Issue #9 - The best productivity tool, but more layoffs
Hey all,
I’ve been crazy busy this week, and I feel like I left writing this to the last minute. The good news is that I always have something to talk about.
Today…
The best productivity tool ever, or so I think
Tech layoffs - it’s breaking my heart
Notion - best productivity tool?
This week I wanted to introduce you to Notion, which is often regarded as the best productivity tool ever!
I’ve used Notion for over a year, maybe longer. I use it to help me get by at work and also personally.
Examples include:
Keeping track of XFN relationships, 1:1s, etc. I had it set up so it would highlight if I was overdue a meeting with someone using a simple formula.
Workload management. I had a kanban board set up. Initially started with the common 3 columns - To Do, Doing, Done, but quickly evolved to something like Backlog, Blocked, In progress Slow, In progress, Done.
ProTip - if you’re juggling a lot in your personal life, a personal kanban can be useful (read more here).
2nd Brain - ok, so this is a bit more extreme and I’ve only started experimenting with this. TLDR - 2nd Brain is a concept, I think created by Tiago Forte. My process is, I have two pages/stores one I call Brain Dump and one called Brain Processed. Anything I find interesting, maybe a website, a quote, a video, etc I just dump into Brain Dump (with a little structure). Then later I arrange stuff in Brain Processed to pull things together. Perhaps a bad explanation, but watch this video by Elizabeth Filips for a better explanation.
A more basic use-case is - using it for ‘lists’. I have a list for this newsletter, and when I have a random thought I add it to the list. Simple.
The Bad News
It’s got a steep learning curve. Mainly because there is so much you can do with Notion, it can become complicated quickly. I found myself with several different versions of each thing until I found the best way to do it.
The good news is, there is plenty of tutorials and guides on it.
To benefit the most from it you need 2 things…
The commitment to set it up, which takes time
The commitment to use it
It’s FREE, I’ve never been limited by the free tier. It syncs between desktop, web and mobile apps. It’s awesome and I highly recommend giving it a try.
Tech Layoffs
I’ve really wanted to avoid writing anything on the tech layoffs. For many reasons, but the main one is that I’ve found it difficult to see friends and both close and distant colleagues be affected.
According to layoffs.fyi we saw 1,040 tech companies lay off 159,684 people last year. And just over 3 weeks into 2023 we have seen 210 companies lay off 67,268.
The heartbreaking thing has been seeing the aftermath of this on LinkedIn. Some more recent ones have come from Google, including people who had been there for over 20 years - starting at junior levels and moving up to director or VP levels. Another story is from a couple who both lost their jobs, with one of them being on maternity leave at the time. One person was travelling on a work trip and received the automated email followed quickly by their internal account being blocked, leaving them unable to access their digital plane ticket to board the plane. In all cases, they received the automated email and quickly had access to the system blocked.
While we see these instant terminations, mostly from the US, here in Europe, people will be waiting to see what happens. Different legislation across different EU countries means some people will have been told they are at risk but won’t know the outcome for several weeks. In some sense, it’s like either ripping the bandaid off quickly or slowly, both ways it hurts.
I was made redundant a while back. I worked at a real shity company, my office was really a storeroom and they fitted me and my team in there. My manager would go through everyone’s internet logs on a daily basis - the ‘reason’ was to check you were using the company equipment for company purposes (a loose excuse) but in reality, she just wanted to know everyone’s business. Back to the point, I was made redundant, the decision was made to cut my entire level of management. At the time my wife was on maternity leave so financially we had a weak footing. I had enough runway for up to 2 months, and during the 3rd month, we had to borrow money from family to pay our mortgage. Times were not great. Luckily, and by sending repeated desperate emails, I found a job during that 3rd month - and I had to use my first pay to repay the money I borrowed. Life was tough but we survived.
And I know my story is just that, my story, but my heart goes out to the 200,000+ people who have been affected by the tech layoffs. I wish you all the best of luck, and if anyone is reading this and has been affected - feel free to reach out.
Fin.