Day 12 : Pacing Is The Key To Success For The Freelance Transcriptionist

Posted on September 26, 2014 by BigPharmaResistanceOfAmerica Standard 1

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Feel Free to Choose A Sub-Section of this Post
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1. Random Thoughts on Transcription and Non-Transcription Related Issues
2. Daily Progress – Research Findings, Tasks and Skills Development

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Random Thoughts on Transcription and Non-Transcription Related Issues

Let’s face it, folks – we are drowning in a sea of information these days, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with it all and attain some sort of balance of intake, processing and utilization. Entire books have now been written arguing that “mental illnesses” such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) are more the result of the inability of our brains to adjust to the barrage of incoming data than the biochemical abnormalities which have been discovered through research so far :

ADHD: Is Our Information Culture The Cause?
http://huff.to/1ykiCOV

As research in the scientific field of epigenetics discovers increasing evidence that the environment plays a very significant role in biological processes as fundamental as the effect of stress in altering DNA and transmitting those alterations to future generations, it is becoming ever more important to account for, and manage, the various environment factors which effect us in our daily lives. The amount, kind, and quality of information we consume, the “downtime” we allow for our bodies and minds to rest and digest that information, and the strategies by which we maximize our assimilation of information are becoming crucial issue for survival in the digital age. Just as building cardiovascular and muscular/strength via exercise requires a proper balance of rest and exertion, so too does the building and maintenance of our mental processes. Overloading the neural circuits with information is equivalent to running well beyond your distance/speed limits, or lifting weights which are too heavy for your muscular-skeletal system to handle.

Two of the most important and effective remedies to this problem are : organization and pacing.

Through the process of organization you are able to break down the mass of incoming information into manageable units, and then through pacing you create an ideal pace of intake/processing of that information so that you assimilate and utilize the maximum amount of it.

In the excellent book “The Overflowing Brain – Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory” neuroscientist Trokel Klinberg examines in great detail the nature and limits of working memory. Like the RAM of a computer, the working memory is the neurochemical entity which holds information temporarily before selective bits are integrated into the long term storage memory. Just like in a computer, if the RAM memory is not large enough the computer can freeze up if the user forces too much information to be processed relative to the RAM capacity. This will take the form of a web browser crashing if you have too many tabs open simultaneously, or a digital imaging program seizing if you initiate too many processes in a short period of time. In the same way, our working memory malfunctions when we overload it. The human brain’s equivalent t the computer is a decrease (to the ultimate point of virtual inability) to process additional information, or a decrease in concentration/attention when the information processesing capacity threshold is exceeded. This is known as “information overload”, and it is a growing epidemic in the modern digital age, with research showing that the general limit of attention span in people is decreasing.

So, since this major issue of information overload is becoming a growing concern for people in general, it would only make sense that for those of us who work with information on a daily basis it is even more important to implement effective strategies to control the amount of information exposure and rate of processing that information in order to achieve adequate mental balance and minimize mental stress – which is, of course, directly connected to physical stress – as mental processes are biochemical in nature, just as all other bodily processes. A clear example of this connection between the mental physical bodies relates to nutrition. The brain – like every other organ in the body -runs on the nutrients we consume. In fact, the brain has an very high metabolic rate relative to all other organs, and so an inadequate intake of nutrients to balance mental exertion results in all sorts of dysfunction and inadequate function. Ranging from diminished attention span, cognitive deficits, anxiety, depression, and the most extreme symptoms of psychosis in severe cases of sleep deprivation (or even extreme mental overexertion) it is clear that proper control of mental exertion, along with adequate rest and nutrition is a serious health concern.

Incidentally, one of the most important forms of nutrient for the brain is dietary fat (lipids) – especially the fatty acids such as Omega-3 and Omega-6,. After all, the brain tissue itself is essential composed of lipids and cholesterol. Studies have found that general deficiencies in the various forms of dietary fat result in decreased cognitive ability, memory problems, mood instability, and various other issues which effect mental performance and overall health. In a more extreme case, a study was done with a prison population which found that dietary fatty acid supplementation decreased the level of inmate violence significantly. Other studies have found a significant therapeutic effect of coconut oil on Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. So, the next time you are feeling mentally fatigued try taking a few tablespoons of olive oil, or have a few eggs.

