Paperless Productivity - Teux Deux

Most of the products I've been and will be testing I've heard about from a number of different sources, but I've only heard about Teux Deux from one source and it's this YouTube video.  It seemed like the type of software I'm looking for so I thought I would give this a go.

At the moment I'm testing this using the free month you get at the start, but if you choose to use it for longer it's only $2 to $3 a month and so isn't a big expense at all.  This software is actually a website based one or an iPhone app (I have an android phone), so to use it I made a link on my phone's home screen which I can click through to the website.  I do sometimes use it when I'm on my laptop, and visually it's a little bit better to view that way, but I mostly use it on my mobile and that's what I'll be talking about here.

The app itself is a pretty easy app to use.  When you first open it up there are already tasks set up for you that explain how to use the software.  It is pretty self explanatory, but these were still good to have, as was the video you could watch, and then you're on your way.

To add a task you just go to the day you want to carry it out on, touch an empty line and type in the task name, click enter and you're done.  To edit a task just click on the pencil on the right, make the changes, and then press enter (you can also delete the task complete but deleting all the text).  

Once the task is complete then just touch it and it'll become grey with a line through it.  If you prefer a clean page instead of seeing all the tasks you've done you can then touch the cross on the right and it disappears completely.

One of the things I like most about this app is that it automatically moves incomplete tasks to the next day for you, just make sure you change your timezone in settings for this to actually work on time.  Incidentally, you can also change the colour of the app in settings as well (just click on the colours tab).  I'm not really a bright red person, too emergency for me, so I've moved to my favourite calming colour instead.

If you want a task to repeat on a regular basis this is really simple to set up.  When you're typing a task out just end with 'every' followed by how often you want it to repeat.  Once you press enter this part will disappear from the title but you'll now see the tasks set up in the future in grey.  

At the bottom of the app (which you can just scroll down to on the website, but click on the arrow at the bottom for the app) there's a section called 'Someday' where you can add running or unimportant to dos and you can edit the names of the other sections for other lists you want to keep.  I've decided to put my monthly, over-arching to-dos here.

This is a very simple app with a very simple layout, but I have to admit that there's something very functional about it that means it beats the other apps I've tested so far, and that's probably due to the layout.  I like the fact that each day is laid out in a separate square very similar to that in a actual calendar or diary.  This is the type of feel that I was looking for and the one that works the best with the way my brain works.  I've also found that I can limit my daily tasks much more easily with this layout of separate days instead of just a scrolling list.  I've been using the size of my mobile screen as a limiter, only adding the number of task that fit into that space.  No scrolling down, or at least very rarely.

The only one down side I can see to this app is it's not really designed for you to add larger tasks which you then work through on a daily basis, similar to Todoist where you can produce an over-arching task that is then broken down into sub-tasks, all with given due dates.  I have kinda worked around this by breaking the tasks down outside of the app and then adding each one in separately with the over-arching task being kept at the bottom of the screen.

To be honest, the sub-tasks issue is not really a big problem for me as it's not the main reason I use to dos, but it might be something you want to think about if you're looking for an app that will work for you.  I have to admit I really like this app and it's simple but functional layout.  It might even have knocked Microsoft To Do off as my favourite one so far, but I'll keep on testing other apps for now and I might come back to this at the end of the year.  Whilst I am trying to find free apps here, the cost of this one is so small that I don't think it would be a problem for me.  Definitely worth giving this one a try.

I guess all that leaves me to say is 'Thanks Matt'.

Next month: Actions by Moleskine.

Staying Sane During Lockdown

Like pretty much everyone else around the world we're in lockdown.  I was still in New Zealand when they went into lockdown on 26th March and my flight back to the UK was then cancelled, so I'm still in New Zealand waiting to see what will happen.  I've been pretty lucky during this lockdown in the fact that, despite not being in my home country, I've had somewhere I can stay and as I'm not someone who is particularly social this whole social distancing thing hasn't been a particular issue for me.

