Introduction
Nice to have you back for another episode of Digital for Productivity. Don't be surprised by the background noise. I'm on the road. In this episode, you'll get a recording of my last talk at Greater. As you know, I gave a talk at Gedanken tanken just a few years ago. Funnily enough, that was well before the AI hype and I was already talking about AI and the fact that we will probably soon no longer need programmers. In this talk at Greater, the successor brand to Gedanken tanken, the main topic is how to use digitalization sensibly. I hope you enjoy this talk.
Technology makes our lives easier. Is that really always the case? I think we can all agree that technology sometimes makes our lives quite difficult. That's why we should switch on our brains first, then technology. A few years ago, a medium-sized entrepreneur called me and said: Mr. Jekel, you absolutely have to help me. Me: Yes, where can I help you? He said: My employees call me the digital dinosaur. Me: Why digital dinosaur? I have my emails printed out. And just like them, I felt the urge to laugh at first. But as it had been at a Will's party the night before, I thought it was pretty exciting. So I asked about it. I said: How do you work? And then he said: You know what? I've had a secretary for almost 30 years and when she comes into the office in the morning, the first thing she does is look through my emails. Everything she can delete, she deletes. Everything she can do herself, she does herself. Everything she can forward to my colleagues, she forwards. And when I get to my desk after my lunch break in a soup coma, I have three desk folders on my desk.
One is signatures, the other is important information and the third, Mr. Jekel, is what you would probably call a newsletter. And one more piece of supplementary information, even if I am away for a few days: My secretary has clear instructions that when this folder with the newsletters, with the information, is full, she is not allowed to add a second one, but she has to decide what to throw away. I only take one. I took a quick look at it, thought about it and said: You know what? You might not be the most efficient user of your in-house email system. He didn't even have a computer. He didn't need anything that new-fangled. But I think you are much more effective as a manager than the many e-mail-dependent Post-U-Shops. And you also clearly state: I see my topic and my task as an entrepreneur in getting the right people on board and presenting my company to the outside world. What have we done with DigitalDino? Did we turn him into a push email junkie? No. What did we do? He got an iPad and on this iPad he had three subfolders. Three guesses as to which ones. Of course: signatures, important information, newsletters. Then he says: Oh, that's great, there's a red number.
Then I say: Sorry, I forgot to issue it. The first thing I do is write it out. The secretary immediately gave me a slap on the wrist and said: How cool is that? I don't have to print out any more emails. Then the boss said: You know what? My wife will love that. Then I say: Why will your wife love it? Yes, because when I come home from a business trip lasting several days, I used to have to go back to the office and do my mail name. And now I can do it at the launch or on the plane or train. It's brain first, then technology. And while we're on the subject of e-mail, let's translate what push e-mail is into the analog world. Push e-mail in the analog world means that you are sitting at your desk, trying to concentrate on your work and then someone comes along and throws mail on your desk. Of course you're out of it at first. You look, is there anything important in there? You are just starting to work again, the next person comes in and throws mail on your desk. You're back at work, the third person comes in and throws mail on your desk. By the third time at the latest, you would have asked yourself the What are we doing in the digital world?
We constantly have digital mail thrown at us. The invention of push emails is one of the biggest productivity killers in German offices. Switch on your brain, then technology. Or let's take a look at production. Imagine you're standing on the production line and you're just screwing the tire on. Then it goes bing in the office and you run back to the office because you have to check your e-mails. Then you run back to the assembly line and of course it's run a bit further and then you have to screw it down again. Then we have it bing again, you run back again, you run back to the conveyor belt, you run back again. By the third or fourth time at the latest, your master would say: "You know what? I think we need to talk about productivity and work organization. In the office, we're constantly jumping between the assembly line and the office. If we worked in production the way we do in the office, I don't think a car would ever leave a production line. First switch on the brain, then the technology. And when you come home tonight, or perhaps you have come home, you will probably have something like a classic letterbox made of wood, sheet metal or plastic in various shapes.
