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Let's get so much more out of archiving and setting reminders here within Google Keep. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.

Today, I want to take a closer look at two features within Google Keep: the archive feature and the reminder feature. I'll show you some new ways to use these features to get more out of your note-taking and organizing all of your information within Keep.

A common refrain that I hear is that people have too many notes and too much information on the Google Keep home screen. By using the archive function, we can find a more efficient way to keep the home screen nice and clear.

You're probably already familiar with adding labels to your notes. Here you see I have a few sample notes with labels like work, family, and personal.

If I select the label on the left-hand side, I can quickly narrow down and see just those notes. For example, I can see just my work notes or my single family note.

But when I go back to the home screen, all the notes are presented together, somewhat jumbled. I can drag them side-by-side to group work together, but you may have 50 or even 100 notes staring back at you on the home screen.

One great workaround is to use the archive function. Don't be scared of using archive within Keep; archive does not mean that it's going to put the note in some kind of hidden, hard-to-reach place.

When you archive a note within Keep, it essentially just removes it from the home screen. Let me give you an example.

Here are my three work notes at the top. I'm going to select archive on all three of them, and of course, they have now been removed from my home screen.

If I select my work label on the left-hand side, there they are, ready for me to continue to interact with. I can add notes, add further content, pictures, or check off these things on my to-do list.

They are fully functional for me to use and manage, whether I'm on the desktop view or on a mobile device. You may want to consider getting into the habit of archiving almost everything within Google Keep.

This keeps your home screen nice and clean. As you see here, I have no notes at the moment, but if I go to my labels, I can see them, interact with them, and deal with them.

This does not affect your ability to search for them or add further information. It simply keeps them away from your home screen, and you can find them within your labels.

I'm going to unarchive this one for a second just to show you that unarchived notes within labels appear at the top, and your archived notes appear at the bottom. Next up, I want to show you a new way of using the remind option or perhaps a way you haven't used before.

You may be familiar with applying a reminder to some of your notes. One of the great benefits of applying a reminder within Google Keep is that this will also appear on your Google Calendar.

You can see it, read, and interact with that note within Google Calendar. But what many people don't make use of is using a recurring reminder for some of their notes or perhaps a checklist.

Here I have a note that says "review all comments on my YouTube channel," and let's say I'd like to do this once a week. I'm going to start by picking a specific date and time because I want to make sure it's on a Monday.

I'm going to select the next Monday, and I'm going to select a specific time, say Monday morning at 8 a.m. This last option by default is set to "does not repeat," but I'm going to select it and choose weekly.

You can select a different option or choose custom to give you many more choices as to how you'd like this recurring reminder to behave. But in this case, I'm just going to select weekly.

Starting this Monday at 8 a.m., it's going to give me this reminder. I select save, and now I have almost a new type of label indicating when this reminder will occur.

It shows the reminder and that it is recurring. The great thing is that I can select the reminders option in the menu, and it will filter all of my notes that have a reminder associated with them.

Here you can see both of these are going to come up at the same time. I can edit the time if I don't want them to appear simultaneously, but I can quickly glance at all the notes with reminders attached.

If I want to go one step further, if this is a work activity, I can add that work label. You can have more than one label attached to a single note.

Lastly, I hit archive once again, and I've got a clean home screen here on the front page of Google Keep. Maybe I only want to keep my tasks or notes from today on this screen and archive everything at the end of the day.

This keeps everything nice and clean. But if I go into work, I can see all of my work notes, and if I select reminders, I can only see those notes which will remind me in the future.

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

What are some of your favorite tips to get the most out of Google Keep as you manage all of your notes, information, and to-dos? Be sure to leave your answer in the comments below.

Thank you so much for watching. If you liked this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up, leave me a comment, and don't forget to subscribe.

If you'd like to see more Simpletivity, you can watch another video right here. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult; in fact, it's very simple.

Shh, do you use spreadsheets as a part of your workday? Do you wish that you could share or connect multiple spreadsheets together with just a few clicks?

In today's video, we are taking a look at Sheetgo, a web platform that makes it so much easier for you to connect multiple spreadsheets and also share that data with other spreadsheet users. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity.

Today we are taking a deeper look at Sheetgo, and I'm going to share with you three different ways to use the Sheetgo service. I want to show you how you can share data from one or more worksheets and bring it into one worksheet.

I want to show you how you can use Microsoft Excel data and share that with a Google Sheets user. Sometimes we have our own personal preferences, right, as to which type of tool we like to use and the tools that others are using as well.

Lastly, I want to show you how to merge data from multiple workbooks and bring them into a single workbook, consolidating all of that data. So let's take a closer look at Sheetgo.

Example

Let's start out by taking a look at a simple example. Here I have a sample spreadsheet where I have some basic product information, things like inventory, quantity, and the price of each of these products.

On a separate and distinct spreadsheet, I have my sales data, which either I manage, or it could be another member of my team. I would love to have this information visible somewhere within this spreadsheet, maybe have it appear as a separate tab.

With Sheetgo, we can do exactly that. Let's go over to the Sheetgo web platform.

Making a Connection

Here you can see I have not yet made a connection. To get started, all we need to do is hit the plus button here on the bottom right-hand corner.

In order to use Sheetgo, all of your spreadsheets that you want to connect, consolidate, or merge must be stored on Google Drive. But that does not necessarily mean that it has to be a Google Sheet.

As I'm going to show you in today's second example, you can use Microsoft Excel or any other type of spreadsheet as long as it is stored within Google Drive. So in this case, we need to get started by selecting a data source.

I'm going to select "Add Source," and it's gonna show me all of the sheets that I have available to me within my Google Drive account. In this case, I want to use the sample data as the data source, so I'm going to select that.

My second choice here is the data destination, so I'm gonna select this option. You can start a brand new spreadsheet if you want; that's the default option here within Sheetgo.

But I already have a spreadsheet where I want this information to go, so I'm going to say "Change Destination," and I'm gonna select the Sheetgo destination. I've made a very easy label so I remember where I want it to go.

I've got my data source, I've got my data destination, and the last option here is settings. There are a lot of settings you can alter or change here.

You can change the connection name, for example. You can also change if you want automatic updates or not.

I'm gonna leave that disabled just for now so I can show you how things work. Now that I've made these three choices, I can select the checkmark here to save that connection.

Now I have made my very first connection. Here you see the name of it, the spreadsheet connecting, and scheduling is disabled.

The last update was just now. If I go back to this spreadsheet,

New Tab

You will notice I have a brand new tab at the bottom of my sheet, and look at this, it is the name of the connection that I just made. If I click on it, here I have all of the exact same information as the other spreadsheet I referred to earlier.

Now I can always have the latest or most current information here within this original spreadsheet. Maybe I'm in charge of this tab, and this is all the things I need to work with, all the things I need to change or update.

But whenever I want to look at our sales data, I can simply click on this tab below. I may not even be the owner of this information; someone else may be dealing with this information and updating it.

In our next example, let's see how we can share information from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or perhaps a CSV file into other Google Sheets. If you're not familiar with the Google Drive plugin for Microsoft Office, I'll be sure to leave a link to this add-on in the description below.

This allows you to save any Microsoft Office file directly to your Google Drive account, and that's what we're going to be doing here. When you have the plugin installed, all you need to do is select "Save As," and you can save directly to Google Drive.

