Cactus Juice

iPad Series: Life Management with Awesome Note, Evernote and More

Awesome Note is a visually stimulating full-service action item and non-standardized calendar application which I use to manage my life.  If you snuck a peak at my iPad at any time of the day, this is what you would most likely see on the screen.

First, let's talk about what Awesome Note doesn't do.  It doesn't integrate with other calendar applications using the calDEV standard (things like Google Calendar, Outlook, etc.).  The reason I have not selected a calDEV application is because the only cloud sync calendar available for free* is Google Calendar, and Google Calendar is in beta.  It is not reliable.  Put in a repeating appointment on Tuesdays and have it show up on Wednesday or put in an item at 5PM and have it show up at 6PM; these are things which have happened to me.

In return for giving up calDAV (which was going to have problems no matter what), what I get is full integration with Evernote.  This allows me to be very close to the most important thing in electronic document management: having a Single Source of the Truth.  By searching in Evernote, I can find everything else I have saved into Evernote in addition to what is in Awesome Note.  If you have been meticulous about keeping everything in Evernote (and I have been!), this gives you one place to find every document and idea you have recorded about any subject.  This is Fortune 500 level information management, and it is now available to every individual with $5.00 a month to spend on Evernote.  Awesome Note just takes that information and makes it even more useful and way more awesome looking.  Here is how the Awesome Note data looks in Evernote (my chicken-scratch privacy marks make it look even uglier than the ugly that it is):

     

AwesomeNote isn't the only iPad app for action items that integrates with Evernote, but it is the one which meets my needs the best.  I was looking for something simple.  Because of how Awesome Note presents information, it is the easiest to use if you don't want to create an indivdual item for each and every action.  For most projects, I create just one note with the Next Action as the name of the note.  The rest of the project is listed in the note itself.  If I have a complex project that I would like to calendar out, I can make a folder for my project and divide up my actions into individual notes.  By creating contexts and tagging the note (e.g., @errands) and using the search function on Awesome Note, I have a fully functioning Getting Things Done system.**

As a calendar***, Awesome Note allows a created date, a due date, and an alarm.  The items shows up in calendar view on the created date if there is no due date (for example, meeting notes or a to do without a due date set) or if it is an action with a due date it shows up on the due date.  When you open the list for the folder and sort it by date, the dated items show up first, then the undated actions, and the completed actions at the end (a lot of actions I just delete rather than mark completed, others can be group-searched in Evernote and moved into an archive folder in Evernote periodically).  The date requires a time, which means that Awesome Note can be used as a fully functioning daily agenda calendar.  The downside to this is that you have to put in a time even if you don't know it.  If it is an event where the time was in question, I tend to write something about the time inside the note so that I know that I truly have the event time (or don't).  Also, only a start time is provided; if you want an end time you have to write it into the note.  Awesome Note does allow for repeating appointments, though you have to set them up in the form of a task and only the current iteration shows up on the calendar.  I have made it a practice to set the items as a calendar and just re-schedule my repeating appointments during my weekly review.

You can create and edit items in Evernote and sync the edits back to Awesome Note.  I add Evernote items (for example, scanned event fliers or saved emails that I want to turn into calendar items) to the Awesome Note "in box" to prompt me to format and organize them in Awesome Note the next time I sync.  This also means that if you sync regularly your Awesome Note information is available everywhere and on every device simply by looking in Evernote.

Awesome Note also makes a wonderful diary or even a scrapbook.  I use Olive Tree for my daily Bible reading, which has a verse selector allowing the reader to easily bring Bible verses over to my Awesome Note diary.  Another user reports using it to keep photo journals for her small children. You can include items such as web clipping and photographs in notes.  Check out the Awesome Note web site for some screen shots.  You can also lock individual folders for added privacy (downside: notes in locked folders will not show up in all notes).

In Awesome Note, you can set the color of each folder and how the notes look and how they are ordered.  Each folder retains its settings and looks the same the next time you open it.  You can also set a default template note for each folder, and a default view for the folder.  Above is how I have set up my standard All Notes view.  Most of the day, this is what I'm looking at on my iPad.  Below are a couple of other folder views.

   

I usually use the longways view because it maximizes the folder and item lists that can be seen.  Turn the iPad sideways and you can see indivdual notes next to the note list for a folder.  This is convenient for flipping through the notes quickly.