However, I am still dealing with the other constraints that we are all needing to do to control Covid-19.  Of all of them, the reduced outdoor time is definitely the biggest issue for me as I'm just not used to being within four walls for this length of time anymore.  To combat that I've come up with some things that help me stay busy and a little more sane during these times.

Routine.

Most experts, including astronauts who definitely know about being stuck in a confined and dangerous location for extended periods of time, suggest that having a routine is important in situations like this.  I don't stick to mine strictly as it's important to have flexibility during your day, but I have blocked out my day into rough sections to give my days structure.  I've also left my weekends completely free so that each week this has a similar feel to what used to happen in the past.  At the moment I don't have as much work to do in the afternoons as I had hoped, but hopefully this will increase over the next couple of weeks as I carry on trying to find online side hustles I can do.

Exercise.

Staying healthy is always important, but that especially true during stressful moments like this.  My diet is already pretty healthy and well rounded, with a few naughty treats here and there, so ensuring I get enough exercise is what I'm concentrating on at the moment.  As lovely as long lies in bed and curling up on the sofa are it's not something I want to be doing all the time.  Exercise is also good at helping to relieve stress and mental health issues, so definitely something I wanted to block into my days.  In New Zealand we're still allowed outside once a day so we're taking this opportunity to go running outside three times a week and to have a long walk on the other days.  I'm also doing yoga every day, which a really good form of exercise for both stretching and building strength without needing additional equipment, and the added mental exercises that are added into each lesson are really helping.  

Reading.

I love reading, I always have, but I don't always have the opportunity to read as much as I would like.  However, now I have a lot more time now to read then I did before, funnily enough, and I've been really enjoying it.  I've now read through all the physical books I brought with me on this trip so I've started using library apps to borrow digital books for free.  I have to say that technology has definitely made this lockdown a lot easier to deal with then it might have been, even just 50 years ago, including helping me stay in contact with my family on the opposite side of the world.  I could, of course, borrow books off the other people I'm staying with, but I'm still wanting to carry on reading through the books I have stored at my parent's house and have managed to find a number of these at the digital library.  Once I get back to the UK these will be donated. 

Crafting.

Whilst I can't necessarily be as active as I would like to be I don't want to spend my whole time being completely sedentary.  I do let myself watch YouTube (my feed is mainly full of Ted Talks and people walking and camping outside at the moment) and TV (probably a little bit more then I should), but I wanted to do something that requires a little bit more brain power.  Some of this has been covered by doing jigsaws, but for the rest I have gone back to crafting.  I did manage to grab a few supplies before we went into full lock down, but the rest has been done with items I already had and that were already in the house.  So far I've made a few wash clothes /cleaning rags, a couple of pillow cases for some overly large pillows for a bed sheet that was no longer needed (I'm writing a separate blog on how I did that), am now knitting my first ever jumper, and have some alterations to some clothes in the pipeline.  I might even attempt to draw again, though that might be pushing it a little.   

Time to Declutter and Organise.

As I was only expecting to be in New Zealand for 4 months I don't exactly have a lot of items with me at the moment any way, but I still decided to go through what I had to see if anything needed to go.  The good things about this declutter section was that the lack of items meant that it had become very obvious to me what I haven't been using and what items no longer really worked for me.  This led to me getting rid of a few more things, mostly clothing that just didn't fit anymore.  My partner also went through a number of his items and we then organised his bedroom so that we would both be able to stay happily in that space for the duration of the lockdown.  This is definitely a good time to do a big declutter and re-organise, what else do you really have to do.

Keeping myself informed, but not too much.

Whilst it's important to keep yourself up to date with what is happening at the moment, gathering too much information throughout the day every day can be really unhealthy and actually lead to overwhelm and stress.  I do watch the evening news regularly, but not every day, and instead chose to subscribe to a couple of sites that email me information which is specific to a Brit staying in New Zealand at the moment.  For more in depth information I'm turning more to science rather than just the media and am listening to the scientific podcasts that I was already listening to, and trust, before this pandemic started.  I like these because they keep me up to date with what is happening all over the world, but in a more factual rather than emotional way, as well as what our latest understanding about the virus is and, therefore, the most up to date understanding on how to reduce the chance of it spreading.