In order to not go too far off on a tangent, let me bring this discussion back to the issue of the two fundamental factors of organization and pacing as the main keys to success for online telework – whether that be transcription, editing, writing, data entry, etc. Proper pacing requires that you allow your brain the proper nutrients and rest periods so that it can process the information you have taken into it and build new neural connections (including memory) in response to this input. The brain can’t do that if it is being overworked, not given enough downtime (in the form of rest, sleep, or even relaxing recreational activity) and/or if the proper nutrients – which are the materials which actually build the neural connections) are not consumed in proper amounts.

You could argue that the most logical method to create the proper strategy of organization and pacing would be to start developing the organization part first. It would be possible to do this, but I would argue that by first assessing your pacing needs, you will have a better idea of the limits and needs of your mind and body, and can thus build a more appropriate organizational structure around that. For instance, if you are a person who suffers from some degree of insomnia it will be difficult to create a more highly structured organizational plan if your sleep schedule is erratic. It will be difficult for you to stick to that strict routine. I can attest to this first hand, as I suffer from severe chronic insomnia – and trust me – it is something which MUST be accounted for in your organization plan.

So, once you have assessed your pacing needs you can begin to assess the sources and amount of information which is available for you to use to expand your knowledge of the transcription industry, job skills and tools and people/organizations to potentially connect with to further your efforts. For instance, your pacing assessment will give you an idea of how much time per day you can dedicate to taking in new information and experimenting with and practicing the new skills you have gained through your research. You should break the total time down into the two major categories of “research” and “skills implementation”. You can also add a third category such as “free experimentation”, where you will basically just browse through various resources in a more relaxed, unstructured manner (for example. you may enter a new transcription-related search term into a search engine and just follow the results wherever they lead). This adds a more fun, experimental component to the research, but is also important because it is very likely to produce some valuable new information and resources that you can then integrate into your more structured research. For instance, I often enter new terms (especially transcription-related products and software) into the YouTube search engine and discover some very informative videos which open a new avenue to research (and skills expansion) into my overall development process. One such extremely valuable software program I discovered in this way is the Evernote organization application. I will be writing an entire post about this amazing piece of software genius in a future post, but for now here is a great YouTube channel by mentor Evernote Scott . A great video to start with is the Evernote Tips : The 11 Amazing Features episode. In fact, Evernote is one of the most productive programs to use for developing your organization plan, in addition to collecting, storing, managing and processing all of the your research notes and content. The best thing is that the software is free, and the freeware version offers more than enough functionality to perform the tasks required to design and manage your organization strategy.

So we now have a general idea of the fundamental factors to help minimize information overload and maximize your research effort. It is recommended to assess your mental and physical needs in order to decide on a rough estimate of the amount of time you can dedicate to your research, skills practice and experimentation tasks. Once you have an idea of how much time and energy you can dedicate to the research you can then begin to physically (or more likely virtually) write up a more concrete plan to organize your daily efforts.

In the next section we will look at the implementation of this process in a more concrete example of my actual strategy development.

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Daily Progress – Research Findings, Tasks and Skills Development

In line with the discussion of my research and skills development strategy in the first section of this post, as I continue exploring and working in the online transcription industry, the reality is that the amount of information available (from numerous resources, in different formats and covering different topics and aspects of the multi-faceted and extensive field) can easily become overwhelming. Therefore, I think it will be helpful to describe the strategy I have developed over the past weeks to organize and pace my efforts in order to make consistent and comfortable progress reaching the level of being able to make a living in online transcription and editing telework.

The sheer overload of information that I both need and want to consume to move things forward is quite overwhelming. Therefore, in line with the key concept of pacing I have begun writing up a daily strategy plan to help organize the effort and increase the retention of new information. This is quite easy to do, and I have used a simple Evernote note file titled “transcription career development organization plan”. In my specific case I have listed the handful of most urgent and valuable resources (ex. the TranscribeMe Style Guide, a few of the best transcription blogs I have discovered so far : TranscriptionWave blog , TranscribeMe blog , and “General Transcription Work From Home” blog , in addition to the two best online transcription forums – Transcription Haven and Transcription Essentials. Since it is physically and mentally impossible to consume all of the information contained in these resources, or the numerous other valuable ones which I will encounter as I proceed or simply don’t have enough time to include in the daily research program, this is where pacing is most important.