Of course, you can continue to edit and manage your information here within perhaps your preferred tool or application. We can continue to edit here within Microsoft Excel.

To make the connection, let's go back to our Sheetgo web platform. We are going to hit the plus button, and we need to add our source.

Because we've been using the plugin, that Microsoft Excel or CSV file is now saved within Google Drive, so that is the data source. As for a data destination, let's use the same destination we used last time, the Sheetgo destination.

Lastly, under settings, we can give it a different name. I'm going to call this one "Customer Data" so we can see the difference here.

I'll select the checkmark. Now, this may take a few seconds to make the initial connection.

Here you see the name of this particular connection, where it is going, and the connection has just been made. Let's go back to that original spreadsheet.

Here you see again at the bottom we now have a new tab, a customer data tab, and now we have all the exact same information that we have in our original Excel file. I can continue to edit that information within my original Microsoft Excel file, and every time I save it, it will be updated here within this particular Google Sheet, all by using the Sheetgo connection platform.

Merging Spreadsheets

Our third Sheetgo example may just be my favorite and most valuable to you. In this case, we are going to be merging three separate spreadsheets into one.

Often you may be dealing with information in multiple spreadsheets, different pieces of information, but you'd like to see all of that information in one. Maybe it makes sense to have separate spreadsheets for different sales representatives or for different projects that you are working on, but you'd like to see everything in one single spreadsheet.

Here I have Inventory A, B, and C, all with different information, but I'd like to see them all in this spreadsheet, Inventory All Sites. So let's see how we can set things up.

Let's go back to the Sheetgo web platform, and we are going to select the plus button. Now again, we're gonna add a source, but this time we are going to be adding three sources: Inventory A, Inventory B, and Inventory C, because we want to merge these three spreadsheets into one.

The data destination could be a brand new spreadsheet, but I've actually selected one already. I've created this Inventory All Sites spreadsheet, so that's where I want the information to go.

Under settings, I can always give a connection name. In this case, I'm gonna say "Inventory Merge" just so I can see it later.

I select the checkbox, which is saving the connection, and it may take a few seconds for the merge to take place, for the connection across those three spreadsheets to take place. I should see a notification—there we go, the connection "Inventory Merge" was updated.

Inventory Merge

If I go to my Inventory All Sites, here you can see I have a brand new tab called "Inventory Merge," remember what I named it. Now all of my data is merged together.

I have all of the information from all three of my spreadsheets in a single view. Remember, I can set up automatic updates or manual updates, so my other team members can continue to work in their individual spreadsheets.

Or maybe I'm working with these individual spreadsheets, but I can always come back and see that merged data here. If you would like to try out Sheetgo, be sure to click the link in the description below.

You can try Sheetgo for free and tell me how you enjoy connecting and sharing your information amongst multiple spreadsheets. Thank you so much for watching.

If you liked today's video, be sure to give it a thumbs up, leave me a comment, and don't forget to subscribe. If you'd like to watch even more Simpletivity, you can click on another video right here.

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

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. You know, one of the most common questions I receive is, how do I select the highest priority item on my to-do list?

You've probably looked down at your tasks and been puzzled as to what you should be working on next. Well, I want to share with you three questions that will help you determine your highest priority item.

Note that these are three distinct questions, so listen carefully to find out which one will work best for you. The very first question on our list is this: if you could only select one task to accomplish today, which one would it be?

In other words, if you had to defer every single item on your to-do list except one, which one would you pick? By applying limitations to our to-do lists, it allows us to zero in on our most important work.

So put yourself in that mind frame. Pretend that you can only accomplish one thing today— which one of all the things on your to-do list would you select next?

Now, the second question comes from Gary Keller and his book *The One Thing*. Gary suggests that we ask the following question: which task, once completed, will make everything else easier or unnecessary?

The reason why I love this question is that it puts your entire workday in perspective. It allows you to analyze your entire task list and identify the one thing which is going to have a powerful impact on everything else in your day.

So if you can identify which thing is going to make everything else easier or unnecessary, chances are you should start working on that immediately. The third and final question works like this: as you analyze each individual item on your to-do list, ask yourself, what's the worst possible thing that could happen if you don't accomplish that task today?

For example, are people going to be upset with you? Are you going to start receiving nasty email messages or messages via text or social media?

Are you going to start losing income if you don't accomplish that task today? I realize this puts your to-do lists in somewhat of a negative light, but perhaps that's what makes it so powerful.

In fact, many of my clients find that this is their favorite question because it helps them determine what their number one priority is. So ask yourself, what's the worst possible thing that could happen if you don't do that task today?

You may find out you can defer it or put it lower on your priority list. So there you have it, three questions to help you determine what you should be working on next.

Now I'd love to hear from you. Which of those three questions are going to be most helpful to you as you reprioritize your to-do list?

Or do you have a particular question that works well in your situation? Be sure to share it with me in the comments below.

Thank you so much for watching. If you liked this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up, leave me a comment, and don't forget to subscribe.

If you'd like to watch another Simpletivity video, you can click right here. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult in fact it's very simple.

Shh, is there a better way to sync your Trello cards with your calendar? Yes, there is, and I'm going to show you how.

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

Common Complaints

You know, one of the most common complaints I hear about the calendar sync within Trello is that it takes so long for changes to appear on your online calendar.

Trello Changes

The reason for that is when you make a change after you've set up your calendar sync using the calendar power-up, changes made within your Trello board can sometimes take as many as several hours before they are reflected on your calendar. That can be difficult as you're making changes and wanting to ensure that sync is still intact.

No Edit Button

But there's another issue that many of us complain about: even though I can see that Trello card appear in my calendar, I can't make any changes within my calendar. There's no edit button; all I can do is get that direct link to go back to the card, but I can't actually adjust this due date.

Overview

Today, I want to introduce you to the Trello Connector by Cronofy, which gives you a true two-way sync. I'm also going to show you how to set it up without using up any power-ups within Trello.

Online Calendar

Let's get started with my online calendar. Here you can see I've got a bit of duplication going on between events.

You can see I have some in green, and then I have some all-blue events as all-day events up top. What I've got going on here is I've got one sync using the traditional or standard calendar power-up within Trello (those are the green ones), and here up above, I have the Cronofy Trello Connector sync going on as all-day events.

Due Dates

Another issue with the traditional sync is that every due date within Trello must have a corresponding time as well. Trello doesn't allow you to select an all-day event.

Here you see I've got this due date for July 19th, and it's due at 12:00 noon. I can change this time, but every due date must have a time, which can be awkward when you see those cards in your calendar.

AllDay Events

Often, those cards represent a due date for a task, so it doesn't really have a specific time like 8:00 in the morning or 5:00 in the afternoon. Therefore, some of us may prefer to have them appear as all-day events, and that's exactly what you can do with the Cronofy Connector.

You don't have to have them show up as all-day events, but in this example, I've chosen to show them as all-day events rather than just specific times. That's one of the nice features of having this sync with the Trello Connector by Cronofy.

But let's get back to the bigger issue: the delay and the ability to edit directly from within your Google Calendar. For example, let's say that I am in my Trello board here and I want to make a change to this one here; it's due on July 21st, but you know what, I need to bump up this request.

