February 27, 2025 • 40 mins
Unlock the secrets to mastering your digital life as we uncover the best apps for design professionals in 2025. Miriam, our app connoisseur, guides us through a journey of productivity and scheduling tools that promise to enhance your life without overwhelming it. We'll discuss the importance of conducting an app purge to maintain balance and wellness, and the growing integration of AI in iOS updates. With an eye on protecting personal privacy and business operations, learn how to disable data collection and notifications effectively. This episode is your guide to curating an app selection that aligns with your personal goals and strategies, ensuring a more controlled and beneficial digital experience.
Explore the power of productivity with tools and techniques that streamline both work and personal life. From Grammarly's free version for Mac enthusiasts to the dynamic Motion calendar management tool, we share practical advice for optimizing your time. Discover how Boomerang for Gmail enhances email management and how Asana can coordinate tasks seamlessly. We also venture into wellness with apps like Deepak Chopra's Presence, Calm, and Headspace, along with exercise and journaling tools like Glow and the Five Minute Journal. Listen as we share personal experiences and recommendations, encouraging you to experiment with these apps to find the perfect fit for your wellness and productivity needs.
If you would like to get the links and show notes for this episode, click on the link below:
https://www.designerdiscussions.com/episodes/episode-135-Best-Apps-for-your-Work-and-Life-in-2025
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Designer Discussions is a partnership of three experts: Jason Lockhart, CEO of KABMS; Maria Martin, founder of DesignAppy; and Mirjam Lippuner, founder of Get Ink DIY
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jason Lockhart (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Designer Discussions
with Jason, miriam and Maria.
Today we are talking about thebest apps to use in 2025.
Welcome to Designer Discussionspodcast with Miriam.
Maria and Jason Tune in eachweek where we discuss marketing,
pr and business advice fordesign professionals business
(00:27):
advice for design professionals.
Maria Martin (00:28):
So today we are Miriam and I are going to dive
in to the apps that are on yourphone and we're going to talk
about which ones are good andthat they can kind of improve
your life if you understand thatthey exist and how they work.
And I'm also going to talkabout the app purge the things
that will actually also improveyour life and the things that
you shouldn't be diving into,because I don't see that these
(00:52):
things are really going toproduce results by the end of
the year and that they may justcreate an additional layer of
chaos to our lives that wealready have.
Right.
We are seeking balance andhealth and wellness in our lives
, and sometimes that comes witha little bit of an edit, and I'm
(01:12):
excited too, because I don'tknow if anybody knows this.
Okay, but this is super topsecret information.
Miriam is the app connoisseur.
Miriam is the app connoisseur.
If you were to ever ask someoneabout the newest and latest and
greatest productivity apps,scheduling apps, tools and
(01:33):
resources that you can use inbite-sized ways, Miriam is the
person.
So we are going to tap into herlatest and greatest and her
very in-depth desire to createwellness and health and life and
how you could apply some ofthose resources as well.
Mirjam Lippuner (01:56):
So that sounds amazing.
I wish I had it all figured out, but you know, it's a journey,
it's a process.
Maria Martin (02:03):
Yes, Right, it's a process, all right.
So some of the things that Ithink that we should be aware of
in 2025 is that we're going tostart seeing AI applied in
layers, right.
So AI started out as aone-layer cake and then it
(02:24):
turned into a two-layer cake,and I think in 2025, we're going
to be at seven-layer cakestatus, and that we just should
have an awareness of why some ofthose tools may or may not help
us.
And so one of the top things Ithink you should be aware of is
(02:46):
that we are going to have theseiOS updates, so the operating
systems for our phones are goingto have increasingly larger
quantities of AI in it to helpimprove our experience.
And when we are talking aboutthe use of AI, we're talking
(03:08):
about a tool that would learnand grow to please us and to
allow us to have as muchconfirmation bias in our lives
possible.
And so, even though it may seemlike some of this AI is going
to be like make things faster,do things better for you, for
your business, you aretechnically actually making your
(03:31):
life and your business more AIand less human, and you're going
to see that there is a settingin your iOS that will be rolling
out this year.
I think it's mostly in thenewer phones, where AI is going
(03:52):
to have its own closed versionof AI running on your phone.
It has access to everything onyour phone and I know Apple has
a pretty strong privacy setupfor all of our lives.
But the reality is our phoneslisten to us and and we really
(04:15):
just should be more aware andmore alert that these
interactions are happening inour lives and how it may script
and craft and craft and changeour lives in the future because
we think it's convenient.
So look at what AI isengineered into and start
looking at if you can remove itand just be aware that it may
(04:39):
not produce the results trueresults that you're wanting.
Right, you don't wanteverything that is an email
going out sounding like AI.
Another thing that I do is Iremove my data collection.
This is another thing you cando in your settings, where you
disable your camera and a lot oflike audio input and that type
(05:03):
of stuff for the apps that areon your phone, unless you're
actually reading those giantterms and conditions and privacy
policies.
And the reason to do that isthe fact that and Jason will be
able to confirm this is that youcan go into Facebook and run an
(05:23):
ad and you can pick whathobbies the person has, how much
money they have in their bankaccount and where they go
regularly, and this informationis gathered on you so that
people can then target you tomarket to, and it's a very
(05:44):
successful way for businesses tomarket to you.
However, if you don't engage inthat part of these social media
apps and other applications,you just get that one more layer
of privacy in your life and youaren't kind of manipulated from
(06:06):
the environment that some ofthese applications are going to
be running off of in the future,and your information is super
valuable to them and they areselling it and they're selling
it and you aren't truly reapingthe benefits of having all of
that data collected and thensent back out there into the
world.
Another thing that I think isimportant in this 2025
(06:32):
application purge is your oldpasswords, guys.
You can't reuse your passwordsanymore.
Ai is out there.
There are nefarious peopleusing these types of tools to
help them get into things, andthis is a time when we really
should be just taking arefresher and going through and
(06:56):
updating passwords and maybelooking at some terms and
conditions and privacy policieson things on your app.
Another thing that I also liketo purge is those little screen
notifications for apps that arenot beneficial.
If they are a distraction toyou today, they will continue to
be a distraction on a smallbasis every day for the rest of
(07:19):
the time that you allow thosenotifications.
So, even though it's morebeneficial for the app to send
you a notification and get youback onto their platforms, it is
actually not a good thing foryou and especially if it's like
a news app that's going to befeeding you possibly negative
(07:39):
information during the day.
This is a great opportunity totake that and then decide when
you want to access thatinformation and how you want to
access that information.
So, really, the edit, the purgeof apps, is about curating.
It's about seeking apps thatcreate a result and a strategy
(08:02):
that you want, that create aresult and a strategy that you
want, all while having innercontrol over how they make you
feel.
And if they make you feel bad,it's time.
It might be time to delete it,it might be time to have it
logged out, and so try loggingout of some of your programs
(08:24):
that you have on your phone anddecide.
You know, is this reallybeneficial to me or not?
So now we get to talk about thebeneficial apps, the things
that we should be looking at tohelp improve and create a
lifestyle that integrates theseamazing electronic devices that
(08:45):
we have in our pockets, that weaccess all of the time, so that
you get a handle on your life,you get that control.
All right, miriam, let's diveinto all of the goodies that you
can have on your phone.
Mirjam Lippuner (09:00):
Well, and mine are obviously very curated to
what is helpful to me.
And I will also say that whileI use my phone a lot, I am a big
fan of cloud-based apps that Ican use on my that's.
