5 Tools/Apps to Beat Overwhelm and Boost Productivity
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Some of these tools bring clarity to your thoughts, some calm your mind, and some are fun! In their unique way, each of these tools can help you beat overwhelm and boost productivity.
#1 — Your browser window, a nifty notepad
I agree that the browser window is a strange choice for a writing pad 📝 . It’s somehow my favorite pick to jump-start any project.
In case you don’t know, entering the following command in your browser window and pressing Enter turns your browser into a quick notepad:
data: text/html, <html contenteditable>
It’s a basic notepad. No social sharing, no auto-save to the cloud, no frills at all. When you close your browser window, poof! All that you wrote is gone.
Then why use it all?
Being basic takes the pressure off performance, especially when there’s a lot going on in your mind. When you don’t know where to begin, the crudeness of this tool is welcoming to the unstructured thoughts. You can quickly jot down any to-dos, random thoughts, worries, or half-baked ideas.
It’s simple to use and it’s free. Most times, as I keep writing in this space, my unstructured thoughts start to evolve into more structured writing. When that happens, I know its purpose has been fulfilled. I copy and paste things to Notion, the next tool in my toolkit.
#2 — Notion, your second brain
This tool is designed to be an all-in-one workplace for one and all.
It brilliantly removes the typical categorization of our lives into personal and professional stuff. Merging the two is a powerful offering. You can plan a marketing campaign as well as family travel in the same workspace. Everything is as separate or as connected as you want it to be. You can link documents within documents, create databases within databases, share them with others, or keep things private.
I use Notion for writing articles, creating to-dos, tracking habits, creating a content…
