June 2019 Summaries

Back up your phone's contacts to prevent losing them in case you misplace your device and to make it easier to sync with other devices. You can use Google Contacts as a backup option on both Android and iOS devices, or import contacts from CSV or vCard files. Some apps like Zapier can also automate the process of syncing contacts across multiple services.

A long to-do list can be overwhelming, making it difficult to visualize tasks and prioritize them effectively. To combat this, consider using visual to-do lists that go beyond traditional text-based apps. Options include creating a physical to-do list on paper or a whiteboard, using sticky notes, or even doodling your tasks in a notebook. Some individuals find it helpful to use calendars or planners to plan their time better, while others prefer mind maps to break down large projects into smaller tasks. Ultimately, the best approach is to use different methods when they make sense and adapt to individual needs.

As summer rental season is in full force, many Airbnb hosts are looking to automate their property management workflows to save time and improve their experience. With Zapier, hosts can automate tasks such as sending themselves automatic reminders, scheduling cleaning, managing bookings from within their project management tool, and using Zapier's Email Parser to further customize their automations. By automating these tedious processes, hosts can free up more time to focus on other aspects of their business and provide a better experience for both themselves and their guests.

The benefits of paid leave are well-documented, but many employees still struggle to take advantage of it due to feelings of guilt and anxiety about leaving their coworkers to pick up the slack. To overcome this, preparation is key. This involves reviewing company policies, documenting processes, transitioning clients and contacts, sharing account credentials and passwords, distributing workload and ownership, managing inbox, creating a communication plan, and preparing for re-entry. By taking these steps, employees can ensure a smooth transition while they're away and minimize the impact on their work.

To maintain an organized Pocket app and make the most of its features, users can archive articles when done reading them, organize content using tags, mark favorite articles, highlight quotes for future reference, and use Zapier to automate reminders or RSS feed imports.

Coda is a supercharged document app that combines documents with spreadsheets and app-like user experiences, making it an essential tool for large-scale project management. By implementing Coda in their teams, Fred Castagnac and Sean Kennedy, product marketing managers at Zapier, have improved organization, data analysis, and collaboration. With Coda's relational database system, they can easily track project statuses and integrate with other tools like Jira and Slack, creating a centralized marketing management hub that streamlines their workflow and productivity.

It can be beneficial to think of all of your time in terms of hourly rates, as it makes a lot of decisions easier. Determining what your personal time is worth can help you make better decisions about how to spend your time at home and at work, taking into account the value of non-work activities like relaxation, socializing, and leisure. A calculator can be used to determine this rate by asking questions about current work situation and thought-experiment scenarios, such as what minimum after-tax hourly rate would you accept for a new job or how much would you pay for something that saves you nearly four hours of time. This calculated value can then be applied to decisions like whether convenience services are worth the cost, whether working extra hours is worth your personal time, and even determining how to spend your time on vacation. By using this method, individuals can make more informed decisions about their time and prioritize activities that align with their values and goals.

You can export your entire Constant Contact list as a CSV or Excel file by following the steps outlined in the article. To manually export contacts, open the Contacts page, select all contacts to be exported and click the Export button, choosing between CSV and Excel formats. Alternatively, you can set up an automatic export using Zapier's integrations with other apps, such as Google Sheets or Google Contacts, allowing new contacts to be added automatically without any manual action required.

Eventbrite is an online ticketing platform that allows event managers and promoters to sell tickets for various events, including those not suitable for children. The platform offers different pricing packages, including the Essentials Package ($2 + $0.79 per ticket) and the Professional Package ($3.5 + $1.59 per ticket). To create an event on Eventbrite, users must register for an account, fill in basic information, and customize their event listing with details such as a banner image, textual description, and ticket options. Users can also add discount codes to promote their events and send emails to attendees directly from the platform. Additionally, Eventbrite provides analytics tools to help users track their performance and understand their online marketing efforts. The platform aims to bridge the gap between online marketing and building real-life communities by incorporating various social media and advertising campaigns into a single point of sale.