My goal always is to simplifyand make things easier and more
(09:22):
efficient, and I've tried a lotof things, you know, and it's
like then I think I found what Ireally like, and then maybe
(09:43):
that wasn't, and so I move, andthere's always new apps and new
tools coming out.
So I think it makes sense toalways be looking for new things
.
But when I commit to something,I usually at least give it
about six months, you know, soyou can say, because it takes
time to set it up and you reallywant to make sure you can you
(10:05):
understand it well enough anduse it enough that you can judge
whether or not it's actuallyworth it for you.
And there's some apps, as wecall them now, that have been
around for a very long time.
It's like one of the ones I usea lot.
Let's talk about work stufffirst, right, and one of the
(10:27):
ones I use and I really stilllike is Grammarly.
So it's like a sophisticatedspell checker, you know.
But now obviously and I don'teven know, but I've been using
that for years and years andyears before AI was a thing and
(10:48):
now obviously it has AIcapabilities too and it can
actually help refine your styleand, interestingly, sometimes
like if I do something in chat,so I have an AI generated text
and then Grammarly is going towant to correct what that AI
program did.
(11:08):
So they don't you know, theyall.
You train them to how you wantto use them.
But I really do like Grammarlyand I don't take everything that
it gives me.
But it'll say this would be thebetter option to say what you
have said.
And oftentimes I have to say,okay, that works and it's so.
(11:30):
I do recommend it.
I do pay for it.
I don't remember exactly howmuch it's not very much, but I
that is one I have been usingfor a very long time and I'll
keep using it because I reallydo think it's helpful.
Do you use Grammarly either oneof you?
No, you do.
(11:51):
Yeah, maybe, okay, yeah, no,it's a good one.
Maria Martin (11:55):
So here's me in the logout, right.
Yeah, I found out that I cannot pay for Grammarly because
there is a free version ofGrammarly that runs on Macs.
So I've been able to take theprogram that I was paying for,
because I was paying for it asan independent program and
(12:16):
turned it into a free tool and Inoticed it's still running and
working on all my stuff on mycomputer, because I run a Mac
without having to pay for it.
So also in the edit which youdon't have to pay for.
So I'll have to look into that.
Because I have a Mac yeah, Iuse it.
I mean I love Grammarly, youknow, if you don't have to pay
(12:37):
for it, yeah.
Mirjam Lippuner (12:39):
And actually I can't remember who, with the
name of her, the lady is whofounded it, but she used to do
video.
She's like a grammar nerd andI'm a linguist, so it's always
spoken to me, but so I'm gladwe're all on the same page, so
Grammarly is a good one to have.
Then it's you know I.
(13:01):
So my life is busy, right.
I have three kids, I have aconsulting business, we do this.
There's all these things.
So scheduling and timemanagement is one of the main
things that I'm always trying toimprove and I've gone through a
lot of different types of toolsand softwares, and where I am
(13:22):
right now is and where I amright now is so I, a project
management tool is helpful andI've used many different ones.
Currently I'm using Asana andit's the non-paid version that I
use with one of my team membersjust so we can coordinate
deadlines and tasks.
So I think I do like Asana.
(13:45):
I've tried Monday ClickUp.
We have Aura for some stuff.
There's so many out there and Ido think it's worth having one
just to keep yourself organized.
I also put some personal stuffin there, like if I have house
tasks that need to get done.
So it's helpful and you don'thave to pay for it, unless you
(14:08):
use it for, like your entireteam, then obviously you would
want to upgrade.
So then I like Asana, but Ilive on my calendar, right?
If something's not on mycalendar, I'm probably going to
forget all about it, I'm notgoing to do it, it's going to be
late.
So I'm always looking for tools.
(14:30):
I like tools that integrate.
I'm like, if I can have fewertools, that's better for me,
because then I don't have tomanage all these different
things.
And what I'm using right now formy calendar management, so to
speak, is called Motion, andit's a program.
(14:50):
It's like they promote it, asit's like you have an executive
assistant that manages yourcalendar and what it does.
What I really like is when youschedule things in motion and
you don't get to them.
If your day is anything likemine, you're always like, oh,
(15:11):
I'm gonna do this here and this,there and this then, and that
never happens, because then somefire pops up and then for two
hours you're doing this and youhaven't gotten to any of the
other things, and then you'reconstantly moving things around
manually on your calendar andMotion will do that for you.
So if you don't check it.
If it's on your calendar for 10, and you don't check it off,
(15:33):
then it'll just move it tofurther in the future, and
there's different ways.
It also does project management.
Really, I just don't use it forthat, but you could integrate
it all in there.
But it automatically adjustsyour to-dos into the future if
(15:55):
you don't get to them, and thatis honestly super helpful,
because I was constantly movingthings and then if I don't move
them, then they're in the pastand I forget about them because
they're not on my calendaranymore.
So I really really like that.
I have to say so that I've beenusing that for I don't know,
(16:15):
maybe four months or so, andit's my new favorite.
Maria Martin (16:19):
Yes, maria, does it integrate into a calendar you
?
Already have or is it afreestanding calendar?
Mirjam Lippuner (16:26):
already have, or is it a freestanding calendar
?
No, so I have my Google.
Actually, I have different, twodifferent Google calendars that
I sort of use because they'retied to different email
addresses and both and one ofthem ties into the other and
they both tie into Motion, andso I can look at Motion, and
Motion has like a calendar view,so I will see everything there.
(16:49):
Or I can look at motion andmotion has like a calendar view,
so I will see everything there.
Or I can look at my Googlecalendar and it'll like it'll
mirror, so everything that's inmotion is visible on my Google
calendar too.
So I can look on my phone on myGoogle calendar and it'll be
everything will be in.
All the tasks that are inmotion are there too.
And like it's wild because youcan add, like, if I, if there's
(17:11):
an event that's at a specifictime that's just going to be in
this one spot, if I plug it intomotion or in my Google calendar
, motion will automaticallyarrange everything to free up
that time and put it in the timeslots that come after that.
Yeah, it's when I found this.
I'm like oh my god, this is theholy grail, this is what I have
(17:35):
been looking for all my life.
I don't know, we'll see, butfor now, yeah, it's a huge step
up from anything that I haveused in the past, so that's my
favorite.
Right now I also use an appcalled Boomerang for my Google,
for my Gmail, and it it actuallyGmail is starting to integrate
(18:00):
more and more of these of thethings that I that Boomerang
does also, but it's still notquite as good.
So it can help with follow.
You can schedule follow-upswhen you send out emails.
But my favorite capability thatit has is it lets you schedule
meetings with people.
(18:20):
So let's say, I want toschedule a meeting with you,
maria, okay, and then I'll go.
I'll tell Boomerang in my Gmail.
I say schedule a meeting withMaria, okay, 30 minutes, okay,
we want to talk about this.
And then I'm going to give youthree options, or four, or,
however, my essay.
I have time here here, herehere, and it'll send you the
(18:45):
view of my calendar with thedifferent options.
So then you can accept the onethat you like and I can build in
an automatic Zoom link andit'll set up the meeting for
both of us, so you and I don'thave to go back and forth five,
six times until we figure outwhat time slot works.
And even after you send it, theview will update.
(19:09):
So if my calendar changes andI'm not available anymore, then
you're not going to be able topick that time slot.
It's really nifty because I havea lot of meetings with people
and especially if it's severalpeople, it gives you that option
too, so you can schedulemeetings with several people,
and especially if it's severalpeople, it gives you that option
too.
Um, so you can schedulemeetings with several people,
(19:32):
and it's always it's the mostcomplicated thing to schedule a
call because people everybody'sbusy and to find the time slot
that works for everybody.
