Overview
Chances are you’ve used an app to order a meal after answering the dreaded question “What does everyone want to eat?” My vote is often to pick something where we can order ahead so we don’t have to wait in line. If you’re like me, you’ve saved a few favorites to make the process even easier. It’s quick, easy, and virtually eliminates mistakes…what’s not to love? My favorite is the Chick-fil-a app, as you can see in the screenshot above. I call this the Chick-fil-a-zy approach – reusing a favorite or recent order in like 5 clicks!
If that’s so great, why don’t people use that approach more often? They just don’t think or plan ahead. This is one area where COVID might have made the world a little better due to the massive growth in curbside orders and the technology to streamline them. Restaurants and retailers really pushed ordering ahead, saving favorites, suggesting recent orders, and checking in. What if you took that approach with every aspect of your life? In this article, we’ll discuss why it’s helpful, how you can do it, and several examples to use as a guide.
Why defaults and favorites are so helpful
There are several reasons why setting defaults and saving favorites are so helpful:
They are quicker and easier
Often this means 5-10 clicks versus 50-100. The time can add up very quickly! It’s not something you do day in and day out like the cashiers, so going through the full ordering process can be a huge pain.
They reduce mistakes
It’s never fun to get home and realize an order is wrong or worse yet, someone’s entire meal is missing. You’re also limiting the potential error points. If you have to tell someone your order and they put it in, the chances of a mistake happening go up by quite a bit.
They help you remember what everyone wants
You might know exactly how everyone likes their meal, but chances are you’ll miss a detail. When you reuse it (assuming they want to order the same thing), it’s already there for you. You don’t have to bug them or have them repeat it multiple times.
They keep your brain fresh
Those saved clicks don’t just save time, they save precious brainpower. If you were to look in the closet of some of the best business leaders in recent time, you’ll notice there’s not a ton of variety. Remember how Steve Jobs always tended to wear black turtlenecks? He was literally saving his brain from making a decision (actually dozens of decisions if you flip through much of your wardrobe!) by pre-choosing what to wear. We often do this with meals by making a weekly menu and reusing it every few weeks.
They keep you focused
In many work apps I’ve used, there’s a feature to save favorite views of my to-do list, reports, records, etc. so I can quickly get back to them without having to rethink or search for them. The best ones save the filtering, sorting, and data fields I need. This saves a ton of time. Even better is that I can usually set my default view – the one displayed when the screen loads. Why is that so important? Because I’ve set my default view to show the highest priority items – based on due date, risk level, status (i.e. not yet done, or ready to review). Default views help me keep extremely focused on what’s important without much effort or the distraction of sifting through the noise. So many people rely on alerts to keep focused when in fact alerts often just add to the distractions.
How to use defaults and favorites
Saving favorites, bookmarks, and pins
Most apps allow you to pin, star, or favorite your files, views, settings, etc. If you’re not sure how, run a quick Google search like “Excel pin favorite files” or something similar. Or read the manual. Or ask a friend. Or do all of the above!
With Excel in particular, you can pin your ~12 very most-used files on the Windows taskbar. Just right-click the Excel icon, and click the pin icon for a recent file. Click again to unpin. This works with most other file-based apps as well.
For other files you don’t use quite as much but need to be able to find them in a pinch, you can often pin within the app itself. Again using Excel as an example, click the File ribbon tab, and on the Home submenu, it shows a list of recent files. Hover over them and click the pin icon to pin it, and again to unpin. Most MS Office apps offer this option as well.
Setting defaults
The defaults available in each app vary wildly, but they’re often much more robust and flexible than you might expect. Pay attention to the clicks and actions you perform most and see if there’s a way to set defaults for them so you can begin from the best starting point possible and set yourself up for success. Use the examples below as a guide.
The easier it is to change defaults, the better, as you can adjust them to what you’re doing. For instance, if you need to update some colors, set them as the defaults and change them back when you’re done. I’ve done this many times with colors, borders, paste types, formulas, find/replace values, etc. The ability to easily set, update, and use defaults has been baked into dozens of functions in the XLEV8 add-in (see the examples below).
Examples
Things you order regularly
We’ve covered restaurant apps enough but it goes without saying – use those as much as you can! When you make a grocery list or packing list, don’t start from scratch. Start from the last one you used (or an online template if you don’t have one). Restaurants call this a par sheet – the quantity of items they need to support operations. If they started from scratch, they’d forget all kinds of things! Take the same approach!
Things you use regularly
Did you know you can usually set your default TV channel, the websites that open when you launch your browser, your phone’s background style/image, the theme of your laptop background, and the fonts for your emails? Some people really don’t care – they’re totally happy with the defaults. Some people don’t know they can change them. Some people make obnoxious choices with these changes! If you find yourself making the same change more often than not, set it as a default!
Things you update regularly
When we create files in Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, etc., there are dozens of actions we take that could be easier with default settings. The screenshot below is an example of an Excel macro called the Paste Special Picker. It makes paste special commands much easier to use and offers the ability to set a default (see the bubble at the bottom-left). The command I use most is pasting values only, so V is my default. It’s already filled in when I run it! If I were to paste a lot of formulas, I’d set F to the default, then reset it to V when I was done. I take the same approach with formats, inserting, deleting, managing sheets, etc. and it saves me several hours a month. There are dozens of macros in the XLEV8 add-in that over the ability to easily set defaults because they work so well.
Summary
Defaults and favorites can save an enormous amount of time, but don’t discount the other benefits too, like reducing errors, reducing frustration, and the best one, saving you valuable brainpower. Use that on something more important! Take advantage of defaults and favorites wherever you can for the actions you perform most (or with tasks you find most frustrating), and when they aren’t available, maybe you can build your own like I have!
What are some of your favorite…favorites or defaults you’ve used? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
Recent Comments