Awe, amazing! Thank you so much right back 🙏 did you end up going with any of the calendars mentioned in the video? Or just enjoyed the video? So curious! Means a lot 🙏
Thanks for letting us know. Distracting from what exactly? We quite like them if I'm being honest. Maybe you'd prefer tons of jump cuts instead? Not exactly our style. Appreciate you being here nonetheless! So what calendar are you going with?
@@efficientapp after watching the whole video, I have to say that the first few minutes were a little too intense. Then it became ok. It definitely distracted me from your excellent presentation. You have an amazing presence on-camera and I don't think you need to resort to these as much. I was a video journalist, cameraman and video editor for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for many years, so maybe I am a bit old fashioned (I'm 45 yo) but you have such a good presence on screen, well researched subjects and great transitions between your on-cam appearances and your B-roll shots that you you don't need that much zooms and jump cuts (they used to be huge no-nos in video editing classes haha, funny how things change). I also much enjoyed the coffee making transitions (a totally new visual concept that surprised me and was super interesting), I found it very well executed and carefully inserted in your longer on-cam presentations. Definitely kept things visually stimulating. In conclusion, it was the first video I watched from you and finally decided to subscribe at the end. Please take my comments as a constructive insight. At the end of the day, follow your gut and your heart and success will come to you guys. I wish you all the best and I will definitely watch more videos from your channel. Cheers.
Hey Patrick, appreciate your thoughtful comment. The intro is more aggressive than we had initially wanted because we cut out mid-sentence as in post, we realized it wasn't adding anything, and the intro is the most important part on UA-cam. Believe it or not, our video editor is actually from the Australian News, so you better bet that he is fully aware of all the tricks around B-Roll being used to cover up cuts. The thing is, UA-cam strategy is quite a bit different from the news. People decide within the first 6 seconds without audio on if they might give the video a shot, and after 15-30 seconds if they are going to watch your entire video or not. So the first 30-60 seconds especially, we're going to be quite a bit more stimulating than is probably comfortable for what you're used to. We've tested both ways, what you're describing and not, and the truth of the matter is overall retention is better when we do it our way, cutting out non-essential pieces during edit. Our goal is to improve the scripting process in time to hopefully rely less on this, but even with a perfect script, doing zooming in/out is something done for effect and dramatization, so there's areas that were using it strategically, and not just to mask a cut, but it's of course used for that as well. Completely and totally understand where you're coming from, some of this is just the medium which is different from CBC and the type of viewers of this channel. Appreciate you subscribing and being here. And appreciate you seeing how much we put into the edit (e.g. the coffee splicing in), as you know, as an editor, we put a TON of thought and work into getting just about everything right. Always looking and trying to improve. Thanks for being here 🙏
@@efficientapp Well kudos to the whole team. And thank you for sharing this tidbit of behind the scene. "Adapt or die they say". I will adapt. And definitely will watch more videos. Once again, great content and presentation. Cheer!
Awe, this means a lot and tons of respect, know it's not easy 🙏 also not saying we have it perfectly correct, we're still learning the craft and experimenting. For example, our next video coming out Monday may be a bit intense (the intro), but promise it calms down after that 🙈🤭
Thank you for providing so many options. I am still cautious about pulling away from my honed Google suite, but will set up some summer development time to explore Motion. I am a seasoned professional managing my own practice that includes managing email and calendars of three key clients who insist on staying with Microsoft Outlook and Calendar. This creates some awkwardness in managing calendar items in my Google calendar. Hence any other calendar app that I look at does need to take in consideration that I have clients who use other applications. Any suggestions are welcome.
Oh, you wouldn't be leaving Google Suite, you need a foundational calendar like Google Suite or Microsoft for Motion to work in-fact. You'd even be able to connect all of your calendars (and your clients calendars) to Motion and manage them all from right within Motion, if that makes sense? You can give it a shot with a free trial actually: efficient.link/r/motion though be sure to claim the deal we're offered with the setup course for free here if you use our link to sign up: efficient.deals/motion Does that make sense at all? We're not saying ditch Google/Microsoft as your foundation, you still use them with Motion and others in this video, it's just layer atop, so you'd physically be ditching Google Calendar and Outlook as the main interface you use them within. You can always still use them with Motion though, you're not giving them up.
@@efficientapp Thank you for your reply. I have signed up for the trial, and if all works out well, I will confirm the subscription using your link. I do have a question regarding Motion and my Calendly setup. I have numerous Calendly events to serve different clients' needs, including hiding my calendar domain. I am not confident that Motion provides the same "info@***" follow-up emails. Again, I have key clients who require that I hide my branding and use their email domains when contacting their clients. These events provide calendar scheduling options over months - example, 12 coaching sessions over 6 months. I would appreciate any additional comments or a scheduled consultation to ensure I have the best email/calendar/project management solutions. At this point in my business, the only way to be more profitable is to become super efficient with the automation of processes.
@@efficientapp I have been working through the trial and have found two issues that I cannot overcome in making the decision to switch to Motion. 1) I need to set up conferencing with Zoom for my direct clients AND Microsoft Teams used by my key clients' clients. 2) Calendly provides different events customized for my key clients who use Microsoft Team links with special instructions and events for my direct clients linking to my Zoom account.
Curious, we also come from a consulting background, and do you really need to be switching the meeting source depending on the client? Feels like you're working around your clients needs quite a bit which will make it nearly impossible for you to truly processize/automate and scale is the only concern. We'd push back on said clients about that. You sound super accommodating (which is sweet of you, but they might just be fine with you using Zoom for everything instead of accepting things as it is). It sounds like you need very specific scheduling needs, thinking you should just continue using Calendly alongside Motion, or consider a tool like Cal: efficient.link/r/cal as it gives way more control over scheduling. Motion isn't meant to be the most powerful scheduler on the market, it's more a project management tool and daily planner, if that makes sense? Why not simply use Calendly still and Motion alongside it? They are a totally different category of tools at the end of the day. 🤔
@@efficientapp Thank you for your reply and your comments. My business consulting model is unique with these three key clients. Serving their projects and clients involves security and branding issues that make the relationship different from working with my one-to-one clients. Hence, I am required to use their email tools and apps. I agree with your assessment and will continue to use Calendly because it is the best for my operations, as it includes different event types from one meeting to multiple sessions over 6 months. Calendly also allows me to send out reminders with my branded email address cloaked for privacy. I am delving into Motion now, and yes, the project, task, and calendar functions are spot on. I'm not sure, but I think my trial went active without using your link. Is there a way to access your training (for a fee) if my subscription is not activated through your link?
Hi, thank you for the great info and video. I have another question actually, close to the end of the video at 16:51 , what is the name of the device in orange used and its model, thank you!
Is Motion like a Clickup+Reclaim? I use Clickup for project scheduling for my business but it does nothing for scheduling. Motion looks like a better option to auto schedule
Yep, exactly-that's a good way to put it. If you're using ClickUp and Reclaim currently, you'd replace it with Motion. Do you have any specific questions? Would be happy to try helping answer them. We're actually working on a course as we speak-if you sign-up to Motion with our link, you'll get our paid course for free: efficient.deals/motion We did another video on Motion here that might help (it's a bit outdated though and we're scripting a new version now, the course will be updated as well): efficient.yt/motion
@@efficientapp Yea, I'm using ClickUp and Reclaim now. But I don't always use Reclaim since it's separate and not exactly fully integrated. I really love everything about ClickUp, especially how I can customize literally everything in it. The lack of smart scheduling is the only negative I have with it. My use case: Keeping a list of several engineering projects that very from 30 minutes to several weeks of time. I don't much other than the ability to schedule myself and one employee. I like Reclaim because it shows me how booked up we are. I'll look into Motion and use your link if I go through with it. Thanks
Nicely done. I like how you ran down each one. Never heard of these…but, they look nice. I still need a hard copy planner/calendar I can use when offline or at work.
Awe, thanks! Which if any seemed the most tempting for you? If you're big into hard copy planner, you might consider giving Sunsama a shot as they built it for people who like physical daily planners: efficient.link/r/sunsama - here's an extended 30 day free trial if you want to give it a shot. Would be curious what you think!
Motion vs Asana ? Looking for a platform for goal setting in achieving. I understand asana is good for that. I’m wondering would the motion platform answer?
We actually have a write-up and a video that covers exactly that: efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-asana Asana is more meant for big teams, 100+ employees. They focus more on management reporting and such. Motion focuses better on the individual but teams as well. Fun fact: we actually used Asana for 7 years before switching to Motion a few years ago, haven't used back since-Motion has been far more enjoyable for us individually and as a team. We cover it a bit more in this video: efficient.link/yt/pm Our recommendation would be to give Motion a shot: efficient.link/r/motion - they have a free trial and since they integrate so deeply with your calendar, unlike Asana, it makes the process of setting goals and hitting them in the day-to-day more enjoyable. You can also grab a course here that we're working on if you use this link to sign up: efficient.deals/motion Would you be using this just yourself? Or with a team?
Depends on the tool you've selected. For example, TickTick has a super barebones implementation of calendar and their syncing is quite awful, so if you're using TickTick, then I'd absolutely say go with another option mentioned in the video and use it alongside TickTick, yeah. If you're using Motion though, they started out as a calendar app standalone before they even moved to tasks and project management, so the functionality of Motion's calendar is fully-featured, even more calendar features than many of the other apps mentioned in the video. So I'd say no need to add another calendar app if you're using Motion, but yes if using TickTick/Todoist/etc.
All of the calendars that we covered and recommend here work for teams and businesses. This video wasn't meant to be focused on just personal calendar usage. Assuming you're referring to Apple calendar for personal, since you can't (well, shouldn't) be using it for business. Apple calendar is fine for individuals, but even more barebones than that of Google Calendar. You'd get far more out of Apple calendar by connecting it to a daily planning app like efficient.link/r/motion and using the upgraded experience within the app. At least businesses and teams can use Google calendar and Outlook, that's where Apple Calendar is lacking most, and what we cover more on our channel, so not sure if it's the type of answer you were looking/hoping for ☺️
Haha ayy, glad to hear you enjoyed it! It's our way of showing a bit of our personality into some of these videos-totally know it's not for everyone, so this means a lot! Curious if you ended up going with any of the calendars we mentioned in the video?
Not from our experience. We actually use Slite, which is similar to Notion and OneNote, and they have a "scratchpad" type of feature, which essentially allows you to draw and have it embedded in the note, so you might want to check that out? efficient.deals/slite We've also seen people draw handwritten notes using a tool like Figma, although not sure you'd really want to manage your notes in there: efficient.app/apps/figma Not sure if that helps? I wouldn't use Notion for that though. Maybe give Slite a shot.
I liked your videos so much, I subscribed twice! 1 with my work YT account and my personal one. I don't want to miss any content. Keep doing what you're doing!
Awe, wow this means a lot! Thank you so much for that 🙏 our next video should be coming out in a couple weeks, we've put SO much into it, think you're going to really like it. In-fact, highly recommend you subscribe to our newsletter as we're sure to put a lot into them and typically send it out when releasing a new video. Promise you'll like our next one a LOT: efficient.link/subscribe
Yes! We posted an update in the community: efficient.link/chat/motion-update (TL;DR we are waiting on some final interface changes before we film otherwise the entire course will be outdated in less than a month, we haven’t gotten access yet to the changes but hoping it will happen in the next 1-2 weeks, then we’ll have to film/edit). Excited to share it once it’s ready!
I've been looking for a calendar that allows me to check off things and add actual tasks to keep track of as I like to be able to double check that I've actually done those things and be able to look back when I need to. Do you have any recommendations for this? Also, wow, what a great video so far!
Hey! The video covers quite a few options here, we personally use efficient.link/r/motion for exactly this-but it sounds like you need a daily planner, which we have a full video on that here: efficient.link/yt/planner Would this be for personal use only? Or business/work usa as well? And thanks so much! We put a lot into this one 🥲
Hahaha Alex here, I'll take the gorgeous assistant compliment 🙈😂 Can wholeheartedly relate on wanting a latte at 10pm though, and sadly no, it can never be done. Actually had a few sips of the latte when filming that part at the end (was 9pm) because how am I supposed to just dump it down the drain? And I don't then I ended up going to sleep until 3am that night... Not worth it, never worth it 🫠 Thanks for your comment! Curious what calendar app you're using?
