I love reading from other people what helps them be more efficient and more productive. Here's a couple of things that are helping me lately:
Seriously it is unbelievable. It's the only such tool that I actually pay for the premium service (though the free version is absolutely enough for most people).
In case you don't know, Evernote is basically a place to store anything and everything you need to remember. You use "tags" to organize things. Everything in it is searchable, including photos!
I currently forward every email that I want to keep to my evernote (every evernote user has a unique email address they can forward things to and it goes straight into their evernote account). I have also set up my printer/scanner so that I can scan every important document or receipt or photo or magazine article straight into Evernote - and then I THROW IT AWAY! Seriously. No more paper files.
In case you don't know, Evernote is basically a place to store anything and everything you need to remember. You use "tags" to organize things. Everything in it is searchable, including photos!
I currently forward every email that I want to keep to my evernote (every evernote user has a unique email address they can forward things to and it goes straight into their evernote account). I have also set up my printer/scanner so that I can scan every important document or receipt or photo or magazine article straight into Evernote - and then I THROW IT AWAY! Seriously. No more paper files.
I also have an evernote extension on my web browser so that every time I see something cool online - a blog post, a picture, an idea of any kind - I simply click the evernote button and it is now forever in my evernote account. No more bookmarking everything, no more trying to remember where I saw that post before.
The ipad and iphone apps are amazing and everything is synced instantly so it's all available no matter when or where I need it.
The ipad and iphone apps are amazing and everything is synced instantly so it's all available no matter when or where I need it.
So I'm one of those guys who loves the physical book. I love to feel it in my hands, I love to write on its pages and I love to be able to see my progress through a book. So going to an e-reader has been something I've really hesitated to do. But in a very short time I'm beginning to see the HUGE benefits to reading on my ipad.
First, if I continue to go this route - my entire book collection will eventually be with me at all times. Pretty cool. AND it will be searchable. Ever try and find that one quote from Andy Stanley but you aren't sure which chapter, or maybe not even sure which book it was in? Problem solved.
Second, the notes. So this is taking some time to adjust to - but I still have the option of highlighting and making notes on everything I read. Typing in my thoughts, using a stylus to highlight - these are new things I have to still get used to. But the benefit is this - everyone who has a kindle account (free through amazon.com) has a dedicated kindle page with all the books you've read and everything you've highlighted and every note you've made. Not only are those notes and highlights searchable on the ipad or kindle, but they are also searchable online. AND HERE'S THE KICKER - since they are on a webpage, I can "clip" them (an Evernote extension) and send them to my Evernote account. Which means, all of my notes for a particular book, and every highlighted paragraph or line is now right there in my Evernote account with a dedicated note for that book. And yes, it's searchable.
First, if I continue to go this route - my entire book collection will eventually be with me at all times. Pretty cool. AND it will be searchable. Ever try and find that one quote from Andy Stanley but you aren't sure which chapter, or maybe not even sure which book it was in? Problem solved.
Second, the notes. So this is taking some time to adjust to - but I still have the option of highlighting and making notes on everything I read. Typing in my thoughts, using a stylus to highlight - these are new things I have to still get used to. But the benefit is this - everyone who has a kindle account (free through amazon.com) has a dedicated kindle page with all the books you've read and everything you've highlighted and every note you've made. Not only are those notes and highlights searchable on the ipad or kindle, but they are also searchable online. AND HERE'S THE KICKER - since they are on a webpage, I can "clip" them (an Evernote extension) and send them to my Evernote account. Which means, all of my notes for a particular book, and every highlighted paragraph or line is now right there in my Evernote account with a dedicated note for that book. And yes, it's searchable.
I've just recently started using this site, but if you use social media or blog or anything like that then this page is brilliant. It is basically a tool to help you organize your online presence. Through it you can create rules for everything you do online. IFTTT stands for "If this, then that". For example, I have a rule setup to where everytime I post a picture to my Instagram account, it adds that picture to a photo album on my Facebook account. I set it up once, and never have to worry about it again. You can set up rules for twitter, for your blog, for Facebook, or for any other account you use. It's amazing.
Anyway, that's a few things I'm using right now that are making my life more manageable. What tools are you using and how are you using them?
1 comments:
I have an email account.
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