Making a Change

So I'm gonna select July 19th, pushing it ahead two days. I'm going to hit save, close this card, and immediately go to my Google Calendar.

Refresh

I'm going to hit refresh on this page, and let's see what happens. After hitting refresh, you will notice that Trello card has moved from the 21st to the 19th, just like I told it to in Trello.

But notice the traditional sync is still here on July 21st at 12:00 noon, and it might not move for some time, even though I have that power-up and I have that URL sync set up. It might take a few hours before this shows up over here.

So it's almost an immediate sync when you change a due date within Trello; it's gonna update your online calendar immediately. That is fantastic.

But let's look at it from the other direction here from within Google Calendar. If I want to change something about this team meeting agenda in the traditional sync, of course, there's no edit button.

I can go directly to the card if I like, but there's no way that I can change this due date. However, with the Cronofy sync, I can open up this event, and you'll see I have an edit button.

Save

If I click on this and say, "You know what, I want to push this out to Saturday the 21st," and I'm going to hit save, now we see it changed over here. Here's the team meeting; it's moved to the 21st.

But I'm sure some of you are probably thinking, "Wait a minute, Scott, have you broken your Trello board? What's going to happen on the Trello side?"

Trello Board

Well, I'm going to go over to my Trello board and refresh this page for just a second. Now here is that same card—initially, it was a due date of July 19th, and we pushed it to July 21st.

Now here's something that I've noticed as I've been working with the Cronofy Connector: if we open up this card to see a few more details about the due date, you'll see it actually didn't change it quite to July 21st, but it did change it to July 20th at 5:00 p.m. I believe this may be hard-coded into this service as an end-of-day or end-of-workday setting.

If I am using the all-day events view (remember, I'm using the all-day events view here in Google Calendar), what it is going to do is set that due date for the end of the previous workday. So I've noticed that when making changes not within Trello but within your calendar service, and you're using the all-day event, it is going to default to the previous date at 5:00 p.m., which may not be such a bad thing.

This allows you to complete that task or whatever this card may represent in advance of that due date. But the important thing here is that I can mix and match—I can change things within Google Calendar, or I can change things where I feel more comfortable within my Trello board, and it is going to be updated immediately.

You can see I still have that team meeting (the one that I just changed) still sitting here on the 19th. It's been a couple of minutes since I changed this one—the "reach out to Leslie"—remember, I changed this to the 19th.

That looks perfectly fine, right? It's due on the 19th in Trello and on my Google Calendar, but it's still sitting here using the traditional method.

Power Up

Now, the one last thing I want to point out with using the Trello Connector by Cronofy is that you don't actually have to use up a power-up. There is a Cronofy power-up that you can select from the power-up menu within Trello.

However, if you go directly to trello.cronofy.com, you can set it up yourself without wasting another power-up. That's right, you can make use of another power-up within Trello and then use the connector on top of it.

Let me just show you one last thing in terms of the setup and the different options you have within the Cronofy Connector. This is just the simple setup to create that connection—you can select which boards you want to sync to your calendar.

You can also decide if you only want boards assigned to you or perhaps you want to see all cards that have a due date as it pertains to these boards. Then, on the calendar side, once you select the calendar you want to sync to, you can choose if it's either busy or free—how you want it to appear on your calendar.

Here, as I showed you earlier, you can choose if you want those cards to show as a full-day event or if you'd like them to show at a specific duration. Remember, the Trello default duration is always one hour, from 12:00 to 1:00, because my due dates within Trello are all at 12:00 noon.

So it's going to show up as an hour, but if you'd like it to show up as only 15 minutes or maybe three hours, you can make that distinction here. I almost forgot—this little bonus is that you can enable reminders.

Let's go back into one more comparison. If I open up this traditional calendar sync, you will see that there are no reminders attached to this due date.

However, if I open up the Cronofy sync, guess what? I've told it that I want a notification the day before at 11:00 p.m., so you can enable that as well.

Outro

I hope you have fun trying out the Trello Connector by Cronofy. I'd love to hear what else bugs you or frustrates you with Trello or any of the Trello power-ups.

Perhaps I have a solution, or I can take a look at another workaround in a future video. So be sure to leave your comments down below.

Thank you so much for watching. If you liked this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up, leave me a comment, and don't forget to subscribe.

If you'd like to watch another Simpletivity video, you can click right here. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult; in fact, it's very simple.

Are you looking for a better way to start your day? In today's video, I share with you three steps to building a better morning routine.

If you want to have your most productive day, you need to start off on the right foot, and that starts with having an effective morning routine. I want to share with you three different components that I encourage people to include in their morning routine.

You can mix and match these three different areas, but I strongly encourage that you incorporate them into your morning. It doesn't really matter what time of day you wake up, as long as you include these three factors, you're going to set yourself up for a very productive day.

Exercise

The first thing you should include in your morning routine is some form of exercise. I really don't care what it is. It could be running, going for a brisk walk, or working out with weights or a stationary bike.

The important thing is that you're breaking some kind of sweat first thing in the morning. This does so much more than just physically benefit your body. It helps you mentally as well.

By getting up and getting active sometime in the first hour of your day, you are setting yourself up for more productivity and more effectiveness in other components of your day. For example, I can tell immediately at around 10 a.m. if I have or have not exercised that day because I'm just not as energetic, clear with my work, or focused.

Try to find some time to fit in some exercise. It doesn't have to be a half hour. Even as little as ten or fifteen minutes will do. Be sure to include exercise sometime in your morning routine.

Reading

The second thing I want you to include in your morning routine is reading, but not just reading anything. I want you to read something uplifting. When we first wake up in the morning, it's so easy to grab our smartphones and start browsing our social media feeds and perhaps reading the latest news stories.

But I want you to start your day off on a positive note, so let's give news and social media a break. Perhaps there's a good book that you'd like to start reading in the morning, or maybe there's a particular blogger you like to subscribe to and you'd like to read his or her articles at that time of day.

No matter what it is, just make sure that it's positive and uplifting. A way that you can start your day with a smile. So, either before or after your exercise, be sure to include some positive and uplifting reading.

Do Something You Dislike

The third building block that I'd like you to include in your morning routine is doing something you dislike. You might be thinking, why would I throw this into your morning routine?

I think it's important to tackle something in that first hour that you can get done early so you don't have to come back to it later in the day, or at the very least, perhaps you can ignore it for several hours. Let me give you a perfect example.

I will often spend about half an hour with my email sometime in the first hour of my day. The reason I do it is, number one, I want to spend less time with email later in the morning. After I've spent that first half hour with email, I will often not look at my inbox again until around noon.

Is there something in your day, something in your work schedule, that you could do early on so you don't have to touch it again or at the very least don't have to think about it again for several hours? Maybe it's scheduling appointments or reviewing an income balance sheet.

Whatever it is that you're not wild about doing, see if you can include it in that very first hour. It may seem like a negative thing to throw into your morning routine, but it's going to pay off as a major positive later on in the day.

Outro

So there you have it. Three components to a better morning routine: get some exercise, read something uplifting, and do something you don't like. Now I'd love to hear from you. What is something that you always include in your morning routine?

Be sure to leave me a comment down below. Thank you so much for watching.

If you liked this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up, leave me a comment, and don't forget to subscribe. If you'd like to watch another Simpletivity video, you can click right here.

