Lately I’ve felt completely overwhelmed. I’m a single mother. I’m a college professor. I’m a college student. I have a full-time job that can easily consume more than the normal hours in a week.
I thought it valuable to say that besides sinking in a morass of self-doubt, I had something happen last week that really helped me not decide to quit working towards my second masters degree, or quit teaching as a part-time job, or eat even more chocolate. I remembered that my iPad was not only good for reading collected materials from around the web via Zite; it has Evernote loaded on it. I like saving pdfs into Evernote so I can search them (and so they are all in one place).
Sitting in the rocker in the dark after my son falls asleep in my arms, I can read the articles I need to for class. I can even annotate them–highlighting sections that I’ll need to return to at a later date.
It’s like switching out that high calorie chai drink mix for a black tea bag, a bit of sugar in the raw and some all-natural creamer. Almost the same experience, unwinding at the end of the day, but with a purpose. Instead of looking at even more recipes I won’t cook or sweaters I have no time to knit, I can read a few articles, or grade my students’ homework.
It’s not Google, but it is powerful. (I used to say ‘all hail Google’ often. Now I think Evernote needs to be crown prince.)
Change just one thing
