Before Opal
Matt Hert owns Hert Agency, an insurance agency. Many of his notes started on his phone and ended up in Google Docs or Pages, sometimes as untitled notes he couldn't find later. He'd remember writing something down and then lose time looking for it. By his own estimate, that searching took maybe 30 minutes a week, and his networking notes were the biggest culprit.
How Matt set up their desk
Matt had wanted his computer desktop to work like this for a long time. On his Opal desk he made a networking fence, and the first time a new networking thought came up, he knew right where to put it. Notes that pile up can go into a binder. He keeps his task list open on the side of his screen all day.
What changed
Matt says he hasn't had a problem finding anything he wanted to find in Opal. If he thinks of something, he knows where it is, even after weeks or months, and he finds it in seconds. His networking notes all live in Opal now, so he no longer hunts for them across his phone and computer. "I think I do save a lot of time," he says.
Numbers here are Matt Hert’s own estimates.
Before Opal
Matt Hert owns Hert Agency, an insurance agency. A lot of his notes started on his phone, typed while he was walking around, and landed in Google Docs or Pages.
Later he’d remember writing something down and then couldn’t find it. Sometimes it was sitting there as an untitled note.
“The frustrating part is remembering where something is and that it exists.”
Matt Hert
He estimates the searching took maybe 30 minutes a week. He called that “not a huge amount of time,” though most of it went to one kind of note: networking notes he had jotted on his phone and then tried to find on his computer. In his words, those were “the biggest culprit.”
How Matt set up his desk
Matt wanted this kind of setup long before Opal. “I wanted the desktop of my computer to be what Opal is for a long, long time,” he says. He tried to make his desktop look that way many times in high school and college, then gave up and learned to work through a filing system.
When he saw an Opal desk, with fences around groups of items and binders for things that need to be filed away, he thought he could figure out how to make it work for him.
It clicked on the day he set up his desk. He had made a networking fence, and later that day a new networking thought came up. His mind went straight to that spot on the desk.
“I knew where to put it. That was the first time I thought, like, oh, it’s just sweet.”
Matt Hert
If those notes pile up, he can put them in a binder.
How Matt uses his desk day to day
Matt mostly uses the task list. He pulls it up and keeps it on the side of his screen for the whole day. “Attention is the key,” he says, and his attention starts with that list.
When he opens the grid, he can see everything else on his desk. He knows what needs doing and can triage and prioritize just by looking at the page.
He also likes how items open. With folders, he might go through four levels to get one file open. In Opal he clicks an item and it opens next to the one he’s already working in. “That’s huge,” he says.
What changed
Matt says he hasn’t had a problem finding anything he wanted to find in Opal.
“If I think of it, I know where it is, even if I haven’t looked at it in weeks or months.”
Matt Hert
When a project he hasn’t thought about in a while comes back to mind, he says he can find it in seconds.
The networking notes behind most of those 30 minutes a week all live in Opal now. He doesn’t go hunting for them across his phone and computer anymore. “I think I do save a lot of time,” he says.
He also sees it in how he works on projects as a whole: “I think Opal has given me a toolset to be able to bring my best to every project.”
The 30-minutes-a-week figure is Matt’s own estimate.
