We sat down with Theresa, freelance writer and content marketer, to chat about why Shift plays an integral role in how she serves her clients. Check out the recap of our conversation, below!
** Theresa is using the old version of Shift (v7). Check out the new version of Shift (v9), here. **
With a passion for helping small businesses tell their story, Theresa has over a decade of experience in the digital media and marketing industry. At the digital marketing agency Quiet Corner Communications, Theresa continues to bring her passions to life through freelance writing, content marketing, and occasional social media consulting. When she's not writing, editing, or storytelling, you can find Theresa engrossed in a new book, listening to her favorite podcasts, or exploring a new line at her local rock climbing wall.
Discovering Shift
A Shift user since May of 2020, Theresa manages a portfolio of 6-7 clients at any given time, each with their own set of tools (some different, some the same). Prior to Shift, Theresa's workflow was spread out across multiple different browser windows (some in Chrome, some in Safari), in an attempt to achieve some form of organization. Due to the nature of her work (e.g. having multiple accounts of the same application), this was by no means a viable solution as she was constantly being signed out of her applications as well as losing track of which browsing session was for which client.
"Switching Slack tabs, Asana tabs, and signing out of one Outlook email to view a different Outlook email, it was too easy to miss things and I was missing things."
When we asked Theresa what her biggest pain point was with her "pre-Shift" workflow, she said it was hands-down being visually overwhelmed by a sea of tabs which led to her not knowing where her focus needed to be. For context, Theresa had upwards of 20 tabs open at any given time. As you can imagine, because of the way opened web tabs are presented in Chrome, it was extremely difficult to differentiate (she tried Chrome's tab "grouping" function, but found it to be an ineffective way of changing her browsing habits for the better).
After realizing that her current way of working in Chrome and Safari impacted her ability to do her best work for her clients, Theresa clicked through a Facebook ad for Shift and downloaded her free account. The rest was history and she's been a paid user of Shift ever since.
Getting the Most Out Of Shift
For Theresa, using Shift has been a huge breath of fresh air as it's a much more visually appealing place to store her workflow. Within Shift, she's added multiple instances of Slack and Asana (one for each of her clients) and labeled them such that she knows which application instance is for which client. On average, Theresa has 7 Slack instances, 3 Asana instances, and 5 email accounts (+ other applications like Click-Up) added at any given time. Being logged in to all of her clients' applications at the same time yet keeping them separate in an easy-to-understand layout gives her the high-level view she needs to determine where her focus needs to be.
Besides condensing her entire workflow into one place and allowing easy context-switching, Theresa relies heavily on Shift's built-in password manager to save the credentials she needs to access the client-specific instances of her applications. Since some applications sign out periodically, password management was a critical box for Theresa to check off while evaluating productivity tools.
"Shift allows me to see everything clearly in one place."
Theresa's Shift Tips
A very visual person, Theresa recommends taking full advantage of the customization capabilities of the Shift sidebar; dragging and dropping according to priority, color-coding, and using an expanded sidebar view (check out our tips on sidebar customization, here). Since her workflow involves multiple instances of the same applications, Shift has given her a way to access all her accounts at the same time in a way that works for her, visually.
We double-clicked on her application use and uncovered that Theresa is a perfect example of why Shift's notification management system was built. In short, any Shift user can edit their notification preferences such that they select which email accounts and/or applications they want to receive notifications for as well as what type of notifications they want to receive (e.g. badge or banner). When working on content for a specific client, Theresa minimizes her chances of being distracted or derailed from the task at hand by muting the applications and accounts not related to the client she's currently working on.
Have you ever been hard at work on a task, heard that familiar notification bell, click over to see what it is, then forgotten what you were doing originally? We know we have. Human beings are innately curious and it can be hard to minimize the temptation to click away and get distracted without the right tools at our disposal.
“Being able to see my Slack instances all laid out in the way Shift does, I can easily tell which client my focus needs to be on."
In need of engaging content that builds trust, enhances recognition, and creates value? Get in touch with Theresa and the team at Quiet Corner Communications, here.
What's next?
Ready to try Shift for yourself? Download now!
Find quick tips and best practices in our Getting Started section here.
Read about other Shift Case Studies here.