I Bought The Tech Gadget… Now What?

Have you walked down the kitchen gadget aisle at Williams-Sonoma lately?

Everything gleams. The tortilla press. The butter mold shaped like a flower. The gadget that does one very specific thing you didn’t know you needed.

You want all of it. You want none of it. You already have a good knife.

That’s where I’ve been living lately, except it’s apps instead of kitchen tools.

Everyone tells me AI is going to save me time. And I believe it. I’ve seen it work. But some days it feels like more to manage, not less. Both things are true, and I haven’t figured out what to do with that yet, except keep going.

The Math Never Adds Up

Here’s my problem.

The tools that are winning right now want to do everything. One app promises to be my CRM, my note taker, and my email platform, all at once.

Except I already have two of those three. Older. Familiar. Working fine.

Do I really need the Swiss Army Knife if I’ve already got a great paring knife, a corkscrew, and a screwdriver?

Maybe you’re a few tabs deep into the same comparison shopping, trying to decide if switching is worth what you’d lose.

I know I am. Research, comparison, hours gone. Then I install the winner, and the learning curve hits.

Innovation or Mastery

I love innovation, but the pace is a lot.

Tech has a steep learning curve for me specifically. Case in point: it took me weeks to figure out how to automate an email sequence. Somewhere in the middle of learning it, I invited my entire database to a workshop meant for eleven people. Eleven.

Once I’ve got the mechanics down, it flows. Effortless. But tech doesn’t sit still long enough to let me stay mastered. The basics hold, but every new release adds another small hill to climb.

I probably should hire more help for this. I know that.

But I love learning. There’s a challenge in “I can figure this out” that I have a hard time standing down from, even when it would be faster to just ask someone who already knows.

Know thyself

A few months ago I started using Read AI on my coaching calls. It scores my energy and engagement based on my face on Zoom.

A little unsettling, honestly. Also useful.

This one, for once, was intuitive. I loved it right away. Then I went to save the actual video of a session and found out that part requires an upgrade. A substantial one.

I sat with that for a minute. Was this still worth it?

I’m not sure. I don’t know if it’s the best tool out there. But starting over somewhere else would cost me the one thing I was trying to save: time.

So I kept it. Still not sure it’s the smartest choice on paper. But it’s the one that’s actually working, and for now, it’s good enough.

The Question That Matters

I used to think the goal was finding the best app.

Turns out the better question is simpler: does this work for how I already work?

Maybe that’s the only question worth asking, for you too.

That question won’t stop the next shiny tool from showing up, or calm my FOMO that something even better is out there. It won’t make the learning curve disappear. But it gives me one steady thing to check against when everything else feels like too many tabs open at once.

I’m still not sure if I’m working smarter, or working harder to figure out how to work smarter. Some weeks it’s both. And I’ve decided that’s fine, as long as I keep moving.

What’s one tool you’ve kept even though a shinier one came along? Hit reply and tell me. I want to know what earned its place.

Laurie