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🧰 Smart tools. Useful tips. Weekly.

Hola friend 👋,

I’m Josep. Each week, I hunt down practical tools and productivity hacks to help digital doers like you do more with less effort.

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This week: tools to help you master your most valuable asset – time.

As a digital doer, whether you're a freelancer, business owner, or content creator, managing your time effectively is a superpower.

I've personally felt the squeeze recently, struggling to balance everything. I'm constantly looking for ways to streamline my day and avoid that feeling of overwhelm.

This issue will share some of my latest discoveries for reclaiming your schedule. Plus: a genius tool for social media, a simple yet powerful mental hack, and a chilling reminder about data security.

SimplyBook.me

Scheduling appointments can feel like a full-time job, especially when you have different roles in your business. SimplyBook.me is a fantastic solution for this, taking the hassle out of managing bookings and letting your clients schedule themselves (and even handling payments).

This tool offers a comprehensive suite of features: customizable booking pages, online payment integrations (Stripe, PayPal), automated reminders via email and SMS (a huge win for reducing no-shows!), loyalty programs, and so much more.

Another plus: the free plan is surprisingly generous. While you won’t be able to accept online payments, you do get full access to their website builder to create your own booking page, and you’ll be able to take up to 50 bookings each month at no cost.

Our team at EmailTooltester.com considers it one of their top choices for scheduling apps because of its robust features and flexibility – e.g. you can ask clients specific questions before they book a session, like their goals or personal details. However, it can feel a bit overwhelming at first as it has a lot of features (some cost extra), and the dashboard could look a bit more modern.

SimplyBook.me is perfect for service-based businesses, clinics, salons, consultants, or even personal trainers who need an all-in-one solution for client scheduling and management.

🛠️ Alternative to: Calendly, Acuity Scheduling, Setmore

👉 Visit: simplybook.me

💰 From $11.90/month | Free plan available

Reclaim AI

I was researching to update a post on calendar apps at EmailTooltester, and I stumbled upon Reclaim AI. This smart calendar assistant takes the stress out of scheduling by automatically blocking time for your tasks, habits, and meetings. However, it’s more of a personal planner – unlike SimplyBook.me, it’s not designed for booking client sessions or taking payments.

Reclaim AI shines with features like "Smart Meetings" that automatically find the best time for everyone, "Habits" to ensure you consistently work on important routines, and "Tasks" that dynamically schedule your to-dos. It integrates seamlessly with Google Calendar and Outlook.

But what I love the most is that you can set up a work calendar, and a personal one. Then Reclaim AI will take into consideration both to efficiently manage your time.

I was particularly impressed with its approach to prioritizing what truly matters. One caveat: while it’s incredibly smart, I noticed that for very complex or non-standard scheduling, you might need to occasionally nudge it in the right direction. Also, unless you have an extremely busy calendar, it won’t exactly be a game changer.

Anyone looking to automate their schedule and reduce calendar Tetris will find Reclaim AI a game-changer.

🛠️ Alternative to: Clockwise, Motion, SimpleBookMe

👉 Visit: reclaim.ai

💰 From $10/month | Free plan available

Toggl

Knowing where your time actually goes is the first step to managing it better. Toggl is a refreshingly simple time-tracking tool that makes it incredibly easy to log your work, whether you're bouncing between projects or dedicating hours to a single task.

No more guessing how long that last client task took, or how much I spend answering social media comments a week.

Toggl's core functionality revolves around a straightforward start/stop timer, allowing for quick and accurate time capture. You can categorize entries by project and client, and generate insightful reports to understand your work patterns. It integrates with various project management apps (e.g. Evernote, Asana, Notion, Salesforce, etc.) so it fits right into your existing ecosystem.

While the free plan is excellent for individual use and offers essential tracking capabilities, advanced team features and more detailed reporting are locked behind paid tiers.

