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055: Essential digital life admin tools
780 Plays2 years ago
It's hard to keep up with best practices for technology and the latest apps, so in this episode we chat to expert Lynette Coulston to get her tips on essential digital life admin tools.
About Lynette Coulston
Lynette Coulston had a 30+ year career in software development and IT but in 2012 she left that all behind to create iTandCoffee, a business focussed on offering technology support and education to residents of her local area, through relaxed, social gatherings and individualised support - where technology topics could be discussed and explained in a friendly, understanding environment, over a cuppa!
Over the years this has extended to include support and training for those in small business, for parents struggling to manage the family’s technology, for those returning to the workforce or study, and for those who just want to better understand how their technology can help them manage their day-to-day life.
This episode is full of practical tips and recommendations including:
- the importance of having a digital filing system and understanding where your files are saved - this is important to teach kids too!
- using inbuilt functionality on your computer (eg Time Machine for a Mac) to make sure you backup your files
- using apps like Reminders to remind you of important life admin tasks
- making the most of Voice Assistants to add reminders on the go (Siri or Google Assistant)
- selecting a calendar app that works best for you - Lynette uses Fantastical and WeekCal
- when you are helping others with their technology ask them to read to you what they see on the screen or use the share screen feature in programs like Zoom
- setting up parental controls like Screen Time before you give children a device
- setting up a home router that can restrict internet access for each device to supplement parental controls
- making sure you have good scanning apps on your phone to scan straighten, crop, clarify documents - Lynette recommends Scannable, Office Lens, Adobe Fill & Sign and Photomyne
- making sure you have strong and different passwords to reduce the risk of phishing, Lynette recommends using a password manager (Last Pass, One Password, Dashlane) or a secure note.
We also discuss the curve of forgetting and how people can become easily frustrated when trying to use technology, particularly when they compare themselves to others. Lynette discusses the curve of forgetting and that it will be difficult to retain how to use technology unless you use it on a regular basis.
RESOURCESIT and Coffee - Lynette’s support and training business
Time Machine - for backing up Apple computers
Setting up screentime on an iPad/iPhone
Scanning Apps - Scannable by Evernote, Office lens, Photomyne photo scanning app
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
This is Life Admin Life Hacks, a podcast that gives you techniques, tips and tools to tackle your life admin more efficiently, to save your time, your money and improve your household harmony. I'm Diana Roberts, a commercial and strategy executive who gets so much joy telling Siri what to do. I'm Mia Northrop, a researcher and writer
00:00:22
Speaker
His love affair with technology started in the 1980s when my dad brought home a Commodore 64 with a memory of 64 kilobytes. Huge. In this episode, we interview Lynette Colston, the owner of tech support provider IT & Coffee. Hello and welcome to Life Admin Lifehacks. Listeners, before we explore all things tech, we'd like to encourage you to subscribe to the monthly momentum newsletter.
00:00:48
Speaker
which will nudge you about seasonal life admin tasks and practical resources to add to your toolkit. Head to lifeadminlifehacks.com to sign up.
Challenges of Rapid Tech Changes
00:00:57
Speaker
And while you're there, make sure you opt in to be notified when our book Life Admin Hacks becomes available in January, just a month away. So you'll be first to know that it's out there ready to buy.
00:01:08
Speaker
We know that technology continues to change rapidly. There's an understatement for you. It can be really hard to keep up with the best practices and the latest apps, so we want to chat to someone who's made it their business to support everyday people with their technology.
Lynette Colson's Career Shift
00:01:23
Speaker
So in this episode, we chat to Lynette Colston who reveals that voice assisted apps are her go-to time savers and that the curve of forgetting means you really need to continue to play with your tech every day to make sure you don't forget how to use it. And no one, yep, no one is backing up enough. You really need to make sure you're automating it. So if you want to know what life admin tech is essential, listen on.
00:01:50
Speaker
Lynette Colson had a 30-year career in software development and IT, but in 2012, she left that all behind to create IT and coffee, a business focused on offering technology support and education.
00:02:03
Speaker
to residents of her local
Common Tech Mistakes and File Management
00:02:04
Speaker
area. Through relaxed social gatherings and individualized support, she discusses technology topics explained in a friendly, understanding environment over a cuppa. Over the years, this has extended to include support and training for those in small business, for parents struggling to manage the family's technology, which we can totally relate to, for those returning to the workforce or study, and for those who just want to better understand how their technology can help them manage their day-to-day life. Thank you so much for coming on the show limit.