Good to see you again! Yep, Motion has a full 2-way calendar sync with Microsoft 365 Calendar. Do make sure to grab the deal if you give it a shot: efficient.deals/motion
Awe thanks! So we don't plan to cover personal contact management, but we do have a video on CRMs (which are relationship management tools), and Folk has a free tier and might fit your needs: efficient.link/r/folk That said, here's the full video, recommend watching it first: efficient.yt/crm
Totally! Google Calendar is "good enough" so most probably won't even think to look for something else. And all these calendars still require Google Calendar or Outlook as the foundation anyway, so it's still needed.
I’m not in the market for a new calendar app, just thought you would be advising a problem with Google calendar and Outlook. I wasn’t expecting to hear a simple opinion as interesting as it might be.
Yeah, I mean the problem is with Google Calendar and Outlook as an app, there are much better calendars on the market though it's more that the foundation of Google Calendar and Outlook are great, it's just that the UI/UX can be greatly improved, and that's what these other calendars have done. That's the core problem we have with Google Calendar and Outlook. It's just that Google and Microsoft aren't trying to actually build the best calendar apps, they have stagnated in their current form. Love them for the foundation that they are though, which is why we use Google Calendar at the core.
That's fair-they do both have different issues, and that's where the calendars we talked about solve those issues, which is why the title of the video is relevant, no? We're giving a solution to the problem you described, it's just using one of those calendars as the foundation and not in the day-to-day.
Hi! This video was SOOO good! Thank you so much! I liked, subscribed, and I am signing up for Motion using your affiliate link! Quick off topic question, but I would LOVE to know what camera you use to film your videos? They are amazing quality! If you have an affiliate link for that as well, please post it, so I can use it! TIA 😊
Awe, this means a lot, thanks so much 🙏 and stoked to hear you're giving Motion a shot! Be sure to claim the course for when it comes out if you haven't already: efficient.deals/motion And oh gosh, so the camera equipment... Okay, so our camera used for this video (we brought in our friend who's a videographer) was: efficient.link/a/blackmagic-12k (it's beyond overkill, and this is of-course without the lens used or anything). What we used in our most recent video - efficient.link/yt/help-desk was the smaller version of this: - Camera: efficient.link/a/blackmagic-6k - Lens: efficient.link/a/canon-24-70mm But finally, what we're likely to purchase ourselves and use for future videos (aside from when we pull in our videographer) is likely to be: - Camera: efficient.link/a/blackmagic-4k - Lens: efficient.link/a/canon-16-35mm - Lens Mount Adapter: efficient.link/a/lens-mount-adapter With all of that said, I will say that the camera is only part of the outcome... The lighting is the most important, and then there's the color grading that was done. Those both greatly affect the outcome, probably just as much if not more than the camera used. Hope this helps! And hope to see you more in the comment section on other videos 🙂
We don't have a video on that, but what we used is: - Primary Light: efficient.link/a/smallrig-rc120b - Primary Soft Box: efficient.link/a/smallrig-softbox - Secondary Light (2x): efficient.link/a/neewer-660 - Secondary Soft Box: efficient.link/a/neewer-660-softbox Audio: - Microphone: efficient.link/a/shure-sm7db - Audio Mixer: efficient.link/a/roadcaster-duo We also post on social media some BTS, so you can see how we're setting some of it up there: x.com/alexhbass/status/1806800306656706868 and here's another angle from Andra's account: x.com/AndraVomir/status/1806773247603798164 This was actually from this video funny enough!
I spend a fair amount of time in a phone/tablet restricted area and need to print a working copy of my calendar. Do any of these apps have a useable print function? Do you know of any calendar/productivity app that does? Thanks!
Hey there! The truth of the matter is I haven't ever heard this question arise before 😅 All of the apps allow simply for taking a screenshot and then you can print it out, so I'd say every app would technically work with this in theory. None of them are building specifically for this use-case though as it's quite niche and specific. You should be fine with any of them though if that makes sense?
Thanks JT! So we haven't reviewed their calendar, but we've reviewed Spark on the site (from Readdle). We'll add it to the list, but I can't say for certain we will add it to the site, it seems quite similar to Fantastical, and we're not typically fans of companies that have so many tools (they are an email + calendar + PDF scanner + Phone Document Scanner + Integration Tooling + More company). That is usually quite a red flag in our eyes as there's a big concern with focus, especially in one of the most competitive industries out there, Calendars. Hope that makes sense as to why we didn't consider them for this?
Awe, thanks! It has taken us a long way to get here! And most namely... A professional videographer 😅😆 here's some BTS: efficient.link/x/filming Super curious, are you using any of the apps mentioned in the video? Which is your favorite/what solution are you using?
@@efficientapp yeah that’s legit setup. Congrats. I use vanilla google calendar. I’ve used all the ones on your list but haven’t had the need for more than a basic calendar.
Yesss, it was fun, but a lot! And appreciate you checking out the video and the nice words even though you're happy with just the basic Google Calendar. Totally understand not needing more!
So many calendar options! Great video! The coffee making is fun and looks so professional. Less important but what coffee machine and what kind of coffee Alex used? I want a coffee like this!
Awe, thanks! Yeah, we tried something different in this one haha Here's the coffee machine: efficient.coffee/profitec-drive and the beans are Flat Track Coffee Beans: efficient.coffee/flat-track
As much as I would LOOVE to try motion, its such a dealbreaker it doesn't have a free plan for people to use before truly committing. Especially, since I do not have the leisure to spend just to eventually not commit, because it doesn't fit my system. And the 7-day trial is not enough to truly know if it would work. Maybe eventually.
So why not just pay monthly and try it for a month then first? It's not like you need to commit out of the gate for the year. The best software rarely does a truly free tier FWIW, at least in the business software world. Why not just give it a shot for a week and then pause it if it's not working for you and then come back later. You can learn a lot in a week. If you do give it a shot, definitely don't forget to claim to setup course using this link: efficient.deals/motion
Apologies on that! We're going to work on it for future videos! Thanks for the kind words and for being here though! You give any of these apps a shot?
@@efficientapp I actually do prefer the Google and Outlook calendars, lol. I don't like to pay for apps when I can use simple, nice ones for free. However, I am looking for advice on how to simplify my life with ONE app, lol. I have several notebooks, agendas, planners, and "Calendars" to manage my appointments, work schedule, birthdays, and contact info, and now that I am a UA-camr - both channel productions, and so much more. Having an app would be good as well as a desktop version to use, even if it's cloud-based. Any idea which one does all that? Lol. I challenge you! Lol. Seriously, any idea?
Totally understand wanting one app, but you won't get a recommendation from us for an all-in-one tool 😄 In general, any app that does note taking, plus is a CRM for contact management + manages your day is going to be buggy as hell and mediocre at best. Based on what you shared, we'd recommend: Motion: UA-cam production + agenda + calendar + planner + appointments + birthdays efficient.link/r/motion Contacts: Use a CRM, go with something basic like folk to start on the free tier efficient.link/r/folk (Our CRM video shows it in more detail: efficient.yt/crm) Notebook: We use Slite efficient.app/apps/slite
Hello, I would like to ask about the situational problems in the use of Motion as a content creation work. At present, I find that Motion mainly focuses on scheduling a single main task, in which the details of the task are regarded as steps, and let us record it directly in the job description of the task. This makes me a little confused why they don't provide the function of subtasks. In order to create a long article, they usually don't complete the whole article at one time, but complete it in segments after formulating the article structure and important paragraphs. Therefore, if Motion has the function of providing subtasks, it can create a Article tasks, take paragraph chapters as sub-tasks and set deadlines respectively, and then better arrange the task of article writing through Motion's super powerful AI scheduling. Of course, this is just my current idea. I'm just curious if you have the opportunity to give me some advice in your rich experience in using Motion. Thank you.
Hey there! So what you're describing is actually quite literally projects and tasks (this would be like a parent task, sub tasks relationship). So you could accomplish this with a Flow (project). We for example also use Motion for content using Flows. We mapped out our content creation process to a Flow and create tasks for each chunk of work, and any blockers/dependencies between team members, with the final task of uploading to the website for one of our team members to do. So you can do this already, you just need to view a project as an article, and tasks as "sub-tasks" if you will. Does that make sense? We're working on a Motion Course right now and we'll be showing how we're using Motion and Flows in this way for content creation, videos, etc. If you want to subscribe to our newsletter, we'll be sure to let you know when the course launches: efficient.link/subscribe
@@efficientapp Thank you for your detailed explanation. It is very useful to use the article as a project and a task as a subtask! In addition, I may not have the Flow function because I am using a personal version, but maybe I can modify the default task state of Motion and set it to the key process of writing an article to assist in management~ I started to use Motion because of your introduction. I think your introduction is very clear and concise. I also subscribe to the e-newsletter. Thank you!
Happy to have found this channel! Meantime, a question; apologies in advance for it being so "inside baseball" esoteric. Is there a scheduling app you can recommend for assembling small conferences? By "small" I mean weekend affairs with between 300 and 500 attendees, perhaps half of them presenting in approximately 150 panels, each with between 2 and 4 panelists. (I was hoping that by 2024 I could just ask a robot to do it, but alas....)
Awesome to have you here! And so I wouldn't exactly recommend a scheduling app for that, but rather an event management software like efficient.app/apps/luma - you'd of course want to set a date that works for you and then invite people or allow people to sign up to come and send emails/reminders, etc. that squarely falls into the event space, not the scheduler space, if that makes sense? Have some legacy customers that use that to run similar-sized events, that's definitely what you'd want though. Hope that helps and hope to see you more around the channel!
Hey Alice! So the videos and content we create take soooo long (this video actually took us more than 2 months), so we aren't really planning social media content in Motion, but rather use Flows for creating a process around say, creating a UA-cam video like this. We're currently building out a course that will cover how we're using Motion ourselves, and you can get notified when we release it here: efficient.link/subscribe - that said, we don't really post enough to "plan" social media content, if that makes sense? Once it's ready, we'll upload it to the respective channels and schedule it. We even have a full video going through all the social media scheduling apps we've tried for planning/scheduling when we were releasing more shorts: efficient.link/yt/social - so we'd probably say to use an app like we mention in that video for actually planning and scheduling out social media content, but for the actual creation process, we're definitely relying super heavily on Motion and their Flows functionality, for which we'll definitely be covering more in the future course, and I'm sure future videos as well as we'd like to update our Motion video. Did you get a chance to see our Motion tutorial, as we go into it a little bit here: efficient.link/yt/motion Happy to add any further clarification if you want to add to what more specifically you're looking to understand?
Great question! We cover TickTick in our next UA-cam video so make sure you’re subscribed! It’s currently being edited and should be released in the next week or so! If you're reading this comment from the future, you can watch what we think of TickTick here: efficient.yt/todo
@@efficientapp Got professional accounts for M365 and GWorkspace. I want outa both. The task is kinda paralyzing but hoping to make an intelligent decision and begin migrating, consolidating, and integrating stuff in the next 60 days. 😩
Thanks so much! Good to see you again! We haven't reviewed Nifty, just haven't gotten any interest in it and we're not super big on reviewing more all-in-one tools. If we get enough people requesting it, we'll definitely consider it, just not blown away or excited by it at first glance.
Do you mean automatic rescheduling of tasks on your calendar based on priority and deadline? If so, they are the only one that does this well. Other tools might mention that they do automatic scheduling, but Motion has a super robust algorithm and AI they use to do this. Doing reorganizing isn't a huge deal, doing it well, is. Especially if you're a sml business owner then you're square into their target customer, they are literally building the product for you. Here's a free trial if you want to give it a shot: efficient.link/r/motion (and if you do sign up using that link, then you can claim the crash course for free here: efficient.deals/motion - should help!)
I think the main question I'd have is, are you open to paying for a tool? Or expecting something for free? (The latter is surely to not be as good of a tool or one that will definitely stay free either). You might want to check out our Daily Planner video actually: efficient.link/yt/planner
Fantastical, nothing comes close, been 10 years with it.... The natural language is the best in it's class, the widgets are 100% better than anything, has a lot of integrations. Only gripe is there isn't web/windows app, but hey at least it's all native for us Apple sheep! But if every app you mention is a NO, what the heck are you using then? 😂
Good question! I'm still using Sunrise Calendar in my dreams 😏 but no, all of us are using Motion as our calendar, did the video not get that across? Haha 😁 We recommended a couple calendars in the video depending on your needs. We have all the recommended apps listed here on our site: efficient.link/yt/calendar
Ah! We actually just released a video today talking about the best To-Do List apps, maybe you'll enjoy that? efficient.link/yt/todo I'm sure you'll figure it out! Appreciate you letting us know, always fun hearing what people are using!
