I tried a lot of stuff when it comes to productivity and I'm pretty sure productivity means different things to different people. For me it boils down to three different aspects:
- easy and fast access to the right information
- easy and fast navigation
- easy and reliable reminders
As you can see, for me the theme is easy access to the right information at any time. I'll share tools or tips over the next couple of weeks which help me accomplish this goal.
I've been using Gmail since mid 2004 almost 9 years now. I started using the web interface but then quickly switched to a desktop application. I've been using Apple Mail ever since and it improved quite a bit over the past few years.
On iOS I've been trying various different gmail compatible Apps, however nothing every suited my needs - so I stuck with Mai.app.
Fortunately, Google released an overhauled version of Gmail.app a couple of weeks ago and after another failed attempt to urgently search an email in Mail.app, I gave up and switched completely. That was about a week ago and so far I'm quite happy. The Google Calendar integration is a killer feature and the conversation view is making it so much easier to find the context of an email.
I felt so much more productive after only a couple of days that I decided to give Gmail - the web interface a try. I installed Google Chrome and using it as a full replacement for Apple Mail since a week now. The keyboard shortcut support has always been amazing and the web interface is really fast. The productivity boost for me is the Send & Archive feature. It might sound a little silly, but it's something so small that makes me feel so much more productive.
I'm not fully happy neither with Gmail.app not Gmail the web interface, but all the annoyances are worth the productivity gain. I think I'll keep going with both for now.
Next up: Alfred App