And then abel says I'mavailable monday five to six and
tuesday three to four andwednesday, and then you have to
put it all together.
It and I don't have anassistant who does that, so I
use it as a meeting schedulingassistant.
(19:54):
It's nice, it's a big timesaver.
I still use chat and, thanks toMaria, I was a very early
adapter of chat.
Before everybody talked aboutAI, we were already using them.
I'm like wow, this is amazing.
(20:15):
And I've played with other AIapps like Perplexity or Cloud or
Notebook LM, and they're allgood, but I still actually
mostly use chat for a lot ofthings that I do, so definitely
that, and I have the paidversion of that as well, and I
(20:39):
have the non-tracking set upbecause I'm a PR person and I
work on confidential productsand information right, so I
don't want my clients to feelcompromised.
Maria Martin (20:52):
That is part of the edit.
When it comes to theseapplications, it was a new
feature that you can have it nottrain off of your information,
and so it's up in the right-handside.
You can click on it and itcomes down and you can just
toggle from that.
This is public in training tonot public, and this is part of
(21:17):
that edit.
Let's just dial it in on the AI.
You can use it.
It's great, it's an excellenttool, but you don't necessarily
need it, remembering everythingyou gave it and sharing with
other people.
Mirjam Lippuner (21:31):
Agreed, yeah, agreed, so that that is
definitely super helpful.
Then I use a lot of Googletools.
I use Google Drive for a lot ofcollaborations when it comes to
, you know, documents, like whenI have people.
Let's say, I write thenewsletter for designer
(21:51):
discussions, I send it to theteam, so I'll just send them to
Google Doc and everybody canedit in there, so we can keep it
all in one place.
The goal is always to keep itin one place, keep it as
efficient as possible, and anapp that I like for
communication outside of emailis Slack, and it's helpful
(22:15):
because you can have differentgroups.
So I have a few different Slackchannels to communicate with
different clients.
We have one for designerdiscussions.
We don't use it a lot.
We mostly text, which drives menuts, by the way.
Maria Martin (22:33):
I would much rather get the text, much rather
.
I am not a slacker, I am atexter.
Mirjam Lippuner (22:42):
I'm a total slacker, but whatever, I can be
flexible.
It's fine.
You'll come around one of thesedays.
But so if you're looking for anapp that's not a Facebook
Messenger, not WhatsApp, nottext, not email, slack is a good
one because, like in text, youcan't organize in any threads,
(23:04):
it's just all one dump, you know, and in Slack you can really be
more organized.
So if you have different areasof your business or like
different projects, it's a goodtool.
So if you don't know about it,check it out.
Maria Martin (23:23):
It also does a lot less personal tracking than
some of the other apps I bet.
Mirjam Lippuner (23:28):
Yeah, actually I think after like, and if we
use the free version foreverything, it lets you do a lot
of things, but after a certaintime it deletes everything, like
maybe six months, I don't know,but you usually use it to work
on current projects.
Maria Martin (23:51):
So it's not like it's a filing system in that
sense.
Well, and it doesn't send youan ad for something from the
last store you were in.
And if you start noticing thosebehaviors.
That's when you know that maybeif you're not using your
WhatsApp, if you're not usingthe Messenger outside of like
Facebook Marketplace or a coupleof Facebook groups, those you
can just log out of or removethe app off of your phone and
reload it when you need it.
(24:11):
Slack does not um show any formof uh invasion.
So you should like it.
I know it's just, I don't haveanybody else on, except for you
guys.
Mirjam Lippuner (24:23):
Okay.
Jason Lockhart (24:24):
Okay, we'll work on that.
Mirjam Lippuner (24:26):
Okay.
So my last business-y app thatI use a lot.
It's when I travel and honestly, this is an app.
I have used this app I don'tknow I want to say 10 years.
It's been a long time.
It's called Tripcase and there'sa lot of travel apps out there,
(24:46):
but what I like about this oneis it was free and when I get a
book like I book a flight, Ibook a hotel I just forwarded to
the email and it feeds it rightinto the app and it organizes
my trip It'll say, okay, this isyour flight, this is your hotel
, that's where you're going.
(25:06):
And when I'm at the airport, itoften happens that Tripcase
tells me about flight changesbefore I hear it over the
speaker or anywhere else youknow.
So I've always used it.
It really works well and it'ssuper simple too and I love it.
I don't have to manually doanything, I just send it on and
(25:30):
my trip is right there and it'skind of fun because you can go
back and look.
It's like if you don't remember, you know when you went.
I try to take care of myself,right?
(25:53):
So wellness is something bigand there's a lot of apps that
are really fun out there and Idownload a lot of them, I look
at them and a lot of them I justget rid of.
So I'm constantly downloadingand purging.
So I'm constantly downloadingand purging.
My kids think I'm nuts becauseI have so many apps on my phone
and 113,000 unread emails, butit's all good, and if you knew
(26:17):
that, she also had probably 300tabs open, as well on her
browser.
Maria Martin (26:22):
It's insane.
I don't know how she stays.
I don't understand how sheholds it all together.
Mirjam Lippuner (26:27):
That's why I have these apps.
You know that we're going totalk about now.
So there's just a few thingsthat I really like.
So I try to sleep well andenough, which is always a
challenge, and I used a sleepapp for a year.
It was called Sleep Cycle and Iactually kind of liked it.
(26:49):
And then I found a new one andit's called Arise and it works
with your circadian rhythm, soit doesn't just track your sleep
, but it'll predict what yourenergy cycle is like during the
day.
So it's your peak energy islike in the morning from this
time to this time, and then youhave a slump and then you have
another peak in the morning fromthis time to this time, and
then you have a slump and thenyou have another peak in the
(27:10):
afternoon.
And it can be helpful not thatI live by it and I can feel that
it's actually true, right.
So then I try to schedule thetasks that require more energy
and more brain power for thetimes when I'm more alert and
have more energy.
So it's really kind of fun.
(27:30):
And if you have an Apple Watchprobably another watch it
synchronizes with that and it'sjust kind of fun.
I'm not obsessive about it byany means.
Actually, I always forget tocharge my watch and it's charged
and I don't put it on, so I useit like half the time, but it's
(27:52):
just a fun thing to play with,not something to obsess about.
I'm a yogi and I meditate not asmuch as I should, but I try and
so I have apps that I use forthat, and my favorite meditation
(28:13):
app for a long time has beenit's a Deepak Chopra app and now
it's called Presence.
There's Calm and Headspace andI'm like they're all I'm like.
You know it's a do it fiveminutes, do it two minutes, five
minutes, 10 minutes, whateveris in your schedule.
(28:34):
I do believe that it's highlybeneficial for all of us, and I,
like presents All of them havea ton of different options, but
if you don't do that, take fiveminutes in the morning.
I highly recommend it.
(28:54):
Then, of course, you know yourgym has an app these days to
sign up for all the stuff youwant to do.
I have a yoga app.
It's cloud-based.
It's called Glow.
There's a lot of them out there, but there's any kind of
exercise you want today you canfind in an app.
If you can't get out of thehouse, then for actually, I sort
of fallen out of the habit, butI liked it.
(29:15):
There's an app.
It's called the Five MinuteJournal.
I'm the type of person I like.
I love the idea of journaling.
I just somehow I can't.
I don't know why, but I thinkit's a really good habit and if
it's something you want to do orsomething you want to get into
(29:35):
five minutes, I like the idea.
It's five minutes.
You go in and say these are thethings I'm grateful for.
You know, these are the thingsI want to do today.