Ikr, most of the apps mentioned are crazy expensive and not worth it in my opinion. Still using Todoist with no problem whatsoever, and Google Calendar for events (they can Both be used for free)
Okay, more fair for you to say Andres because you're not a cat, unlike Meowmeowingz. With that said, Google Calendar is great, it's the foundation of most all the tools mentioned in the video, we still recommend it. They just haven't evolved it at all in years, so many people want more. Glad to hear you're having success with those two tools-our channel is more focused on prosumers and businesses though, so if you're running a business, these tools are actually not expensive at all. In-fact, it's more expensive in time wasted by not using one of the tools we recommended, if that makes sense?
Great review of various calendar services. However, some crucial aspects that are often overlooked and disregarded are the ownership and privacy of your data and what transpires in the event of glitches in a SaaS tool. It is deeply concerning that the ownership and privacy of your data are so disregarded. It is only a matter of time before you face the consequences. I strongly prefer the “nostalgic” approach of installing an application. Yes, I want it to sync with my other devices, but that should not be a mandatory requirement. One of the reasons behind this preference is the gimmick presented at the end of the video for Sunrise Calendar: “It shut down!” What happens to all of your team’s data, appointments, tasks, projects, and so on, when that SaaS service you relied on ceases to operate? Perhaps you receive a notification, or perhaps you don’t. What happens if there’s a “billing” error and your service is disrupted? What happens if a system administrator makes a mistake with setting privileges and inadvertently exposes your information to others on the service? I will continue to prioritize locally installed and controlled tools with internet access as much as possible.
Thanks for watching til the end and even catching that nugget! 😄 Totally hear you and sounds like you've put a lot of thought into this. All of these calendars use Google Calendar or Outlook on the backend (or Apple Mail in some cases) so you'd still have all your appointments and events available if you used any of these calendar alternatives. If Motion were no longer to exist, it would be awful to migrate all of our projects/tasks away from it (a few years ago we moved from Asana to Motion so made the transition of switching tools) but for us, using a tool we consider "top of the market" is well worth the risk. Usually when there are billing issues, a company doesn't totally wipe out your account, they have many weeks of leeway baked in, and in many cases, even an option to restore your account if you have fully cancelled. All in all, this doesn't keep us up at night!
They use Google Calendar and Microsoft 365 at the finish so they are super secure, Motion and others are used by huge companies where security is their number one importance as well, so you'd be in good company.
Great review. Hate to say it, but for simplicity Google Calendar is hard to beat 😬 Close second for me: Cron aka Notion Calendar or Sunsama. P.S. you should always have Alex making coffee in the background. Retention rate probably exploded with the caffeine boost.
Awe, thanks friend! And we totally get it, Google Calendar does have a super solid mobile app, gotta give them credit for that! And see, I appreciate you because you called it Cron initially, so yeah, you get it 😉 Surprised to hear Sunsama isn't your go-to though since you use it! Anything you think they could do to improve the calendar aspect to have it take the #1 spot for you? And HAH! Okay, so if I could actually make coffee in the background, then I think we'd be all for it. Making soap water though... Not sure how much of the caffeine boost would be there! Like at intermission, Andra wasn't even drinking coffee, it was mid-filming so from just a teeth staining/whatever, it didn't make sense. I actually made the coffee at the end (at like 8pm for the B-Roll), and we just dumped the lattes out sadly, didn't even drink them as a caffeine boost that late is no bueno. Always enjoy seeing you here my friend!
@@efficientapp hehe - Sunsama is still one of the absolutely best productivity apps. It has a beautiful UI/UX interface, but for some people who can't afford the price tag... Google Calendar just works for basic calendar needs without getting crazy. I know what you can do for the coffee making in the background... it'll be a little crazy at first but hear me out... A drum cage. That way you can make coffee to your heart's content without disturbing the audio too much. It'll likely give a faint noise of coffee in the background which will add to the production quality. I think this would be a solid business expense.
Omg bahahaha can't wait to pitch Andra on the drum cage for the kitchen 😂 if you see it in a future video, feel free to take all the credit my friend! And yeah, Sunsama is pretty great on the UI/UX front-I do wish the mobile app was a bit better is my only request, especially paying for it is all. Would you recommend it though even if someone isn't using a PM tool like Asana/ClickUp/etc? Feeling like those PM integrations is one of the biggest appeals to it, if you're stuck using one of those tools at work?
@@efficientapp haha I love it 😂 That's a great question... I believe someone could still use it, but they would be missing out. It definitely isn't as powerful without a PM/task manager integration. If Sunsama adds quarterly/annual goals and better task management features I could better recommend it as an all in one... but currently no, I probably wouldn't recommend it without a PM/task management tool integrated.
That's helpful to hear! That's definitely along the lines of what we were thinking as well, know you've been a big user of Sunsama for a while now though so it's super helpful to hear from you on this 🙏 appreciate you my friend!
Awe, thanks Claudio! That means a lot 🙏 what are your specific use-case/needs for accounting software? We've done some write-ups about Accounting software here: efficient.link/accounting If you take a slight step to the side of accounting and over to Expense Management (related) we do have a video on that here: efficient.link/yt/expense Super curious if you've seen the above and/or what it's missing that you'd like us to cover in a video along with your needs? Thanks for being here Claudio!
@@efficientapp O my goodness! I can't believe you replied, this is super cool I'm a huge fan! My mom runs a small at home embroidery business and she's been handling everything from inbound sales to accounting, all recorded on her messages, notebooks, or by memory. It's driven her crazy. Since I just recently graduated university, I thought this would be a great opportunity to go home and improve her workload and help her focus on the embroidery sides of things (her passion). I want to set her up with BILL (Expenses), Folk (CRM), but I am looking for an accounting software so she doesn't have to worry about her receipts going missing, or digging through countless emails to retrieve the paid invoices (happens every year, it stresses everyone out). Right now, I'm considering Quickbooks but I would love to hear your input on it, or even if I would need it, especially since I plan to set her up with BILL. I have checked out the Expense Management video but have not had the chance to see your Accounting & Tools article. I think your site is very well set up and super colorful but wondered why there was a grading system only for Quickbooks but not for any of the other reviewed softwares. Here are some great video ideas you might enjoy doing: - Best Accounting Softwares - Best Tech Stacks/Essentials to build a Business (possibly even covering different forms of business like social media agencies, labor focused, or whatever you please) - Best Websites when building a business and a couple more if you're interested in hearing them. My linked in is Claudio Dieter, feel free to reach out! I love your videos! www.linkedin.com/in/claudiodieter
@@efficientapp Hey! Thank you so much for replying, it appears my previous messages got deleted :( so here's a refined version of it. My mom owns a small at home embroidery business and handles everything from sales to accounting all within her notebooks, iPhone messages, or just from memory. It's driven her crazy, especially when it's tax season. Since I recently graduated university, I figured I would help her be more efficient by taking over all the extra tasks it takes to run her business. So far I have a CRM (Folk), Expense Management Platform (BILL), but not an Accounting software. I saw your expense management video, hence why I want to go with BILL (I will be using your affliate code when I do start using it, thank you!). Only thing I am missing would be the accounting software. What would you recommend I use, or do I need one at all? I checked out the Accounting Software link you sent over and truth be told, you have a very beautifully designed website that is very easy to navigate. Only concern was, why was Quickbooks the only software with a Grade Based rating? Also, adding a possible list in which tools are compared in what they can and cannot do right on your website would be a great way for users to instantly decided what is best for them and mitigating the chance for the reader to click off and find a list that could be more exhaustive. Some great video ideas would be: - Best Accounting Softwares - Best Tech Stack/Essentials to build a business (even addressing different business that would require a different tech stacks) - Best websites to create your business those are just to name a few! I hope this helps in anyway possible, take care and I'll be on the look out for your post notification. Claudio
Awe, this is so sweet on many levels! For one, what you're looking to do for your mom is amazing! My step father actually runs a small business construction company and helping him is how I got started in this space! Okay, many points here to cover my new friend! So BILL Spend & Expense and Folk would be quite perfect for starters (I will say, be sure to use all the deals/links on our site if possible to lock in any deals/to let them know we sent you): efficient.link/r/bill efficient.deals/folk Okay and now to accounting software, so the "right" way to do it over the long-run is to use QuickBooks Online (QBO), but not something I would stress too much about getting set up ASAP. It's a pretty big undertaking, and usually better for an accountant to help with setting it up: efficient.link/r/quickbooks Bill does not replace the need for QBO, but it makes syncing expenses and everything MUCH easier, and ultimately allowing for full control over any credit card you give out (allowing to set limits on each card) just gives you a much better control over your expenses. I might consider grabbing a modern banking solution like Mercury: efficient.deals/mercury as it's free, and the BEST business bank on the market and also syncs with QBO great, so your future CPA will appreciate it (I mean you and your mom too, it's SUCH a joy to use). So yes, the full financial stack is: Mercury Bank, BILL Spend & Expense, QBO, and the order of importance is in that order (though if you don't want to deal with switching your bank, I get it, but still, it's SO worth it, we adore Mercury): efficient.link/r/mercury Love the ideas, thanks for those! We've definitely been wanting to do more software stack recommendation videos, but we don't want to until we have more of an audience (like you), so we're mentally waiting for 10K subscribers (so probably 4-5 months). We do actually have an SMB software stack page on our website which actually covers all of the tools I mentioned above and their unique importance for a small business: efficient.link/stacks/smb (see if that article helps at all?) We do want to eventually do videos for our stacks section of the site, but we have a few things planned and needed first. As for the website and rankings, all good points, and we agree! So we're actually undergoing a full rebuild of the site (Andra and I are planning on re-writing and re-organizing a LOT). So what you're seeing with rankings is a relic from the past. We were going to do that, but we realized that it just gets too exhausting on our end doing arbitrary rankings, and we believe there's a more simple way to recommend (or not recommend) software, even easier to understand than rankings, you'll see! Hope that covers everything, but here in the comments if you have any other questions! We get excited when we can help people like you and by proxy your mother, but also everyone else that can read these comments as well! Connected on LinkedIn, and promise you that our new site will be more helpful in time, but that said, the stacks article should help answer many of your questions: efficient.link/stacks/smb
😄 Okay, we don't love Hey for email (full review with our thoughts: efficient.app/apps/hey) so we didn't go down the path of including Hey Calendar, but you're right, it's popular so probably should have mentioned it! Do you use it?
Makes sense! 🙌 TickTick is great for a free tool! When you decide to go with Motion, would recommend the annual plan as they give significant discounts!
Not sure, we don't cover personal free tools, I'm sure a different channel can be of more help. We're interested in helping businesses and teams make software purchasing decisions, not helping individuals pick the best free software for X, if that makes sense?
Have you considered giving Superhuman a shot? Andra and I both use Macs as well but Superhuman for our email. (Unless you're also using an Apple's free email domain instead of Gmail). Either way, you can try Superhuman for free for 30 days: efficient.link/r/superhuman - that said, this video is about calendar software, not email clients, so slightly confused as to how Apple Mail has come up 😁
It just came out (after this video was released), and it's quite barbones sadly. The reviews aren't great, and even Google Calendar has a better experience than it currently. Hopeful they could change that sentiment though in time.
@@efficientapp not yet, looking for one like motion that ties in project management. I will see if it integrates with my cloze relationship app which I love using for my consulting business.
Ah yes, so if you're using Cloze, they actually don't natively integrate with any calendar/daily planner/project management tool natively. That said, they do actually have a Zapier integration, as does Motion, so you can essentially use Zapier as the connective tissue to integrate those two tools together. As we used to be an integration company, curious what you'd even ideally like to have integrated between a Calendar + PM tool like Motion with your CRM? Guessing when say a deal is closed, it creates a project in your PM tool? Or did you have something else in mind? Anyway, if you decide to give Motion a shot, be sure to use our link to sign up: efficient.link/r/motion so you can lock-in the free setup course here: efficient.deals/motion
Hahaha yeah, would you believe that this is only about 10% of them that we've evaluated over the years that we felt actually stand out for one reason or another? This is probably one of the most competitive categories out there. Maybe todo list apps as a close second haha Our editor killed it with the animations! We are obsessed as well 🔥 appreciate the comment and will pass it along to him!