 

Or in the previous orientation the note just opens over the list.

 

Awesome Note doesn't have a PC or Mac package, but you can edit the notes in Evernote and sync them back into Awesome Note.  You can also create notes in Evernote inside the Awesome Note folders and they will show up in Awesome Note after you sync.

There are three other programs I use to round out my life management system:

• iThoughtsHD.  I never was a mindmapping person before, but the mindmap is a perfect fit with the iPad.  iThoughts exports in its format, into a standard mindmap format, into PDF, and into text outline.  It syncs with Box.net (free).  It is great for high-level "40,000 ft" life planning.  Or low level planning: I have my packing list on a mind map.
• BugMe!  I've used BugMe since the days of Palm Pilots.  It is great for short-term notes.  For example: You are writing an email and get a call which gives you an action item for immediately after the email.  You don't want to forget, so you make a quick BugMe note and maybe set a five minute reminder.
• Timer+.  Allows you to see multiple countdown timers.  Think Thanksgiving dinner prep.

And there you have it: the life of loafingcactus on the iPad! 

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*There are rumors that Apple's me.com may be free by the end of 2011. I have no information or opinion about the validity of those rumors.

**After I wrote this post Awesome Note added tags and progress status options.  The tags do not sync into Evernote tags.  I see this as a feature because I don't want these tags mucking up my Evernote tags, but other GTD users probably will not agree.  You can still search by tag in Evernote because the tag name is in the note.  They also added view selections such as "Today" inside a list without the calendar present on the screen.  This takes the GTD functionality to an entirely new level.

**The calendar builds when you open it.  So if you then change items under the calendar, you won't see the changes on the calendar until you close and re-open it (click the calendar button twice).

Updated: Going Paperless

This is going to be a nuts-and-bolts about how I've gone paperless in my house.  That's right, except for a couple of items that I'm required to keep for three years on paper for taxes per my employer (but not per the IRS as best as I understand the regulations; check with your tax specialist because the government is doing a lot to help everyone go paperless) I have not created a single file folder in my house since I went paperless.  I have two file cabinets, one that I am working on scanning back and emptying and the other that is full of genealogy originals that will be kept on paper forever and ever amen.

Going paperless has required three main tools.  The first is Evernote.  The paid version is what you need and it is only $5.00/month.  Evernote does something different from what a file back-up and sharing system like Box does or what a note organizing system like Microsoft OneNote does, although both programs are essential to managing my digital life, as is a photo organizing cloud system (I use Flickr).  At this point I'm almost entirely in the "cloud."  My laptop is a box; if it got run over by a truck I could grab another laptop and be ready to go.

Evernote has a "we're not responsible" tone (frequently those exact words) to their error/operating messages and I have experienced the same in my two interactions with their customer service (the email thread reads like a farce, I might have to post it someday), but they appear to have done a good job handling a server failure that occurred in the late summer of 2010 so I wouldn't write off their corporate culture just yet.  But don't trust that they will help you when you need help either.  Also they are still a baby-venture and there's nothing to guarantee their success.  However, their desktop program allows you to completely copy your data onto a local drive (while still having it available across other computers, a web login, your smart phone and your ipad) so there is no chance your data can go down with Evernote.  You'll be able to use it locally on Evernote forever or move it to another system at your leisure.

The second tool is the Canon P-150 "scan-tini" scanner (also available for Mac).  I did a lot of comparison shopping and I am very happy with my choice.  This scanner is powered entirely through your USB connection, with a second USB-to-power connecter or AC adabtor if you need extra power.  The extra power really speeds things up for 600 dpi double-sided, but since you shouldn't be scanning at that high of a resolution for routine document storage the one USB connector does what you need 99% of the time.  This is the ultra-portable answer; the only thing that would make it better would be if I could scan directly into an ipad.  If you have to save your paper to go back to a central location then you are not paperless; a portable solution is required!

I also had a Magic Wand stick scanner.  This has been replaced with a better smart phone camera and JotNot.  JotNot is more that able to turn full-size journal pages into readable PDFs.

