clients Scheduling Limits. Now, if we click on this, you will see things that look very similar to our default limits which we edited before.

Keep in mind your default limits, that we set by using this button, will apply to all of your calendars. So for example, if I was to start or create a new booking calendar, these defaults would apply. So it's always good to start with your default, but for each booking calendar, you get to set other choices.

And there's actually some options here that are only going to be specific to that calendar. Once again, we see things such as hours in advance and more than days in the future, allowing clients to set certain limits or parameters. Even though these are the default limits we set, we can come in here and change them for this calendar.

The other one is the number of hours in advance before we cancel. Again, it's taking this number from our default, but we can change it here. It's the next two that are going to be unique to your calendar.

The first one is the number of appointments per time slot. Now, in most cases, especially if you're talking about coaching or consulting, you're going to leave this as one. It's going to be a one to one appointment, but maybe you will want to allow some, either group coaching or allow people to book multiple times, or you're sharing this with other members of your team.

That's where you can increase your number here. Lastly and perhaps most important is the maximum number of appointments. By default, the first option is going to be selected, accept appointments until fully booked.

Meaning if I'm available from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., it's going to allow all of those time slots to be available until I am fully booked. However, there is another option, where we can say accept a maximum number of appointments.

So for example, when it comes to my own consulting business, I choose a maximum number per day and I typically set this to the number two. Meaning I don't want to have more than two consulting engagements per day.

You can also choose this limit based on the number of hours per day, or the number of appointments per week. So depending on what you are offering or what you're booking calendar represents, you can change these maximums as well. Be sure to hit save limits once you've done making any of the changes listed here.

Lastly, we wanna come up here to Calendar Settings. And we click on Calendar Settings, which is actually gotta give us some further information about what this calendar is going to look like. So here is where we can change the name of the calendar.

Here we can include either a brief or a fairly lengthy description. We have up to 500 characters to add in that description, maybe you want to give people who are accessing your page a little bit of direction or what they can expect.

Once again, we have an option for location where we can edit a phone number or include a meeting link as we see here, but we can also add an image as well. So if you want to add the logo of your business, you can do so here.

Lastly, we have areas for email notifications and sending replies too. The first one has to do, if you want to notify someone else or a particular email address when someone books on this calendar, you can add one or more email addresses here.

And send replies to, meaning replies from the clients will be sent to this particular address. Once again, when you're done making changes, hit save and you'll be returned to the availability calendar.

Creating appointment types in Acuity Scheduling

Now that we've set up our availability, let's move on to creating our appointment types. Once again, we want to go to the Business Setting section, and under availability, is the appointment types heading.

Here you can see I've already created two different appointment types, including the consulting engagement and the second one here is a group coaching session, which we saw on the previous screen. But let's start from scratch and create a new type of service.

By clicking this button, we're presented with a new service page with a number of blank options. First off we want to give it a name, so I'm gonna call this a Coaching Session in this case.

If I want to, I can add a longer description by adding this link, if I want to give a little more details. Next up, we want to select how long this appointment will be. In this case, I want to make it 60 minutes in duration.

Now, below this option, we have a very important link, blocking off extra time before or after. I would encourage you to take a look at this and consider this depending on the type of service or the type of booking that you are creating.

By setting the duration for 60 minutes, what this means is this is going to allow to have someone book immediately following this session. So if I'm promising a one-hour coaching session, let's say someone books me from one to 2:00 p.m.

By not blocking off any extra time, another client can book me immediately at 2:00 p.m., right after that first appointment. Maybe I want to give myself some buffer time to either add some notes or reflect on the previous session, or just give myself a breather before jumping in, that's why this block off extra time is so important.

Here I have the option of choosing time both before and after the appointment. In my case, I set both of these to 15 minutes, meaning that I will always have at least 15 minutes before an appointment and 15 minutes after that appointment.

I will never have to worry about jumping immediately in to another type of meeting, whether it's on this calendar or this booking type, or if it's related to something else on my calendar. So make sure to take a look and consider blocking off additional time.

Our next option down below has to do with price. And note, this is just a display options. So perhaps I'm going to be charging $195 for a one-hour session with me. I can include this here and this is what someone will see when they access my booking calendar.

Note, this is just for display purposes and will not force your clients to pay before confirming their booking. If you want to deal with payment in another way or just not display payment, leave this at zero and there will be no mention of price to the clients on the booking calendar.