That's fair, we try to experiment in each video, we feel it could have flowed a bit better as well. We're constantly learning. Anyway, we didn't cover Google Calendar specifically since the point of the video was for people using Google Calendar to see what they could be using instead. Most of these tools are built atop of Google Calendar, they just improve the functionality. The truth of the matter is Google Calendar is great, it's just, well, the most average solution possible since they are building for the average user of billions of users. You're never going to get exceptional software building for the average individual and business user. You're going to get the most safe and unexceptional solution. So this video is for those wanting something more than an average solution.
@@efficientapp Thank you for the detailed response. You clearly care a lot about this topic and I respect your willingness to respond to every comment. I'm highly impressed. I will have to push back against your reasoning, however. You MIGHT be right that Google Calendar is subpar --- I will try out some other calendars and find out --- but as one who values simplicity above all (as you'll read in my comment I left on your other video regarding Trello), if a calendar is, indeed, created for the masses then it makes me wonder if its also the simplest and the cleanest experience. :)
Sorry to hear you feel this way about this video. There's a lot of great info in it, maybe try listening without video like a podcast? Anyway, unfortunate to hear this.
I don't think it's tough to be "better than Fantastical". Not sure if you saw the whole video, but the point is, every other calendar mentioned is better than Fantastical, and some are even free. The point is, Fantastical is no longer the gold standard, maybe it was 7 years ago, but now all of the features it has are commoditized, making it feel like they just stagnated and are a legacy solution in a market that is ever-evolving.
@@efficientapp thank, u r a keeper…we r considering taking a 12 week course at MIT related to no-code AI-ML solutions by pupils teaching 5 apps and other tools. We know the downside of many apps claiming no-code, but somehow we feel that this is different
Haha great! And yeah, Motion has been different (in a good way) from any other AI app we've seen teased in the space. I wouldn't say Motion is No-Code though, it's more of just a tool, it's not trying to be a no-code software 😁
We've heard all the feedback and have improved a lot with recent videos! What do you think of our most recent upload? efficient.link/yt/last - have we improved at all? 🤞
Hey Jeanpierre! Curious, do you spend much time on UA-cam? It's how many UA-cam videos are edited, and it's not for "no justification" but rather it's used for either emphasis, or stitching 2 clips together. We (and most UA-camrs) do not just film a single take and leave it like a podcast. The raw edit for this video was over an hour long. How do you think we distilled it down to 18 minutes? Trust us, you don't want to watch the hour long take. So yeah, that's the trade-off. We're trying to save you time, at the cost of some zooming in/out so that it's not just a jarring jump from one take to the next. Sorry if you thought we (or anyone on UA-cam for that matter) does a video like this in a single take. This isn't the news.
@@efficientapp i know how to edit and I was talking about the face shot moving in and out without any music point, intonation point or subject changes. You do how you want but I can tell you that you overused the effect. You’re editing software has a lot of ressource you could use instead of just randomly zooming in and out. And watching this gorgeous lady isn’t boring. No need for zoom all the time.
Got it, it should slow down in the second half, we'll figure out a good balance going forward when not masking a cut. Thanks for watching as much as you did 🙏
Yea I searched comments before the 1 minute mark to see complaints about the non stop zooming. There are much better ways to achieve viewer retention. This is hurting u. On that note I’m out early.
Sorry to hear that but thanks for the comment. There's a lot of great content in this video and our channel and we're constantly working to improve. I'd recommend giving our next video a shot, but it sounds like you've already left so 👋😅
More like a "we love great B2B software" channel, and happen to use Motion because it's a fantastic tool. Same with Help Scout, which is also a fantastic tool, oh and Cal, and Copper, and folk, or wait sorry, I mean only Motion, no other software is worth getting, ignore all the rest of our other videos that cover all of those other tools 🙄
Have already reviewed it on our site: efficient.app/apps/hey not a fan, we purposely chose not to include it in this video. To use it, you need to forego your Google workspace/Microsoft calendar, to which we're making videos for businesses, so that's a total non-starter. It's also just not something I'd recommend someone do. Comes with tons of downsides even if it was a great product (and it's not).
The speaker is too fast for good speech recognition. It might be better if that is not a change possibility then at least place the title of the software in a visible place to help your audience!
Hey Robert, the speaker is me, Andra, one of the people who host this channel. Sorry to hear it was too fast! The software names are actually in the chapter markers on UA-cam so you can hover over and see which one I’m talking about. Hope this helps!
Hey Dirk, sorry to hear that. We've heard the feedback and fixed it in every video we've released since this one (3 at the moment with a 4th coming soon). We are now taking it easy with the zooms 👌 Maybe let us know if we've improved in our most recent video?
Superhuman is the biggest junk for mail and calender. Let me know if you want to know more details. They tech strategy sucks and they will go away soon unless they pivot.
Erm... You sure you're referring to the same app as us? We have 2 videos on superhuman: efficient.link/yt/superhuman as we actually LOVE superhuman and have been using it for 5+ years now. Sorry to hear you've not been having success with it if that's the case though. There's no way they will go away, it's literally one of our favorite software tools that our entire team uses daily and can't live without at this point. It's for sure the best email client on the market hands-down, so I must say, I'm feeling a bit confused by your comment. Why are you so upset over Superhuman? Have you considered that maybe you're just not the right fit for it versus their entire company will cease to exist? 😅 What happened to you my friend? 🙈
@@efficientapp Very glad. I have all proofs of my communication with them. It eats all my memory on a MacBook Pro M3 with 16 GB ram and they have no answer for that.
Here is my case study. I have 3 domains. One for my product and two for my consulting services. I intended to reduce my time on email (snooze, save etc) and increase my efficiency. But, Superhuman is junk in my case study. There is no unified mailbox (which I knew before signing up) and I have to open 3 tabs when I do that, every ten minutes I get a message saying that Superhuman is taking a lot of memory and I should quit. When I wrote to them they kept asking me to clear cache. When I clear the cache, I must sign in to all accounts again. It's such a waste of time. The other reason they gave me is that they store everything locally, hence the high usage of system resources. Apple Mail, Canary and all do the same thing, but I never see a message saying these apps are using heavy memory. I use a M3 Pro 16" with 16GB RAM. Now, if that's the case with me, what about people who use 8 GB RAM? For $30 if they are asking me to use just one account, is the pricing and service justifiable? This is the reason for my comment. I have all the email conversations and I can share them with you if you want to test again. You write to them twice and the first thing they ask is if you want a refund. This shows arrogance for no reason. Newton used to do these things, but they unfortunately shut down.
Sorry what do you mean? This comment is genuinely upsetting to hear. We've worked incredibly hard to ensure every single person that uses our link gets our paid course, this has not been an easy feat either. I've personally spent 30 hours building custom integrations and cross-checking data exports to make it all link up. The paid Motion course is free if you use our affiliate link to sign up and submit the deal form here up until December 31st 2024: efficient.deals/motion - full details are on that page. If you genuinely believe we made an error, reach out via our site and we'll happily double-check it for you. If you used our affiliate link to sign up, you'll get sent the course automatically upon paying for your first month of Motion. Did you pay for your first month yet? You should get an automated email, feel free to respond to it and we'll get to the bottom of it. We've already sent it out to hundreds of people.
Update: I responded to your email and checked and you never used our link to sign up for Motion, so it seems you're upset that you aren't getting our paid course for free even though you never followed the single requirement we gave.
You mean why did we cover apps we don't like? Because they are incredibly popular and we evaluated them. If we didn't, the comment section would be filled with "what about Fantastical or Vimcal?" Whelp, now you know what we think about them. Gosh, we exclude apps, we get yelled at. We include apps, we get yelled at. Try running a software comparison channel my friend, there's no winning 😂
I'm so confused about the coffee distraction. Why? This was not needed and has nothing to do with what you are talking about. Overall, confusing and distracting.
Because why not? It was a long video, Andra wanted coffee, so you got to see how the coffee was being made 🤷♂️ it was an experiment. As much as many have deep opinions about this video, what they don't like, whelp, people are watching this video more than our other videos, so clearly something was done right here. If nothing more, we had fun making the video and experimenting in this way, so was it necessary? Nope! Did it make this video more enjoyable for us to make? You betcha! You do realize we're doing videos for free, doing things to make them more fun for ourselves is part of what keeps us creating them for free. So we hear what you're saying, but hope you can also hear what we're saying 🙈
Great advice! We took it and implemented it in our most recent video! Give it a watch and let us know in the comments if it cured your vertigo: efficient.link/yt/help-desk
Apps mentioned:
↳ Motion: efficient.link/r/motion
↳ Sunsama: efficient.link/r/sunsama
↳ Akiflow: efficient.link/r/akiflow
↳ Routine: efficient.app/apps/routine
↳ Amie: efficient.link/r/amie
↳ Morgen: efficient.link/r/morgen
↳ Notion Calendar: efficient.link/r/notion-calendar
↳ Fantastical: efficient.link/r/fantastical
↳ Vimcal: efficient.link/r/vimcal
Thanks!
Awe, amazing! Thank you so much right back 🙏 did you end up going with any of the calendars mentioned in the video? Or just enjoyed the video? So curious! Means a lot 🙏
Oh man, the zooming effects are so annoying and distracting.
Thanks for letting us know. Distracting from what exactly? We quite like them if I'm being honest. Maybe you'd prefer tons of jump cuts instead? Not exactly our style. Appreciate you being here nonetheless!
So what calendar are you going with?
@@efficientapp after watching the whole video, I have to say that the first few minutes were a little too intense. Then it became ok. It definitely distracted me from your excellent presentation. You have an amazing presence on-camera and I don't think you need to resort to these as much. I was a video journalist, cameraman and video editor for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for many years, so maybe I am a bit old fashioned (I'm 45 yo) but you have such a good presence on screen, well researched subjects and great transitions between your on-cam appearances and your B-roll shots that you you don't need that much zooms and jump cuts (they used to be huge no-nos in video editing classes haha, funny how things change). I also much enjoyed the coffee making transitions (a totally new visual concept that surprised me and was super interesting), I found it very well executed and carefully inserted in your longer on-cam presentations. Definitely kept things visually stimulating. In conclusion, it was the first video I watched from you and finally decided to subscribe at the end. Please take my comments as a constructive insight. At the end of the day, follow your gut and your heart and success will come to you guys. I wish you all the best and I will definitely watch more videos from your channel. Cheers.
Hey Patrick, appreciate your thoughtful comment. The intro is more aggressive than we had initially wanted because we cut out mid-sentence as in post, we realized it wasn't adding anything, and the intro is the most important part on UA-cam.
Believe it or not, our video editor is actually from the Australian News, so you better bet that he is fully aware of all the tricks around B-Roll being used to cover up cuts.
The thing is, UA-cam strategy is quite a bit different from the news. People decide within the first 6 seconds without audio on if they might give the video a shot, and after 15-30 seconds if they are going to watch your entire video or not. So the first 30-60 seconds especially, we're going to be quite a bit more stimulating than is probably comfortable for what you're used to.
We've tested both ways, what you're describing and not, and the truth of the matter is overall retention is better when we do it our way, cutting out non-essential pieces during edit.
Our goal is to improve the scripting process in time to hopefully rely less on this, but even with a perfect script, doing zooming in/out is something done for effect and dramatization, so there's areas that were using it strategically, and not just to mask a cut, but it's of course used for that as well.
Completely and totally understand where you're coming from, some of this is just the medium which is different from CBC and the type of viewers of this channel.
Appreciate you subscribing and being here. And appreciate you seeing how much we put into the edit (e.g. the coffee splicing in), as you know, as an editor, we put a TON of thought and work into getting just about everything right. Always looking and trying to improve. Thanks for being here 🙏
@@efficientapp Well kudos to the whole team. And thank you for sharing this tidbit of behind the scene. "Adapt or die they say". I will adapt. And definitely will watch more videos. Once again, great content and presentation. Cheer!
