As you may have figured out last week, I’ve been obsessed with learning more about how to use tech to enhance different aspects of our lives.

While the social elements of our lives have definitely been enhanced (at least to an extent) due to social media, I don’t subscribe to the idea that the “work” element of our lives has been improved by tech.

While technology is used pretty heavily in most jobs nowadays (as well as in the lives of many students), I think that it’s used pretty inefficiently. Often, I’ve found that tech gets in the way of people’s work (whether that’s the work of a professional or a student).

It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Tech is a tool meant to make it easier to work, not harder; and I think I’ve found a framework that can help you introduce tech into your lives so that it fulfills this purpose.

Principles To Follow

I think that there are three main principles you should think about while introducing tech into your workflows.

These are reliability, simplicity, and intuitiveness.

First of all, the technology you use must (emphasis on the must) be reliable. It should do what it claims to do all the time, every time.

For example, if a company claims that their note-taking app has cross-platform sync, it should always sync (as long as it’s connected to the internet, of course).

Basically, it shouldn’t fail when you need it most. Technology often has this uncanny ability to break when you need to use it; therefore, it’s important that the technology you use doesn’t break when you need it the most.

Figuring out whether something is reliable or not, unfortunately, isn’t that simple. There are two main ways to do it: firstly, you can try using the app (or whatever piece of technology you intend on use) yourself and see whether it works well, or secondly, you can read/watch reviews.

Next, the technology you use must be simple. It shouldn’t be a burden to use technology.

Basically, navigation should be straightforward. Complexity introduces friction which takes away time and makes it more likely that you don’t use it.

It’s pretty simple to figure out whether something is too complex for you: you can just watch videos of people using the app! It’s pretty common to see app overviews and beginner guides in the sphere of productivity YouTube.

It’s important to note, though, that most of the time complexity is directly proportional to power. This means that the most powerful applications are often the most complicated. Therefore, it’s important to understand what features you really need and strike a balance between having a fully-featured application, and having a very simple one.

Lastly, your app should be intuitive.

This is basically an extension of the previous point, but it’s so important that I decided to separate it. The application/technology you use must be easy to use, and once you get used to using it, it must fade into the background.

Intuitiveness fulfils one main purpose of technology: reducing friction. Intuitive apps usually have zero friction and using it is never a burden. Unintuitive apps, on the other hand, are often the reason why many people resort to non-technological solutions to their problems; unintuitive apps are a burden and often get in the way of your work.

Figuring out whether an app is intuitive is, again, easy: video walkthroughs of these apps can, most of the time, convey whether or not an app is intuitive or not fairly well.

Reducing Friction

If you’ve paid attention to the previous section, you may have realized that I’ve mentioned the word “friction” quite a lot.

In the world of productivity, “friction” refers to anything that makes you do something less.

Boring material is friction that stops you from studying.

A lack of sleep is friction that stops you from paying attention in class.

Slow internet is friction that stops you from talking to family on Zoom.

Similarly, there are many attributes/”features” present in apps that introduce friction, stopping you from using them. It’s important to minimize friction if you intend on using technology; it should feel like an integral part of your workflow, not an afterthought.

Here are some features/characteristics of technology that minimizes friction.

• Speed: faster-opening and faster-loading apps make it easier to open up and use them. So, you’ll use them more!
• Reliability: apps that sync well, don’t crash, and don’t randomly sign you out make it so that they are always there when you open them up. So the likelihood of you opening an app up, seeing it’s not working, and deciding not to use it is absent.
• Intuitiveness: apps that have a shallow learning curve make it easier for you to get started with using them.
• Automation: sync between apps, automated features, and calendar connections make these apps work right when you need them to. No extra effort needed.
• Cross-platform support: you don’t need to be in front of your computer to use these apps. Just your phone (lowest friction possible!) is enough.
• AI tools: these apps do whatever you need them to do themselves. No human input necessary!
• Interface: apps with beautiful interfaces make it more likely for you to use them.

Finding apps to fit your requirements

Here are four main questions you should ask yourself (and keep in mind) while you choose the apps that are the best for your workflow.

Firstly, what platforms do you use? Are you committed to an ecosystem? Do you value cross-platform sync?

Secondly, what do you want technology to do in your life? Do you want it to take over only certain parts of your workflow or do you want to fully commit to it?

Thirdly, do you prioritize simplicity or function? Do you want to stick to applications/technologies that you are already familiar with (like Microsoft Word, for example), or are you willing to try out more specialized apps that require you to learn them (like Notion)?

Finally, are you willing to pay for your app?

It’s important to note that everything about technology is personal. There’s a reason that there are literally hundreds of notetaking apps: different people value different functions.

Don’t blindly copy what your favourite productivity YouTuber does. Adapt what they do to your own workflows.

Thanks for reading!