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

Email insanity. Are you tired of having an inbox that is overflowing?

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. In today's video, we are taking a look at SaneBox, an application to help you keep all of your emails in order and deal with fewer emails at any given time.

SaneBox has been around for quite some time and integrates with almost every single email application. Here you see we've got everything from Gmail to both Office 365 and Outlook.com.

Essentially, SaneBox helps you learn your email, identifying which emails, senders, and messages you actually engage with, while filtering out and organizing everything else. Let's jump into my Gmail account, and here you will notice on the left-hand side of my screen I have a number of Sane folders: Sane Later, Sane News, Sane No Replies, and Sane Tomorrow.

I'm going to get into the details of each and every one of these folders, but essentially, SaneBox is learning your email behavior and helping you out by keeping only the most relevant or important emails in your inbox, while filtering other messages into respective folders. You can also create many more customized Sane folders, depending on how you work and manage your email.

When you first install SaneBox, it will analyze thousands of your previous email messages. It wants to learn how you interact with your email and determine where to put things, such as in a newsletter folder, where you might find things that you don't need to see immediately but would still like to browse from time to time.

SaneBox Inbox

As you can see, it's doing a very good job. At this point, I only have about six emails in my inbox, so let's go through some of these folders.

The first one we see is called Sane Later, and as the title suggests, it puts messages here that it does not consider terribly important. These emails are addressed to me, and they are not spam, but SaneBox determines that I haven't clicked on these things recently and that I'm not really engaging with them, so I can check this folder once or twice a day rather than keeping these emails in my inbox.

The second folder has to do primarily with newsletters and marketing material. Here you see it is full of things from Best Buy, Maclean's, and a few others. This folder is mostly for marketing emails, which I might want to unsubscribe from if I no longer need them, but SaneBox correctly places them in the Sane News folder.

There is something interesting that just happened, and it really blew my mind in terms of how SaneBox is learning my behaviors on the fly. You'll notice that I have a bunch of Best Buy messages in my Sane News folder.

Just a few minutes ago, I had a bunch of those Best Buy messages in my inbox. As I was dragging them into the Sane News folder, I must have moved about 15 or 20 of them. Remember, as I'm dragging and moving messages, SaneBox is learning my behavior.

I had left one of the most recent Best Buy messages, and I hadn't dragged it over manually. You know what happened? In front of my very eyes, that message disappeared and reappeared in my Sane News folder.

SaneBox was saying, "Listen, you've moved the last 15 to 20 of these messages. There's a very good chance you don't want to see this in your inbox either, so we're going to move it to your Sane News folder." I think that's absolutely brilliant. It's learning as we go. I can change that behavior if I want to. It hasn't archived or deleted the message. I can always go back and find it, but it's learning my behavior as we go.

For example, if I don't want to see this particular email or sender here, I can just drag it to my Sane Later folder, and SaneBox is already learning about that sender. Perhaps the next message from that sender will already end up in the Sane Later folder.

SaneBox Digest

There is something else I want to show you called the SaneBox Digest. This feature provides a summary of some of my most recent new and unread emails that have gone to other folders.

If I open this digest, I'm given a new menu, showing me some of the recent trainings. By "trainings," it means emails that started in one folder but were moved somewhere else. For example, you can see that a message initially started in the inbox but is currently trained to go into the Sane News folder.

Here’s that Best Buy newsletter example I mentioned earlier. It started in my inbox but has now been trained to go to Sane News. I can change that if I want the messages to come back to my inbox. This digest provides a great summary, and if I scroll down further, I see the Sane News area, showing all the messages from Best Buy that I haven't opened recently. They are trained to go to the Sane News folder, but I can change that if I want. I can train these types of messages to go somewhere else.

Now let's look at the Sane No Replies and Sane Tomorrow folders. I'll start with the Sane Tomorrow folder. Often, as you're going through your emails and checking new messages, you come across something and think, "I don't need to deal with this right now. I'd like to handle this tomorrow." The Sane Tomorrow folder allows you to defer messages.

You can drag messages into Sane Tomorrow, and what's going to happen is that everything within this folder will be moved to your inbox tomorrow morning. This feature provides an easy way to defer emails, making it more convenient than Gmail's snooze feature or other add-ons.

No Replies

The last folder I want to go over quickly is the Sane No Replies feature. This is an interesting one. How many times have you sent a question or a request and are expecting a reply? SaneBox tracks every email you send out and have not received a reply to, and it places them in this folder.

For example, just a few moments ago, I sent an email asking someone if we could still meet and requested a reply by Friday. Since this person has not gotten back to me, the email is here in my Sane No Replies folder. I can check this folder to see which emails have not yet received a response.

However, as soon as this individual does reply, the email will no longer be in this folder because it has met the criteria. The person has replied to me, so I don't need to check if they have responded.

If you are looking for a better way to clean up your inbox and filter out the important emails from the less important ones, SaneBox might be the right solution for you.

I'd like to thank SaneBox for sponsoring today's video. In fact, if you would like to try SaneBox for free and get a special discount only for Simpletivity fans, I encourage you to click the link in the description and the comment below.

I'd love to hear your feedback. Have you already used SaneBox? What is your experience, or what are you most excited about using as you take SaneBox out for a test drive?

Thank you so much for watching today's video. If you liked this video, give it a thumbs up, leave me a comment, and don't forget to subscribe. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.

Vroom vroom. Let's get behind the wheel and get more out of Google Drive.

Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress at the same time. In today's video, we are looking at Google Drive, one of my favorite applications. Why? Because I can store, work with, and collaborate on almost any type of file.

Today, I want to share with you five of my favorite ways to get the most out of Drive. But before we begin, I'd like to thank today's sponsor, PDF Element by Wondershare.

If you deal with PDFs in any way, shape, or form, you're going to want to check out PDF Element. You can edit all of your text and images within any PDF document, and you can get others to sign, annotate, or collaborate within your PDFs as well.

If you'd like to give PDF Element a try or get 40% off your purchase, look for the links in the description below.

Convert Text from an Image

The first tip I want to share with you today has to do with converting text from an image into a working document. How many times have you been given an image of something, or maybe you've taken a picture while you're out with your smartphone, and you thought, "I'd like to use that text. I'd like to be able to edit that text in my own Google document."

Here you see I have an image that is just a picture, although it contains mostly text. I can't actually grab this text at this point in time, but you can do something very easy in order to work with this text.

Simply right-click on the image and select "Open with Google Docs." Depending on the size of the image and how much text it contains, it may take a few seconds, but in just a few moments, you will see that I now have a new Google document.

At the top, I have that image again, but here is the real win—it's what's happening down below that image. It has converted all of the text within this image into editable text. It's even trying to recreate the color. I think it chose yellow because I had white text in the original image. Let's fix that by selecting the text and easily changing the color.

Now I can go ahead and edit this any way I want. It's done a very good job—no spelling errors, no punctuation errors as we see it here.

Let's try it one more time. This time, I have a picture from a section within a textbook. Again, I'll right-click and select "Open with Google Docs." It might take a few seconds if you're using multiple pages or a file with lots of text, but in less than 10 seconds, here I have the original image above and the text below, ready to be edited.

Make use of Google Drive's OCR technology.