The first essential thing to do after making a list of the most important and highest priority resources you have discovered is to decide how much time you can reasonably dedicate to consuming the information from those resources each day, as well as the daily time allotment for implementing the knowledge/skills obtained. Since one of the main (and ideal) goals I have mentioned is to maintain income from the transcription work while I continue the research and train myself, it is important to integrate practice/work time in with the research and study time. Through experience I have found that good strategy for this is to alternate between research and skills implementation. For instance, you can plan for an hour of research in the morning and the follow that up with an hour of implementation (perhaps with a nice break in between to rest your mind and eat something after spending an hour reading, watching videos or listening to audio). In addition, it is especially productive to do spend your research and implementation hours on similar subject matter. For instance, during your morning research reading through a style guide you may come across a specific issues, such as “the proper use of the comma”. You may follow that up by looking up the subject “comma usage” on an online grammar web site such as : http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp . You could also follow up with some addition resources on comma usage and/or closely related topics to add some depth to your understanding. Then, during your following “implementation hour” you can pay more close attention to your use of commas when transcribing a file. Another example would be reading your one daily post on the TranscriptionWave blog, such as : Tips To Help You Transcribe Quickly , and then take one of the tips (such as : “#3 : Work With Macros”, and follow up by reading the tutorial file in your transcription software which explains how to use macros, and then actually practice using at least one macro while you transcribe a file during your next implementation hour session. You can then practice an additional macro per day in the coming days to reinforce the skill until it becomes routine.

If there is a topic or skill which is a bit complicated, or you are just having trouble grasping for some reason, take some additional time during the next research session to research more deeply into it. Then also spend some more time practicing the new skill during your next implementation session.

During both sessions you should also keep a running note file. During implementation sessions you can jot down any thoughts, ideas, problems, questions, discoveries, etc. which you can then follow up on in the next research session. During the research session you can also jot down thoughts, ideas, problems and questions, in addition to additional resources (ex. links, new blogs/sites, videos, etc.) which you can then follow up on in future sessions. In my experience, it is best NOT to immediately follow new resources you discover. The reason for this is that it tends to throw off the focus and momentum of your research effort. Ideally, you want to create a daily routine of working through small parts of a resource (ex. one blog post per day) as this consistency enables you to build progressively over time. Suddenly introducing a new resource – which is often significantly different in style and uncertain in quality – can really throw off your momentum and focus. I have found it best to record the new resource in your running note and then take some time in the next research session to give the new resource a superficial browse (ex. look over the main blog post menu pages to see what kind of subjects the blog covers, and perhaps record the url of one or two interesting posts from the blog in your running note). For recording urls for future research, the Evernote application is excellent since the program automatically converts urls you post in your note files into active links, and then you can simply click on the link in the note to open the page. Then over the next few days you can slowly evaluate the new research and decide whether it is worth starting to include some of it’s content in your daily research workload. This, of course, depends on how much time you have available during your research session. In other words, you want to ease into (and warm up to) new content. In this way, your organization plan is dynamic and constantly being evaluated and adjusted to fit your specific needs as they arise and change. Sometimes you will discontinue working through a resource because you have found one of better quality or which fulfills new content needs which have arisen through your various efforts and unexpected developments and opportunities.

To give you a more concrete example of my current strategy, I am now allotting one hour per day to reading one blog post from each of the 2-3 selected blogs (mentioned earlier), browsing the main blog post pages for posts to read in the future, recording the urls of those selected blog posts in my running note, reading a few tutorial pages of the various software programs I am in the process of incorporating into the workflow, and reading through one or two pages of the TranscribeMe style guide to continue familiarizing myself with the company’s specific transcription requirements as I work on a few of the short (roughly one minute) files each day. Of course, I also keep the style guide file open and refer to it as I am in the process of working on the transcription files, so as to most strongly reinforce my skills through practical experience. In addition, my internet browser is always on call to perform the common quick transcription research tasks (ex. looking up additional information on companies, people, and/or places mentioned in files I am transcribing, quickly following up on interesting topics mentioned in transcription files, etc.).

To enhance productivity and efficiency significantly, I am using the excellent Evernote application to create and organize my notes and strategy plans, collect all the resources I find (ex. web sites, blogs, videos, audio, photos, etc.) – as Evernote enables you to collect all of these types of media right into your notes so you have access to every component of your research in one place. I am also using Evernote to develop and write the posts on this blog, as it allows me to do everything I need to work on the posts offline, and then I simply copy everything into WordPress to do all of the HTML, publishing and marketing stuff.

