Evernote tips

You all know how much I love Evernote. I use it all day every day to corral ideas, lists, scanned documents and web pages. There are some advanced features that can really enhance your use of the service. A few of my favorites are listed below.

• Use the command key on your keyboard to select multiple notes, then merge them together, email them all at once, or move notebooks or add tags in batches.
• Create a saved search (Enter your search term, click on File, click on New Saved Search) to make a virtual smart notebook that will automatically update when you add a new note with that tag or keyword.
• Create a checklist by selecting the check box icon in the formatting toolbar of your note. Makes for a simple, interactive to-do list!

Apple apps

Apple's App Store recently announced it had its 25 billionth app download.  According to Apple, there are over 500,000 apps in the App Store. Besides the obvious apps that help iPhone and iPad users use frequently accessed sites like Facebook, Netflix and Pandora, how does one figure out which of those 500,000 apps are going to be useful and worth the time to learn them or the money to download them?

No person can be an total app expert, so I try to get recommendations from trusted associates when I'm looking for an app to meet a specific need. When that fails, I do a search for recommendations, and can usually narrow down the field by looking at a couple of review posts on reputable blogs like CNET or Lifehacker.

Evernote's app.

So...in that vein, here are a few apps that I can recommend from personal experience using them on my iPad:

• Evernote: This is probably an obvious choice, but the iPad interface works great, and I use it every day for all my lists.
• Yelp: I like this app because it uses your location to give you reviews and information for businesses of all types that are in the area where you are, and it even tells you if they are currently open or closed.
• TurboScan: A simple, inexpensive scanning app that actually works. Don't expect the scan quality to be as high as if you were using your ScanSnap, but it's good for scanning on the fly.
• LA Times: The Los Angeles Times has just started a membership program where they are charging for online access to the paper. However, for the time being, mobile devices will still be able to access the site for free. So, if you don't want to pay for a membership, grab the app and read it on your iPad. The usability is great, too.

Paperless tips

Here are a few paperless tips in preparation for my paperless organizing workshop, Take the Paperless Plunge, which I'm teaching Saturday, February 4, in Sherman Oaks, CA, through the Professional Organizer's Learning Academy of NAPO-LA.

• Don't have time to enter a business card into your contacts, but don't want to keep the card around until you do? Take a snapshot of it with your digital camera or the camera on your mobile device and save it to Evernote, or extract the data later at your convenience.
• Getting too many catalogs in the mail? Catalog Choice is a free service that can help you easily unsubscribe from catalogs.
• Paperless doesn't have to mean high-tech. Stop printing things. It will make a huge difference. 

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What's so great about Evernote?

I just did a search of this blog and realized that I've never blogged about Evernote, except for this brief mention. That changes today.

I'm going to quote from their website in order to set the stage, then just outline why I think Evernote is an indespensible tool.

Our goal at Evernote is to give everyone the ability to easily capture any moment, idea, inspiration, or experience whenever they want using whichever device or platform they find most convenient, and then to make all of that information easy to find. 

I use Evernote on my desktop computer and my mobile tablet. I capture recipes, articles, craft ideas, photos, lists, gift ideas, maps, products, things I find funny and things I find inspiring. I capture anything I think I might want to remember or access when I'm out and about, like the name of that wine I got one time that I really liked or a list of the kinds of pears my husband likes and the kinds he doesn't like.

I now use it for all of my to-do lists and lists in general, instead of Stickies, because Evernote syncs seamlessly, instantly and without having to do anything between my desktop and mobile device. I keep it open all the time and use it daily and have never gone over my free monthly quota, but I'm thinking of upgrading to a Pro account just because I like it so much ($5/month).

I rarely use the tags feature because their search function works so well; it always finds what I am looking for even if I have the merest of keywords to go on. I can scan anything directly from my ScanSnap S1500 to Evernote without having to go through middleman software or save screens.

I will be honest--it took me a couple of years to really start using Evernote consistently. Before I'd use a combination of saving PDFS, scans, Delicious bookmarks, etc. But when I did, it was like a door opened to more productivity-and I was pretty productive before!

Anyway, that's enough gushing for now. Let me know if you have specific questions about how to make Evernote work for you!

Creative Commons photo of pears posted to Flickr by Emilian Robert Vicol

Want help setting up your Evernote account?

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Gifts for someone who "wants to get organized"

Occasionally, you'll hear a friend or relative say that they've had enough with the chaos of their life and they "want to get organized." But what does getting organized mean to that person? They might mean they'd like to put all their stuff in a dumpster and start over, or they might mean they'd like to be able to find their keys in the morning on their way out the door.

So, here are some gift ideas for folks who've expressed the urge to get organized.

For the self motivated person, I recommend the book Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston. This is the book that got me into organizing in the first place and I'm a pretty self motivated person. It's inspiring and sensible and can help them really get the energy moving.

For the visual person who loves color and texture, colorful boxes or folders can be a fun way to inspire some office organization.

For the tech-savvy friend, gifting a year's pro account on Evernote might be much appreciated.

For parents whose kids' toys are driving them crazy, I recommend soft bins like these to contain toys and stuffed animals.

The only instances where giving a session with a professional organizer is appropriate, in my view, is when the person has expressly asked for it. If they say, "Gee, I'd really love to have a session with a professional organizer soon to help me organize my home office for the new year," then it would be okay to try to arrange for such a session. Otherwise, hiring a professional organizer is a personal thing, almost like finding a dentist or any other specialist that you would really trust and want to work with.

If you have a friend or family member who wants to get organized, and you want some more gift ideas, feel free to email me at lelah@lelahwithanh.com for a little free advice, or ask in the comments!

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Lisa Clarke

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Technology I'm thankful for

Thanksgiving is this Thursday. I'm thankful for so much great stuff in my life, it would take a really long blog post to document them all. So here are a few techy things that I'm thankful for that make my life and my work simpler.

• Gmail. I manage several email accounts and Gmail makes it easy to do it all from one portal. I love the labels and filters features, but most of all, I love the search function and the enormous amount of space I can take up, all for free. Gmail Labs also has some awesome add-ons that really enhance my use of basic Gmail.
• Goodreads. I really like being able to keep track of which books I've read by updating my Goodreads profile whenever I finish a book. It's a great holding place for books I want to read as well.
• Bento and Pages. These two Mac programs are a joy to use. Bento makes my financial and business tracking simple and easy to search, modify and combine. Pages makes any word processing document a pleasure to create.
• Evernote. Evernote creates searchable pdfs out of almost anything that you can look at on your computer. The free version has plenty of functionality for me, but the paid version is great, too. 

What are you thankful for this year?

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com