Increase Your Productivity with Wunderlist 2 To-Do List Software

Increase your productivity with Wunderlist 2 to-do list software. Like most historians, I have a long to-do list. I need to keep track of tasks for my article projects, conference proposals, book revisions, and blog posts. I must stay mindful of books and manuscript collections that I need to look at and read. I also have daily goals that I try to meet. Wunderlist 2 helps me stay on task and remain aware of everything that I must accomplish. It is the best to-do list software available and it's free!

To-Do Lists

Wunderlist 2 allows me to create separate to-do lists for each of my projects. This feature has improved my productivity. Rather than become distracted or overwhelmed by my global list of to dos, I concentrate only on the tasks needed to complete a particular project.

I use the due date and notification features to make Wunderlist push me. Nothing spurs me to action more than failure. When I miss a deadline, Wunderlist reminds me with a red, past due notice. This motivation has helped me to accomplish my daily reading and writing goals on a consistent basis.

Recurring Task Feature

The recurring tasks feature enables users to determine how often they would like Wunderlist to remind them of a task. For example, I update my blog every Monday and Friday. I created 2 items for blog posts and set a weekly recurrence for each. Now Wunderlist reminds me to post to my blog every Monday and Friday. Users can also set daily, biweekly, triweekly, or monthly recurrences for tasks.

Cross-Device Syncing

To use Wunderlist, users must create a Wunderlist account. This account enables the software to sync users' to-do lists across platforms and devices. I find this feature helpful. No matter where I am, I can access my to-do lists from any computer, tablet, or smartphone device.

Add to Wunderlist Button

The "Add to Wunderlist Button" adds an extension to your web browser. Similar to Evernote's Web Clipper, the button clips website information and places it in your to-do list. This feature lacks consistency.

When I used the button to add a book from the Boston Public Library catalog to my to-do list, it did not collect the information I wanted, namely the call number and location of the book. I had to add that information manually. But, when I used it to clip information from the New York Public Library's manuscript catalog, the button captured all of the information I needed: the name of the repository, title of the collection, call number, and other information from the catalog.

I hope that the software developers work out the kinks in this feature. I would love to use it to prepare for research trips.

Getting Access: Newspapers from Early America

Welcome to Getting Access, a series devoted to helping you obtain the digital records you need. Companies like Newsbank/Readex are on a mission to digitize early American records. Their Early American Newspapers and Early American Imprints databases offer a comprehensive collection of digitized early American tracts and newspapers.

It used to be that to access these databases you had be affiliated with (or live near) one of the wealthy research institutions that can afford to pay their enormous subscription fees. However, Newsbank offers an affordable backdoor to a lot of the content stored in its expensive Readex-branded databases.

GenealogyBank

In October 2006, Newsbank launched GenealogyBank, a direct-to-consumer resource that "provide[s] researchers with unprecedented Web-based access to millions of the United States' core genealogical records from the 17th to the 21st centuries."

Geared for genealogical queries and non-professional researchers, GenealogyBank does not offer the advanced search options of its Readex counterparts, Early American Newspapers or America's Historical Newspapers.

The search interface gives preference to names of people rather than dates. Users cannot access the issue lists for a given newspaper title. To pull up a page view of an entire issue, users must first click on an article and then click on the "Page [1]" link located on the left-hand side above the article title. Users cannot navigate from full-page view to full-page view.

Still, with a little persistence users should be able to find the information they need from the comfort of their homes.

 The Bottom Line

GenealogyBank may be a tad cumbersome to use, but at $69.95/year it offers underprivileged historians affordable access to newspapers and imprints that they could only access in physical archives or by visiting a library that has a subscription to the Readex-branded databases.

What Do You Think?

Have you found any helpful ways for accessing early American newspapers online? If so please leave a comment or send me a tweet.

Read Faster: How Amazon Kindle Makes Research More Efficient

Recently, I posted how Evernote has modified the way I work as a historian. The Kindle Touch also has changed the way I work for the better. Amazon Kindle helps me read faster and more efficiently with its my clippings feature. For reading, I find my Kindle better than my iPad because it is lightweight, easy to hold, and easier on my eyes. I am also a big fan of Kindle's "My Clippings" feature, which Amazon does not include in the Kindle app.

As with the Kindle app, the Kindle device allows you to make notes and highlight text.

To highlight text on the Kindle Touch you briefly hold your finger on the word that starts the passage you want to highlight and then trace your finger to the final word of the excerpt.

When you lift your finger off the device the software asks you whether you want to highlight the text or add a note.

If you press the "add note" button the Kindle gives you a blank note bubble where you can write down your thoughts on the passage.

