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.

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

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.

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.)

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:

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

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

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!

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Business networking is building mutually beneficial relationships with other business professionals. You meet people and get to know them over time.  These relationships can then be tapped to advance your career, make sales, promote your business, and help each other.

Business networking has existed as long as there has been trade, especially when trade became more complex and expanded beyond simple villages where everyone knew each other to cities with more people and connections to trade routes. Throughout history, people naturally turned to people they know and trust to support their business ventures or hire them as employees.

So you might be thinking. “That’s all very well, but we don’t need business networking anymore because now we have the Internet!” While it is true that the Internet has been a brilliant way for many small businesses to get the word out and grow their business, there is also a lot of noise on the Internet and it is easy for your voice to get lost. It is often faster and easier to build stronger business relationships when you meet in person. And, the Internet allows you to expand your business networking globally.

You’ve probably heard the common adage, “Success is about WHO you know, not WHAT you know.” It is estimated that 67% of job openings are filled through referrals, internal hires, and other methods, NOT from public job postings. In the case of these job referrals, the job went to someone the HR department, CEO, or someone else in the company knew. In the political arena, we often see political supporters rewarded with plum positions in government or politicians voting on issues in a way that favors their supporters.

The same is true for purchasing products and services – you go with the people you know and trust.

Word of mouth has always been one of the most powerful forms of marketing. EACH person you connect to has 100s or 1,000s of people in their network of people they know, so business networking greatly increases your word of mouth because you have an entire network of people who love what you do and recommend you to their network.  Just 10 people who love what you do with 1,000 people each in their network, makes it easy for you to reach 10,000 people.

In my own experience running a business networking group, whenever our members need a plumber, realtor, or business coach, they will go with the people they know and trust, their business family, the other members of the group that they have come to know over months and years of networking.

Your sales don’t just come from the people you know, they also come from referrals from the people you know and who know and trust you. In my local community, I regularly see requests in the local chat groups for recommendations for plumbers, lawyers, realtors, etc. The original posters are reaching out for people’s experience and feedback with people and services. Whenever I see a service recommendation request, I and others in my local business networking groups chime in and recommend the relevant person with those skills from our business networking group.

In addition to business and referrals from your business networking group, you can also find and cultivate referral partners. Referral partners are people who work with similar target audiences to you, but who don’t compete. For example a moving company and a realtor can be great referral partners. Both work with home buyers, but don’t compete. A single referral from a realtor to a moving company might be worth $5-$10,000 dollars. 4 referrals from that realtor per year might be worth up to $20,000 per year. Just 5 referral partners like this, and you now generate an extra $100K per year in income.

Let’s say you have 1,000 people who follow you on social media. You post a note about your upcoming event or workshop. Likely, only your 1,000 followers will see it. But, if you are a well-respected part of your business networking group and 10 people from your group love what you do, they will share your post on their own social media profile. If each of them has 1,000 followers, now you are reaching an extra 10,000 people! More than 10xing your reach.

With business networking, you never have to do cold calling if you work it right. Cold calling is when you call a person or company that doesn’t know you and you pitch your products and services. I have done this for a living and it is wearing and success rates for cold calling are very low. Here are the business networking benefits that make cold calling an archaic tool of the past.

In their early stages many small business owners are on their own, without a team. Belonging to a business networking group gives you a supportive “brain trust” that you can test or run ideas by. When I had the idea for “Captain Time” I ran the idea by my business family and they were very supportive.

While most of us start business networking to find prospects, business networking is also the best way to find the people and services you need to help you grow.

I found these critical people and services through my business networking group:

Business networking is one of the most affordable methods of marketing. Most memberships might run $100 to $150 per month plus lunch costs – perhaps $200 to $250 per month in total.

Compare this to any Google Adwords campaign where the average estimated cost per click is $2.69 and some categories like legal might be $6.75 per click. For ONE click you don’t even have people’s contact info for follow-up. You can easily spend $1,000s of dollars per month on Google Adwords, with little or no return. One of my clients spent $7,000 US on a Google Adwords campaign (before I got involved) and only generated $700 in sales…a fast road to bankruptcy.

In contrast, with business networking, you might pay $200 per month, get some lunches and breakfasts, and meet REAL people/prospects and potential referral partners.

And lastly, business networking is a great way to make lasting friendships with other like-minded people. As an entrepreneur myself, I love that I can meet other creative entrepreneurs and share time with them. I have several personal friends through business networking that my wife and I see socially. This was a great benefit when we moved into a new community where we didn’t know the locals.