Down below, you can also add a category if you wish. Now you will have to create your categories yourself, and it's not always necessary to do so. So I'm gonna leave this blank at this point in time.

We also have the choice to add a picture or an image for this particular appointment type, and last but not least, access. Public is the default choice here, meaning that this appointment type, this coaching session, will be available on my main scheduling page.

However, if I make this private, it will not be made available on the public page and I will have to send a direct scheduling link for anyone who would like to book this appointment with me. Last but not least, we select create Appointment Type.

We are brought back to the Appointment Type screen, where we can see this coaching session has now been added. I can either select the Edit Button if I want to make some changes. I can duplicate any of my appointment types, especially if it's very similar to a new one which I want to create.

And last but not least, I have the Direct Scheduling link. So here is the link that I can copy and send to someone who is perhaps wanting a coaching session with me.

Customizing your booking page in Acuity Scheduling

With our availability and different appointment type setup, the last thing we want to look at is customizing the appearance of our booking screen. Now this is so important because this is what people are actually going to see.

Most of the settings that we've dealt with so far are technical, meaning what they can do or when they can book us. But this last one is important because this is what people will see and how it will feel as they actually go through the process.

Our first choice here is to choose if we want to view a monthly template or a daily template, meaning do you want them to see the calendar view of your availability or do you want them to see actual days in between? Now, the great thing about Acuity Scheduling is that it actually gives us a live view here on the right-hand side of the screen.

So here you can see I actually have my three different appointment types for them to choose from. If I click on this coaching session for example, here you can see I've got the days of the week. It's showing me my next five available days available, and then they can just pick a particular time.

However, if I don't like that view, I can choose the monthly view. Once again, I can select that coaching session, and here, the user will have to pick a particular day. Now this will often come down to what your appointments availability distance is.

So for example, if I'm allowing people to book me months in advance, maybe this monthly view makes more sense. However, if most of my clients are going to be accessing me or booking me, within the coming week or the next few business days, perhaps this daily view is better.

Next up is the Business Name. So my calendar name is Scott's Booking Calendar, but this is where I can put the name of my business, so it's displayed on the screen. Here, I can choose a different logo if I want to and show my business name next to the logo or not.

We then have a text field where we can choose a variety of editing options, including adding pictures and adding additional links where we can add descriptions. This is probably the best place for you to give a little bit of direction, encouraging them to select a time that works best for them, and perhaps how excited you are to be working with them or meeting with them in the future.

You can choose a few other defaults here, such as when does the week start on? Is it going to be a Sunday start or a Monday start? What is the appropriate time format for your clients or your area of the world? You can set your default language and very importantly, your default time zone.

Once you've made changes here, don't forget to hit save changes. Now, if you have further questions about how to use Acuity Scheduling by Squarespace, I would encourage you to ask them in the comments down below.

Thank you so much for watching today's video, be sure to subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel, and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult, in fact, it's very simple.

Create new files from the address bar

You already use Google Drive. So now let me help you save some time.

In this video, I'm sharing with you seven tips and tricks to help you save time while using your Drive files. And the first one we want to get to is to create a brand new file, but you know what?

You're not always here within your Drive account. You may be on social media or doing something else with your web browser.

Well, if I need to create a new document, all I need to do is come up to the address bar and type in doc or docs.new, either one will do. And immediately after hitting enter, I will have a brand new Drive document to start with.

Maybe I want to add a new sheet. You can either type in sheet or sheets.new, hit enter and once again we have a brand new spreadsheet to start working with.

We can also do this with slides. In fact, you can use the word deck if you want to, deck.new and that will also allow you to start a brand new presentation.

And last but not least, we can type in form or forms.new and hit enter and we will start a brand new form so quick and easy, allowing you to create a new file, even if you're not within your Drive account.

Drag & drop files from your computer

Next on our list has to do with adding files to our Drive account. And you're probably already used to coming up here to select new and then select file upload or folder upload.

However, if you have the file handy with you, you can just drag and drop it directly into the file that you would like. So maybe I want to plant this one here under my test folder, I'm just gonna drag it and let it go.

And now it's right there waiting for me. I've got that file exactly where I want it to be.

So I don't have to go first and find that place and then go into that file and then select new. I can just drag and drop that file directly into my Drive account.

