What do you do about the “app problem”? 🤔
Tool sprawl is the result of attempting to solve a problem, typically with software, without first understanding the core of the problem. Back in the day, when the majority of what classifies as a tool was a physical tool, adopting another tool came with costs. First, you had to travel to purchase, exchange money, goods, or services for it, and then find a place to store it. Each adding up to the total cost of ownership (TOC). Terms like tool sprawl and total cost of ownership are often thrown around in software companies by management. But the effects are felt by the individual contributors. Developers, system administrators, and support technicians don’t just know these terms, they feel their negative effects. Recognizing these issues, leadership within organizations will create standards or “paved paths” to help guide the adoption of new technology and tools to reduce the burden felt by those working with the tools. But when it comes to your own productivity, that responsibility lies on your shoulders.
Action: identify, experiment, practiceMulti-purpose tools cloud your judgment of their effectiveness by forcing you to judge their many purposes simultaneously. Take three different types of tools; paper notebook, Obsidian, and Scrivener. Our culture encourages the usage of a single tool over using tools for a single purpose. Immediately the thought of which is “the best” surfaces to mind and the ones not chosen should be discarded. Attempting to choose the single best tool turns you into a maximizer faced with an impossible question. There is no single best tool because each of the three listed has strengths over the other. Perhaps the physical notebook is best for travel and mental health, Obsidian links ideas together in a way that a notebook or Scrivener can’t do, and Scrivener can output beautiful e-books. Choosing just a single tool is as detrimental to productivity as choosing all of them.
Example: Single usage vs single purpose Paper notebook: Use to capture ideas, tasks, and insight while offline (afk) Obsidian: Used for note-taking Scrivener: Used as an editor for writing blogs, articles, manuscripts Just because a tool “can” do something, doesn’t mean it should be used for everything. Until next time, Josh Duffney Favorite-thing-of-the-week🥰 :
1 More than likely you’ll find yourself trying to solve multiple problems at once, break it down. 2 Avoid sunk costs. If you liked this post, why not share it? |
Older messages
Relevance is a skill
Saturday, October 2, 2021
Improved by the deliberate practice of note-taking. 📝
Connection dependency
Saturday, September 25, 2021
Internet used to be a "nice to have" now it's basically a utility.
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Saturday, September 18, 2021
Find time by taking inventory of it.
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Saturday, September 11, 2021
I've been sprinting for so long that I nearly ran past the summit. As I ran up this first and daunting mountain of accomplishment it was impossible for me to notice the beauty of the climb. Now
Feeling stressed, unfocused, irritable, and overwhelmed by life? 🔥 😞
Saturday, September 4, 2021
Information Overload could be the cause.
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