Extending Your Brain
“Oh for the simpler times and the simpler ways.” Have you ever said that? I know that if I haven’t said it, I’ve thought it. I know in the past I’ve heard my parents and grandparents say it. It really is a complex thought. What is it about the past that makes us think things were simpler? Speaking only for myself I know that before email, instant messaging, voice mail, video conferencing and the like, the only communication tools I had were writing letters and an occasional phone call — if it wasn’t long distance because “that was expensive.” What that also mean for those who lived in “simpler” times was that you had fewer “inputs.” Fewer things coming into your life at a moments notice that would cause you to have to make a decision. Today we have hundreds of inputs coming in to our lives everyday. Phone, email, voice mail, etc. In the old days you’d have maybe a letter or two a day, maybe a phone call and perhaps somebody stopping by the front door.
I am not saying that it was simpler before because we were less busy. There has always been plenty to do. What I am saying is that we spend more of our time than ever before processing many more inputs than we ever had to before…and unfortunately most of us aren’t well equipped to handle the increased load. Chances are you inbox is full, you have unreturned voice mails — or you are waiting on others to return your call or email — and you have long since given up trying to deal with all those inputs. Now a lot of that “stuff” as Solomon would call it, is meaningless. But, whether you know it or not, it still is a cause of stress. Our brains want to do everything, at the same time, and when we can’t it’s hard for us to be comfortable with that.
For me however I’ve found some assistance through technological tools that help me deal with those inputs. Those that follow my blog know that I try to use the productivity methodology called GTD or “Getting Things Done.” One of the tenants of that approach is to get everything off your brain and into a trusted system. I use Microsoft Outlook for a lot of that. But another tool that I find I spend a lot of time in is Evernote. I like it because it allows me to “extend my brain.” This brain extender allows me to save every thought, piece of content, etc. that I believe I might need to retrieve at some point in the future. It could be a blog post, meeting notes, restaurant review, voice memo to myself, task list item, an email from somebody, an idea, an official document, and the list goes on.
Evernote has been around for some time, but recently there was an excellent article in Inc. magazine describing its journey to the top of the productivity system heap. It’s worth a read: http://www.inc.com/magazine/201112/evernote-2011-company-of-the-year.html. There are three things I like best about Evernote:
- It is simple to use. Just open a new note and start typing. Or email something to it. Or cut and paste something. Or click the record button (either on the desktop app or mobile phone app) and say something. It can store pictures, documents, etc. usually with just the click of a button. It is just plain simple to use.
- It indexing everything making it very easy to find anything you’ve stored. Upload a PDF and it will scan it and allow you to search for any word in the doc. Even more impressive is it’s ability to scan text in a picture. So take a picture of a receipt, upload it and you’ll be able to search for text in the image. It really works.
- It’s all in the cloud AND on your computer/phone. Evernote can be configured to work locally (i.e. without Internet) and in the cloud and everything stays in sync. So no matter what your setup — mobile phone, iPad, Mac, PC, or other — chances are you will have access to all your stuff whether you have Internet or not at the time.
Evernote has a free version that is fully functional (except for the ability to scan PDFs for indexing). Although if you begin to use it store all your stuff, as I do, you will want to go for the Premium version which runs an affordable $45/year. Here is the info on what Premium gives you: http://www.evernote.com/about/premium/.
Today, if I need to find something or remember something I turn to Evernote and it will likely be there. That helps extend my brain and can assure it “hey, I’ve got that covered.”