Okay. I realize that this is an extremely long (and perhaps a bit tedious) post, but I believe that the points and concepts I have discussed here are very important for laying a solid foundation for developing a productive strategy for building your knowledge and skills related to transcription (and any other form of telework), and doing so in a way which is healthy, maximally productive and efficient in enabling you to attain gainful and consistent transcription work.

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Transcription Powertool #1 : Wordweb Dictionary/Thesaurus

Posted on September 20, 2014 by BigPharmaResistanceOfAmerica Standard 1

Wordweb Pro - English Dictionary Thesaurus screenshot

WordWeb Pro screenshot

I believe there is an old saying with something to the effect of “the best things in life are simple”. Or is it “free”? Or both? A common example of such elegant simplicity is Einstein’s famous equation : E =mc2 (the “2” here is, of course, in superscript format). This simple equation has gone down in the history books as one of the most revolutionary creations of theoretical and applied physics which has had such a wide range of effects – from the development of nuclear weapons, to the concept of black holes, computers and other bizarre phenomenon in the universe.

As we move deeper into this new age of accelerating information creation and exchange it is only becoming ever more vital to find and apply SIMPLE tools and solutions to the numerous tasks and obstacles which we must deal with on an everyday basis. The good news is that as the amount of information increases SO TO does the power of computing, and so we find ourselves in a feedback situation in which the technology creates new problems, amplifies old problems, and provides the potential to also solve these issues.

So, you can imaging how pleased I was as a writer, researcher, transcriptionist/editor, web designer and offline/online marketer (that is, a person whose main work in life revolves around words), to come across a funky, yet amazingly powerful little program which is extremely simple to use, and aids you in dealing with most of the common, significant issues you face in relation to the creation, manipulation, and transmission of words in all of the various applications in which words are a vehicle of exchange.

The program is called Wordweb, a comprehensive, multipurpose English language dictionary and thesaurus application whose features range from one-click look up of words, synonym and antonym word web, audio word pronunciation (in numerous accents), extendable dictionaries and so much more. As space in this post is limited, and since the Wordweb web site describes all of the features in detail, and since the software is free, quick to install and use, etc. I think the best thing to do is advise you refer to their site for more information. I also suggest you take a minute to download the free version of program (the licensing agreement basically states that if you are not wealthy enough to afford more than one round-trip international plane flight per year then you are free to use the full features of the software). I used the free version of the program for five years, until recently when I decided that I wanted access to some of the more advanced features which come with the registered Wordweb Pro version. I will say that this was one of the best $19.00 I’ve spent on business tools in a while). As with most other software programs (especially freeware) I recommend using the free version for a while to get a feel for it, experiment with the features as you read through the help tutorials and do apply the application to your word work. I assure you that this program will make immediate and significant improvements in your entire work process, and thus free up some of your energy to focus on the more creative aspects of your job.

The most practical and frequently-used feature of Wordweb is the one click “word look-up” function which works in essentially ANY program – both offline and online – that displays words. Some examples include : word processors, transcription software, web sites user interfaces of most programs, etc. Basically, any word can be looked up in the Wordweb dictionary by simply clicking [CTRL + right click], and then displayed with as many definitions are in the database (and you can extend the database with various dictionary upgrades) and numerous other helpful information for dealing with the word (ex. list of synonyms, audio pronunciation from within the program by simply clicking a speaker icon, links to the word in various online dictionaries and other sources, and many more very useful processes dealing with the meaning and use of words in their wide range of applications.

To illustrate the immediate usefulness of the program – if you have installed it and have it running – go ahead and take a second to [CTRL + (right click)] any word in this post and then click around from the definition page to explore the various additional information which is provided by the program related to that word. Since the function of this blog is to introduce budding transcriptionists to the skills and tools of the trade, I will detail some of the features which will be most helpful and quickly applicable, and then let you play around with it as you explore the web site, tutorials, and other resources to become more proficient in using the application. Once you see how easy it is to use, and how helpful in minimizing the effort of the most routine tasks you perform everyday as a wordsmith, I can guarantee you you will be hooked.