Using keyboard shortcuts

Now, speaking of saving time, there are a few things that are more time-saving than using keyboard shortcut keys. And there are a lot right here within Drive.

Up in the top right-hand corner, if we select this settings gear icon, the third option is keyboard shortcuts. And here you can search through or scan through all of the different shortcuts that are available to you.

In fact, you can even use this handy dandy search bar to type in something that you're looking for. If you're looking for a particular shortcut, but there must be a faster way to get to the shortcut's menu.

And that is the question mark key. If you type in the question mark key on your keyboard, your keyboard shortcuts menu will immediately pop up here.

Let's take a look at two of my favorite. One of the things that I do quite often here within my Drive account is rename a file.

So for example, if I want to rename this file, I have to right-click and then I need to come here and select rename. Well, there's a quicker way.

As long as I select that file, all I need to do is select N on my keyboard and immediately this rename dialogue will come up, so I can give it a new name, for example, and hit enter.

If I wanna rename this spreadsheet, as long as it's selected, I can hit N on my keyboard and immediately rename it. The next one that I love to use on a frequent basis is the ability to share.

Let's say I want to share this image with someone. Well, as long as it's selected and I hit the period key, it's going to immediately bring up this share dialogue.

So some quick and easy ways to get you to where you want to be. Now speaking of sharing, something that can save you

Share files without certain options

a lot of time and really a lot of headache is getting the proper permissions when you're sharing something.

So let's stick with this example. First, I'm just gonna find the person that I want to share this file with.

And you're probably already familiar with this dropdown here where we can choose to allow them to edit, be a commenter or just be a viewer. So in this case, I might choose them to just be a viewer, but don't forget this little gear icon just up above.

Here we have you additional options, two checkboxes which by default will always be checked. The first one is editors can change permissions and share.

In many cases, I don't want that. I don't want to give someone else the ability to choose who can share this file. So I'll uncheck this.

And then the second one is also important. Viewers and commenters can see the option to download, print and copy.

Well, depending on the file, and depending on whom I'm sharing this with, I may want to uncheck this. This is especially important I find with something like video content, where it's so easy to download that content, and then someone else could do something with that video.

With this unchecked, it's an awful lot harder for them to find the tools and others extensions and apps in order to do so here. So these can be a great thing.

Now, if I go back, I'm returned to my share window and I can add further individuals and hit send. So this is going to save you more headache, but also save you some time, making sure that people don't have access to things that you don't want them to.

Manage version history of Drive files

Now, the next tip on my list has to do with reducing the number of times you need to upload new content and then also share that with all of the same individuals. Something that I used to waste an awful lot of time with is that I would create a file such as this video file and then I would share it with a large number of people, or at least a specific group of people.

And just like we saw before, I gave them specific permission and rights and privileges. But then if I needed to upload a new version of this video, something that I didn't create here within Drive, I'd have to upload a second file and then remember or copy and paste and bring over all of those other individuals.

Well, if you just need to upload a more recent version of that file, all you need to do is right-click and select manage versions. So in this case, we can see when this video was last uploaded, but now I can upload a new version.

So if I go in here and let's go and find the exact video that I'm looking for here, I'm gonna double-click here and I'm gonna upload this new version of this particular video.

Now I can see the version history, but I can be confident that anyone who I've shared this original file with will now see the current version of this video. So no longer do I have to manage multiple files in multiple folders, I can just have the single file but have multiple versions within.

Grab text from Drive images

Now number six on my list happens to be one of my favorites and something that a lot of Google Drive users are not aware that we can do here. Let's say for example, that you come across a social media post or a PDF document or something that is image-based.

So in this case, I've been sent this little paragraph of text or a few different paragraphs of text, and I really like the content here. In fact, I'd like to copy and paste it into another document, or maybe I'd like to edit some of this text.

But I can't do that because this is an image, if I drag across the text, the best I can do is just comment on it. Well, if you want to grab the text from an image, all you need to do is right-click on that image file and then the second option is open with, and we're going to open this with Google Docs.

Now depending on the size of the image and how much text is there, this may take a few seconds, but in a little while, not only will it show us the image here within the Google Doc, but immediately down below, we have all of the text that was contained within that image.

So now what I can do is I can select this. I can copy it, I can edit it. I can do whatever I want when it comes to the image that was originally from this text.

