Tools I Use, 2022 edition
I did a story like this years ago and I was surprised how “successful” (in my own modest terms) it was … I have recently developed my first tool myself, which I want to use as an opportunity to have a look at the mix of tools I currently use as an independent consultant:
Let’s start with the biggest one: I have decided to prefer Google over Microsoft. I like Slides better than Powerpoint, Meet and Chat (much!) better than Teams and GMail better than Outlook or Apple Mail — and I can login from anywhere on any machine into my mails and my work. Love it.
Probably the biggest influence on my daily work life is having clients chose slots for meetings in my agenda themselves and even decide on our meeting tool: Meet, Teams or Zoom. Such a help! Check this link out if you want to meet me ;)
I have used many time tracking tools (like Mite or Harvest), but I am really happy with this new one. The interface is beautiful and easy to understand, the analytics capabilities are great and the export right into my invoicing tool is the cherry on the cake. No, wait, the cherry is that it is free for 1 person :)
Talking of which: Book keeping, bank account balancing, offers and invoices all happen in here. With the app I can easily scan invoices into the tool, it connects with my bank accounts and shows me a dashboard how I do. Don’t love it, but it does a big part of my business life for me. So I am grateful :)
The crazy amount of todo apps is overwhelming. I have been using Google Tasks for a long time, simply because it integrates so well with Gmail inside the browser. But when projects get more complex I need more space and structure. In ToDoist I like that I can make some lists look like Trello and have boards with lists for different parts of the projects.
I even pay the premium subscription, because there is no better way to plan workshops in all necessary details — like my LEGO (R) Serious Play (R) workshops.
As a note taking tool for longer notes like meeting notes, I use this one, because I like the Mac app’s look and feel and its structure with notebooks, “Abschnitte” and pages. For quick notes through I prefer/love Google Keep.
Best translation ever. I literally put whole articles and websites in here, have them translated in German, English or French and I can almost always use the result without any changes in my presentations. Google Translate can go home!
No more explanations needed. I love it so much, will probably never use PowerPoint any more soon. Do everything in here, and luckily many people are now used to getting around on a Miro board. But getting them there was kinda hard ;)
Need little icons? Here they are. I put them everywhere now :)
I do a lot of change and restructuring projects, helping companies and teams when they need to find or want to find a different, better way of working. The roles and teams that we define in these projects, why they should exist and what they should do, I document inside mytpt. — a plus: Every team member can find their own job description in here after the workshops.
A great Google Chrome extension to record you browser window and then share a video with someone by a simple link. Crazy practical.
That’s it for today. I am sure that is not all, but the most important ones are here ;)
What do you think?
Best,
Kai.
