The brand new book from Jeremy Roberts takes the way you use Evernote to a whole new level.
It’s here! It’s here! It’s been a long time in the making, but my new book, Evernote Every Day, is finally here and available for you. It’s been quite the journey getting to this point. The book is the result of years of researching, testing, tweaking and analysis of how I use Evernote, every day.
Some time ago I discovered a new method of taking notes. One that seemed draw my attention to important points when reviewing them and allowed me to quickly remember the entire concept discussed at a glance. It is a method known as Sketch Notes. I was immediately drawn to it (pun intended) for its obvious visual appeal. Every idea, concept and process had the potential to be easily represented as one or more sketches on a page. The simplicity of these drawings made them incredibly easy to understand, at least for the person that drew them, and acted as a very powerful memory trigger.
The world of “grown ups” is littered with responsibilities. One of them, the one that constantly rears its ugly head over and over again is that of bills and finance. It seems like everyone wants a piece of us, that we are working just to pay the next bill. Every service provider you have – electricity, insurance, mortgage, phone etc – issues a bill to you at different times. This makes it seems as though there is always some bill that needs to be paid, and this sits in the back of your mind, eating away at you until the dreaded due date arrives. Then you might realise that it hasn’t been paid yet and scramble to make a payment before you receive another lovely letter in the mail letting you know that you now owe more money as a “administrative fee” to handle the late payment (it baffles me how some companies can justify such exorbitant late fees… for what?). And what if your simply unable to make a payment?
There has been plenty of discussion about Inbox Zero since Merlin Mann first presented the concept and yet it’s still relatively unknown as to what it actually is and how to achieve it. Merlin has blogged that Inbox Zero is not about emptying your inbox. That it is not about waiting for email to arrive so that you can do something about. He writes that it is a state of mind. A sense of freedom. That you are not your inbox.
Most sources agree that keeping a journal is great way to express yourself. It gives you the freedom to express yourself in any way that you like, in any way that resonates with you. A journal is a very personal object. While some people may choose to keep a journal for posterity, others will take their writing to the grave with them. So why then would I even consider writing about things that you should avoid when keeping your journal? Let me explain…
Sanebox has published an amazing list of 100 tips, tricks and hacks to help you get back in control of your email inbox and even get to inbox zero.
As with starting any new habit, the journal writing challenge is not without its own… challenges. One of the challenges I’ve found with journal writing by hand in my Evernote Moleskine notebook is that it doesn’t really let you add things like photos or clippings. For example, the other day I was at the park with my daughter and we were having a blast. At that moment I wanted to snap a photo and include it in my journal entry for the day, but then I realised that it couldn’t be done. Sure I could have printed the photo and then stuck it in, but then in a few months or years the photo would stick to the opposite page and rip. Not cool.
Have you ever been faced with a scenario that has really made you stop and think about who you are and the way you live? We go about our everyday lives as though nothing will ever change; as though what is now has always been and will always be.
The pace of daily life is incredibly fast. Often we do whatever we can to keep up, to get by, to be able to pay the bills, life can very quick pass us by. In fact, this has never been more true! With technology in our pockets wherever we go we often have our heads buried in a mobile phone and don’t even look up. There is a whole world flying by that we’re missing out on.
We’re all short on time and always looking for that next hack to make our tasks that much faster to process and complete. If you use Evernote then you’re already on your way to improving your productivity, but you still wanting more, aren’t you?
When I planned to start journaling with everyone I was immediately drawn to using a physical journal. I love to pick up a journal, thick with time, wisdom and experience, and know that it’s a part of my soul within the pages. But why go paper when everything today is digital?
