GTDJedi Podcast - EP068 - The Dev Seg featuring the Team from Sorted³

In this episode, we meet with the team from Sorted³ & discuss the past, present & the future in store for Sorted³ customers & potential future customers alike who are looking to enhance their “hyper-scheduling” process.

GTDJedi Show Notes

Episode: 68

Date: 12/28/20

Hosts: Clay Russell, Jerry Goldbaum & Timothy Broder

Guests: Harry & Leo from Sorted³

Intro

I would like to welcome back to the "Dev Seg" right here on the GTDJedi podcast Harry & Leo from the team at Sorted³. If you would like to get a history lesson on what these guys were up to a couple years ago, check out EP049of this show (link is here in the show notes). So it's been a couple of years gentlemen, let's catch up. 

Get to Know Sorted³

•  Tell us about your company and give us a little on its history.

We've been on your podcast before, but for a quick recap.

•  Sorted started out as Leo's personal project because existing tools didn't really work for him. 

•  "I always seem to get on the task management bandwagon and then fall off a few months later".

•  "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results" - Einstein 

•  The app caught the attention of Harry as he was yet again looking for another task management app.

•  Leo installed the app on Harry's iPhone for him to try out. 

•  (Six months later?) Harry mentioned that Sorted has been the longest he was able to stick to one task management app consistently.

•  That's when we decided to release the app on the App Store to see what the general public thinks.

•  One thing lead to another and now 1 million+ downloads and tens of thousands of thank you "love letters" later...

  •  We've expanded our team

  •  Released our Mac app

  •  Solidified our understanding of what Sorted is under the banner of hyper-scheduling

  •  We're now ready to actively promote hyper-scheduling and Sorted being a hyper-scheduler to the world.

•  Our goal with Sorted has always been to promote a better way to help people manage their day. We do have to do this sustainable, but our goal was never commercial to begin with. 

•  Being not writers, but coders, in some ways, this is our productivity "book".

•  From our communication with our users, too many people struggle with task management or end up spending too much time managing than doing. 

•  So this is our way of sharing.

•  I want to talk about Sorted³.

•  It's been two years since you we last chatted about Sorted³. So how about we give our listening audience a formal introduction to what Sorted³ is in it's most current state.

•  We call Sorted a hyper-scheduler. That's because for a long time, we knew it was very useful and different from everything else out there. Our users agreed as well, but, we had a hard time nailing down exactly why it was so different and why it made managing our days so much easier, stress free and sustainable. We think we've finally nailed it down and we're packaging this up under the banner of hyper-scheduling.

•  Who is this app for? What is the target demographic?

•  This app is for anyone who struggles with sustaining a traditional task management rountine, but know that they need something to help organize their life. 

•  It's also for people who find their existing routine feel more and more like a full time job than an assist.

•  Finally, it's for people who wants less stress, more focus, and spend more time doing than managing.

•  How do you use this app in your daily life?

Leo: 

1.  I ususally look through my schedule and prep it the night before. Especially since we have a remote team and sometimes we hold meetings really early in the morning.

2.  I roughly reorder my tasks into the order I want to tackle them and then run auto-schedule. 

3.  I move any lower priority tasks that may not fit into the day to a future date and then go to sleep. (I think this way, I sleep better knowing what will be coming the next day, instead of having my mind thinking about stuff.)

•  A special note, I schedule not only work related stuff, but also personal stuff and breaks for family and myself. This ensures I maintain balance in my life.

Harry:

•  In addition to planning on the night before, I will also have a quick look every morning. Spend couple minutes to estimate time needed for each task. Then, quickly decide when to fit in the tasks for the day.

•  What separates this app from the countless others of its type in the store?

•  Most apps on the app store are to-do list based apps. 

  •  But we know from Kevin Kruse that the most successful people don't use to-do lists. 

  •  They don't work and eventually grows into oversized lists that adds stress and paralizes you. 

•  Then there are some newer apps out there that does a bit of scheduling of tasks, but they tend to still be very slow and inflexible. 

  •  Requiring you to drag and drop things around a calendar whenever things change.

•  Why is speed and flexibility important?

