Take Some Goodnotes!

If you are anything like me you are always looking for ways to improve efficiency of your operation. One way of doing that is by using technology to the fullest. As many of us are proud owners of tablets, smart phones and other technological advances carrying a paper and a pen seems redundant. Think about it what happens with a piece of paper, you have taken great notes and the paper lands on your desk back at the office. Once dealt with the topic you either have to file it, throw it out, or share it. What happens if you need to go back and refer to that document, can you find it? This is why using a tablet or smart phone is a great way to combat that as everything is in one place. If you need to share the notes with someone then you have choices such as emailing it, sending it by phone and more. I am one of those people that is trying to take my business paperless as much as possible, I don’t think I will ever get there totally, I just don’t trust computers enough not to crash as of yet but maybe in the future.

Most tablets come with some sort of notes application that allows you to take notes by typing them out and sharing them with others. I like the app itself but when in a meeting typing is not an option for me as it takes too much concentration. I have to concentrate so much on my typing skill that it is pretty rude of me to take notes in a meeting by typing. I wanted an app I could write with that would allow me all of the conveniences of having the information on my tablets. The problem is that you can’t write in the notes app on an iPad which I have so I had to find something different.  For me the answer was Goodnotes. Goodnotes allows you to write your information out by hand as if taking notes on paper. You have options such as using lined or plain paper, adding pages, renaming documents, and adding images and graphs. Your documents are sorted like a bookshelf allowing you to delete ones no longer needed or filing as you would with a traditional filing cabinet. There is a free version and a paid version for under five dollars. I suggest the paid version as the free version doesn’t allow you to do much. There is one problem however, if you have an iPad there is no stylus to write with. The solution to that is to buy a stylus at the office supply store and it will work with that app, so you can write notes as if having a full pad of paper that never runs out. I have been using the app for months now and really like it. May I suggest you carry a traditional pen in your pocket, after a while you get so used to not carrying paper that that when you are asked to sign something you will pull out your stylus? Try the app out for yourself and see if it doesn’t make you world less filled with paper.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a business and leadership consultant and has been in the transportation industry for over 30 years. For more information on his work please visit his website at www.outridge.ca