Our Favorite Productivity Apps!

I'm going to call I'm going to write a

note and say it's going to be called how

Andrew can be a better

person list of ways to improve Andre see

I can't improve when I never have an app

for that list so it doesn't matter there

too many characters for my alarm apps

I'll

forget what is up people of the internet

welcome back to another episode of the

wait for podcast but it's a bonus

episode this time you can tell because

we have new people and I'm in a

different chair oh I didn't even realize

Collide that's new okay we're your hosts

I'm Marquez I'm Andrew and we're joined

by David Pierce hello thank you for uh

thank you for hopping on with us thanks

for having me it's fun to like be here

and do this with my internet friends in

person we've done it before but at Apple

campus weirdly enough that was our first

time this is cooler this is this is

Cozier uh if you don't already remember

David Pierce host of The Verge cast

editor at large at The Verge fellow

productivity app nerd and that's exactly

what we're talking about today I

hesitate to call this an

intervention but it's kind of how it

feels you waited till right now to use

that word a little bit Yeah so on the

right side of the table for our audio

listeners David and I uh have been not

just using but experimenting with

playing with trying implementing ruining

our lives with all of these productivity

apps for the past couple years probably

a little too much but on the other side

of the aisle Andrew is either way

smarter than us or has a bunch of

unlocked potential ruining his life on

the other end of the spectrum Andrew

uses uh the alarm app we've talked about

this as literally a task manager

reminders like that's the maximalist

that's as far as it goes right pretty

much I mean we have notion for work we

do even sometimes with that if I really

need something to get done I put an

alarm for it yeah so I think uh I think

this is our opportunity to like expose

you to the the world that you could live

in of of like second brain software yeah

I think the goal for the end of this

episode is one of you should convince me

to use an app and if I get convinced I

will use it

for we'll see and if we can't Marquez

and I have to both live our lives out of

the alarm app that and that I cannot do

I yeah I respect my job too much I feel

like this whole company crumble to the

ground if that happens I just will not

get anything done this is something

actually my dad has said before but I

say the same thing like if you tell me

to do something and in that moment I

don't write it down trust me I'm not

going to remember so I I'll start my my

opening my opening convincing argument

with the human brain is an amazing

computer right it's it's very powerful

it has incredible AI obviously it has a

neural engine it has an optical image

process processor it has all these

things that are amazing for a computer

but it has one critical flaw the memory

only fallible that's the only flaw the

human brain as a computer the memory is

fallible and so you could think you

remember to do something you could tell

yourself to remember something but it

may not remember you may lose those bits

and bites and so the reason that I'm so

into this software augmenting my brain

is because that memory is not infallible

that will stay that will work and then I

can sort of plug it into my brain as

like a puzzle piece as uh the way to not

as a way to complete myself as a

computer if that makes any sense am I

making any sense no it makes total sense

and I think I would just add two things

one is that uh do you ever heard people

talk about decision fatigue like why

like a Barack Obama we the same suit

every day or why Mark Zuckerberg always

wears gray t-shirts or whatever well

he's a robot but that's where I'm going

we're all Rob no I think the the point

is that uh there is at least I

experienced it in a huge way this

feeling of like I'm supposed to be doing

something or I was supposed to have

remembered something or something is

going on and there's just this like

latent constant anxiety of thinking

about all of the stuff happening uh and

you and I Andrew are both new parents so

there's even more of that because I

haven't slept in forever and I have to

remember to like keep my child alive so

for me it's it's not just like having a

place to offload all of that stuff it's

having a place that I know that it is

MHM M uh and I think like I always think

about my own brand as like do you have a

drawer full of like thumb drives and

memory cards and memory sticks and it's

there's just a thousand of them and

you're like I know the thing I need is

on one of

these but my options are either I'm not

either I'm not even positive what I'm

looking for but there's something in

here that I need which is terrible

outcome or I know what I need and it's

on one of these but what do I do with it

and I feel like my entire product

productivity Journey has been trying to

solve those problems yeah yeah and my

own brain is both of those things at the

same time that's fair I'm I'm going to

interject here and say nothing either of

you have said I disagree with you okay

that's good yeah yeah I would say and I

would say I have the same feelings as

both of you do in a lot of these senses

okay you're just more comfortable in

your chaos than we are I don't even know

if comfortable is the term maybe

thriving in anxiety works sometimes um

but and it's funny you mention being a

new dad because arguably the only

productivity app I have out side of my

alarms app is the Huckleberry app which

is like the very newborn like I need to

make sure she's eating enough and

pooping consistently and sleeping and

taking naps so that is one thing that

Claire and I together are consistently

I'm logging things in that all the time

so maybe that's that is my gateway drug

into the life of productivity that needs

an ocean integration that's what it

is that is really interesting okay I

think uh what I thought would be really

fun was to give you some hypotheticals

some hypothetical situations that I

