Evernote, convenience, and habits

I was recently catching up on some of my favorite blog stops, and just read an article from a few months back on the Success Begins Today blog, where John talks about the lovely marriage that is Evernote+iPad 2.  John and I are usually of like mind, and our fondness for Evernote is no exception.

Background

I'm a long-time user of Evernote which, if you aren't familiar with it, is an excellent capture and recall tool for storing all kinds of digital information.  You can take pictures of things and add them as a note, you can type things in, you can forward emails and PDF's to it, and much more.

Everything you send to Evernote gets indexed and stored in your account on its cloud-based service.  Once the information is indexed, you can quickly retrieve it based on tags, location, or keyword searches (it will even convert text in pictures to a searchable form - it is awesome for retrieving pictures you've taken on whiteboard diagrams with lots of text on them).

Evernote offers a robust free account, as well as a subscription option (faster indexing of your files, and more monthly storage - most people will be fine with the free version).

Evernote makes it easy to collect and interact with this data - you can run desktop clients on your computer, access it in a web browser, or from mobile clients on most tablets or smartphones.  Very simple.

Challenges

For me, the hardest things with adopting Evernote were:

1. Developing the habit of using Evernote
   • The number of clients available for Evernote (see above) makes this easier but, like with any new process, it took me a while to develop the habit of entering my notes into Evernote.  I wish there were some magic potion that would make this easy, but I don't know of one.
   • One thing that can help is to ditch your paper notepad for a while so you are encouraged to take notes directly into Evernote.
2. Taking notes directly into Evernote in meetings
   • There were a couple of problems in this area:
     • first, my computer was a bit bulky so I didn't carry it around to all my meetings;
     • second, the soft keyboard on my phone or iPad were kind of a pain to type on and I ended up spending more time concentrating on finger typing than I did on the contents of the meeting.
   • The best solution I found for this was to get the Zagg ZaggFolio for my iPad 2.  This is a combination iPad 2 case and Bluetooth keyboard.  When I use this in combination with the Evernote iPad app, I can use my touch-typing skills to easily take notes in my meetings.  The iPad's 10-hour battery life plus the long life of this keyboard (I charge it every month or two) makes this a much better alternative than my laptop.

So, if you're looking for a great way to centralize all your meeting notes, easily retrieve them, and you have an iPad, I think this is a great solution.

Choices and forcing functions

I'm going through a strategic planning process right now.  It's very liberating - you can start to redraw the boundaries, constraints, and reassess the pre-existing conditions of your business.

One of the challenges is not trying to commit to doing too many things.  A long time ago, I realized something that seems counterintuitive, at first glance:

Sometimes you have to limit your choices to expand your opportunities.

What I mean is you need to force yourself to focus on fewer things so each one of your focus areas receives sufficient investment to allow it to succeed and thrive.  One of the mistakes I see companies make (lots of them, not just mine) is to spread themselves too thin.

We often think of a "shotgun" approach as hedging our bets.  In a way, that's true, but dividing your organization's attention across too many different initiatives more often results in frustration and failure.

So, what can you do?

Some techniques can help:

• Drive to your top 5. You have lots of options, and you probably have a group of people you need to get on board with your priorities and commitments.  Getting a group to agree on a short list is challenging, so your first step should be to try to get to reasonable alignment with five target areas.
• Get clear on your top 3. This will take a while, but if you can get the group to agree on the top 3 areas of focus, that is real progress.
• Drop the bottom 2. Now that you know your top 3, it's time to say "no" to everything below those.  It will be a test of your mettle, but it's important.
• Pick your #1. You've got a list of 3 important things - now, pick the one that is the most important.  It will be your cornerstone.
• Align your resources to your #1. Allocate at least 67% of your resources, time, etc. to your #1 priority (that's a minimum - allocating more to #1 is even better).  The remaining 1/3 of your resources can be budgeted to the remaining 2 items (the mix there is less important, as long as you don't ever allow your commitment to #1 to drop below 67%.
  • I realize you may not be able to make the shift all at once, but give yourself an aggressive deadline, then plan and execute to have the resource shift in place by the deadline.
• Hold the line. The old saying, "No pain, no gain," holds true here - it will be a difficult transition but well worth it in terms of focus and execution.

