DURING THE COURSE of a phone call with Tom @tpemurphy Murphy, I learned some of his clever ideas on workflow. Many of the best ideas start with getting your plumbing in place with your note taking. [1]
Screenshot from @topgold's Lumia.
Tom uses several clever techniques with OneNote, [2] including the admonition to "start before you open OneNote". After reading through his blog post about OneNote [3] for the third time, I have started pruning some of my in-hand processes so I can get a sense of closure by moving content from one section to another. My goal has become to refine ideas into long form content through a process of moving ideas through three stages. Two of those stages would be separate sections in my "unfiled" notebook. The third part of the process enters into a separate notebook where I pull the well-formed ideas into Scrivener for publication.
To be successful, this process needs to hold pride of place in my daily workflow. As the screenshot on this blog post shows, I put OneNote in a prominent position on my Lumia screens. I look at my handset an average of 346 times a day. [4] I feel a sense of accomplishment when opening OneNote, reviewing media text content sent to [email protected] from a wide assortment of touch points throughout my day.
Now if only I can complete my to-do items faster. OneNote helps me complete tasks more efficiently. It is up to me to reach better completion timelines through more ruthless task management.
1. Merlin Mann -- "Do a fast mind sweep" on 43Folders, July 26, 2006.
2. Tom Murphy -- "OneNote Productivity Tool" on Murphy's Law, February 20, 2014.
3. Tom Murphy -- "Quick overview: Setting up OneNote" on Murphy's Law, May 13, 2014.
4. I spend a lot of time looking at tips shared in the @msonenote flow on Twitter so that accounts for hundreds of the glances I make at my screen.
[Bernie Goldbach uses OneNote to plan his creative multimedia lectures on the Clonmel campus of the Limerick School of Art & Design.]