It's super simple, it's just afew quick prompts, but it just
sort of helps you focus yourmind on something positive,
which is always a good thing.
And then there's my practicalapp.
(29:57):
I've tried all the habitbuilders and none of that works
for me.
If an app is more work for meto manage than I feel I get the
benefit from, I have to get ridof it, because it has to be a
net positive in the end.
Otherwise I don't want to useit in the end, otherwise I don't
(30:19):
want to use it.
One I'm playing with right now.
It's called Plantin.
It's one of the houseplant apps, because I have a tendency to
kill my houseplants, so Ithought I'd try and the jury is
still out.
I think it can help, likediagnose issues that I like.
But then the watering and I'mlike I just might go back to
watering on Sundays and wingingit, which you know.
(30:42):
I think that's okay too.
But, yeah, I like everythingelse.
You can overschedule yourself,I think you know.
And it's like if you have likethe cleaning apps, though on
Monday I'm going to clean thisand that and that, and that it
just doesn't work for me.
So if it works for you, great,and there's a lot of good ones
(31:05):
out there, but the ones I'vegone through, those are my
favorites right now.
What do you use, maria?
What do you have that I don'thave?
Maria Martin (31:11):
I was going to ask you about presents, because I'm
a Headspace girl.
Mirjam Lippuner (31:15):
I really genuinely like Headspace, I'm a
headspace girl.
Maria Martin (31:16):
I really genuinely like headspace and one of my
favorite things that I likeabout headspace is actually the
evening wind down.
You put in like your AirPodsand I don't know if presence
does it, but like I put in myAirPods at night and it will
kind of tell you a story aboutwhat you're doing and where you
(31:36):
are, and then it has like a fullaudio, yeah, so like it'll be
like you're falling asleep on atrain car in the Alps or
something weird.
And it'll just like discuss itand you can adjust if the over,
the speaking over is, you canadjust like which thing you want
louder, like the audio,background audio or the person
(31:58):
speaking, and you can adjustthose.
And to me that one is goodbecause I have a hard time with
my brain.
Mirjam Lippuner (32:04):
Winding down.
Maria Martin (32:05):
It kicks up.
It kicks up at night, it goesinto oh my God, I need to get
all this stuff done.
I didn't get any.
You know like, I do a fullinventory of what I was supposed
to get done that day and thinkabout it more at night than
actually getting it done, and soI found that those have been
helpful.
Does presence also have somekind of like evening wind?
Mirjam Lippuner (32:26):
down.
Yes, they all do so I've triedpresence.
Calm Insight timer is anotherone they all have because, like,
generally the morning or atnight are the two times when
people typically will meditate.
I mean you can do it anytimeduring the day but, yes,
(32:48):
presence and presence it has alot of like theme-based
meditation.
So they all have like dailyones that you can just, if you
don't want to, about what youwant to do.
If that, they all have timerswhere you can say, okay, I want
to meditate for this long andhave some music background and a
gong or whatever.
(33:09):
And then um, presence has it'slike, it's a lot of.
It is based on um like theyogic tradition and ayurveda,
and so it's always it's a littlebit on the spiritual side, if
you want to put it that way,probably more than some of the
(33:30):
other apps.
So it just depends if that's umthe style you like.
But, like you know, there'slike New Year's, like there's
series.
Oftentimes there's series oflike I don't know five to 10
meditations that you can do in arow or whenever you get to it,
that are sort of theme based.
It's either Deepak or two otherpeople that do the guided
(33:51):
meditation.
Sometimes they bring in guestswho will host specific series on
things that they specialize in.
So I think it's.
(34:12):
I would recommend, if you'reinterested, try out different
ones and see which one works foryou.
I'm like everybody has adifferent style.
That one works for Headspace isgreat.
You know Calm.
I know a lot of people who useCalm.
Insight Timer is nice, it's.
I don't even know that theyhave a paid version.
They have a lot and it's allfree.
(34:33):
So it's, and honestly, if youdon't want to use an app, don't
use an app, just use a timer.
Do whatever works for you.
Maria Martin (34:42):
And then, miriam, I have one more question for you
On these work productivity onesyou said.
I just want to confirm IsMotion a freestanding app that
you have on your phone, or is itsomething that is a Google app?
Mirjam Lippuner (34:57):
It's not, it's its own.
It'll work with any kind ofcalendar, you know.
So it's just.
It's a calendar app.
It's freestanding, but it linksto whatever, like if you have
an Outlook calendar or a Googlecalendar, it'll synchronize with
those and you have it.
(35:18):
So I have it on my desktop ormy laptop and on my phone.
Maria Martin (35:23):
Okay, it's cloud-based.
What about Boomerang?
Mirjam Lippuner (35:27):
Boomerang.
I only have that on my laptopactually, because usually when I
schedule meetings I don'tusually do that from my phone,
not so much.
Yes, but that's a good question.
Maria Martin (35:42):
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, those were my two BecauseI know some of the stuff you
can use as a plugin and some ofthem are freestanding, kind of
like Canva is a freestanding.
Mirjam Lippuner (35:51):
Yes, oh, we forgot about Canva.
Canva, obviously, I use sometoo.
Yeah, we talked about that.
Maria Martin (35:58):
And they dropped the $385 a year thing, Remember
when we both melted down aboutthat.
Mirjam Lippuner (36:04):
That was a complete PR disaster.
Let me tell you I'm so glad Idon't work for them.
Maria Martin (36:12):
I mean, they took like four days to be like oh
sorry.
Mirjam Lippuner (36:16):
Oh, people are really upset.
Oh, maybe we shouldn't have.
And what's interesting is thatthey completely rolled it back
100%.
Yeah, that was crazy.
Maria Martin (36:27):
That morning Miriam was like I noticed I got
kicked out of your team, and Iwas like I kicked Jason out too.
I was like I'm not paying foryou guys.
I mean, here's the thing thatwas so stupid about it.
It was like I'd have to pay tohave a team where I'm connected
to two people who would alsohave to have a paid version of
the app to have a team with meon it.
(36:49):
It was ridiculous and I would bea paid team host.
It just made no sense, anyway.
That was like anyway.
Mirjam Lippuner (36:56):
It would have been different if it had been 20
bucks a month.
People probably would have doneit, but it was what was it?
Maria Martin (37:05):
It was like 308.
Mirjam Lippuner (37:06):
It was almost like 400 bucks, if I remember
correctly A year, right, yeah,yeah, yeah, that was not cool.
Maria Martin (37:11):
And I was like this makes no sense, because if
I have a team and the people whoare on my team are also paid
users and have teams, why do Ineed, why do we have to pay more
?
Yeah, why would I have to paymore to?
Mirjam Lippuner (37:25):
have For them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was crazy, it was astrange strange thing, but yeah,
you're right, they've comearound.
Yeah, pr and I are here.
Okay, okay, fun, okay, fun.
We'd love to hear what apps youguys are using.
Honestly, if you have good tips, I'm always all ears for how I
(37:46):
can maximize.
Maria Martin (37:51):
She'll try it and then she'll give us feedback on
what she thinks about it.
So Miriam is pretty specificabout which ones work and which
ones don't.
Mirjam Lippuner (37:57):
Yes, yes, and if mine don't work for you, I
don't take it personally, youknow.
If you have better ones, I'dlove to know about it.
Maria Martin (38:06):
And one of the things that I did is I put
together a 2025 bingo cardinstead of a like vision board,
a like vision board.
And one of the spaces on the2025 bingo card is to not get
sucked into the newest socialmedia platform like give
(38:27):
yourself permission, when itrolls out, to just be like no,
no, not another one.
