Using Technology to Increase Productivity: Q & A with Jenel Cavazos

As we wrap up the school year and head into our summer projects and preparation for fall (hopefully after taking some time off) we asked our friend and productivity techie Jenel Cavazos some questions about the kinds of tools that she favors for keeping organized, scheduling, and communicating. Here is what she had to say!  

Have you always used technology to help you manage your work life? When did you start using it?
Pretty much, yes. I transitioned from a very meticulously organized Franklin Covey binder to a palm pilot pretty much as soon as they became widely available, and from that to a Blackberry. I’ve always relied on organization to help me battle anxiety. Once something is written down on a list and there’s a plan for accomplishing it, I can let it go and not worry about it anymore. So, I have always been drawn to technology that allows me to be more organized and productive.

What your top five tools you recommend to help with productivity?
Top Five. Ok, I’d say (but not necessarily in rank order):

1. Evernote. My whole life is in evernote. Every time I see an article or news story I want to save and share later, or just keep around, I tag it and add it using their web clipper feature. I can take pictures of everything from documents (it has a scanner function built into the app) to my kids’ artwork and save it in organized digital notebooks. Everything is full-text searchable, too, so if I need to quickly pull up information on a specific topic, it’s very simple to do. I also use it for most of my notes, both at conferences and in meetings (you can free-write with the apple pencil right inside a note, and then add documents, annotate PDFs, etc.), and also just keeping track of general information.
2. Fantastical 2. This is my current favorite calendar and to-do program. It has a desktop version for mac and an app version for the iphone. It actually just reads data from whatever cloud you use (google, icloud, exchange), but it organizes it into one streamlined view so that I can see my tasks and appointments together on the same screen. That’s completely crucial for me. Add in the ability to use natural language to speak or type new things, and it’s a very handy system. For example, I can say, “Meet with Anthony 3pm Monday at Starbucks,” and it creates a new appointment, auto-populates the date and time, and adds Starbucks (with a map) as the location. Or “todo call Mom when I get home” and it will set a task that alerts me to call Mom as soon as I get within the geographical location of my house. You can’t beat that.
3. Trello. Not everything has a due date, and that’s where trello comes in. It is excellent for project management and brainstorming, and allows you to work easily in groups. Trello is organized by boards, and then columns of cards go on each board. For example, I have a PSY 1113 board, with the columns “new semester setup, “working on it,” and “all finished.” At the beginning of each semester I just start with the “new semester” column and work through them until they’re all on the “all finished” column. Then I can just drag them all back, and they’re ready for the next semester. I also have columns for assignment ideas, summer projects (yikes), and chapter-by-chapter notes for things I want to change for the next semester.
4.  Airmail. It’s like gmail on steroids. It still has an advanced search feature (thank goodness), but tons of extra bells and whistles that make it far superior. For example, you can choose to “snooze” an email – essentially make it disappear until you want to look at it again. You can set an email to send at a later time or date, or send emails directly to your favorite programs (for example, trello, fantastical, and evernote are all supported) directly within the program.
5. Instapaper. This is essentially just a program to hold onto things you want to read later, but it’s incredibly valuable for someone with a busy life and a busy brain. I definitely don’t have time to stop and read every cool new thing that I stumble upon, and I’m not ready to categorize it and save it in evernote since I haven’t read it yet. So, it goes first to instapaper, where it sits until I have a chance to get to it. You can also download all the articles to be read offline (like on a plane). I set a weekly reminder in Fantastical to go through Instapaper on Fridays.

Are there still areas of productivity that you struggle with?
Yes – actually being productive!! My husband jokes that I spend more time researching productivity apps and programs than I actually do working on the things that are on all my lists! That’s an exaggeration (usually), but I do spend quite a lot of time checking into new things. How else do you find all the cool tips and tricks though?

If you created a technology tool to help you with an area of productivity, what would it do and how would it help?
I think the market for social media aggrigators is very slim right now. Hootsuite tends to be the most popular, but it doesn’t always work smoothly. I still have to keep checking other apps for notifications, for example, and it is very VERY limited in regard to what it can do with facebook and Instagram. For people having personal accounts and work or professional accounts, we need a better way to have everything in one place.

What is/are your favorite tool(s) that you use in the classroom?
Especially for big classes, I really recommend some sort of polling/clicker program to keep students interested and assess what they’re learning. I use TopHat for a number of reasons, mostly because it’s a BYOD (bring your own device) program that allows students to text in responses, which is crucial when wifi is an issue.
I use GroupMe constantly to communicate with my GAs and TAs, and it is SO much easier than group texts or emails. You can add documents, create polls and events, and share information in a (relatively) organized fashion. It might sound silly to say, but it really brings my team closer together because we can talk so easily.
There are others, but the last one I think is really important and under-used is Calendly. This one allows you to set up an appointment type (I have a 15-minute office hours appointment type, for example), open blocks of time, and then gives you a URL to share with others. They can go to the website and sign up for any available time that matches their schedule, which eliminates all the back-and-forth “when are you free?” emails. The best part is that it syncs with your cloud-based calendars, so appointments made in Calendly just magically appear on the calendar of your choice. Also, if you add another appointment or event during a time when you’re supposed to be free, Calendly won’t allow someone to sign up for the same time. So you don’t need to constantly update your availability – it checks and adjusts for you.

Are there any tell-tale signs that a tool isn’t going to fit your needs?
That’s a great question. I think you have to find tools that fit within what you already do. If you’re already a list-maker and calendar-keeper, transitioning to a digital version of some sort probably won’t be much of a stretch. You may have to add categories and tags (if you’re into that sort of thing) more than you would have before, but the basics were already there. If the behavior isn’t at least somewhat natural, though, you’ll likely forget about it in a week. My best friend is one of the most unorganized people I know, and we actually sat down and got her set up with all the best productivity tools at least three or four times. We set up accounts, I showed her how to use them, and she was ready to go. Each time, it lasted maybe a week, and then she’d admit that she’d just stopped doing it. It’s not natural for her, so it’s not going to stick.

Dr. Jenel Cavazos is an Associate Professor and Master Teacher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oklahoma. As the Introductory Psychology Program Coordinator, she teaches an average of 1500 students per year, supervises sections of PSY1113 taught by graduate students, and conducts a graduate mentor program for teaching. Her emphasis areas include curriculum development, the implementation of technology in the classroom, and program assessment. Her research focuses on transformative learning experiences in Introductory Psychology, with an emphasis on first-generation students. She has received several university teaching awards and was named a College of Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellow for 2017-18. She is currently serving as a member of the STP Presidential Task Force on Re-Envisioning Introductory Psychology.

You can find her at several places online. Her class has social media accounts: twitter & instagram (@psychwithdrc) and FB (Psych with Dr. C.), or she also has a personal twitter (@jenelcavazos).