Making Drive folders more findable

Now my last time-saving trick today has to do with finding information that much quicker. And one of the easiest ways to do so is to categorize your files within folders.

Yeah, Scott, that's a no-brainer, we get it. But if you have a long list of folders, sometimes it can still be difficult to find exactly what you are looking for.

And by default, Google Drive creates all of our folders in this sort of graphite or dark gray shade. Well, what you can do is change the color of any of your folders.

So for example, if I want this sales folder to stand out, maybe I'm going to make it a red shade. If I want this finance folder to stand out, I'm gonna come here and select change color and make it a green shade.

Now, whenever I come into this subfolder, these particular folders are really going to jump out and stand out to me. Now another trick that I like to use is actually using emojis or special characters in front because maybe this sales folder is something that I use all the time and I don't want it sorted.

I want sales to show up at the very top. So if I come in here and select rename, or perhaps I should use my shortcut key, remember that's N on our keyboard.

What I can do is add a special character such as a period in front, and now sales is always going to jump to the top of this folder. Now if you wanna get a little more creative, we can rename this again and this time, instead of a period, I'm actually going to add an emoji.

And maybe I'm gonna add something like a money sign, for example, and hit save. Now, that file folder really stands out.

It's always going to be at the top because the emoji is being treated as a special character and I've also got a color-coded folder as well. So you can get creative, especially if you have a long list of folders and a complex folder structure here within Drive.

I hope you enjoyed today's video. And if you did, be sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe right here to the Simpletivity channel.

I'd love to know next, what are some of your favorite Google Drive tips? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

Thank you so much for watching and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Cons of using Google Tasks with your calendar

Elon Musk does not work from a to-do list neither does Bill Gates. In fact, some of the most successful people have never touched a to-do list.

Why? Because they work from a schedule. So in this video, I'm gonna show you how to drag and drop your to-do list using a free app, so it shows up right here on Google Calendar.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. Now, the first thing you're probably saying is wait a minute, can't I do that already with Google Tasks?

And it's true, you can view your tasks here on the right-hand side and add them to your calendar on the left. However, Google Tasks does have some drawbacks.

Number one, there's a limited amount of information in which you can track and categorize here within Google Tasks. Number two, the mobile version requires you to download its own app.

So you can't just use your calendar, you need to use a separate app to manage these tasks. And then last but not least, the tasks themselves here within your calendar, do not actually show up as a duration.

Meaning if I wanna dedicate an hour or maybe two hours for this particular task, I can't do that. I can't click and drag it and expand it out.

I can't open it and set an end time so for example, I wanna work on this from nine to 11:00 AM.

Benefits of adding tasks directly to your calendar

But let's back up just a few steps. Why is it so important that we have our tasks on our calendar and not just on a sidebar or on a separate to-do list?

Well, beyond just blocking out the time itself and having that proper duration, it's so important that we see our tasks in relationship with our other meetings and our other commitments.

One of the things that I see time and time again, is that people defer a large number of tasks to the very next day even without seeing how many other commitments, how many other meetings or events that they have on that day.

And they think that they're going to accomplish six or eight or 15 things when they've got too many other things on their calendar. What makes the most productive people successful is that they block out that time and actually enter in their tasks directly on their schedule, so nothing else can interfere with their focus time.

Lastly, in order for you to work at your productive best and not waste time, it's important to have a single source of truth. One app that you can reference and see everything that's going on with your day.

We often waste so much time switching back and forth between different tabs and different applications and opening different things on our phone, that we waste time and we also lose sight of what's most important to us.

So let me show you how Amplenote can simplify your productivity and also capture your tasks right here on Google Calendar.

How Amplenote works with Google Calendar

So here I am within the Amplenote app and I've already had my Google Calendar synced, so I can see all of my schedules and all of my appointments here in front of me. Now on the right-hand side, I've got some tasks that I'd like to include some time this week, but let's point out some of the key differences.

Not only is it easy to drag and drop my tasks directly onto my schedule which will then appear on my Google Calendar as well, but watch as I drag additional tasks, see the difference between these two?

This one I had already determined would take 45 minutes while this one is going to take a full hour. Let's try get another one on here, which looks like it's only gonna take half an hour, so maybe I can squeeze that in here before lunch as well.

