The key to note taking success lies with the proper tools you use. We all know note taking is an important tool for better productivity so we can get things done faster hence getting us to our end goal faster. Just a reminder, our end goal is to be able to focus now on getting a business started and begin earning money without us physically being there, which is essential to lifestyle design.

Before I decided to finally change how I do things, I always had those little post its everywhere, a whiteboard, a glass board and even a blackboard. I really had trouble organizing those so I migrated them to my PC which was then transformed to a clutterfest with little notes I made from note pad. I easily got distracted because of that.

Hopefully, you aren’t like that. If you are, then this post should help you choose note taking apps or softwares that will cure your note taking sickness.

Some reminders before I begin. There are dozens of good online note taking Web 2.0 sites out there, like SpringNote, Stikkit, and Notefish but I just chose some of what I think will distract you less and doesn’t always need you to be online often.

Here goes, in no particular order!

1. NoteScraps
Since people in the world are primarily Windows users, it’s only fair that I put this on this list first. When I was still on a PC sometime before, this was something I leaned on a lot. It keeps my notes in a single place and you can search for stuff instantly. Downside? It’s 20 bucks for the full version. (Which is totally worth it!)

2. Evernote
I have mentioned this before to be one of my Top 10 Productivity Tools. This has been a staple in my online work ever since it came out. I just love that I can browse it offline and online with great speed. It’s also cross platform so you can use it on your iPhone, PC or Mac.

3. Google Notebook or Zoho Notes
These two are pretty much the same. They store your notes and stuff online plus you get to download an plugin extension (as shown on the picture above) which lets you focus on what you are doing by not intruding your workflow. Be sure to login to your Google account first.

4. Tomboy or WikiPad
Again, these two are pretty much the same because they both act like a Wiki where you can link notes to each other so you can set the relationship of each note. I prefer Tomboy because it’s prettier

5. Stickies For Mac Or Stickies For Windows
When I started on the Mac, I went with the default Stickies software for my notes. It gave me a lot of freedom but the downside was it brought me back to my “cluttery” ways. If you need instant note taking and a fix of digital Post Its, then this is great. You can also put stickies on the dashboard. I included a link for Stickies for Windows for the PC users out there. BTW, here are 10 useful tips for Stickies

6. Sidenote
No other app out there on the Mac can beat this. It just works. I am not sure if there is a Windows counterpart for this so please tell me if there is. Sidenote works like a drawer for notes. It pops out when you need it and it auto save’s it for you. You can make multiple notes and access them with a drop down box. You have to use it to appreciate it.

7. Text File + Quicksilver + Geek Tool
Sadly, this is Mac only. There might be a workaround for Windows so please post it here if you know so other readers can check it out. I use the Text editor Text Wrangler. You can choose from loads of other text editors here or just use iWork’s Pages.

With a blank text created and properly named, I can use Quicksilver to Append text directly to the text file without opening it and without having to open another window. Pretty cool right? What I do is I have a “Do This Now” list with my Batched Tasks or Daily Goals in it.

So where does Geek Tool come in? Geek Tool shows my “Do This Now” list on my desktop where it is always visible, which forces me to do it! Recently, I just found out on Zen Habits that Leo Babauta also uses almost the same setup, if not better. If you want a better explanation on how to do it, head on over to his wonderful blog and check it out or you can also comment here so I could help you out.

“Wait, where is Microsoft’s ultimate note taking software? ONE NOTE!”
I hate Microsoft’s One Note. I don’t know about you but it tries to do too many things and sucks at them, the interface is too rough on the edges and it’s pretty unreliable for a hefty price tag.

In conclusion, please, you do not need to use all of these at the same time. You should only choose 1 or even maybe 2 but do not overdo it. This was meant to organize you and not to make things worse. Personally, I now use number 6 and 7 together. It just makes things simpler. If you were wondering where I put my To do List, I use Things for that, where it puts all To-Dos together so I can eventually organize them and set dates on when I should do them.

Oh yeah, it’s not actually just 7 apps on this list!

P.S. Bonus Tip For PC Users: Here is a post on MakeUseOf.com about making Notes from notepad into Stickies.

And guys, if you like it, please Share it! Digg it! Stumble it!

7 Apps For Better Note Taking is a post from: Lifestyle Designer

Related posts:

1. 10 GTD Productivity Tools To Maintain Your Online Business

1. E.ggtimer

You must be asking yourself why I chose a simple timer to be one of my top tools.
“Why the *%$& did she choose a simple timer as one of her top tools?”

To be honest, I love simple things. Simplicity is beauty and it just rocks. It’s the simple things like this that gets the job done fast because it simply does what’s only needed.

I tweeted this the other day and people sent me DM’s(Direct Messages) on Twitter with mixed reactions. Some people that loved it, reTweeted it. Those that disagreed, sent me links to timer applications. Believe me I have most of the Timer Apps for Mac out there but this is my “go to” tool. It is just so simple, effective, you can type exactly the time you need and it stops you from what you were doing in your browser.

