5. So, if I can’t cut corners
what can I do?
“Marginal Gains”
You may remember this concept from a previous DRINK://,
but basically – it amounts to finding opportunities to save a
small amount of time, often.
6.
7.
8. A list of stuff that helps me achieve
marginal gains for little or no money.
There’s going to be some stuff here for:
Designers, Developers, Project Managers,
People who uses Google Mail/Apps, People who have
passwords.
Some of it is old stuff, some of it new stuff.
15. Sip
System-wide colour picker. Accessible via keyboard shortcuts
‣ Pick a colour anywhere and copy it to clipboard instantly.
‣ Shortcuts to send colour to Photoshop/Illustrator primary or secondary colour.
‣ Pick colours in pretty much any format you want them.
‣ Save colour palettes for later use. (handy if you need to jump back to a project later)
‣ Saves me minutes everyday, probably hours in a month
‣ Full version is awesome, but the free one has loads of features too.
sipapp.io // $9.99 one off or a free version with less stuff
16. Instant Eyedropper
Windows alternative to Sip: Accessible via system tray
‣ Pick a colour anywhere and copy it to clipboard instantly.
‣ Supports multiple formats
instant-eyedropper.com // Free
18. Kiwi for Gmail
Turn Google Mail/Calendar/Sheets/Docs/Slides/Drive into a robust desktop
app.
‣ Stop hunting for browser tabs, or ditch your slow SMTP mail apps.
‣ Multi-account support, switch between them instantly
‣ Stay logged into all accounts. Notifications for all accounts.
‣ Quick do not disturb toggle for when you need to ignore email.
‣ Compose in separate window. (Stay focused on what you’re writing!)
‣ Boomerang, plugin support. (Schedule emails and reminders)
‣ Account selection on Mail-to links, system wide compose email shortcuts.
+
19. Kiwi for Gmail
Turn Google Mail/Calendar/Sheets/Docs/Slides/Drive into a robust desktop
app.
‣ Separate windows for all G-Apps
‣ Zip and attach folders by dragging them to a compose window or via context menu
‣ Open google docs straight from Finder / Explorer into own window.
‣ The list goes on
‣ Must’ve saved me hours this year alone.
kiwiforgmail.com // Free version, but the full version is 50% off right now! =
$4.99 (free version allows one account limited to Mail/Calendar)
+
21. NounProject
Millions of vector icons at your fingertips.
‣ Don’t reinvent the wheel drawing basic icons from scratch
‣ No more spending hours trawling through loads of websites looking for free icons
‣ Just pay one monthly fee and never worry about attribution/cost again
‣ Simple MacOS desktop app Plugins for Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop
‣ Choose colour and filetype (PNG, PDF, SVG)
‣ Pair this up with something like Fontello to make your own icon fonts.
thenounproject.com // Free version is rubbish. Honestly, if you need a lot of
icons just pony up $9.99 per month – your time is worth it.
+
23. Multiselect for Trello
Bulk actions on trello cards (WHY ISN’T THIS ALREADY IN TRELLO?!)
‣ Bulk select whole lists, or cherry pick cards.
‣ Add/remove members and labels to cards in a fraction of the time
‣ Seriously speeds up taking a brief or spec into a real project
‣ This will save you hours of time starting projects
‣ Probably put days back on your lifespan.
‣ Also consider Ultimello, which allows for list sorting by all sorts of criteria.
It’s a chrome plugin. Check the extension store for both. Multiselect is
cheaper than a fancy beer (£3.19) just buy it. Ultimello is FREE!
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25. Tinker CSS
Simple CSS injection directly in chrome’s inspect tools.
‣ Quickly prototype CSS changes/additions directly in the browser
‣ Don’t waste time hunting for each rule individually
‣ Just write your own and focus on what you’re doing, not where the rule is
‣ Cloud saves to google account so you can go later and find the code you left there.
‣ You’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
‣ Shout out to Boom alumnus Jan Baykara who built this back in 2015
It’s a free chrome extension. Check the extension store for TinkerCSS.
+
27. Dashlane
Elegant, secure password management that will save you oodles of stress and
time. Not to mention avoid potentially major catastrophes.
