Curation for Productivity & Inspiration

One of my biggest challenges used to be keeping an organized digital listing of inspiring articles, pictures, and other media.

I recall I carting out a 13-gallon garbage bag filled to the brim with old, handwritten notes that I’d been hoarding for years. I didn’t feel even a twinge of regret. Gone are the days of scribbling in my trusty notebook, paper napkins, my hand or whatever else happened to be within reach whenever inspiration struck. Yes, gone are those days but I’ve gotta say, I don’t really miss them all that much.

I remember sitting in a sea of papers from time to time, frantically searching for that one note that I-don’t-remember-where-I-put. Now, my little mountain of notebooks and boxes full of scribbles notes have been replaced by digital alternatives.

I’ve managed to develop my own haphazard system using the following tools/platforms:

Evernote

Evernote is the ultimate notebook. I can capture notes by snapping pictures, typing, handwriting on my tablet or phone, make notes via speech to text and record voice notes. These can be categorized into stacks of notebooks and tagged as I wish. Evernote supports annotation and capturing web articles and images. Most importantly, Evernote syncs across all of my devices, which makes it truly the notebook that goes everywhere with me.

Pocket

I use Pocket to save and categorize (tag) interesting articles and research links. This is perfect—as opposed to using Evernote for everything–because I like to keep my reference materials separate from my actual notes or content that needs to be followed upon.

Pinterest

I use Pinterest to build collections of inspiring images. I’ve noticed that a lot of my author friends are using it for the same purpose, so I know it’s a totally genius idea.

Flipboard

Flipboard’s magazine style lends itself to browsing interesting content in a beautiful format. You can create “magazines” from only the content you especially like or want to remember. Flipboard’s limitation—if you can call it that—is that it is designed for tablets and smartphones, so the experience isn’t quite to inspiring on a PC/laptop.

What do you use?

Are there any awesome resources that you use that aren’t mentioned above?

Please, do share!