Find Further Information

The next tip I want to share with you has to do with finding further information for a document that you may be working on. Of course, you could always open a new tab in your browser and do a Google search, but Google Drive makes it so much easier.

In the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, you will see a little star icon called the Explore icon. If I select this, it will do a quick scan of all the information in my document and suggest topics, images, and related searches.

This essentially works like a miniature version of Google search. At the top, I can select further search terms if I want, or I can dive deeper into the suggested topics. I can search the web, browse certain images, and even bring them directly into my document.

If you are looking for a quicker and easier way to bring in information or do research while working within Drive, make use of the Explore icon. You can also find this under Tools, where you can select the Explore option.

Save to Google Drive

Speaking of research, let's next take a look at how we can get images and other components of a website into Google Drive even when we're casually browsing the web. Often, as I'm browsing through articles and other websites, I may want to grab images or other components of that website and save them to my Drive account.

There is a Google Chrome extension that makes this so much easier, and it's called Save to Google Drive. Once you have this extension installed in your browser, all you need to do is right-click on an image and select "Save Image to Google Drive." You will get a new dialog telling you that it's been saved to your Drive account.

If I go back, you can see that the image is now saved in my Drive account.

There is another way you can use the Save to Google Drive extension. Let's say I'd like to take a snapshot of this entire web page—something that's not always easy to do. If I select the extension in the browser, it will take a few seconds to scan and capture images of the entire web page.

When it's complete, you'll get a dialog box in the top left corner of your screen, telling you that it's been saved to your Google Drive account. It may take a few moments, depending on the size of the web page you've scanned, but in just a few seconds, it's done.

I'm going to close that and go back to my Google Drive account. Here, you see I now have a full-page screenshot of this web page. I can zoom in if I want to read or take parts of the web page. This is handy when you want to see the layout of an entire web page or multiple pages on a particular website.

That extension is Save to Google Drive. I'll leave a link in the description below.

The next tip on this list might just be my favorite because I love automating processes. Within Google Drive, you can share virtually any file, whether it's a native Google file or something you've uploaded. One of the great things about sharing is that you can set certain limits on what others can see and do.

You're probably already familiar with the dropdown that allows people to edit, comment, or view, depending on the access you want to give. But if you select the Advanced link, you get additional options. Not only can you see everyone that the file is shared with, but if you hover over a name, you'll see a little set expiration icon.

If you click this icon, you can determine how long they have access to the file. For example, if I'm sharing a video file and I just want someone's approval or feedback, I might not want to give them full access indefinitely. I can choose to give them access for seven days or thirty days—those are the defaults, but you can also select a custom date range.

When those days are up, the individual will no longer have access to the file. You can always come back and cancel the expiration if needed. This feature is very powerful, especially if you're dealing with sensitive information that you only want others to see for a short period.

Once you click on the Advanced tab in the sharing dialog, you can hover over names and select the set expiration icon.

Keyboard Shortcuts

The last tip I have for you is all about saving time. You probably already know the benefits of knowing some shortcut keys in your favorite application, but sometimes it's hard to remember all those shortcuts.

No matter where you are in Google Drive, all you need to do is select Control + forward slash, and you'll get a full menu of all the keyboard shortcuts available. What I love about this menu is that not only can you browse through it on the left, where shortcuts are broken into sections, but you can also search for specific shortcuts at the top.

For example, if I'm editing something and want to insert a link, I can search "insert link" and find that Control + K is the shortcut I need. Depending on the application—Docs, Sheets, or Slides—these shortcuts may differ, so try Control + forward slash in the different apps you're using.

I'd love to hear from you next. What are some of your favorite tips for working with Google Drive, or which of these five tips do you find most useful?

Be sure to leave a comment for me down below. If you haven't yet subscribed to the Simpletivity YouTube channel, I hope you do so, and be sure to give this video a thumbs up.

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

If you use Trello, you may already know that power-ups are a fantastic way to add additional features to your Trello boards. Power-ups come in a number of different flavors and interact with a large number of third-party applications. Some are better than others, but one of my absolute favorites is Butler.

Butler allows you to automate so many different processes within your Trello boards. In today's video, I want to show you five of my favorite rules and schedule commands that will make your life so much easier. Now, this video is not for Trello experts, but I'll warn you—you’re going to look like a Trello expert after you watch this video.

So let's jump in.

The first Butler rule I want to show you has to do with setting card defaults. Here, I have an example board with a fairly simple to-do list. I have ideas on the far left, two different to-do columns for this week and next week, a pending column, and a complete column.

You probably have at least one step in your Trello process where, when you move a card from one list to another, you would like a few things to happen. For example, maybe when I move a card from this list into my pending list, I would like a particular checklist to be added and a due date as well. I don’t want it to exist in pending forever.

That seems like a lot of clicks, right? First, I'm going to have to drag it over, then open up the card, add that checklist, and then add that due date. But watch this. I’ve just created a Butler rule, and when I drag this card into my pending list, give it just a second—first, there's a checklist, and now there's a due date exactly two days from today.

What is going on? This is the power of Butler. When you create customized rules, you can have these behaviors in play. When I open up this card, there is the due date, which is exactly 48 hours from now, and down below, I have my follow-up checklist—certain things that I want to accomplish when any card is added to this list.

So let’s see how we can create this recipe within Butler. When the Butler power-up is enabled, you will have a little Butler link or icon in the top right-hand corner of your screen. By opening it up, we have a few different options—card buttons, board buttons, rules, and scheduled commands.

I’m going to go over to rules, and you will see this first rule that I just showed you: when a card is added to the list pending, add the follow-up checklist to the card and set the due date to 48 hours. I’m going to click on the edit button just so you can see how easy it is to set up one of these rules.

All I have are three components. First, you need to select a trigger. The trigger in this case is when a card is added to that particular list. I could add a trigger to any one of my lists, and they could all be unique if I wanted. Then I’ve got a couple of different actions. The first is to add that follow-up checklist to the card. I could add multiple checklists and other features to this card if I wanted, and I also want to set the due date to 48 hours.

I don’t have to stop here. If I scroll down, I can add even further actions to this trigger if I want, but that’s the rule and that’s how I can move things over and have this happen automatically. Let’s see it one more time in action.

I’m going to drag this card over to the pending list, and as soon as I let go, there’s the checklist and there is the due date. Automatic functionality with this default rule.

The next rule I want to show you is one of my favorites because not only is it going to automate something within this board, it’s actually going to affect an additional board. Let me set the scene for you.

If you use Trello, there’s probably a good chance that you are collaborating with others. For example, maybe this board is a team board where several members of your staff are managing different cards and tasks, and you are assigning different cards to different individuals. Sometimes you may assign it to yourself, and other times, others are assigning you to those particular cards.

One effective way of working in Trello is to create relationships between cards, but let’s see how we can have Butler automate that process for us.

Let’s take a look at this card that says "write year-end marketing report." Let’s say I would much rather spend more of my day in my own personal Trello to-do list rather than the team board. I’ve created a Butler rule that’s going to do something special.

Let’s say my manager comes in here and assigns me to this particular card. She selects me, and now something is going to appear on the front of the card.

Look at that. I’ve got a Trello attachment. It took just a few seconds, but let’s explore what this Trello attachment means. This is different from a file attachment such as a PDF or an image. What it’s done is actually created a link to my own personal tasks and project list. Now I’ve created a link between these two cards.

