Once again, I present you with another written article from my husband, Glenn, who preaches about the productivity power of smartphones. I confess, I do a lot of my productivity on a laptop, but I do understand where my husband is coming from with this piece…

“What is the greatest productivity tool in the world?

I use to think it was a computer, because you can do a lot of things with a computer. But amazingly, it’s the small device that fits into your back pocket. Your smartphone.

Smartphones have now taken over the whole world. They dominate every aspect of our lives. We take them everywhere we go. Some people even go to bed with them. And they are the first thing we check when we wake up in the morning. You cannot even go on a bus or a train without seeing scores of people all engrossed with their smartphone.

The smartphone has become the ultimate entertainment device. We watch films off it, consume large amounts of content, can practically speak to anyone on the planet thanks to the use of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tik Tok to name just a few. The smartphone has become our canvas on which we can express ourselves to the world. Hence why I believe it is the greatest productivity tool to ever be created, a tool, which, if utilised correctly, can make you a lot of money.

I once watched a YouTube video from an online entrepreneur who said there are two types of people online, the entertainer and the entertainee. The majority of us all fall into the entertainee category. The consumers who consume content and buy the products or services from the vendors and sellers who are there to make money. Let’s face it, you can go nowhere on the internet without seeing content like articles  and videos that are aimed to stimulate a certain part of our nature, to entertain us and entice us into buying a product or service.

Many of us don’t know how to make money online simply because we don’t know how to be entertainers. We just want to be entertained or create false identities for ourselves, because let’s face it, the apps you can use these days can make you look like you are a million dollars. And most people just use their phones in this way, to create a false image of themselves to show off on the social media platforms, and consume content from other people and be entertained by films and TV which we can now watch off our smartphones.

The smartphone though is capable of a lot more. For people with creative skills, it can almost act as an extension of oneself, ones own expression. It’s a canvas on which we paint our ideas and thoughts on to. I do a lot of creative productivity on my phone. I love creating engaging and educational videos for others, I love animating photos to bring these still images to life and give them magic, I’ve created my own music on my phone and wrote articles and books and even tried my hand at creating podcasts (I use the app Anchor which is free). I’ve even set up blog sites on my phone, designing the websites and creating my own content to fill these sites with. For the record,  I use WordPress because you can set up sites for free and from the comfort of your own mobile using their app. I even know a friend who is very artistic and has composed all of his paintings on his phone through numerous apps that can channel his inner creativity. I hear some people run their small businesses using their smartphones.

New apps are always constantly being developed that enable us to do much more with our phones than simply making pretty pictures of ourselves and showing them off to the world, or just consuming other peoples content, apps that will enable us to easily create whole websites and funnels with drag and drop ease. Apps where we can create ebooks, more professional looking  videos with the touch of a button, or generate unique content in seconds. The one type of people that make a living off being productive with their phones are influencers. These are people who have huge followings on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Tik Tok. They know how to create content that people need and consume. Most of the time, the content revolves around themselves. In other words, they are the content and they make money from sponsored ads (like on YouTube) or advertising and promoting products of other companies (affiliate marketing). Just as long as they keep creating the kind of content people love and consume.

To be a success online, especially through social media sites, to build that army of followers, you have to stop sitting on the sidelines being an entertainee, a consumer of other people’s content or sharing it because it looked cool. You have to become the entertainer, the creator and builder of your own content and you got to make it so unique, people would consume it like a pile of hotcakes that never run out. You already got the tool for it, your smartphone and whether you use Android or Apple, it doesn’t matter, there’s a universe of apps to create unique content with. You can animate photos, create music or mix music to make make your own tracks, write articles for a blog, create eye catching social media posts with drag n drop ease. Even unique graphic designs that make you look like a pro (I use Canva because I think it’s cool). You can edit videos like a pro, create podcasts, even build your own apps. There’s no limit to what you can do with your phone. It’s more than just a communications or entertainment device. It’s a well oiled productivity machine that when used correctly, can make you a lot of money. Probably enough to quit that day job.”

Glenn Riley