And when you open it, 2-4-6-8 letters fly at you, some of them already opened, some of them not opened. Then you look: Oh, I've already got that one. Yes, I'll put it away, I'll get to it. Oh, I've torn it open now. I'll put it back now. And then you stuff 2,462 letters back in. I think if you did that, your neighbor would ask what kind of weed you smoked and where you can get it. And when we talk about work organizations, the first important thing is to switch on the brain, then the technology. And when the brain is switched on, I keep experiencing situations like when I was in an insurance agency two or three months ago and the agency manager looked at his figures every Friday. It was actually a good idea. The only problem was that it took him three hours to collect all this information because every sales employee had to fill out an Excel spreadsheet for every order. He was notified of this and then it took him three hours to bring it all together. A highly complex system and so on. I say: Okay, the question is, what's more important? Dealing with the issue of how I get the figures together or dealing with the figures?
What did we do? We converted the whole thing into Microsoft Forms , because he had, back then it was still called Office 365, now it's called Microsoft 365. And he didn't know at all that Microsoft Forms is a form tool with which the employees have the same effort to enter the data, namely to enter it on the phone, on the tablet, on the cell phone, but he doesn't have the effort to bring the whole thing together. And a classic topic: 80% of companies in Germany that use Microsoft 365 don't even know that something like Forms exists, for example. And they pay for it. And that's exactly the second issue: not just switching on technology for the first time, but simply using technology. Or do you know what the most common cause of death in German companies is? There are two: Dead by meeting and dead by email. And they usually come together pretty well. And I experience this time and again, just recently at a board meeting at the bank. It's a typical Monday meeting and, in addition to all the political issues, there's also a lot of preparation in terms of collecting emails in advance, collecting documents in advance and setting the agenda. And I spoke to the board secretary and said: "Let's see, how many e-mails do you have before a board meeting is ready?
She says: "Every week, around 80 to 100, without any problems. And she wasn't really happy? What did we look at? Does she have the option of using a personnel can-track tool - which, by the way, is a tool that comes from production - to say: Let's make a digital white board or bulletin board for this round. And here there are various columns to say there is a pool of topics to which you can attach digital cards. There are topics, current meetings, to which you can attach digital cards. And anyone can ask questions, comment and attach documents to each of these topics beforehand. And if this topic is then moved - which is what we are discussing now - the participants don't have to search through all their emails to find out where it is and where this topic was again, but everything comes together here. If you have Microsoft 365, the tool is called Planner. If you say: I think Microsoft 365 is stupid, I don't want it at all, there's a tool called Meistertask. And that's a good example, because I often hear: Yes, data protection. And is it compliant in terms of data protection? I often hear in Germany that data protection is data protection.
And it is important to ask yourself: Okay, what data is it? Where is this data located? And can it be processed in compliance with the GDPR? This is the case with MasterTask , for example. Switch on the brain first, then the technology. And every year, of course, there are new iPads. And when there are new iPads, I always find that everyone has to have the latest model. After all, we only make rational decisions. But the nice thing is, when I look at how many iPad users actually use the Files app on the iPad, which has allowed them to keep all their files on the iPad in sync with their PC for over three years now. Automatic data backup, access to network drives, you don't do that at all. When I show this to my customers, they always look at me like a rabbit when it flashes and say: "That works? It's been working for three years. First switch on your brain, then the technology. And of course it always has to be the latest smartwatch. But what about the smartwatch did you do? It reads the time. And honestly, you may have already seen it, I'm the crazy one with the two watches because I love the analog world and I love the digital world.
And to be honest, I can read the original time much faster in the analog world. There are many, many things that can be done much better in the digital world. And just because it's technological and just because it's digital doesn't mean you have to do it digitally. What is such a thing good for? A gadget like this is good for reminding me that my speaking time is up, for example. It's great if my wife can sleep longer and I can get up with a silent vibrating alarm without waking her up. A thing like this is good for tracking my habits. A thing like this is good so I don't need a weird chest strap when I'm running. Wonderful. There are lots of great ways to use something like this. But here again: first switch on your brain, then the technology. And don't get me wrong? Many people say: Yes, wait a minute. Are you an IT consultant now? Are you now helping companies to use technology easily? You always say: Jekel and team, always clever IT first. And now you always say clever IT in return? No. First switch on the brain, then the technology. Simply use technology and then try out new things.
