The Traveling Student

Evernote is an application that I've been watching ever since it came out in Beta about a year ago. I went as far as downloading the app, but never signed up for an account, and thus never used it. It looked incredibly slick, but I just couldn't bring myself to use another app just for coolness. I have been using SOHO Notes for several years now, and have not been able to find anything that can rival its "FlashNote menu bar tool to search and view notes." However, things are changing.

This summer I will be starting work on another degree. It's going to be an intense summer, which will include nine credits, tons of travel, and intermittent access to internet. This is a logistical nightmare, and I'm trying preemptively to modify my daily workflow so that I'm not caught unprepared. Specifically, I'm changing my workflow in the hopes of making it more ubiquitous, flexible, and resilient to withstand the high pressures and organizational needs of my classes, and yet be worry free and accessible enough to allow me to be efficient enough to actually have a relaxing summer break.

Here's what I'm embracing in my new workflow and why:

iCal synced with Google Calendars - I'm using CalDAV to sync several iCal clients on different computers. An app called Calabration makes it really easy to do this with Google Calendars. Syncing everything will make sure that wherever I am I can make adjustments. And since it's Google Calendars, I will also be sharing certain calendars with friends and family to help make summer plans. I shouldn't have to mention that working in iCal will also give me the ability to work offline. During long roadtrips, I'll still be able to view and tweak my calendars.

Evernote - At work I use SOHO Notes (as mentioned above) daily. And I'll continue to use it for work related items simply for its FlashNote feature. I sometimes find myself working in a dozen applications at once and need that menu bar search for looking up clips, serial #'s, passwords, etc. However, this summer I need ubiquity and SOHO Notes does not have any online syncing ability. Hence the transition to Evernote for class organization and project planning. The three things that sold me on Evernote were the online syncing/browser access (I don't count these as separate; this kind of syncing should always have an online component), image OCR, and the plethora of ways to get data into Evernote. Watch this video for more about what it can do.

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