could propose that would maybe convince

you that it would be more likely that

you would get the thing done if you had

a better tool to do so CU from what I'm

hearing you're not against maybe trying

some productivity apps or I don't know

you don't necessarily need to dive into

the deep end with it because there's all

kinds of there's so many first of all

yeah but they also all have different

pros and cons and different capabilities

and different weaknesses but you're at

least down to hear how they can plug in

I'm down to hear I'm open The more I've

thought about this episode The more open

I've become because at first I said

Marquez I'm not doing this it's going to

be boring when I do nothing at the end

of it because I'm still just going to

use the alarm app um but you know what I

got a new phone so it kind of feels like

new phone new me and like maybe it's

time to add some things and it deleted

all of my alarms so I don't have any of

those anymore to that point though this

is one of the things I was wondering for

you is um it's not like you don't spend

all of your time with somebody who talks

about this stuff incessantly uh no I

hear it maybe that's part of the reason

why I haven't made I was wondering is

like is it do you feel like the system

you have like works and why screw it up

in the name of just some cool app that

might not solve your problems or like

what what has kept you in the alarm app

world all this time I'll be honest it's

stubbornness it's not like no I don't

think I'm running smoothly I think if

you had the opportunity to call my wife

right now she would be like no he does

not do all the things that he says he

will do or I ask him to do so I'm

consistently forgetting things I mean if

it's super super important

I I will remember it or it will be in

the alarm app and that's how I'll

remember it but like there's only so

much I'm going to put in there and there

are definitely times where I get to the

point of like this needed to be done by

Friday and I've had an entire week to do

it and there was plenty of time to do it

but you know there may also be an there

may be an element of overexposure as

well cuz I've talked about it being like

almost what did I call it like my toxic

toxic trade I call it yeah where I will

will I will have everything I need in

one productivity app which I I literally

did this two days ago I have both the

apps in my doc which is hilarious I've

used a to-do list app a calendar app and

an email app and notion for however many

years and I'll see a new one and the

problem is the websites are always so

pretty oh they're so good they're always

and they're all animated now they just

make you feel feelings gorgeous and I

feel like if I could just have this in

my life everything would be even better

than it already is not that I'm missing

anything but there will be one or two

cool features where I'm like that I want

that and then I'll dump my entire life

out of one into the other one and then

several days later I'll be like why did

I do this this is missing the things

that I like about the other thing even

though I like that I have to move back

and now I'm like constantly doing this

dance between apps Adam actually has a

little bit of the same bug I'm not even

going to lie I'm outing you over there

but thanks we do a little bit of the

same dance so I I'm gonna interject

right there and I'm gonna say by the end

of this episode I need convincing on

something that will be my app and just

be my app because that sounds terrible

and I will never do that I am you have

to enjoy it literally for its own sake

uh and also the the one thing I I had an

old boss who watched me do this a

hundred times and he was like oh every

time you do it you're actually like

going through all of your old notes and

reevaluating all the stuff you're

working on I was like I don't know that

that's actually true but it made me feel

better

that this is my way of sort of taking

stock of my system and all that um it's

not no one should do what Marquez it is

not it's delightful and unhealthy and

unproductive I appreciate you guys have

all the viewpoints of all these

different apps but if I pick an app and

I use it by the end of this episode if

there becomes a time where I'm like I

don't want to use this that looks better

I will never make that switch it is too

annoying for me to do that the partially

one of the reasons I've never switched

to an iPhone with ample OPP opportunity

here is I've tried to set one up before

and in the setup process I just go I

don't feel like doing this and then I

never use it so because this makes me

think we need to put Andrew in an app

that is very stable and straightforward

and not likely to do you know what this

one is sort of explode and of course I

know what that I think that's one of the

high top cand right now I think I have I

have three in mind that and that's one

of them what are your can I see your

three real quick well so I'll just I'll

just intimidating on this side Yep this

is the podcast version of we can fix

him Claire put them up to

this yeah yeah yeah it's that's the I

have it's the top two that I feel pretty

good about and then the third one is

kind of my wild card yes just because of

who makes it okay but it's also

potentially the one that is the most

things I I know why and I think we

should try to explain it yeah but now I

know how audio listeners feel how

confusing this is no no do you want me

to kind of go over maybe like a day a

week a month of what I do and maybe like

that might help your guys thought

process on this I think this might work

the same way which is I have

increasingly complex hypotheticals okay

and you can tell me how you would tackle

them okay okay hypothetical number one

sure Claire says Andrew don't forget to

take out the trash on Friday morning

what do you do wait you just unlocked

something that's the only reoccurring

task in my calendar app is take out the

trash on Thursday okay that's a good

answer and it comes up on my watch every

time I'm sitting on the couch Thursday