Awe, this means a lot and tons of respect, know it's not easy 🙏 also not saying we have it perfectly correct, we're still learning the craft and experimenting. For example, our next video coming out Monday may be a bit intense (the intro), but promise it calms down after that 🙈🤭
Thank you for providing so many options. I am still cautious about pulling away from my honed Google suite, but will set up some summer development time to explore Motion. I am a seasoned professional managing my own practice that includes managing email and calendars of three key clients who insist on staying with Microsoft Outlook and Calendar. This creates some awkwardness in managing calendar items in my Google calendar. Hence any other calendar app that I look at does need to take in consideration that I have clients who use other applications. Any suggestions are welcome.
Oh, you wouldn't be leaving Google Suite, you need a foundational calendar like Google Suite or Microsoft for Motion to work in-fact.
You'd even be able to connect all of your calendars (and your clients calendars) to Motion and manage them all from right within Motion, if that makes sense?
You can give it a shot with a free trial actually: efficient.link/r/motion though be sure to claim the deal we're offered with the setup course for free here if you use our link to sign up: efficient.deals/motion
Does that make sense at all? We're not saying ditch Google/Microsoft as your foundation, you still use them with Motion and others in this video, it's just layer atop, so you'd physically be ditching Google Calendar and Outlook as the main interface you use them within. You can always still use them with Motion though, you're not giving them up.
@@efficientapp Thank you for your reply. I have signed up for the trial, and if all works out well, I will confirm the subscription using your link.
I do have a question regarding Motion and my Calendly setup. I have numerous Calendly events to serve different clients' needs, including hiding my calendar domain. I am not confident that Motion provides the same "info@***" follow-up emails. Again, I have key clients who require that I hide my branding and use their email domains when contacting their clients. These events provide calendar scheduling options over months - example, 12 coaching sessions over 6 months. I would appreciate any additional comments or a scheduled consultation to ensure I have the best email/calendar/project management solutions. At this point in my business, the only way to be more profitable is to become super efficient with the automation of processes.
@@efficientapp I have been working through the trial and have found two issues that I cannot overcome in making the decision to switch to Motion. 1) I need to set up conferencing with Zoom for my direct clients AND Microsoft Teams used by my key clients' clients. 2) Calendly provides different events customized for my key clients who use Microsoft Team links with special instructions and events for my direct clients linking to my Zoom account.
Curious, we also come from a consulting background, and do you really need to be switching the meeting source depending on the client? Feels like you're working around your clients needs quite a bit which will make it nearly impossible for you to truly processize/automate and scale is the only concern. We'd push back on said clients about that. You sound super accommodating (which is sweet of you, but they might just be fine with you using Zoom for everything instead of accepting things as it is).
It sounds like you need very specific scheduling needs, thinking you should just continue using Calendly alongside Motion, or consider a tool like Cal: efficient.link/r/cal as it gives way more control over scheduling. Motion isn't meant to be the most powerful scheduler on the market, it's more a project management tool and daily planner, if that makes sense?
Why not simply use Calendly still and Motion alongside it? They are a totally different category of tools at the end of the day. 🤔
@@efficientapp Thank you for your reply and your comments. My business consulting model is unique with these three key clients. Serving their projects and clients involves security and branding issues that make the relationship different from working with my one-to-one clients. Hence, I am required to use their email tools and apps. I agree with your assessment and will continue to use Calendly because it is the best for my operations, as it includes different event types from one meeting to multiple sessions over 6 months. Calendly also allows me to send out reminders with my branded email address cloaked for privacy.
I am delving into Motion now, and yes, the project, task, and calendar functions are spot on. I'm not sure, but I think my trial went active without using your link. Is there a way to access your training (for a fee) if my subscription is not activated through your link?
Tech, coffee, beautiful animations, high quality video, and honest, thoughtful reviews?
This is my jam 😎
Hahaha couldn't have done it without you my friend 🙏 anything else we shall try fitting in next time?
And thanks for being a sport about Fantastical 🫶
The quality of the video is insane 💥
Awe, thanks! 🙏 Did you end up going with any of the calendar options mentioned? 👀
Hi, thank you for the great info and video.
I have another question actually, close to the end of the video at 16:51 , what is the name of the device in orange used and its model, thank you!
Ah! Thanks for the kind words! And that would be efficient.link/a/clicks - it's a phone case/keyboard combo, right now for iPhones 👌
Is Motion like a Clickup+Reclaim? I use Clickup for project scheduling for my business but it does nothing for scheduling. Motion looks like a better option to auto schedule
Yep, exactly-that's a good way to put it. If you're using ClickUp and Reclaim currently, you'd replace it with Motion. Do you have any specific questions? Would be happy to try helping answer them.
We're actually working on a course as we speak-if you sign-up to Motion with our link, you'll get our paid course for free: efficient.deals/motion
We did another video on Motion here that might help (it's a bit outdated though and we're scripting a new version now, the course will be updated as well): efficient.yt/motion
@@efficientapp Yea, I'm using ClickUp and Reclaim now. But I don't always use Reclaim since it's separate and not exactly fully integrated. I really love everything about ClickUp, especially how I can customize literally everything in it. The lack of smart scheduling is the only negative I have with it.
My use case: Keeping a list of several engineering projects that very from 30 minutes to several weeks of time. I don't much other than the ability to schedule myself and one employee. I like Reclaim because it shows me how booked up we are.
I'll look into Motion and use your link if I go through with it.
Thanks
Nicely done. I like how you ran down each one. Never heard of these…but, they look nice. I still need a hard copy planner/calendar I can use when offline or at work.
Awe, thanks! Which if any seemed the most tempting for you? If you're big into hard copy planner, you might consider giving Sunsama a shot as they built it for people who like physical daily planners: efficient.link/r/sunsama - here's an extended 30 day free trial if you want to give it a shot. Would be curious what you think!
Motion vs Asana ? Looking for a platform for goal setting in achieving. I understand asana is good for that. I’m wondering would the motion platform answer?
We actually have a write-up and a video that covers exactly that: efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-asana
Asana is more meant for big teams, 100+ employees. They focus more on management reporting and such. Motion focuses better on the individual but teams as well. Fun fact: we actually used Asana for 7 years before switching to Motion a few years ago, haven't used back since-Motion has been far more enjoyable for us individually and as a team. We cover it a bit more in this video: efficient.link/yt/pm
Our recommendation would be to give Motion a shot: efficient.link/r/motion - they have a free trial and since they integrate so deeply with your calendar, unlike Asana, it makes the process of setting goals and hitting them in the day-to-day more enjoyable.
You can also grab a course here that we're working on if you use this link to sign up: efficient.deals/motion
Would you be using this just yourself? Or with a team?
is it worth using any of these if you already have a built in calendar through your task/project manager ex. tick tick or motion?
Depends on the tool you've selected. For example, TickTick has a super barebones implementation of calendar and their syncing is quite awful, so if you're using TickTick, then I'd absolutely say go with another option mentioned in the video and use it alongside TickTick, yeah.
If you're using Motion though, they started out as a calendar app standalone before they even moved to tasks and project management, so the functionality of Motion's calendar is fully-featured, even more calendar features than many of the other apps mentioned in the video. So I'd say no need to add another calendar app if you're using Motion, but yes if using TickTick/Todoist/etc.
Congrats, Efficient team! 💜
Thanks Superhuman team! Love what you're building 🫶
how does the apple calendar measure up to the others?
All of the calendars that we covered and recommend here work for teams and businesses. This video wasn't meant to be focused on just personal calendar usage. Assuming you're referring to Apple calendar for personal, since you can't (well, shouldn't) be using it for business.
Apple calendar is fine for individuals, but even more barebones than that of Google Calendar. You'd get far more out of Apple calendar by connecting it to a daily planning app like efficient.link/r/motion and using the upgraded experience within the app.
At least businesses and teams can use Google calendar and Outlook, that's where Apple Calendar is lacking most, and what we cover more on our channel, so not sure if it's the type of answer you were looking/hoping for ☺️
Made me laugh when you zoomed in to the coffee making. Good video, good to compare these
Haha ayy, glad to hear you enjoyed it! It's our way of showing a bit of our personality into some of these videos-totally know it's not for everyone, so this means a lot! Curious if you ended up going with any of the calendars we mentioned in the video?
Can you make handwritten notes in Notion like Onenote?
Not from our experience. We actually use Slite, which is similar to Notion and OneNote, and they have a "scratchpad" type of feature, which essentially allows you to draw and have it embedded in the note, so you might want to check that out? efficient.deals/slite
We've also seen people draw handwritten notes using a tool like Figma, although not sure you'd really want to manage your notes in there: efficient.app/apps/figma
Not sure if that helps? I wouldn't use Notion for that though. Maybe give Slite a shot.
I liked your videos so much, I subscribed twice! 1 with my work YT account and my personal one. I don't want to miss any content. Keep doing what you're doing!
Awe, wow this means a lot! Thank you so much for that 🙏 our next video should be coming out in a couple weeks, we've put SO much into it, think you're going to really like it. In-fact, highly recommend you subscribe to our newsletter as we're sure to put a lot into them and typically send it out when releasing a new video. Promise you'll like our next one a LOT: efficient.link/subscribe
Any update on the Motion course y’all were planning?
Yes! We posted an update in the community: efficient.link/chat/motion-update (TL;DR we are waiting on some final interface changes before we film otherwise the entire course will be outdated in less than a month, we haven’t gotten access yet to the changes but hoping it will happen in the next 1-2 weeks, then we’ll have to film/edit). Excited to share it once it’s ready!
Love the review -- video quality and editing is so awesome 🙌
This means a lot, thanks for the comment 🙏 have a lot planned over the coming months, stay tuned! 🔥
I've been looking for a calendar that allows me to check off things and add actual tasks to keep track of as I like to be able to double check that I've actually done those things and be able to look back when I need to. Do you have any recommendations for this? Also, wow, what a great video so far!
Hey! The video covers quite a few options here, we personally use efficient.link/r/motion for exactly this-but it sounds like you need a daily planner, which we have a full video on that here: efficient.link/yt/planner
Would this be for personal use only? Or business/work usa as well?
And thanks so much! We put a lot into this one 🥲
Outlook 365
@@markryan4850 how would you check tasks or events off in this app or software?
It is 10pm and NOW I want a LATTE (plus a gorgeous assistant to make it for me😂).
Great video, thank you.
Hahaha Alex here, I'll take the gorgeous assistant compliment 🙈😂
Can wholeheartedly relate on wanting a latte at 10pm though, and sadly no, it can never be done. Actually had a few sips of the latte when filming that part at the end (was 9pm) because how am I supposed to just dump it down the drain? And I don't then I ended up going to sleep until 3am that night... Not worth it, never worth it 🫠
Thanks for your comment! Curious what calendar app you're using?
Does Motion 2-way sync to Microsoft 365 calendar?
Good to see you again! Yep, Motion has a full 2-way calendar sync with Microsoft 365 Calendar.
Do make sure to grab the deal if you give it a shot: efficient.deals/motion
Love the video. What about a contact app to save multiple details, photos etc. Any suggestion? Please
Awe thanks! So we don't plan to cover personal contact management, but we do have a video on CRMs (which are relationship management tools), and Folk has a free tier and might fit your needs: efficient.link/r/folk
That said, here's the full video, recommend watching it first: efficient.yt/crm
Amazing!!! Never thought of exploring calendar alternatives.
Totally! Google Calendar is "good enough" so most probably won't even think to look for something else. And all these calendars still require Google Calendar or Outlook as the foundation anyway, so it's still needed.
I’m not in the market for a new calendar app, just thought you would be advising a problem with Google calendar and Outlook. I wasn’t expecting to hear a simple opinion as interesting as it might be.
Yeah, I mean the problem is with Google Calendar and Outlook as an app, there are much better calendars on the market though it's more that the foundation of Google Calendar and Outlook are great, it's just that the UI/UX can be greatly improved, and that's what these other calendars have done. That's the core problem we have with Google Calendar and Outlook.
It's just that Google and Microsoft aren't trying to actually build the best calendar apps, they have stagnated in their current form. Love them for the foundation that they are though, which is why we use Google Calendar at the core.
That's fair-they do both have different issues, and that's where the calendars we talked about solve those issues, which is why the title of the video is relevant, no? We're giving a solution to the problem you described, it's just using one of those calendars as the foundation and not in the day-to-day.