For me, business networking benefits include:

Business networking is a skill, and like any other, you do have to learn the skill and apply it.

If your business networking efforts aren’t generating at least $1,000 per month in revenue, reach out for a free business networking discovery call to see how I can help. You can also check out my business networking coaching programs here.

Thanks for reading and viewing this article and video. If you found this article useful, please hit “Like” and “Subscribe” on the video to help others find our content.

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Every year, in January, people look at their previous year and see missed opportunities and goals they didn’t manage to achieve. So they resolve to do better and set new workplace goals and personal goals. New Year’s resolutions have become a joke for this reason that most people fail in their new goals in just a few weeks. Just like all the previous years, you will fail to reach your workplace goals unless you have systems to achieve them.

Goal setting is easy. Achieving goals is hard! Here is a very simple process to actually help you achieve goals.

Most people just set goals, but don’t have a plan or systems to achieve the goals. A very few people do come up with a plan to reach their goals, but almost everyone fails Step 3: putting systems in place to move you closer to your goal each week.

Now that you have had a look at the SMART goals format, let’s try a sample goal – to write and publish a book.

You can already see how much more likely we are to achieve our goals using this template. By adding a measure of our progress and milestones, and a step-by-step plan, we have already greatly improved the likelihood of achieving our goal.

But the third and most important step is still missing – Creating Systems to achieve the goals.

The system is hinted at in the goal setting template. Writing 2,000 words per week, allocating 4 hours per week of writing and research time. We have only 4 things left to do:

Here is a nifty little free tool called xTiles I have found to let you quickly set up “tiles” for goal setting, planning, and brainstorming. And here is a link to the goal-setting template I showed in the image above so you can copy it to your own free xTiles account.

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Need help setting and achieving your workplace goals or personal goals? Let’s do a productivity breakthrough call.

The post Workplace Goals on Autopilot: Systems That Drive Success appeared first on Time Management Training by Captain Time.

As we step into 2025, it’s time for my annual roundup of the 10 best productivity apps that have been instrumental in my daily life as a time management coach. These are the digital tools that help me leap tall task lists in a single bound and break through all my productivity obstacles. 🦸

Narrowing down my extensive toolkit to just 10 apps was no easy feat, but here are my top picks for my personal best productivity apps of 2025: 📆 Please note that I may make a small affiliate commissions from these links but that did not affect my choices – these are the tools I use EVERY day. Thank you for supporting independent content creation.

Text Blaze has become an indispensable part of my workflow, particularly for automating repetitive tasks. Text Blaze is a text expander that lets you type a few keystrokes and insert prewritten snippets anywhere you want. This tool saves me 6-8 hours EVERY week. Text Blaze:

For a full review, read my Text Blaze review article here.

When it comes to AI writing assistants, Claude.ai stands out for its remarkably human-like responses. I use Claude for

Perplexity.ai has revolutionized the way I gather information: Perplexity:

Canva continues to be my go-to for all things visual. With a huge array of graphic templates, I and my team use Canva to:

For SEO and content strategy, Mangools has great features at an excellent price. I use Mangools to:

I have been able to get top Google ranking for many articles for myself and my clients using Mangools.

Check out my review of KW Finder, just one of Mangools great SEO tools.

Managing my email subscribers effectively is crucial, and MailerLite delivers:

Check out my MailerLite review article here.

Loom has become my secret weapon for creating fast video content and “how-to’s” for my coaching clients and for my team of virtual assistants.

Loom offers:

Video delegation is by far the fastest method I have found for effectively delegating complex tasks, and Loom is a fantastic tool to enable this and to create my video training library.

For note-taking and idea organization, UpNote is my top choice.

Here is my UpNote review if you want to learn more about UpNote.

Business networking, both in-person and online is a huge part of my marketing and business success. To manage all the people I connect with, I use Less Annoying CRM. This CRM lives up to its name, simplifying my business networking efforts:

Reach out if you would like Less Annoying CRM training or to join my business networking coaching program.

Last but not least, Book Like a Boss has streamlined my appointment scheduling:

Here is an example of a “virtual coffee” landing page created using Book like a Boss that I use for people I meet through business networking.

https://bookme.name/CAPTAINTIME/networking-followup-conversation

These 10 apps form the core of my productivity toolkit for 2025. By leveraging their combined power, I’m able to manage my time more effectively, serve my clients better, and continue growing my business as Captain Time. Remember, the key to productivity isn’t just about having the right tools – it’s about using them strategically to support your goals and workflow.

