We are bombarded daily by a multitude of tools that will supposedly make our lives easier, increase our productivity 10 fold, and lead us to amazing fulfilling lives full of wealth, success and happiness. Tools, that if only we had them, we could get more leads, turn more leads into clients, sit on a beach somewhere while we rake in the money–all desirable things.
I’m not going to talk about any of that.
No quick fix tips to make you 100 times more successful.
With that said however, there are two very common (maybe not to everyone) tools that I use on a daily basis and which help me stay organized, both with work, and my other endeavors.
Those tools are Trello and Evernote.
Common to some, undoubtedly unknown to others, both of these tools have proved to be invaluable to me.
My title at my job is Manager of Marketing Services. My company is JACK Entertainment, and our business is casinos and racetracks. We own four properties–three casinos and one casino-racetrack hybrid–and all the restaurants, bars, hotels, and entertainment that goes along with them.
Working on the creative side of marketing, my job is to manage, or help manage, any artwork that we create–and the process that sees all of our creative campaigns through from conception to printing. Everything from email-blasts to billboards to postcards to menus to the design of hotel key cards, comes through my boss and me.
We manage a lot of projects. Hundreds every month, with each one often containing multiple components and distinct parts. And given the heavily regulated nature of the gaming industry, those projects require a lot of pesky approvals. This is where these tools come in handy.
With Trello I can create different boards for the different types of projects we work on, and the different processes they require. One for collateral projects, one for website projects, one for email campaigns, etc. Within each board each individual project has a card that I can physically drag through our workflow so I know exactly what stage of our process it is currently in.
Trello allows you to create checklists, add notes, add attachments, add due dates, assign different cards to different people–and everything is in real time. There is a huge amount of functionality whether you are making personal to do lists, or managing a remote based company.
Evernote is just an awesome way to keep track of ideas. You can create endless amounts of notebooks and notes that are accessible anywhere there’s internet. There’s a desktop and mobile version making it easy to switch between the two.
I’ve started really using this a lot more in the past few weeks. I use it to take notes in meetings and on calls, jot down quick writing topic ideas that pop into my head, save articles, make grocery lists, make to do lists, etc etc. With the Chrome Clipper extension you can click one button and the webpage or article will be automatically copied into a new note. You can share notes with coworkers, save emails as a note, and easily transfer documents between your phone and computer.
These tools are awesome. And free. I’ve been signed up for both for some time but just recently really started digging into them and finding out how to make them add value to my work and life.
I won’t go into the nuts and bolts of how to use them here, mostly because this piece is already too long and you can find a ton of resources on YouTube and Google to learn how to use both of them.
Check them out to see for yourself!