Why Index Cards?
Index Cards - or short-form notes - have been around for the longest time, but their value is overlooked in todays' world of information overload, where it is too easy to capture and collect everything in an un-organized manner.
The magic of the Index Card is that it encourages you to have just one note or idea per card - we believe the very nature of the limited size purposely constrains you to summarize or focus your creativity on the card.
In NoteDex you can see all your cards on one screen with mini card image previews, which dramatically increases the speed to find notes or ideas you are looking for. This is the power that NoteDex can unleash for you - making you more creative and productive. A picture is worth a thousand words!
1. Use with your favorite long form note taking app
You might be surprised to hear us say this but the truth is, there is not one tool to rule them all. If there was, we would all be using it! Our goal is to help you manage your information better - it's not a coincidence that NoteDex was created by an information management technology consultant.
While, of course, you can use NoteDex to capture all your notes all the time, different tools can and do have different benefits at different times. It is common to take long-form, unstructured, unorganized notes in apps like OneNote or Samsung Notes, or even on a paper notepad. They can be convenient to capture ideas on the fly, for instance during a meeting or class when capturing information is the goal - not organizing or summarizing.
2. Summarize into NoteDex
After you have captured your unstructured notes, the trick becomes organizing and finding the information quickly and easily when you need it, and this is one of the features that sets NoteDex apart from other apps.
After you have captured your notes, look through these unstructured long notes and create short form index card style NoteDex cards that summarize or extract the key points.
This helps you to learn and retain information better, helps you to clarify what the key points were from the meeting or class, and helps you to find and share this information later much more quickly and easily.
Furthermore, this process of review and creating summaries can help you to study and remember better.