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Evernote search just got easier. Well, sorta

November 14, 2012 by David M. Ward

Although I use it extensively, I don’t write much about technology. One reason is that by the time I’m up to speed on a new piece of software or hardware, it’s usually old news. One exception is Evernote, my favorite tech tool.

I’ve written before about how I use Evernote for everything from note taking to writing to managing all of the information in my personal and professional life. I also use it for Getting Things Done (GTD).

In fact, so great is my love for Evernote, I wrote a book about it: Evernote for Lawyers: A Guide to Getting Organized & Increasing Productivity.

I included in the book’s resources an extensive list of Evernote’s “Search Operators”–the syntax used by Evernote to find notes. These search operators are powerful but can be difficult to remember, so many of us use “Saved Searches,” another Evernote feature that comes in handy, especially with complex searches. But Saved Searches don’t help when you’re looking for something for the first time.

I just found an alternative that looks promising. BitQwik is free software (for PC’s and Mac’s that can run Windows) that serves as a front end portal for searching your Evernote database using natural language. That is, you don’t have to remember precise search operators to find something. Instead, you can use a regular query, much like you would ask Siri.

Here are some examples, from the BitQwik web site:

“Show me notes created between May 1st and March 15 that are tagged with robotics, surgical robots, or telepresenceâ€
â€œI want notes sent to me via the E-mail gatewayâ€
â€œFind my encrypted notes that have the words financial data or private in the title but leave out notes I created yesterdayâ€
â€œGive me notes with pictures from Skitchâ€

I usually find notes in Evernote by browsing tags and using a few simple search operators. But as my database has grown to over 5,000 notes, I find myself relying more on search, and BitQwik looks like it might be just what the doctor ordered.

I just downloaded BitQwik, so I don’t have a lot to report just yet. If it pans out, I could see Evernote adopting this technology, and that would be great because I don’t like the idea of using yet another piece of software. But I’m not holding my breath because everything Evernote does has to work on ten platforms, not just one, and that doesn’t happen overnight.

If you’ve tried BitQwik, let me know what you think. You can add your comments below, or join me on the Evernote Forum.

Get your copy of Evernote for Lawyers. Unless you don’t want to be organized and productive.

Filed Under: Law office management, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: BitQwik, complex-search-in-evernote, evernote, evernote-for-lawyers, evernote-search-operators, getting things done, gtd

How to clean up your messy desk or messy mind

August 29, 2012 by David M. Ward

I was reading an article, “10 Simple Steps to Conquering Your Messy Desk,” and there are some good tips in it. Things like, “Use your walls” (cork board or white board), “Lose the paper trail” (scan paper documents and trash the original), and “Schedule daily maintenance” (10 minutes at the end of the day to tidy up).

My favorite is,”Files are your friend: If it’s a completed or upcoming project, file it away. . .If it’s ancient or obsolete, trash it. If it’s something you’re actively working on that day, it can stay in a file folder on top of your desk.”

It occurred to me that our desks get messy the same way our minds get messy–we’re trying to keep track of too many things.

I’ve written before about why people have messy desks:

Un-piling your desk isnâ€™t difficult. I think the hard part for some people is the notion that if they file something away, they wonâ€™t remember a task they need to do or they wonâ€™t remember where they filed something they need. Ironically, thatâ€™s exactly what their mess of a desk does.

The solution is to have a system that (a) allows you to remember what you need to do, and (b) lets you quickly find what you have filed when you need it.”

The path to a clean desk (or digital desktop) and a “mind like water” is to put everything away, out of sight and out of mind, and trust your system. Focus on the one thing you have decided to do next, and nothing else:

Take out the one thing you have decided to work on, and nothing else.
Work on this task until it is done, if possible, or as far as you can go if it is not.
If the task is done, cross it off your list. If a project is complete, file it away in an archive.
If the task or project is not done, put the documents away and make a note regarding the next step. Put a reminder on your calendar or in your tickler system or keep it on your list and review that list during your weekly review or daily planning session.
Take out the next thing you’re going to work on.
And so on.

Do you have some tips for conquering a messy desk or messy mind? Please post them in the comments.

