Sunday, December 8, 2013

Implementing a paperless office and GTD system using EverNote.

I have a lot of bank statements, bills, dividends/coupon advice etc etc and I tend to keep a lot of these stuff because there is always an fear I might need to refer to it some time in the near future(bills) or for my own audit purposes(bank statements, bank advices).

These has resulted in very unnecessary clutter. So, I googled and found this guy's suggestion of paperless office very appealing to me. A bit draggy but In summary, you just buy a scanner to scan all the papers and integrate it to EVERNOTE! Whoopie! This is the solution I was looking for, and why didn't I think of that since I have a perfectly good HP Multi-function printer lying around which I barely used! I'm going to scan and throw away all the unnecessary clutter! 

One of my TO-DO that need to be checked off before the NEW YEAR! :) Speaking of which, I also wanted to try becoming more organised and ACTION-ORIENTED by implementing a GTD-system using Evernote. I have explored a lot of other  GTD apps but none come close to Evernote for it flexibility as well as capability in storing immense amount of information and of course, not needing for me to flip between programs to find information. I read this website http://www.thesecretweapon.org/. I will be just implementing a simple system of 1 Notebook with tags of @GTD-Inbox, @GTD-WIP, @GTD-KIV, @GTD-Reference, @GTD-Done.

When you need to lookup on items, just filter to the relevant tag and all the notes(tasks) related to the tag will be there. So example, if I only wanted to find out tasks that are already WIP and office-related , I will filter for  "@GTD-WIP" & "office" and that's it! If it's a project, you can add another tag for the project. If you need to the task to be assigned to a group of people, just tag the names. Simple and intuitive!

Reminders will be done via the the inbuilt Evernote Reminder. However, I am also exploring integration with Google Calender using EventNoted.com. I use Google Calendars to find out tasks that needs to be done on specific day via the Google Agenda. EventNoted will also compiled a list of tasks in chronological order and put it into your EverNote as a Note for a great summary.

So there you have it, creating a Task with the Who, What, When, Where effortlessly in Evernote.

Let's hope this will make me more ogranized and action-packed! 8)

7 comments:

la papillion said...

Maybe for a start, you might want to get the source digitalized instead of digitalizing them yourself. Just request for an online copy instead of paper - you'll save the environment and also make it easier for you to keep your information digital.

Kyith said...

i think its rather difficult to implement a task management system using Evernote.

if it may be helpful, try to use Saved Searches. it may be able to pick out certain frequently accessed work flows e.g. Next Action at Work while at Site A

i think using one notebook is cool. its either one note book and using tags or multiple notebook. To me everything is a reference, all the Todo's can be retrieved from searches.

the hard dest thing is to handle projects. i think what u can do is to use nest Tags as project so u have

Projects
|- Project A
|- Project B
|- Sub Project B1

genmumbles said...

You may want to check out www.trello.com

I find it pretty useful, though may not be the prettiest interface, but it works well for my needs with any campaign/project management, or just tracking stuff that I have to do.

paperless agenda said...

I went through website and I found that you made a decent point here. Keep up topic that everyone can choose one of the best.

Wealth Journey said...

Thanks all for your input.
I will refine my GTD and Paperless system with suggestions from your kindself.


Oh.. along the way of implementing the GTD , I have found another interesting app. Zendone.com.

I'm currently using it as my GTD and Evernote as the storage. Not bad at all.

Think I will stick to this combo and make it a habit.

tianglim said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Wealth Journey said...

Ops! :-(

TiangLim,

I'm sorry I accidentally deleted your comment.

Anyway, thanks for the compliment. I've been using the setup mentioned since and I've found my productivity INCREASED by 500 - 1000%!!!

I'm not kidding. I did only 1 scheduled task per week before GTD/Evernote combo. Now I'm doing 5-10 scheduled tasks weekly!

It's a feat considering i'm not in an office environment.

If you want to know more about GTD and Life hacks, I think Kyith might be the right person to talk to. He runs a life-hack blog. :)

Just run your questions for me here and I'll have them answered pronto once they get into my GTD/Evernote combo. lol).

Hope that helps.