So my goal for this year is to be more productive at my work. Not necessarily produce more, but do it more efficiently and effectively. To that end, I have been reading up on productivity.
What tips, "tricks", or apps do you use to make your work life better. Pleas share them so that we can all do what we do better.
I'll start...I take all of my work notes in Evernote. I am trying to cut down on paper to decrease my desk clutter.
Similarly ... I request electronic files (docs, PDFs, etc.) for everything possible.
Anything which still comes in on paper I scan and discard.
And I have a small pile (of a much larger pile) of paperwork from "years gone by" which I review and scan/discard whenever I have a few idle moments.
This is my year to get rid of physical accumulations.
I like conciseness. A lot of my communications are via e-mail so I strive for five sentences or less when I am emailing. My reasons are two-fold. First, if I can't get my point across clearly in paragraph, then I need to rethink what I am trying to say. Second, with most people being able to access their communications on a mobile device, I try to keep the communication to a length that can be easily read on it.
If I need to say more than a paragraph's worth of thoughts, I consider a phone call or face-to-face meeting.
One word: EVERNOTE!!!!!!!!!!!
Similarly ... I request electronic files (docs, PDFs, etc.) for everything possible.
Anything which still comes in on paper I scan and discard.
And I have a small pile (of a much larger pile) of paperwork from "years gone by" which I review and scan/discard whenever I have a few idle moments.
This is my year to get rid of physical accumulations.
I think that's awesome, FG. I have slowly been chipping away at the paper piles too. I have a full 4 drawer file cabinet with 3/4 of that being medical documents!!! Ugh.
One word: EVERNOTE!!!!!!!!!!!
I am a huge Evernote fan. I am trying to incorporate it more be more into my daily workflow.
Gutsy, How do you use it? I'm always looking for new (or new to me) ways to use it.
I use it in a bunch of ways. It really connects my life from all corners.
I have a crazy diet so I've had to research recipes and develop my own cookbook based on what foods I can tolerate so that's all beautifully organized and tagged in evernote and I can cook in kitchen with my tablet or phone and not have to print recipes. I often take pics of a recipe I cooked and add it to my recipe in evernote so I can cook by sight next time and sometimes I even lay out the main ingreds on the counter, snap a pic of those, so I can just fly thru the kitchen to grab my ingreds and make the recipe without all the reading.
I save work and financial documents in evernote, helps come tax time. Also information I need at the doctors office like my medical history. I have separate notebooks like cookbook, healthcare, work, hobbies, church, admin,etc.
I also include lots of hobbies. Everything from shaving resources and hairstyles/wigs I like goes into the "hairstyles" sub-notebook of hobbies. Craft projects, music, writing projects, short stories and poetry, etc.
I have a notebook called Admin. I guess you could consider it Life Administration. Anything I need to access daily. Such as my to-do list, a list of contacts for medical stuff, work schedule, etc. Great to just have one spot for those essential notes frequently referenced.
So yup, that's how I use Evernote!