‣ Import your existing passwords from your browser (No excuses!)
‣ Can automatically change a lot of passwords to common sites for you.
‣ One master password + two factor authentication is all you’ll ever need
‣ Logs you into websites automatically
‣ Available for whole teams & businesses.
‣ Massively reduce the risk of you or your clients being hacked/socially engineered.
‣ Automatically save receipts (useful for faster accounting!)
+
28. Dashlane
Elegant, secure password management that will save you oodles of stress and
time. Not to mention avoid potentially major catastrophes.
‣ Gives you a security score out of 100%.
‣ Store multiple passwords per website.
‣ Logs you into websites automatically.
‣ Must’ve saved me hours of time looking up passwords / resetting them.
‣ Pro accounts sync across all devices and browsers / Free accounts work on one
+
dashlane.com // Free for 1 machine or £3.33per month, billed annually (£4 per
user for business accounts – same terms)
29. REMEMBER
You don’t need a huge overhaul of how you work to be more
productive.
Always be looking out for cheap, simple tools that can shave
seconds off your days.
You don’t need to work through lunch, or always work late.
Find tools that help you work smarter.
Notas do Editor
.
When trying to be productive. Don’t look for how to spend less time working. Maintain your high standards - they’re the last thing you should “optimise”
Don’t look for ways to save time, look for ways to use it better. Cutting corners may save you 5 hours now - but there’s just too much of a risk that it’s going to cost you 50+ in the future. It’s really tempting when you’re up against it. Often clients will push for this sort of thing to save time and money, but you have to push back a bit!
Wayne talked about it earlier this year, look to improve processes, not to remove them. Lots of small cuts can add up.
A bit like having a penny jar, you might not feel like you’re saving much when you put one penny in…
But it all adds up over time.
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Sip is activated with a keyboard short cut you can rebind.
You can increase or decrease for pixel perfect sampling. It saves colour codes to your clipboard and stores a history of them.
Gives them auto generated names. Nice way to make them more memorable, or help you write a brand guideline?
They try to sell you it as part of a sub package of apps, but scroll down the page and the option to buy it on it’s own is there!
Windows alternative I found, Never used it – your milage may vary, looks like it does the same core stuff as Sip, but with less features.
Native desktop app for the theatre google apps suite. Amazing if you’re using gmail for business or you use lots of gmail accounts for anything. They have a 6 minute video on their site that I’ve nicked a bit of here.
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This was fully free yesterday! D’OH, what a bummer! Windows charges per year for some reason. Mac is a one off charge.
If you don’t use G Suite for your email. Consider it! It’s excellent. Starts at about £3 per month per user, gives you loads of shared cloud storage to work with - Scales well to big companies, but still, really useful for small ones and individuals.
Before noun project, I’d spend hours looking for or making an icon suite - just to depict basic ideas and concepts in design. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel here, unless you have a really unique style you have to follow. Redrawing a stick man isn’t a clever use of time and doesn’t prove any design chops to anyone.
Basic missing feature from Trello that makes the life of project managers so much easier. This has saved myself and Wayne hours and hours by now.
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Really good for quickly going “I wonder what it would look like if I did X”. Especially useful for prototyping CSS for totally new sites, write your new rules where you already are - in the browser.
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So, it’s Computer Security Day apparently. So this one covers that base too. Dashlane is a password manager app. But frankly, it’s a lot more than that.
And shows that time invested in security can gain productivity.
Some investment of time up front can save loads of time in the future over lots of little micro actions of logging in / registering at sites etc .
I’ve tried LastPass too and that’s ok, but honestly - the interface is clunky and it’s just not as slick as Dashlane.
Compatible with loads of two factor authentication methods and apps Google Authenticator, Authy, Free OTP, Win Auth can also use Fingerprints, Face ID (if you have it). New intel Hardware two factor authentication as well.
Can securely share passwords with other Dashlane users, without copy pasting them somewhere.
Reducing menial tasks can keep your mind sharper, and reduce your stress. If you know you can concentrate on the work that matters, that you actually enjoy, then you’re going to be more productive anyway.