Embedding Gravity Forms on a WordPress website can be done using a shortcode, which is a bit of code used by WordPress plugins to insert things in posts or pages. The quickest way to embed forms is using the Gravity Forms shortcode, where a shortcode is pasted into a dedicated block in the Gutenberg editor. There are options to customize how the form looks on the page, such as disabling the title and description. Alternatively, a dedicated Gravity Form block can be used instead of shortcodes, which allows for easier tracking and previewing of forms in the WordPress editor. Additionally, Gravity Forms can be connected to thousands of other apps using Zapier, allowing for automatic sending of form entries to various services.

To disable or pause OneDrive syncing, you can unlink your account, pause syncing for a set amount of time, or uninstall the app from your PC by going to the Apps & Features section and selecting Uninstall. These methods will allow you to manage your data synchronization with OneDrive, ensuring that your files remain secure and organized. When disabling or uninstalling OneDrive, rest assured that any already synced data will be preserved in your account. By using these options, you can maintain control over your computer's file backups and adjust the syncing process according to your needs.

OneDrive is a cloud storage service that allows users to back up and store important files and photos without manual effort, as it comes pre-installed on Windows 10 devices. To create an account, simply visit the official OneDrive website, select the "Sign up for free" option, and follow the prompts to verify your email address. After signing in, users can choose which folders to sync with their account, providing flexibility in terms of storage organization. Additionally, OneDrive offers integration capabilities through Zapier, enabling automation of tasks such as saving email attachments or social media posts to the cloud storage service.

Play is famously known as "a child's work." Play is the best tool children have to learn about the world and connect with the people around them—it's the most productive way they can spend their time. Children excel at their jobs, so what can they teach us about being better at ours? By following children's lead in the ways of channeling our inner learner, spending time exploring, giving ourselves a blank slate, bringing pretend into the workplace, and welcoming help, even when it's unsolicited, we might just find ourselves being as productive as that puppy-fairy-dragon. Children are devoted to learning about the world, instead of just focusing on getting things accomplished. They're naturally curious and love to explore. This drive to learn is the basis of everything they produce. When children are given time to explore a task before committing to one path forward, they become more productive. Adults can benefit from this approach by taking time to explore new ideas and solutions. Children's brains thrive in unfamiliar contexts, allowing them to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions. By embracing play and pretend in the workplace, we can tap into our own creativity and innovation. Finally, children are responsive to spontaneous help, but adults often resist unsolicited advice. Emulating the behaviors of young children, such as being open to new ideas and tools, can help us become more productive and innovative at work.

To create a new survey in SurveyMonkey, you can copy an existing survey from your account or another user's account, allowing you to use that as a starting point and edit it accordingly. You can make a copy of a survey by clicking "Copy Existing Survey" while creating a new survey, or you can transfer ownership of a survey to another user's account by clicking the three dots next to the survey and selecting "Send a copy" or "Transfer survey". This feature allows you to efficiently reuse existing surveys and share them with others.

Danielle Curtis, Senior Donor Relationships Associate at DonorsChoose.org, uses Zapier to automate workflows that help her manage email outreach to hundreds of people. With Zaps, she can notify herself and the marketing team of upcoming meetings and save donor email responses in a spreadsheet, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. This automation helps Danielle focus on developing relationships with donors, while Zapier takes care of mundane tasks such as cataloging email responses, reminding her about upcoming meetings, and sending Slack channel messages for new Google Calendar events. As a result, Danielle is able to shave two hours off her work for every mass email campaign she sends, giving her more peace of mind and time to focus on the donors and those they help.

It would be nice if you could embed a video in Constant Contact, allowing recipients to watch without opening another browser tab. Unfortunately, as of this writing, that's not possible. However, users can create a link to their video with a thumbnail in just a couple of clicks by utilizing Constant Contact's automatic feature for videos hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, or Wistia. Alternatively, users can manually add a thumbnail and link to their video if it is not hosted on one of these platforms. The process involves adding an image box to the email, uploading a desired thumbnail, selecting it as the image, inserting a link to the video, and clicking on the thumbnail to open the video in a new tab.