Hi! This video was SOOO good! Thank you so much! I liked, subscribed, and I am signing up for Motion using your affiliate link! Quick off topic question, but I would LOVE to know what camera you use to film your videos? They are amazing quality! If you have an affiliate link for that as well, please post it, so I can use it! TIA 😊
Awe, this means a lot, thanks so much 🙏 and stoked to hear you're giving Motion a shot! Be sure to claim the course for when it comes out if you haven't already: efficient.deals/motion
And oh gosh, so the camera equipment... Okay, so our camera used for this video (we brought in our friend who's a videographer) was: efficient.link/a/blackmagic-12k (it's beyond overkill, and this is of-course without the lens used or anything).
What we used in our most recent video - efficient.link/yt/help-desk was the smaller version of this:
- Camera: efficient.link/a/blackmagic-6k
- Lens: efficient.link/a/canon-24-70mm
But finally, what we're likely to purchase ourselves and use for future videos (aside from when we pull in our videographer) is likely to be:
- Camera: efficient.link/a/blackmagic-4k
- Lens: efficient.link/a/canon-16-35mm
- Lens Mount Adapter: efficient.link/a/lens-mount-adapter
With all of that said, I will say that the camera is only part of the outcome... The lighting is the most important, and then there's the color grading that was done. Those both greatly affect the outcome, probably just as much if not more than the camera used.
Hope this helps! And hope to see you more in the comment section on other videos 🙂
@@efficientapp thanks so much! Do you have a video on the lighting you use?
We don't have a video on that, but what we used is:
- Primary Light: efficient.link/a/smallrig-rc120b
- Primary Soft Box: efficient.link/a/smallrig-softbox
- Secondary Light (2x): efficient.link/a/neewer-660
- Secondary Soft Box: efficient.link/a/neewer-660-softbox
Audio:
- Microphone: efficient.link/a/shure-sm7db
- Audio Mixer: efficient.link/a/roadcaster-duo
We also post on social media some BTS, so you can see how we're setting some of it up there: x.com/alexhbass/status/1806800306656706868 and here's another angle from Andra's account: x.com/AndraVomir/status/1806773247603798164
This was actually from this video funny enough!
Good Job!
Thanks Marc! Did you end up going with any of the calendar apps mentioned in the video?
I spend a fair amount of time in a phone/tablet restricted area and need to print a working copy of my calendar. Do any of these apps have a useable print function? Do you know of any calendar/productivity app that does? Thanks!
Hey there! The truth of the matter is I haven't ever heard this question arise before 😅
All of the apps allow simply for taking a screenshot and then you can print it out, so I'd say every app would technically work with this in theory. None of them are building specifically for this use-case though as it's quite niche and specific.
You should be fine with any of them though if that makes sense?
This is really useful. Thank you! Have you done, or could you do a review of Readdle’s Calendars?
Thanks JT! So we haven't reviewed their calendar, but we've reviewed Spark on the site (from Readdle). We'll add it to the list, but I can't say for certain we will add it to the site, it seems quite similar to Fantastical, and we're not typically fans of companies that have so many tools (they are an email + calendar + PDF scanner + Phone Document Scanner + Integration Tooling + More company). That is usually quite a red flag in our eyes as there's a big concern with focus, especially in one of the most competitive industries out there, Calendars.
Hope that makes sense as to why we didn't consider them for this?
Great overview. Also, your camera and lighting look great.
Awe, thanks! It has taken us a long way to get here! And most namely... A professional videographer 😅😆 here's some BTS: efficient.link/x/filming
Super curious, are you using any of the apps mentioned in the video? Which is your favorite/what solution are you using?
@@efficientapp yeah that’s legit setup. Congrats. I use vanilla google calendar. I’ve used all the ones on your list but haven’t had the need for more than a basic calendar.
Yesss, it was fun, but a lot! And appreciate you checking out the video and the nice words even though you're happy with just the basic Google Calendar. Totally understand not needing more!
So many calendar options! Great video! The coffee making is fun and looks so professional. Less important but what coffee machine and what kind of coffee Alex used? I want a coffee like this!
Awe, thanks! Yeah, we tried something different in this one haha
Here's the coffee machine: efficient.coffee/profitec-drive and the beans are Flat Track Coffee Beans: efficient.coffee/flat-track
@@efficientappSo cool! Thanks
As much as I would LOOVE to try motion, its such a dealbreaker it doesn't have a free plan for people to use before truly committing. Especially, since I do not have the leisure to spend just to eventually not commit, because it doesn't fit my system. And the 7-day trial is not enough to truly know if it would work. Maybe eventually.
So why not just pay monthly and try it for a month then first? It's not like you need to commit out of the gate for the year. The best software rarely does a truly free tier FWIW, at least in the business software world. Why not just give it a shot for a week and then pause it if it's not working for you and then come back later. You can learn a lot in a week.
If you do give it a shot, definitely don't forget to claim to setup course using this link: efficient.deals/motion
The zoom animations are making me dizzy. I love your style so far though. I just found your channel, and I am always looking at new apps. Thanks.
Apologies on that! We're going to work on it for future videos! Thanks for the kind words and for being here though! You give any of these apps a shot?
@@efficientapp I actually do prefer the Google and Outlook calendars, lol. I don't like to pay for apps when I can use simple, nice ones for free. However, I am looking for advice on how to simplify my life with ONE app, lol. I have several notebooks, agendas, planners, and "Calendars" to manage my appointments, work schedule, birthdays, and contact info, and now that I am a UA-camr - both channel productions, and so much more. Having an app would be good as well as a desktop version to use, even if it's cloud-based. Any idea which one does all that? Lol. I challenge you! Lol. Seriously, any idea?
Totally understand wanting one app, but you won't get a recommendation from us for an all-in-one tool 😄 In general, any app that does note taking, plus is a CRM for contact management + manages your day is going to be buggy as hell and mediocre at best.
Based on what you shared, we'd recommend:
Motion: UA-cam production + agenda + calendar + planner + appointments + birthdays efficient.link/r/motion
Contacts: Use a CRM, go with something basic like folk to start on the free tier efficient.link/r/folk (Our CRM video shows it in more detail: efficient.yt/crm)
Notebook: We use Slite efficient.app/apps/slite
Hello, I would like to ask about the situational problems in the use of Motion as a content creation work. At present, I find that Motion mainly focuses on scheduling a single main task, in which the details of the task are regarded as steps, and let us record it directly in the job description of the task.
This makes me a little confused why they don't provide the function of subtasks. In order to create a long article, they usually don't complete the whole article at one time, but complete it in segments after formulating the article structure and important paragraphs. Therefore, if Motion has the function of providing subtasks, it can create a Article tasks, take paragraph chapters as sub-tasks and set deadlines respectively, and then better arrange the task of article writing through Motion's super powerful AI scheduling.
Of course, this is just my current idea. I'm just curious if you have the opportunity to give me some advice in your rich experience in using Motion. Thank you.
Hey there! So what you're describing is actually quite literally projects and tasks (this would be like a parent task, sub tasks relationship). So you could accomplish this with a Flow (project).
We for example also use Motion for content using Flows. We mapped out our content creation process to a Flow and create tasks for each chunk of work, and any blockers/dependencies between team members, with the final task of uploading to the website for one of our team members to do.
So you can do this already, you just need to view a project as an article, and tasks as "sub-tasks" if you will. Does that make sense?
We're working on a Motion Course right now and we'll be showing how we're using Motion and Flows in this way for content creation, videos, etc.
If you want to subscribe to our newsletter, we'll be sure to let you know when the course launches: efficient.link/subscribe
@@efficientapp Thank you for your detailed explanation. It is very useful to use the article as a project and a task as a subtask! In addition, I may not have the Flow function because I am using a personal version, but maybe I can modify the default task state of Motion and set it to the key process of writing an article to assist in management~
I started to use Motion because of your introduction. I think your introduction is very clear and concise. I also subscribe to the e-newsletter. Thank you!
Amazing to hear! Glad the guidance could help, sounds like you're on the right path!
And awesome to hear! Welcome to the fam! 👏
Happy to have found this channel! Meantime, a question; apologies in advance for it being so "inside baseball" esoteric. Is there a scheduling app you can recommend for assembling small conferences? By "small" I mean weekend affairs with between 300 and 500 attendees, perhaps half of them presenting in approximately 150 panels, each with between 2 and 4 panelists. (I was hoping that by 2024 I could just ask a robot to do it, but alas....)
Awesome to have you here! And so I wouldn't exactly recommend a scheduling app for that, but rather an event management software like efficient.app/apps/luma - you'd of course want to set a date that works for you and then invite people or allow people to sign up to come and send emails/reminders, etc. that squarely falls into the event space, not the scheduler space, if that makes sense? Have some legacy customers that use that to run similar-sized events, that's definitely what you'd want though.
Hope that helps and hope to see you more around the channel!
Can you do a video specifically on how you plan social media content in motion?
Hey Alice! So the videos and content we create take soooo long (this video actually took us more than 2 months), so we aren't really planning social media content in Motion, but rather use Flows for creating a process around say, creating a UA-cam video like this.
We're currently building out a course that will cover how we're using Motion ourselves, and you can get notified when we release it here: efficient.link/subscribe - that said, we don't really post enough to "plan" social media content, if that makes sense? Once it's ready, we'll upload it to the respective channels and schedule it.
We even have a full video going through all the social media scheduling apps we've tried for planning/scheduling when we were releasing more shorts: efficient.link/yt/social - so we'd probably say to use an app like we mention in that video for actually planning and scheduling out social media content, but for the actual creation process, we're definitely relying super heavily on Motion and their Flows functionality, for which we'll definitely be covering more in the future course, and I'm sure future videos as well as we'd like to update our Motion video.
Did you get a chance to see our Motion tutorial, as we go into it a little bit here: efficient.link/yt/motion
Happy to add any further clarification if you want to add to what more specifically you're looking to understand?
Soooo now i know which calendar app should use, thank u ✨✨
Yessss! That's the end-goal! So glad to hear! Which did you end up landing on? 👀
What do you think about tick tick?
Great question! We cover TickTick in our next UA-cam video so make sure you’re subscribed! It’s currently being edited and should be released in the next week or so!
If you're reading this comment from the future, you can watch what we think of TickTick here: efficient.yt/todo
Excellent!!!! Thank you!
Awe, course! What'd you end up moving forward with?
@@efficientapp Got professional accounts for M365 and GWorkspace. I want outa both. The task is kinda paralyzing but hoping to make an intelligent decision and begin migrating, consolidating, and integrating stuff in the next 60 days. 😩
We'd highly recommend Google Workspace over M365. Why do you want out of both?
Great work, as always! Thank you! Have you two reviewed Nifty yet?
Thanks so much! Good to see you again! We haven't reviewed Nifty, just haven't gotten any interest in it and we're not super big on reviewing more all-in-one tools. If we get enough people requesting it, we'll definitely consider it, just not blown away or excited by it at first glance.
Is motion the only one with reorganizing? As a small business owner with ADHD my ears perked haha but i like having options
Do you mean automatic rescheduling of tasks on your calendar based on priority and deadline? If so, they are the only one that does this well. Other tools might mention that they do automatic scheduling, but Motion has a super robust algorithm and AI they use to do this.
Doing reorganizing isn't a huge deal, doing it well, is. Especially if you're a sml business owner then you're square into their target customer, they are literally building the product for you.
Here's a free trial if you want to give it a shot: efficient.link/r/motion (and if you do sign up using that link, then you can claim the crash course for free here: efficient.deals/motion - should help!)
I'm a college student. Is there an app you would recommend for college students to plan for test, research papers, chapter reviews etc?
I think the main question I'd have is, are you open to paying for a tool? Or expecting something for free? (The latter is surely to not be as good of a tool or one that will definitely stay free either). You might want to check out our Daily Planner video actually: efficient.link/yt/planner
Fantastical, nothing comes close, been 10 years with it.... The natural language is the best in it's class, the widgets are 100% better than anything, has a lot of integrations. Only gripe is there isn't web/windows app, but hey at least it's all native for us Apple sheep!
But if every app you mention is a NO, what the heck are you using then? 😂
Good question! I'm still using Sunrise Calendar in my dreams 😏 but no, all of us are using Motion as our calendar, did the video not get that across? Haha 😁
We recommended a couple calendars in the video depending on your needs. We have all the recommended apps listed here on our site: efficient.link/yt/calendar
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching! Curious, what did you end up moving forward with if any?
