Intro
Hello there.
I’m Julian and I'm really pleased that you've chosen to download and listen to this episode. I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to little 'ol me!
If you're new here, then welcome to the Productivity Matters podcast.
This is a bit of a special episode as I’m going to talk about planning a wedding. In fact, planning my wedding.
So, I’m just going to pop the champagne open and pour myself a glass…. would you like one too? Alright then.
Enjoy it, as you listen to this weeks episode
Getting Married
Yes. I’m getting married. This coming Sunday in fact. And if you’re listening after the event, then it’s the 17th March. It’s an amazing feeling; and we’re both very excited. In fact everyone is very excited.
Karen, my fiancée is a wonderful lady (lady?)
Does the word ‘lady’ make you think of an older person? At what point does someone go from being a young man/woman, to a man or woman.
Should I say that my fiancée is a wonderful woman? Wonderful girl? 'Girl’ sounds too patronising?
Whatever - Karen is wonderful. In every sense. She’s beautiful, caring, generous, loving and I can’t wait to marry her.
We’ve been together for over 7 years, and the time has flown. 7 years? Yes - this is the 7 year itch - in reverse… haha!
Between us, we have 5 children; and before you start shouting at me - they don’t all live with us, all the time.
I Do
So, whilst this is all very exciting, it’s a really, lovely, tenuous link to talk about some of the apps we’ve been using to help prepare for the big day.
These won’t come as a surprise to regular listeners, but explaining them in a real-world scenario may help you to better understand the benefits they bring.
Karen is not a huge fan of using lots of different technology - a pad and pen are more her style. Which is absolutely fine, and it works. It just makes it more difficult if you need to share tasks and information.
So; what have we been using?
ToDoIst
First of all; as with all big events, there are to do lists on top of to do lists! Whilst I use Todoist (and totally love it) I wasn’t going to ‘force’ it on Karen, so we set up a shared Reminders list on iCloud. Now I can see all the tasks, when they’re added and, more importantly, when they’re checked off as complete.
I would have liked to have these in Todoist - however, since I use Fantastical 2, I set the specific Reminders list to show in my calendar, so I only needed to see one list; and it’s easy to add to a Reminders list from Fantastical 2 as well.
I did create my own list, in Todoist, for some things that I needed to do - like write my speech, sort out my clothes etc, and in this way could keep my individual tasks separate from the main tasks.
Calendar
Of course, there are many people involved in planning and delivering an event as big as a wedding, those who are providing services; such as the caterer, florist etc etc. Meetings for all these were all managed using a shared iCloud Calendar.
Again, as I use Fantastical 2 on my MacBook and iPhone; the calendar is available there, and I could continue to use that without any changes.
So, Fantastical 2 has proved itself very versatile in bringing together two applications together to minimise the number of apps that are needed.
With all the emails flying back and forward, I use Spark email, and the integration with Todoist helped me to save time, by just adding the emails to the relevant service, for following up later.
Evernote
Now, as the groom, I needed to write, and deliver, a speech. I agonised and spent a rather inordinate amount of time going over it, finessing it.. and I needed a tool to keep it with me everywhere, so I could access it whenever I needed to.
That tool was Evernote.
I have been an Evernote user for over 8 years now, and whilst I have tried others, such as Bear and OneNote, Notes on Apple devices and Google Keep, regardless of the bad press that Evernote has received over the last few months, it’s still the service that I naturally turn to for taking notes.
A big benefit of Evernote is the Web Clipper. It's a fantastic way to take clips from pages on the internet and save them for later. Maybe you're researching a new car, or holiday or anything you like; you see something on the internet that you want to keep for reference.
The Web Clipper, which is installed as an extension on you browser, will let you either capture the entire screen, just a snippet or a text version and save it straight into your Evernote. You can even set the notebook you want it stored in, along with any notes and tags.
I use Evernote in conjunction with Scannable, so it was useful to capture invoices and important information we received, to store them in a single place.
I also use it for work, to capture notes from meetings, as well as somewhere to brain-storm ideas.
The search functionality within Evernote is second-to-none. If you've scanned in documents, the OCR capability for documents, means that when you search for something, Evernote won't only look at the notes that you've created, but also inside the documents (whether word or pdf). It will also search any text that's part of a photo.