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: clean-up-your-cluttered-desk, cleaning-up-messy-desk, desk-messy, evernote, getting things done, gtd, how-to-clean-a-messy-desk, how-to-clean-my-desk-mess, how-to-clean-up-a-cluttered-desk, how-to-clean-up-a-messy-mind, how-to-make-a-mess-on-the-desk, messy desk, messy-desk-messy-mind, messy-desk-mind, messy-mind, mind like water, my-minds-a-mess-how-to-clean-it-up

How to be more productive by killing time

July 6, 2012 by David M. Ward

Being more productive helps us earn more and work less (or waste less time).Â That’s why I use and write about the systems (e.g., GTD) and tools (e.g., Evernote) that improve productivity.

But I will be the first to admit that being productive is not the number one objective. It’s being happy.

We want to be more productive because doing so makes us feel good. Not just the results of being more productive but the feeling we get in the process of doing so.Â It feels good knowing that we are being effective (getting the right things done) and efficient (getting things done right).

But sometimes, “too much of a good thing is not a good thing”.

Most productivity experts advise us to make the best use of our time, all the time. If we’re at the doctor’s office and we have 15 minutes before our appointment, we should use that time to review a file or write notes for something we’re working on. On our way to and from court or an appointment we should make calls or dictate a letter or memo.

Don’t waste this time, they tell us. 15 minutes here, ten minutes there, and we could gain an additional hour or two of work time every day.

I don’t disagree with this. I do these things myself. But, as Leo Babauta’s thoughtful post, “Why Killing Time Isn’t a Sin,” reminds us, “life is for living, not productivity”.

If you would enjoy reading the biking or travel magazine for 15 minutes in the doctor’s office, go ahead and do it. If doing some work would be even more enjoyable, you can do that instead.

The point is, you have a choice. You don’t have to work all the time. Do it because you want to, not because you believe you must. Do it because of the pleasure it gives you, not because it’s on your list.

Do you ever “call in sick” and spend the day at the beach or the movies? Just because you want to? You should. Yes, the work will be there when you get back and yes, you will be a day behind. But you’ll be a day ahead on life.

We aspire to be productive because it makes us feel good. Why not start with feeling good. You’ll wind up being more productive.

Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: evernote, getting things done, gtd, kill-time-is-a-sin, less-waste-and-more-productivity, productive-killing-time, productive-things-to-do-to-kill-time, why-is-it-good-to-be-productive

The Rule of 3 in Writing, Speaking, and Productivity

June 15, 2012 by David M. Ward

Last week I did a training for a group of business partners. I created a series of slides and each one began with, “3 Things. . .”, “3 Ways. . .”, or “3 Reasons. . .”. I did it that way because it’s an effective way to convey information in writing and public speaking.

3 things are easy to follow and easy to remember.

If I gave you 142 tips for writing better blog posts, you would read or listen to the first few, perhaps nine or ten, and then you would begin to tune out. It’s too much information to process, absorb, or remember. Yes, you can go back later, but you may never do so. You can handle 3 tips, however, and later, I can give you more.

There’s too much information coming at us today. To protect ourselves, we have learned to tune out most of it. If you want to get someone’s attention and deliver an effective message, if you want them to act on your message, put that message in a smaller package.

The same is true of our task and project lists.

If your list has too many things on it, it’s overwhelming. You look at that list and wonder how you can possibly make a dent in it, let alone finish everything. It’s daunting and depressing.

In addition, when you have too many projects and tasks, there is a tendency to choose the easiest or most urgent ones, instead of the most important.

I have long lists of tasks and projects, but I don’t let them overwhelm me. I use The Rule of 3 to help me sort out the most important things and keep those in front of me until they are done. The rest, I keep out of sight until it’s time to go back and get some more.

To adopt the Rule of 3 to your tasks and project lists, choose (no more than)

3 tasks for the day.
3 outcomes for the week.
3 goals for the year.

I’ve written before about the concept of MITs (most important tasks). Every day, I choose one to three MITs for that day. If I get those done, I can go back for more, but if I only get those done, I know I have had a productive day.Â I also wrote about how I use MITs in myÂ Evernote for Lawyers eBook.

The 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle) says that in most situations 80% of results (income, clients, happiness, etc.) come from 20% of causes (efforts, clients, tasks, etc.) That means that most things aren’t important and can be safely eliminated.