2. Moleskine Notebook (or Imitations) – The Good Ol’ Pen And Paper.

I love moleskines because I can keep it in my pocket or purse every time, plus it’s paper sleeves are very versatile. I don’t want to always be in front of the computer so I bring this around to remind me of my goals and other things I brainstorm about. Sometimes an idea just pops into my head and I could write it down instantly which is great because I trained myself to ignore things….meaning I disregard and forget things.

BTW, writing things down has been proven to be able to make people take action more often compared to typing it into your cellphone or other digital stuff. This alone makes this the best productivity tool!

3. Mindmapping Software

Have you ever encountered a task that you really want to do, but you eventually learned you have to do so many things to finish the task, then you started doing it and you got lost in what you were doing and suddenly quit? No? ………..

Hmm…that was embarassing. So how about this?

You signed up at Facebook, you needed to add friends, look at their pages, comment on their photos, go to your site, upload your photos, go to another friend’s site to check their apps, then you add the apps, then you have to tag faces, then poke someone, invite your best friend to play Mafia Wars, send your BFF a Frappe with the Starbucks app, become a fan of Obama and check your recommended friends. Easy right? Here’s the but. BUT you have to teach that to your un-computer savvy grandma. Your best option? Either write instructions or show graphics.

OR….

Let’s say you want a business but you don’t know how to start because you have too much on your mind. It started with a few stuff that you wanted to take action on but your friends with “experience” told you to do this and that and your Take Action list kept on growing and you just wanted to quit because of the too many things you had to do. Best thing to do is take it slowly, step by step. Map it out and go from there. You’ll see what you don’t really need so you can take action only on those critical steps to get you where you want.

You can also map out your ideas, prepare your strategy or organize plans. It’s really handy and you can just print it out if you need to.

My favorite mind mapping softwares are Freemind which is freeware. OmniGraffle Professional for the Mac and Mindjet Manager for Windows. I mainly use OmniGraffle when I have my Mac with me. Nowadays, as long as I have internet connection, I prefer using Mind Meister which I can access anywhere and I can also have partners share their opinions.

4. A Cellphone/Smartphone

I don’t really like having a phone around since some people like to waste my time but it beats having to bring a camera, a voice recorder and I get to text my mom if I wanted to!

The important functions I recommend for a cell phone are:

- A speedy camera with at least 2 mega pixels (preferably 4).

Please avoid those slow loading phones. When you turn on the camera, it should load instantly.

- Voice recorder.

This is important especially if you are into online businesses or writing. You can easily have it transcribed or you can play it back and type it yourself.
Internet capabilities is a bonus but not really critical.

5. Things (To Do List)

I use a To Do List mainly to list my 5 Daily Tasks nowadays. I was referred to Soho Notes by @mdtoorder on Twitter. I checked it out but I just prefer the simplicity of Things better.

Things just gave me a better interface to work on, intuitive design, ideal for outsourcing tasks and a bring anywhere iPhone app.

6. Blog Assist, Marsedit and Pages (Blogging and Wordprocessing)

I don’t suggest this for everyone, but if you are a blogger, then using a dedicated blog editor is a great tool that will save you time. There is a free tool called Qumana and another paid one called Blogo but Marsedit gave me more flexibility so I went with it. I have a few other blogs so I use this to remember everything and easily edit anywhere.

I use Blog Assist (recommended by @mikenichols0) for quick plugins of code. This goes really well when posting on your blogs. It makes sure you don’t mess up with the code spellings.

My word processing tool of choice is Pages from iWork. I use it’s full screen mode most of the time to stop me from getting distracted. I also use Text Wrangler (mainly for my Tool #7) as my main text (*.txt) editor. It saves a lot of time compared to Notepad or TextEdit.

For Windows, I always suggest Windows Live Writer for blogging and the all mighty MS Word

7. Quicksilver (Mac Only)

You should see this in action to understand it.

In short this is like Spotlight but on steroids. It can run, learn history and access everything without even opening any software. I use this mainly to Append text to my text files but Shutting Down my Mac instantly doesn’t hurt. For example, I run into something I’d like to research more about, or maybe I wanted to share in the future, I’ll invoke Quicksilver and Input what I wanted to the text file without ever opening it. Yes, you need well organized text files. I just dislike having to open and waiting for word processors to load.

For Windows? Here is an alternative but still nowhere near as good as Quicksilver.

8. Evernote

So, I have many text files, how do I ever “Remember Everything?”

I could always use the “Back To My Mac” function but I prefer a cross platform, access anywhere, anytime platform. This is what makes Evernote so great. Aside from my personal account, I created an account just for sharing my data to other partners. They can freely read and edit it and that’s great!