00:02:33
Speaker
Thank you for having me. To kick us off today, why don't you tell us a little bit about what the most common or the biggest mistakes you see people make when it comes to the tech they use to manage their life admin and personal affairs. Yeah, so I know in the question that you asked me that you talk about file storage, password management, and accounts, and I thought, wow, that's a dry start. Talking about filing.
00:02:59
Speaker
Very exciting. But it is one of the biggest problems I see with people who are not that familiar with technology. People who haven't grown up with it in business, perhaps education, and even people who have grown up with it in those environments, don't often understand filing.
Digital File Organization Techniques
00:03:16
Speaker
Where are their files stored? How do you manage all your files? And so often I see people who have lost files and they call me in to try and find files that they've lost.
00:03:27
Speaker
So I think it's, you know, it's so important for people to understand, you know, on Windows File Explorer, you don't know what it is, you might need a lesson, finder on the Mac, but also to understand on mobile devices, you've got file management apps that allow you to actually use your mobile device as if it's a computer. So if you don't understand that stuff, it's really worth a lesson in that so that you can solve that glorious mystery of where your files actually live.
00:03:55
Speaker
I so often see people who have lost files because what they've done is they rely on their recents. You know, when you're in Word or Excel, people who have done this will know what I'm talking about. And so they've been working on a file that's in their recents. And then they come back one, you know, sometime and it's not there anymore. And they never really understood where it lived. It was just in their recents.
00:04:16
Speaker
Just understanding that whole thing about filing and thinking about your filing cabinets on your devices so that you don't lose all those valuable files. So that's a really dry start, isn't it? Well, I think that's a really good start. This topic, life admin, some people, it's not the most exciting thing on the world, but it's so crucial because we're all by it in a way. I think you touched on there that idea that you kind of need to have like a mental model of what your file structure is.
00:04:45
Speaker
and everything needs a home and you need to be able to categorise things. Those categories need to be distinct so that you're like, oh, did I put it in there or did I put it in that one? Because they could be in either because I gave them weird labels.
00:05:00
Speaker
So people setting up that file structure, do you support people with that? Is that where they're tripping over?
Importance of Cloud Storage and Backups
00:05:06
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. What I do, you know, like I do run classes on that or help people one on one with that sort of stuff. And, you know, what we always talk about is that mental image of the real world and what you do with your files that you have filing cabinets, one or more, perhaps.
00:05:23
Speaker
and you have your drawers and you have your suspension folders and your manila folders within those suspension folders. So trying to get that picture in people's heads, that's what you're doing when you're filing on a computer. So when you're thinking about filing, think about that. Where would you put it if you actually had a physical filing cabinet?
00:05:42
Speaker
There's a reason why those little icons are shaped like manila folders, everybody. They're really trying to tap you into that concept. But it's interesting because I was trying to teach that concept to my daughter because I was trying to get her to clean up her school computer where she had files everywhere and she didn't know what I was talking about because we don't have a filing cabinet.
00:06:02
Speaker
They're not used to it. So that's going to be an interesting dilemma for kids when they get older. Like why are these icons shaped in this way? What are these things? It's like a saving icon. A floppy disk. That is. It's hilarious. Who under the age of 35 has seen actual floppy disks in real life?
00:06:19
Speaker
But that's the little save icon. It's actually a thing that I see with a lot of kids as well. They haven't learnt to file, as you're saying. And there's just stuff all over their desktops. And you know, when I talk to people about that, it's like just picture you're working at your desk and you've just got papers all over your desktop. It's messy. Yeah. There's a reason it's called a desktop from the computer too.
00:06:45
Speaker
And I think it is a massive, massive inefficiency to the wasting time looking for documents. So Mia and I talk about having.
00:06:53
Speaker
your cloud storage as a foundation of your life admin system, that if you don't put that in place, everything takes longer because you waste time looking at the things. Absolutely. Yeah. And similar in your mail, you know, it's all that sort of thing of just putting it somewhere where you can find it later. If you need to keep it, put it somewhere where you can find it. All right. So you've talked about file storage. What other common mistakes do people make when they trip up? Backups.
00:07:19
Speaker
Another dirty word, backups. People don't do backups, including those kids out there. You know, so often this time of year, I'll get that call from a mum or a student where they've spilt coffee on the keyboard or they've done something and they've lost their files because they're not backing up or as well.