One of the most basic uses of the program in the transcription process is the ability to spell check words with one click and from right inside the transcription program (such as ExpressScribe). The program has good quality artificial intelligence programmed into it which allows you to type in a rough estimate of and/or [CTRL + (right click)] the word you need to spell check and the program will display a list of numerous words which are either the exact word correctly spelled (along with the definition and other info) or the closest estimates of the word you are looking for. For instance, if you [CTRL + (right click)] the word “mispelled” (go ahead, [CTRL + (right click) it!) the program will display “try misspelled” with a link to the correct definition, along with a list of numerous other rough matched of the misspelled word, which you can single click on to go to the definition page for that word. In addition, when the definition page comes up for the word the word itself is selected, and so you can simply hit [CTRL-C] to copy the properly spelled word and paste it right into the transcription text in your transcription software by pressing [CTRL + V]. Going even further into the functions, you have the option (through various tabs within the definition display page) to click through to synonyms and antonyms of the word (and other related categories) and then [CTRL-C] any of those and paste them [CTRL + V] right into the transcription text. So, the program is essentially a “quick-click” thesaurus, spell check, and linguistic database of sorts. All of these features are smoothly integrated into every step of your word workflow and are implemented in one or two clicks (for most operations).

These few basic features of the program are well worth the ZERO dollars you pay for the (freeware version of the) program and you can start using them immediately to increase the efficiency of your writing, editing and transcription work.

Another nice feature is the built-in audio pronunciation, which can come in handy when you are having trouble deciphering a word used by a speaker in the audio file you are transcribing. You will be surprised how many words we believe we know the correct pronunciation for, which turn out to have a dramatically different actual sound (including syllabic accent, intonation, etc.) especially when you account for the various accents of the language which the word is spoken in. For instance, quite a number of English words are barely recognizable when you compare the pronunciation between American English, British English, Australian English, etc. Not to mention the even more numerous tertiary English dialects (ex. Filipino-English, Chinese-English, Indian-English, etc.). The audio pronunciation database can also be upgraded to increase the number of audio pronunciations available and to add additional accent and specialized databases. It’s very helpful to have the proper pronunciation of a new word you have encountered so that you learn the correct pronunciation from the very beginning, instead of learning an improper sounding from the start and then having to unlearn your mistake. This is an important concept in the study of language (linguistics – especially the subtopic of second language acquisition (SLA) – of which a massive amount of research has been done in academia and the field). The reality is that it is much easier to struggle a little to learn the word (and pronunciation) correctly upon first exposure, than it is to go because and undo the improper definition/pronunciation after it has been reinforced over time through use. Try typing a rough estimate pronunciation of an unknown word from an audio file and you may very likely be surprised to find the correct word show up in the “related words” list. You can then verify further if it is the correct word or not by clicking the speaker icon and have the program pronounce the related word (or words).

If you are to settle for the integration and application of just these four core features of the program (ex. dictionary, thesaurus, spell check, and audio pronunciation) you will see a dramatic improvement in the speed and accuracy of your word work, especially if you apply that work to your tasks of writing, editing and/or transcribing. You will experience a dramatic increase in the speed in which you discover and correct spelling mistakes in your text, the efficiency of deciphering words through the context provided by the thesaurus features, as well as the efficiency of deciphering unclear words in an audio file through the same contextual features in combination with the audio pronunciation feature which provides multiple accents – an important feature for transcriptionists who often work on files containing speech by speakers of different accents from around the world. This is only becoming more important and useful as computing technology makes cross-translation of language faster and more automated, and as the force of globalization increases the amount of audio and text data to be translated and transcribed by teleworkers of various accents working online. In addition, since saving time equates to getting more work done and thus earning more money, this program is an important tool to add to your transcription (and general word-work) toolbox.

So go ahead and play around with Wordweb, and if it is helpful leave a comment describing how you have used and benefited from it.

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Free Transcription Project : # 1

Posted on August 21, 2014 by BigPharmaResistanceOfAmerica Standard Reply

Project Info
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Source video URL : http://paperravenediting.com/use-writing-tools-scrivener-dropbox-evernote-organize-safeguard-writing/

Organization : Paper Raven Editing company
Host : Morgan Gist-McDonald
Contact : www.paperravenediting.com

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Transcript :

Morgan : Hi there. I’m Morgan, founder of paperravenediting.com and in today’s workshop I’d like to show you – behind the scenes – how I use three of my favorite powerhouse tools together for my entire writing life. Everything from gathering ideas to free-writing to drafting long form writing – and it backs everything up automatically. So, my three favorite tools are : Scrivener, Dropbox and Evernote. The beauty of these three combined together is that they store in the cloud, so I can access my ideas, my drafts, and my writing from everywhere there is internet. So, we’re actually going to share a screen – we’re going to flip around in just a second – and I am going to show you my actual Scrivener, Dropbox and Evernote screens and you will be how beautifully they all work together.