The third essential a second screen.  Being paperless means more screens.  For example, you may go through your paper bills in a stack next to your computer screen with the financial management program of your choice up.  You can stack and arrange windows to make this work, or you can just have Evernote up on that second screen while you're in your financial management program on your first screen.  Ditto for writing a research paper (in that case, for me, it is OneNote up on that second screen too) or any other activity that used to involve a stack of paper next to the computer.  Depending on what programs you are using, the iPad may be effective as that second screen, either on it's own or using one of the applications which make it act as a screen extension on your computer.

Now you are ready to go paperless!  You'll be able to set up a scanning folder on your computer to be automatically emptied into Evernote.  You want to set up as few folders as needed and as few tags as needed.  Don't set up folders or tags for things you can search for!  You need to set up "an "Inbox" folder where all your scans land.  My folder is called "aaa" so it will always be at the top.  Aside from that I just have a folder "library" for publically available items that I feel comfortable sharing with close members of my family and folder "history" for everything else.  Eventually when my hard drive fills up "history" could be split, backed up, and removed from my harddrive (it would still be searchable on the web tool). I will probably have to put my local copy onto an external hard disk as it gets larger.  The web tool is almost to the point where one doesn't necessarily need to the local copy, except that the data is so important I don't think I would do without.  However, one could operate on the web tool primarily and just drag out the hard drive to update the back up periodically.

Let's sort your mail.  Your mail probably has:
-Fliers and newsletters.  Mark down any action items and scan and shred.  If you really want to keep your newsletter around to read, mark it "scanned" so you know you can throw it away after you scan it.
-Bills.  Scan and shred and tag "pay".  If relevant, also tag "taxes" (you don't have to tag the year because it saved the year you scanned it... at the turn of the year you can just adjust that to make it land in the right year).  Now you have a file you can go through when you do your electronic bill pay (you do electronic bill pay, right?).  Sometimes a few stubs and envelopes have to be saved for paper checks.  Since I have so little paper, I just mark them "scanned" and put them in a desk drawer.  When I pay the bills I change their tag to "paid."
-Catalogs.  They probably have a website?  Scan the page with your customer number and the website info and put in the recycling.
-Magazines and newspapers.  As I read them I either rip out the articles I want to scan or log-in to download the articles to Evernote (much smaller files).  For magazines that have a lot I might want to find again I just rip out the table-of-contents and scan that.  I can always find the article again in a library if I truly want it.

Remember that you do not need to tag this stuff!  If you want to find the article about the Grand Canyon again, you're just going to search for "Grand Canyon".

What about your own notes?  I used to take a lot of notes on paper while I'm reading and I'm a huge journal-keeper (though now more likely on the iPad than on paper).  I keep these notes for as long as they are immediately relevant, then scan and shred.  Slowly I'm going back through my history and catching up.  That 50 pound box of childhood journals I've been lugging around since I was 18?  Someday it will scanned and shredded.  Your printing will be searchable; your handwriting might be searchable.  I print keywords in the margins.

Their are a few other inputs into Evernote:
-You can type directly into Evernote on your computer, the website, or smartphone.
-You can drag and drop anything from your computer (although only supported items will be searchable, and almost everything is supported).
-You will get an email address that allows you to email into Evernote.  I used to read my email on my blackberry and then sort it _again_ on my desktop.  Now I read on my blackberry iPad and forward anything that requires more attention or needs to be saved to my history to my Evernote inbox.  You can also use email to save journal thoughts, action items, whatever you need.
-You can save from Microsoft Outlook directly into Evernote.
-You can forward or write tweets to Evernote.
-On a computer with the desktop client, you can left-click on any website and forward it to Evernote. (Go to the "print" version of the page if possible.)
-You can send pictures from your smartphone or iPad.  For example, you can take a picture of a flier and it will be searchable in Evernote.  I sometimes photograph small newspaper articles or at the bookstore I'll photograph books that interest me.
-You can send a voice-to-text message to Evernote.  I think it's 5 per month that are free; then you need a paid account.  This is one of the many vendor add-ins available in the Evernote "Trunk."

The Evernote upload limit has been enlarged can be a little restricting.  You can save literally thousands of websites and other text items, but I hit the scanning limit early in the month.  300pdi lets you save 10s or 100s more items than 600pdi will allow.  If one did happen to hit the limit, Evernote allows you to save your overage (or stuff you just don't want to put on the web) in a local-only folder, but it's not backed up.  I have scanned as much as possible working on backlog and have not been able to exceed the new limit.

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Originally posted 19 September 2010.
Updated 21 May 2011.