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One of my main uses of Evernote is as a very simple-yet-flexible GTD system. It is based on the TSW system. Using tags and shortcuts, I keep track of the things I want to get done, and review the list daily. The daily review takes 5-10 minutes, and looks like this snapshot:
If anyone is interested, I can write a more detailed post about how I manage tasks, but for now...
Creating a personal knowledge store takes this idea to a different level. Instead of just making information searchable and accessible, you use selected pieces of information to build a deeper understanding of things you care about, and you can thereby enhance your creativity. If you can get several unrelated (or barely-related) concepts together in your mind at the same time, you're almost guaranteed to have some novel ideas. If you have even a modest skill in dropping the truly dumb ideas, you'll be left with some useful new-to-you concepts.
To help with this, I've been using an app called EverShaker that allows me to randomly view notes in a set of notebooks and/or tags that I choose.
You can get the same effect with some scripts, or even by just clicking randomly through a set of notes returned with a saved search.
The whole process goes something like this...
As you can see, I pull information from a wide variety of sources, and I'm particularly fond of putting highlights and notes into electronic books. Pretty much all popular e-readers let you export the highlights/notes en masse into an email or web page, which lets you put them into Evernote. Between all of them, I have almost 500 notes.
Here is an example of making new connections, made by skimming my notes as I write this post:
- The site Gamestorming has a huge number of useful creative and organizational techniques, one of which is using a storyboard.
- Daniel H. Pink's book, "A Whole New Mind" focuses on using a more "right-brained" approach to work and other aspects of life. One of Pink's ideas is to create designs that connect with emotions.
- Stephen Denning's "The Leader's Guide to Storytelling" describes using a narrative as a compelling way to engage people's interest.
What about using...
...a storyboard format in a presentation
...to tell a story about a person's joy or anguish about a problem we have
...when I'm selling my management on a solution to the problem?
What about using...
...a hand-drawn storyboard
...showing a child's happiness when making good (or sadness when making bad) choices
...to help my kids understand the importance of doing household chores, or avoiding strangers, or any of the myriad other things that I want them to understand to prepare them for adulthood?
...a storyboard format in a presentation
...to tell a story about a person's joy or anguish about a problem we have
...when I'm selling my management on a solution to the problem?
What about using...
...a hand-drawn storyboard
...showing a child's happiness when making good (or sadness when making bad) choices
...to help my kids understand the importance of doing household chores, or avoiding strangers, or any of the myriad other things that I want them to understand to prepare them for adulthood?
There is nothing earth-shaking about these ideas, but I probably wouldn't have thought of them if I didn't keep a curated set of ideas around. My goal is to keep doing this daily until it becomes a habit, then see where it leads me.
