Show Prep Smarter with These 4 Apps
Show Prep Smarter with These 4 Apps
Do you long for the good old days of doing radio show prep with stacks of newspapers, Post-it notes, highlighters and scissors?
Me neither.
Smartphones and browser add-ons can turn anyone into a prep machine. Here are some of the digital tools I use to prep for my show.
Evernote
Evernote is everywhere you are. There are Evernote installs for iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows. The ‘clipper’ extension for web browsers is a must-have, and since you won’t want to install the Evernote app on a work computer you can log in with a browser version.
Evernote shines when you throw everything at it. A recent post on Lifehacker said it best:
It really starts to show its brilliance once you start using it as your default bookmark/webclip app, notetaker, recipe box, repository of all your reference material, and so on. It’s great to have ALL the information you need indexed and searchable across every single platform you have.
Nearly everything stored in Evernote is searchable, so a .doc, PDF or photo of a hand-written note is as easy to track down as something typed into it directly. From any device you can add tweets, links, photos, entire web pages and even audio clips.
Tip: If you decide to use Evernote pay the small price for the upgrade.
Diigo
I no longer print out my show prep service. Instead I keep the current issue open in a Chrome browser tab and highlight the items I want to use with the Diigo extension. It uses my Google login so the prep I highlight on my home computer show up on a studio computer. An alternative to Diigo is Liner (getliner.com).
Captio
Captio does one thing and does it well: tap the icon, type some text and hit send. Your message always goes to the email address you gave the app during setup.
Boomerang
If you use Gmail, get the Boomerang browser extension. This is probably the most useful web app I use. With Boomerang you can schedule email reminders, tell is to return emails to your inbox at a later date, and more.