00:07:40
Speaker
using cloud storage so that their files are protected. Far too often, people don't pay any attention to this until the disaster happens. And I just say it's like an insurance policy. You know, you've got to take out insurance for your home and your car, and it should be the same thing for your valuable files and your photos. You know, it's awful when people lose their precious photos.
00:08:04
Speaker
So where should people be backing
Favorite Tech Tools for Life Admin
00:08:06
Speaker
up to? Obviously, they can put precious files on cloud storage, but if they're not going to use cloud storage, what do you recommend that they use? Look, on a Windows computer, there's a backup tool built in. So you can plug in an external hard drive. You can set it up so that it happens automatically. On a Mac, there's a product built in or a service built in called Time Machine.
00:08:28
Speaker
and it's really easy to set up. So I use both of those. I don't, you know, I do have cloud storage, there's lots of clouds in my sky, but I also have my hard drive back up as well because, you know, you just never know where one of them has perhaps had a glitch and stopped working. I have had to call on one or the other at times. So Lynette, you talked a little bit about cloud storage, but what are your favorite tech tools you use to manage life admin for you and your family?
00:08:57
Speaker
Ah, look, like I'm sure you have found as mums, that load of all the things you've got to manage in your lives and your kids' lives can really bring you down. And for me, it's the Reminders app on my phone and my computer that is my godsend. So I would not be without that. That in combination with the voice assistant. I'm on Apple, so I have Siri.
00:09:22
Speaker
So that ability to just quickly remind myself about something and know that it will then remind me at the time that I've asked it to. I could not be without that. I couldn't manage my life, my family's life. When it arrived in 2011 with this Siri,
00:09:41
Speaker
I was just unbelievable what a relief it was for me because I was a mum of four trying to work full time and every morning there'd be all these things I'd be trying to think of and think I've got to do this today I've got to do that today and to be able to just unload that into Siri into my reminders it was amazing. So what kinds of things because I think some people are like oh I never know what to ask Siri to do or what kinds of things I should be watching down.
00:10:09
Speaker
Look, it's even simple things. Often I'm busy in the middle of something, someone rings me, I think, oh, I can't take that now, I need to ring them back. Remind me
Effective Use of Digital Calendars
00:10:17
Speaker
to call back Joanne in two hours. It is things like, you know, remind me at 7am on Wednesday, excursion for Jacob.
00:10:28
Speaker
remind me, you know, it's just all those things. I just need it to pop up in my face at a particular time to remind me to do things. So that is my main one that I use. And have you customized your Siri? Have I customized my Siri? Oh, you're from Du Bois? A sexy English man or something. That's what my view is.
00:10:49
Speaker
I've got the Englishman. I have the Englishman. I find it really weird when I hear a male voice because I've got the female series. No, she's a girl. She's an Australian girl. I've got the Australian voice. I love it.
00:11:05
Speaker
Okay, so reminders, Siri, yep. And look, just things like give me directions too, and it will just start turn by turn directions to somewhere. If I need to put something in my calendar, you know, schedule Pilates at 8am every Tuesday, and it just does a recurring
00:11:24
Speaker
event in my calendar and that gets us into calendar. I could not be without my calendar. My life is in my calendar, what I've got on. And I think, you know, for anyone, it's really worth using a digital calendar, but for anyone that does use one, make sure your calendar is set to remind you when an event is coming up. So it's not much better than a wall calendar if it doesn't have that. But with that reminder feature, with that alert feature, it's just so helpful.
00:11:56
Speaker
point there that I think people do. They don't take into account that functionality and it is kind of a static tool but you can have it remind you obviously 15 minutes before or you know those tasks you can have them reminding when you're leaving somewhere or when you're arriving somewhere or you know you can trigger a reminder if you start messaging someone particular. So if you're messaging a contact and you have a task related to that person it'll remind you don't forget to
00:12:23
Speaker
you know, organize this or talk about that. Yeah. And the one where the time to leave one where, you know, I always think about basketball on a Saturday where I would have a reminder set to come up half an hour before, but you can set it so that it looks at the traffic and it gives you an earlier reminder if you need to leave earlier. There's some fantastic features in there. And also with the calendar, sharing a calendar with someone. So we have a family calendar that I share with my husband.
00:12:52
Speaker
And we can both pop events into that calendar. We both know what's on in the family calendar. And it's really good for the relationship because it means it's not you that is the owner of the calendar who has to tell everyone else about what's on. It means it's in their calendar and there can be responsibility out of your hands for, you know, people knowing what's on in the family life.