Have you used any of these productivity apps? Share your experience in the video comments on YouTube. Please share this article and video with others who would benefit.

Need help finding and implementing productivity apps in your daily workflow? Check out our time management coaching programs.

The post Captain Time’s Top 10 Best Productivity Apps for 2025 appeared first on Time Management Training by Captain Time.

Previously I did a Claude AI Review where I said I liked Claude for brainstorming and writing. So why do I also use Perplexity?

Perplexity comes in a close second for me for writing and brainstorming, but the real power of Perplexity is its capability to bring in real-time information from the Internet, my websites, and the websites of others into my work. With Claude, I often have to copy and paste information from websites to give it more data to work with, but Perplexity can work with me just dropping in a url. This ability to gather more info in real-time is critical for a lot of the projects I work on.

As a long-time Internet user, I remember the days when Google wasn’t the dominant search engine. We had lots of tools back then like Infoseek and Ask Jeeves. Google rose to dominance because of its clean interface and because it gave you better results to your questions. But today, Google is full of sponsored results and heavily SEO-optimized content. So much so, that when you need an answer to a question, Google isn’t your best source anymore.

Let’s look at an example. Let’s say I want some accounting software so I am looking for some QuickBooks alternatives. Let’s run the phrase “suggest some alternatives to QuickBooks for small business bookkeeping software.” When I do this search in Google, the first 4 results are all sponsored, including one advertisement for Quickbooks – the software I am trying to avoid! The next result is an AI Overview from Google’s Gemini. So essentially, Google’s entire search engine first page is a bunch of ads and an AI overview. So even Google knows that AI search results are more useful than old-style search but uses the opportunity to flood you with ads before you get to any useful results.

Perplexity also includes citations/sources, so you know where the data came from. (see the numbers above)

This is critical as some AIs have been known to make up some statistics, or in the case of lawyers, make up case law. By having the source readily available, you can quickly check the validity of the data.

Perplexity is a great tool for brainstorming because it can also gather information from the websites you are using as a base or for inspiration. Here are two example prompts:

Suggest some passive income products that could be added to my website at https://captaintime.com

Prompt: Suggest some good referral partners for my time coaching practice at https://captaintime.com

Now let’s try some writing from existing online content. In this case, to write a social media message to promote a blog post on my social media profiles. Great results, and it creates hash tags and adds appropriate emojis for me.

Prompt: Create a social media message to promote this blog post. Make it warm and friendly and include emojis. https://captaintime.com/the-surprising-link-between-exercise-and-productivity/

Prompt: Write a marketing plan for my time coaching practice at https://captaintime.com

The marketing plan for Captain Time, led by Garland Coulson, aims to leverage his 25 years of experience in time management, his best-selling book, and his extensive training services to attract individuals and organizations seeking to improve their productivity. The plan will focus on highlighting Garland’s expertise, building a strong online presence, and offering tailored solutions to meet the diverse needs of clients.

By implementing these strategies, Captain Time can effectively reach and engage its target market, establish a strong brand presence, and drive growth in the time coaching practice.

You can also use Perplexity to gather information from prospects and clients. Here is an example where a web design firm could analyze prospect’s websites to find opportunities to approach prospect’s about improving their website’s design and marketing. Do you think I should forward this one to CNN? 😁

Prompt: Analyze this website url from a marketing perspective to suggest ways we could redesign the site for them to make it more visible and generate more leads – https://www.cnn.com/

To redesign the CNN website (cnn.com) with a focus on increasing visibility and generating more leads, here are several strategic recommendations based on marketing and web design best practices:

By implementing these strategies, CNN can enhance its website’s usability, improve its visibility through SEO, and effectively generate more leads by engaging visitors and providing them with valuable content.

Here is another analysis example. Let’s say you are comparing two types of software and want to see the pros and cons of each.

Prompt: Compare Hub Spot to Go High Level for CRM systems from a digital marketing agency perspective.

When comparing HubSpot and GoHighLevel from the perspective of a digital marketing agency, several key differences and similarities emerge that can help you decide which platform is more suitable for your needs.

Perplexity makes it easy to share your results with a simple share button on the top right corner that lets you copy a shareable link or share the result on Facebook, What’s App, or X.

Perplexity AI is a great addition to my AI toolkit and a tool I use every day, especially when I am doing online search or need to incorporate web information into my research and writing. I highly recommend it. If you enjoyed my Perplexity AI review, please hit the Like and Subscribe button on the video and share this article and video with others to support independent content creation.