@@efficientapp For the moment i'm still with outlook calendar and i'm trying to pair it with MSFT Loop and To Do
Ah! We actually just released a video today talking about the best To-Do List apps, maybe you'll enjoy that? efficient.link/yt/todo
I'm sure you'll figure it out! Appreciate you letting us know, always fun hearing what people are using!
@@efficientapp I'll have a look later 😉😉
Awesome! Hope it helps 🤞
Best thing I've done
Don't use any of them. Write down one thing you need to do. Do it. Cross it off and write down the next thing. Repeat.
Ikr, most of the apps mentioned are crazy expensive and not worth it in my opinion. Still using Todoist with no problem whatsoever, and Google Calendar for events (they can Both be used for free)
Easy for you to say and do, you're a cat. 😼 Not all that much you need to do in your day-to-day. 🤔
Okay, more fair for you to say Andres because you're not a cat, unlike Meowmeowingz.
With that said, Google Calendar is great, it's the foundation of most all the tools mentioned in the video, we still recommend it. They just haven't evolved it at all in years, so many people want more.
Glad to hear you're having success with those two tools-our channel is more focused on prosumers and businesses though, so if you're running a business, these tools are actually not expensive at all. In-fact, it's more expensive in time wasted by not using one of the tools we recommended, if that makes sense?
Okay. Jack Reacher
Care to explain? Sorry, I'm just a cat.
The perpetual zooming is quite dizzying tbh. But other than that love the video
Appreciate the nice words! Noted on the zooming bit. Hope to see you around other videos our new friend! 👋
Great review of various calendar services. However, some crucial aspects that are often overlooked and disregarded are the ownership and privacy of your data and what transpires in the event of glitches in a SaaS tool.
It is deeply concerning that the ownership and privacy of your data are so disregarded. It is only a matter of time before you face the consequences. I strongly prefer the “nostalgic” approach of installing an application. Yes, I want it to sync with my other devices, but that should not be a mandatory requirement.
One of the reasons behind this preference is the gimmick presented at the end of the video for Sunrise Calendar: “It shut down!” What happens to all of your team’s data, appointments, tasks, projects, and so on, when that SaaS service you relied on ceases to operate? Perhaps you receive a notification, or perhaps you don’t. What happens if there’s a “billing” error and your service is disrupted? What happens if a system administrator makes a mistake with setting privileges and inadvertently exposes your information to others on the service? I will continue to prioritize locally installed and controlled tools with internet access as much as possible.
Thanks for watching til the end and even catching that nugget! 😄 Totally hear you and sounds like you've put a lot of thought into this.
All of these calendars use Google Calendar or Outlook on the backend (or Apple Mail in some cases) so you'd still have all your appointments and events available if you used any of these calendar alternatives.
If Motion were no longer to exist, it would be awful to migrate all of our projects/tasks away from it (a few years ago we moved from Asana to Motion so made the transition of switching tools) but for us, using a tool we consider "top of the market" is well worth the risk.
Usually when there are billing issues, a company doesn't totally wipe out your account, they have many weeks of leeway baked in, and in many cases, even an option to restore your account if you have fully cancelled.
All in all, this doesn't keep us up at night!
No 1 priority is Security.
They use Google Calendar and Microsoft 365 at the finish so they are super secure, Motion and others are used by huge companies where security is their number one importance as well, so you'd be in good company.
Great review.
Hate to say it, but for simplicity Google Calendar is hard to beat 😬
Close second for me: Cron aka Notion Calendar or Sunsama.
P.S. you should always have Alex making coffee in the background. Retention rate probably exploded with the caffeine boost.
Awe, thanks friend! And we totally get it, Google Calendar does have a super solid mobile app, gotta give them credit for that!
And see, I appreciate you because you called it Cron initially, so yeah, you get it 😉
Surprised to hear Sunsama isn't your go-to though since you use it! Anything you think they could do to improve the calendar aspect to have it take the #1 spot for you?
And HAH! Okay, so if I could actually make coffee in the background, then I think we'd be all for it. Making soap water though... Not sure how much of the caffeine boost would be there! Like at intermission, Andra wasn't even drinking coffee, it was mid-filming so from just a teeth staining/whatever, it didn't make sense. I actually made the coffee at the end (at like 8pm for the B-Roll), and we just dumped the lattes out sadly, didn't even drink them as a caffeine boost that late is no bueno.
Always enjoy seeing you here my friend!
@@efficientapp hehe - Sunsama is still one of the absolutely best productivity apps. It has a beautiful UI/UX interface, but for some people who can't afford the price tag... Google Calendar just works for basic calendar needs without getting crazy.
I know what you can do for the coffee making in the background... it'll be a little crazy at first but hear me out...
A drum cage.
That way you can make coffee to your heart's content without disturbing the audio too much. It'll likely give a faint noise of coffee in the background which will add to the production quality.
I think this would be a solid business expense.
Omg bahahaha can't wait to pitch Andra on the drum cage for the kitchen 😂 if you see it in a future video, feel free to take all the credit my friend!
And yeah, Sunsama is pretty great on the UI/UX front-I do wish the mobile app was a bit better is my only request, especially paying for it is all. Would you recommend it though even if someone isn't using a PM tool like Asana/ClickUp/etc? Feeling like those PM integrations is one of the biggest appeals to it, if you're stuck using one of those tools at work?
@@efficientapp haha I love it 😂
That's a great question... I believe someone could still use it, but they would be missing out. It definitely isn't as powerful without a PM/task manager integration. If Sunsama adds quarterly/annual goals and better task management features I could better recommend it as an all in one... but currently no, I probably wouldn't recommend it without a PM/task management tool integrated.
That's helpful to hear! That's definitely along the lines of what we were thinking as well, know you've been a big user of Sunsama for a while now though so it's super helpful to hear from you on this 🙏 appreciate you my friend!
I love your videos!
Could you make a video on your take for "The Best Accounting Softwares"? Thank you!
Claudio
Awe, thanks Claudio! That means a lot 🙏 what are your specific use-case/needs for accounting software? We've done some write-ups about Accounting software here: efficient.link/accounting
If you take a slight step to the side of accounting and over to Expense Management (related) we do have a video on that here: efficient.link/yt/expense
Super curious if you've seen the above and/or what it's missing that you'd like us to cover in a video along with your needs?
Thanks for being here Claudio!
@@efficientapp O my goodness! I can't believe you replied, this is super cool I'm a huge fan!
My mom runs a small at home embroidery business and she's been handling everything from inbound sales to accounting, all recorded on her messages, notebooks, or by memory. It's driven her crazy. Since I just recently graduated university, I thought this would be a great opportunity to go home and improve her workload and help her focus on the embroidery sides of things (her passion).
I want to set her up with BILL (Expenses), Folk (CRM), but I am looking for an accounting software so she doesn't have to worry about her receipts going missing, or digging through countless emails to retrieve the paid invoices (happens every year, it stresses everyone out).
Right now, I'm considering Quickbooks but I would love to hear your input on it, or even if I would need it, especially since I plan to set her up with BILL.
I have checked out the Expense Management video but have not had the chance to see your Accounting & Tools article. I think your site is very well set up and super colorful but wondered why there was a grading system only for Quickbooks but not for any of the other reviewed softwares.
Here are some great video ideas you might enjoy doing:
- Best Accounting Softwares
- Best Tech Stacks/Essentials to build a Business
(possibly even covering different forms of business like social media agencies, labor focused, or whatever you please)
- Best Websites when building a business
and a couple more if you're interested in hearing them. My linked in is Claudio Dieter, feel free to reach out! I love your videos!
www.linkedin.com/in/claudiodieter
@@efficientapp Hey! Thank you so much for replying, it appears my previous messages got deleted :( so here's a refined version of it.
My mom owns a small at home embroidery business and handles everything from sales to accounting all within her notebooks, iPhone messages, or just from memory. It's driven her crazy, especially when it's tax season.
Since I recently graduated university, I figured I would help her be more efficient by taking over all the extra tasks it takes to run her business. So far I have a CRM (Folk), Expense Management Platform (BILL), but not an Accounting software. I saw your expense management video, hence why I want to go with BILL (I will be using your affliate code when I do start using it, thank you!). Only thing I am missing would be the accounting software. What would you recommend I use, or do I need one at all?
I checked out the Accounting Software link you sent over and truth be told, you have a very beautifully designed website that is very easy to navigate. Only concern was, why was Quickbooks the only software with a Grade Based rating? Also, adding a possible list in which tools are compared in what they can and cannot do right on your website would be a great way for users to instantly decided what is best for them and mitigating the chance for the reader to click off and find a list that could be more exhaustive.
Some great video ideas would be:
- Best Accounting Softwares
- Best Tech Stack/Essentials to build a business
(even addressing different business that would require a different tech stacks)
- Best websites to create your business
those are just to name a few! I hope this helps in anyway possible, take care and I'll be on the look out for your post notification.
Claudio
Awe, this is so sweet on many levels! For one, what you're looking to do for your mom is amazing! My step father actually runs a small business construction company and helping him is how I got started in this space!
Okay, many points here to cover my new friend! So BILL Spend & Expense and Folk would be quite perfect for starters (I will say, be sure to use all the deals/links on our site if possible to lock in any deals/to let them know we sent you):
efficient.link/r/bill
efficient.deals/folk
Okay and now to accounting software, so the "right" way to do it over the long-run is to use QuickBooks Online (QBO), but not something I would stress too much about getting set up ASAP. It's a pretty big undertaking, and usually better for an accountant to help with setting it up: efficient.link/r/quickbooks
Bill does not replace the need for QBO, but it makes syncing expenses and everything MUCH easier, and ultimately allowing for full control over any credit card you give out (allowing to set limits on each card) just gives you a much better control over your expenses.
I might consider grabbing a modern banking solution like Mercury: efficient.deals/mercury as it's free, and the BEST business bank on the market and also syncs with QBO great, so your future CPA will appreciate it (I mean you and your mom too, it's SUCH a joy to use).
So yes, the full financial stack is: Mercury Bank, BILL Spend & Expense, QBO, and the order of importance is in that order (though if you don't want to deal with switching your bank, I get it, but still, it's SO worth it, we adore Mercury): efficient.link/r/mercury
Love the ideas, thanks for those! We've definitely been wanting to do more software stack recommendation videos, but we don't want to until we have more of an audience (like you), so we're mentally waiting for 10K subscribers (so probably 4-5 months).
We do actually have an SMB software stack page on our website which actually covers all of the tools I mentioned above and their unique importance for a small business: efficient.link/stacks/smb (see if that article helps at all?)
We do want to eventually do videos for our stacks section of the site, but we have a few things planned and needed first.
As for the website and rankings, all good points, and we agree! So we're actually undergoing a full rebuild of the site (Andra and I are planning on re-writing and re-organizing a LOT). So what you're seeing with rankings is a relic from the past. We were going to do that, but we realized that it just gets too exhausting on our end doing arbitrary rankings, and we believe there's a more simple way to recommend (or not recommend) software, even easier to understand than rankings, you'll see!
Hope that covers everything, but here in the comments if you have any other questions! We get excited when we can help people like you and by proxy your mother, but also everyone else that can read these comments as well!
Connected on LinkedIn, and promise you that our new site will be more helpful in time, but that said, the stacks article should help answer many of your questions: efficient.link/stacks/smb
Neovim is where it’s at kid! ❤🎉
Haha Neovim for calendar! Care to enlighten me how in the heck that would even work? 😂
Oh my, but where is Hey Calendar? :)
😄 Okay, we don't love Hey for email (full review with our thoughts: efficient.app/apps/hey) so we didn't go down the path of including Hey Calendar, but you're right, it's popular so probably should have mentioned it! Do you use it?
Nice
Thanks! What did you end up going with out of the bunch?
@@efficientapp I currently use TickTick and Google, but plan to switch to Motion once I can consistently afford the monthly cost. 😌
Makes sense! 🙌 TickTick is great for a free tool! When you decide to go with Motion, would recommend the annual plan as they give significant discounts!
What's the best free journal or diary online that sync PC and Android?
Not sure, we don't cover personal free tools, I'm sure a different channel can be of more help. We're interested in helping businesses and teams make software purchasing decisions, not helping individuals pick the best free software for X, if that makes sense?
Question... Anyone tell you that you look like the blonde lady off CSI Miami?