To get started with GitLab, you need to create a repository and push code to it. After creating your account in GitLab, go to the Projects page and click New project to create a new repository. To populate the repository, you can add files online or upload local project files using the command line. First, install and set up Git on your PC, then navigate to the desired folder and use the `git init` command to initialize the repository. Connect the remote GitLab project with your local directory by adding the project URL, then add all files in the current directory to the Git process using `git add .`. Make a commit to track changes, including comments on what was added or changed, then push the files and code to GitLab using `git push -u origin master`. After authentication, the upload process will begin, and you'll see a message indicating that the data has been uploaded properly. Zapier can automate GitLab processes by connecting it to thousands of apps, allowing you to create notifications or tasks based on new merge requests or other events.

Zapier has analyzed the usage of over four million users across thousands of apps to determine which apps are growing the fastest and the trends they show. The company found that many apps are being adopted for specific tasks, such as email marketing, video calls, and customer communication, rather than trying to be all-in-one solutions. This trend is driven by the consumerization of IT, where employees pick the apps that work best for their needs instead of waiting for software to be rolled out company-wide. The fastest-growing apps are often specialized and focused on specific industries or use cases, such as real estate or marketing. These apps are often integrated with other tools using APIs, allowing users to automate tasks and workflows. The report highlights the importance of integrations in enabling productivity and efficiency, and notes that competency in automation is a critical job skill.

Bitbucket allows you to reliably track all changes and updates to your code base, merge requests from different teams, and easily roll back changes while making your repository available to your entire team. To start pushing files to Bitbucket, create a new repository by logging in, clicking the plus button, and selecting Repository. Note the repository URL and navigate to the folder you want to sync using the command line. Use `git init`, add the local files with `git add .`, check the Git status, make the first commit with `git commit -m "first commit"`, and finally push the folder contents to Bitbucket with `git push origin master`. Once authenticated, the upload process will be complete, and you can verify its success by opening the repository in your browser.

To create a pull request in Bitbucket, you first need to update your branch with new code that you want to be reviewed, then open the Bitbucket website and navigate to the repository's Pull Requests page. From there, click Create pull request, selecting the sub-branch you want to merge into the master branch, and specifying reviewers who will review your code. Once submitted, the reviewers can view your branch, compare it with the master branch, leave comments, and eventually merge your branch's code if they're satisfied with your work.

To embed Calendly in a self-hosted WordPress site, start by finding the desired event type and clicking "Add to Website" to generate an embed code. Three options are available: Inline Embed, Popup Widget, or Popup Text, each working slightly differently. The chosen option is then used to paste into a Custom HTML block on any page or post, or as a widget in the WordPress dashboard. This allows for customization and placement of the Calendly embed, such as on every page or in a specific widget area.

MeisterTask offers a time tracking feature that can be enabled through its Power-Ups tab, allowing users to track their time on tasks across the entire web interface. This feature is centered around individual tasks and enables users to start and stop timers from within task views. Time tracking data can be exported in CSV format or sent to Harvest for further analysis. By connecting MeisterTask with Zapier, users can also track their time across multiple systems without duplication errors.

MeisterTask offers a recurring tasks feature that can be automated for free by linking it to Zapier, allowing users to create customized workflows and connect it to thousands of other apps. To set up a new recurring task within MeisterTask, users need to upgrade to the Pro version ($9.99/month) and follow a step-by-step process to create and customize the task details, including due date, tags, and assigned team members. Once created, the recurring task will be active and can be viewed, edited, or deleted from the Automations tab in the project view.

You want to use Pocket on your desktop, specifically with the Chrome browser, to bookmark articles and save them for later. To do this, you install the Save to Pocket extension from the Chrome Web Store, which allows you to add multiple tags to saved articles and read them by right-clicking on the Pocket button or opening the Pocket website. Additionally, you can automate Pocket's functionality with Zapier integrations, such as sending saved articles to other apps like Evernote or a to-do list app, or even using Pocket as a database for articles.

Adding an RSS feed to Feedly is a straightforward process that can be done by either searching for the feed or manually pasting the URL into the service. The easiest way to add a new site is to search for it, which will display a list of results with a search bar at the top. From there, simply click on the correct result and follow the prompts to add the feed to one of your Feedly folders. Alternatively, if the site is not in the directory, you can manually paste the URL into the service to subscribe to it. This process allows users to easily keep up with their favorite websites and discover new content.