Like it or loathe it, technology is here to stay and whether you are looking to start a new career path while remaining an employee, or becoming self-employed in some form, you can’t avoid the rise of the tech solutions that will help us work smarter and be more connected.
I firmly believe that the right systems and apps can make things a whole lot easier when you’re planning and actioning a big career or life move. But they have to be the right options for you, as it’s not one size fits all.
So in this episode I’m giving you the inside scoop on the systems and apps that I used to plan and action my career leap, and that I still use to this day in my business to stay productive and focussed. Feel free to swipe some ideas if you think they will work for you too!
If you’re ready to start making your career dreams a tangible reality and need to get focussed and organised to get there, this episode is for you!
So, hit play above and get ready for the full download!
Are you feeling frustrated or stuck in your career but struggle to know what direction to take instead? Do you want to discover what you really should be doing with your life?
If the answer is yes, I invite you to check out my FREE guide ‘How to find your Burning Passion (& Re-ignite your career and life).
Find out more and download the FREE guide here...
https://www.nicholaohara.com/burningpassion
Links mentioned in this episode:
Forest app for focus: https://www.forestapp.cc
Forest app, tree planting partners: https://trees.org/sponsor/forest-app/
University of California Irvine study on work interruption: https://www.ics.uci.edu/~gmark/chi08-mark.pdf
Mind Meister, mind mapping system: https://www.mindmeister.com
Otter, voice notes app: https://otter.ai
Google Drive: https://www.google.com/drive/
iWish, vision board app: https://www.iwishbucketlist.com
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Can’t listen right now?
Don’t worry, I have you covered...here are some of the key points!
As an employee, you have to work with whatever systems your company has decided to adopt.
However, in terms of your career leap project plan, you can choose the tools you want to use, or not. You alone are in charge of this particular project!
There are soooo many options, but here are my favourites!
Forest App
I don’t know about you but I’m always picking up my iphone to check out my whats app or text message, email (I actually have 4 email accounts!), social media, the weather app or to find out the latest news. Sometimes I don’t even realise I’m doing it!! . So when I found the Forest app it was game changing! Forest is an app to help you focus and be more productive. The concept is really simple, you plant a virtual tree in a virtual forest and then set the timer for when it will have grown. The timer can be for one minutes to a couple of hours, you can choose.
After the timer is set, if you unconsciously pick up your phone and log in and this screen with the tree pops up saying it will die if you continue, it reminds you that you really wanted to focus something and why that is important to you. And that alone can break the automatic action your brain wanted you to make.
Of course, if what you need to do is more important you can kill the tree by tapping give up (you actually kill two trees by doing that!), but it does make you weigh up if whatever it is can wait a while for you to finish the thing you are doing. Nine times out of ten I find that I don't need to stop and often I have just picked up the phone out of habit.
I used Forest to help me focus in the hour and a half I had every morning for work on planning my career change and then when building my business, before I left to catch the train for my day job. I still use it now when I have some deep work to do and don’t want to be distracted. So if you have very little extra time in your week to plan and action your career leap, this app can really help you focus on what’s important when you do.
Mind Meister
Have you ever drawn mind maps when you were at school, university or getting ideas together at work? Mind mapping is an effective way to take notes and to brainstorm topics or themes.
Basically, you create ideas by association, one word sparks more and more ideas until you have a whole map of everything you know and need to know. It’s a visual representation of the whole topic. This is really useful to organise your thoughts and structure them before creating your strategy and planning activities. Mind Meister is a system and app that allows you to create mind maps online.
As I have said before, I love using post-its when I’m brainstorming new ideas but I then use Mind Meister to organise my thoughts.
I added all my options for changing career, and what I loved about it is that you can move ideas around and connect different themes and ideas in different ways to help me make a decision. Then once I had my career change idea decided, I used it to create a full map of all the things I needed to do to set up my business before I left my corporate job. More recently, I have thought out my high level strategy in term of where I want to take my business over the next five years by using mind-maps on
Asana
Asana is the project management system I used for planning my full career leap project from start to finish. It has the ability to create your strategy, plans and tasks down to a granular level. Now, I’m not naturally good at details, and this forces me to record everything I need to do and create deadlines to make sure they happen. This is going to make me sound like such a geek but there is something so satisfying when you have planned out a project. Knowing that you have everything mapped out and timed, you feel like you’re halfway there!
Asana really is a fantastic system to assist you in that. It is easy to use and integrates with over 100 other systems and has an app that means you can keep track when you are on the move.
It does take a bit of time to include everything in your project plan, but it means that you have a clear direction and gives you a feeling that this transformation project is really happening, and you’re set on the path towards your new career and life.
Otter
Have you ever been out for a walk and been struck with loads of ideas about something, maybe about potential career options, or suddenly realised exactly how you can make your vision of success a reality? Well, this happens to me a lot and I used to stop and write down whatever that thought was into the notes app on my phone. But that was not ideal as it meant a lot of stopping and starting and a short walk ended up taking an hour. Until I discovered Otter. Otter does not just record your voice but can transcribe spoken words into text, which is fantastic when you prefer speaking to writing or just can’t write or type at that moment . I speak right into the app and it creates a written translation and I then copy it and save it in my files. It’s also great if you are on a course or attending a conference and want to take sound bites of particularly interesting messages.
The app has a free version currently, but you can upgrade to Otter pro to get more features, like being able to import audio and video files for transcription.
Google Drive
Google Drive is an information organisation system, it’s where you can store your word processing documents and spreadsheets. You may have heard of Google Docs, Google Sheets and maybe even Google Sheets or Google Forms. They work with Google Drive and are stored there. There are many great features in Google Drive but my favourite is that it allows you to work on documents in real time, which means you can create documents quickly and change the content without having to constantly save it. You can collaborate with others by giving them access to specific files, and can share documents and files with ease. It has fantastic connectivity with other systems, and particularly now when in my business I use many other systems this is crucial.
Having used MS Office for years, I decided to give Google Drive a try and, after a bit of getting used to it, I have not looked back! I saved all the documents I needed for my career leap project in Google Drive and found it saved me a whole lot of time and stress. Now it hosts everything for my business. Admittedly you don’t have quite the advanced functionality of Word or Excel but I did not use most of the more advanced functions anyway. I just need the mainstream features and the Google docs and sheets are fine for that, and I use Keynote for Mac for presentations so I don't need Google slides which are inferior to Powerpoint.
For me I want speed, accessibility and flexibility which is what Google Drive provides
iWish
This last one is more fun, but also can be quite powerful. I have a clear vision of what I want my lifestyle to be and what I want to achieve, but sometimes I need to give myself a reminder of all that I am working for and to see what I have already achieved. iWish is an App that works as a digital vision board. A vision board is a board which holds a collage of words and pictures that represent your goals and dreams. In the iWish app you can add your goals and associated pictures. They can be goals from all parts of your life like career, family, relationships, wellness, travel or learning.
So whenever I have a tough day or want to inspire myself I can log into the app and get a visual hit of what life's all about.
So there you have it, those are the systems and apps I use to keep me on track. Give them a try and see if they work for you. If not, don’t worry there are many systems and apps out there, so have look around and see what suits you better. Tech needs to work for you, not against you, so if you feel or think a system seems too complicated or just does not resonate with you, then try something else!
We’re all unique! I love to start all my creating and planning on paper and then transfer to tech. You may prefer to go straight to tech or not use tech at all. As long as you can plan and take action to power your way to making your passion your career you're on the right track!
So, enjoy finding the best match for you and start planning!
Join me in the next episode and remember, everyone deserves to live their passion, so get started this is your time!