I’m going to click on this to go to that board, and look at this. At the top of my to-do list, I have the exact same card. Now I can come in here with my own personal projects and work on this task. I don’t have to be notified by anyone. Someone else may assign it to me, and now it automatically shows up in my own personal to-do list.

It’s not a sync of the same card. It is actually a copy or a link between two cards. When I’m finished working on this task, I can put it through my own process. When I’m done, I just need to come back and select this connection, which will take me back to the original board, where I can mark it as complete or add additional comments.

Butler even has the power to automate rules among more than one board. Let me just show you what this recipe looks like. Again, it’s under rules, and I’m going to select the edit button here.

The trigger in this case is when I am added to a card. The actions are as follows: copy the card to the top of this particular to-do list within this particular board, and link those cards together. Another very powerful rule from Butler.

Next, let’s take a look at how Butler can help us to keep our Trello boards neat and tidy. One of the complaints I hear from many Trello users is that they have a list like this one. It may be labeled complete or finished, and over time, they get a long list of all the cards that finish up here. As you’re working through your processes, they all tend to end up in that final list.

What do they do? Do they come in here and archive them one at a time? Do they have to remember to click and say archive all the cards in this list?

Butler allows you to automate this process. Not too long ago, this particular list was quite lengthy, but something happened that Butler did on my behalf. That was a scheduled task.

Here, I’m going to select scheduled and then calendar, and you can see I have an automated task: every month on the first, archive all the cards in this list. I’ve chosen the list complete.

I can get more granular if I want. I don’t have to do it monthly. I could do it at the end of every day or maybe every Sunday night, and I could have this apply to multiple or have different triggers for different lists. Using Butler to schedule certain tasks at regular intervals is a fantastic way to keep your Trello board neat and tidy.

Here’s a scheduled task that I use quite frequently with Butler, especially when I have a relationship between two or more lists. Here you see I have a to-do this week list, but I also have a to-do next week list. In my this week list, these are all of the tasks that I want to focus on right now. However, things that appear in my next week list will have to be moved over to this list, and that’s usually a manual process—or is it?

With the help of Butler, let’s open up Butler and I’ll show you what I have set up. This is a scheduled due date command because I’m basing it on a day of the week or month. The trigger in this case is on the Sunday before a card is due. The action I want to take place is to move the card to the top of my to-do this week list.

If we go back to my Trello board, you can see these three cards. This coming Sunday is going to be the last Sunday before their due date, so I know on Sunday all three of these cards are going to automatically move into my this week column, which is exactly what I want.

If I have other cards in this list that are due much further out, the same rule will apply, but it will only look if that due date is within the coming week. So if I have something due in July or a few weeks out, it’s going to remain in my next week list or maybe this is listed as my future to-do list. Only the things that are in that coming week are going to be moved over to this list.

Another powerful way of using automation within Butler.

The last Butler tip I want to share with you might just make you look like the hero of your team. Think of the number of processes that you’ve tried to agree upon when managing a Trello board with others.

For example, maybe when someone assigns themselves to a card, you

would like them to also assign a due date, add a specific comment, and move it to a particular list. What if you could do all of this with just a single click?

I’m going to start by showing you the Butler recipe. In this case, we are looking at a card button. You can add customizable buttons to your Trello cards. Let me open up the recipe to show you all the actions that are going to happen if I or someone else on my team selects the take task button.

Yes, you can even customize the name of all of your buttons. When someone selects this button, they will join the card. A comment will be posted with the text "task started," the due date will be set one week in advance, and the card will be moved to the top of this particular list—all of these actions with just a single click.

Let’s see how it works. Let’s say I’m browsing the ideas list, and I come across this "contact client about meeting" card. I decide to take this task on. Here is my Butler button. All I need to do is select this button, and I’m assigned a due date one week from now. The card has already been moved to the to-do this week list, and if I scroll down, it’s even added the comment "task started."

Remember that earlier rule we created, where if anything is assigned to me, I also want it to show up on my own personal task list? That rule is in play as well.

I’m going to close this card, and here you can see that with just one click, it’s moved to the correct list, assigned me, added the comment, and set the due date—all with a single button. Pretty powerful stuff, huh?

I’d love to hear from you. How are you going to use Butler to optimize your Trello boards? Be sure to leave a comment for me down below.

I also want to thank Butler for sponsoring today’s video. You can try Butler absolutely free by clicking on the power-ups option within your Trello menu. If you haven’t subscribed, be sure to do so right here on the Simpletivity YouTube channel.

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

Why Gmail filters & labels are important

Are you sick and tired of having so many messages in your inbox? Are you suffering from inbox overload?

Well, today I wanna show you how to use filters within Gmail, so number one, you don't receive quite so many emails right here in your inbox, and number two, so that you can easily find special or emails that are important to you. In today's video, I wanna show you how to apply filters and some of my favorite filters that help me keep my inbox nice and clean.

Where to access Gmail filters

So let's get started with finding out how we can apply certain filters. Now there's a few different ways in which we can do so.

One way is to go to our settings. We start by selecting the gear icon and then coming down here and selecting Settings.

At the row at the top, we wanna select Filters and Blocked Addresses. Near the top, you'll see that there is a heading saying the following filters are applied to all incoming mail.

You can see in this example I actually haven't applied any filters at this point. Now the next step would be to select Create a New Filter, but hang on a minute.

That's an awful lot of steps, isn't it? First we had to click this, then we had to click Settings, then we had to click over here, and then we had to click this.

There must be an easier way to create a new filter. Well, there is, and all we need to do is use the search box at the top of the screen.

Even before you search for anything in particular, all you can do is select the little drop down arrow here, and we can search for particular mail. Near the bottom of this little drop down box, you will see that there is not only the search button but a Create Filter option.

When we hover over it at first, it's gonna say enter some search criteria first, and that's true. We need to give it a little bit of information first before we can create a filter.

But this is a very simple way, this is probably the fastest way, for you to create a filter within Gmail. I'm gonna show you one other way of doing so, but it's gonna be particular to a specific email address.

Gmail filter options & advanced search

Here you can see we can select different From addresses. We can select To addresses, things that are more than just yourself, maybe if other people are included, or maybe you manage multiple email addresses within a single Gmail account.

You can include things such as a subject line, if the message includes certain words, or excludes certain words. We can also filter by the size of that particular email message.

A few other options, including a date range, which inbox, which label has been applied, and if it has an attachment or if it includes chats such as Google Chat. But let's use a real world example.

So I'm gonna go back to my inbox here and in this example I've got a number of newsletters here. I wanted to make sure that I had a number of emails to show in today's tutorial.

But let's pretend that a number of these emails are from actual people. They could be from your boss.

They could be from coworkers. They could be from clients.

These are emails that are important to you, or perhaps some of these are notifications from other applications, other systems, that you may be using. Well, one of the easiest ways to clean up your inbox is to make sure that certain emails don't even start their lives here.

How to filter a specific email address

No, we want some of these emails to go directly to a separate folder or in Gmail a separate label. So I'm gonna use these Wired emails as an example and let's pretend that these Wired emails are something that are important to me.

They're something that I would like to read. They're something that I do want to review, but I never need to look at them immediately.

