Reading more efficiently with Evernote

[bcarroll260 0]

Hey Everyone,

 

New to the forum. I am interested in using Evernote to learn more efficiently. I found myself reading about 3-4 hrs/day, but hardly remembering anything that I read.....my brain wasn't processing the information.

 

In comes Evernote.

 

I use the Web Clipper to clip articles to Evernote and then I take notes on the article as I read it. 

 

It may take longer for me to read an article, but I will actually process the information and learn more.

 

Any tips/suggestions? What is the most efficient way to do this?

 

Thanks, Evernote! 

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I'd use tags instead of notebooks, myself, but otherwise, it looks great. Use Clearly to highlight and have the text read aloud to you. This is a pretty amazing combination if you are a second language learner. I have it read the Japanese newspapers to me in the morning while I get ready for work (names and ages are a mess, but otherwise, it does a good job).

http://evernote.com/clearly/

Alternatively, if I am reading, I will print to PDF, save that, read that on my iPad, annotate it, and then export the annotations to my Evernote account. I prefer to read on the iPad rather than the computer.

[bcarroll260 0]

Thanks, GrumpyMonkey.

 

I just downloaded Clearly as an add-on for Chrome. It doesn't seem to support Safari yet.....

 

I'm excited to learn slower....

 

Rather than read 10 articles/day and watch 3 TED talks, I will probably read 4 articles/day and watch 1 TED Talk. But, I will remember what I learned and have it all organized in Evernote

 

Why tags instead of notebooks? 

 

Thanks! 

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Thanks, GrumpyMonkey.

 

I just downloaded Clearly as an add-on for Chrome. It doesn't seem to support Safari yet.....

 

I'm excited to learn slower....

 

Rather than read 10 articles/day and watch 3 TED talks, I will probably read 4 articles/day and watch 1 TED Talk. But, I will remember what I learned and have it all organized in Evernote

 

Why tags instead of notebooks? 

 

Thanks!

You're welcome.

Why tags instead of notebooks? It is a long discussion going back about 6 years. Without diving into that, be aware that you have only 250 notebooks, but 10,000 tags available.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=169

I recommend Chrome for Clearly. It seems to have the most functionality. Maybe users with Opera and Firefox can chime in with their experiences.

Your learning strategy sounds like a good one. I'd also recommend you think about Coursera and other online learning options. Evernote can be pretty amazing in tandem with an Audiobook or some other course.

[Mike McGowan 36]

==>I recommend Chrome for Clearly. It seems to have the most functionality.

I had been using Clearly, but after installing the latest Web Clipper for Chrome, I got the impression that the "Simplified Article" option was essentially the same functionality of Clearly.      Open to hearing why I would use Clearly vs. the Web Web Clipper that seems to offer so much > functionality. 

[bcarroll260 0]

 

Thanks, GrumpyMonkey.

 

I just downloaded Clearly as an add-on for Chrome. It doesn't seem to support Safari yet.....

 

I'm excited to learn slower....

 

Rather than read 10 articles/day and watch 3 TED talks, I will probably read 4 articles/day and watch 1 TED Talk. But, I will remember what I learned and have it all organized in Evernote

 

Why tags instead of notebooks? 

 

Thanks!

You're welcome.

Why tags instead of notebooks? It is a long discussion going back about 6 years. Without diving into that, be aware that you have only 250 notebooks, but 10,000 tags available.

http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=169

I recommend Chrome for Clearly. It seems to have the most functionality. Maybe users with Opera and Firefox can chime in with their experiences.

Your learning strategy sounds like a good one. I'd also recommend you think about Coursera and other online learning options. Evernote can be pretty amazing in tandem with an Audiobook or some other course.

 

 

I'll take a look about that website now. Thanks! 

 

I love Coursera! Along with Udemy, Skillshare, Udacity, and Lynda! All great resources. I plan on utilizing Evernote to help me learn with my MOOCs, but I am more interested in processing all of the information that I read on a daily basis (3-4 hours). Most of it deals with marketing, technology, business, finance, and health.

 

Any other tips? How do you "Clip" articles? Full....simplified....etc? What's the most efficient way?

 

Thanks! 

[gazumped 11,666]

In this kind of context I use Evernote like my "external brain" - or at least external memory.  I don't have to use the detailed content of much of what I receive in conversation,  or in unsupported writing.  It's enough that I have the latest information on marketing, technology, business, finance etc and can find it when I need it.  I concentrate on remembering that I have something (for instance) on a new emergency service available locally,  and save the email / web page / document sources of this information in Evernote.  If and when I need to think about emergency services I can find the content - so I need only to scan the facts to get a general appreciation of them.  My natural memory was sadly deficient at the best of times,   and only seems to be getting worse - or maybe its the constant flood of new data that my tired grey cells are trying to absorb.