Of course. For example, I think we were the first in Germany to have an Alexa at home. And could you do anything with it at first? Not really. Let's not even talk about Siri and Homepots. Evil tongues say Alexa is like Siri only with a high school diploma. Only when I look at how often I've begged our Alexa at home to finally turn on the light, or I've tried to call up just one music track and of course it always came up with something else. Does all of this always work? No. But does it help me to get an idea of what is technologically possible and how I can use it as a company? Yes. And, as with many modern technologies, there are always things that work particularly well. For example, things that work really well. When I was packing for Cologne yesterday, I asked Alexa: What will the weather be like tomorrow in Cologne? While I was packing. That means I didn't have to do much searching and I knew whether I needed to pack an umbrella or not. I can even ask Alexa: Do I need an umbrella tomorrow? Wonderful. There are things that don't work so well. For example, I wasn't able to reorder my toner via Amazon.
That's what they keep trying to sell me, but sometimes the problem may be behind the screen. But what I keep seeing is that things that didn't work at all in the past are suddenly working. And you remember, I just said earlier that Alexa is like Siri with a high school diploma. And if I look, these systems are getting smarter and smarter with every update. We were talking about the Apple Watch earlier. I can now also talk to the Apple Watch. And then that makes sense. Like the other day when we were sitting in a restaurant and someone just asked me to say: what's the weather like in Cologne tomorrow? Then I just tapped the crown briefly and asked accordingly. Does it make sense to chase after every technological trend? No. But the brilliant thing is that we talk about future scenarios, about augmented reality, about things that are superimposed, about virtual reality, things that we only see in the virtual world. It all already exists. Take a look at the latest IKEA catalog. You can use your smartphone to pack the IKEA sofa into your living room. If you feel like it, and it's a bit difficult in these times of COVID-19, you can go to the funfair and ride a rollercoaster in virtual reality.
Everything is wonderful. And there are currently many companies that are holding virtual trade fairs and using chatpots. And then it also makes sense to really get to grips with the topic of technology. But always with the question: What can this technology be used for? Always saying: What does it do for me? If you look at the former head of Coca-Cola, Ulrich Nehmer, for example, he once asked himself this question: Okay, we have a fridge here that we put out to the customer and it takes us four weeks from the moment the customer says: I want a Coca-Cola fridge, to the moment the customer has the goods. What did he do? He stood in front of the team and said: What do we have to do to get a refrigerator to the customer not within four weeks, but within 24 hours? And he said: Let's discuss what technology we need for this, what organizational possibilities we need, what resources we need for this, but I'm not prepared to discuss the goal. And augmented reality was also used here, for example. It's brain on, then technology. And finally, I have three questions for you: what will you no longer do digitally?
What will you do better digitally? And what new things will you do digitally? In the spirit of "Switch on your brain first, then technology.
Yours, Thorsten Jekel.
Key Takeaways
- The core principle of meaningful digitalization is "brain first, then technology" — technology should serve a clear purpose, not be adopted for its own sake.
- Push email is one of the biggest productivity killers in offices: constant interruptions destroy focused work, just as they would on a factory production line.
- A "digital dinosaur" entrepreneur who had emails printed and sorted by his secretary became more effective — not less — than colleagues drowning in push notifications.
- Switching to an iPad with three organized folders (signatures, important information, newsletters) replicated the same effective workflow digitally without changing the underlying logic.
- Microsoft 365 tools like Microsoft Forms and Microsoft Planner can eliminate hours of manual data collection, yet 80% of German companies that pay for Microsoft 365 are unaware these tools exist.
- New technology should always be evaluated with three questions: What will you stop doing digitally? What will you do better digitally? What new things will you do digitally?
- Gadgets and new devices (smartwatches, iPads, voice assistants) have genuine use cases, but buying the latest model without using existing features first is a common trap.
- Emerging technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality already exist in consumer products (e.g., the IKEA catalog AR feature) and are actively used by forward-thinking companies.
- Ulrich Nehmer, former head of Coca-Cola, showed how setting a bold goal first (delivery in 24 hours instead of four weeks) and then asking what technology is needed leads to real transformation.
