Friday, March 17, 2017

Google Keep + Research for the win!



I love Google Keep! It is one of those versatile resources that is useful in many, many situations.  It will allow you to take photos, make lists, record oral responses and manipulate that info.

I use Google Keep for a very personal reason.  I travel to multiple school districts on a weekly basis and have a concern that I will accidentally wear the same outfit to the same district time after time. Yup!  It is a real concern!
That may not seem very important - but it bothers me. I needed a way to keep track so, I started taking a picture of myself each morning as I get ready for work and send that to Google Keep.  Now I can make sure that I don't keep showing up in a district looking like I only own one outfit!

That's only one use.

My daughter was home from Virginia for the weekend. She is a grad student in Professional Counseling and is just getting ready to begin her BIG research project.  We were talking about the process - wading through  sources and note taking and research and and and.

As we talked -  the wonderful and amazing Google Keep popped into my mind!
This versatile tool has just been made more amazing with the integration into Google Docs!
It has the potential to turn research on its head!

So how would this work??


1.  Throughout the research process use Google Keep for your notes - add any additional info

2.  Add tags to help organize notes for later use

3.  Open and name a Google Doc

4. Tools  - Google Keep  - see all your notes

5. Search for tags

6.  Drag the notes you need into the doc

Here is a little video of that process.


I think this streamlined note taking tool is a real game changer!  
And I must say I earned major mom points for sharing this with my grad student daughter! 

Totally Google Keep for the win!!

Monday, March 13, 2017

Spring Cleaning your Digital Presence

I have this habit of signing up for just about any service online that comes through my email.
And then I promptly forget.
So - it is time to spring clean my Digital Presence.


First stop Google goodness


1. https://myaccount.google.com/
2. Click on Signing in to Google
3. Manage apps

Here you see a list of all the websites and apps that you have used Google to sign in with.  You can go through each of the sites and remove the ones you no longer use.

Yeah - first digital closet is cleaned!

Email subscriptions

1.  Log in to your email (gmail)
2.  By the email address you will see the words "unsubscribe" 
3.  You have a second option to make a final decision to unsubscribe to the company or blog.
4. It usually takes a few days or weeks to be removed from an email list. So be patient.


Speaking of Email 

If you are using gmail take some time to organize your email inbox.

A few of my tips
1. Use the label feature to organize emails still in your inbox
2. One of my favorite labels is ToDo.  Notice I add a one. then it appears at the top of my label list.
3.  Add a calendar item once a month to zero out your inbox. It feels so liberating to know that you have organized your life in one small place!




4. Consider using different email sections in your gmail with a priority inbox. Here is a little video I made to demo the process