3 Ways Switching to Google Keep Can Help You Stay Organized

by | Jun 20, 2018 | Children, Education, Family, Learning Disabilities, Parenting, School, Students, Study Skills, Test Strategies, Tutoring | 0 comments

3 Ways Switching to Google Keep Can Help You Stay Organized

google keep screen shot

I used to love writing on sticky notes. A few years ago, if you walked into my office you would have seen an array of rainbow notes with everything from grocery lists to the details of a recent phone call with a customer. As an entrepreneur and also a parent, I am pretty busy and often on the go. I regularly need to jot something down and then find it later. The only issue with sticky notes was that this strategy always left me hunting for information. I knew I had written it down and my mantra often became, “it must be here somewhere.”  The problem is that sticky notes are just so small and so easily lost.

Instead of using sticky notes and having them all over, you can create multi-colored notes in Keep.

Then I found Google Keep. Have you tried it? It is a free app available for iOS and Android that allows you to keep all of your notes in one place. I know what you may be thinking, that sounds difficult. I prefer to just pick up a pen and write my notes. Now, I would not even call myself tech savvy. Despite this, I can use Google Keep with ease. In addition, Google Keep’s completely free price tag makes it superior to other note taking apps like Evernote and its variety of features beats out apps like Notes on iCloud or the note taking app that comes with many phones or devices. Here are three ways that you can start utilizing Google Keep to stay more organized:

  1. Create and Store Notes

Instead of using sticky notes and having them all over, you can create multi-colored notes in Keep. There is an option to create a standard note or a list which is especially helpful for things like to do lists and grocery shopping. You can type the notes on your computer, tablet or phone. If you prefer handwritten notes you can even use the app to write notes with your finger or a stylus. Maybe you are too busy or your hands are too occupied to type. Notes can be spoken with the voice-to-text feature. Once you have your note in Keep, you can organize the notes by housing them under a label and color-coding them. Notes are also searchable by keyword.

  1. When a Note Just Won’t Capture What You Need

Sometimes you just can’t capture what you need with written words. Google Keep allows you to easily take a photo or “scan” a document in order to store it as a note. You can also record and store an audio file. This allows you to listen to the audio later, and it is also transcribed. In addition, you can use the stylus or your finger to draw a picture of something you want to remember. I have found Google Keep especially helpful for storing groups of websites related to a specific topic for my work and at home for storing recipes. Writing these things down would take forever, storing them in Pinterest would lead to distraction, but saving them on Google Keep can be done in a second or less.

  1. Makes Notes Usable

How often do you write something down as a reminder but then forget where you wrote it or that you wrote it at all? When a note is typed on Google Keep, you can set a reminder to go with it. So if you wrote a note that said, “Send refund on Friday morning”, you could then set a reminder for Friday morning at 9:00 so that you would remember to complete this task. Reminders can also be set by location so that the note will pop up when you arrive at a certain place. No more writing your shopping list and leaving it on the counter!

But say you are like me and currently have notes or business cards scattered across the desk in front of you. Google can use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to take your handwritten note or the text on a business card and copy it into digital format. Just take a photo, paste it into a note, click the three dot menu button, and then select “Grab Image Text”. Perhaps you have a note that you want to expand or on which you want to include collaborators. You can share your note by adding email addresses or make your note a part of a larger document by adding it to Google Drive.

Maybe you are reading this while looking at a desk or perhaps even a computer screen littered with little notes– ideas, inspiration, to-do lists and action items each written out on their own little sheet. They are stuck to the desk or a stack of papers just waiting to get covered up or accidentally thrown away. Let’s face it, with all this work to do, it will be a while until you get around to the tasks on all those little notes. In the meantime, store them in the cloud on Google Keep where they are easily accessible and organized.

-Nina Parrish, M.Ed.
Owner | Parrish Learning Zone, LLC

 

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                                       ~Nina

Nina Parrish, M. Ed.

Nina Parrish, M. Ed.

Co-Owner and Director of Education

Proud mom of two adorable girls. Teacher who has developed an education business that started at a kitchen table and has grown into a thriving small business... Click here to Learn more about Nina.