- Meaningful digitalization means using technology to become more effective — not just more digital.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does "brain first, then technology" mean in the context of digitalization?
"Brain first, then technology" means you should define a clear goal or workflow before choosing a digital tool. According to Thorsten Jekel, technology is only meaningful when it solves a real problem — adopting tools without thinking through the purpose leads to wasted investment and lower productivity.
Why is push email considered a productivity killer?
Push email constantly interrupts focused work in the same way someone repeatedly throwing mail onto your desk would. Thorsten Jekel describes this as one of the biggest productivity killers in German offices, because every notification pulls attention away from the task at hand, making sustained concentration nearly impossible.
How did the "digital dinosaur" entrepreneur manage emails effectively without a computer?
The entrepreneur had a secretary who filtered all incoming emails each morning, deleting what was unnecessary, acting on what she could, and presenting only three categorized folders — signatures, important information, and newsletters — on his desk. This human-powered system kept him highly effective as a manager by protecting his time and focus.
What digital solution replaced the printed-email workflow for the entrepreneur?
The entrepreneur received an iPad with three subfolders mirroring his existing paper system: signatures, important information, and newsletters. This allowed him to process emails while traveling — on a plane or train — without needing to return to the office, while keeping exactly the same logical structure he already found effective.
What is Microsoft Forms and how was it used to save time in the insurance agency example?
Microsoft Forms is a form tool included in Microsoft 365 that allows employees to enter data on any device — phone, tablet, or computer — and automatically aggregates the results. In the insurance agency example, replacing individual Excel spreadsheets with Microsoft Forms eliminated the three hours the agency manager spent every Friday manually compiling figures from his sales team.
What share of German companies using Microsoft 365 are unaware of tools like Microsoft Forms?
According to Thorsten Jekel, approximately 80% of companies in Germany that use Microsoft 365 do not know that tools like Microsoft Forms exist — even though they are already paying for them as part of their subscription.
What is Microsoft Planner and what problem does it solve in meetings?
Microsoft Planner is a digital kanban-style board tool included in Microsoft 365 that lets teams collect topics, attach documents, and ask questions before a meeting — all in one place. In the bank board meeting example described in the talk, it replaced a process that generated 80 to 100 preparation emails per week, making it easy for participants to find all relevant information without searching through their inboxes.
What is Meistertask and when was it recommended as an alternative?
Meistertask is a GDPR-compliant digital task and project board tool mentioned as an alternative to Microsoft Planner for organizations that do not use or prefer Microsoft 365. Thorsten Jekel noted it as an option for teams concerned about data protection, pointing out that GDPR compliance is achievable with the right tool choice.
What are genuine use cases for smartwatches and wearables mentioned in the talk?
Thorsten Jekel highlights several practical smartwatch use cases: a silent vibrating alarm that lets a partner sleep undisturbed, habit tracking, heart rate monitoring during running without a chest strap, and a discreet timer for managing speaking time during presentations. His point is that wearables have real value in specific scenarios, but buying the latest model without using these features is wasteful.
What three questions should you ask yourself to digitalize meaningfully?
Thorsten Jekel closes with three practical reflection questions: What will you no longer do digitally (stop doing)? What will you do better digitally (improve)? And what new things will you do digitally (innovate)? These questions help ensure that every digital decision is intentional and goal-driven rather than driven by trends.
Tools & Resources Mentioned
- Microsoft 365 – Productivity suite referenced throughout; includes Forms and Planner
- Microsoft Forms – Form and data-collection tool included in Microsoft 365, used to replace manual Excel-based reporting
- Microsoft Planner – Digital kanban board included in Microsoft 365, used to streamline meeting preparation and replace email chains
- Meistertask – GDPR-compliant project board tool recommended as an alternative to Planner
- iPad – Used as the digital replacement for the printed-email workflow in the entrepreneur example
- Alexa (Amazon Echo) – Voice assistant mentioned for weather queries and attempted toner reordering
- Apple Watch – Mentioned for silent alarms, habit tracking, running heart rate, and quick voice queries