00:13:15
Speaker
Absolutely. I think that speaks to the sharing that mental load and not one particular person being in charge and being able to share the tasks and it being a neutral territory, as you say, it's a neutral space, it's a shared space.
00:13:30
Speaker
What calendar app do you use? I actually use a combination. My main one on the computer is one called Fantastical. And the reason I use that is on the computer very clearly shows both reminders tasks and calendar events on the same calendar. So you can see, you know, with your day, what are the reminders you've got coming up at particular times as well as the tasks.
00:13:58
Speaker
I love that. On my phone, my iPhone, I use one called Week Calendar because it has a better week in a view. View it a week, week in a view. Yeah, so I don't love the built-in calendar app on the iPhone because it doesn't give a really good week view, but this week calendar does. It's excellent. Okay. Well, we'll link out to those in the show notes for people who are
00:14:22
Speaker
not happy with their views as well. I think when you're looking at your phone, if the day or the week view is annoying to you, or even on your computer, you want that visual of what does the month look like or the week look like, that can actually be the tipping point to getting that right. It can be the moment when you abandon paper calendars and wall plans and those other visual things that just
00:14:46
Speaker
give you a feeling of, okay, I've got a comprehensive view, I know what's going on. Unless you can have that on your phone and feel comfortable or on your computer.
00:14:53
Speaker
you still might have multiple systems going on. So it is important to get those tools. Yeah. Fantastic. Al also lets you do plain English. You can just type in plain English things like lunch with Jodi tomorrow and it will actually put it in for 12 PM tomorrow. And so you can actually just use plain English and it'll decode that into an event.
Helping Older Family Members with Tech Challenges
00:15:15
Speaker
Oh, I love it. The AI at work. Yeah.
00:15:18
Speaker
And I do think it's an area where people don't invest enough energy, as you may have talked about, in making sure that they select the apps. I think people often assume they need to use the native app on their phone for their calendar and their email.
00:15:33
Speaker
or on their computer, just often to fault to outlook because that's, you know, they're using the Microsoft suite. Investing some time in setting up those foundational systems can make a big difference to your efficiency. Yeah, I agree that it's hard if you've loved your beautiful diary in your handbag, you know, there's beautiful ones. I loved, I loved that. And I found it a bit of a struggle to give that up at first. Oh, I still mourn my Filofax. I still have it, you know. Yeah.
00:16:02
Speaker
Yeah, but it is worth it. It's definitely worth it. So I think we've talked a little bit about what people struggle with. But one of the questions Mira and I were actually talking about earlier today is what about older people? Do they have different struggles? And I guess
00:16:17
Speaker
You know, we're talking about helping our own parents with their tech issues. And, you know, should we as patient children help or, you know, or should we be recommending them to get some professional help? What's your experience in that domain? Oh, look, it's really hard to help your own family members. I think it's always hard.
00:16:37
Speaker
It's hard to be patient. It's hard to spend the time. It's hard to be, I've got a direct experience of being that child that the parents ring. And every time they ring, it's like we've got to talk technology first.
00:16:53
Speaker
and it can be really difficult and draining. All I would say is I know I talk to people who try to help their parents or are asked to help their parents and they have the perception that their parents are really dopey when it comes to this thing. There's something wrong with them. They just don't get it. Why don't they get it?
00:17:14
Speaker
And I just say to them, they are so completely normal. In my world, that is normal. Why would you expect them to understand this stuff? They've had no exposure through their work life. They've had no exposure. And I sort of say it's like you expect them to speak a language they've never heard before. And often the kids are the digital natives who have
00:17:38
Speaker
been speaking the language all through their lives. And they expect these other people to understand what they say when they speak that language. It's really important to understand that they are not as bad as you think they are. To be honest, I was helping my mum. Before I started the business, I'd be helping my mum. We bought her an iPad and I thought, Oh my God, what have we done?
00:18:00
Speaker
because I was constantly on the phone with her trying to help her and she was impossible to help. You know, I'd say to people, I don't know what's wrong with her. She doesn't get this stuff. And then I started the business and I realised, oh my God, my mum's really good. Because she was just so normal for that age group that they're just grappling with something entirely new and everyone makes them think they should pick it up quickly.
00:18:25
Speaker
When you were saying I was helping her over the phone, I was having flashbacks to trying to help all sorts of people over the phone with tech. It made me really respect IT help desk when you call them because trying to explain to someone over the phone when you can't see what they can see is really, really hard. I think my best piece of advice if you're trying to help someone with tech is at least be there with them if you can.
