You don’t have to use all the features

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Summary

Just because an app has a bunch of features doesn’t mean you have to use them all. I use Things 3 as an example, it’s simple, I don’t use tags because I don’t need them. Clients get frustrated because they try to use every feature and then blame the app. Stop using what you don’t need and keep it simple.

Raw

There’s good, there’s bad, there’s ugly. We all know this, right? In everything, in life, in cars, in stuff we buy, the things we do. There’s good, bad and ugly. This being a tech channel, I’m going to say, in tech, it’s exactly the same. There are good apps, there are bad apps, and they’re a goddamn stupid. They’re ugly apps.

And all of these apps obviously have features that we want to use. Now, some have a lot more features than others. Some are very sparse, like Things 3, for instance, which is just a task management app. There is no frills. It’s a beautiful thing. And it just works. The Apple Mac also effectively is the same thing. It’s quite simple and it just works, even though a lot of people want to hack it.

So there are good apps and bad apps. But the feature set in each of these apps is what actually makes the difference. difference. And what I mean is that just because an app has all of these features, doesn’t mean you actually have to use them.

So, for instance, in Things 3, because of the way the app is built, personally, I don’t use tags because it’s a feature that just I don’t need, and I don’t think you need it in a task management app in that way. There are tags you need to use in different apps, like Notes app, for instance. Some use tags in Notes app. I don’t. I prefer to have folders. So just because an app has that feature doesn’t mean you need to use it. It actually makes things way more complicated.

And what I find is when I work with a client and they’re using a specific app, they get so frustrated because the app isn’t working for them. The thing that transpires is that they’re trying to use every single feature in that app and getting frustrated with it and then saying the app doesn’t work. No, stop using the features. What do you want to do? Send an email. Well, send the freaking email. Why do you want to send it later, per se? I mean, bad example. But even send later in an email app, I think, is a pain in the butt. But it could be used for certain things.

But the idea is just because an app has all of those features, don’t kick yourself all the time. Don’t kill yourself by trying to use all of those features because you probably don’t need them. So again, just because the features are there, it doesn’t mean you need to use them. And with that, I’ll see you in the next one. Ciao. Bye.