Evernote Power User Volume 7 - Evernote Web Clipper

Doing research on the Internet can be a messy, unproductive thing. I have seen people take a pencil and paper to their computer and write down links and resources from the different websites.  Others, that are more advanced, will open a Word document and create a document for researching.  I find that both of these methods are flawed for researching as they are not good with some of the key things that make research useful, the ability to organize it and reference it.  The Evernote Web Clipper is an extremely powerful tool as allows multiple ways to capture the information from websites. Once you have it captured, you can use the power of Evernote to manage the information. 

1. Article - The article option recognizes the relevant portion of the web page and allow you to take a snapshot of it. 

2. Simple Article - This will place the webpage in a readable mode where all the ads and buttons are taken off the page and the all you are left with are the relevant content in a more readable page. 

3. Full Page - This is will take the full page that you are looking at without cropping anything out. 

5. Bookmark - This will simply place the bookmark of the current page into your Evernote with a small picture from the site and a heading. 

4. Screen Shot - The Screen Shot option pulls up a grid based pointer that allows you to select an area in the web page and take a picture of it. 

Get the Chrome extension here . 

Evernote Power User Volume 6 - Search Evernote Within Google Search

Evernote has a very power search feature. There are a number of things that you can do that will make searching within Evernote easier that I will cover in another blog.  Today's tip simply allows you to search your Evernote library when searching within Google using the Evernote Web Clipper:

1. While in Chrome go to the menu grid and go to Tools -> Extensions. 

2. Under the Evernote Web Clipper select "option" . 

3. Select the option to "Show Evernote content related to my web searches".

Evernote Power User Volume 5 - Note Template (Windows App)

I use Evernote to drive my entire day.  When I am at work, I am feeding Evernote information constantly and referencing old notes to stay productive.  I find that I add the same type of information consistently, so I found using templates as a fast way to create notes.  Doing it this way allows for clean and consistent notes. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Create a note that has elements that you need in your daily notes such as sections, grids, and tasks.

2. Export the note to a .enex file to the desktop. 

3. With the Evernote app pined to the task bar, drag the .enex file to the pinned shortcut.  This will allow you to the right-click on the Evernote app and create a note with the pinned template. 

Evernote Power User - Volume 4 - The "Take Action" Tab

When you become a heavy user of Evernote, you will notice that your notes quickly pile up. The challenge with creating notes on the go is managing the use of the notes.  There are notes that need to be archived for later use such as a receipt.  There are others , like a business idea, that need to acted on in a timely manner.  There is an easy solution for differentiating this, and this is the "Take Action" tag.  The strategy works as follows: 

- Create a tag called "Take Action".

- Create a shortcut for the "Take Action" tag.

- Create a note.

- If the not is something that you will need to take action on soon, place the tag "Take Action" on it.

- Schedule a time , daily , to go through the items in the "Take Action"

- Remove the tag once action has been taken. 

Protecting your Smartphone without Otterboxing

Regardless if you are buying your phone subsidized or out-right, it is expensive. The modern smart phone cost (excluding the one plus one) cost between $600 and $800.  The fact is these are sophisticated computers that have been packaged for the consumer.  The problem with this is that people don't often respect the fragility of them until they lay before them with a broke screen.  This is most apparent when you go to the mall and you see them in back pockets.  

The other side of this, is that most people don't want to carry around a case that is built to stop bullets and feels like it. Here are some tips to find that middle ground: 

1. Buy a glass screen protector -Pretty much any phone that  you buy is going to Gorilla Glass which prevents scratches and does a good job of doing so.  The Gorilla Glass alone however does not protect from all scratches and will not protect from most drops. I am not a fan of plastic screen protectors as they negatively affect the the feel and look of the screen. Glass screen protectors  ,like the ones from iloom, increase the protection to your screen without bringing down the quality of the experience. 

2. Stop carrying the phone in your back and front pockets - These should be obvious , but they are not!

3. Buy a lot of cases - I think that people get tired of their phone cases and want that premium look and feel of their naked phone. This often is followed by the immediate drop to the pavement.  Get a bunch of cases so that you keep the new feel to your phone and maintain protection as well. 

Using a Smartwatch to Increase Productivity

There is a lot of talk about the new wearable technology that is out there.  If you listen to most of the reviews you hear about how smart watches are useless.  They talk about how the price is way too high and the technology is in its infancy.   I have a different opinion.  I think that there are clear ways to make the a smartwatch fit into your life that warrants the price: 

1. Using a voice note - As busy as we are we are only as good as our last good idea.  These ideas usually don't come when you are on the computer ready to jot them down. They usually come in the middle of traffic while your mind wonders.  Hitting the voice memo button on your smart watch and capturing those ideas are a great way to not let great ideas fade.  

2. Using it as a back up alarm - There is going to come a time when your trusted smartphone is going to crash while you sleep and will not ring the alarm in the morning. This is not going to happen on a Saturday, when you have no real obligations.  This is going to happen when you have that important interview at your dream job.  Using your smartwatch you can ensure that you will be up and ready at those crucial moments. 

3. Save phone battery life -  Despite the fact that the smartwatches use battery life of your smartphone by connecting through bluetooth, it saves you a considerable amount of battery life. The savings come mostly with the fact that you are not checking the phone constantly when a notification comes in.  I find that I keep my phone i n my pocket more often because I can check my watch for my notification and only pull out my phone for the important things. 

My point? Buy a smartwatch! 

Put Your Phone Away! - Android Notifications on Your Desktop

When going into the office, I often find that people's biggest distracting is their phone. I see people constantly checking their smartphone as they look as they work.  This is often because they are looking and responding to notifications that makes their phone buzz on their desk.  Since not all notifications are created equal, people will often waste time, taking their attention away from what they're working on to look at a Candy Crush Saga request. These minutes that we lose every time this type of thing happens can be a real drain to our overall productivity. 

The answer to this dilemma is an application called PushBullet.  PushBullet's main functionality is to allow you to move links from one device to another.  It has a secondary feature where it will allow you get your notifications that come to your show up on your computer . 

This can be done by simply installing the application on your android device and and also on your Chrome browser.  When the notification comes in , it displays on your computer that also allows you to dismiss the notification from your android device. 

Now useless notifications can be recognized while staying locked into your task at hand.