00:18:49
Speaker
It takes so much of the friction and the frustration. Oh my God, there's a gray hair dedicated to my talking my mum through.
00:18:57
Speaker
as the other password manager. I know.
Parental Controls and Screen Time Management
00:19:00
Speaker
But I found also, the way I've had to deal with it many a time is, if you are having to do it over the phone, instead of trying to tell people, you know, like, especially if they're not finding what you know is on the screen, because they go into panic mode. And so they can't see what you're and when you say left, they look right and all of that sort of stuff. I actually found that with my mum, I would have to say, especially with my mum, read out to me what you see on the screen.
00:19:26
Speaker
What's up the top left? What's in the middle? Oh, oh, there it is. It's good advice. On the other end of the spectrum, we have kids. Yeah, so I think this is how I first came across you, Lynette, was you came and did a presentation at my kids' school around
00:19:43
Speaker
setting up screen time for iPads. So we know that managing kids devices and particularly limiting screen time can be a huge headache. And I think something people are struggling with a lot at the moment, we're still here in lockdown in Melbourne as we're recording this.
00:20:00
Speaker
I guess I'd be keen to know, what are your top tips? I know we can't cover it in detail in this interview, but if you could tell someone one thing, what would it be? Look, I would say do make use of the built-in capabilities that you've got on, say, the iPad and iPhone, for example, and there's a similar thing on Google devices, on Android devices.
00:20:22
Speaker
make use of the screen time parental controls that they have there. Learn about them. Google them. It's amazing what you can find on Google. There will be advice on Google telling you how to set things up. And start out as you mean to continue. Before you give a child a device, set up the parental controls. There's nothing harder than removing something they've had.
00:20:44
Speaker
It's so much easier if they've never had it to start with, if they know the rules from the start. Also, what I think is just so good about those sort of tools is that they take the responsibility away from you. If you set up things like downtime, where everything goes off at a particular time and doesn't become available until the next morning and time limits,
00:21:07
Speaker
It takes away that fight that you have to have with the kids over. Come on, you know, devices off. It just happens. It just happens magically. Another thing to consider also, and we're getting into more techie territory here.
00:21:23
Speaker
But what I found really helped me as a parent was setting up the home router at home, the home Wi-Fi to restrict access per device. You could set up profiles so that each device you could nominate what sort of device it was with a child or parent.
00:21:43
Speaker
And then you could set rules around what those devices can access, times of day they can access them, all of that sort of stuff. And even do it remotely. There was nothing more satisfying. All right, perhaps more about this browser. What browser does that? Does that come with your broadband supply or is that a separate? I wrote an article actually, I do a fortnightly newsletter and I put an article in there about the Telstra actually has a capability
00:22:12
Speaker
where you can set a limit across your whole internet to say that you want low, medium or high controls over the parental controls and also lets you turn it off overnight or have sort of that time when the internet's just switched off. But that's household wide. So if you want to watch Netflix while the kids are in bed, then you don't really want that.
00:22:33
Speaker
But there are routers, yeah. The one I used was a Netgear one, but there's all different ones. Netgear now has, and I actually think there's other ones that use the same thing. I think it's called Circle by Disney, where you can actually set all this up and have it all managed from an app on your phone so that you can be seeing who's on your wifi, you know, what sort of restriction levels you have on them. You can knock them off if they're misbehaving, all of that sort of stuff. So it's really worth thinking about that.
00:23:02
Speaker
It sounds really useful. I think obviously on the Apple devices, screen time is great. But as Diana mentioned, now that we're at lockdown, my kids are on laptops for school. And there's no telling when, you know, you think they're on mathematics or you think they're in Webex. No, they're on YouTube and they have been for an hour and be able to control some of that at the router level.
00:23:24
Speaker
Yeah, and that's the thing. You can control it by type of, you know, website type of service so that you can block all social media during the day. I've got that article that I did in the newsletter that I think you can also do that sort of thing. You can have homework time, which could effectively be, you know, school time during the day where certain websites are blocked. And that's at the service provider level, not just at the router level. So it's worth having a bit of a look at that.
00:23:54
Speaker
That sounds useful for kids and also for just general productivity if you wanted to block access to your own social media during the day.
Essential Tech Apps for Document Management
00:24:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And I think for lockdown, some people might want to block internet shopping sites because I know that there's been some people who've been struggling with that during lockdown. Maybe I need to block Amazon.