Um, and I think everybodyshould embrace that, because I
think in the past there's been alittle bit of FOMO for not
jumping on and being on it rightoff the bat, and I think, as
professionals with businessesand needing to get clients in
(38:51):
and make money, the newestsocial media platform is really
a no at this point.
So give yourself that peace.
It's good advice.
Mirjam Lippuner (39:02):
Okay, I think that's all we have for today.
Thanks for indulging us andwe'll see you again in two weeks
on Designer Discussions.
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Hello and welcome to Designer Discussions
with Jason, miriam and Maria.
Today we are talking about thebest apps to use in 2025.
Welcome to Designer Discussionspodcast with Miriam.
Maria and Jason Tune in eachweek where we discuss marketing,
pr and business advice fordesign professionals business
(00:27):
advice for design professionals.
Maria Martin (00:28):
So today we are Miriam and I are going to dive
in to the apps that are on yourphone and we're going to talk
about which ones are good andthat they can kind of improve
your life if you understand thatthey exist and how they work.
And I'm also going to talkabout the app purge the things
that will actually also improveyour life and the things that
you shouldn't be diving into,because I don't see that these
(00:52):
things are really going toproduce results by the end of
the year and that they may justcreate an additional layer of
chaos to our lives that wealready have.
Right.
We are seeking balance andhealth and wellness in our lives
, and sometimes that comes witha little bit of an edit, and I'm
(01:12):
excited too, because I don'tknow if anybody knows this.
Okay, but this is super topsecret information.
Miriam is the app connoisseur.
Miriam is the app connoisseur.
If you were to ever ask someoneabout the newest and latest and
greatest productivity apps,scheduling apps, tools and
(01:33):
resources that you can use inbite-sized ways, Miriam is the
person.
So we are going to tap into herlatest and greatest and her
very in-depth desire to createwellness and health and life and
how you could apply some ofthose resources as well.
Mirjam Lippuner (01:56):
So that sounds amazing.
I wish I had it all figured out, but you know, it's a journey,
it's a process.
Maria Martin (02:03):
Yes, Right, it's a process, all right.
So some of the things that Ithink that we should be aware of
in 2025 is that we're going tostart seeing AI applied in
layers, right.
So AI started out as aone-layer cake and then it
(02:24):
turned into a two-layer cake,and I think in 2025, we're going
to be at seven-layer cakestatus, and that we just should
have an awareness of why some ofthose tools may or may not help
us.
And so one of the top things Ithink you should be aware of is
(02:46):
that we are going to have theseiOS updates, so the operating
systems for our phones are goingto have increasingly larger
quantities of AI in it to helpimprove our experience.
And when we are talking aboutthe use of AI, we're talking
(03:08):
about a tool that would learnand grow to please us and to
allow us to have as muchconfirmation bias in our lives
possible.
And so, even though it may seemlike some of this AI is going
to be like make things faster,do things better for you, for
your business, you aretechnically actually making your
(03:31):
life and your business more AIand less human, and you're going
to see that there is a settingin your iOS that will be rolling
out this year.
I think it's mostly in thenewer phones, where AI is going
(03:52):
to have its own closed versionof AI running on your phone.
It has access to everything onyour phone and I know Apple has
a pretty strong privacy setupfor all of our lives.
But the reality is our phoneslisten to us and and we really
(04:15):
just should be more aware andmore alert that these
interactions are happening inour lives and how it may script
and craft and craft and changeour lives in the future because
we think it's convenient.
So look at what AI isengineered into and start
looking at if you can remove itand just be aware that it may
(04:39):
not produce the results trueresults that you're wanting.
Right, you don't wanteverything that is an email
going out sounding like AI.
Another thing that I do is Iremove my data collection.
This is another thing you cando in your settings, where you
disable your camera and a lot oflike audio input and that type
(05:03):
of stuff for the apps that areon your phone, unless you're
actually reading those giantterms and conditions and privacy
policies.
And the reason to do that isthe fact that and Jason will be
able to confirm this is that youcan go into Facebook and run an
(05:23):
ad and you can pick whathobbies the person has, how much
money they have in their bankaccount and where they go
regularly, and this informationis gathered on you so that
people can then target you tomarket to, and it's a very
(05:44):
successful way for businesses tomarket to you.
However, if you don't engage inthat part of these social media
apps and other applications,you just get that one more layer
of privacy in your life and youaren't kind of manipulated from
(06:06):
the environment that some ofthese applications are going to
be running off of in the future,and your information is super
valuable to them and they areselling it and they're selling
it and you aren't truly reapingthe benefits of having all of
that data collected and thensent back out there into the
world.
Another thing that I think isimportant in this 2025
(06:32):
application purge is your oldpasswords, guys.
You can't reuse your passwordsanymore.
Ai is out there.
There are nefarious peopleusing these types of tools to
help them get into things, andthis is a time when we really
should be just taking arefresher and going through and
(06:56):
updating passwords and maybelooking at some terms and
conditions and privacy policieson things on your app.
Another thing that I also liketo purge is those little screen
notifications for apps that arenot beneficial.
If they are a distraction toyou today, they will continue to
be a distraction on a smallbasis every day for the rest of
(07:19):
the time that you allow thosenotifications.
So, even though it's morebeneficial for the app to send
you a notification and get youback onto their platforms, it is
actually not a good thing foryou and especially if it's like
a news app that's going to befeeding you possibly negative
(07:39):
information during the day.
This is a great opportunity totake that and then decide when
you want to access thatinformation and how you want to
access that information.
So, really, the edit, the purgeof apps, is about curating.
It's about seeking apps thatcreate a result and a strategy
(08:02):
that you want, that create aresult and a strategy that you
want, all while having innercontrol over how they make you
feel.
And if they make you feel bad,it's time.
It might be time to delete it,it might be time to have it
logged out, and so try loggingout of some of your programs
(08:24):
that you have on your phone anddecide.
You know, is this reallybeneficial to me or not?
So now we get to talk about thebeneficial apps, the things
that we should be looking at tohelp improve and create a
lifestyle that integrates theseamazing electronic devices that
(08:45):
we have in our pockets, that weaccess all of the time, so that
you get a handle on your life,you get that control.
All right, miriam, let's diveinto all of the goodies that you
can have on your phone.
Mirjam Lippuner (09:00):
Well, and mine are obviously very curated to
what is helpful to me.
And I will also say that whileI use my phone a lot, I am a big
fan of cloud-based apps that Ican use on my that's.
My goal always is to simplifyand make things easier and more
(09:22):
efficient, and I've tried a lotof things, you know, and it's
like then I think I found what Ireally like, and then maybe
(09:43):
that wasn't, and so I move, andthere's always new apps and new
tools coming out.
So I think it makes sense toalways be looking for new things
.
But when I commit to something,I usually at least give it
about six months, you know, soyou can say, because it takes
time to set it up and you reallywant to make sure you can you
(10:05):
understand it well enough anduse it enough that you can judge
whether or not it's actuallyworth it for you.
And there's some apps, as wecall them now, that have been
around for a very long time.
It's like one of the ones I usea lot.
Let's talk about work stufffirst, right, and one of the
(10:27):
ones I use and I really stilllike is Grammarly.
So it's like a sophisticatedspell checker, you know.
But now obviously and I don'teven know, but I've been using
that for years and years andyears before AI was a thing and
(10:48):
now obviously it has AIcapabilities too and it can
actually help refine your styleand, interestingly, sometimes
like if I do something in chat,so I have an AI generated text
and then Grammarly is going towant to correct what that AI
program did.
