How to Lifeschool? - Taking Notes

 Take Notes to Keep Track of your World Changing Ideas

Evernote.com

In school, whenever I had to note something down, I would find a sheet of paper and write on it. Unfortunately, I would misplace many of these sheets eventually. So I started taking notes in the journal I maintained. This was fine at home, but I could not carry this book everywhere

That is when I found Evernote. It is a mobile application that allows you to take notes on your phone and with a reasonable internet connection these notes are directly transferred to your account on the Evernote Website online.

Why I take notes?

Because everyday I think up over 60,000 different thoughts. When I read books, watch videos, listen to audio programs or attend seminars more thoughts come into my mind. I believe that some of the thoughts that I think about during the day can add vale to the world or add value to the lives of other people if converted into a product or service. That is why I want to record all these thoughts somewhere and that is why I take notes. To keep a record of the ideas that I believe can leave the lives of other people a little better than I found it.

My experience with notes

Everyday I would at least have 2000 words of notes. I wrote my second book through taking long notes, largely on train rides from the suburbs of Mumbai to Churchgate. The journey took about one hour and I had to make use of this time effectively. So I would listen to audio programs, read books and write essays or blog posts on my phone. Many of these blog posts and essays together, then became a book that I called, ‘101 Habits to Greatness’. Two habits I mention in the books are taking notes and using your commute time effectively. When the book was complete, I was surprised that I actually completed the project because most of the chapters in the book, were just ideas that went by my ahead on train rides in Mumbai. I am thankful I decided to take note of them.

Giving before Getting

At conferences and seminars I got to attend, I would take notes of some the important points the speakers would bring up on Evernote in my phone. You can also take these notes on a notebook. Then I would go home and type them down on a word document and remove the points that are not so important. At the conference or event, I would meet lots of people and exchange business cards with them. Now before introducing myself through an email, I would send them an email with a word document of all the notes I had taken at the conference we both were attending. Then I would add a short note at the end with my introduction of who I was and the work I did. I would conclude the email by thanking the other person for their time.

This helped me give back something before starting a relationship, which is important in all your relationships in both your personal and professional lives. Some of the positive responses I got from the people I sent these email too, encouraged me to continue this practice.

Why use Evernote?

Using this program saved me lots of time. Earlier I had to take notes on a sheet of paper or on my phone. Then I would have to type each one of these notes on my computer so that I had a digital record of them.

But with Evernote I just had to type the notes on my phone and it would get directly uploaded on the Evernote Website. I then had to just copy the notes from the website on to a word document on my computer. I would save all the word document in one folder and then copy all folder into my hard disk and other storage devices, so that I had multiple copies of my notes incase one device crashed.

But it is alright, if you do not have a mobile internet connection. Just make sure you take your diary or journal with you wherever you go. So that when you think of an important idea or when you notice something interesting you can note it down.

These are the titles of some of the notes I take on my phone?

1)          Books I read

2)          Movies I see

3)          Seminars/Talks I attend

4)          Audio Programs I listen to

5)          Business Ideas

6)          Writing and Blog Ideas

7)          Conference Notes

Photo Credit - Evernote Website

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