So there it is, that's how I'm staying sane during the Covid-19 lockdown.  It's not going to work for everyone, but I hope it will help just a few of you if you're struggling during these times.  Perhaps the main thing for me has been knowing that, despite it all, I'm still very lucky.  It's not just because I stuck in doors with someone I actually like, but also because I'm in a country with good health care and a Government who has been working very hard to look after us.  Support of is being put into places to help during these times and, whilst finances might be a little tight, I'm still safe and healthy.  And, of course, there's always more books to read.

Stay safe everyone!

Project Pan 2020 Update #1

So this quarter turned out to be more effective than I thought it was going to be, a lot more effective.  It's actually been quite satisfying, but does mean that things are probably going to slow down quite a lot now for the rest of the year - ops.

Firstly, lets start with the blusher brushes and Tarte Amazonian Clay Blushes I wanted to test.  After testing all the blushes I realised I actually liked them all and am going to keep them all.  Not necessarily the best outcome, but it does mean I probably won't have to buy another blush for the rest of my life. 😂 As for the blush brushes, I really love using the EcoTools Travel Kabuki brush, but felt like the Real Techniques Blush Brush doesn't really deposit a whole lot of the colour to my cheek.  I did try using it as a contour brush, but I prefer my EcoTools Blush Brush for that as well, so I'm going to be donating this.  It's a shame as it's super soft, but there's not point in keeping something I don't use.

This was a bit of a surprise finish as I was expecting it to last until about half of the year.  Instead the Lily Lolo Mineral Foundation in Blondie was the first product to go and pretty quickly too.  It's a really nice foundation, but I find loose powders a bit irritating to use especially with the fact that my life is a bit nomadic at the moment.  It tends to be a bit messy and I was always worried I might drop it everywhere.  It was a lovely colour and texture, and, even though I'm a bit tanner now, it still matched my skin tone pretty well.  You don't need a lot of the product for the coverage to be pretty good and Lily Lolo is cruelty free.  However, this product does contain mica so even if it does come in a compact form I don't think I'll buy it again.  This has been replaced by a concealer product. It wasn't the RMS "Un" Cover-Up I was hoping to get as it's a little bit out of my price range at the moment. It's the Essence Coverstick in Matt Sand, and so far I really like it. Essence is a cruelty free brand and this cost me less than £3.

The Burt's Bees Matte Lip Crayon in Napa Vineyard is a lovely moisturising lip product and I really liked the colour, which suited by skin tone.  However, this product did have a tendency to go onto my teeth and I had to keep an eye on that.  I don't normally like the glossy look on my lips, but this wasn't too bad, but the size of the crayon did mean that it was difficult to get an exact line. I didn't want to go and buy a lip pencil or lip brush just to finish this product, so I just angled it the best that I could. I do like the product but I don't think I'd get it again just because of the application issues.  However, Burt's Bees is cruelty free so I will look at other cosmetic products in the future - if I feel I need them.

I also finished The Body Shop Eye Definer Crayon Kohl in Black sooner than I was expecting, mainly because it turned out it finishes a lot higher up then you might expect.  It's not the worse thing ever, but if the actual crayon had carried on as far you would think you would have gotten another couple of weeks to a month use out of it (depending on how much you use with each application).  The kohl is a pretty soft pencil that is easy to use and smudges well (which is good or bad depending on what you're going for).  However, it's not very black when you apply it, even if you go over the same line a few times.  I also noticed there was a transfer onto my upper lid sometimes.  It's not necessarily the kohl fault as I have oily lids, but it's something to bare in mind if you're getting it.  The Body Shop is cruelty free, however there is a question as to whether or not their parent company is depending on how far up the chain you want to go.  This product has now been replaced by the matt black eyeshadow Blackout in the Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani eyeshadow palette.

