Hello everyone, this is Helen Huang @ Organizing, based in Beijing, China. In order to better learn and practice the YiXiaoNeng Time Management System, after finished publishing 100 Chinese articles, I decided to continue writing and publishing a daily English article in another 100 days based on the "YeWuBin Time Management 100 Episodes" audio program. Today is the 180th day.
Today's topic is: Store Items Here Not in the Brain
Before learning which tools are best to use, we have to remember important time management theories. Theory without the proper tools will be inefficient, and the right tools without the right purpose will be ineffective.
The third tool I want to share with you today is the notebook. In the last two classes, I talked about the calendar and the list. Combined with the notebook, these three form the foundation for the implementation of effective time management.
The notebook collects different kinds of information, such as knowledge, information or just fragments of information. For instance, we can record strategies, bills, flight tickets all related to a trip we take overseas, and so much more. There are so many things from our daily life and our work that we may need to organize and store such as passwords, instruction manuals, contracts, and meeting minutes. The notebook isn't just a time management tool but also an information management tool as well as a knowledge management and document management tool. It's all tthree these things.
Write this down. Are you ready? If it's not recorded, it didn't happen. That's very important. Your brain can only remember a small number of things. It's difficult to remember a lot of information. It wasn't designed to do that. Therefore, we need to store that information using an external apparatus.
So which tool and which software is the best to store this information? I will talk about the one I choose the most. First, I want to talk about the idea of which to choose. Today is the era of mobile internet. Therefore, the best solution is a mobile internet solution – in other words one that is on your mobile phone.
The Mobile phone systems are of course very convenient, because they are smaller and convenient to carry everywhere thereby making it accessible to you at all times. It's also easy to synchronize across other devices such as your laptop, iPad or computer.
Inside the office, we use a computer, but while outside the office we use a cell phone. So the first element of a superior software system to store information is one that can synchronize the mobile cell phone and computers. This allows us to both record and retrieve information anytime and anywhere.
There are many storage tools that we can use, so let's talk about two criteria we will use to make the decision: mobility and synchronism. There are many notebook applications for both the Android and Apple platform, and you can find many examples in the Apple and Android stores.
Today, I want to introduce the software that I use all the time: Evernote. I have been using Evernote for five or six years now. Unlike Omnifocus, Evernote can be used on all platforms including Apple, Android and even on private computers and cell phones. It can capture almost any kind of content you might have including words, documents, video, images, and so on.
The important thing to think about when using Evernote is how you will use it to organize your items. If you make the storage framework too complex, it will impede your ability to find and use the information you store. We want to incorporate a storage framework that is only two or three levels deep, otherwise it will be too complex.
If you don't have a very good structure for storing the information, the data you store will be haphazard and thrown about, just like in a garbage can. If it's too difficult to find the information you need, you will leave it unused sitting to collect dust.
For each note that you create, I recommend you create a specific title that contains key words that will help you search for the information quickly and accurately. When you just have a little bit of information to store, you can see all of the information clearly in your notebook. You can write it any way you want it, and you will be able to find it easily. However, when you see thousands of notes, searching is the only way to find everything you need when you need it. So if you cannot create a system where each note has a title that is easy to search, then you will not be able to find your documents. The method I teach allows you to search easily and accurately, so you can get what you need when you need it without effort.
You also need to sort your information. I've been told that sorting information will require a lot of time. Well, we are learning how to save time, aren't we? It will take some time, but a little time invested in organizing and sorting your notes will reap generous rewards. Organize and classify your notes and delete the unnecessary notes, so that you can use them conveniently.
This is true of many things including tasks and in life itself. We cannot manage too much information all at once and we must be careful to only use information that is useful. So, we must discern what is valuable and discard what is not while storing what is in Evernote. By doing this, we can make room for other important items.
So remember: use a two-level or three-level directory structure and mark every title well. Then you will be able to find your information with ease. You can organize your notes step by step, a little at a time. Focus on the most important pieces of information first, such as passwords, contracts, meeting minutes and other similar important items.
Organize in order of importance and urgency. After this, continue to organize or discard the relatively unimportant pieces. So things should be done step by step, and the information should be classified in this logical fashion.
How can you download Evernote? Well I'll tell you. You can download it online, you can buy it in a computer store, or in a shopping mall or you can buy it through its official website. You also can download it through the Apple store.
There are both free and pay editions of Evernote. You can try the free edition at first. The free edition has most of the functions you need, but you can only upload 60MB of information every month. If you use Evernote every day to store your information, then this will not be enough.
The pay edition allows you to upload 1GB every month and you can pay either monthly or annually. If you need even more storage, you can buy the Enterprise edition of Evernote in which you need to provide an account number to purchase it. Everyone in Yixiaoneng has the Enterprise Edition. This allows us to upload 2GB each month and it has full synchronization and sharing capabilities. It's very convenient.
In fact, I have built Evernote into the core framework of the Yixiaoneng, which you will learn if you take my classroom course.
Take it step by step – gradually building slowly. So go now, go to the Evernote store and download a free copy and practice. Learn the basic functions and you'll see it's not that hard at all.
I want to emphasize that you don't need to use every function, just the basic ones. The more important piece is in the framework you use to store information. Currently I use Evernote to manage documents but not my tasks. For tasks, I use Omnifocus. So, go and try now.
That's all sharing today. Thank you being with me together. Have a wonderful day!