Frontiers Friday #91. Tech Tools for Therapists (Part IV) ⭕
Frontiers Friday #91. Tech Tools for Therapists (Part IV)
Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of Better Results.
Come June, together with Mark Hubble, Scott Miller and Sam Malins, we are handing over the edited book, The Field Guide to Better Resuls to the publisher. In this upcoming book, together with various researchers and practitioners like John Norcross, Helene Nissen-Lie, Jesse Owen, Joshua Swift and more, we flesh out where we left of in the Better Results. Lots of practical tips and exercises!
Meanwhile, if you would like to join us on this journey, Scott Miller and I are kicking off the 5th Cohort of the Deliberate Practice Web-Based Workshop on 6th of June 2022. It's aimed to help you through your professional development journey.
It's an asynchronous, cohort + self guided course. In other words, we work through the materials together, as well as going at it in your own pace. Conten + Community. Finally, it's not subscription-based; you'd have a LIFE-TIME access to the content.
For more details, see below.
Back to this week's recommendationsfor Part IV of Tech Tools for Therapists.
I looked up the etymology of the word Technology. It comes from two greek words, techne and logos. Techne means art, skill, craft, or the way, manner, or means by which a thing is gained. Logos means word, the utterance by which inward thought is expressed, a saying, or an expression.
By definition, technology is the application of what we know for practical purposes.
In modern times, we assume technology more as the gadgets and softwares that we use. Tech tools are after all, instrumental in providing value, not intrinsic in and of iteself. I hope these tools, and the ones mentioned in the last month, serve you and your intentions.
In case you missed them, here's the first 3 parts of Tech Tools for Therapists:
🔖 Trello
I've been using Trello as a platform to organise my various projects with others for years. Currently, my assistant and I use this to coordinate tasks. It is so easy to use, and yet highly agile. A rare combination.
For more advanced users, you can even create little bots (Trello calls them Butlers) to assign repeatable tasks, like duplicating a card. If you are looking for a platform to help organise all the different stuff on your plate, Trello's worth checking out. (The free version has been good enough for me).
🛑 Freedom.to
I first talked about this in .
If you are like me, reflexively checking your emails when you really don't need to, use an app blocker like Freedom. For a few years now, I've made a pre-commitment not to check my emails between 11pm to 12pm the next day. So no access to my inbox when I go to bed and in the mornings.
(An alternative to Freedom app is Cold Turkey. I use both. Yes, I can't trust my monkey mind).
📲 Iphone Scan Text Feature
This is a useful feature in iphones that has been added in the more recent inceptions of their iOS updates
Basically, when you take an image of with text in it, you can click on the bottom right button and then select the text.
Alternatively, there is a "scan text" function in Apple Notes app. After that, you can simply copy the text to whereever you keep your notes (I use Obsidian.)
I've used this feature to save key highlights from paperback books. It's not always 100% accurate, but good enough to get most words correct (it does go haywire with my handwritten notes on the margins though.)
For scanning of documents, I use Adobe Scan. I would avoid apps like CamScanner. Reports of malware.
💻 Pico
If you use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), you'd probably pay a monthly or yearly subscription. With this tiny Pico device, you pay one-off for this hardware. More interestingly, it's a Decentralised Private Network (DPN), meaning, unlike VPN, your information is not stored in VPN server. If the VPN server security is breeched, a third party has access to your information. A DPN makes it harder to be tracked by malicious individuals, since the storage is "decentralised" across nodes around the world. It claims to be faster connectivity than a VPN.Bonus: It blocks youtube ads and also a parental setting to block porn.
I just got this device and currently testing it out. Gonna cancel my annual VPN subscription if this works well.
Note: Security matters, especially since so much of our clinical and administrative information is in our computers. For more about online security, check out this youtube channel called All Things Secured I particularly like his tip on improving passwords if you are using password managers.
⏸ Words Worth Contemplating:
"Regardless of all the good that technology makes possible, its greatest danger is not in the bad that it brings about, but in the good that it diverts us from."
~ Ken Funk
p/s: I don't have any affiliation with these tech products.
Reflection: 1. What is one tech tool that you are most grateful for?⇒ Let's be grateful for the people who created this. 2. What is one tech tool that you actually enjoy using? ⇒ Ditto. 3. What is one tech tool that you'd actually want to use less of? ⇒ Use less what is useless. Put an app blocker for that if you have to.
Scott Miller and I are now all set for our 5th cohort of the Deliberate Practice Web-Based Workshop, which kicks off on 6th of June 2022. You'd be sent practical content every Mondays and Fridays. during the 10-week period of the course. Scott and I, and the rest of the community will be there walking through this deep learning journey.
You can go at your own pace. Plus--this is a BIG PLUS--you'd have a LIFETIME ACCESS to the course. Yep, no monthly subscription fee. When we update any of the content, which we are likely to given that we are now writing a follow-up book to Better Results, called The Field Guide..., you'd also get the latest in the course.
Registration is now open to a limit of 40 participants. (Why limit? Well, it's hard to manage a bigger group and we would lose an intimate connection if it was any bigger a group.)
Start Date: 6th of June 2022, 10-week program (cohort and self-paced)
Registration Ends: 3rd of June 2022.
USE THE FOLLOWING PROMO CODE AT THE CHECKOUT FOR AN EXCLUSIVE INSIDERS 20% OFF: DPVIP (Click here to preview the course. We've made some modules free to preview)
BIG HUGS TO NEW PEOPLE WHO ARE AT THEIR FRONTIER!
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