9. Tweet Deck and Hoot Suite

I like Tweeting but I’m not addicted to it. I make sure I track the replies to me so I can show my appreciation. I also like grouping together people I need to follow closely. That is why I chose Tweet Deck over many others. If the new Tweetie client is good, I might switch, but for now, Tweet Deck is the one to beat.

Hoot Suite on the other hand, helps me instantly send out links I want to share. What’s so special with that? It tracks those links for you. You don’t have to go to a separate website like Budurl and the likes just to track.

10. Google
There’s a whole suite of Google Apps, but here are the one’s I prefer to use.

- Google is obviously for researching.

- Gmail is excellent especially with the new functions added recently.

- Google Reader, for me is the best RSS reader and it makes it very organized. Make sure you put it in List mode when you eventually have so many RSS feeds.

- Google Alerts is important for your online business. This keeps you up to date with the latest news about your topic and they email it to you.

- I use Google Analytics on most of my sites for tracking. It’s very comprehensive and very easy to navigate.

Some other good Google tools are Google News, Google Docs, Google Notebook and Google Groups but I seldomly use them.

Special Mention:

Firefox

This is a given, so I did not include it in the list. There is simply no browser out there better that this for producing the fastest results. Although it is not as fast as Safari when loading, it will always outperform it. I’ve tried Camino, Opera, Flock, Safari and some more. I was mainly using Flock for a certain period of time but the screen real estate of the browser was so small because of the annoying tool bar. Safari 4 has the best screen size but I missed the functionality of extensions. Ended up somewhere in between, which was Firefox.

This is by no means the end all, be all list of productivity tools. I still use other software and “hardware” too like iLife, Mikogo, iWork, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Bento, Filemaker, MS Office, my table, my file cabinet, my assistant and a host of others but these are my “Go To” tools. These are what I use to think, do and arrange my stuff currently. These are essentially, just simple tools that you can use anytim. I really do hope you got something out of this.

10 GTD Productivity Tools To Maintain Your Online Business is a post from: Lifestyle Designer

Related posts:

1. 10 Things You Need To Know Before Starting Your Online Affiliate Marketing Business
2. 7 Apps For Better Note Taking
3. Why I Prefer Market Samurai Over Other Keyword Research Tools

As the song goes, why work without living? What is the point of working your ass off if you’re not living the life you want? Key word: LIVING; not waiting endlessly to finally get that life you want. I have been a slave to this “waiting”. Until I realized the waiting will never end. I will continue “waiting” because there’s just too many things in my plate right now! My dreams will be just that—dreams. In this article, I will help you see how easy it is to make your dreams into reality. It doesn’t matter how small or big, simple or bizarre they are. The important thing is you can achieve them. I will show you the magic elimination can do for you.

I believe there are 5 main areas in your life that will benefit the most from elimination. The first and foremost is yourSELF. It is important to find yourself happy. You will have clearer mindset to address the 4 remaining areas once you have addressed yourself. Remember: Once you have achieved the lifestyle that you wanted for yourself, it will be easier to make everything around you move according to that lifestyle you designed. Elimination will give you what you need and have been wanting for so long—TIME. Time for yourself. TIME to relax. TIME to enjoy the fruits of your labor. The process is so easy. Get rid of unnecessary, unimportant tasks. The result is TIME.

The next thing that will come into your life when you do elimination is MONEY. The inflow of your income will increase dramatically. Elimination lets you focus on what is more important (tasks or ventures that are already providing you with what you need financially), living you with more time to explore new income generating opportunities. You will also know what unimportant things are eating away your income. Through time, you will be attracting more income with less effort. And yes, money can buy happiness. Money lets you travel the world. It lets you buy the things that you want and have the LIFESTYLE YOU WANT. These things make you happy, and when you’re happy, you’ll have so much more to give!

Elimination will also help your relationship with your FAMILY. You will be spending more time with them, doing activities together, and taking family vacations. It isn’t really that hard to imagine a close, happy family. When all the clutter and unnecessary works are destroyed, all that is left with you are quality and fruitful experiences for the whole family. WORK, which will have the next big change in your life, will be enjoyable. Because you have eliminated all the unimportant, you will be left with tasks that you are willing to do or need to be done. To put it simply, LESS WORK! You will be able to prioritize your workload.

All these benefits will then lead to the fifth and last area in your life—your HOME, a happy, organized and very productive home. It is actually a cycle, each area contributing to the full development of one another. And it all begins with ELIMINATION. YourSELF is happy and free to venture on more important things, more often on MONEY-generating ideas. Now that you have both time and money, you can be with your FAMILY anytime you want, anywhere you want. You won’t be bound in a four-walled office but instead, your WORK will follow you, making it pleasurable. Elimination is a key to designing the lifestyle you want and this involves the five areas of your life.

The Benefits Of Elimination is a post from: Lifestyle Designer

Related posts:

1. Criteria for Elimination
2. Eliminate to Attain: An Introduction to a Better Lifestyle
3. Step By Step Elimination: Towards The Next Step