This transition can be a very liberating one, if you do it deliberately.  There is huge value in setting clear guidelines to drive decisions of what's in, and what's out - especially when it comes to how everyone in the organization spends their precious time and the company's precious money.

Anything to add or challenge from your experiences? I'd love to hear it.

One thing missing from the Mac: ClearContext

In the past, I've written a lot about Getting Things Done (GTD) and my journey with it.  One of the shining points along the way was finding ClearContext, which is an Outlook add-in for WIndows that transforms how you can use GTD with Outlook. I've written a lot about ClearContext, as well.

As you may also know, I switched to the Mac about a year ago and one of the hardest things to do without has been ClearContext.  I'm now using Outlook 2011 for Mac, but it apparently isn't quite as extensible as the Windows version of Outlook (I'm hoping Microsoft addresses this crippling limitation in future release of Outlook for the Mac).

Anyway, if you are looking for an awesome product to help you up your game with GTD, I encourage you to check out ClearContext.  Their latest release (which a few of my colleagues are using) has a lot of new functions to help automate a lot of the categorization, filing, and other kinds of mundane tasks so you can better focus on getting your work done efficiently.

If you've never looked at ClearContext, start with the intro video before, then head over to the ClearContext site for a free trial.  If you've looked at ClearContext before but not acted, give it a second look.

And Microsoft:  If you're listening, please open up Outlook on the Mac to enable fantastic products like ClearContext.

Shift: 13 Exercises to Make You Who You Want to Be

I've just finished a new book called "Shift," by Takumi Yamazaki.  I hadn't heard of the author before, but apparently he is a very well-known Japanese author who's sold over 800,000 books and is a self-made millionaire.

The subtitle of Shift is "13 Exercises to Make You Who You Want To Be," and I think that's a very appropriate description of what you'll find inside.  This book is essentially a set of guided thought sessions to help you identify your goals and set specific plans in motion to achieve them.  In each section of the book, you will find a set of stories and advice, accompanied by short (but very deep) exercises to focus your mind and get you to write your thoughts down.

SHIFT

Each section is described in terms of a "Shift," through which you change your outlook on life.  For example, the Shift 2 deals with thinking about how your perspective and preconceived notions can limit your success.  Shift 2 is accompanied by an exercise in which you examine situations in which you feel you weren't able to do something - one example given in the book is:

• "I had plans so I wasn't able to go to the party on Sunday."

You then rewrite the statement in which you describe it in as a choice:

• "I didn't want to go to the party - I chose not to go."

Pretty simple, right?  This exercise is similar to ones I've done before, and I always find it a bit jarring, yet empowering to realize I really do choose what I will or won't do over 90% of the time in my life.  This reminded me of a saying from a friend of mine: "Pretend you create everything that happens to you. Now, decide you will create better things for yourself."  It really changes how you approach life to think of things this way.

The other 12 Shifts are compelling, too.

Exercise your mind

The point of Yamazaki's book is to help you reframe your approach and (hopefully) achieve better outcomes that align with what you really want.  I have been trying to get back on the Getting Things Done (GTD) bandwagon, and I find that Shift puts me in a frame of mind where I'm able to come up with better Next Actions.

Also, this book is a good reminder that you don't have to go it alone - one of the cool things about this book is that many of the exercises include special instructions on how to apply the Shifts in this book as part of a group.  I think this would be a fun book to explore with a book club or a group of friends.

Shift is easy to read and has a lot of interesting visuals.  The exercises are the main attraction, though, and I highly recommend Shift to anyone who wants to take control of what's going on in their life.

Get It Done, by the book

The other day I got my hands on Stever Robbins' book, "Get-It-Done Guy's 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More (Quick & Dirty Tips)," which is a great collection of tips & tricks to be more productive.

When I picked up the book, I was wondering how this aligned with David Allen's "Getting Things Done."  Turns out it's very complementary - GTD is focused mostly on how to collect, capture, and organize the things you want to do so you can pick your activities based on context, energy, importance, etc - you still need that, even with Robbins' book.

So what is Robbins' book about, then?  While it does have some overlap in terms of defining life goals, priorities, and "purpose" stuff, much of Robbins' book deals with tactics to help you free up more time to be productive - how to overcome procrastination, how to get better at saying "no," how to block out distractions so you can focus, and those sorts of things.

