Back when smartphones first came out, some (including Francis) asked the question: is a smartphone superior to a knapsack full of gadgets? For example, was a sack with a camera, pda, phone a functional equivalent?  If so, did it offer more than convenience? Was there a real improvement in productivity?

Since then, the question has been answered by apps which rely and interact with multiple other apps, but the question is still valid. Just because a technology allows something to be done more easily or conveniently, may not mean that it allows for a bona fide improvement in personal productivity. What does a material productivity improvement look like? How can it be measured?

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In this Cast | Convenience: Personal Productivity Enabler, or Not?

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Art Gelwicks

Francis Wade

Show Notes | Convenience: Personal Productivity Enabler, or Not?

Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vQVofN3YIY

How I'm Getting a Smartphone, While Avoiding Crazy Habits

Do You Need New GTD Contexts?. Or do you need to stop using them… | by Francis Wade | 2Time Labs

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Voiceover Artist 0:00Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place. ProductivityCast the weekly show about all things productivity, here are your host Ray Sidney-Smith and gousto been out with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks

Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17Welcome back, everybody to ProductivityCast the weekly show about all things personal productivity. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith.

Augusto Pinaud 0:22I'm Augusto Pinaud.

Francis Wade 0:23I'm Francis Wade.

Art Gelwicks 0:24And I'm Art Gelwicks.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:25Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode of productivity cast. And in this episode, I'm going to turn it over to Francis to lead us into the conversation. Francis, you had a topic that you wanted us to talk about related to convenience. And so can you explain to listeners your experience and what we're going to talk about today?

Francis Wade 0:46Sure. I'm a I was a late adopter to smartphones. I didn't have one for a long time. And everyone was raving about how great they were. And I asked the question, why do I need a smartphone. And my initial observation was that the smartphones at the time, which was the early 2000s, mid 2000s, I argued that they were no better than a knapsack of gadgets. So if I had a knapsack with me, and I carried it everywhere, and it had a phone, PDA, GPS, a recording device to record audio, and record and a video camera, the smartphone, which combined those elements into one, my argument was that that wasn't more productive than my knapsack of gadgets. It was more convenient. And just because they were no bundled into a single device, did not make people more productive against capital P productive, although the convenience could not be argued with. So all the time that the argument was resolved, because there were lots of apps that came out in doo, doo, doo doo time that that had multiple connections between the different functions that never existed before. So that that that question was settled, in my mind. But I still sort of retained this kind of Luddite point of view, which is just because you can do something in a in a place or a time that is new to you. Does that mean that you're more productive? And the example I use is texting with texting and driving? Just because you can text while you're driving? Does that mean that you're more productive? Clearly, it's a convenience. But I think that today, back then the question was kind of up for up for grabs, but today we settled it. texting while driving is a dangerous convenience. So if we have a dangerous convenience, then surely we must have conveniences that don't add productivity, if we can go all the way to danger. Well, we don't have to go that far to say are their apps are the capabilities are that technology is being created today, which are only really about a mile, the convenience, but they don't really add to our productivity. And in fact, they could take away Take away from it.

Augusto Pinaud 3:19I think there is an important distinction to make in here, even before you can get to the discussion between productivity and convenience. And one is, is the activity that you're talking, putting in danger, you know, security or bring danger yourself but endanger others? And is this legal and legal or not. So after you pass that and i and i agree texting, we don't need any more proof how dangerous can be so so that that is not we cannot even get to the discussion, productivity convenience, because it will be a stop on the first filter that is is this putting you and others in danger? And the answer will be just that set. When you can pass those you know it's not illegal, it's not dangerous. Then now I want to quote there's a photographer called Chase Jarvis, who said something on the lines of the best camera is the one that you have with you. It's not about convenience, it's it or that's where the convenience and that productivity line gets really blurry. You know when you're discussing this You make me think on many months back before the first iPad was released and I carry with me, I really heavy back I was traveling 80 90% of the time. So I carry with me among other things, I scanner to laptops, chargers, Wi Fi router cables and a bunch of other stuff again, in a really, really heavy bag and when The smartphone came, what produce for me was the ability to start leaving some of the things behind for,

for a device that not only was going to be on my pocket, but that was going to make me even more productive. Why? Why more productive, because now I could act regardless where I was, you know, I, I remember having on my Palm Pilot, okay, so even before smartphones, the folding keyboard, why because that gave me the equivalent of a word processor and basic, I get it, it was a super basic spreadsheet, but that allow me to work basically anywhere that I could find some kind, some kind of flat surface, and I could work I could write, I could. And I was going to college in that time. So I could take notes there, typing the notes that that was the one of the first productivity things I remember, for me was that Palm Pilot with that keyboard, I went to law school, I was a paralegal. So getting into the court to take the notes, take the documents that I want to take the screenshots on a camera, I carry palmpilot on a camera and the keyboard and being able to type that directly instead of in a notebook, and allow me to get to the office and basically fire those notes, maybe do a quick review on fire those notes save me in average, comparing to the other paralegals of the firm between 45 minutes or an hour and a half. Because there was a limited access to computers, we tend to forget though things but I remember we were eight paralegals and two computers. So you need to sit in there and wait for the others to do that, while they were fighting for who was going to get that computer, I could do all that on my Palm Pilot and just ask them to synchronize and fire it was fantastic. So that I think it's really, really important. It was convenient, of course, it was convenient, but also make me incredibly more productive. As I begin to substitute things. With that technology, you know, came the first Palm Pilot didn't have a camera came the second one who finally had the camera, so or didn't have a front camera, they did have a camera. So I couldn't start taking all those pictures. So that means scanner out. Now I needed to find a software solution. So I could do those things. But although things were replaced, and there is a video somebody make, and I'm happy to find the notes that something on the lines of 30 years of evolution of technology, and you start seeing a desk full of stuff, and you end up with one little device. Is that convenient? Of course it is convenient, is that making people more productive? Of course, it's making people more productive, because now Jude doesn't depend on that, you know, recently you, Francis wrote an article about our we need new context. And as I read that, it made me think on the old context, you know, our office at phone, you know, at phone is a context that unless identity, it's it's a context that die, why because all of us carry a phone in our pocket, the iPhone, you may need to record the Android, whatever, you may not want to make the phone call, you may want it to do it in your office for other reasons, but not because you now are tied up to okay when I get back to home or when I get back to the office. So those contexts, you know, are evolving, same thing with connected to the internet. If we go back to that time you were talking Yeah, connected to the internet had a bunch of conditions that need to be met for you to do it. Today, we are connected almost anywhere. It is convenient. Of course it is convenient....