This means, that even without the notebooks, if you're looking for something, then there is a very high probability of finding it just entering a key phrase or word.
This does mean that the number of results returned from this search could be daunting; and another reason why you could use the tagging functionality to help filter and focus on what you're looking for.
Evernote also has Templates; ideal if you’re using the same format for many notes. When you start a new note, opt to use a template, and the screen will be pre-filled with tables, or format, for you to complete. Great for agendas, or journal keeping or a telephone message pad etc.
Back to my speech…
Google Sheets and Docs
Another HUGE part of planning a wedding is managing the finances! Weddings aren't cheap and keeping tabs on the expenses is a must, to make sure you don’t go mad. Of course, this is relevant for all things in life, not just weddings!!
I created a Google Sheet into which I added 4 columns. The reason for the expenditure, the total expected cost, the deposit paid and the final column is a calculated value based on B-C (the expected cost minus the deposit paid).
Because this is a Google Sheet, I could share this with Karen, so she could also update the figures.
We also created the guest list and the table plan in Google Sheets. We used Google Docs for some Reserved signs we wanted to put on some chairs.
Wrap Up
Planning a wedding is a lot of fun, and we’ve really worked as a team to make sure it’s going to be a day to remember.
Here’s a recap of the productivity tools we’ve used to help us.
Todoist and Reminders
Apple Calendar and Fantastical 2
Google Docs
Google Sheets
Evernote
Wedding Phrases
Whilst I was pulling the details of this episode together, I got to thinking about phrases to do with weddings. The most common one, that I can tell, is to tie the knot.
Where does that phrase come from?
There is a suggestion that this expression derives from the nets of knotted string which supported beds prior to the introduction of metal-sprung bedframes. The theory goes that, in order to make a marriage bed, you needed to 'tie the knot'. Like many such folk-etymological explanations, there's not a shred of evidence to support this idea.
It isn't clear whether this expression derives from an actual knot used in marriage ceremonies or whether the knot is merely symbolic of a lasting unity. Knots have a place in the folklore of many cultures and usually symbolize unbreakable pledges. Actual knots have certainly been used in marriage ceremonies for some time and the tradition of trying the wrists of the bride and groom with twine continues today in marriages in the use of sashes which are placed over the principal's wrists. The word 'knot', although not in the phrase 'tie the knot', has been associated with marriage since at least the 13th century. The Legend of St. Katherine, circa 1225 used the Middle English 'cnotte', that is, 'knot', to mean 'the tie or bond of wedlock; the marriage or wedding knot’.
What about - Plight my troth. A very old-English saying.
Troth is faithfulness, loyalty, honesty. Troth is not something you just trot out. It is something that is a commitment. It is something you plight. So the magic spell could be I promise you I will be true.
Other, more common, slang terms include Getting hitched and Getting spliced
Podcast of the Week
Before I finish, it’s time for “Podcast of the Week” - my weekly look at another podcast that you might find interesting / enjoyable.
I don’t normally do national radio podcasts; but one I listen to every day is from BBC Radio 2 - it’s the daily pop quiz, called Pop Master.
Hosted by Ken Bruce, this quiz is part of the weekday, mid-morning show, and pits two listeners against each other to get the highest score, to get the chance to win a digital radio. The podcast splits this segment and presents it in a nice, roughly 15 minutes, episode.
As I said, I would normally promote an independent podcaster, but since this one is a lot of fun to listen to; especially as I try my best to answer as many questions as possible, then I thought I’d include it.
That’s Pop Master, from BBC Radio 2 - it’s available wherever you normally listen to you podcasts.
Thank You
And that’s it for another week.
I’m going to prepare to tie the knot and plight my troth!!
I hope you’ve found this episode interesting.
If you have any questions about anything I’ve mentioned, or anything else, then please get in touch via Twitter @prodmatters
Please don’t forget to press the subscribe button in your podcast app of choice, then you’ll get a notification ding when a new episode has been released, so you won’t miss another episode.
Thank you very much for listening and until next time, remember, Productivity Matters.
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