Does your desk have a mountain of papers on it? Are all waiting for decisions about where to store them, how to find them, what next actions to take? For over a decade I wrote articles about office efficiency and productivity. But I have a confession to make. Despite all my advice to others, I too had a paper mess in my office.
Finally, I went from a paper mess to paperless. Only an odd Post-it remains, always to the left of my keyboard. That single Post-it contains a jotting or two I took down on the phone or a sudden thought. I will do something with that little note within 24 hours. I want no mess to accumulate. I finally overcame my bad office habits and do not want to backslide.
Even after I went paperless, there were still bits of information I had stuck into Evernote or OneNote. It took too long to find things. Too many keystrokes in the search bar, then scanning lists of items that popped up. I had to come up with a way around the digital disorganization.
I had notebooks, notebook stacks, notes with good labels and tags. But still, it took too much time to call up what I wanted. And I wanted to organize everything so I could find it through a single note or page. I did not want a linear index that would have me scanning many note titles and hope I was clicking on the right one.
My solution: the My Life Master Note
In November 2016, I published a book on how to do this. Before it came out, I posted an article here. That article got several hundred more views than any of the 34 other articles I published on LinkedIn.
In my book, I show you step by step how to organize everything so you can find it in a few seconds with a few clicks, taps or keystrokes, on all your devices and platforms. You can do this with the free version of Evernote.
To learn more about this, get my bestselling book, The Master Note System: A New Way to Use Evernote to Organize Your Life. This book comes with a free Resource Kit with many templates so you can instantly organize your life on a single page.
The days of opening my office door and confronting a huge pile of papers on the credenza are finally over. When I open my note programs (Evernote and OneNote) I can find what I need in seconds. I am free to work on more engaging projects, like writing a book on OneNote.
For more about The Master Note System, go to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
Get the book and the free resource kit
Get organized in 2017: get the book now and then download the resource kit.