Focus on the few things that are important and valuable and likely to advance you towards your most important objectives. Don’t worry about anything else.

Filed Under: Communication, Personal development, Productivity, Public Speaking, Time Management, Writing Tagged With: getting things done, gtd, lawyer-marketing-gift-cards, organize-your-presentation-the-rule-of-threes, rule-of-3, rule-of-3-in-writing, rule-of-3-tasks, rule-of-3-to-get-clients, rule-of-3-writing, rule-of-three-writing, the-rule-of-3-in-writing, the-rule-of-3-writing, three-most-important-things-to-consider-when-writing-andor-speaking, writing-the-rule-of-3

Getting things done when you have “vacation brain”

November 22, 2011 by David M. Ward

One of the precepts of the Getting Things Done or GTDÂ methodology is that it’s not necessary to prioritize your Next Actions in advance, nor is it recommended. For one thing, priorities change. What seems important today might be completely unnecessary a week from today.

Also, priorities are contextual. Picking up a new cartridge for your laser printer is something you do while running errands, not at ten o’clock at night.

Priorities, then, should be established during your daily planning, which I contend should take place the night before, and “in the moment”.

To prioritize, review your action lists and determine what you want to do based on three factors: time, energy, and importance (priority).

So today, I may see a task that is important but will take a block of two hours and I don’t have that much time. Or it requires a fair amount of energy and I’m tired. Or I have lots of time but the task under consideration really isn’t that important. These tasks will have to wait.

Some people partially prioritize tasks as they add them to their lists, noting time (how much time they estimate the task will take) and energy (how much they will need, i.e., low, medium, or high). This way, when they don’t have a lot of time or energy, they can scan their lists to find tasks that match.

I usually don’t prioritize in advance. I add a lot of tasks to my list each day and I don’t want to take the time to think about whether something will take ten minutes or twenty minutes or whether I will need high energy or just medium. To some extent, I make these decisions when I review my lists and often, I simply choose what I am inspired to do.

This week is Thanksgiving week in the United States. Some people are working like crazy to clear their desks before the long weekend and some are already in “vacation mode”. If you are in the latter category, at work but finding yourself unable to get much done, go through your lists and look for low time/low energy activities you can do.

If you have “vacation brain” and don’t have a list of low energy tasks to dig through, or your list doesn’t inspire you to take action, check out this list of mindless, but productive tasks that inspired this post.

Or, if you’re like me, you’ll just catch up on your reading.

Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: already-in-vacation-modebrain-not-working, attorney-marketing-gtd, duties-of-procrastination, getting things done, getting-things-done-lawyers, getting-things-donebrain, gtd, gtd-for-lawyers, low energy tasks, notification-centre-gtd, obstacles-strengthen, Productivity, reading-kindle, stuff-you-need-on-a-vacation, things-done-on-vacation, things-you-need-on-vacation, vacation mode, vacation-brain, what-to-be-done-in-vacation, what-you-need-gtd

“It’s the cases I don’t take that make me money”

November 18, 2011 by David M. Ward

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials.” -Lin Yutang, writer and translator (1895-1976)

Last night, I spoke at an event. One of the topics I talked about was “The 80/20 principle,” aka, “The Pareto Principle,” the idea that a large percentage of our results come from a small percentage of our activities.

Afterwards, I was chatting with a man who works for a bankruptcy attorney. He liked my talk and was telling me about their practice and how busy they were. He quoted something his employer said, but I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly so I asked him to repeat it:

“It’s the cases I don’t take that make me money”.

He explained that the attorney was very selective about the cases he accepts. A lot of business comes knocking on his door, but he turns down a large percentage. He turns down the lower-end of the spectrum of clients, the ones who don’t have enough for a retainer, who need installments, price shoppers, etc., in favor of those who can pay his higher than average fees.

A lot of attorneys will take the lower-end clients, figuring that whatever they pay will contribute to overhead. But this attorney understands that those clients would actually cost him money, and not just in the literal sense of “not paying,” but because they would take up a disproportionate amount of time and energy.

And, he doesn’t have the extra overhead he would have if he accepted the lower end clients.