00:24:13
Speaker
So I think we have talked a little bit about the apps that you use for life admin, but are there others on smartphone or tablet or computer browser extensions that you use that you think that our listeners might want to check out? Anything new that's come out that's like totally awesome and original. Now you've got me.
00:24:32
Speaker
Look, I say to everyone, get a scanning app on your phone. It's an absolute, it's one of my top, top tips. You must have a scanning app on your phone. And people say to me, why do you need that? You can just take a photo of things, but a scanning app will actually, whatever size it is, it could be a massive, great, big thing. It doesn't have to just fit on a scan a bit. It can be anything, great big picture, whatever. A scanning app will scan it
00:25:00
Speaker
It will straighten it up so you could sort of take the photo at a bit of an angle, but it will straighten it up so it is the right sort of proportions. It will crop it, it will clarify it and have it ready for you to do whatever you want to do with it. It could be to send it to someone, save it somewhere, you know, whatever. And some of those scanning apps do an amazing job of scanning photos. So scanning all your digital photos. There's one that I use that will scan multiple
00:25:28
Speaker
photos at a time so you can so quickly get through all your old photos get them scanned in and even sort of record what date the photo was taken so that it appears in your photos app in the right order you know in the photos app it shows a timeline of your photos so you can make sure that your photos are all there in the right place.
00:25:50
Speaker
I'll tell you my two favourites. The one that I use as my go-to one day-to-day is one called Scannable by Evernote or Evernote Scannable. Evernote is a digital note scrapbook sort of app and that is one that I use as well. So that's one of my go-to apps. Scannable is part of Evernote's suite of apps but you don't have to use Evernote to use Scannable.
00:26:14
Speaker
And it's free and it does an amazing job, always does an amazing job. And it does photos as well. And then the one that I use for scanning multiple photos at a time, which lets me set the date and all that sort of stuff as I go is called Photomine.
00:26:30
Speaker
It's a paid one, I have to say. It is a paid one, but I thought it was worth the money. I paid a subscription so I could use it and I use it all the time now. I just downloaded PhotoMine because that's been my lockdown project. I've been scanning my old photo albums and yeah, I'm finding it really good. Good, are you?
00:26:47
Speaker
Second endorser. It is good. Yeah, it does. It does an amazing job. And like I'm often called in to help people sadly when, you know, when someone dies and then they really quickly get old photos together and scanned in for a funeral book or whatever. And so photo miners made that so much easier as well, because you just get through it so quickly. And then the other one I would say everyone should have
00:27:11
Speaker
an app that allows you to fill in PDFs and sign them really quickly and easily on a mobile device. And the one that I is my go to for that is Adobe Fill and Sign. So it's amazing. I should say also going back to the scanning app, if you're not on, Scannable is only on Apple, Apple mobile devices. So if you're on an Android device, there's lots of other options.
00:27:37
Speaker
I think it's still called Office Lens. I think that changed the name. There's the Microsoft one, which the kids use or my son does for doing scanning of stuff to send back to school. Office Lens is part of the Microsoft suite and it's free. Talking cloud storage, you can scan straight into your OneDrive or your Dropbox. So if you use any of those, there's a scanner front and center on the screen for scanning documents straight into there.
Improving Digital Security with Password Management
00:28:03
Speaker
And there's also Adobe Scan, which is also a free one that you can use. Great. Those are some great tips. So thanks for those. We didn't talk passwords yet. Oh my gosh. I've just realized I skipped the passwords.
00:28:16
Speaker
So do you want to give us your top tips about passwords then before we move on to the next questions? Yeah, I did want to talk about passwords because it's something that I deal with the fallout of bad passwords and repeated passwords all the time. People getting getting caught out by phishing emails and giving away a combination of email address and password. And then they've used the same thing across multiple accounts and then they can be hacked in multiple ways.
00:28:43
Speaker
because of that. Day in, day out, I had this conversation with people. I was talking to someone yesterday, I won't mention who it is, but it's a family member who just, we were talking about passwords. Her passwords were appalling. They were like, you know, name and postcode or something like that. Really easy to guess type of passwords. You must have strong passwords.
00:29:09
Speaker
different passwords for every account that you set up because the idea of phishing emails is that they want to just get one combination because they know that you use the same thing across multiple accounts. And if ever you need proof of why it's so important, I don't know. Have you heard of the website? Have I been PWNED? Have I been PUNED? I'm not sure what it stands for.