(11:08):
So they don't you know, theyall.
You train them to how you wantto use them.
But I really do like Grammarlyand I don't take everything that
it gives me.
But it'll say this would be thebetter option to say what you
have said.
And oftentimes I have to say,okay, that works and it's so.
(11:30):
I do recommend it.
I do pay for it.
I don't remember exactly howmuch it's not very much, but I
that is one I have been usingfor a very long time and I'll
keep using it because I reallydo think it's helpful.
Do you use Grammarly either oneof you?
No, you do.
(11:51):
Yeah, maybe, okay, yeah, no,it's a good one.
Maria Martin (11:55):
So here's me in the logout, right.
Yeah, I found out that I cannot pay for Grammarly because
there is a free version ofGrammarly that runs on Macs.
So I've been able to take theprogram that I was paying for,
because I was paying for it asan independent program and
(12:16):
turned it into a free tool and Inoticed it's still running and
working on all my stuff on mycomputer, because I run a Mac
without having to pay for it.
So also in the edit which youdon't have to pay for.
So I'll have to look into that.
Because I have a Mac yeah, Iuse it.
I mean I love Grammarly, youknow, if you don't have to pay
(12:37):
for it, yeah.
Mirjam Lippuner (12:39):
And actually I can't remember who, with the
name of her, the lady is whofounded it, but she used to do
video.
She's like a grammar nerd andI'm a linguist, so it's always
spoken to me, but so I'm gladwe're all on the same page, so
Grammarly is a good one to have.
Then it's you know I.
(13:01):
So my life is busy, right.
I have three kids, I have aconsulting business, we do this.
There's all these things.
So scheduling and timemanagement is one of the main
things that I'm always trying toimprove and I've gone through a
lot of different types of toolsand softwares, and where I am
(13:22):
right now is and where I amright now is so I, a project
management tool is helpful andI've used many different ones.
Currently I'm using Asana andit's the non-paid version that I
use with one of my team membersjust so we can coordinate
deadlines and tasks.
So I think I do like Asana.
(13:45):
I've tried Monday ClickUp.
We have Aura for some stuff.
There's so many out there and Ido think it's worth having one
just to keep yourself organized.
I also put some personal stuffin there, like if I have house
tasks that need to get done.
So it's helpful and you don'thave to pay for it, unless you
(14:08):
use it for, like your entireteam, then obviously you would
want to upgrade.
So then I like Asana, but Ilive on my calendar, right?
If something's not on mycalendar, I'm probably going to
forget all about it, I'm notgoing to do it, it's going to be
late.
So I'm always looking for tools.
(14:30):
I like tools that integrate.
I'm like, if I can have fewertools, that's better for me,
because then I don't have tomanage all these different
things.
And what I'm using right now formy calendar management, so to
speak, is called Motion, andit's a program.
(14:50):
It's like they promote it, asit's like you have an executive
assistant that manages yourcalendar and what it does.
What I really like is when youschedule things in motion and
you don't get to them.
If your day is anything likemine, you're always like, oh,
(15:11):
I'm gonna do this here and this,there and this then, and that
never happens, because then somefire pops up and then for two
hours you're doing this and youhaven't gotten to any of the
other things, and then you'reconstantly moving things around
manually on your calendar andMotion will do that for you.
So if you don't check it.
If it's on your calendar for 10, and you don't check it off,
(15:33):
then it'll just move it tofurther in the future, and
there's different ways.
It also does project management.
Really, I just don't use it forthat, but you could integrate
it all in there.
But it automatically adjustsyour to-dos into the future if
(15:55):
you don't get to them, and thatis honestly super helpful,
because I was constantly movingthings and then if I don't move
them, then they're in the pastand I forget about them because
they're not on my calendaranymore.
So I really really like that.
I have to say so that I've beenusing that for I don't know,
(16:15):
maybe four months or so, andit's my new favorite.
Maria Martin (16:19):
Yes, maria, does it integrate into a calendar you
?
Already have or is it afreestanding calendar?
Mirjam Lippuner (16:26):
already have, or is it a freestanding calendar
?
No, so I have my Google.
Actually, I have different, twodifferent Google calendars that
I sort of use because they'retied to different email
addresses and both and one ofthem ties into the other and
they both tie into Motion, andso I can look at Motion, and
Motion has like a calendar view,so I will see everything there.
(16:49):
Or I can look at motion andmotion has like a calendar view,
so I will see everything there.
Or I can look at my Googlecalendar and it'll like it'll
mirror, so everything that's inmotion is visible on my Google
calendar too.
So I can look on my phone on myGoogle calendar and it'll be
everything will be in.
All the tasks that are inmotion are there too.
And like it's wild because youcan add, like, if I, if there's
(17:11):
an event that's at a specifictime that's just going to be in
this one spot, if I plug it intomotion or in my Google calendar
, motion will automaticallyarrange everything to free up
that time and put it in the timeslots that come after that.
Yeah, it's when I found this.
I'm like oh my god, this is theholy grail, this is what I have
(17:35):
been looking for all my life.
I don't know, we'll see, butfor now, yeah, it's a huge step
up from anything that I haveused in the past, so that's my
favorite.
Right now I also use an appcalled Boomerang for my Google,
for my Gmail, and it it actuallyGmail is starting to integrate
(18:00):
more and more of these of thethings that I that Boomerang
does also, but it's still notquite as good.
So it can help with follow.
You can schedule follow-upswhen you send out emails.
But my favorite capability thatit has is it lets you schedule
meetings with people.
(18:20):
So let's say, I want toschedule a meeting with you,
maria, okay, and then I'll go.
I'll tell Boomerang in my Gmail.
I say schedule a meeting withMaria, okay, 30 minutes, okay,
we want to talk about this.
And then I'm going to give youthree options, or four, or,
however, my essay.
I have time here here, herehere, and it'll send you the
(18:45):
view of my calendar with thedifferent options.
So then you can accept the onethat you like and I can build in
an automatic Zoom link andit'll set up the meeting for
both of us, so you and I don'thave to go back and forth five,
six times until we figure outwhat time slot works.
And even after you send it, theview will update.
(19:09):
So if my calendar changes andI'm not available anymore, then
you're not going to be able topick that time slot.
It's really nifty because I havea lot of meetings with people
and especially if it's severalpeople, it gives you that option
too, so you can schedulemeetings with several people,
and especially if it's severalpeople, it gives you that option
too.
Um, so you can schedulemeetings with several people,
(19:32):
and it's always it's the mostcomplicated thing to schedule a
call because people everybody'sbusy and to find the time slot
that works for everybody.
And then abel says I'mavailable monday five to six and
tuesday three to four andwednesday, and then you have to
put it all together.
It and I don't have anassistant who does that, so I
use it as a meeting schedulingassistant.
(19:54):
It's nice, it's a big timesaver.
I still use chat and, thanks toMaria, I was a very early
adapter of chat.
Before everybody talked aboutAI, we were already using them.
I'm like wow, this is amazing.
(20:15):
And I've played with other AIapps like Perplexity or Cloud or
Notebook LM, and they're allgood, but I still actually
mostly use chat for a lot ofthings that I do, so definitely
that, and I have the paidversion of that as well, and I
(20:39):
have the non-tracking set upbecause I'm a PR person and I
work on confidential productsand information right, so I
don't want my clients to feelcompromised.
Maria Martin (20:52):
That is part of the edit.
When it comes to theseapplications, it was a new
feature that you can have it nottrain off of your information,
and so it's up in the right-handside.
You can click on it and itcomes down and you can just
toggle from that.