🛠️ Alternative to: Clockify, Harvest, Timeular

👉 Visit: toggl.com

💰 From $9/month | Free plan available

✨ Totally Off-Topic… But Brilliant

Having an audience on social media is great, but having an engaged audience is where the magic happens. Manychat helps you turn passive followers into active participants through automated conversations on platforms like Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. It’s like having a dedicated engagement manager working 24/7.

Manychat’s best features include an intuitive drag-and-drop chatbot builder, seamless integration with major social platforms, and the ability to automate personalized messages, FAQs, and lead capture workflows.

Imagine instantly replying to comments, sending tailored offers, or guiding users through a sales funnel, all without you having to be online answering customers. It even extends to WhatsApp, opening up a huge channel for direct communication.

The free plan is fairly generous, but limits how many interactions you can have and won’t allow you to access some advanced tools like SMS and WhatsApp messages. New users might also face a slight learning curve understanding the logic of building complex bot flows.

This tool is ideal for those who want to automate their social media interactions, generate leads, provide instant customer support, and boost engagement across their messaging channels.

🛠️ Alternative to: Managing social media manually, Tidio, Intercom

👉 Visit: manychat.com

💰 From $15/month | Free plan available

⚡This Week’s Productivity Hack

Lately, I’ve been pretty stuck with my tennis game – #tooManyDoubleFaults. So, I'm trying something new: visualization, which also can be applied to my professional life.

It might sound a bit "woo-woo," but mentally rehearsing success can seriously boost your performance (or that’s what they say), and it's something I've heard top athletes swear by.

Visualization is about creating a vivid mental image of yourself successfully completing a task or achieving a goal. It trains your brain to expect success, building confidence and even sharpening your actual skills. You don't have to apply this only to sports; it's a powerful tool for anything you struggle with.

Actually, I'm about to put this visualization trick to the test right after writing this newsletter draft (I’ll be recording a video on Canva’s AI features, and videos always make me slightly nervous). If you’ve watched that video, hit reply and tell me how I did 🙌.

Here are a few business-focused use cases:

• Sales & Pitches: Before presenting to a potential client, picture the flow of the conversation. See yourself answering questions calmly, reading the room, and closing the deal confidently.
• Team Leadership: If you’re about to lead a big meeting or managing a tense situation, visualize yourself setting the tone.
• Public Speaking: Visualize yourself stepping on stage, taking a breath, and delivering your message clearly, even making the audience laugh.
• Procrastination: See yourself starting right away, working steadily, and finishing early with time to review calmly.

As I said, a bit "woo-woo", but apparently there is some science behind it. And a random thought: if you suffer from insomnia, will it also help to imagine yourself having a good night's sleep?

And of course, you can also find apps for this – e.g. EnVision. However, I’ve been using Perplexity in conversation mode, asking it to guide me through a visualization session – to become the next tennis prodigy, or at least to stop double-faulting all the time.

Give it a shot! Your future, more focused self will thank you.

🍿 Plot Twist of the Week

You hear about online security every day, but what happens when one of the internet’s gatekeepers gets caught with its doors wide open?

That’s exactly what went down with F5 Networks, when an eye-popping 269,000 of their devices were found compromised.

Why is this such a big deal? F5 appliances aren’t just fancy boxes; they’re the bodyguards of corporate networks, handling encrypted traffic and fending off cyber baddies. Leave these devices exposed, and attackers get a direct VIP pass to the heart of countless businesses: intercepting data, unleashing ransomware, or hopping further into critical systems.

The plot twist? F5 initially kept the lid on the breach at the request of law enforcement, because of national security concerns. The whole incident fired off alarm bells at the highest levels, putting federal agencies and security teams on red alert.

Bottom line: If a security big-shot like F5 can get caught out, nobody’s untouchable. So patch systems fast, double-check your defenses, and remember to have backups in place, as many as you can. Trust is great, but a healthy dose of paranoia never hurts in cybersecurity’s wild west.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading! Next time, we’ll dive into the world of online learning and discover tools to build courses that truly engage (and convert!).

Cheers,

Josep

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