00:29:35
Speaker
Phoned, I believe you pronounce that. How do you pronounce it? Phoned. Phoned. Yeah, everyone should go there and check both their mobile number, your key and your mobile number, key in your email address and you will see how many sites.
00:29:50
Speaker
that have your details recorded, your email address and password or your phone number, how many of those sites have had the credentials stolen and therefore out there on the dark web and readily available are your credentials that if you've repeated them elsewhere, could be available to someone to get into your account. And it is often how people get hacked, yeah.
00:30:13
Speaker
So in terms of passwords, my recommendation is get a password, safe password vault app. There's a few good ones around. Several of them have been around for a long time. One password is a good one. It's got the digit one at the start. One password, last pass, dash lane. They're all very popular ones. But even if you're on an, because I'm Apple, I'll talk Apple here. If you're on an Apple device,
00:30:39
Speaker
Your notes app, you can lock a note. You can store confidential stuff in there and then lock the note with a passcode that applies across all your notes. People will often put their passcodes in, you know, notebooks or on pieces of paper or put them in their contacts, thinking that no one will work that out or put them in notes without a lock. You need something where they're, they're locked behind some sort of passcode and hopefully a decent passcode.
Encouragement to Improve Digital Literacy
00:31:08
Speaker
The idea is then you just have to remember one passcode, not a whole heap. You just look it up. Don't worry that you can't remember your passwords. Just store them somewhere safe with a passcode.
00:31:21
Speaker
So I think we've covered lots of the foundational parts of Life Admin. I think, you know, Mia and I fully endorse all of those foundational digital tools. So what about we think about mindsets and we talked a little bit about it before that some people are convinced they're not techie. So what are some useful mindsets and beliefs for people to adopt to be more confident and improve their digital literacy?
00:31:45
Speaker
One of the problems is that people who feel they're not good on technology see others using the technology and it looks so easy and it's like, why can they do it and why can't I? What they don't realize, I think, is that the people that are able to do those things are doing it, using their technology potentially a lot more than those who can't are.
00:32:07
Speaker
You know, when I started running classes, I would get people that would come to a weekly class. And then the next week, when we got together, they'd say, Oh, I haven't touched it since I last saw you. I haven't, you know, I haven't done anything. And so what I started doing in my classes, and often in appointments as well, is showing something called the curve of forgetting. It's a really good graphic because what it shows is, you know, on the day that you learn something, you're at 100%.
00:32:31
Speaker
And then it shows this curve of what happens if you don't then revise, if you don't touch the thing that you just learnt within 24 hours.
00:32:40
Speaker
you've dropped down like 70% in terms of what you remember about what you learned. And it sort of keeps going down so that if by day seven you haven't actually revised and touched it again, it's gone. It's like you never learned it. And the thing that I say to people is that's not a graphic that applies to old people or people that have, you know, that are new to technology. It's something
00:33:02
Speaker
a graphic that they gave my son in year seven on his study calendar as a reminder to the kids, this is why you need to revise. Because if you don't, you won't remember what you learned. And so my message to people is, you know, don't beat yourself up because you're not picking it up quickly. But it is a case of you've got to keep using it. You've got to you've got to continually use these things for it to get into your long term memory and understanding.
00:33:28
Speaker
And also, you know, I find that particularly women are very down on themselves about their ability to learn this stuff. Very apologetic. Every day I'll get someone that rings me and says, I'm hopeless. I will be the most hopeless person you have ever come across. I'll be your worst customer.
00:33:48
Speaker
you know, and they'll all talk about how their kids can't stand helping them and all that sort of stuff. And I just say, look, you know, you are normal, you know, so don't think that you can't learn this stuff. You can. And once you actually often find like once people realize they're not unusual, there's nothing wrong with them. It is OK. It just sort of opens the door a bit to to learning and also just making it fun. Like when we do have appointments and classes, there's lots of laughing and silly things.