[transition to screen capture software image]

Alright, so here’s the desktop of my laptop where I do my work everyday. First, we’ll look at Scrivener. So here’s my little icon down here for Scrivener. So open that up, and what you do is you actually open a global file. I call mine my “primary” because it’s my primary file. When I open this up you’ll see my main binder that I use for most of my structured writing. The way you can think about this is if you’re a long time use of Microsoft Word or some application like that, you might have folders on your desktop or something – maybe a folder for where you write blog posts and a folder for where you write chapters. Within those folders you would have a bunch of documents, and you would need to double-click every document to open them. In Scrivener, though, you open up a global document and all of those smaller documents are immediately available. So, for instance, I have blog posts right here. It’s a dropdown menu and I have subfolders for each of the types of blog posts I am writing. So if I want just a rough idea of what I might write I’ll drop down my “rough ideas” folder and I can actually click through each of these little text documents very quickly. In some of them I have just a thought or two, in some I have more elaborate quotes or images even. But I can immediately click through all of them and get a good sense of what my options are. Then I can pull that our and start writing and when it is written I can drop it into “drafts” and it’s available in my drafts folder. So, you can move things around and view them very quickly. Then let’s say I am not writing a blog post. Let’s say I’m getting ready to shoot a video, like today. I drop down my video thing and here are all of my scripts that I write out for a video before I shoot it. So you can imagine that each of your main writing projects can have its own set of folders that are very easy to navigate through. So I consider this sort of my structured writing center, but I’m also a big fan of free writing and so I have a seperate area that’s just for free writing. So it is just a list, by date, of things I have been free writing. I like to have a seperate area so that it’s completely without context. When I’m freewriting there’s not really necessarily a specific purpose. Well, sometimes there’s an idea, but when I’m freewriting I don’t want to think, “Okay. I’m going to freewrite my blog.” or whatever. I want it to be without that kind of context. So you can switch between a more formal context binder, a more free one. You can start a new one. It’s very flexible in its structure and organization. So that’s what my Scrivener interface looks like, and one of my favorite things is that when I close out – watch this – it’s backing up right now. Then it backs up to my Dropbox. So this little folder that I have sitting on my desktop is a Dropbox which is stored on the cloud. So you’ll see right here that this is my primary Scrivener global file and everytime that I close Scrivener it saves the file right here on my Dropbox. My Dropbox is available anywhere on the internet, so if ever my hard drive crashes, I can buy a new laptop, download my Scrivener software again and just open this file from Dropbox and it will be as if nothing changed. All of my writing is completely and totally safe. So that’s what I love about how Scrivener can work so well with Dropbox.

Let me actually show you how to set up this beautiful relatioship between Scrivener and Dropbox really quickly, because it does not happen out of the box. You have to set it up. So what you do is – let’s say you don’t have a Dropbox account – you just pull up your web browser and you go to dropbox.com. You sign up for a new account right here and just put in first name, last name, email, password and agree. And it’s free. I think you get a couple of gigs of storage completely free. So you go through that sign-up process and it puts a folder on your desktop. So, Dropbox will do this automatically. A new folder will pop up on your desktop that says “Dropbox”. This is not actually on your hard drive. Anything that is in this folder is stored on the Dropbox server, somewhere else in the country – probably Kansas ot somewhere. Anything that is inside this Dropbox folder is accessible from any computer with intenet access. So, if you were to sign on from a different computer, go to dropbox.com and put in your username and password, you would have access to anything that is inside this folder.

So, you get your little Dropbox folder set up on your desktop. Now when you first open it up, Scrivener will try to save the file on your hard drive. So let me do an example for you. We”ll just do a blank template. We’re going to call it “My first scrivener file”. Okay, it asked tyou where you want to save it. You do not put it in documents. You do not put it in desktop. You put it inside of your Dropbox, because anything that’s inside of this Dropbix is safe on the cloud. Put in in there, click “create”, and it will take a couple of seconds. Now see here’s your new binder. You can add your documents. You can add a new folder. You can drag those around. You’ll be able to play with getting your own system set up. When you close out you’ll see it’s backing up. When I go to my Dropbox there’s my first Scrivener file. It is not on my desktop. It should be inside my Dropbox. That is the only way it remains safe on the cloud.