This is public in training tonot public, and this is part of
(21:17):
that edit.
Let's just dial it in on the AI.
You can use it.
It's great, it's an excellenttool, but you don't necessarily
need it, remembering everythingyou gave it and sharing with
other people.
Mirjam Lippuner (21:31):
Agreed, yeah, agreed, so that that is
definitely super helpful.
Then I use a lot of Googletools.
I use Google Drive for a lot ofcollaborations when it comes to
, you know, documents, like whenI have people.
Let's say, I write thenewsletter for designer
(21:51):
discussions, I send it to theteam, so I'll just send them to
Google Doc and everybody canedit in there, so we can keep it
all in one place.
The goal is always to keep itin one place, keep it as
efficient as possible, and anapp that I like for
communication outside of emailis Slack, and it's helpful
(22:15):
because you can have differentgroups.
So I have a few different Slackchannels to communicate with
different clients.
We have one for designerdiscussions.
We don't use it a lot.
We mostly text, which drives menuts, by the way.
Maria Martin (22:33):
I would much rather get the text, much rather
.
I am not a slacker, I am atexter.
Mirjam Lippuner (22:42):
I'm a total slacker, but whatever, I can be
flexible.
It's fine.
You'll come around one of thesedays.
But so if you're looking for anapp that's not a Facebook
Messenger, not WhatsApp, nottext, not email, slack is a good
one because, like in text, youcan't organize in any threads,
(23:04):
it's just all one dump, you know, and in Slack you can really be
more organized.
So if you have different areasof your business or like
different projects, it's a goodtool.
So if you don't know about it,check it out.
Maria Martin (23:23):
It also does a lot less personal tracking than
some of the other apps I bet.
Mirjam Lippuner (23:28):
Yeah, actually I think after like, and if we
use the free version foreverything, it lets you do a lot
of things, but after a certaintime it deletes everything, like
maybe six months, I don't know,but you usually use it to work
on current projects.
Maria Martin (23:51):
So it's not like it's a filing system in that
sense.
Well, and it doesn't send youan ad for something from the
last store you were in.
And if you start noticing thosebehaviors.
That's when you know that maybeif you're not using your
WhatsApp, if you're not usingthe Messenger outside of like
Facebook Marketplace or a coupleof Facebook groups, those you
can just log out of or removethe app off of your phone and
reload it when you need it.
(24:11):
Slack does not um show any formof uh invasion.
So you should like it.
I know it's just, I don't haveanybody else on, except for you
guys.
Mirjam Lippuner (24:23):
Okay.
Jason Lockhart (24:24):
Okay, we'll work on that.
Mirjam Lippuner (24:26):
Okay.
So my last business-y app thatI use a lot.
It's when I travel and honestly, this is an app.
I have used this app I don'tknow I want to say 10 years.
It's been a long time.
It's called Tripcase and there'sa lot of travel apps out there,
(24:46):
but what I like about this oneis it was free and when I get a
book like I book a flight, Ibook a hotel I just forwarded to
the email and it feeds it rightinto the app and it organizes
my trip It'll say, okay, this isyour flight, this is your hotel
, that's where you're going.
(25:06):
And when I'm at the airport, itoften happens that Tripcase
tells me about flight changesbefore I hear it over the
speaker or anywhere else youknow.
So I've always used it.
It really works well and it'ssuper simple too and I love it.
I don't have to manually doanything, I just send it on and
(25:30):
my trip is right there and it'skind of fun because you can go
back and look.
It's like if you don't remember, you know when you went.
I try to take care of myself,right?
(25:53):
So wellness is something bigand there's a lot of apps that
are really fun out there and Idownload a lot of them, I look
at them and a lot of them I justget rid of.
So I'm constantly downloadingand purging.
So I'm constantly downloadingand purging.
My kids think I'm nuts becauseI have so many apps on my phone
and 113,000 unread emails, butit's all good, and if you knew
(26:17):
that, she also had probably 300tabs open, as well on her
browser.
Maria Martin (26:22):
It's insane.
I don't know how she stays.
I don't understand how sheholds it all together.
Mirjam Lippuner (26:27):
That's why I have these apps.
You know that we're going totalk about now.
So there's just a few thingsthat I really like.
So I try to sleep well andenough, which is always a
challenge, and I used a sleepapp for a year.
It was called Sleep Cycle and Iactually kind of liked it.
(26:49):
And then I found a new one andit's called Arise and it works
with your circadian rhythm, soit doesn't just track your sleep
, but it'll predict what yourenergy cycle is like during the
day.
So it's your peak energy islike in the morning from this
time to this time, and then youhave a slump and then you have
another peak in the morning fromthis time to this time, and
then you have a slump and thenyou have another peak in the
(27:10):
afternoon.
And it can be helpful not thatI live by it and I can feel that
it's actually true, right.
So then I try to schedule thetasks that require more energy
and more brain power for thetimes when I'm more alert and
have more energy.
So it's really kind of fun.
(27:30):
And if you have an Apple Watchprobably another watch it
synchronizes with that and it'sjust kind of fun.
I'm not obsessive about it byany means.
Actually, I always forget tocharge my watch and it's charged
and I don't put it on, so I useit like half the time, but it's
(27:52):
just a fun thing to play with,not something to obsess about.
I'm a yogi and I meditate not asmuch as I should, but I try and
so I have apps that I use forthat, and my favorite meditation
(28:13):
app for a long time has beenit's a Deepak Chopra app and now
it's called Presence.
There's Calm and Headspace andI'm like they're all I'm like.
You know it's a do it fiveminutes, do it two minutes, five
minutes, 10 minutes, whateveris in your schedule.
(28:34):
I do believe that it's highlybeneficial for all of us, and I,
like presents All of them havea ton of different options, but
if you don't do that, take fiveminutes in the morning.
I highly recommend it.
(28:54):
Then, of course, you know yourgym has an app these days to
sign up for all the stuff youwant to do.
I have a yoga app.
It's cloud-based.
It's called Glow.
There's a lot of them out there, but there's any kind of
exercise you want today you canfind in an app.
If you can't get out of thehouse, then for actually, I sort
of fallen out of the habit, butI liked it.
(29:15):
There's an app.
It's called the Five MinuteJournal.
I'm the type of person I like.
I love the idea of journaling.
I just somehow I can't.
I don't know why, but I thinkit's a really good habit and if
it's something you want to do orsomething you want to get into
(29:35):
five minutes, I like the idea.
It's five minutes.
You go in and say these are thethings I'm grateful for.
You know, these are the thingsI want to do today.
It's super simple, it's just afew quick prompts, but it just
sort of helps you focus yourmind on something positive,
which is always a good thing.
And then there's my practicalapp.
(29:57):
I've tried all the habitbuilders and none of that works
for me.
If an app is more work for meto manage than I feel I get the
benefit from, I have to get ridof it, because it has to be a
net positive in the end.
Otherwise I don't want to useit in the end, otherwise I don't
(30:19):
want to use it.
One I'm playing with right now.
It's called Plantin.
It's one of the houseplant apps, because I have a tendency to
kill my houseplants, so Ithought I'd try and the jury is
still out.
I think it can help, likediagnose issues that I like.
But then the watering and I'mlike I just might go back to
watering on Sundays and wingingit, which you know.
(30:42):
I think that's okay too.
But, yeah, I like everythingelse.
You can overschedule yourself,I think you know.
And it's like if you have likethe cleaning apps, though on
Monday I'm going to clean thisand that and that, and that it
just doesn't work for me.