00:34:17
Speaker
the men don't like it as much. So it's the key there to be, you know, to bring some self-compassion to it and realize it's like comparing yourself to your 12 year old or your 16 year old who's spending hours each day in apps of all kinds. And our digital natives have grown up
00:34:37
Speaker
probably had a tablet of some kind in their hands before they were two, comparing yourself to that is not helpful. So it's nice to hear that it's very normal, it's a learning curve, like everything else you have to learn, got a statement about your character, your intelligence. I think it's also important that people understand, you know, I'll hear people say all the time, oh, the kids know it all. And they don't. They know
00:35:01
Speaker
small bits and pieces that they use, but they are actually, there's so many areas that they don't know, you know, don't assume that they know at all. Okay. So what kinds of resources can people draw on if they
00:35:13
Speaker
you find themselves needing some IT support. Do you have favorite YouTube channels or newsletters or talk to us about your own membership? Yeah, I do find that the client base that I tend to work with, they would never naturally Google something and they would never naturally look up a YouTube video. It's just not something that comes to mind. So I'm constantly in my classes where, you know, if someone's got a problem,
00:35:40
Speaker
I'm constantly suggesting that they Google it and telling them that actually I don't know the answer to these things most of the time. I Google it. I'm not this font of knowledge where it's just all in there and I can just pull it out. I Google. I've learned my whole business has been built on teaching myself things via Google and anyone else can do that. And so in doing that, it's important to know how to phrase your Google questions. So we sort of talk about that a bit.
00:36:09
Speaker
I do a fortnightly newsletter that I send out, which is focused on tips and tricks for making life a bit easier with your technology or nifty things that you can do. And so, you know, you can sort of tap into that sort of service. What I have been doing more recently through lockdown, I have a service called the IT and Coffee Club. Quite a few of my clients have joined. And the idea of that is it does get them the newsletter and tips and tricks. And depending on their membership level, they can watch videos of the classes.
00:36:38
Speaker
that we've recorded. So any class that we run, we record. And so what I've done during lockdown is featured a video of the day, which I've had a lot of positive feedback on because the videos that were always there and a lot of people who were members could have watched them, but they've really enjoyed just having something each day to learn across the lockdown period, having sort of a, I can only watch it today and then it's gone. And so it actually forces them to sit down and watch that thing. So it's been, it's actually been really interesting.
00:37:08
Speaker
But yes, I am sort of trying to build up that IT and coffee club because the more people I have as members, the more sorts of services like that that I can can offer. And it's definitely worth something to invest your time in because digital literacy does remain one of those skill shortages, not just in Australia, but globally.
IT & Coffee Services and Episode Conclusion
00:37:27
Speaker
As technology keeps advancing and becoming more integral in every parts of our lives, you do need to keep up. So find your YouTubers that
00:37:36
Speaker
speak in a way or have the content related to devices you have at home so you can look at, OK, I've got this app, I've got this device, someone will be YouTubing a tutorial about that.
00:37:47
Speaker
or find someone like IT and coffee and subscribe and keep learning, keep getting exposed to all the new call tech that's out there. And I do find that a lot of people, they want that personal touch, that personal interaction and someone that they can come to and ask questions. And so, you know, I think it is important to have a face and someone you can call, that sort of thing.
00:38:10
Speaker
Well, awesome. Thanks so much for sharing everything with us. I've learned it today. I'm actually off to download Adobe Fill and Sign and to look up the forgetting curve.
00:38:21
Speaker
So we did talk a bit about your IT and Coffee Club, but where can our listeners find you if they'd like to join up or find out more about your services? There's the IT and Coffee website, itandcoffee.com.au. There's a menu option that talks about the club and you can see what videos we have available, how to make appointments, all that sort of stuff. We're actually in Camberwell.
00:38:41
Speaker
Although, of course, during lockdown, not seeing anyone, but it's just been amazing through COVID that people have taken to the remote support option, have been brave enough to try that. And so I think more and more going forward, that will be our preferred way of dealing with people because it's just so powerful, the remote support option, because you can look at each other on the screen and share each other's screens and, you know,
00:39:06
Speaker
Even actually that's something that's worth mentioning for people out there when you're helping your parents helping someone that needs help Make use of that the same thing that I use for the business the apps like zoom when you're on zoom You can get a parent to share their screen with you even from an ipad or an iphone And then you can walk them through the problem rather than just talking about it on the phone You can actually help them
00:39:33
Speaker
It's worth doing that. There's the button. No doubt, doubt, doubt. Yeah, so anyway, so yes, so even if you're not near Campbell in Melbourne, we've actually been providing remote support Australia-wide and even like I was, I did an appointment last week with someone from North Carolina in the US.
00:39:56
Speaker
and another one from Chicago. So it's amazing what it's opened up in terms of possibilities for getting help because it doesn't matter where you are anymore. Good on you. Should I say the phone number as well if you want to call is 1300 885 420. Thanks for listening. Show notes for this episode are available at lifeagminlifehacks.com and if you're a fan
00:40:23
Speaker
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