Tools, tricks and technology

Kat1e

This is for life
Since I have to admit to being a fan of gadgets, technology, lifehacks, tricks and all continuous improvement techniques (like LEAN), I thought it would be interesting to see how that could help us on our Atkins journey.

I would love to hear what other people use as tools, techniques or technology that helps you. Or indeed any other vaguely related topics :D

I will start with Evernote...
 
ooh whats that? I might be on wrong track here bout what you meant but I use myfitnesspal and a little home made spreadsheet to sort my meals.
 
Evernote

Evernote

What is it? Place to capture things in “the cloud” and have them easily accessible where ever you are

What sort of things? Pretty well anything digital - text, emails, documents, photos, voice recordings

Why use it? It is like a digital filing system but much easier to find things as uses tags and also OCR ie optical character recognition (finds text in documents & photos & therefore is searchable). You can use it in lots of different ways. You can have both private & shared areas of the system.

I am just exploring how this sort of technology will change the way we live. For myself for example:
  • I have various to do lists – both things that need doing today, this week, or just ideas for sometime/anytime. These are shared with DH so he knows what’s on the list too
  • Things to buy, ideas for DD next birthday/xmas
  • Reference – absolutely anything – could be your insurance details, book lists, recipes
  • Holiday info – maps, ticket info, reservations, travellers cheque numbers, credit card emergency info....
  • Take a photo of useful poster/van/document while you are out – Evernote automatically OCRs it so searchable by keyword. Eg see a van for a plumber, take a photo, now comes up when you search for “plumber”!
  • Electronic filing all your documents (and then dumping the paper) with searching possible– possible but struggling to get motivated on the backlog of scanning. Much easier when the document is already digital then you can just upload it or email it.

Why evernote? It’s free! It’s so easy to get things in & then equally importantly get them out again when you need them.

What do I need? Access to web via pc, phone etc. You can set up a free account to use (premium account is for those of us who are hooked & need more space!). Then you can access from multiple places and it all stays in sync.

How do I get started? Look up Evernote.com and see all the different ways that people use it. Sign up for free

Evernote & Atkins – which was the original point of this post

Since I started I have been using as follows:
  • Links to interesting web sites eg sugar free Sheila
  • Lists of allowed foods (always with you when shopping & in restaurants!)
  • Started putting my favourite recipes in
  • Captured starting weights & measurements plus before photos (well now photos but you know what I mean!!!)

If anyone is interested to find out more - let me know
 
Hi Vicky, yes that's exactly what I was after. If you have something that could help others stick to the path, maybe share what you use, when, why, pros/cons etc

Thank you!!
 
OMG... that sounds like my notebook I have my world in but better!
 
I have various to do lists – both things that need doing today, this week, or just ideas for sometime/anytime. These are shared with DH so he knows what’s on the list too
Things to buy, ideas for DD next birthday/xmas

omg i think i love you :)
im the list queen x thankyou xxxx
 
hmmm said to me at work with a frown "you're just too organised - you scare people"!!!!

Ah well - you can only deliver and have them happy at that point! I just like playing with the stuff
 
You'll be familiar with the Lifehacker website then! (One of my faves).

I think I like the cut of your jib Kat1e!
 
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Sounds good to me, Katie - I use Google docs and other cloud stuff a lot, and of course am completely addicted to my iPhone :)
 
Oooh speaking of iPhones, I use an app called Reeder on mine to aggregate news stories from loads of different websites. It's not very diet related but keeps me much more up to date with news, and news I'm interested in, than I was before when I had to go to loads of different websites individually.

Not very techy but massively useful (to me, anyway....) :s
 
I like this thread. :D
 
Agree that news feed readers are really useful. I use xfeed myself

And someone seems to have guessed my main feed - Lifehacker!
 
im going to check that out!
 
Any RSS reader is great. Its totally revolutionised how up-to-date I am with news. Also gets rid of most damn Flash adverts.

Lifehacker is great isn't it Kat1e. I visit Lifehacker and Engadget pretty much every day.

Ah Internet....my only true friend... :D
 
LOL, me too Michael.

I can't live without a daily dose of my Rise of Atlantis game! You can't get it anymore as an app, and the designers are doing all their new games just as iPad apps boohoo.
 
Can you imagine life without the Internet (again)? I think I'd go insane...!

Interesting. Seems silly not to develop for iPhone if developing for iPad - pretty much the same software and hardware - their loss!

You should get an iPad! Or jailbreak your iPhone to install iPad OS on your iPhone - that'll show them!!
 
Looking at lifehacker now - interesting. My OH would love it - must forward it to him. :)
 
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