6 Subtle Things Highly Productive People Do Every Day. Ever feel like you’re just not getting enough done? Know how many days per week you’re actually productive? About 3: People work an average of 45 hours a week; they consider about 17 of those hours to be unproductive (U.S.: 45 hours a week; 16 hours are considered unproductive). We could all be accomplishing a lot more — but then again, none of us wants to be a workaholic either. It’d be great to get tons done and have work/life balance. And who better to ask than Tim Ferriss, author of the international bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek?
(Tim’s blog is here and his podcast is here.) Below are six tips Tim offered, the science behind why they work, and insight from the most productive people around. 1) Manage Your Mood Most productivity systems act like we’re robots — they forget the enormous power of feelings. If you start the day calm it’s easy to get the right things done and focus. Here’s Tim: I try to have the first 80 to 90 minutes of my day vary as little as possible. Research shows email: The Super Sweet 1Password Trick You’re Almost Certainly Not Using. I Made a Free Tool for Evernote Dorks with Macs. A Fresh Take on Contexts | SimplicityBliss.
As my Twitter followers may know, I have been experimenting with a complete new context setup in OmniFocus in the last two to three weeks. Since I am pretty pleased with the result of this fresh approach I thought I share the details and reasons for it. Actually, whether you use OmniFocus, any other GTD tool or just paper lists, this might be relevant for you. Evolution doesn’t stop (also not for GTD) When David Allen envisioned the GTD system the economy was in the transition from the traditional industry age to the information age. By now many of the GTD aficionados are what is broadly defined as knowledge workers. Technology has significantly evolved in the last years and any productivity system that utilisies technology needs to take this into account and evolve as well. This all makes perfectly sense in an age where the tools you use to get the job done aren’t always available.
Contexts became ubiquitous Today, where ever you are, most of your tools are always available. Evernote « Categories. Use TextExpander, TaskClone and Evernote to automate your meetings! What if you could take notes and automatically have tasks sync’ed to your task application without doing anything but entering a couple keystrokes? What if you could achieve this automation using a simple note taking application like Drafts? This is possible with background services called TaskClone and an application called TextExpander Touch. As I wrote in my prior post, utilizing TaskClone with Evernote is the fastest way to capture tasks while taking notes. I wrote a post about how to automate the creation of Evernote templates with FastEver XL. TextExpander Touch is the iOS version of its keyboard automation system. The date is automatically populated by TextExpander with the following text in the meeting agenda template; \%Y-%m-%d TITLE.
Now that you have Evernote, Drafts, TextExpander and TaskClone configured; follow these simple steps to automatically capture your action items into your chosen task manager. Evernote as a Task Manager, Update One « How-To. As I wrote here, I have switched from iOS Reminders to Evernote to manage my tasks. One week in and I am still using Evernote as my task manager! I can say that the transition has not been seamless, but overall the experience has been positive. I still have a long way to go to perfect this system, but with Daniel’s help I am confident that the move to Evernote will be revolutionary!
Overall, I can see the power of Evernote as a task manager. The ability to integrate tasks with notes and project information in one place is extremely powerful. The issue of course is that a lot of thought must be placed into the setup and your process to make Evernote work well as a task manager. I have worked through Daniel’s book throughout the week and as a result I adapting my workflows accordingly. In closing, using Evernote for tasks is ABSOLUTELY possible and for some the setup and workflows will come easily. Stay Tuned for more posts! Use Evernote Hello to scan your business cards (REVIEW) « Blog. Photo courtesy of I love discovering apps that solve a real problem. I especially love apps that I look forward to using.
In my job I collect a lot of business cards which mostly sit on a pile on my desk. I never take the time to enter them in the computer and I rarely take the time to use one of the many dedicated card scanning apps to process them. In fact, I own CamCard for the iPhone which is a wonderful app that scans and processes cards with a high level of accuracy with only a few steps.
