Office overwhelm - 5 tools to help

Everyone has their tools that they could not be without. Working in the Salesforce ecosystem, I presume everyone has Salesforce Inspector Reloaded installed on their web browser, for example.

However, even working with Salesforce 24/7 sometimes you need tools to manage other interactions. We’re talking about time tracking, dealing with other humans (conversation trackers), trying to remember an infinite amount of information (documentation), or processing issues – such as dyspraxia, which tends to have better than average spatial thinking, but the downside is that letters on the page can often appear jumbled up.

So with that in mind, and with huge thanks to Jade Keenan who presented on this topic at the Neurodivergent Trailblazers Usergroup, I’m going to share five tools that she mentioned that can really help you work better – whether that’s with less stress, more efficiency, or both.

Table of contents

Time Tracking – Memtime

A series of pie charts, line graphs and tabular reports showing how much total time is spent on various projects, split by types of activity, visited websites and used programs

Screenshot from Memtime

Employers need to know how much time we spend on our work, but this doesn’t make it easy or enjoyable.

If I had a penny for every time a manager asked me how much time I had spent on a particular client or task, I would be very rich. And if you are working across multiple clients in a busy environment it’s an absolute nightmare. I’ve literally seen colleagues pulled up in disciplinaries because of inability to log their time – which is understandable enough because many of us get paid because we bill our clients by the hour.

With that in mind, I introduce Memtime.

Imagine a tool that could tell how long you had spent on particular websites, used specific programmes or even looked at your calendar and told you what type of work was involved (client meetings v. other items). Meantime does all this and more. It extracts the data from your system, so that no manual processing or thinking is required, so it’s all done for you. Can’t you feel your head and shoulders becoming lighter just at the thought?

And, since time management is a big problem for those with ADHD this could be much better than staring into the void of a timesheet not completed, not even knowing where to start. The cost is cheap too – £9/€11/$11 per month (at time of writing) after a 14 day free trial – think of how much better you can use the admin time. I’m sure there’s some irony there!

A bonus observation is that time logging – or any of the tools mentioned here – doesn’t have to be perfect, just “good enough”. That’s all anyone expects or needs.

Note Taking – Otter AI

An online meeting, with the images of many people onscreen, including someone who is speaking

Everyone loves a meeting. Yes? Especially the third, fourth and fifth one in a row.

From time to time, my concentration wavers – thanks ADHD! – particularly if I’m not needed to answer a question. Whether it’s full transcription, summarising, action lists or even asking to be caught up on the conversation so far, Otter AI comes highly recommended due to its accuracy, although Microsoft Teams and Zoom have very similar features.

Automated meeting notes are still much more useful than no meeting notes at all, so my clients don’t mind that I use these tools, and they always know – it’s always obvious because I’m UK-based but the spelling is American. But when we end up deep diving and only realise at the end of the meeting that note taking would have been useful, we are grateful. Especially two weeks later when you return to the topic, and try to remember where the conversation had got too!

It’s worth noting that these tools simply aren’t perfect and will skip, misrepresent or simply hallucinate certain items, but they get 95% of the work done, and then all you need to do is tidy up the information. A huge time saving of what is a tedious chore, and gets us back to the geeky fun which is where we want to be.

Reading – Speechify

The Speechify logo, which is a soundwave

The alt text for the above picture needs to say: “The Speechify logo, which is a soundwave”

We all have different learning styles. I prefer interactivity, however some people like audible tools. This is particularly helpful if you are dyslexic. It can mean that you have very good spatial visualisation, but reading is more of a challenge. With that in mind, I introduce Speechify.

As well as being able to read swathes of text to you in a fun and engaging range of styles, it can also extract text from graphics and read that back too. Much more accessible, and gives the day variety which helps keep attention going.

Documentation – Figma and Elements.Cloud

A flow chart with multiple inputs, and a couple of cursors on screen which indicate that there is interactivity from a number of people - perhaps discussing the flow chart — A flow chart with multiple inputs, and a couple of cursors on screen which indicate that there is interactivity from a number of people – perhaps discussing the flow chart

Screenshot from Figma

Excel spreadsheets, word documents, paper based forms. The client hands them over and says “this is our process”. Sound familiar? Brings a bit of sweat to the forehead?

Figma and Elements.Cloud are great at turning disparate data dumps into a manageable process, and help you map the appropriate solution and collaborate with colleagues. Additionally most people are visual learners, so you can showcase your work to stakeholders in a way they will understand, whilst being able to retain the data so you know why you arrived at the point, and the trade-offs you had to juggle. If you are designing or documenting solutions, these tools are well worth checking out. A short investment for a huge payoff.

Figma is platform agnostic, whereas Elements.Cloud is designed from the ground up with Salesforce DNA in its soul. It can connect to Salesforce metadata and do a whole lot more besides.

Notebook LM

Whether it’s release notes with voluminous information, or side projects, a shout out for Notebook LM from Google (free for most users). With this you can upload separate documents, and then use AI to ask questions, summarise and receive insights from the whole collection you have uploaded.

Final Thoughts

Everyone has their favourite tool, and it also depends on what your needs are. For instance, some people like the style design of Apple products more than anything else; other people enjoy the flexibility of Linux or Android. Use what works for you, and when it works for you, not just because it is there, even if it is easily accessible. The right tool, for the right job, at the right time. No one size fits all.

And remember to review your toolset occasionally and unsubscribe from those you no longer use!

p.s. If any of these issues particularly resonated with you, check out my other Apex Hours articles on ADHD and Autism as time management, concentration and disorganisation and and can be common symptoms..

With particular additional thanks to Allie Lawler for organising the Neurodivergent Trailblazers Usergroup and Yvonne Small for lending her insights on this article.