Do it yourself
Evernote is much more then a simple note taking application. It can be incorporated into ones workflow which makes it into more of an extension of ones every day and life. Below is a few alternative uses I have found where Evernote is a key component.
Great speech on life by a kid.
Information overload is happening all around us today. We get too many mails, read too many notifications from social networks and at the same time try to post as many updates as we can on what we are doing. All this at the same time as we should maintain good workers munching through tasks as the Cookie Monster eat cookies. But how to stay on top of this and maximizing productivity? Should we break down tasks into microscopic parts just so that we will be able to check some of them off before we leave the office and get home?
Productivity today is not as much as finishing of tasks as to manage context switches. Zero inbox might be a goal for some but if you walk home without any idea what you did since you arrived zero inbox is doing you no good.
First of all and most important – stop checking your mail. Most of us have been lured into the trap that if we constantly check our email and keep notifications in our phones as soon as a mail arrive we can be more productive and act faster. Most of us who actually tried this have found however that this not the truth. By being interrupted every time anything happen we end up doing nothing else then trying to stay on top of what is going on instead of acting.
If you were to cut down on you mail checking to three times a day you would still be on top of that inbox wouldn’t you? The longest a mail would remain untouched in you inbox would be a couple of hours, that’s a fact. But do you get mad if you need to wait two hour on a mail after sending you question? Would you really?
Productivity today is not about finish the most tasks, it’s to switch between them with minimum loss. And the most efficient task switch is not to switch at all and instead finish what you do before you go for something else.
I’m a heavy Evernote user and have incorporated it into many aspects of my daily work. One thing I use it for and would like to promote is the IOU notebook – keep track of what you have loaned from others as well as what they’ve loaned from you!
On a daily basis I come across people using mail in a way which is making everything harder then it had to be for everyone involved. There is a few very simple rules which I think all should obey to maximize the productivity and all in all use of e-mail as a serious way of communication in the twenty-first century.
The grand majority of all mails that arrive in my mailbox is spam and different types of commercials. Let’s jump straight into the action and list the rules as simple as they are.
Came across this amazing image over what is said to be Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule. In a world that become ever so time boxed it is a bit soothing to see that some ideas have lingered for hundred of years. I truly love the idea with the much philosophical question in the morning followed by the same one in the evening:
What good have you done today?