Organizing Real World Objects Inside Evernote

I use Evernote to keep track of all of the non-actionable things in my life (with one slight exception, explained below).  It's a great tool for scanning papers into, tracking ideas, defining projects, storing bookmarks or making wish lists.  Some of the slightly more challenging things to track, however, are items where I need to keep the real-world object but also would like to be able to track it in Evernote.  For these types of things (like coupons or gift cards with an expiration date, or expensive electronics to track for insurance purposes) I have a special way of storing them in Evernote.

What goes into Evernote?

- All ideas that I have

- Things I may want to buy (photo, note or web-clipping)

- Stuff that I am considering doing (photo, note or web-clipping)

- Pictures of my real world physical property that I want to track (defined as anything sentimental or that I might claim an insurance loss for)

- Time-boxed stuff in my "tickler file" 

     - This is the closest to having actions in Evernote

- Pictures of real world physical things that I want to track electronically but also need to keep physically

     - Like gift cards and coupons

Everything comes into the Notebook called "1 Inbox" 

- It is organized from there using the GTD Processing and Organizing workflow.  All actions are entered into OmniFocus, everything goes into folders:

     - "2 Project Support" - Only "Project Definition" notes go here and they are tagged with a minimum of "projects" and "definition"

     - "4 Notes / Reference" - Where every non-actionable thing goes, even notes that are related to active projects, so long as the actions are removed.  Actions don't go into Evernote, only NOTES do (actions go into OmniFocus).

Tickler File (time-boxed stuff that does not REQUIRE action)

- Put date at the beginning of Note title in YYYYMMDD format

- Tag with "tickler file"

- Put into folder called "7 Waiting For"

- Saved search to show these

Coupons

- Since the physical coupon needs to be saved, it's kept in a manila folder called "coupons"

- Evernote has a scan, picture or note about the coupon

- If it's time boxed it's added to the tickler file (see above)

Physical Things

- Tagged with "physical thing"

- May also be tagged with "insurance" or "sentimental" and some additional identifying tags

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Google Health Being Discontinued - Unfortunate!

I just went to log into Google Health and saw this blog post:  http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/update-on-google-health-and-google.html

Apparently I was one of the few people using the service.  I thought it was pretty cool and a great step toward electronic health records.  

Farewell Google Health!

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I passed my first in a series of Pega examinations; I'm now a PRPC Certified System Architect

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I've Accepted a Job with Pega Systems

I'll be leaving Coventry Health Care and going to work for Pega Systems in March.  My last day at Coventry is March 16th and my first day at Pega is March 21st.  I'm looking forward to this opportunity to go back to working for a software development company but also being able to leverage my experience in health care.  For anyone who doesn't know much about Pega, their website is full of information or you can check out the latest blog entry by Pega's CEO, Alan Trefler.  He does a pretty good job of explaining what they do.

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Some Old English Sheepdogs competing in the herding category at the Bay Colony dog show

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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This has been a frustrating week.

It's only Tuesday and already so much has happened; there's a lot to be upset about.  So for inspiration I turn to the words of a great thought leader from a different time... Yoda:

   Fear is the path to the dark side.  Fear leads to anger.  Anger leads to hate.  Hate leads to suffering.

But for something more entertaining: 

 

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A Review of My Realtor, Ed Greable

It's really hard to find a great realtor. Ed Greable is the best out there.

In the housing frenzy of the mid-2000s everyone and their brother got into real estate. I was in a bar where the bar tender was moonlighting as a mortgage broker and signing loans for people while serving them drinks. It was bad. Today the market has cooled considerably but there are still a lot of amateurs out there. It's hard to find someone in this field that is a true professional, that has the right contacts, and who actually brings value to your transaction.

As a recent transplant to Massachusetts, in December of 2009 I started looking for a realtor to buy a home in the Somerville / Medford area. I interviewed a lot of realtors in the area and each of them felt "salesy" and slimy or inexperienced. And then I met Ed. He was very cool and calm, not aggressive, he listened and seemed to understand what I was looking for. He asked all of the right questions. When I told him I thought I would like to work with him, he didn't require an exclusivity contract like so many realtors do. He felt his results would speak for themselves and we had a gentlemen's agreement.

Ed immediately started showing me properties that met my criteria. He never tried to push me into a deal but he was also very straight-forward about telling me how quickly (or slowly) he thought a particular property would sell for. He was very accurate with how much over or under asking price he thought a property would sell for. After a couple of months of looking for just the right place, we found it. Ed brought me to this property the day it hit the market. We were the first to make an offer in a pretty competitive space. Ed negotiated the deal throughout and managed to save me many thousands of dollars and did so in a professional manner where the seller felt like they were getting a fair deal and I felt like I was saving money.

Further evidence of Ed's commitment to his client, me, was the fact that he actually made less money on the commission of this particular property than he could have made on others, but he knew this was the right property for me.

As we got into the Escrow process, Ed's experience and professionalism continued to lend themselves to a great transaction; he suggested a great inspector, he got me in touch with a fantastic mortgage broker, he introduced me to the FHA 203k Program (a federally-insured rehabilitation loan program that I wouldn't have otherwise known about), he introduced me to a very experienced real estate attorney (who ended up saving me quite a bit of money in the Purchase & Sale agreement wording) and the many other people that required to make for a positive real estate transaction.

This is where you get the most value from a great Realtor; finding the right home is important, structuring the best offer is important... but having the contacts to make the whole purchase process and subsequent ownership a smooth ride, that is what matters the most. This is an area where Ed excels.

I will definitely work with Ed again in the future and I recommend him to all of my friends. He's a nice man and he's your best ally in a complicated and rapidly changing real estate market.