"Dreams" Set-Up With Evernote

 

Click on the picture for full-size version.

I’m finding that Evernote makes an excellent platform for working on “Dreams”. You can have your Future and Present Reality, your Dialogue and your What’s Better list all open on your computer desktop at the same time and can keep them there all day if necessary.

Comments

[avrum]

Funny - I'm dong something similar... including the tags. However on a day to day basis, I'm recording the audio for "What's better" & present/future.

[JD]

Thanks Mark! A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say, so please excuse me for asking a question about it! Your vision and present reality are put together in a single page, as far as I can see.

If your vision doesn't change, do you keep adding the present reality to the same page, pushing the previous one below it?

And if your vision does, do you overwrite the previous iteration, and keep adding their present reality notes below the revised vision? Or do you create a new page for this, with their own current reality notes below it.

That might seem like a terribly trivial question, but the point in asking it is to determine:

(a) whether it is worthwhile keeping previous versions of the vision for reference later if there are any gems in there that might still work for the current one; and

(b) whether a revised vision should have its own present reality notes, separated from the previous vision and their present reality notes in order not to mix things up in your mind.

[Mark Forster]

JD:

<< Your vision and present reality are put together in a single page, as far as I can see. >>

Correct

<< If your vision doesn't change, do you keep adding the present reality to the same page, pushing the previous one below it? >>

I re-type both the Future Reality and the Present Reality every day, and then edit them as necessary. I add them to the top of the page so that all the past ones can be referred. This is useful to see how they have changed over a period.

<< (a) whether it is worthwhile keeping previous versions of the vision for reference later if there are any gems in there that might still work for the current one; >>

Yes, it is.

<< (b) whether a revised vision should have its own present reality notes, separated from the previous vision and their present reality notes in order not to mix things up in your mind. >>

As stated above, I produce both each day. So I can track progress both of the vision and of the actual state of things over a period. For example, if you get discouraged at any stage, you can look back and see where you were discouraged before and that you came out of it.

[MartyH]

So you don't create a new note for each entry of each type? You just push the old ones down and keep the newest on top? Is there an advantage to this over starting a new note each day, or is it just a matter of preference? By keeping them all in a single note, it seems to hold no advantage over doing it in Word with just the 3 files and starting a new page at the top of each one.

[Mark Forster]

MartyH:

<< You just push the old ones down and keep the newest on top? Is there an advantage to this over starting a new note each day, or is it just a matter of preference? >>

Three advantages:

1) I recommend actually re-typing out the previous day's vision each day and then amending it, rather than copying and pasting it. This is because the repetition is important. Having the old one on the same page makes this easy. If it were on a different page or on a different note you would have to mess around opening separate windows.

2) I can rapidly read through all the previous visions and current realities and compare them with each other.

3) It is easy to adjust the size of the note window so that when I want to I can concentrate just on one day, or expand it so that I can compare several days.

<< By keeping them all in a single note, it seems to hold no advantage over doing it in Word with just the 3 files and starting a new page at the top of each one. >>

What do you see as the advantages of starting a new page each day?

[MartyH]

I didn't understand the process was to retype the previous entry and then edit. I was rewriting from scratch (which has led to a bit too much variety). I'm glad I haven't been doing it long. So a new note or page would (incorrectly) force the fresh start.

Now that I understand the process correctly, I'm not sure there is a significant advantage to a single note in Evernote over a single Word file unless you want ready access from multiple computers, iPhones, etc.

I'm glad you posted the picture, though. Without it, I don't know how long I would have continued down a different and less effective, but more cumbersom path. Thanks!

[Mark Forster]

MartyH:

<< I'm not sure there is a significant advantage to a single note in Evernote over a single Word file unless you want ready access from multiple computers, iPhones, etc. >>

Yes, that's another advantage which I didn't mention.

I don't have anything against Word as a vehicle for the Dreams process, though I would have thought it would have been rather awkward to set up in the way I show in the picture. It's not really designed to do that sort of thing, while Evernote is.

[MartyH]

Word 2003 can open separate documents in separate windows and I think 2007 can as well. But it wouldn't really have clearly displayed the creation date and edit dates. The toolbar or ribbon would also have looked messier in the screenshot. So I agree that Evernote was a good demonstration tool.

Thanks again for all you do.

[Cricket]

Another option for Word is tables, or three columns (with the dialogue being wider). Hard page break for each page. Legal size paper, sideways (landscape). Beware, though. Searching for the perfect format might count as training in Word, or procrastination.