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Space Age Madness
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How I Manage Meeting Agendas with a Notes App

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Making meetings effective is something that I think about every week. I spend a lot of my time in meetings, and it always seems like I could use more time outside of them for the rest of my job. Everyone seems to agree about this. Meetings are a necessary evil, but they don’t have to be wasteful.

A key to making meetings more productive for me has been providing my meeting agenda items to the other person in advance. It does two great things for me. First, it makes me think carefully about what I want to use the time to talk about. Second it makes me organize topics either in order of priority if I think that time is a consideration, or in a flow that makes sense for the conversation. Finally, it makes me prep for the meeting and identifies any prep work that I need to do to get ready for the meeting.

I have a fairly simple system for collecting potential agenda items. I keep an agenda folder in whichever notes app I am currently using, for instance Apple Notes or Bear. I’m currently using NotePlan all day, and should probably blog about that at some point.

For each person or group who I meet with on a regular basis, I have a separate note in an “Agendas” folder, even if those meetings are sporadic. As I go through my day, as it occurs to me or comes up in a meeting that I need to discuss something with one of those people, I will command tab over to their agenda note and add the item.

Then, the day before or a few hours before I meet with the person or group, I comb through the items I have collected, and turn them into an agenda that I either email or Slack to that person. I generally try and do it well before the meeting, this allows the other person or people to think about the topics and prepare if need be. There are times, however, when I am just using that list in the moment to make sure I don’t miss something.

A week later, or whenever I need to meet with that person or group again, I’m also able to see what we discussed last time, and can leverage that to follow up on any items that require more conversation.

This system is pretty simple, but it has worked really well for me.

Some things I’m enjoying

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Here are some things I’ve been enjoying recently, in no specific order. I am not compensated in any way, even referral payments, for these links. Hope I turn someone else onto something they enjoy.

Hydrow Rowing Machine

This is an equivalent for rowing to Peloton, and by all accounts the best interactive rower on the market. I grew up as an endurance athlete, but I just hate riding stationary bikes, and I find rowing a better workout as well. Hydrow offers great instructors, a great community of people to support you as you progress, and it has worked for me. I know, this thing is crazy expensive, and also requires a monthly subscription, but I was able to cancel my gym membership altogether. We’ve had ours for about 11 months now, and I have worked out on it 300 days. This device, and the service it comes with, which includes guided yoga, pilates and strength classes, has been a key to maintaining my sanity and improving my fitness over the last year. Since we purchased it, I have lost about 26 pounds. (I don’t care that much about weight, I care about fitness, but it’s still an encouraging metric.)

Nomad Base Station Stand

I love this little wireless charging stand that I keep on my desk. It holds/charges my iPhone 12 Pro Max in either portrait or landscape, making it great for my ten hour shifts monitoring the live streaming coverage of our events through our app. It also wirelessly charges my AirPods Pro. It’s a game changer to be able to see your phone screen while sitting at your computer.

Tip Top Cocktails

You may not be able to find these too far outside of Atlanta yet, but I’m fairly certain that you will be able to at some point. While most cocktails in a can that I have tried have been, frankly, gross, Tip Top came to the table with Old Fashioned, Negroni and Manhattan cocktails in a well designed can that are delicious, and have become a staple for me. In the last month, they added new Daiquiri and Bee’s Knees cocktails to the lineup, and these two are both a welcome taste of Summer. I am not recommending their Margarita though. Start this Summer with the Daiquiri, you won’t regret it. So great for a delicious cocktail on the go.

Poco Loco Burritos

This neighborhood burrito joint opened last month in Kirkwood, on the edge of the Atlanta/Decatur line. If you are local, I would recommend joining their mailing list, which gives you ordering access to their Wednesday pre-order an hour earlier than people not in the know. Most burritos are protein-rich breakfast bombs, really flavorful and very filling. Each week they change their menu, introducing a new meat burrito, a new veggie burrito and a new frozen burrito, typically all named in some theme. (This week is Steve Martin themed.) There have been weeks, since they opened, when I have consumed one of their burritos for lunch 5 out of 7 days.

Apps: What worked for me in 2018, an update

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I’ve heard a lot of people say on podcasts in the last few weeks, as they wrapped up their app usage for 2018, that the mobile app market is mature, and that, while they wish there was a lot of new stuff to share, or a lot of change from 2017 to 2018, there just isn’t a lot of new stuff.

I wish I could say that I don’t agree with this, but, looking at my post from 2017, I don’t see a lot in my app usage that has changed a year later. This isn’t to say that I’m not perfectly happy with my devices, and I do like some of the quality of life improvements that Apple made this year at the OS level, especially Shortcuts and Screen Time. Aside from those, and you can almost just read that post from last year if you’re interested in what apps I’m using the most across my Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad.  There are a couple of additional app high points that I will point out as additions below.

I am really happy that Darkroom, which was already my photo editor of choice on iPhone, has made it’s way to iPad with a really nice version. In combination with my original Gnarbox, I now have a full portable workflow solution that is just camera and iPad Pro. I’d love to upgrade to the SSD Gnarbox this year, but I just bought the existing one, and feel like I need to get a little more out of it before spending more money. I like this solution better than directly connecting a card reader to my iPad because it’s backing the photos up to the Gnarbox at the same time. I do plan on spending more time with Lightroom on iPad this year too. I’ve been a long time Lightroom user on my Mac, and it’s still my primary solution there.

I am using Encrypt.me to automatically VPN my devices when I connect to untrusted WiFi networks. For a variety of reasons, but mainly because my Instagram account was hacked using a SIM Swap on Halloween, I have gotten more security conscious over the last few months. I’m also using Google Authenticator and have acquired a Google Titan device and a couple of Yubikeys. I still need to write up my tale of sim swapping woe at some point. Those aren’t apps, but have an impact on the way I access things. Over time, I would like to have almost everything in my online life locked down with one of them.

My Quick Take: Vesper, Adieu

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What went wrong was very simple. We never made enough money.

Source: Vesper, Adieu

 

I really like(d) Vesper, but it never stuck for me. I was a day one user, mainly because I am huge fan of all three of these guys, and also consider their QA lead an internet friend.

I don’t know what they could have done differently, especially with only three of them, I do think that, for their core audience, there are three platforms that matter:

  1. mobile/iOS
  2. Desktop Mac
  3. Web

I think to be successful in the market segment they were in, you need to have solutions for all three. Other solutions, like Apple’s Notes app and SimpleNote, while they might not be as elegant as Vesper, win based on the utility on multiple platforms. That’s why Vesper never stuck for me. Having said that, even Evernote, which appeared to be a juggernaut in this market, are having their own issues with a subscription business model.

Only Brent, Dave and John know for sure, but from my outsider’s view, this was a part time job for all three of them. I suspect that if even one of them had made this more of a full time job, it might have generated perspective and possibly drive to succeed. Just guessing on that bit, and I could be completely wrong.

I’m currently using Apple Notes as my primary phone/tablet/desktop text tool. iCloud sync has worked great for me.