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BY petevanepps

Incorporating Evernote into the Cameron-Brooks Reading Program

I recently wrote a blog post focused on the importance of the Cameron-Brooks Reading Program. Our Reading Program is designed to educate military officers on business topics, providing ideas and concepts that will allow them to be more effective and helping to prepare them for a transition to Corporate America.

I consistently hear great feedback from officers who are engaged in our Reading Program about the amount of useful information they receive from the books and how they are specifically applying what they are learning in their current roles.  The challenge; however, that I often hear about is some of the difficulty officers face in keeping all of the new information they are learning readily available to review and use on a regular basis.

I want to share I method I have been using that helps me to keep what I am reading on the forefront of my mind. I read most books on my Amazon Kindle, but this system will work with Apple iBooks or Barnes & Noble Nook. With the Kindle (or Kindle app for iPhone and Android), every time I highlight text or make a note, that highlight or note is automatically stored in my Kindle Account (different than my Amazon.com account).  From my Kindle account, I can capture all of my highlights and notes and paste them directly into my Evernote account.

Evernote is a free, comprehensive workspace for notes and daily projects that helps organize and sync a plethora of data across all of my devices (phone, table and computer).  So the method is, whether you are cutting and pasting notes/highlights straight from your Kindle account or inputting them straight to Evernote (for those who prefer to read hardcopy books and take your own notes), you can use Evernote (or another note taking app such as Notability, Penultimate or Google Keep ) to keep the information you are learning and wanting to apply top of mind.  By doing this, you can quickly and regularly review key ideas and application steps that you are taking from what you are reading and apply them to your job.  In doing so, you will be able to better reference key concepts you are learning to apply them quickly, which will help you put great leadership habits into practice more often.

For more interesting ways to use Evernote to increase your productivity, see how author and podcaster Michael Hyatt incorporates it in his daily life here.

Pete Van Epps