night task in your calendar app or is it

a calendar event in your calendar app

that's a great question this is very

important huge okay let's see I I'm

guessing it's a calendar event you

probably have it the either the night

before when you need to put things out

or that morning if if memory serves your

your you have both right I have both I

have one as a task the night before and

then I have the calendar event the next

day okay of when it actually gets

collected which do you follow more often

I follow the task because the calendar

event is sying to a gcal provided by my

Town's website that is not always

accurate uh cuz the holiday weeks all

the weirdness it's supposed to be up to

date but I've just found it's I live on

a corner I think it might be the other

blog this podcast is going to be 16

hours this prepare everyone I'm here

trying to figure out if it's a task or

an event and Marquez is connecting to

his local government with this Marquez

hacked into the mayor's office to get

the schedule it is an event okay and it

is sorry can I see that one more time

you can it is the night before it is the

night before before perfect I'm I ain't

getting up in the morning to do that

totally fine so but that works for you

it works for me it works every yeah I

have not missed a trash T perfect okay

so so the Calendar app so part two

hypothetical Claire says now when you're

taking the trash out make sure that you

break down the cardboard and put it to

the left of the plastic or they won't

take it we only have one recycling bin

this is the hypothetical okay

I'm not good at hypotheticals apparent

so you need to remember both to do this

task at this time and something specific

to do in this task I'll give you the

perfect example which is something we

found as an old alarm app on my phone

the other day when we were talking about

this where I had an alarm that said

money on trash because for the holidays

I was tipping the trash people and I

needed to bring out the trash cans and

also put the like card for them so you

set an alarm to do that and I did it

actually a third party alarm app which

is

deranged hey hey interesting um I

actually say Andrew it said monkey on

trash so I so it took a so if there's

auto correct yeah that would be a huge

benefit of whatever we're doing um but

yeah so and that was something I did the

next morning because I didn't I didn't

want to leave money on the trash can

over so you set that alarm for the

morning that yeah so I would at my the

end of my driveway I would know to pull

it out of my car and put so in this

hypothetical if there was a specific

thing you had to do with the cardboard

to the left of the plastic you would set

maybe an alarm correct at the same time

that you're taking out the trash uh that

tells you what to do that says cardboard

left plastic yeah like it would

essentially be yeah at the same time

okay okay okay I already have so much

anxiety right so far it's checking out

coordinating the alarms it's I can't

wait for in a month you're like how's it

going and I'm like there's so much trash

in my house

piles right part three again pure

hypothetical but how would you tackle

this you now need to do this every

Monday and Thursday night during the

summer but every Sunday and Wednesday

night during the

winter if I'm being honest I would

probably just have two Calendar

recurring apps and just ignore one of

them during the summer and ignore one of

them during the winter I've not had to

do that maybe I just have sweet trash

people and they always come on Fridays

no matter what but in that scenario if

it were changing in

those yeah I don't know can you do that

just on Google count summer in

parenthesis that's a good point yeah man

maybe I should just have you on speed

dial and call you instead no this is not

a what should you do but like I'm

curious like you have two things that

say take out the trash and you just

remember which one was the I prob what I

would probably do is I would you said

it's like Friday summer Monday winter I

would probably just do reoccurring every

Friday and then once it hit winter and I

either missed one of those or realized I

would just delete that event and then

probably start the winter event I'm

trying to be honest here Adam stop

making fun of me Mak realize that Andrew

is a much more like capable functional

person than I am because my life would

collapse in what you're desing I think

kind of but that's also kind of the like

why it's a little pathetic that I'm not

using one of these cuz I'm capable of

doing all of these things I'm

I more than Texas saav to be very into a

productivity think you'd be like

president of the United States by now if

you you know maybe I'm just trying to

give everyone a head start here I just

don't want to don't want to win too hard

okay here's one more you get an email

with all the instructions by the way

this is 2013 we play on the Hammerhead

still you get an email did we have to

play on we get an email with all the

instructions and your itinerary for a

Hammerheads trip that we have this

upcoming weekend

and in the email is a Google Docs link

that says fill out this form until

Saturday morning when we're get the bus

so again it's an email with a weekend

itinerary and a link in the email of a

form to fill out that

morning I mean without trying to be

funny one I would forget but if I like

thought to myself 100% like I need to do

this that would be so I need to like

know what my itinerary is is

MHM and I need to fill the alarm app

goes on the fill out the form 1,00%

that's the thing I need alarm app

Saturday morning do you put the Google

Doc Link in the alarm no it would just

say fill out form do form okay

Hammerhead remember that there's an

email somewhere that you're supposed to

remember yeah that I'll be able to

remember um and then the itinerary part

it would I mean I probably would never

put it I would never actually put if I

needed to know I would put parts in my

calendar but like other than that man

I'm realizing my entire life's calendar

is just texting my wife to see what

