{"id":74,"date":"2014-10-06T10:17:54","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T14:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/?p=74"},"modified":"2014-10-06T10:37:14","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T14:37:14","slug":"tools-of-the-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/?p=74","title":{"rendered":"Tools of the Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

OK, I admit it: I\u2019m a bit of a geek.\u00a0 I love Dr. Who, Star Trek (In all its incarnations.\u00a0 Yes, even Enterprise<\/em>.).\u00a0 I love playing with new technology, but only if that technology is something useful.\u00a0 I\u2019m not all about tech for tech\u2019s sake, but rather to make tasks easier, engaging with friends, family, client and colleagues easier, better, faster, stronger.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a small pleasure when someone asks me, \u201cHey!\u00a0 What\u2019s that you\u2019re using?\u201d\u00a0 So, I thought I\u2019d list a few of my favorite (tech) things.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Penultimate<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

For me to retain anything, I have to write it down.\u00a0 I was a long-time user and advocate of the Franklin Planners.\u00a0 I have, sitting next to me on my bookshelf in my office, twelve years\u2019 worth of storage binders.\u00a0 But with increasing time on the road and hopping from one mode of transportation to another with increasing frequency, I finally reached the point late last year where lugging around a laptop, power brick, mouse, iPad and leather planner was just one thing too much.\u00a0 To gain efficiencies, I started looking at iPad-based note taking apps.\u00a0 Penultimate is the one that works best for me, because I can easily create new notebooks, write in my own handwriting (I never learned how to touch-type.\u00a0 Sorry Mom!), change pen styles and colors quickly, and erase and re-write just like I would on paper.\u00a0 Even better, because now I can carry all of notes with me, not just a month or two\u2019s!\u00a0 And, now that Penultimate is owned by Evernote, all my notes are everywhere I am!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Evernote<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Seriously, why didn’t anyone tell me about this sooner?!?\u00a0 OK, actually, a few of you did.\u00a0 All right, a lot of you did.\u00a0 I find it essential, because while for normal people a cluttered desk is the sign of an organized mind, my clean desk reveals the opposite is true: my mind is a hot mess, and if I don\u2019t have the thought recorded some place, it\u2019s gone like Jimmy Hoffa.\u00a0 Evernote to the rescue!\u00a0 I use tags to quickly find relevant past customer interactions, and have a pretty simple and flat notebook structure.\u00a0 And it is everywhere: iPhone, iPad, browser, desktop client.\u00a0 I am a Raving Fan.\u00a0 And hat\u2019s off to Brett Kelly (nerdgap.com<\/a>) for his Evernote Essentials<\/span>.\u00a0 It\u2019s the most fun and helpful user guide I’ve ever come across.\u00a0 I\u2019m an Evernote Premium subscriber, which gives me access to more storage and features, and I find it well worth the annual fee.<\/p>\n

Adonit Jot Script (Evernote Edition)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

It is not cheap.\u00a0 But for me, as a heavy, daily user or Penultimate on my iPad, it\u2019s simply the best stylus for my needs.\u00a0 It\u2019s built like regular pen, and feels substantial in the hand without being heavy.\u00a0 For me, the best feature is the tip of the stylus.\u00a0 The tip is no larger than the tip of a normal ballpoint pen, making is very easy for me to write and see my notes clearly and quickly.\u00a0 It connects to the iPad via Bluetooth, and takes a single AAA battery.\u00a0 This, too, I love, because the battery lasts for quite a while and it\u2019s one less thing to have to carry around a charging cable for.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Aviiq Portable Charging Station<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

My job has me on the road quite a bit.\u00a0 Even if it didn’t with so many devices constantly whining at me for more juice, it\u2019s like living with a pack of perpetual two year-olds.\u00a0 The Aviiq charging station makes life easy on the road and off to handle my devices.\u00a0 You simply wrap your device cords around the racks, slide them into place and plug into the USB ports.\u00a0 Plug in the power cord and you\u2019re set.\u00a0 I can charge my work and personal phones, my iPad and my Bluetooth headset at the same time, without any extension of normal charging times.\u00a0 It all zips up neatly when I\u2019m done and slips nicely into my briefcase with no real increase in bulk or weight to my load.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Timbuktu Command Messenger Bag<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I love this bag.\u00a0 It\u2019s huge without feeling unwieldy, and has pockets EVERYWHERE!\u00a0 The TSA-compliant section for the laptop and iPad is genius, as is the external water-bottle pocket (which I usually use for my laptop power brick.\u00a0 There\u2019s this genius zipped pocket on the bottom, where my mouse and Aviiq charging station go, and the Napoleon side-zip pocket is perfect for my passport and ear buds.\u00a0 Not only do I use this as my daily bag, it\u2019s also my overnight bag.\u00a0 It easily holds a change of clothes and toiletry items along with all my other gear.\u00a0 Walking onto a plane with only a carry-on makes travel drudgery much, much easier to tolerate, and pleasant trips that much more so, I’ve found.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, these are a few of my favorite things, especially as it relates to work and travel.\u00a0 What are yours?\u00a0 Use the comments field below and share away!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, I admit it: I\u2019m a bit of a geek.\u00a0 I love Dr. Who, Star Trek (In all its incarnations.\u00a0 Yes, even Enterprise.).\u00a0 I love playing with new technology, but only if that technology is something useful.\u00a0 I\u2019m not all… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cxp"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4bqFE-1c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75,"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.surveyyoda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}