Sometimes I stumble upon something that really makes me pause and enjoy. Most of the times this happens when I encounter something on the Internet that combines some of the things I really enjoy in life. It gives me an energy boost, that puts things I am struggling with in different perspective. It comes mostly as a surprise. And life is full of those surprises.

Sometimes it is just some lines of text, maybe a quote. Sometimes a beautiful picture, some music or a video. But it may as well happen when sitting in a restaurant or during a walk. Something grabs your intention. In this post I want to share a video by The Piano Guys.

In this beautiful video several things that are important to me come together. It reminds me of my love for classical music, watching a good movie and seeing beautiful scenery.

I love the amount of work they put in to making this video. Enjoy!

Please share your source of inspiration in the comments below.

I have to admit that I was a little hesitant reading this book. From what I had read about it on the internet the central theme revolves around dying. Not exactly a subject most people are willing to think about much. Luckily the book is small in size, around a 100 pages.

The book is an honest report of an experience the author, Robert D. Smith, had at the time he realized he already had lived 20,000 days. Counting your days instead of the years makes you rethink a lot of things in live. The book describes a process the reader can implement to make your days really count. Don't let the number of pages confuse you. In these pages are some very inspiring and deep thoughts.

Here are some quotes from the book:

“You only can decide yes or no. How simple is that? But not always easy.

“Become your own problem.”

“Life is not about finding yourself; it is about creating yourself.”

Those quotes alone are worth reading again and again. If you want to confront yourself with some very important subjects to think about, this book is for you. It is very well written. It is easy to read but you will need time to digest the contents. And apply it to your life.

John Maxwell already has witten a ton of books about leadership. I have read quite a few of them already so I was curious to see how this book would be different. In one way it is different than some of his other books on leadership but in another way it is the same. Let me explain that.

In this book you will find a lot of material already covered in some of his other books but in a different context and for a different audience. The book is full of wisdom but always pratical so you can apply it directly. This book will help you regardless of your position to take control of your life and be a leader from the place your are right now. Even if you’re not in a formal leadership position. Every person is a leader of his or her own life. And that is where I think the book will bring leadership as a subject to a new and broader audience.

In short this book describes myths about leadership, the challenges of leadership from a new perspective (360º) and the principles to bring this 360º leadership paradigm into practice.

I found it hard to read it in one go. Mostly because of the density of the material and also because the book encourages you to reflect on your own behavior in many areas. So for me I think the book is more suitable to be picked up every now and then. Read a chapter and reflect and implement the info in your life.

Here is just a quick tip for users of the Mac version of Evernote (version 5.0 and above): they added two shortcut keys that have been on my wishlist for years.

Control – Command + M = Move a note to a notebook of choice. Pressing this key combo will give you a list of notebooks to choose from. There is also a small search box. So if you want to move a note to the General Reference notebook just start typing “Ge” in the search box and the General Reference notebook will be selected. Hit enter and the note will be moved to that notebook.

Command + J = Go to notebook. Brilliant for quick navigation to your notebooks. Even shared notebooks are included in the popup that shows up when you press this key combination. In this case the search box is also available.

Especially processing all new notes in the Default Notebook (In GTD terminology the Inbox) is much easier this way.

Just try it out and let me know if it works for you!

Some people think of Evernote as your external brain and in a sense this is true. Over the course of the last 4 years I have learned to use Evernote in more ways. It is far more than my external brain.

Getting Things Done setup

I have written on this blog about setting up Evernote for GTD. I still use it the same way as I did four years ago. In the GTD and Evernote users group I am still advocating using notebooks over tags for the different list in GTD. Also contexts have separate notebooks in my setup.

Others like Ruud Hein and The Secret Weapon are using a tag based system. My initial reason not going for this approach was the buggy implementation of tags in earlier versions of Evernote. And allthough those times are behind us I still kept away from tags for my GTD setup. The new reason for this is that I use tags as a way of implementing a rock solid A-Z reference file system in Evernote.

Filing is a problem

In my home office I do have a reference file system that is setup as David Allen describes in his book Getting Things Done, The Art of Stress-Free Productivuty. For those of you that have the book at hand: check page 96 evv. Ever since I started using GTD I have experienced the many great benefits of having a filing system that just works. I have one simple A-Z indexed set of folders. I can add new folders in under one minute and adding papers to existing folders is even quicker. I have a labeler within arm reach and plenty of fresh folders. Administrative tasks are done in a fraction of the time because everything is in place and easy accessible. I cannot imagine that I have lived without this simple setup. Filing is a problem for a lot of people.

In my own experience and in coaching people I have found that handling the digital realm is even a bigger struggle for a lot of people. Digital information tends to spread around hard drives, email programs and cloud services. And even though computers have strong searching capabilities the stress factor of not knowing where everything is bothers people. It did bother me.

Evernote as your digital archiving system

And in comes Evernote. I use the tag system in Evernote as my A-Z reference file archive. I can easily add physical paper to Evernote with my ScanSnap scanner, add all kinds of documents, emails, tweets, basically all digital info that enters my life. And is worth keeping. I use a tag as a hard copy file folder. And I already have many, many tags.

How to setup Evernote as your GTD system? Start here: Evernote and GTD Part 1

How can I help you using Evernote even better for GTD? Post your comments below….