So I don't want them to hit my inbox. I want them to go somewhere else where I can choose when I want to read them, when I want to deal with them.

So in this case, I can just select any of these Wired emails. I'm gonna open up the email.

Here is our third way of applying a filter. In this step, I want you to select the little three dots.

This gives us some additional options, and near the bottom we have Filter messages like these. By selecting that it's automatically going to filter all of the emails that have this From address.

Here it's already pre-populated it because we selected it from within the message. If I click outside of the search bar for just a moment, you'll see it's already done the filtering for me.

Now, I haven't actually told it what I want it to do yet, but here I've, it's quickly searched for all of this criteria. If I go back and select the drop down arrow, I can add additional criteria if I want, but really, I just want anything from this address.

I want it to go somewhere else. I don't want it to start in the inbox.

So with at least one piece of criteria here, I can now select Create Filter.

Understanding Gmail filter choices.

Now I've got a number of different options that I can choose from. So when a message arrives that matches this search, in this case, that matches this email address, what do we want to do with it?

Well, in this case, I do want it to Skip the Inbox. I don't want it starting in the inbox.

I don't wanna see it there. I want to go and look at it when I want to.

So I'm gonna select this first criteria here. You can review the vast number of other options that are available to you including marking it as read, if you wanna add a star, delete it, always mark it important, a number of different criteria that you can choose.

The only other one I'm gonna select in this case is going to be Apply the label, because I wanna be able to go and find it and easily see it. So I'm gonna say choose and label, and in this case, I'm gonna say New Label and I'm gonna type in Wired, just so it's very easy for me to find all of those messages.

I'm gonna select Create which is actually just creating the label at this point. Just before I select Create Filter you will notice at the bottom of this list there is, the final check box says Also apply filter to seven matching conversations.

In this case, I do want to apply that. I want this filter to be applied immediately including the messages that it has found over here.

So I'm gonna select Create Filter. The filter is created.

I'm returned back to that message where I started this process, but I'm gonna start by clicking on Inbox to show the difference. So here, within my inbox, you will notice that I don't have, I have one Wired message in here, but I think that's because it's from a different email address.

See, that's interesting. This one is from a different email address.

So that's why this one wasn't filtered. So, the filter is working properly.

But you will notice that that's the only Wired message in this list. Everything else is not in my inbox.

Everything else is over here in this new label called Wired, and now I can come here and visit this when I like and review these particular emails. What this also means, because I've now created this filter, is that any new messages from that particular email address will never show up here within the inbox.

They will all automatically come here to this label and I can still be notified of it when there's new messages. It'll still be bolded like this.

So I can come down and take a look and review these emails as I like. So, think of some examples in your life.

Are you receiving automated notifications from certain systems or applications? Are there certain people that their messages never urgent?

You can maybe come and check on them once a day, or once every couple of hours. You can divert the inbox and go directly to that label.

How to add Gmail labels to emails

Now, the second example I wanna give to you today is how you can add labels to particular emails that may be very important to you.

So let's say in this example that this Best Buy newsletter, I'm gonna say for an example that this is maybe my boss. Maybe this is someone important and I do want to know when their emails arrive and I want them to stand out a little bit more.

In fact, I'd love it if there was a red label, something of that effect, so I can easily pinpoint those particular emails. So, in this case, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna click on this message again, and what I could do is I could come up here and say Filter messages like these again if I wanted to.

But I'm gonna do something a little bit different, just so you can see how the search bar at the top works with the filter option here. So, I'm gonna open up one of these messages again and all I'm going to do is I'm gonna copy the domain.

I'm not gonna copy the entire thing. I'm just gonna copy the domain and I'm gonna put that into the search bar at the top of the screen.

So yes, once again it's gonna bring back all of those messages, and I'm now going to select the search options, or the search criteria. So instead of just having those words I'm actually gonna cut that and put that into the From field.

So anything that has this in the domain I wanna create a filter for that. In particular, I wanna add a label to it.

So my next step is I'm gonna select Create the filter, and we're not gonna Skip the Inbox, because I do want it to appear in the inbox. I'm not gonna select really anything else in this except for the label option.

So I'm gonna say Apply the label, and no, I don't want the Wired label that we just created, I want something different. So I'm gonna say New Label, and I'm gonna say Best Buy

, or maybe it could be the name of my boss.

It could be important. It could be urgent.

I could say read this now, whatever label you wish, and I'm gonna select Create. Again, that just created the label at this point.

The last thing I'm going to do just like in the previous example is I'm gonna say Also apply the filter to 13 matching conversations. So I want this to be applied immediately not just for the emails that I will be receiving in the future.

So I'm gonna select that box as well and I'm gonna say create the filter. Now, what you'll notice in just a second I've got a new label here, the label we created, Best Buy, on all of these messages.

Now, the only reason why we see the inbox label at this point is that we are still in the search mode or the filtering mode here. So we're seeing the search criteria up above, but if I select our inbox, we don't see that inbox label anymore, but you will see that new Best Buy label.

How to change the color of Gmail labels

Now, it's still not quite, it still doesn't stand out as much as I would like it to.

So what I'm going to do is I'm gonna come over here to the Best Buy label on the left hand side of my screen and I'm gonna say change the label color. Remember, I want it to stand out.

So I think I'm gonna select this red one with the white text, and now I think you would agree with me it certainly stands out. Every one of those Best Buy emails has this nice, big, bright red label beside it.

So if this was my boss, if this was a very important customer, or maybe it's something in the subject line, remember, there's an awful lot of criteria that you can use. Whatever it is, you can give it this type of label and when I get a bunch of new unread emails I might want to jump particularly to those emails that have these types of labels with it.

So, that's how you use filters within Gmail, and a couple of examples of how you can apply it in a real world situation. I hope you enjoyed watching today's video, and I'd love to learn how you may be using filters within Gmail, or if you have questions about using filter within Gmail.

I would encourage you to give this video a thumbs up, and be sure to leave me a comment down below, and if you haven't yet, subscribe right here to the Simpletivity YouTube channel. I upload new videos each and every week.

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

If you use Google Chrome as your primary web browser, I hope that you're familiar with Chrome extensions. What are Chrome extensions?

Well, they are additional add-ons which give your browser some superpower, some additional functionality which the browser can't perform on its own. Now if you already have a few extensions installed, you will most likely see their icon here in the top right-hand corner of your browser.

But here I'm in the Chrome Web Store, which I encourage you to visit, and you can browse the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Chrome extensions. Now some extensions may be related to tools or apps that you already use, and some you may have never heard of before.

But in today's video, I want to share with you five of my favorite Chrome extensions. We're gonna get things started with Panda.

Panda

Panda is a fantastic way to browse the websites or the blog websites that you frequent most often. There's an awful lot of new articles, a number of things that you may want to browse on a daily basis, but Panda makes it so much easier for you to do so in just a single page.

So let me give you a lay of the land. On the left-hand side, you will see a column where I have a number of websites including things like Medium, Fast Company, and I've got Seth Godin's blog here.

Then I've got some additional blogs that I've added down below. I've got Trello, I've got Lifehacker, things like that.

Now in the middle part of your screen, you can see I've got a bit of a summary of what's going on in one of those pages. So for example, if I click on Medium here, I can see some of the most popular articles on Medium right now.

