3 August, 2016
This is the second post in the AskTML series. Do read the first post on Productivity hacks for working professionals. Thanks to all of you who have submitted questions; we have quite a few in the queue to be answered now.
In this post, we answer the question — “What are the go-to apps on your phone? Share a screenshot of your homescreen.”
LEE SHIH:
Let me give some explanation on a selection of my apps.
Fantastical is a great calendar app. I like it because it allows for natural language detection in keying in my appointments. So I can type in “Meeting today with client at 2pm at the office” and Fantastical will input all of this automatically into my calendar. No need to rotate the time and date in the default iPhone Calendar. I can also easily juggle multiple calendars.
I still prefer Uber over Grab. I am increasingly using Uber for all my meetings during the day. No need to drive out and no need to worry about parking. The email receipts can then be easily forwarded on as travel claims.
I use both Whatsapp and Telegram. Especially since Telegram can maintain a larger number of participants in chat groups. So there is a very active and large KL Barbarians dragon boat chat group that is kept on Telegram.
For leisure, I play a lot of Clash Royale and Clash of Clans.
For social media, I find that I now log in, in order of priority: Instagram, Facebook and then Twitter. I like Instagram for the immediate catch-up on a smaller group of friends. Facebook gives me a more general sense of how my friends and acquaintances are doing, and also with trending news updates. I don’t log in to Twitter much now. Unlike Marcus, I still don’t get Snapchat and I uninstalled the app some time ago.
LinkedIn is still the go-to business networking app I use.
MARCUS:
I mentioned in my previous post that I use Google to sync all my appointments, contacts and emails, and the native iOS apps Calendar, Contacts and Mail work perfectly fine for me. The Dropbox app is used to access the files stored in my Dropbox Pro account.
I use Scanner Pro to digitise everything (letters, receipts, and documents) immediately so they can never be “lost” — it is so easy to use and produces crisp and clear PDFs just by snapping a photo. The native iOS Notes app is simple but good enough to be extremely useful for jotting down thoughts and reminders, and even writing blog posts or drafting emails on the go.
Spotify is one of my most used apps. I have a Spotify Premium account so I can access my music offline, and can’t remember the last time I bought a CD or listened to the radio (what a relief to be free of annoying radio ads and announcers!).
I communicate with friends and clients from around the world using WhatsApp, Facebook’s Messenger, and Skype.
I use the different social media apps for different purposes and groups of friends or contacts: Facebook is mostly for close friends and family. Twitter is great for keeping in touch with developments and discussions regarding the legal industry, technology, culture, and lots of football chat! LinkedIn of course is a compulsory tool for work-related networking. Instagram and Snapchat (scan my Snapcode below to add me!) are lots of fun. And Medium lets me read some of the best online content there is.
I’ve been using Grab and Uber extensively to get around. It saves me the stress of driving in traffic and looking for parking, especially if I have meetings in the city centre or other locations which are notoriously difficult to drive to. Google Maps is invaluable in getting directions to new places — it truly is an innovation which has changed lives!
The Premier League app is used for very serious and crucial professional matters — it lets me check on and tweak my Fantasy Premier League team.
And of course, the WordPress app to keep track of The Malaysian Lawyer!
You’re invited to submit questions on anything related to legal practice via any of the following methods:
Leaving a comment in the comments section of any AskTML post.
Tweeting us at @imleesh or @vangeyzel with the hashtag #AskTML.
Sending a LinkedIn message to Lee Shih or Marcus.
We look forward to receiving your questions!