I'm now using the Mistine Cosmetics OHH Lipstick No. 01 as my lipstick.  I haven't used it too much so I don't really have much I can say about it other than that so far I like the colour, texture, and feel of this product.  It also stays on well.  However, I can't find anywhere that says about it's cruelty free status and that's really annoying.  So far I've used 5mm of it, so this one will probably be a slow burner.

Lastly, the Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani eyeshadow palette.  I've done what I planned and have hit every eyeshadow this quarter and they weren't as scary as I thought they were going to be.  Unfortunately that's actually because the quality of the eyeshadow isn't what you normally expect with Urban Decay eyeshadows and so the colour pay-offs of the more bold shadows didn't actually really show up.  I would say this is probably the case of all the shadows here so if you're wanting real quality then I would suggest going for a different Urban Decay palette.  I am going to keep using this throughout the year and see how far I can get in finishing some of the colours.  Then I'll decide if I'm going to keep it or not.   

Really not a bad start for the year, though I think it's pretty unlikely that I'll be able to carry on using up items this quickly in the next quarter.  If I finish the lipstick and manage to hit pan on two of the eyeshadows I'd be a very happy bunny.  Realistically I don't think that's going to happen, but a girl can dream.  I'm just going to keep wearing the items as much as possible and I think I am definitely going to be able to reach my goals for the end of the year of everything fitting nicely into my one makeup bag.  It will only get less from there.

So stay tuned for the next update, where probably absolutely nothing will have changed. 😂

Goals for 2020 Update #1

What a beginning to 2020 it has been.  Whilst we knew about Covid-19 at the end of 2019, I don't think we realised just how bad it was going to get or that it would have the affect it would on everything that we now do.  It's easy to get overwhelmed about things like this, but there are things that I've been doing to help me feel calm and lead as normal a life as possible in these situations.  Part of that has been keeping up with my goals.  So this is how they've been going:

British Sign Language Learning

This has been a pretty good one for me.  I managed to finish my online course and got a lovely certificate for it (always pleasing).  I've been practicing my sign language as best I can since this has finished but, funnily enough, finding actual people to practice this with hasn't really been an option at this moment in time.  As soon as I can I'll be looking for a group I can join to keep practicing this skill and hopefully I'll be able to move to a fully fledged BSL speaker in the coming years. 

Financial Fitness

This first quarter has been quite slow, which is to be expected with not being able to work whilst in New Zealand. However, payments towards the credit card debit has still been paid and I'm hoping this will increase in intensity over the next few months.  Of course, this all depends on what work I can do during the lock downs right now.  I still think there's a possibility I can pay it all off by the end of June, but I'm just going to have to be a little bit stricter with myself over the next few months.  The plan is to do what I can to stay on tract with this and I have even registered with some side hustles to help reach this goal by the end of the year.  Having some of my work be online work should also hopefully mean that I'm not too affected by Covid-19 and can carry on earning whatever changes it brings.

Being a Tourist

This has been a pretty easy goal to do this quarter whilst I've been in New Zealand and whilst the corona virus hasn't been too bad.  Obviously it's entirely different now that self isolation is such an important part of keeping this virus as bay.  Looks like I'm going to be spending the next quarter planning what I'm going to be doing once I can finally leave these four walls properly.  Bit travelling around New Zealand has been pretty amazing, even if the virus did stop le from seeing two places I really wanted to see. 

Paperless Productivity

This one I've been keeping a monthly update on as I test out different types of productivity software.  So far I've tested Google Keep, Microsoft To-do, and Todoist, and you can read up on what I've thought of them through the links.  I'll keep testing throughout most of the year and will keep this blog up-to-date with what's been suiting my personal needs when it comes to being productive.

And that's been my first quarter.  Not as badly affected by Covid-19 as it could have been and it's still been satisfying to get as far forward on these as I have done.  A little bit of positivity for me at least at a time that's looking a little bleak.  How are your goals going?  I hope, despite everything, you've still been managing to tick things off your list to help you move yourself forward.  It's always good to keep yourself busy, even in times like this.