  •  Firstly, we believe the ROI on task management is non-linear. 

    •  Don't do it and it's bad

    •  Do too much and you end up wasting time managing and not doing.

•  So a key concept of hyper-scheduling is the ability to quickly and roughly form a schedule/plan. 

  •  Roughly because it's quick hence sustainable.

    •  It's easy to keep a routine that takes 1-3 minutes a day than one that takes 30-60 mins a day.

  •  Also, because you never know how your day will actually pan out. 

    •  So over planning is a waste of time.

•  So the goal is to do just enough, quick enough so as to:

1.  Ensure we don't overwhelm ourselves with unrealistic goals.

2.  Naturally prioritize what is important and what is urgent.

3.  Gain some peace of mind and clarity into what we expect our day to look like.

4.  Then quickly get to DOING.

•  Any deviation can be adjust quickly through tools like Magic Select, Time Ruler, Auto Schedule, etc. as our day progresses.

•  Are you on both platforms?

•  We are now on all Apple platforms. Meaning iOS, iPadOS, macOS and we are also optimized for M1 Macs as well.

•  Can you speak on the pros and cons of developing for either or both of these platforms?

•  Not available on Android yet.

•  Sorted is currently built on top of iCloud, which is a proprietary service within Apple ecosystem

•  In order to make it available to Android, we will first build our own server. The choice of iCloud has allowed us to move fast.

•  Tell the dev how I discovered the app.

•  Much like Harry, I bounce around from task management system to system & app to app always on the lookout for the one that feels like the perfect fit for my life. I was drawn to Sorted³ for two primary reasons. 

•  I was hyper-scheduling before it was a thing.

•  The combination of power & beauty makes productivity fun. 

•  How are other people discovering your apps?

•  Through being featured on the App Store. We're very lucky to have support from Apple's Editorial team on this. Also very lucky that somehow they found out about us. I think it's word of mouth within Apple.

•  Talking about that, word of mouth from our users is also a big deal. So thank you to all our users for doing this for us.

•  We have not done any active promotion of the app up to this point, but 

  •  now that we have the concept of hyper-scheduling down

  •  a growing team

  •  and finally being on all Apple platforms

  •    * We will be doing more active promotion of the concept of hyper-scheduling. 

•  Reza, our marketing guy has a slate of promotional activities already lined up for us. Haha.

•  What methods have proven to be the most successful for getting your app discovered?

•  So far, the App Store and word of mouth.

•  We'll have to test other methods coming up. Maybe we can give you an update in due time?

•  What excites you the most about the latest version of the operation system?

•  M1 performace? I think that's crazy. Can't wait to see what M1X machines will do.

•  Which APIs do you intend to make use of in the enhancement of your application?

•  CoreML - machine learning

•  We want to bring some kinds of intelligence to make the process smarter

•  For example, be able to recognize what the user is typing and categorize them or even suggest a schedule

•  Yet, we still believe users should take full control of their schedule

•  Can you enlighten us on what you have in store for the future of this app?

•  Lots of stuff. 

  •  Week or multiday view? 

  •  Enhancements to task organisation? 

  •  Conversion between events and tasks? 

  •  Collaboration?

  •  Web version?

•  Thank the guest for their time and ask how they can be reached.

•  Check out our new website sortedapp.com and contact us on Twitter @SortedHQ

•  Ask about the Sorted community & what is shared there.

How to Reach Us (where you can reach the GTDJedi Order)

•  Clay -  @clayrussell  

•  Jerry -  @JNGold  on twitter, blogs on  TechMusings.me 

•  Tim -  @timothybroder 

In Closing

1. Subscribe and review in Apple Podcasts or  Google Play 

2. Patreon ( patreon.com/tekside )

3. Contact ( @GTDJedi , [email protected])

4. The website, productivity tips, etc.  tekside.net/gtdjedi 

5. The rest of the network  tekside.net 

6. Closing

•  We thank you all for listening and remember, with a little training, anyone can be on their way to becoming a GTDJedi. Goodbye!

•  Friday kicks off a new year, so if you are looking to get things sorted out,  Sorted³ is a great place to start.