Salutations, and welcome to the first installment of the bi-weekly series: Tech Tuesdays starring Grant Cushman. My name is, quite un-coincidentally, Grant Cushman. I’m an Admission Counselor at Chapman University in Orange, California and the Communications Committee’s resident tech geek/entrepreneur/enthusiast. In this series, I hope to explore different ways in which technology can facilitate some of the more menial or manual aspects of the college admissions profession. I know there are a litany of articles and third-party tips regarding technology in our profession and, quite honestly, my series won’t be terribly different. I do, however, hope to outline ways in which I personally use certain programs, applications, and hardware in my own creative (and sometimes nonsensical) ways to maximize my time and efforts. I’ll do my best to try to keep my series orderly and logical but, be forewarned, I will often hop around subjects and ideas; however, if you stick with me, I promise you’ll learn a thing or two.
With that being said, I’ll now introduce my sub-series highlighting an application I use daily: Evernote. Evernote is a piece of software designed to archive thoughts, notes, audio recording, pictures, webpages, and basically anything else you want to remember. You can sort your thoughts into notebooks, trunks, or however else you see fit. One of the most beautiful features of this program is how customizable the interface and organizational framework is. I’m able to use it to simulate (and often times rectify) how my brain works in order to maximize my output. However, this free range of possibilities can also be very discouraging and intimidating for people just starting out with Evernote. If you throw random thoughts and notes into this program without any semblance of organization or workflow, Evernote will just be a trashcan for the thoughts it contains. If you have a problem with forgetting tasks or remember dates/times/anything then, like me, you can use Evernote as a constant reminder and funnel for your overly active brain. I’ll try to showcase how I use the program through this series; however, I urge you to do your own research and find a way to use this program (or similar programs) in a way that works for you.
You can download and read more about Evernote here: http://www.evernote.com.
By Grant Cushman