By eliminating as much as eighty percent of the possible client pool, he is able to run a lean and profitable practice. I’m sure he also makes it home for dinner.

Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Career satisfaction, Fees and Billing, Increase your income, Productivity Tagged With: 80/20 principle, attorneys-cases-about-money, besides-the-noble-art-of-getting-things-done, besides-the-noble-art-of-getting-things-done-there-is-the-noble-art-of-leaving-things-undone-the-wisdom-of-life-consists-in-the-elimination-of-nonessentials--lin-yutang, clip-art-8020, clip-art-for-getting-things-done, clip-art-on-getting-it-done, clip-art-thank-you-for-your-referral, getting things done, goal-and-clipart, goal-clip-art, goal-clipart, gtd, lawyers-dont-make-money, pareto principle, productive, productivity-day, productivitydefinition, there-is-an-art-ot-getting-things-done-but-an-art-to-leaving-things-undone, workaholic-clipart

Are you getting the RIGHT things done?

November 4, 2011 by David M. Ward

Peter Drucker once said, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Far more important than “doing things right,” he said, is “doing the right things”.

Every day, I review my task lists and choose the three “most important tasks” for the day. My most important tasks are those which advance my most important objectives.Â My “MITs” go at the top of my list and I make an effort to do them before I do anything else. If I get these three things done, I consider it a good day.

Three is a good number, but sometimes there are only two. There are days when a fourth MIT slips through and makes it to my list, but I try to focus on no more than three.

Three MITs keeps me from getting overwhelmed by a longer list and gives me a sense of accomplishment.Â When I get my three MITs done, I then take care of less important tasks. Or, if it’s early in the day and I feel like it, I might add another MIT to the list.

At times, you may find it difficult to choose three MITs. You may have ten things that MUST get done today. No problem. Of the ten, which three are the MOST IMPORTANT? Make those your MITs and do them first.

Each day, you will have MITs and you will have other tasks. The other tasks may be important and need to be done. They may even be urgent. I’m not telling you to ignore these other tasks. Do them, but whenever possible, do them after you do your MITs.

The GTD methodology helps me to get things done. A daily list of MITs helps me to get the right things done.

Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: attorneys-eating, effectiveness, efficiency, get-right-things-done, get-the-right-things-done, getting things done, getting-right-things-done, getting-the-right-things-done, gtd, gtd-peter-drucker, peter drucker, peter-drucker-three-tasks, quote-it-is-more-important-to-be-kind-than-to-be-right, service-done-by-attorney-marketing, tasks-for-today, to-be-kind-is-more-important, to-be-kind-is-more-important-than-to-be, to-be-kind-is-more-important-than-to-be-right, to-be-kind-is-more-important-than-to-be-right-quote, wrapperios

Using Followupthen.com email reminder service (with or without Evernote)

November 3, 2011 by David M. Ward

As you know, I use Evernote for everything: notes, writing, web clips, and task and project management. (Read my posts about how I use Evernote).

A missing element in using Evernote for task management is calendar integration. If I want to see a note on a certain day in the future, I have to manually put a reminder on my calendar, with a link to that note. I calendar “ticklers” to remind me of all kinds of things: reviewing a task, starting a task, calls–anything I need to do or review at a future date.

There is only one issue with this, but one I can live with until something better comes along: The note links that I paste into my Google Calendar aren’t clickable. To find the linked note, I copy and paste the link into a new browser window, hit enter, and the note is launched in my Windows desktop client.

Followupthen.com is an email reminder service that can be used to send reminders to yourself or anyone else (e.g., employees, partners, clients), at pre-set days and times. For example, you can use the service to send yourself an email reminder to call a client three days from today or to begin working on a brief three hours from now.

I’ve tried the followupthen.com service and I like it. It’s easy to use and requires no registration. Simply send an email (To, CC, or BCC) to (time interval) [@] followupthen.com to schedule a future email. The service is free and they have an upgraded version with additional features.