So if it works for you, great,and there's a lot of good ones
(31:05):
out there, but the ones I'vegone through, those are my
favorites right now.
What do you use, maria?
What do you have that I don'thave?
Maria Martin (31:11):
I was going to ask you about presents, because I'm
a Headspace girl.
Mirjam Lippuner (31:15):
I really genuinely like Headspace, I'm a
headspace girl.
Maria Martin (31:16):
I really genuinely like headspace and one of my
favorite things that I likeabout headspace is actually the
evening wind down.
You put in like your AirPodsand I don't know if presence
does it, but like I put in myAirPods at night and it will
kind of tell you a story aboutwhat you're doing and where you
(31:36):
are, and then it has like a fullaudio, yeah, so like it'll be
like you're falling asleep on atrain car in the Alps or
something weird.
And it'll just like discuss itand you can adjust if the over,
the speaking over is, you canadjust like which thing you want
louder, like the audio,background audio or the person
(31:58):
speaking, and you can adjustthose.
And to me that one is goodbecause I have a hard time with
my brain.
Mirjam Lippuner (32:04):
Winding down.
Maria Martin (32:05):
It kicks up.
It kicks up at night, it goesinto oh my God, I need to get
all this stuff done.
I didn't get any.
You know like, I do a fullinventory of what I was supposed
to get done that day and thinkabout it more at night than
actually getting it done, and soI found that those have been
helpful.
Does presence also have somekind of like evening wind?
Mirjam Lippuner (32:26):
down.
Yes, they all do so I've triedpresence.
Calm Insight timer is anotherone they all have because, like,
generally the morning or atnight are the two times when
people typically will meditate.
I mean you can do it anytimeduring the day but, yes,
(32:48):
presence and presence it has alot of like theme-based
meditation.
So they all have like dailyones that you can just, if you
don't want to, about what youwant to do.
If that, they all have timerswhere you can say, okay, I want
to meditate for this long andhave some music background and a
gong or whatever.
(33:09):
And then um, presence has it'slike, it's a lot of.
It is based on um like theyogic tradition and ayurveda,
and so it's always it's a littlebit on the spiritual side, if
you want to put it that way,probably more than some of the
(33:30):
other apps.
So it just depends if that's umthe style you like.
But, like you know, there'slike New Year's, like there's
series.
Oftentimes there's series oflike I don't know five to 10
meditations that you can do in arow or whenever you get to it,
that are sort of theme based.
It's either Deepak or two otherpeople that do the guided
(33:51):
meditation.
Sometimes they bring in guestswho will host specific series on
things that they specialize in.
So I think it's.
(34:12):
I would recommend, if you'reinterested, try out different
ones and see which one works foryou.
I'm like everybody has adifferent style.
That one works for Headspace isgreat.
You know Calm.
I know a lot of people who useCalm.
Insight Timer is nice, it's.
I don't even know that theyhave a paid version.
They have a lot and it's allfree.
(34:33):
So it's, and honestly, if youdon't want to use an app, don't
use an app, just use a timer.
Do whatever works for you.
Maria Martin (34:42):
And then, miriam, I have one more question for you
On these work productivity onesyou said.
I just want to confirm IsMotion a freestanding app that
you have on your phone, or is itsomething that is a Google app?
Mirjam Lippuner (34:57):
It's not, it's its own.
It'll work with any kind ofcalendar, you know.
So it's just.
It's a calendar app.
It's freestanding, but it linksto whatever, like if you have
an Outlook calendar or a Googlecalendar, it'll synchronize with
those and you have it.
(35:18):
So I have it on my desktop ormy laptop and on my phone.
Maria Martin (35:23):
Okay, it's cloud-based.
What about Boomerang?
Mirjam Lippuner (35:27):
Boomerang.
I only have that on my laptopactually, because usually when I
schedule meetings I don'tusually do that from my phone,
not so much.
Yes, but that's a good question.
Maria Martin (35:42):
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, those were my two BecauseI know some of the stuff you
can use as a plugin and some ofthem are freestanding, kind of
like Canva is a freestanding.
Mirjam Lippuner (35:51):
Yes, oh, we forgot about Canva.
Canva, obviously, I use sometoo.
Yeah, we talked about that.
Maria Martin (35:58):
And they dropped the $385 a year thing, Remember
when we both melted down aboutthat.
Mirjam Lippuner (36:04):
That was a complete PR disaster.
Let me tell you I'm so glad Idon't work for them.
Maria Martin (36:12):
I mean, they took like four days to be like oh
sorry.
Mirjam Lippuner (36:16):
Oh, people are really upset.
Oh, maybe we shouldn't have.
And what's interesting is thatthey completely rolled it back
100%.
Yeah, that was crazy.
Maria Martin (36:27):
That morning Miriam was like I noticed I got
kicked out of your team, and Iwas like I kicked Jason out too.
I was like I'm not paying foryou guys.
I mean, here's the thing thatwas so stupid about it.
It was like I'd have to pay tohave a team where I'm connected
to two people who would alsohave to have a paid version of
the app to have a team with meon it.
(36:49):
It was ridiculous and I would bea paid team host.
It just made no sense, anyway.
That was like anyway.
Mirjam Lippuner (36:56):
It would have been different if it had been 20
bucks a month.
People probably would have doneit, but it was what was it?
Maria Martin (37:05):
It was like 308.
Mirjam Lippuner (37:06):
It was almost like 400 bucks, if I remember
correctly A year, right, yeah,yeah, yeah, that was not cool.
Maria Martin (37:11):
And I was like this makes no sense, because if
I have a team and the people whoare on my team are also paid
users and have teams, why do Ineed, why do we have to pay more
?
Yeah, why would I have to paymore to?
Mirjam Lippuner (37:25):
have For them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was crazy, it was astrange strange thing, but yeah,
you're right, they've comearound.
Yeah, pr and I are here.
Okay, okay, fun, okay, fun.
We'd love to hear what apps youguys are using.
Honestly, if you have good tips, I'm always all ears for how I
(37:46):
can maximize.
Maria Martin (37:51):
She'll try it and then she'll give us feedback on
what she thinks about it.
So Miriam is pretty specificabout which ones work and which
ones don't.
Mirjam Lippuner (37:57):
Yes, yes, and if mine don't work for you, I
don't take it personally, youknow.
If you have better ones, I'dlove to know about it.
Maria Martin (38:06):
And one of the things that I did is I put
together a 2025 bingo cardinstead of a like vision board,
a like vision board.
And one of the spaces on the2025 bingo card is to not get
sucked into the newest socialmedia platform like give
(38:27):
yourself permission, when itrolls out, to just be like no,
no, not another one.
Um, and I think everybodyshould embrace that, because I
think in the past there's been alittle bit of FOMO for not
jumping on and being on it rightoff the bat, and I think, as
professionals with businessesand needing to get clients in
(38:51):
and make money, the newestsocial media platform is really
a no at this point.
So give yourself that peace.
It's good advice.
Mirjam Lippuner (39:02):
Okay, I think that's all we have for today.
Thanks for indulging us andwe'll see you again in two weeks
on Designer Discussions.
Jason Lockhart (39:10):
Did you know it takes 17 to 20 touch points
before your potential clientsrecognize who you are?
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looking?
If not, there's a solution.
The Designer DiscussionsAcademy membership with your
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with weekly live sessions andexclusive community practical
(39:33):
resources and expert guidance.
We're here to simplify yourmarketing and boost your
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We hope you enjoyed thisepisode of Designer Discussions
and all of the helpfulinformation.
Subscribe to our podcast, leaveus a review and share it with
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