In addition to the emails about weight loss, anatomy enlargement, and offers from a Nigerian Prince, an interesting email popped into my inbox the other day. It was from Evernote (a company that makes note-taking software).
I’ve never liked Evernote even though I’ve used it for years. I didn’t use it because it was awesome or spectacular, I only ever used it because it accomplished what I needed slightly better than the other sub-par programs that I had sampled. To be sure, there are die-hard Evernote fans, and I’ve never been one.
Their email to me indicated that they would be making some changes to the version I was using. Because these changes would require me changing the way I used the program, it was no longer worth it for me. It was time to move on.
Why not use a pen and a pad? There’s no way to search information quickly or easily when it’s written, I can type way faster than I can write, and the sheer volume of notes I take make it a poor choice from a storage perspective. I take notes on many things: meeting notes, random ideas, quotes that I’ve found, books I’d like to read, some recipes, obviously my to-do lists, project planning, etc.
I started looking at various note-taking software.
I found literally dozens of apps and programs designed for note-taking. I looked at the screenshots, I read the reviews, I looked at the features and the pricing.
The one I settled on is probably one of the simplest pieces of software that I’ve ever seen.
It doesn’t try to do everything that the others attempt. It doesn’t include every feature known to modern man. In fact, as far as “features” go, it is quite barren: it is essentially a glorified bullet list.
But there is an elegance in how simple it is.
I navigate the app using just a few intuitive commands. It is insanely quick. I can organize my notes in any fashion that makes sense to my mind. And it works on any device on the internet.
I found it quite rewarding to have such a simple fit to a problem. I started wondering how simplicity might be the best option in other situations as well (ala Occam’s Razor).
We have so many options available to us now the array of choices in any domain seems almost limitless. Sometimes it can be downright overwhelming.
Back in “the day” things were simpler and a bit more straightforward.
Over time though, finding a potential mate (for instance) went from simply picking from the suitors in your town, all the way up to an estimated 3.5 billion people that are now online, anywhere in the world.
We don’t look for cars at the corner lot, we can now find a car in Albuquerque from our sofa.
It’s in our current age of info overload that simplicity is even more appealing, and in some cases even necessary.
In yet in another example, I just did a Google search for “weight loss techniques” and it came up with 20.5 million results.
Now, I don’t know if my cool, new note-taking app will work for you. I also don’t know how complicated you want you next car search to be.
But I do know of a simple, effective technique for weight loss that doesn’t involve complicated diets, herbal concoctions from a Guatemalan shaman, or exercising in a trashbag.
If the weight war takes place in your mind, maybe you simply start there.
If you or someone you know is interested, Integrative Hypnotherapy offers hypnosis for weight loss for people who have already tried everything else without lasting success.
P.S. If you’re interested in checking out the app I picked for note-taking… Here’s a special link where we both get a free upgrade and here’s where you don’t.