I see the title and a little bit of additional information on the top six or so popular articles. Well, if I scroll down here, I see, "Oh, how to fall asleep quickly and wake up ready to be productive."

That sounds interesting. I'm going to click on it, and instead of just going to that site, on the right-hand side of my screen, I actually go directly to that article.

I can read it right here. I don't have to go anywhere else, and I can quickly jump back to something else here on the left-hand side of the screen.

Maybe I want to quickly browse what's going on on the Trello blog. Well, I can do so.

Here are the latest articles. I can see how many hours or days ago they were published, and I can select any one of them and go directly to that article.

So this can be a very efficient way for you to review all of those websites. These could be news websites; they could just be some of your favorite websites that you would like to browse all in one central place.

Mercury Reader

Now the next extension I want to share with you is called Mercury Reader, and it does something that's also gonna help you improve the way that you read and consume articles on the web. So here I've pulled up a recent article here, and you'll notice something that is very familiar in our online world.

There's a lot of stuff going on. I mean, here's the article, which is only taking up about 60% of my screen, but I've got advertisements and I've got invitations to sign up.

A lot of colorful things; it can be really, really distracting. Well, with the Mercury Reader Chrome extension installed, I'm going to go up here to the top right-hand corner, and I'm gonna select Mercury Reader.

In just a moment, what does it do? It streamlines everything.

In fact, it removes everything else on the page except for the article itself. So now I can focus on this article.

I can perhaps enjoy reading this article a little bit more as I scan, as I go through this item. Now if I want to go back to the original page, all I have to do is click anywhere outside here in the grey area, and then it will return me to the original view.

I'm back to the website. I can browse as I was before.

But Mercury Reader can be a great way for you to focus in on that article if you don't want additional popups, if you don't want all the additional noise which is thrown at you. You can try out Mercury Reader.

Full Page Screen Capture

Now the third one in our list has to do with capturing images and especially if you want to capture more than just what you see. I know for myself, once in a while, when I am trying to either redesign my website or try to get a bit of a bigger picture of what someone's homepage or a particular web page looks like, I'd like to get a snapshot of the entire thing.

So here I've come across a website that I'd like to get a snapshot of the entire page, not just bit by bit. So what I've installed is a Chrome extension called Full Page Screen Capture.

It's actually this little camera icon that you see here. Whenever you're on a website or a web page in which you would like to take a snapshot of the entire thing, simply click this icon.

In just a few seconds, it's gonna take a screen grab of everything. I want to note the little Pacman status icon there.

I really like that. That's very entertaining.

But in just a few seconds now, I have a PNG image here of the entire website. Now I can review the entire thing here.

This would basically look just like the normal website, but you can see it's actually captured the entire thing. At this stage, I can download it as a PDF, or I can download it as a PNG image.

I can reference it later; maybe I want to mock up some things. I want to add some text or add some things as I'm collaborating with others on my team.

So a very simple add-on, a very simple extension. It may not be applicable to everyone, but whenever you are wanting to capture an entire webpage, very easily put it in a PDF or create an image out of it, you can use the Full Page Screen Capture.

Grammarly

Now moving on, the next two extensions in my list have to do with writing. We've looked at reading; we've looked at capturing images; let's see how we can improve our writing.

Now in this example, I've opened up an email. I start to write or craft an email to someone else, but you will notice that there's a few underlined words in red.

Now we're probably used to seeing this in a number of word processing applications. It usually means that you have a spelling mistake.

Yes, indeed, I do have a spelling mistake in this particular example. What I am using right now is an extension called Grammarly.

Now Grammarly has been heavily marketed over the last two years or so. I'll admit, I was a little hesitant to install Grammarly and try it out.

But you know what? After I started using it after a couple of days, I really couldn't see myself going on without it because it's a very simple user interface.

It's helped me to write better whether it's an email, whether it's an article, or even if I'm just in social media. What Grammarly has done here, it's highlighted a few words that it thinks I may have spelt incorrectly or perhaps I am using poor or incorrect grammar.

So let's go through it one by one. The first one, "follow-up," it's suggesting that, you know what, there really should be a space.

There's no such thing as a word "follow-up" without the space. But what I really like about it is that I didn't even have to click on this.

I didn't have to right-click on it, which we were used to when it comes to spelling mistakes and other applications. I just need to hover over it; it gives me the suggestion, and I can say, "Oh yeah, yeah, 'follow-up,' please, that's what I meant."

So let's move on. What else happened over here?

It actually, for a second there, it seemed to have ignored my "together" there for a moment. So there, I meant to say "together," but in this case, I put an "i," and here I can select the correct format there.

Lastly, I have the incorrect form of "to." There should be "to" with two "o"s, so I'm going to hover over that.

Remember, this happens once in a while, probably doesn't happen too often to me, but whether it's "to" or whether it's "your" or "you're," you know, those things do creep up as we're trying to be efficient with our writing. So here I'm going to select the proper or the correct form of "to."

The other nice thing about Grammarly is that you can actually add your own words. So for example, I have added the word "Simpletivity" to my dictionary.

Most applications are gonna look at this word and say that it's incorrect because it's my business name; it's an original name. But you can add that, so as I'm adding this to my social media posts, as I'm adding it elsewhere, it's not going to flag this as incorrect.

Now the last one, the fifth and final extension I want to share with you today, is also gonna help you be a better or at least a much quicker writer or responder. That is Auto Text Expander.

Now I've mentioned Auto Text Expander before when it comes to email, but this actually applies to almost anywhere that you are adding text online. So how does it work?

Auto Text Expander allows you to save some preformatted responses. This could be just a couple of words; it could be an email address; it might even be a full paragraph.

What you do is that you create some shortcuts, usually a string of just a few letters, so that you can type these letters, and then the entire sentence or paragraph, whatever you have saved here, will be populated. So let me give you an example.

Here I've got one that is "hbd stories," standing for a happy birthday

, and I've got a very quick happy birthday message here. So if I go into my email and I'm gonna write "HBD," look what happens.

As soon as I finish typing the letter "D," that entire sentence expands. "Hey, just wanted to wish you a happy birthday, hope you had a good one."

Think about the common responses that you write in an email. Think about some of the things that you need to either sign off on or the way that you address certain people again and again.

How much additional time could this save you? I'll give you another example.

Here at the bottom, I've created one, and the shortcut is "TBNI," and that stands for "Thanks, but not interested." This is something that I'll often give to emails when people are reaching out to me, and it just doesn't look like the right fit, or I'm not wanting to hear further communication from them.

Instead of writing that out in two or three sentences, all I need to do is come back here. I'm gonna say "TBNI," and look at that.

The entire sentence is brought in for me. I can hit Send and get on with the rest of my day.

So whether it's just a couple of words, or a few sentences, or even a full paragraph, Auto Text Expander can be a great shortcut for you to add as a part of your Chrome browsing experience. So I'd love to hear from you.

Which of these five did you find either most impressive or most helpful? In addition, I would love to hear what is your favorite Chrome extension.

I'm sure a number of you are already using Chrome extensions which help you to be more productive. Thanks so much for watching.

I would encourage you to subscribe right here to the Simpletivity YouTube channel. Give this video a like and be sure to leave me a comment down below.

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