I have written many posts here on staying organized and productive (by setting goals, using a calendar, and staying focused), but there is not one resource I have found that has helped me be organized better than Evernote. Evernote has transformed how I keep myself organized, both in my professional and personal life. This series of short posts will take an in-depth look into how I use Evernote for a more organized life.
Before you read: Check out the other posts in this series: Evernote Series: A Primer, How Evernote Changed the Way I Job Search, Evernote Series: Student Teaching, Evernote Series: How Evernote Helps Me Deliver Killer Presentations, and Evernote Series: Evernote in Daily Life
Over the course of the past week, I have been detailing how I use Evernote to enhance my productivity, both in my professional and personal lives. Throughout my writing, I have asked readers how they used Evernote in their own lives. There were some great and insightful responses; people are using Evernote in creative ways all over the place! Here’s how:
Twitter Responses
Here are the responses I received via Twitter (follow me at @Zweibz7 and this site at @MusicEdMajor):
- @katiesw: “Home improvement ideas (pics), lists of movies/bks to watch/read, rep. list for a cappella group, gig info”
- @katiesw: “Meeting notes (tag w/ what we discussed), PD course descriptions, drafts of blog posts, to-do lists by project”
- @jaydorf: “I use @evernote to sync to-do lists across devices, and to take notes on my iPad at conferences. Love it!”
- @musictechie: I use Evernote for class lists, 4 fire drills. audio notes to self. All teachers meetings, so I can add info myself
- @bliporto: I use @evernote to take notes in meetings or doing an observation. I can sync them with my laptop to type up my report.
- @tubachic: I use evernote to save a copy of my (few) blog posts in case anything happened to the site. Of course the typical grocery list.
- @tubachic: I also use EN to save sheet music. Public domain stuff from the internet, stuff I write. That way I can access it from anywhere.
Shameless plug: If you’re a Music Ed Major on Twitter, consider joining our 100 Music Ed Majors on Twitter list! A new update to the list is coming early next week!
Blog Comments
We only had one blog comment with an Evernote use case through the series, so a very special shout-out goes to David Ahrens! David is a band director in California, and writes a great blog at Sound Education; his blog is definitely worth subscribing to! Follow David on Twitter at @MrAhrens. Here’s what David had to say in his comments to my Evernote Series post on Student Teaching:
I use Evernote constantly. Aside from saving everything, I’ve been using it as a GTD tool following the plan by @ruudhein at http://ruudhein.com/evernote-gtd. It is worth it to download the desktop version and pay for the premium service. I also make use of the email in function a lot. Whenever I have any parent communication via email, I always bcc it to evernote so I have another backup (beside gmail, which is also great). I also use it for student portfolios, creating a single note for each band student with all of their personal info, instrument serial number, uniform number, folder number, etc. Plus you can attach mp3 or wav files or whatever else you have.
When asked if he found it helpful for his organizational system, David responded:
I use it daily. Once you get a teaching position, you’ll find that the level of organization that is required is way above what you anticipated. (Now, you may have had better training on this than I. The fact that you have already been researching it and your professors was using Evernote with you is great). I simply do not have the ability to keep all of the plates spinning without a good system in place. Between Evernote (as GTD), gmail, google calendar, Twitter, and my band website I keep the crashes to a minimum.
BONUS TIP: For the Job Search
Through developing this series of posts, I have come up with even more Evernote use cases for myself! Here’s one for those of you job (or college) searching right now:
Many applications have a number of short questions they ask you to respond to (concisely) regarding teaching. A few examples I have encountered include:
- What are the top three reasons you chose to become a teacher?
- How would you inspire creativity in your classroom?
- What is your basic behavior management philosophy?
- How would you use assessment to ensure students are learning?
I am beginning to see a lot of repeated (or very similarly worded) questions on different applications. I am using Evernote to record my answers to these questions, putting them in my Job Search notebook, and tagging them appropriately. This way, if I see a question on an application that I have already answered, I can easily refer back to my notebook instead of having to rewrite my response.
NOTE: This is not meant to imply that you should use the exact same answers on all applications. It is very important to make your answers specific to the school/district to which you are applying; Evernote just helps provide the foundation upon which you can build.
There You Have It!
This concludes the series of posts on how I (and you) use Evernote in my daily life to be more productive. Once again, here’s a list of all the posts in the series:
- Evernote Series: A Primer
- How Evernote Changed the Way I Job Search
- Evernote for Student Teaching
- How Evernote Helps Me Deliver Killer Presentations
- Evernote in Daily Life
- How the Community Uses Evernote [BONUS TIP]
Please leave any feedback you may have on the series in a comment here, and be sure to stay tuned to MusicEdMajor.net for more tips and tricks about using Social Media/Web 2.0 services as a music educator!
About Andy Zweibel