 

In the same way that GTD says "get tasks out of your head and record them reliably so you don't have to worry about them" I find it liberating not to try to absorb and remember everything - although the fact that I know I can find the data if I need it seems oddly to help me remember much of the content anyway...

[bcarroll260 0]

In this kind of context I use Evernote like my "external brain" - or at least external memory.  I don't have to use the detailed content of much of what I receive in conversation,  or in unsupported writing.  It's enough that I have the latest information on marketing, technology, business, finance etc and can find it when I need it.  I concentrate on remembering that I have something (for instance) on a new emergency service available locally,  and save the email / web page / document sources of this information in Evernote.  If and when I need to think about emergency services I can find the content - so I need only to scan the facts to get a general appreciation of them.  My natural memory was sadly deficient at the best of times,   and only seems to be getting worse - or maybe its the constant flood of new data that my tired grey cells are trying to absorb.

 

In the same way that GTD says "get tasks out of your head and record them reliably so you don't have to worry about them" I find it liberating not to try to absorb and remember everything - although the fact that I know I can find the data if I need it seems oddly to help me remember much of the content anyway...

 

See, I use Wunderlist to put my "to-do" list out there and get stuff out of my head.

 

Photos auto sync to dropbox and then auto delete from my phone.

 

I do put ideas into Evernote, but I also see another feature that is unique....

 

I can clip articles and annotate them right in Evernote. This allows me to learn more effectively. I can take my time with articles and read them slower.....to process it all.

 

And then, I will use Evernote to write notes to remember about the article.

 

I will learn a lot more this way....and Evernote seems to be the best tool to learn.

 

Thoughts? 

[gazumped 11,666]

 

In this kind of context I use Evernote like my "external brain" - or at least external memory.  I don't have to use the detailed content of much of what I receive in conversation,  or in unsupported writing.  It's enough that I have the latest information on marketing, technology, business, finance etc and can find it when I need it.  I concentrate on remembering that I have something (for instance) on a new emergency service available locally,  and save the email / web page / document sources of this information in Evernote.  If and when I need to think about emergency services I can find the content - so I need only to scan the facts to get a general appreciation of them.  My natural memory was sadly deficient at the best of times,   and only seems to be getting worse - or maybe its the constant flood of new data that my tired grey cells are trying to absorb.

 

In the same way that GTD says "get tasks out of your head and record them reliably so you don't have to worry about them" I find it liberating not to try to absorb and remember everything - although the fact that I know I can find the data if I need it seems oddly to help me remember much of the content anyway...

 

See, I use Wunderlist to put my "to-do" list out there and get stuff out of my head.

 

Photos auto sync to dropbox and then auto delete from my phone.

 

I do put ideas into Evernote, but I also see another feature that is unique....

 

I can clip articles and annotate them right in Evernote. This allows me to learn more effectively. I can take my time with articles and read them slower.....to process it all.

 

And then, I will use Evernote to write notes to remember about the article.

 

I will learn a lot more this way....and Evernote seems to be the best tool to learn.

 

Thoughts? 

 

 

I use a 'to-do' list too - Evernote is many things - a file cabinet in which I store all my background reading and information,  a Farleyfile for contact details,  travel notes for meetings and trips,  receipt store for the benefit of those nice folks at The Revenue (and making sure the bank didn't drop a zero somewhere) etc,  etc...

 

The general purpose of all the above is to get paper and electronic clutter out of my life.  In the process of dealing with that,  I'll generate tasks,  or someone will be nice enough to demand that I do something (or else);  those issues are mental clutter that fall into the "Now!!",  "Soon",  and "Someday maybe" categories of my to-do list.  The Now!!s also get dates,  tags and all sorts of other things related to getting them done.

 

We've been talking so far about clipping articles,  which by me falls into the paper / electronic clutter category;  and my only point is that I tend not even to expend the effort to totally grock the content.  It's enough to know I have an article on Decennial Insurance (for example) which will give me grounding on pros and cons,  basic methods and who does it and why if I ever need it...  (I know a bit about insurance,  so needing it is a possibility).  I don;t need to read and understand it until I get the question though. 

 

(I know those boring exam thingies can require that you know stuff,  but I got past that stage a while ago...)

 

My grey cell upload limit is already close to being maxed out and unfortunately it doesn't get reset at the end of the month.  I'm saving what little capacity remains for emergencies!