But, even CamCard seems to be too much trouble to use religiously. I had almost given up on the stack of business cards on my desk until I discovered the latest iteration of Evernote Hello. Evernote Hello is an iPhone-specific app that helps you manage your business contacts. Evernote Hello is better and more beautiful than ever, with a new user interface that helps you remember everyone you meet, quickly and easily. Have you tried Hello yet? John Mayson - Google+ - Setting up Evernote as Your GTD Dashboard In 2008 I signed… Setting up Evernote as Your GTD Dashboard In 2008 I signed up with Evernote. The service launched in June of that year meaning I was an early adopter. I didn't quite grasp how Evernote fit into my life and my account sat unused until summer 2009 when I bought my iPod Touch. Evernote quickly grew on me and I turned it into a messy digital junk drawer rendering it almost useless. Without any kind of structure or methodology it was unwieldy to use.
But with a little help from my friends, well, a Google search and some blogs, I have become an Evernote ninja. This article will focus on how to structure an Evernote account. Two things have long captured my imagination: notebooks and cool software. I have a romantic image of Ernest Hemingway sitting outside of a Key West bar, a half-empty bottle on the table, his trusty leather journal under his pen, writing about his adventures in the Spanish countryside. And software. Neither worked for me for a few reasons. Tags not Notebooks GM versus Ford. Evernote and GTD on an iPad. Here’s an article by John Mayson on how he uses Evernote with GTD. Below, I’ve added comments on how I use it with specific reference to the iPad2, which is mostly where I play with Evernote these days. This is going to be a long-assed blog post, so if you’re in hurry, here’s a summary: I use Evernote for all my notetakeing, referencing and for GTD (Getting Things Done)I’m not a power GTD user; still getting used to it.Evernote uses Notebooks and tags to identify/locate your notes.
I use just 2 notebooks: GTD (all actionable items) and Reference (everything not actionable)John Mayson uses tags sparingly: only 1/3 of his notes have tags. He relies on Evernote’s excellent search function to find things. I tag everything, but limit my tags to just one or two (plus I have a trillion tags I’ve used only once and which mostly duplicate words in the body of the note; every time I open Evernote, I trash a couple of tags and/or notebooks. That’s the summary. Clip itTag itClose it. Wtf? To sum up: Scanning documents and notes directly to Evernote with a Canon MP Series printer | Tech and life. You don’t have to scan documents to your PC then save them into Evernote organizer in two stages, you can set up your printer/scanner to scan directly into Evernote.
I’ve already posted about scanning directly to Evernote with an Epson Perfection 4180 scanner. I recently got a Canon MP series multifunction printer with built in scanner (MP280) and had no trouble setting it up to scan directly to Evernote. Here’s what you do. When you installed your Canon printer drivers and utilities on the CD which came with the printer, you would have installed MP Navigator, the application which, among other things, allows you to scan directly to an application, in our case Evernote. For me it was actually called MP Navigator EX 4.0 but you may have a different version. Click on Custom and that should open a box like below. This is the part where we select Evernote as the program we want to open the scan with.
Select that file and click Open. How To Encrypt Evernote On Mac OSX. In yesterday’s post, we discussed how to encrypt your Evernote database on Windows. Today, we will be going through how to do the same thing using Mac OSX. Unfortunately it is slightly more cumbersome, but it is certainly do-able. Encrypting Text Inside A Note The “official” way to do encryption in Evernote is to simply encrypt any sensitive text in a note.
Step 1: Select the text you want to Encrypt. Step 2: Right-click (or Command-Click) and choose Encrypt Selected Text. Step 3: Make up a passphrase that you will later use to decrypt this text. Step 4: Your text will now show as encrypted in Evernote. Encrypting Your Evernote Database Here is where things get fun. What is an encrypted sparsebundle? When you read this it might look kinda technical, but its not that bad. Note: You are going to be be moving around your Evernote files. Step 1: Click on Applications, then Utilities and choose Disk Utility Step 2: Go to File, then New then Blank Disk Image Here is what it looks like so far. How to Email Your Documents Directly to Evernote.
Since making the decision to go paperless, I have gained a lot of experience with Evernote. It has become my digital filing cabinet for literally everything. As a result, I am now working in a clutter-free environment. Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/Pgiam Once you have organized Evernote for maximum efficiency, it is time to start filing your documents into Evernote’s digital repository. There are a number of tools for doing this. If you are just getting started with Evernote, I suggest that you buy Brett Kelly’s remarkably practical e-book, Evernote Essentials, 4.0. Yet, surprisingly, I have met many Evernote users who don’t even know this capability exists. Here are five steps you need to take to use this feature: Find your unique Evernote email address.
