Creating calmness at work is easy if you know how

today's episode is actually going to be

kind of like a commentary episode and

I'll explain to you in a moment what's

going on

welcome back by the way yesterday anyway

it doesn't matter what yesterday's

episode you see what I mean valve

welcome back

so today's episode is actually going to

be kind of a commentary type of the

video so it's going to be a little

longer but it will make sense

and anyway we'll get straight into it so

there's somebody I know on LinkedIn and

I've known him for a long time on

LinkedIn

in fact we worked at the same place not

together but at the same place for a

little while and he runs his name's

Andrews

he runs the company's a CEO actually of

a company called sprite cloud and they

recently posted a blog article about

remote work strategy their remote work

strategy and they listed a few things of

and it's a great article actually I'll

link it below go and check it out it

intrigues me though there's one part of

it that intrigued me and I'm going to

put it up here and this is the article

again well written it's written by a guy

called Travis although there's a name

Andy at the bottom

I'm just flicking through it because

this is the area that I want to talk

about remote working tools

it's my area and I'm always in trouble

were quat tools they use what their

workflows are I'm a geek like that I

just want to know those things so

whenever I see articles like this I'm

always interested and I really want to

know what's going on so this bit

intrigued me remote working tools and

they list out there based tools there

yeah the the foundation that I usually

talk about usually I say there are two

tools that you need Basecamp and and GE

as they are foundation so they've listed

their foundation now they also obviously

right here that they use

you know they're testers and developers

use their software specific to those

disciplines and they choose their own so

we're not going to get into specifics of

what sprite cloud does and what tools

they use for doing their work but more

to do with how they run their business

how everyone collaborates so this is the

list and it's a good list there's

nothing wrong with these tools gee sweet

I you know I I consult on and use slack

we'll come back to that harvest app and

I know that forecast app was something I

don't know so I'm not going to touch on

that to do is they know Trello I know is

in this cell I know it's in this guy

know now there are four tools here that

are overlapping and they could actually

get rid of them and have one two three

definitely but four possibly the fifth

tool which is the harvest app again I

don't know the exact ins and outs of

their business and I don't know how they

run their business why they time track

but a lot of companies generally don't

need to time track they do it for

oversight not oversee administrative

purposes not necessarily anything else

some companies do it because they're

obviously working external for a clients

externally and they need to write down

the amount of that like lawyers

basically they write down even though

lawyers charge a lot more probably so so

I understand the half step generally

people don't need it but my point is to

do is Trello slack G suite excluding the

gmail and the gmail part of G sleep

they're overlapping and they don't need

to overlap you can actually do all of

those things in one place the other

thing that I want to touch on is slack

slack is as they say I

well they say gold standard online

communication I don't agree with that at

all

it was the original probably in that

sense for business communication but

there's a gold standard no the whole

point of what I try to preach let me

call it what it is what I try to preach

what I try to teach and what I try to

explain is to have calmness in your work

space in your work so you can enjoy the

other things that they're you know they

to me me personally there isn't a life

work balance there's just a life balance

and I just accidentally work I

understand that companies need to have

you know this is work and this is

personal I understand that but you don't

have to make it difficult for people to

do their work and slack is one of those

things yeah of course you can turn it

off and switch it off but when someone

sends you a slack message the intention

is I want to know the answer now it's

not here it is look at it later and

answer me when you can it's this is a

message tell me what you tell me what

you know what you know I need to know

now and the thing with slack is that it

it's not I mean a couple of slack groups

I don't use it for work it's just groups

that I'm involved in mastermind group

and stuff like that and it's a pain in

the ass because a lot of people talk and

I don't know what's going on you have to

reread everything and they and yes they

did bring back thread they brought in

threading I should say not bring back

they know I had it but they brought in

threading a little while ago and it

helps but it doesn't help in the overall

scheme of things so you know

communicating in business with your

colleagues slack it is more like what

you want on your sandwich or we're going

out to dinner and who wants to come or

very quick announcements but even that

is a pain in the butt

so slack to do this Trello and a lot a

lot of the G sweet stuff can be kind of

you know honed into one product product

that I know is Basecamp and I kit and

I'm gonna keep talking about Basecamp

because I love that app and it's just so

insanely simple to use and it gives you

a calm way of working so I keep looking

down at their sorry I'm going to put

this down for a moment so so the point

is to actually have calmness at work you

don't want to be disrupted and disturbed

while you're working so if these

developers who are working probably

remotely for sprite cloud they want to

focus and concentrate on work if someone

is then asking a question of them and

it's via slack or via email which I hope

they don't do because internal emails

are is is a killer for any kind of

productivity because you know what's

going on this threading everywhere and

that's the same with slack this it's

threaded but it's complete mess so when

someone sends them a message via slack

their thought is or their perception is

it's in slack they're going to see it

and I want to reply and I want to reply

now that doesn't bring any kind of

calmness to a workspace to the person

who's supposed to be getting that

message you want to leave people to do

their work and have a culture in the

business where everything is in one

place so you don't have to say go to

this folder in this folder over it in

that drive and that's where it is right

because but that's where all the files

are but what's the context of that file

what does it belong to where is it now a

lot of people and I used to do it and

what they do is have folders of client

names on it and I still do that too

certain degree but that's more for an

archive that's how I do it

but they'll have active folders for

clients so they will write down an email

go to this folder go to this folder here

it is and there's the Google Doc and in

the Google Doc you'll find other

information to go us it's a headache I

mean even me talking about it it drives

me insane so that to have calmness in

your business and and as I said sprite

cloud aren't doing anything wrong per se

I mean it's a great article but it can

be so compact and I would swear that if

they got rid of these tools and and and

kind of compress them into one tool and

different kind of communication within

their business they'll be more

productive because they're not again the

whole thing of tech minimalism stop

fighting with your tools you just want

to sit work and go away and do your own

thing you're probably fine I mean you

know the running joke is I work three to

four hours a day and that's kind of true

I do a lot of other things obviously but

that but the actual work I do and that's

probably the same anywhere else if

you're working you know eight hours a

day nine hours a day how much of that

time is it really focused on the actual

work four hours five hours

the rest is fluff the rest is complete

fluff

you're giving up doing something you're

getting a drink you're doing the other

so to disrupt that with the the slack

type of communication and go and look

for this file because it's there and

then having to try to find out what

that's all about it's a headache have it

all in one place I'm gonna leave it

there right now I keep looking at it

trying to figure out what if there's

anything else no I mean that's basically

the CRM again I prefer different CRM but

you know they're using Zenoss and that's

fine but really slack is the main thing

to do is Trello and parts of G suite can

be compressed and condensed into one

that's it that's all I have for you

today so I'll put the phone

now it's all I have for you today the

whole point is calmness and be relaxed

and let people to do their the work that

they need to do and not fight with the

technology just get in and do the work

anyway

as always keep it simple remember to

wash your hands we're in this together I

have to say it sorry and I'll see you on

Monday

yeah it's Friday today so have a great

weekend I'll see you on Monday and next

week I'm actually gonna be doing a lot

more episodes about Basecamp so if

you're interested stay tuned and if you

are interested and you want to see

something more about Basecamp specific

features let me know comments below or

send me an email via my websites have a

great day have a great weekend and I'll

see you next week

ciao bye bye