This gives me a lot more powerful tools and powerful options as I manage my schedule throughout the day. Not just viewing my tasks as things that I'm going to cross off, but things that I need to fit in as a part of my schedule.

Task details and priority score in Amplenote

In addition, the tasks here within Amplenote, give us a lot more detail to work with. Here when I click on a task, not only can I change if it's going to be a repeating task and my start date, but I can edit things such as its importance and its urgency.

You may have noticed that some of my tasks have a different color beside them. That is actually based on something which Amplenote calls a task score.

And what it's looking at is the due date, which you have set for this task in addition with, if you've labeled it as important and or urgent. This is going to help you as you manage your tasks to determine what should come next and what should you be working on right now.

But in addition to that, Amplenote also allows us to drag our tasks off of our calendar. So as you reschedule your day, as you're planning for tomorrow, you can quickly move things around and even take them off the calendar.

This is something that Google Tasks with Google Calendar cannot do. You actually have to click on the task itself and manually remove the date in order to remove it from your calendar.

Viewing tasks in Google Calendar

Taking a look within our Google calendar, you can see the three tasks in which I added within Amplenote. So I can see them here and start to work with them as a part of my day.

But because it is a two-way sync, I can still manage them and deal with these tasks here. If I want to drag any of these Amplenote tasks into a different time slot, I can do so here, right within Google calendar.

And these changes will be reflected on the Amplenote's side as well.

How to use Time Boxing with Google Calendar

Now, another one of my favorite features and best productivity tips is to use time boxing. So let's say for example, I want to box out some time tomorrow.

I'm just gonna call this time boxing here on Google Calendar. And I'm gonna block out maybe two hours of time, just some focus time so that I can get caught up before the weekend.

If we jump back to our Amplenote view, you can see this time boxing event which I created, and now I can drag and drop my tasks directly into that box.

So I can fill up that two-hour gap, maybe I didn't quite finish this task over here no problem, I can bring it into this time boxing space which I've already blocked off with my calendar, now I can fit in the tasks that I need to during that time.

Jots, Notes, and Tasks in Amplenote

Now, while Amplenote is great at dragging your tasks directly onto your calendar, there is so much more to this productivity tool. Here on the left-hand side, you can see we actually have three different areas of the Amplenote interface: Jots, notes, tasks and calendar and they're in this order for a reason.

The jots area is for you to jot down quick notes throughout your day. So if you're interrupted or need something to get to a little bit later, get back to Karen about her request, for example.

These are the little things that come up during your day, but they don't just live here, you can also access them within the notes section. Now this note section is full-featured.

So whether you're taking detailed notes, or if you just want to put together a few tasks, as we see here, here's where some of those tasks originated from you can do so right here within Amplenote.

In fact, tasks that you create in notes mode can include everything from pictures, emails, videos, spreadsheets, and more. All of the content linked from your task will be shown whether you're in tasks, calendar, or jots mode.

And the great thing is, is that you can take any of your notes and convert them into a task if you like. So now I've converted this to a task, I can now add this to my calendar and start blocking out my schedule.

And this notes section naturally follows us into our task manager. Where anything that we've designated as a task within our notes will appear here within our task list.

Now you can segment your tasks out in a variety of different ways including tags.

Task Score and how it helps you plan

But here again, we see some of these ultra productivity tools available to us. For example, if I add important to this task, you can see my task score increase, I can change the duration as well.

And if I change the due date to today, you can see how it jumps up to an extremely high task score. Meaning that this is probably what I should be working on next.

It's these types of tools that can really help you to plan out your day and schedule the most important things on your calendar. Keep in mind that this task score is more than just a fun number to look at.

It can help you prioritize and schedule your day in the moment based on decisions you made in the past. So for example, I created this task about one month ago and I set it as important.

So this task score and what you originally set that priority at can be a great way to help you focus in the present.

Last but not least, as we get to our calendar now I can see this at the top of my list and start to add it to my time boxing or somewhere else on my schedule.

Conclusion

So if you're the kind of person who wants to get the most value from every minute of your day, Amplenote was built for you. This app is ideal for taking those tasks and actually placing them on your schedule.

Amplenote comes with a two-week free trial, but for Simpletivity viewers, you'll find details in the description on how to get Amplenote free forever.

Thank you so much for watching today's video and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult in fact, it's very simple.