Unlike the Kindle app, the Kindle device adds all of your highlighted text and notes to a file called "My Clippings," which you can access via the home screen or from your PC or Mac. The fact that you can download and modify this file on your computer represents the best part about the Kindle because it is can be a HUGE time saver.

I use a pencil to bracket passages and make margin notes when I read a book.

After I am done reading, I spend a lot of time transcribing these important passages and notes into Zotero or Evernote.

The "My Clippings" feature saves me a lot of time. When I finish reading a book on my Kindle, I load the "My Clippings" file onto my computer and then cut and paste my note and passages into Zotero or Evernote.

Although I love my Kindle, it does not always make my work easier.

Not all of the books I want/need to read have page numbers associated with them.

This presents a problem in that I have to look up the passages I highlighted in the actual book in order to properly cite them. Sometimes this process cancels out the time I saved by downloading the "My Clippings" file. As I have yet to find a way around this problem, I sometimes have to decide whether or not it might be better to purchase the hard copy of the book over its eBook version. My decision usually comes down to the weight and size of the book and the price difference between the two formats.

With that said, the Kindle has increased my productivity.

I read more with Kindle. Whenever I go out I slip my Kindle into my purse, briefcase, or backpack so that I have it when I sit in waiting rooms, travel, or find myself with a free moment. If the eBook has page numbers I also save a lot of time using the "My Clippings" feature to keep track of and transfer my notes into my research files.

3 Ways Evernote Makes Research Easier: A Historian's Notes

Over the last year, I have come across a few technologies that have made historical research easier. The tool that has made the most positive difference is Evernote.

Evernote works like a digital filing cabinet. What attracted me to the software was the idea that I could upload articles and research notes and then access them remotely from my laptop, smartphone, tablet, or any computer with an internet connection.

Within two months of downloading the app I began relieving my physical filing cabinets of their contents; I used a scanner to send all of my photocopied documents, articles, handwritten notes, finding aids, and other research materials into Evernote.

3 Ways Evernote Makes Research Easier

1. Digital Filing Cabinet

Evernote allowed me to organize my files better than I could in my filing cabinets.

Within Evernote I created notebooks, or as I like to think of them, tiny filing cabinets. I assigned each of my notebooks a topic and then I grouped like topics together in a larger Notebook Stack. For example, I have a large Notebook Stack entitled "Archived Articles." Within that stack, I have notebooks for articles about Economic history, the Erie Canal, Albany, Ethnicity, Identity, New York Politics, Migration, Architecture, Education, Federalists, the French and Indian War, the Revolution, Loyalism, Industrialization, Land Disputes, Street Paving, and many other topics. Before I file each article into its large-topic folder, I tag it with a list of the smaller topics it covers.

Although any given article will reside in a large topic folder, I can perform a tag search that will locate it by the secondary content I listed. So any time I want to look up what I have on "English Rough Music Practices," I click the appropriate tag and Evernote finds all the articles, notes, books, and files that I tagged as touching upon it. Evernote also allows me to search my notes by keyword--although the search is limited to the text of the note--it will not include the text of a PDF or JPEG I attached to a note.

2. Research Notebook

Evernote has proven to be more than a place to store academic articles and research notes. I use Evernote to help me write. Each writing project has a notebook in which I place notes about ideas for wording, notes and resources to check, and any feedback I receive.

I used to carry pen and paper everywhere because I always think about my writing, even when I am not thinking about my writing. Now when I get a spur-of-the-moment idea, I pull out my smartphone and file that idea away into the appropriate notebook.

3. Research Trip Planning

Most recently, I used Evernote for archive research. Evernote has a web clipper feature that allows me to take a snapshot of the web content I am looking at and file it away in any of my notebooks.

Over the last month I have used the web clipper to perform archive reconnaissance. Next week I am going to use manuscript collections at the New York Public Library and New-York Historical Society. I created a folder for each of these archives and used the Evernote web clipper to create a list of all the collections I want to use by taking a snapshot of the collection pages my catalog searches turned up. By clipping this information and storing it electronically, I will be able to have all the information I need to pull the collections without a stack of paper that will violate the security concerns of the archives. Next week, I intend to create notebooks for all of the collections I find useful and use them to organize and store any digital photos or photocopies I make.

The above are just some of the ways that I use Evernote. I have found some limitations within the program. I would like to be able to create sub-notebook stacks; a notebook stack within a notebook stack. I would also like to be able to upload PDFs and files larger than 50 MB. Regardless of these limitations, I have found that Evernote has changed the way I work, research, and organize for the better and I wanted to share my story.