we're doing this weekend whoa that's a

different productivity at there she this

is going to be her favorite podast this

might be the first episode she listens

to this is good this is all very good

okay I I that's a you you're bringing

that up I want my personal

calendar to be anything I I need that I

need that for myself I think um that

would be super important I feel like

like especially now with all of the

hobbies that I have and now also having

a child I need to be way more organized

so I can find those time slots to when I

could do the things that I love to do

that are just me or like meeting up with

people so is your wife a calendar keeper

uh yeah not like super intense but like

way better than I am and like she

actually knows when we're doing

everything okay so yes so I guess the

the idea behind my hypotheticals is

there are certain productivity apps that

try to uh merge certain things and to

have certain features embedded that help

these levels of comple complexities feel

simple okay um I think my favorite is a

to-do list app where all I do is when I

need to do something or remember

something all I do is open the to to-do

list app and set the time and date and

the more complex the task is the more I

can dive into the features of the to-do

list app to have either recurring tasks

subtasks descriptions uh offsetting days

and weeks and things like that like all

sorts of flexibility inside of

remembering to give me the notification

to tell me to do the thing okay to-do

list 101 for me there's 10 bazillion

options for this there are 10 bazillion

options the good news is most apps do

that thing you just described pretty

well the idea of just like I need to

open this thing I need to write a thing

down it needs to answer the question the

key there is you need natural language

processing because being able to type

take out trash 7 am every Friday is so

much easier than opening a picker and

tapping a date and tapping a thing and

and and in that range of natural

language processing gigantic spectrum of

quality and then so cuz that's the first

thing Marquez just said there and I like

when Marquez was saying that he puts the

stuff in his app and then it's like this

on this day at this time I was just like

I'm already thinking of scrolling

through all those stupid things and I

was I'm like I'm bored of this already I

don't I don't see myself doing it so

that is huge where you're saying does

that also work for like voice input so

like voice to text and then yeah it's a

little iier in that case there are there

are kind of more places it can go

sideways sometimes voice recognition is

not amazing sometimes the you know

speech to text is not amazing like it

can get a little wonky but the idea of

being able to do that in literally one

step from I need to say a sentence out

loud and it does a thing on a date in my

to-do list app is very possible that I

will say to to be totally honest the

thing that I find most bizarre about the

alarms thing is exactly what you just

described it is an awful user interface

for what you're trying to do it's it's

tons of scrolling everything looks the

same it's sorted by time of day which is

bananas okay uh oh so by the way there's

two types of alarm Maps people I

realized recently there is people who

have a new task for every alarm and then

they scroll and there is 800 alarms on

their phone and then I draw a line

Marquez deleting the alarm app and

renaming it every single time you have a

new task well not the alarm app the

alarm the alarm deleting I think I'm in

between the alarm okay I'm not renaming

alarms yeah yeah just rename and change

the time of the alarm so I mean this

phone doesn't show up but my last one

had maybe five all the time it's like my

actual wakeup alarm Actually I don't

even use my wakeup alarm I use it on my

watch now so like there's five alarms

and it's just like this one is uh you

know I have to remember to put something

in my bag in the morning because I want

to take it to work and then it's like oh

if I had one other thing I have to the

next one I'm just gonna erase whatever

that was which is you know kind of fun

sometimes when you're like oh what was I

doing and how long ago did I need to

remember to like take this box out of

the trunk of my car and then look at it

and be like wow that box is still in the

trunk of my car um but okay so yeah

that's where we're at I really like what

you're talking about with a very simple

type this out it it feels to me like the

do you know they say you can just type

whatever the hell you want Google and

it'll figure out just like what's that

song that goes la la la la la and it's

like oh it's Creed high and then you're

like yeah that's awesome it is that's so

yeah I like this already I like I like

the direction we're going okay this is

good we're yeah we're so that's so

that's one genre so the to-do list act

can I can I interject and maybe you

going to ask this question so you can

tell me and we can just go further can

any of those see what somebody is

texting me and be like actually I think

this happens already in Google messages

if Claire says like like we're going to

ABI and Grover's house Saturday at 7 can

I just

like no but that's a really good feature

that if I saw that in one I would think

about ending all the other I would pour

my life into that second I'm already the

CEO of aask actually wow okay okay so

but one thing to that point uh things

like Gmail are actually pretty good at

that and they're starting to get pretty

sophisticated at understanding like oh

this is about thing at a time do you

want to add that to your calendar okay

uh and I think the the one other piece

of this I was going to add is I think I

do think we're talking about a to-do

list app I'm increasingly convinced

we're talking about it to- do this app

but I think one way you can think about

a lot of this stuff also is to do it in

your calendar and there are a bunch of

interesting ideas about calendars which

I know you guys have talked about a

bunch on this show but the idea of

basically just letting your calendar run