Need more help? Check out our Time Titans and Time Mastery Collective productivity coaching programs which include learning how to use AI in your every day workflow to supercharge your productivity.

The post Beyond Google: Captain Time’s Perplexity AI Review appeared first on Time Management Training.

I teach a lot of time hacks to help people be more productive and one of the more unusual time hacks is the link between exercise and productivity.

When you are busy and overwhelmed, the last thing most people want to try to jam into their already overloaded day is time for exercise. However, exercise and productivity have a powerful synergy that should not be ignored.

Now, I am an overweight old guy who spends most of my day in front of a computer. So what would I know about exercise and fitness? But as “Captain Time” I know a LOT about productivity and increasing my physical activity has had a HUGE impact on my personal productivity.

Like most people, after I got out of school and stopped having regular physical education classes and playing on school sports teams, I stopped putting time into fitness. Add to that that most of my jobs since then have been working at a desk and computer, and over the years my weight increased and my fitness level plummeted. After so many years of neglecting my fitness, what changed for me?

Honestly, I got tired of being tired all the time. I decided to make one simple change and see if that would help. I decided every day, I would take a 20-minute brisk walk at lunch before going back to my desk to work. I was ruthless with myself – rain, snow, or shine, I would push myself out to walk at lunch and just make sure I dressed accordingly. Being on Vancouver Island where it rained a lot, my Tilley hat got a great workout! [insert picture of me in my Tilley hat]

The first week, my new healthy walking habit had great benefits!

I called it my “Productivity Walk” and shot a vlog post about the walk one day while I was out.

Several studies have demonstrated the benefits of exercise on productivity. Here are some key findings:

1. Resource Caravans and Job Self-Efficacy: A 2023 study published in the Personnel Psychology journal found that daily physical activity provided “resource caravans” such as improved sleep quality, increased vigor, and enhanced task focus, which collectively supported better concentration, attention, and information processing. Additionally, exercise improved job self-efficacy, leading to higher motivation and better job performance[.

2. Corporate Wellness Programs: A 2017 study by the University of California highlighted the impact of corporate wellness programs on productivity. The study followed 111 workers in five laundry plants who participated in a wellness program that included exercise. The results showed a 10% increase in productivity among participants who improved their health through better diet and more exercise.

3. Connecting With Nature:  A 2021 report from the Mental Health Foundation in the UK found that being out in nature has a major impact on mental health with 45% of survey respondents saying being out in nature helped them cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.

3. Exercise is More than Medicine: The working age population’s well-being and productivity: In Denmark, 15 randomized controlled trials involving over 3,500 workers demonstrated that workplace exercise programs improved health outcomes and productivity. These programs, which included about an hour of weekly supervised exercise, resulted in significant improvements in muscle strength, balance control, and cardio-respiratory fitness, leading to increased productivity.

4. Exercise Fights Low Energy and Fatigue: This trial found that regular exercise helped sedentary people had a beneficial impact on their energy and fatigue levels.

When I moved back to Edmonton the winter cold made it more difficult to do my daily walks, but I persevered. I joined the local Tri-Leisure Fitness Centre in the winter and use their indoor walking track and weights.

At one point, I ran into a problem with my productivity lunch walks. I got a puppy. While my puppy was ecstatic to join me on my lunch walks, have you ever tried walking around a friendly neighborhood with a cute, puppy who greets everyone like a long lost friend. [picture of Kya]

My 20-minute brisk productivity walks turned into leisurely 40-minute chats with my neighbors. Fun, but not getting me back into my office for my afternoon work. So I shifted my walks to be in the late afternoon or after supper so that I could take the time to socialize with the neighbors.

For the bitterly cold days, I either go to the local Tri-Leisure fitness Centre and use the walking track, weights, or pool or I stay home and exercise in my basement using exercise videos and home weights or our rebounder. I alternate between more active videos such as The Body Project, Rebounder Videos, and my Qi-Gong playlist. The key thing is not to let weather, tiredness or procrastination stop you from exercising.

I do this by “stacking habits.” For example, I set it up so the first thing I do after supper and putting the leftover food away is 20 minutes of exercise. By keeping this exercise time “sacred” I am maximizing the beneficial impact of exercise and productivity.

So I highly recommend you “Get Moving to Get Results.” Your body and mental health will than you for it!

The post Get Moving, Get Results: The Surprising Link Between Exercise and Productivity appeared first on Time Management Training.