I have always been a collector of information: useful websites, magazine and newspaper articles or potential future travel itineraries. My brain doesn’t have the capacity to hold onto all this information, nor do I enjoy the clutter of physical paper and notebooks. Thankfully, around 10 years ago, Evernote launched a digital notebook that would satisfy my need to keep useful information in an organized and decluttered way. I have been a faithful user since early 2012, expanding the capabilities and uses of this handy digital notebook into various areas of my personal and work life. If you are unsure about how Evernote could work for you consider some of the ways I use it.

Note: I have Evernote installed on my smartphone, tablet, and computer. When online it syncs data across all devices. I have also installed the Clip to Evernote extension on my web browser and downloaded the Scannable app to my smartphone. This is not a sponsored Evernote Blog; I am merely sharing my personal organizing experience using this tool.

• Book Wish List – Whenever I am recommended a book or come across a book I’d like to read I add this to my Book Wish List page in the notebook. Next time I’m at the library or bookstore and can’t remember the title a quick review of the list provides me all the info I need to know.
• Business Cards – Using the Evernote App on my smartphone I snap a photo of the business card and Evernote auto-fills the Business Card notebook page with the person’s contact information. Now I have a searchable database of network contacts and can recycle or pass on the paper version.
• Meeting Notes, Presentations or PDFs – Whether I’m at a client meeting or at a conference, I can capture notes along with saving photos, agendas or shared digital presentations and PDFs. This is really useful on a tablet instead of a cumbersome laptop or the limited capabilities of your smartphone.
• Recipe collection – I have a separate notebook within Evernote dedicated to storing and collecting most of my recipes. When a friend emails a recipe, I pop it into the notebook. I’ve searched the internet for a new recipe I Web Clip it into the notebook. Flipping through a magazine I use Scannable and snap a pic of the recipe into the notebook. These items are quickly searchable and when I’m at the grocery store wondering how much of an ingredient I need I can pull it up on my phone’s app.
• Websites – When I come across a website I want to remember, whether it be a digital tool I could use, tax advice I need for later reference or a restaurant I want to try I can Bookmark the website to refer to at a later date.
• Signatures – Fax machines are obsolete yet there are occasions where I receive a document requiring my signature and I need to email it back. Using the Scannable function I can turn any document into a PDF or JPG, scan and email to any address or save to Evernote.
• School Information – Keeping track of school information can be overwhelming and frustrating. Do I need a password for the school wiki? Did they email that info? Or Did I receive a hand-out? By adding these into Evernote I have one place where I store class lists, school passwords, flyers, handouts and important emails for convenient reference.
• Gift Wish Lists – My kids have Santa, Sinterklaas and Birthday gift wish lists. I can snap a pic of something they see or save a web link to an item or just create a simple list of their wishes. When grandparents or friends ask what their gift wishes are I can mail them the page from Evernote.
• Vacation Destinations – When organizing a trip there is a lot of research that goes into planning the itinerary and activities. During a search, I can save various websites, PDFs and other information about my search into Evernote.
• Travel documents – Hotel, car or plane reservations are all electronic these days. Storing the reservations in one notebook keeps me from searching through countless emails. I can also keep digital copies of visas, passports, and other vital travel documents.
• Product Information – Periodically I need to buy new vacuum cleaner bags or replace the printer cartridges. What model number vacuum or printer do I have again? By storing this info in Evernote I quickly reference the product code, number or model for online or in-store purchasing.
• Shopping List Items – Beyond making the requisite list of clothes my kids need because they’ve outgrown a winter jacket or shoes, I can capture web addresses where I may be able to purchase them. Maybe I’m out and not able to shop but spot something I like, I’ll take a photo and add this to my Evernote notebook. I can also collect ideas for pieces of furniture or accessories I may want for my home that I see in magazines or stores, think Pinterest but more personalized.

There are far more capabilities within Evernote to capture images, collaborate with others or search your data using tags. The more you use Evernote the more useful it becomes.

Are you, or your business, struggling to keep organized digitally? Bring order, structure, and efficiency to your digital life by contacting sorted.by Melissa by email or phone for a Free Consultation. 

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I consider one of my hobbies cooking, and I take pleasure in making a meal my family and friends will enjoy. Give me a menu and I’ll happily collect the ingredients and spend hours in the kitchen.

What I like least about the cooking process is deciding “what’s for dinner”? And when I’m tired, hungry, short on time or agitated by the question posed by my family I draw a blank, completely paralyzed with the decision of what to cook and eat, making the cooking process unbearable.

If you suffer from the same, here are a few ways to get organized in the kitchen and answer the question, “What’s for dinner?”.

MEAL PLANNING

In an ideal world, you can commit a few hours each week to seeking out new recipes, plan out an entire week’s worth of meals, do all the shopping and prep ingredients for your recipes. Meal planning works best when you plan weekly and routinely eat similar foods or have a large repertoire of recipes you’ve frequently cooked and need only to glance for reference at the recipe. If this appeals to you then do it!

Start by downloading the worksheet What’s for dinner?

Plan meals with the freshest of ingredients for the start of the week, frozen meals or those that don’t expire quickly towards the end of the week.

Going out or ordering-in? Add this to the week’s menu.

For those particularly busy days when you know you will be short on time plan your simplest, quickest to prepare meals.

