For mobile, I use the Evernote client on Android. I will create notes, take photos or audio notes as needed. These all end up in my inbox to be processed at some point. Evernote basically represents inputs that happen in my life outside of the inbox. So for example, at the bookstore today I took a photo of some books I’d like to add to my wishlist for later. Easier than writing them all down.

I use the Chrome web clipping app to add entire pages, or portions of pages to Evernote. This is often swipe file material for marketing projects that I am working on.

Inside of Gmail I use the ‘multiple inboxes’ and ‘superstars’ features from Labs and have 3 extra inboxes setup:
* To-Do (these get the red bang – or the red exclamation mark if you will)
* Read & Review (these get purple question mark or yellow star – the star is the only option on my mobile client)
* Waiting For (these get the green check mark)

I will occasionally email myself something from gmail to evernote. This is increasingly rare.

You can view a 5-minute Ignite presentation by my friend Nicholas Holland here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OUcFYUxUIg
It is very similar to how I do it.

Google Docs for me is more reference material, or active projects. If I need some of that material OCR’d I will send it to Evernote. This is rare. Evernote is static data for the most part. You wouldn’t save a working .doc file to it.

Google Reader I use the ‘send to’ feature if I want to capture the story to my Evernote. This typically becomes reference material unless there is something actionable about it.

I still use bookmarks in Chrome, but admittedly this is a weak area for me. I book mark stuff like there is no tomorrow, never to return to it. If it is actionable, I will usually clip the page just so it is in my Evernote inbox. Even then it often gets the Someday/Maybe tag and rarely gets read.

Hope this helps to clarify how I am using it. While I am not sure that it ‘convinces’ you, it is more about the right tool for the job.

When you are processing them (figuring out what to do about each item) then tag them with the appropriate context (ie: @Computer), then move them to the “Next Action” folder.

When you are in a specific context (ie: @Computer) and look at items tagged as such and are in the “Next Action” folder you can do those tasks as you see fit.

Once the item is done, you can either DELETE the note or move it to the REFERENCE folder. Your choice.

Does that help?

1. After I complete collecting all my thoughts in the inbox notebook, do I put all of them within the next action book?
2. After step 1, do I then untag the specific thoughts and organize and process them?
3. After step 1 and 2, then do I actually “do” the specific action?

- darren