Start using it! Evernote is one of those applications that becomes more valuable the more you use it. Questions: Have you tried this feature with Evernote? Or upgrade to a self-hosted WordPress blog? How to Organize Evernote for Maximum Efficiency. Please note: The way I organize Evernote today is completely different than what I wrote here. You can find my updated methodology here. I have been using Evernote for months. However, I have not really taken time to explore the depth of this incredible program until just recently. I have mainly just used it for a place to store meeting notes and an occasional web clipping.
Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/STEVECOLEccs However, thanks to Brett Kelly’s very helpful e-book, Evernote Essentials, the Evernote user forum, and a little experimentation, I have begun to see the incredible power of this digital repository. It all begins by establishing a solid organizational structure. If you are just getting started with Evernote, I suggest that you buy Brett Kelly’s remarkably practical e-book, Evernote Essentials, 4.0. First, let’s define some terms: Notebooks: These are collections of individual notes. Perhaps my current structure—which is still a work in process—will serve as an example. How to Get Your Stuff into Evernote. It is no secret that I am a big fan of Evernote. It is one of those amazing tools that can radically boost your productivity. I use it probably more than any other program other than Mac Mail.
It has enabled me to realize my dream of a paperless office. But Evernote can also be initially intimidating. The program is so deep and feature-rich that new users hardly know where to start. It is like buying a Swiss Army Knife. I personally used it for two years for little more than typing meeting notes into it. If you are just getting started with Evernote, I suggest that you buy Brett Kelly’s remarkably practical e-book, Evernote Essentials, Second Edition. Now, after several months of really exploring the program, I have discovered ten different tools for getting my content into Evernote: Type It.
Record it. You don’t have to use all of these techniques, of course. Question: Which of these tools do you find yourself using the most? The Issue. From the time we are small, we are given tasks to perform, starting with “make your bed,” “clean your room,” “take out the trash,” and “be nice to your sister.” Once we attend school, those requests begin to increase as we are assigned homework and projects to complete. During high school and college we have further demands thrust upon us as we gain specific interests, hobbies and passions, and as our social calendar begins to fill. Invariably, we begin to collect enough pending items that we seek to organize them in some fashion. So we each kludge together a system to track all that we juggle in life, from those little things we need to accomplish today, to appointments, to items we need to remember to pick up downtown, to those larger projects in the coming months and then those larger, grander dreams we want to fulfill someday.
To add to the complexity of this, everyone manages multiple roles. Mismanaged Time The Secret Weapon is your way out. Going Paperless. Below is a condensed index of my weekly Going Paperless tips that I do in my capacity as Evernote’s Paperless Lifestyle Ambassador. These weekly tips are also available via RSS. Below the index are some supplementary posts I’ve done that may be of interest to folks. Looking to get started going paperless with Evernote? Sign up for free using this link and get one month of Evernote Premium free when you sign up. Category Index Here are links to lists of the Going Paperless articles by category. The full index of posts, ordered from most-recent, is listed below the categories. Going Paperless 2.0 Articles Full List of Original Going Paperless Articles Supplementary Posts My Shared Template Notebook For Evernote.
A Closer Look at How I Organize My Notes In Evernote. Of all of the questions I get in my capacity as Evernote’s ambassador for paperless lifestyle, the one asked most frequently is: “How do you organize your notes?” I’ve written on this subject before, way back in May, when I provided some tips on organizing your digital filing cabinet. But if I have learned one thing about note organization in the months since, it’s that it is an evolving process. At least, that’s the way it has been in my case. So this week, I thought I would dive into more detail on how and why I organize my notes the way I do, and in doing so, take a closer look at note organization in general.
A Caveat About Organization The question I get asked is “how do you organize your notes.” Defining Goals In my earlier post on the subject, I suggested that the very first step in note organization was defining your goals. In the months since I wrote that first post, my goals have evolved a little. At Its Most Basic Level, I Think of Evernote as a Timeline Documents. 9 tips for paperless meetings.