Starting the process can be daunting and time-consuming. To jump start I suggest doing one or both of the following:

• For one month, note every meal you eat on a calendar. From take-out to homemade you’ll have four weeks of meals to see your family’s eating patterns. Using this information, you can plan a week’s worth of meals based on what you already enjoy eating.
• Use a set of index cards to create a collection of recipes you cook frequently. Write down every meal you would cook again and the ingredients used. Once you have a series of cards, you can shuffle through and create your meal plan. The bonus is you also have a built-in shopping list.

TIP: Meal plans are not just for dinner. Use a meal plan when packing school lunches. From snacks to sandwiches have a set menu to reference for the week. Then leave your kids to help pack their own lunch.

THEME NIGHTS

Stifled for meal creativity? Create a theme based on food ethnicity (Italian, Asian) or ingredients (noodles, beans). Determine a day of the week that you will always cook (or take away) this meal, such as Friday Pizza nights. Use alliterations to come up with fun theme days such as Meatless Monday, Taco Thursday, or Soup-er Sunday.

Establishing themes ensures everyone knows what’s for dinner and simplifies the process. A few years ago, my in-laws ate dinner at our home every Wednesday night. In order to simplify the menu, we stuck with the Dutch tradition of gehaktdag (meatball day). The meatballs my mother in-law sourced from her butcher and I ensured we had the accompaniment of potatoes and seasonal vegetable – easy peasy.

TIP: In a real time crunch? Eat breakfast for dinner. Who says a fried egg sandwich or cereal with yogurt and fruit is only for the mornings?

PREP COOKING

Once you’ve planned your meals and done the shopping, the idea is to spend a few hours, usually on the weekend, prepping and pre-cooking for the week. This includes prepping vegetables and meat by trimming and cutting into pieces ready to cook/eat and creating casserole dishes or soups, to be frozen and (re)-heated. On the day itself, you need only combine or reheat the elements for a quick, healthy and delicious meal.

My friend, chef and Netherlands Master Chef finalist, Bojana Snijders- Nikodijevic is busy creating a cookbook which addresses the dilemma of what’s for dinner and utilizes the prep-cooking method. If you want to remove daily cooking stress from your life while making healthy and delicious food for your family pre-order a copy of THE PLAN, PREP AND PLATE METHOD, Simple Dinners for Busy Families today.

MAKE ONCE, EAT TWICE

Soups and casserole dishes are clear favorites for leftovers but have you considered other meals you can cook once and turn into different meals? I routinely make a large batch of vegetarian chili. Instead of freezing the leftovers we eat it again later in the week as a filling for wraps or fish tacos.

You might cook up several pieces of chicken or other meats one evening to eat over the course of two or three. Reheating later in soups or stir-fries.

MAKE GROCERY SHOPPING ROUTINE

Nothing complicates the decision of what to eat even more than an empty fridge. Shopping on a routine day of the week will ensure that you have a properly stocked fridge and pantry. It will reduce the need to shop daily or around dinner time when the grocery store lines are at their longest.

Before heading to the supermarket make your meal plan. By meal planning, you purchase only what you need to consume in the coming week, thus, saving you money by reducing potential food waste from over purchasing. Looking for more budget saving ideas read, Tips for Slashing the Grocery Budget.

Once you know what you are going to eat make your shopping list. Whether you write it out the old-school way or utilize an app (like Wunderlist or Remember the Milk), a shopping list helps you oversee your potential purchases against your meal plan.

TIP: Organize your shopping list based on the route through your grocery store.

My mission is to help busy families find more space, focus and time to do the things they love. If you’d like help getting your kitchen organized or creating a meal plan contact sorted.by Melissa.

 I want to help you live a more organized life. Let’s get you sorted.

Every day from the moment we wake we make thousands of decisions. From when to get out of bed, to what to wear, when to leave for work and which email to respond to.  While hard to measure it is estimated that we make around 35,000 decisions every day, 226 of those in each day according to researchers at Cornell University, are based around food alone.

An Israeli university study followed 1,100 court decisions over the course of a year. Prisoners who appeared early in the day received parole about 70% of the time, while those that came late in the evening had less than 10% chance at landing parole.

Why? Judges, being human, were worn down by a day full of mental work. They had fallen victim to decision fatigue.

All those small and seemingly insignificant decisions we make over the course of a day add up.  And the results of fatigue are poor choices, impulse purchases, and irritability (just ask your partner or kids about that one). And as the day progresses our earlier choices and mood affect the quality of our bigger more significant decisions. These more significant decisions are where the real work and progress is made.

So how do we combat decision fatigue? Reduce the number of choices you should make and build these habits into your routine.

• Simplify the morning by having the same breakfast each day;
• Make only important decisions before lunch;
• outsource simpler tasks to a (virtual) assistant;

Or take a cue from some very successful business people, such as President Barack Obama who while in office only wore gray or blue suits. Or Mark Zuckerberg who wears the same outfit every single day: a gray t-shirt, jeans, and a hoodie. Obama not only kept his wardrobe minimal he simplified and limited his low-priority email to one of three responses: Agree, Disagree, or Discuss.

By reducing the non-critical decisions, you save your energy for the big stuff. As Joshua Fields Millburn from The Minimalists says “we all have the same 24 hours in a day, the only real difference lies within the decisions we make and the actions we take”.

If you find yourself overwhelmed by decisions, out of balance, an over-scheduled agenda or never-ending to-do list contact sorted.by Melissa. I can help you find more space, focus and time to do the things you love.

I want to help you live a more organized life. Let’s get you sorted.