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Ms Brown was wonderful with tutoring my child in Algebra ll.
Pam Cantrell Burton
Pam Cantrell Burton
2020-10-14T16:15:51+0000
Parrish Learning Zone helped my daughter with on-line SAT and college essay preparation. She not only scored in the top 90 percentile on the SAT after working with Lauren Cannavo, she especially benefited from the tutoring she received for her admission essays. My daughter was accepted at Notre Dame, UVA, William and Mary, and received scholarships to George Washington University and the University of Alabama. She was initially deferred at the University of Chicago and waitlisted at University of Michigan and Emory University. She eventually chose not to remain on the waitlists and committed to UVA.Lauren also advised our daughter regarding her submission of a 20 page essay on community service for DECA, a high school business club. Our daughter, along with her partner, won second place in her category at the DECA state competitions in 2019 and 2020, and received second place at the DECA international competition in 2019.Lauren was not only a top-notch professional, she really cared about our daughter and was so pleased about her accomplishments. We are so very grateful to her and Parrish Learning Zone.
Marijayne Kruus
Marijayne Kruus
2020-05-11T21:51:37+0000
Mr. Chaves is an extremely gifted chemistry teacher. It's such a difficult subject--my son was drowning by the time we found PLZ. This was truly a last ditch effort on our part. Mr. Chaves was able to turn that ship around after only 4 lessons and my son passed the SOL! He was able to distill difficult concepts in a way that made them comprehensible and he was patient and kind and gave my son the confidence to succeed. His actual eacher expressed surprise and made a point of telling him he didn't know how he did it but he was impressed. It takes a gifted teacher to get results like that.I only wish we'd found PLZ and Mr. Chaves in the beginning of the school year.
Wendy Zelazny
Wendy Zelazny
2018-06-08T02:05:15+0000
Highly Recommend
Anne Kater Reeves
Anne Kater Reeves
2018-06-07T22:46:05+0000
I highly recommend Parrish Learning Zone. My daughter was able to achieve the SAT score she was aiming for with the help of her Math (Mr. James Slane) and English (Mrs. Lauren Cannavo) tutors. Not only did they help her with practice tests but they also boosted her confidence in taking the SAT. The owners (Nina and Jay) were always prompt in answering my emails. They are very accommodating and worked around my daughter’s schedule (thank you Shiela for all your help in finding available dates for my daughter to meet with her tutors). Thank you Parrish Learning Zone for helping my daughter achieve her goal!
Beth Yankovich
Beth Yankovich
2018-03-23T20:29:18+0000
I can't say enough good things about Parrish Learning Zone. My son has historically suffered from low reading comprehension. I felt he needed a little extra help so I contacted Parrish Learning Zone. The owners at Parrish matched my son with the perfect tutor for him, they developed a rapport almost immediately. He is now in 8th grade and doing well in all his classes. My son is very active in school sports and the staff at Parrish are always very accommodating. They always reschedule with no problems. My son even likes to go early to chat with Sheila.
Beth Kent
Beth Kent
2017-11-08T18:59:11+0000
Awesome! Very structured and student focused - they identified the areas of weakness and turned those into areas of strength in a very short amount of time. I loved the communication from the tutor and the company. I received a specific report of my child's tutoring session including improvements and areas that needed continued work. I received reminders of upcoming tutor sessions - which I needed!! I felt the individual attention and service was worth every penny AND found the prices to be much more reasonable that other tutors in the area. I would HIGHLY recommend Parrish Learning Zone to any parent that needs to find highly competent tutoring help for their child. Parrish is simply the best!
Michele Hiltbrunner Freemyers
Michele Hiltbrunner Freemyers
2017-03-14T15:53:50+0000
An excellent place to take your kids for any tutoring needs! PLZ is a very personalized and hands on service! Both of my teenage boys have been through here for various reasons and I know we will continue to make use of them!
Tammy Elms Mosco
Tammy Elms Mosco
2016-06-02T12:20:59+0000
I am extremely thankful to Parrish Learning Zone. I have a son that is a freshman in college majoring in mechanical engineering. I am so glad that we found out about the Parrish Learning Zone because they were very caring and really worked hard around my sons high school football schedule to ensure that he received all of the needed instruction in order to do well on the SAT testing. It was a great investment for his future. I believe this experience prepared my son for the transition to college life. He was able to attend a top engineering college and to play football there. My daughter is a senior in high school now and was admitted into two of the top ranked public schools in Virginia. She will be a freshman at one of these schools next year. She also was enrolled in the Parrish Learning Zone for preparation for the SAT. I am again thankful to the Parrish Learning Zone and feel that this was a great long term investment into their futures. I would strongly recommend the Parrish Learning Zone to anyone looking for an environment that offers a caring and knowledgeable approach to educating students. They are the best.
Angela Jackson
Angela Jackson
2014-05-15T00:39:39+0000
Andrew Powers
Andrew Powers
2014-02-09T12:32:29+0000

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