Rediscovering your useful Evernote data with Reflect

[DutchPete 247]

Most people dump their info into Evernote, forget what's in there, and only come across stuff when they are looking for something. I have always felt that one needs a more dynamic relationship with Evernote, starting with deleting obsolete notes which cause a lot of search "pollution", though I am aware that a lot, if not most of the users don't agree with that. Furthermore, it should be possible to able to make better use of the info in Evernote, which comes with having a better (over)view what is in it.

Could Reflect be that new web app to keep a more interactive handle on what you have in EN? I have not used it myself yet.

 

Note: I do not have any relationship with this company, neither directly nor indirectly. Someone posted about it on Evernote Life & I thought it might be useful to bring it to users' attention here too.

 

[gazumped 11,666]

On a quick read it looks like Reflect bounces the content of notes back to the user as a quiz - an extra task to perform on top of any other tasks in play.  Not bad if your major task is learning content,  this will help;  but when you're into information overload and trying to dump extraneous input (that would be me..) an extra app nagging at me to complete my quiz is the last thing I need..

 

Maybe when I get to Inbox Zero!

[tomcal 18]

Thanks for the tip on Reflect.  I have an Evernote notebook just for Motivational Ideas and Quotes.  I've now set up a schedule in Reflect to randomly see 10 of those each day.  Great way to start the day and find something that resonated with me at some point in my life. http://www.reflectapp.io/

[Corstiaan 4]

Hi. Corstiaan here -- creator of Reflect. Very cool to read people are finding Reflect useful. The use cases stipulated by DutchPete and tomcal are popular among Reflect users and were part of the main reason I decided the world needs a tool like Reflect. Over the last 7 or 8 years - when the whole Cloud thing came into swing - we started storing stuff, upon stuff, upon stuff in the Cloud. I like to compare the Cloud to a messy attic; you're never fully aware whats in there, let alone have actionable knowledge regarding your data when you might actually need it in the current moment. Evernote goes a long way in cataloging and searching your data but it's still up to the user to have it make sense and to organise it the moment data comes in. If the user omits this, then data gets lost under the constant inflow of new data and information.

 

I like to make a very important distinction between the types of data you save in the Cloud, primarily Evernote. On the one hand there is dat you NEED to save (think correspondance, tax filings, contracts, etc). Usually this is boring stuff that you rarely need, but when you need it you want to be sure its there and you don't mind taking a few moments to search for it. On the other hand your have stuff you WANT to save (think e-book clippings, quotes, citations, personal writing, family photo's, interesting articles, etc). This is the kind of stuff you save because you want to circle back to it in the future for the sake of learning, personal or business development or just for plain fun. You just don't know when this will be and there is seldom a sense of urgency, except when studying for a test or something similar. Another trouble is though that you never take a casual stroll through the stuff you WANT to save, especially when you have a lot of data piled up over the years -- the task of wading through all the stuff becomes more daunting every day.

 

Reflect aims to make the latter, stuff you WANT to save, circle back to you at regular intervals and in bite size chucks. The regular interval makes it a great tool for study and learning since Reflect takes care of your progress, creates a schedule with notifications (meaning you do not have to actively search for stuff) and makes sure all material has been covered. The bite size chunks on the other hand makes wading though a lot data very easy and manageable since you only have a selection of notes to review every day (or any other interval you select).

 

@gazumped: I understand your initial concern but Reflect is very forgiving and its not a quiz. It just sends you a daily (of weekly or monthly) notification saying "Look, you asked me to take all the stuff from a selection of notebooks and tags, chunk it up into smaller pieces and prepare it in a simple interface for easy viewing. Well, here is the link to the selection of today's stuff. View it, or don't -- it's fine with me."

Reflect does not want to bug you or make you feel guilty in any way for not going through you data.

 

I really enjoy building Reflect for the Evernote community and user feedback has been very positive. I look forward to welcome many of you as users of Reflect :-)

[Tom Maddox 1]

How do I remove Reflect from Evernote and Chrome? I have denied access to my Evernote account and removed the extension from Chrome. Yet I get email, usually two a day, rom Reflect promising promising to review my Evernote account. This is annoying and unwanted.

Yours,

Tom

 

[Corstiaan 4]

2 hours ago, Tom Maddox said:

How do I remove Reflect from Evernote and Chrome?

 

Hi Tom,

Please send me your email address linked to your Reflect account to corstiaan@reflectapp.io and I will look into it.

Cheers,

Corstiaan