You don’t have to use Evernote to benefit from the Followupthen.com service, but you might want to. Fellow attorney and Evernote lover, Daniel Gold, author of a new ebook on using Evernote for GTD, just posted a video showing how he uses theÂ Evernote Note Links feature with Followupthen.com to remind him of his Evernote tasks:

[mc src=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAsKUFHlA60″ type=”youtube”]Evernote and followupthen.com reminders[/mc]

Followupthen.com may sound like the ideal solution to Evernote’s lack of calendar integration, but there are two issues that preclude me from using it exclusively:

The Evernote note link that is returned to you in the reminder email isn’t clickable (at least not in my chrome browser). I still have to copy and paste it as I do with links in my calendar. This may not be the case if you use Outlook or another email client, but I still have the extra step I have when using gCal. Of course you can use the reminder without note links but then, once reminded, you have to search to find the note in Evernote.
Email isn’t as reliable as a calendar. If an email doesn’t arrive, or you don’t see it when it arrives, you won’t get another reminder. The corresponding task that lies buried in Evernote (or whatever you are using) might forever be forgotten. On my calendar, when I do my weekly review, I can see all of the tasks I did and did not do that week. To re-schedule a task, all I need to do (on gCal) is slide it to another day.

I recommend Followupthen.com but I don’t see it as the best solution for tracking reminders. I can see using it for reminders in addition to using a calendar or other application, but not as a replacement.

Evernote said they are going to release a “due date” field, at which point we will be able to use Evernote itself or other third party applications for reminders.

If you use GTD and Evernote (or want to) and you want to know how to use the two together, Dan’s ebook is only $5. (My review). Dan is currently running a promotion and will be giving away one year of Evernote Premium.

If you are new to Evernote and want to get up to speed quickly, Brett Kelly’s “Evernote Essentials” ebook is highly recommended.

What are your thoughts on Followupthen.com and Evernote reminders?

Filed Under: Productivity, Technology, Time Management Tagged With: bcc-emails-in-evernote, Brett Kelly, Dan Gold, Email, email-marketing-for-attorneys, evernote, evernote essentials ebook, evernote-calendar-integration, evernote-due-date-reminder, evernote-reminder, evernote-reminders, followupthen.com, gcal, getting things done, google calendar, gtd, networking-reminder-email, reminders, ticklers, using-evernote-for-cient-project-management

Save time by not filing email; study proves search is quicker

October 13, 2011 by David M. Ward

Filing emails in folders, or adding labels to them, doesn’t make them quicker to find. According to aÂ study by IBM Research, it’s quicker to find them by searches.

“Finding emails by searches took on average 17 seconds, versus 58 seconds finding the emails by folder,” the researchers concluded. “The likelihood of success â€“ that is, finding the intended email â€“ was no greater when it had been filed in a folder.”

The time spent filing email, in addition to the added time spent retrieving it, can add 20 minutes a day to your workload, the study concluded. A comment to the article questions whether this is true under real world conditions:

In the majority of scenarios, searching is more efficient, however if you forget. . . the metadata [key words]. . . related to the email, then your search efforts are going to be quite difficult. On the other hand, if you remember that you simply filed the email under the “important” folder, then odds are you may only be a few clicks away. In a black and white world, yes searching is more efficient, however there are still valid purposes to using folders.

My plan to achieve email inbox zero calls for me to get rid of all but one label and rely on Gmail’s search capability. I’m pretty sure I won’t miss having more labels since I don’t use the 50 I currently have. But my view is colored by my use of Evernote to file important emails and to manage tasks and projects.

In Evernote, I tag everything (and sometimes also add key words to the body of the note). The difference though is that I don’t “file” all my email this way, just the actionable or otherwise important ones which constitute less than 5%.

I found most interesting the researchers conclusion that most people don’t file emails in folders to make it easier to find them so much as to remove from view the overwhelming volume of email. They pare down the inbox so that they can use it for task management, which the study implied was not efficient.

If they used Evernote like I do, they wouldn’t have to spend as much time filing all of their email in the right folders, they could simply send the important ones to Evernote and archive the rest.

