Super Smart Note Taking for Mac and iPhone Users – 6 Productivity Tips

Tip 1: Buy an iPhone – I’m confident you’ll make the cost back if you use it to the full in terms of saved time, money and effort over time (and much more than that if you download and use the right apps)  The iPhone is one of the most useful and effective productivity tools I’ve ever come across.  It’s much more costly not to own and use one.

Tip 2: If you take notes on your Mac or iPhone, here’s a great way to do it that’s something different from mind mapping:

Download the free ‘Notational Velocity‘ for your Mac here

This free software saves you having to think about where to file your notes.  You just type, straight off the bat.  As you type, your existing notes that include the words you’re typing pop up in a list in front of you.  You can then either go into those notes to add what you’re typing, or just add a new note.  Simple.

Make it Much Better

Tip 3: Your notes will sit on your Mac with Notational Velocity.  If you want to access them elsewhere:

Create a free account at ‘Simplenote.com’ here

Then you can sync Notational Velocity with Simplenote and you’ll not only have a backup online, but you’ll be able to access them from any web browser.

Use an iPhone?  Make it Better Still!

Tip 4: Download the free Simplenote app for iPhone here

Then you can use your iPhone to view, create and edit your notes.  It automatically syncs to your Simplenote web account…which automatically syncs to Notational Velocity on your Mac.

So you’ve got all the info you need at your fingertips all the time.  No more excuses.

How to Make Your Entire Personal Information System Much Much Better

There will be plenty of times when you need some information in a certain place at a certain time.  But you don’t have it.  So you end up either looking silly, or end up not being able to do something you wanted to be able to do.  All because it’s not stored in your personal information system.

Tip 5:  Make the effort (or make a note!) to get that information in your system asap.  Set an alarm.  Get it in your system for when you next need it.  That time will come.  Maintain that approach overtime and you’ll surprise yourself as to how organised and effective you’ve become.  Then you can enjoy the rewards that brings.

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Tip 6:  Please let me know in the comments below (and while you’re at it tell me what else you’d like tips on relevant to your career or business progress, learning and productivity).  I’ll promise to be as helpful as possible!

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1. Free Mind Mapping Software
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Hate to say it but most people are ineffective.  They often don’t get the job done on time AND they don’t get home on time.  No one wins.

Effective habits don’t come naturally to us.  Our default setting is ‘ineffective’.  And ‘effectiveness’ was never a subject at school.  It would be ironic in my opinion if it was.  In fact, the very ineffective approach to the way school works ingrains some bad habits in to us that we carry through in to later life. However, effectiveness is learnable.  And over time, the habits can give you a sense of liberation from your work.

Want to get home on time today?  Try this:

You’ve possibly heard Pareto’s Law.  One application is that 80% of our results at work get done in 20% of our working time; that amazing 20% when we’re focused and in flow, getting the job done well.

If you could extract that magic 20%, and only do that, then theoretically you’d get 80% of your work done.  That’s within 2 hours of a 10 hour work day.  Then you could use the rest of the time how you like.

How can we get to the magic 20%?

One way is to use forced efficiency which I write about in a previous article here.  Ask yourself, ‘if I only had 1 hour at work today and then had to rush off, what would I get done in that 1 hour, and how would I do it?’

You’d  probably start by politely telling your colleague next to you to shut up about what was on TV last night.

You’d devote your attention to scan over all that needs to be done, and you’d instantly start recognising the key priorities. You’ll soon pick out the few actions that will have the most impact or consequences to your work.

You’d think about who you could delegate to, what you could defer, what you could just scrap doing altogether.  You’d find existing work that you could re-use to save re-inventing the wheel.  You’d instantaneously be a lot smarter as you consider how to achieve your desired result.  You’d probably write a quick neat list of what needs to be done in that 1 hour.

Then you’d just get on with it with urgency.  And often this way, you quickly get in to that state of flow.

You’ll be surprised by your progress if you start the day like this.  Never mind the exact figures in the theory, they don’t matter.  It’s just probabilistic.  It increases the chances heavily that you’ll not only get your important work done, but also get home on time, or earlier.

Just do it and see what it does for you.  And let me know how you go below.

You might also like these:

1. Learn Productivity From Airlines
2. How to Get What You’re Lacking
3. 4 Decisions to Sort Your Life Out

It’s simple.

First decide whatever it is you lack that you want more of.

Start with your career.  What do you want more of?  Earnings?  Respect?  Recognition?  Time off?

Then, put more attention on how to get it.  Study it.  Write about it, even privately to yourself.

You get more of what you put your attention towards.  You start getting ideas and useful insights.  The reason you’re lacking anything in particular is you didn’t put enough attention towards it.

So put more attention towards it more often.

Up to you how you do that.  But since you’re out of the habit in this particular area you’re lacking in, you might find it useful to get your calendar or alarms to assist you re-directing your attention at certain times.

I got more time off in my work by putting my attention on how to still earn a good living working less.  I got a bit obsessed with this idea and found the information I needed and generated useful ideas which I applied.  Re-directing my attention purposefully enabled it.  It was a choice.

So go on then, do it now, what are you lacking in your career?  Pick the one that will have the most impact on you.

You might also like these:

1. How to Make Decisions for Better Returns
2. Should You Sack Your Employer?

Many people just don’t think things through before throwing themselves in to something.  You have…

Your inputs:

• 24 hours a day – less now after reading this
• $x
• x energy

Your desired outputs:

• money
• enjoyment (or positive feelings)

Every second of every day uses some of those inputs, and you get guaranteed outputs, but those outputs aren’t always all good.

How are you outputs currently shaping up?

If they’re not too good right now, you might not be making smart decisions.  So listen up…

You can invest your inputs in to either:

• learning something (useful?)
• doing something

Your options:

1. You can choose what you both learn and do to try to INCREASE BOTH your inputs and outputs
2. You can choose to do something else that decreases your inputs and outputs

That’s your free choice, and an opportunity to be smart.

But here’s the thing; your outputs keep coming.  Like the ripple effect when you throw a stone in a lake.  Your outputs come in the short, medium and long term.  That’s the part most people neglect to think about.

You can use your inputs in return for rewarding outputs in the short term, but negative outputs in the longer term.  You’ve got to occasionally.

You can use your inputs for lower returns in the short term, and higher returns long term.  You’ve got to do that too.

You can do things that are costly and are not really that enjoyable.  A lot of people waste their resources doing this because they don’t think.

You can do things that are cheap or free, and are really enjoyable and good for you in the short, medium and long term.  People don’t do enough of that.  They’ve forgotten that it’s an option.

Have a look at the variables I’ve laid out here and think around them.  What things could you do that you’re not currently doing that would increase your inputs AND increase your outputs in the SHORT, MEDIUM AND LONG TERM?  How could you make better decisions?  What’s the next project, event or invite you’re about to get that you might make a smarter decision on?  Maybe you could put your resources elsewhere?

P.S.  One that works well for me is reading plenty of useful business books from the library.  I order new ones in.  I love speed-reading them, I love applying what I learn, they give me more energy, give me ideas to free more of my time, and I love the fact that it brings in more money and enjoyment in the short, medium and long term.

What ideas have you got?

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