Summer Vacation Begins

In an effort to keep from whittling away my ten glorious weeks of summer, I keep a reverse wish list. Rather than writing out a "to do" list at the beginning of the day, I see how many things I have accomplished by the end of the day and log those into one of my favorite free online applications: Evernote (www.evernote.com/). This way, I'm challenged to be productive each day, instead of feeling let down by what remains undone on my list.

Speaking of Evernote, here are some of the features that I like:

You can search your notes by tags, or what I like ever more, you can type in a word or phrase in the search box and if it appears in any of your notes, it highlights that word. This is how it helps me as a school librarian: I read hundreds of children's books each year, and as I complete them, I type the title/author into a note on Evernote. After the title, I write a few descriptive words. (Hills, Tad:What's Up, Duck? - picture book, opposites, birds, friends, possible purchase) Then, at a later date, if I need to put together a list for a teacher who is introducing the concept of opposites, by typing "opposites" in the search box, I will pull up all areas where I have written that word.

Another use: I have one note that has only my log ins and passwords for various sites that require log ins. Now, the only thing that I need to remember is the log in and password for http://www.evernote.com/. Of course, I don't use this for those few sites that need high security protect.

I also have a note that contains phone numbers that I use but don't have memorized: physician, dog groomer, library, etc.