Practical and fun to read

Robbins' style is very conversational, making it an easy read.  He also has a lot of quirky stories and memes going on (hint: zombies abound).  In the midst of the quirkiness, there are a lot of sound ideas - and he illustrates them with stories from his life.  For example, there is a section on "baby chunks" which is a strategy to break daunting tasks down into smaller, more manageable pieces.  He discusses how he used this approach in writing his book, and I found it easier to understand the techniques involved because of this concrete example.

Likewise, he illustrates most of his concepts with real stories you can identify with (except for the zombies, of course).

So, you may be wondering, "What are the 9 steps?"  Let me fill you in:

• Step 1: Live on Purpose, deals with identifying you top-level life priorities;
• Step 2: Stop Procrastinating, offers tips to get your butt in gear and do the things you're avoiding;
• Step 3: Conquer Technology, which helps you figure out ways to prevent technology from hijacking your productivity, as well as how to use technology to help you get through your tasks more quickly;
• Step 4: Beat Distractions to Cultivate Focus, is perhaps my favorite chapter, and it deals with how to establish an environment / habits that will help you focus more (you might also want to look at my post on how to focus in a cubicle environment, if you have trouble focusing on your tasks);
• Step 5: Stay Organized, which helps you implement systems to support a more organized life;
• Step 6: Stop Wasting Time, which is mostly about how to identify your leverage points - the 20% that's most important in your 80/20 life;
• Step 7: Optimize, which has some very interesting tips to help make time-consuming or mundane tasks more efficient, and even "outsource" them to others if you can;
• Step 8: Build Stronger Relationships, which is about doing the care & feeding of relationships to make your life more meaningful and create a network that can support your efforts when you need help;
• Step 9: Leverage, which is partially about automating things to give you more power over getting them done, but also a lot about how to use your skills to their best advantage to increase your personal value.  Leverage is also about how you can tap into the strengths of others to move past your own limitations.

In summary, I got a lot out of this book and found it to be very practical.  Through this book, I also discovered the "Get-It-Done Guy's Tips & Tricks" site, which is loaded with great ideas.

If you're looking for a good way to refocus your energy on being more productive, you won't go wrong with this book.

Get Cozi with your family

I've just jumped into a service called "Cozi," which is a free online tool you can use to coordinate all the crazy commitments across your family.

I've got three kids, all with busy school and sports schedules (especially in the fall) and I travel a lot.  That means it is a delicate symphony of schedule coordination to make sure everyone gets where they need to be, everyone gets picked up when they should be, and collisions are well understood ahead of time.

When I heard about Cozi, I had to go see what it was about.  I'm still way early in the adoption process, but it is impressive so far.  As you can see at right, there are a lot of features includes with your free Cozi account.  The cool thing about this is you can provide logins to each person in your family, and they can create their own events as well as "assign" tasks to others (for example, adding "Milk" to the shopping list, or adding "Take out the trash" to one of your kids' To Do list).

Master your schedules

Entering appointments is easy.  For example, I can enter "<kid's name> Soccer Practice every Tuesday and Thursday until November 1," and Cozi creates the series correctly on the right person's calendar.  Pretty cool.

But the calendaring is even more powerful than that - you can link it to web calendars, there's an add-in to sync with Outlook, and there is a very well executed iPhone app (other mobile phones can get to a special Mobile web view that is also easy to use.

Everyone's calendar is color coded (you can choose the colors) so it's easy to print out a master calendar or check it out online and tell who's doing what.

The calendaring system can send reminders to the right person's mobile phone, if you so desire, making it easy to keep people on schedule.

Lists for everyone

The To Do lists are very flexible.  You can create shared lists (for example a Grocery list) that show up on everyone's radar, or create individual lists that can be selectively shared with others (so you can keep that Christmas shopping list between you and your spouse).

But wait - there's more

There are other features I haven't dabbled in yet, including a Family Journal for capturing "baby book" like memories, pictures, and other things you want to remember (think of it as a family blog).  Apparently, this can be used to publish articles for sharing with extended family, and even publicly if you choose.  I don't have experience with it yet, but it looks pretty cool.

The journal also feeds into a dynamic screen saver that shows photos and upcoming commitments on your screen when your screen saver is active.

I must say, I'm very impressed for a free service (I'd be impressed with this as a fee service, for that matter).  If you want to know more, head over to Cozi's web site for more information, including a short overview video of Cozi.