Let’s say the worst happens and your hard drive crashes. How do you recover your Scrivener file. You need to go back and download the app and get it back in your toolbar. Then you need to download your Dropbox files again, but that’s super easy. Just go to dropbox.com, put your username and password in and it will put the Dropbox file back on your desktop. Then with Scrivener open, there it is. It is right there in the Dropbox folder. You can just open it up from there and everything will be as if nothing catastrophic ever happened.

Now the third software that I use is called Evernote. So, Scrivener encompasses all of my writing life. When I sit down to write something – whether it is a blog post or long form writing or freewriting – I open up Scrivener. But if I just need to capture an idea I put it in Evernote. Evernote is essentialy my “digital brain”. It contains all of my thoughts that I don’t want to lose. They may pertain to writing or they may not. So let me just show you really quickly how I have my Evernote set up. Evernote is also similar to Scrivener in that there are lots of little text documents that you can navigate trhough and drag, drop and organize very quickly and very easily. So I have actually set up these notes right here on the side that I always want to be on the top. So you’ll notice that I have a little dot right here. When you put the period and things are categorized alphabetically the anything with the period goes first. So, I have an inbox where I put anything and everything that just happens to float across my screen. For instance, I was out talking with someone recently about Scrivener and Dropbox. I wanted to capture that thought and so I wrote a little not and put it in my inbox. Although I didn’t actually get around to filing it it’s there and I didn’t lose it. My next action is my “to do” list. Then I have folders, for instance, anything related to Paper Raven editing goes in this folder. I keep notes on everything from : things I want to read on blogs, to something related to a client, or prepping for courses I am creating which will happen in the future, or just general ideas and marketing. I have all of these notes which just get categorized and they are always safe. Then I have a reference. For instance, I keep notes about my child’s paperwork, or things to do with my home, or recipes. I scan in everything possible. I love Evernote because everytime I have an idea I can capture it here, it is available on my laptop, there’s an app for my phone and my iPad, and it’s stored in the cloud. So as long as I can download Evernote, or have the app, I login and I can see every single note I’ve ever created.

So how does this work in my writing life? For instance, sometimes in my reference – such as my “to read” section – I will either create a note of a title of a book I want to read or I will drag information from the internet and keep it in the “to read” section. So this is where I store random, brainstorming ideas. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them yet but I want them safe somewhere so I don’t forget. Then when I close Evernote it backs itself up automatically. So then when I sit down at my laptop to write I will open up Scrivener. If I have an idea, but I am not sure what I want to do with that ideea yet – but I don’t want it to get lost – it goes into Evernote. The thoughts that exist ion those two programs feed each other back and forth. Essentially they are my digital brain which I can never lose because it’s backed up in this wonderful, beautiful mystery called “the cloud”.

So I hope that gives you some ideas on how you might implement this in your writing. I will say that when I am working with clients I still use Microsoft Word. Obviously, you can see it sitting right there in my “frequently used icons” toolbar. So I will do another post with another video about how I use Microsoft Word and Dropbox together for my client work. So let’s flip back around and I’ll give you some last parting advice.

Okay. That’s it for today’s workshop. I hope that seeing how I use Scrivener, Dropbox and Evernote in my writing life has given you some motivation and inspiration on ways you can perhaps implement either those software applications or similar ones in your own writing life. I do want to take just a second to caution you. If you are like most writers you probably have a backlog of old Word documents stored somewhere, or scraps of paper laying around the office with all of these ideas, and you may be thinkking, “Gosh, if only I can get those old, archived items into my new system.” I just want to say, “Stop, right there.” Just start your new system. If you have any motivation and inspiration from what you’ve just watched then run with it. Go ahead and download some software and start writing something now. Add to your new system from today forward while working out the kinks along the way. Then once you get comfortable with the new system then you can worry about adding in your old Word documents or scanning in scraps of paper or bringing in that older content. So, don’t worry about your archived, old stuff yet. If you are motivated, use that motivation to start writing today, That’s the best piece of advice I can give you. Start writing now, and that momentum will carry you forward.

So, if you’d like more motivation, inspiration and writing tools, go to paperravenediting.com and I will see you for the next workshop.

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