Filed Under: Law office management, Productivity, Technology, Time Management Tagged With: attorney-marketing-blog, average-time-filing-and-searching-email, Email, email-folders, email-quicker-to-search-than-file, email-searching-more-efficient-filing, evernote, filing-email-is-not-effeciant, filing-emails, filing-emails-search, getting things done, getting-used-to-not-filing-emails, gtd, inbox zero, sticker-png, study-on-filing-email-or-searching, subscribe-newsletter-png, tagline-examples, time-spend-for-emails-study, Writing

Evernote and my plan for achieving “Inbox Zero”

October 11, 2011 by David M. Ward

I have tens of thousands of emails in my Gmail inbox. At last count, 16, 503 are unread. I have over 50 labels set up. I don’t use any of them. It’s a mess

When I first learned about Inbox Zero I swooned.Â The idea is intoxicating. When your inbox is empty, you are no longer overwhelmed by email. You are in control. You enjoy a Zen-like feeling of tranquility. You process your email inbox once or twice a day, keeping it at zero. You have a “mind like water”.

I loved the idea, but the thought of going through tens of thousands of emails was about as appealing as a state bar complaint.

Email has long been the final frontier in my productivity makeover. I’ve resisted changing for a long time. But now, I have a plan.

My plan involves my favorite productivity tool, Evernote, which I use for collecting information and managing my projects and tasks. I use it all day long, in every part of my work flow, as my tool for Getting Things Done. Read my previous posts onÂ how I use Evernote for getting things done.

Right now, when I get an email that requires action of any kind (a reply, a call, review, read, etc.) or that is related to a project I’m working on, or is something I want to keep for reference purposes (receipts, newsletter ideas, research, documents, etc.), or something I am waiting for, I forward that email to Evernote. I then tag it and incorporate it into my gtd system.

If an email requires a reply that will take no more than two minutes, I do it. I may also send a bcc to Evernote.

Sometimes, I get emails requiring action that I don’t send to Evernote. An example is an email I got recently from someone I hadn’t spoken to in a long time. I didn’t want to dash off a quick reply, I wanted to give it some thought. In this case, I added a @Reply label and archived the email in Gmail. When I’m ready to reply, the label will help Â me find it.

Yes, I could also send these to Evernote, but I like having the orignial email connected to my reply. And, if I do send it to Evernote, I want to do so after I’ve replied, so I have both the original email and my reply in one Evernote note.

So, here’s my plan for achieving email bliss using Evernote and Gmail:

First, when I have some quiet time, (this will probably require several sessions), I will go through my Gmail inbox, scanning (not reading) and quickly doing the following:

Unsubscribing from newsletters I don’t read.
Adding @Reply label to anything I need to reply to that will take more than two minutes but does not need to be tracked.
Sending Action and Reference items to Evernote.
Trashing or archiving everything else.

Once my email inbox is empty, as new emails come in, I will review and process them, as follows.

If it requires a response or action that will take two minutes or less, I will do it, then Archive it; if I want to, I can also send a bcc to my Evernote account.
If it will take more than two minutes but I don’t need to keep notes, add it to a project, or track it, I will label it @Reply and do it as soon as possible.
If I’m waiting for a reply or for something to occur, I will send it to Evernote (and add a @Waiting tag).
If it’s something I want to keep for reference, an important email, an exemple of a good sales letter, a receipt, or something I want to read later, I will send it to Evernote.
All other emails will go into Archive or get trashed. At day’s end, I will again have an empty Inbox and an empty mind.

The premise behind all of this is to identify emails that need action. That’s key. Everything else is reference and can be found through search.

Note, I will use just one label in Gmail, @Reply. I am open to adding others down the road, but only if they truly serve me. For example, I may find it easier to label emailsÂ @Read/ReviewÂ in Gmail, rather than sending them to Evernote for that purpose. I may also add labels for specific projects, or use them temporarily (e.g., for promotions). But for now, one label will do.

Wish me luck. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Have you achieved “Inbox Zero”? What do you think of my plan?

Filed Under: Dealing with stress, Email, Law office management, Productivity, Technology, Time Management Tagged With: evernote, evernote-evernote-com-download-overwhelmed, evernote-gmail, evernote-google-tasks, evernote-inbox, evernote-lawyer, evernote-newsletter, evernote-tags-how-to-use-them, get-organized-evernote-google-tasks, getting things done, gmail, gmail-label-or-evernote, gtd, inbox zero, newsletter-evernote, share-inbox-in-evernote, thousands-of-emails-in-my-gmail-inbox, using-evernote-as-inbox-for-email, using-evernote-for-my-sales-planning, Writing