Time Tips by Captain Time

Mobile Productivity: Embracing The Pocket Office

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While many think of smartphones as a distraction or doom-scrolling devices, the smartphone just might be the ultimate mobile productivity tool of our era.

Most people only scratch the surface of their device’s capabilities for productivity. In this article, we will explore ways to use your “pocket office” to greatly increase your productivity.

Essential Mobile Productivity Apps Toolkit

Here are the 6 key programs/apps that I feel most people need to work effectively for both desk and mobile productivity:

  1. Task management system
  2. Calendar
  3. Email
  4. CRM
  5. Note-taking app
  6. Cloud storage for seamless file access

    7. When choosing the apps that I build my workflows in, I ensure that they will work across all my devices – my desktop, laptop, tablets, and smartphone. This way, I can work from any device from any location.

    Distraction Defense Strategies

    Yes, smartphones can be a distraction. To make sure my smartphone use is productive, I turn off all notifications except for calendar appointments to stop interruptions and preserve focus. Instead of mindless scrolling when I am on my phone during the day, I have set productive things that I work on. (Cute dog videos can wait until my entertainment time in the evening.)

    Found Time

    One of the biggest benefits of a smartphone is that they are always with you, in a pocket or purse. This means when you have some “found time” you can call up one of your mobile productivity apps and do a few tasks. Some examples of “found time” can include:

    • Waiting rooms – doctors, dentists, passport processing, etc.
    • Travel – there is a lot of wasted waiting time around travel. While waiting in airports or traveling on airplanes, you can get a lot of tasks cleaned up using your phone
    • Meetings – waiting for a meeting to start? Use your phone to answer a couple of emails while you wait for your client or the rest of your team to show up
      • Useful Things I Do On My Phone

      Here are a few of the productive things I use my phone for when I am out of the office:

      1. Meeting Prep: While waiting in a coffee shop for my prospect meeting, I prepare for the meeting by calling up my contact’s information in my CRM and on LinkedIn. I also review their recent social media posts to catch up on what they are doing and what is important to them. This improves our communication at the meeting and helps me increase my sales meeting conversions.
      2. Email: Email is a great thing to catch up on while you are out because most email replies only take a minute or two. I use voice-to-text on my smartphone to quickly dictate my message and send it. This way, when I get back to the office, I don’t have an stuffed email inbox waiting for me.
      3. Take Notes: My best ideas come to me when I am out and away from the office, often while I am walking my dogs or exercising at the gym. Instead of trying to remember the important idea, I take quick voice-to-text notes on my phone using UpNote. 
      4. Tasks: I review my tasks and projects using xTiles on my smartphone. I can often complete a few simple tasks while waiting for clients for a meeting.
      5. Workshop Outlines: When planning a new workshop, I start with an outline. I can easily create an outline for a new workshop using UpNote on my smartphone and quickly turn it into a stunning presentation later using Gamma.
      6. Planning: Being out of your office with some found time, is a great time to give some thought to planning your next day or your next week on your smartphone using your time blocking calendar and your task management system.
      7. Brainstorming (AI): AI has made it easy to brainstorm using your phone. Use apps like Claude or Perplexity to brainstorm your ideas.
      8. Backup Systems: I am a Regional Leader for Bx Networking and am responsible for three in-person networking groups in my area. While one of our team members brings a laptop to check people into the meeting and take registrations, I make sure I can also log into the registration system using my phone, so if a team member were ill or delayed in any way, I can just take attendance and registrations using my smartphone.
      9. Learning: Found time while you are out is a great time for the learning and professional development you want to do, but don’t get time for in your normal busy workday. For my online courses “Time Management: Step by Step” and “Level Up Your Follow-Up” I made sure they work easily on mobile and also include audio podcasts for each course so people could listen on their commute, while exercising, or while walking their dog. So load up your favorite learning podcast or an online course for a skill you want to master to free up professional development learning time each week.
        10. Preparing for Mobile Productivity

        Here are some tips on how to set yourself up for success with smartphone productivity.

        1. Check Access – Have you ever tried to use an app while out, only to find it is asking you for a password you may not have with you? Make sure you have all the productivity apps you want to use installed, and you can access all key apps on your phone.  Log in to each app you will need beforehand to ensure it works. Choose apps that work across all your devices. For me, I use a combination of Windows and Android apps. Sometimes I find apps I like, but I refuse to use them unless they have both a Windows and Android version.
        2. Choose Small, Quick Tasks – While it might be possible to run your entire business on a smartphone, some tasks are better on the big screens. Choose short, simple tasks, like the ones I mentioned above to make it easy to be productive on your smartphone instead of struggling with complex tasks on a small screen.
          3. The Pocket Office Revolution

          Embracing using your smartphone as a productivity tool instead of as a doom-scrolling, focus-breaking productivity killer. This will not only save you time, but also reduce stress as you can get to important emails and tasks even when you are on the move.

          Want to learn to become a productivity superhero and double or triple your productivity? Join Garland’s “Time Guild” for weekly masterminds, exclusive AI tools, extensive online courses, unlimited support, online community help, and much more for one low monthly price. Put Captain Time on retainer!

          The post Mobile Productivity: Embracing The Pocket Office appeared first on Time Management Training by Captain Time.

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