Haha nope! Haven't got that one until now. But now a reverse question... What calendar did you end up going with? 😁
I use Macs, so I use Apple mail❤
Have you considered giving Superhuman a shot? Andra and I both use Macs as well but Superhuman for our email. (Unless you're also using an Apple's free email domain instead of Gmail). Either way, you can try Superhuman for free for 30 days: efficient.link/r/superhuman - that said, this video is about calendar software, not email clients, so slightly confused as to how Apple Mail has come up 😁
I wish Motion had customer access
What do you mean? Like guest accounts? Or something else?
Notion calender has android app
It just came out (after this video was released), and it's quite barbones sadly. The reviews aren't great, and even Google Calendar has a better experience than it currently. Hopeful they could change that sentiment though in time.
Great review! Thank you for sharing.
Awe, thanks! And course 🙌 curious, are you using any of the calendars mentioned in the video?
@@efficientapp not yet, looking for one like motion that ties in project management. I will see if it integrates with my cloze relationship app which I love using for my consulting business.
Ah yes, so if you're using Cloze, they actually don't natively integrate with any calendar/daily planner/project management tool natively. That said, they do actually have a Zapier integration, as does Motion, so you can essentially use Zapier as the connective tissue to integrate those two tools together.
As we used to be an integration company, curious what you'd even ideally like to have integrated between a Calendar + PM tool like Motion with your CRM? Guessing when say a deal is closed, it creates a project in your PM tool? Or did you have something else in mind?
Anyway, if you decide to give Motion a shot, be sure to use our link to sign up: efficient.link/r/motion so you can lock-in the free setup course here: efficient.deals/motion
I didn't realize how many calendar apps there are. I love the animations!
Hahaha yeah, would you believe that this is only about 10% of them that we've evaluated over the years that we felt actually stand out for one reason or another? This is probably one of the most competitive categories out there. Maybe todo list apps as a close second haha
Our editor killed it with the animations! We are obsessed as well 🔥 appreciate the comment and will pass it along to him!
Great video, except the coffee creation was distracting.
I wish you explained why Google Calendar is so bad that its not even worth mentioning.
That's fair, we try to experiment in each video, we feel it could have flowed a bit better as well. We're constantly learning.
Anyway, we didn't cover Google Calendar specifically since the point of the video was for people using Google Calendar to see what they could be using instead. Most of these tools are built atop of Google Calendar, they just improve the functionality.
The truth of the matter is Google Calendar is great, it's just, well, the most average solution possible since they are building for the average user of billions of users. You're never going to get exceptional software building for the average individual and business user. You're going to get the most safe and unexceptional solution.
So this video is for those wanting something more than an average solution.
@@efficientapp Thank you for the detailed response. You clearly care a lot about this topic and I respect your willingness to respond to every comment. I'm highly impressed.
I will have to push back against your reasoning, however. You MIGHT be right that Google Calendar is subpar --- I will try out some other calendars and find out --- but as one who values simplicity above all (as you'll read in my comment I left on your other video regarding Trello), if a calendar is, indeed, created for the masses then it makes me wonder if its also the simplest and the cleanest experience. :)
Honestly, I can’t watch this. Too much zooming and effects.
Sorry to hear you feel this way about this video. There's a lot of great info in it, maybe try listening without video like a podcast? Anyway, unfortunate to hear this.
Busycal is better than fantastical and even has calendar sets for one off ten quid.
I don't think it's tough to be "better than Fantastical". Not sure if you saw the whole video, but the point is, every other calendar mentioned is better than Fantastical, and some are even free. The point is, Fantastical is no longer the gold standard, maybe it was 7 years ago, but now all of the features it has are commoditized, making it feel like they just stagnated and are a legacy solution in a market that is ever-evolving.
Just do project in a 90 day period
Hi friend! Any chance you can clarify what you're saying? Trying to understand 🤔
My projects go online in a 90 day period. So I need a calendar with gang chart
Ah got it, okay, the only calendar on this list that has a baked in Gantt Chart is actually efficient.link/r/motion
What are you currently using?
@@efficientapp thank, u r a keeper…we r considering taking a 12 week course at MIT related to no-code AI-ML solutions by pupils teaching 5 apps and other tools. We know the downside of many apps claiming no-code, but somehow we feel that this is different
Haha great! And yeah, Motion has been different (in a good way) from any other AI app we've seen teased in the space. I wouldn't say Motion is No-Code though, it's more of just a tool, it's not trying to be a no-code software 😁
The problem with Motion is there is no native Mac app. I'm not a fan of browser based apps.
They do have a MacOS app though? We have been using it for over a year and a half now: efficient.link/e/motion-download
Interesting video but talk about transition and zoom overload. Someone loves those power point transitions. Takes away from the focus of the video.
We've heard all the feedback and have improved a lot with recent videos! What do you think of our most recent upload? efficient.link/yt/last - have we improved at all? 🤞
Why this annoying in/out zoom without any justification. It’s so disturbing I can’t even listen to what your saying.
Hey Jeanpierre! Curious, do you spend much time on UA-cam? It's how many UA-cam videos are edited, and it's not for "no justification" but rather it's used for either emphasis, or stitching 2 clips together.
We (and most UA-camrs) do not just film a single take and leave it like a podcast. The raw edit for this video was over an hour long. How do you think we distilled it down to 18 minutes? Trust us, you don't want to watch the hour long take.
So yeah, that's the trade-off. We're trying to save you time, at the cost of some zooming in/out so that it's not just a jarring jump from one take to the next. Sorry if you thought we (or anyone on UA-cam for that matter) does a video like this in a single take. This isn't the news.
@@efficientapp i know how to edit and I was talking about the face shot moving in and out without any music point, intonation point or subject changes. You do how you want but I can tell you that you overused the effect. You’re editing software has a lot of ressource you could use instead of just randomly zooming in and out. And watching this gorgeous lady isn’t boring. No need for zoom all the time.
Are you just referring primarily to the first couple minutes of the video? Or the entire video?
@@efficientapp I just watched the first half. Couldn’t go longer
Got it, it should slow down in the second half, we'll figure out a good balance going forward when not masking a cut. Thanks for watching as much as you did 🙏
Yea I searched comments before the 1 minute mark to see complaints about the non stop zooming. There are much better ways to achieve viewer retention. This is hurting u. On that note I’m out early.
Sorry to hear that but thanks for the comment. There's a lot of great content in this video and our channel and we're constantly working to improve. I'd recommend giving our next video a shot, but it sounds like you've already left so 👋😅
If you set the playback speed to 1.75x it’s not as annoying.
Whatever gets you to watch it (and comment) I suppose 🤷♂️ which calendar did you end up moving forward with?
So this is basically a Motion-propagation channel...
More like a "we love great B2B software" channel, and happen to use Motion because it's a fantastic tool. Same with Help Scout, which is also a fantastic tool, oh and Cal, and Copper, and folk, or wait sorry, I mean only Motion, no other software is worth getting, ignore all the rest of our other videos that cover all of those other tools 🙄
No Hey? Suggest you check out
Have already reviewed it on our site: efficient.app/apps/hey not a fan, we purposely chose not to include it in this video. To use it, you need to forego your Google workspace/Microsoft calendar, to which we're making videos for businesses, so that's a total non-starter.
It's also just not something I'd recommend someone do. Comes with tons of downsides even if it was a great product (and it's not).
The speaker is too fast for good speech recognition. It might be better if that is not a change possibility then at least place the title of the software in a visible place to help your audience!
Hey Robert, the speaker is me, Andra, one of the people who host this channel.
Sorry to hear it was too fast! The software names are actually in the chapter markers on UA-cam so you can hover over and see which one I’m talking about.
Hope this helps!
Jesus Christ, that zooming in and out is giving me a stroke.
Hey Dirk, sorry to hear that. We've heard the feedback and fixed it in every video we've released since this one (3 at the moment with a 4th coming soon). We are now taking it easy with the zooms 👌
Maybe let us know if we've improved in our most recent video?
Superhuman is the biggest junk for mail and calender. Let me know if you want to know more details. They tech strategy sucks and they will go away soon unless they pivot.
Erm... You sure you're referring to the same app as us? We have 2 videos on superhuman: efficient.link/yt/superhuman as we actually LOVE superhuman and have been using it for 5+ years now.
Sorry to hear you've not been having success with it if that's the case though. There's no way they will go away, it's literally one of our favorite software tools that our entire team uses daily and can't live without at this point.
It's for sure the best email client on the market hands-down, so I must say, I'm feeling a bit confused by your comment. Why are you so upset over Superhuman?
Have you considered that maybe you're just not the right fit for it versus their entire company will cease to exist? 😅 What happened to you my friend? 🙈
@@efficientapp Very glad. I have all proofs of my communication with them. It eats all my memory on a MacBook Pro M3 with 16 GB ram and they have no answer for that.
@@efficientapp I replied earlier, but looks like it didn't get submitted.
Here is my case study. I have 3 domains. One for my product and two for my consulting services. I intended to reduce my time on email (snooze, save etc) and increase my efficiency. But, Superhuman is junk in my case study. There is no unified mailbox (which I knew before signing up) and I have to open 3 tabs when I do that, every ten minutes I get a message saying that Superhuman is taking a lot of memory and I should quit. When I wrote to them they kept asking me to clear cache. When I clear the cache, I must sign in to all accounts again. It's such a waste of time. The other reason they gave me is that they store everything locally, hence the high usage of system resources. Apple Mail, Canary and all do the same thing, but I never see a message saying these apps are using heavy memory. I use a M3 Pro 16" with 16GB RAM. Now, if that's the case with me, what about people who use 8 GB RAM? For $30 if they are asking me to use just one account, is the pricing and service justifiable? This is the reason for my comment. I have all the email conversations and I can share them with you if you want to test again. You write to them twice and the first thing they ask is if you want a refund. This shows arrogance for no reason. Newton used to do these things, but they unfortunately shut down.
@@efficientapp Are the comments moderated? Because I tried repling twice and none of my responses are displayed.
No
Why not?
Total Bait & Switch regarding a free Motion Course. These people are not to be trusted
Sorry what do you mean? This comment is genuinely upsetting to hear. We've worked incredibly hard to ensure every single person that uses our link gets our paid course, this has not been an easy feat either. I've personally spent 30 hours building custom integrations and cross-checking data exports to make it all link up.
The paid Motion course is free if you use our affiliate link to sign up and submit the deal form here up until December 31st 2024: efficient.deals/motion - full details are on that page.
If you genuinely believe we made an error, reach out via our site and we'll happily double-check it for you.
If you used our affiliate link to sign up, you'll get sent the course automatically upon paying for your first month of Motion.
Did you pay for your first month yet? You should get an automated email, feel free to respond to it and we'll get to the bottom of it. We've already sent it out to hundreds of people.
Update: I responded to your email and checked and you never used our link to sign up for Motion, so it seems you're upset that you aren't getting our paid course for free even though you never followed the single requirement we gave.
Why would you suggest us some apps that you don't like, wtf.
You mean why did we cover apps we don't like? Because they are incredibly popular and we evaluated them. If we didn't, the comment section would be filled with "what about Fantastical or Vimcal?" Whelp, now you know what we think about them.
Gosh, we exclude apps, we get yelled at. We include apps, we get yelled at. Try running a software comparison channel my friend, there's no winning 😂
I'm so confused about the coffee distraction. Why? This was not needed and has nothing to do with what you are talking about. Overall, confusing and distracting.
Because why not? It was a long video, Andra wanted coffee, so you got to see how the coffee was being made 🤷♂️ it was an experiment. As much as many have deep opinions about this video, what they don't like, whelp, people are watching this video more than our other videos, so clearly something was done right here.
If nothing more, we had fun making the video and experimenting in this way, so was it necessary? Nope! Did it make this video more enjoyable for us to make? You betcha!
You do realize we're doing videos for free, doing things to make them more fun for ourselves is part of what keeps us creating them for free. So we hear what you're saying, but hope you can also hear what we're saying 🙈
The zooming throughout you speaking in really annoying and gave me vertigo. Be more subtle, use it less, or get rid of it entirely. You're welcome.
Great advice! We took it and implemented it in our most recent video! Give it a watch and let us know in the comments if it cured your vertigo: efficient.link/yt/help-desk
Immediate dislike
That's a bit rude... We put a ton of work into this video. Why such an immediate dislike?
sei na fregnnniaaaa
Care to explain? 🤔