Spice Mines of Kessel

In the past, I have had to make ample use of sticky notes, or Post-it® notes. I have gone through a host of sticky note pads, reminding myself of innumerable events or things I needed to do. I simply cannot imagine the amount of paper I have thrown away to the garbage with the use of sticky notes. In this current digital age, there is a movement to go as paperless as possible and do everything in the “cloud.” Now I can eliminate all that waste by using a free service provided by Google called, Google Voice.

There is one other fundamental problem with the use of sticky notes: they require physical space. That is a problem because if they are used too liberally, they will form a mess of clutter and become the very definition of disorganization. Plus, when you have a pile of sticky notes, you can’t simply search for a key word without physically sifting through each note and scanning it for what you are looking for. It is simply inefficient; therefore, a digital replacement is necessary.

There are a host of digital sticky note solutions. In fact, 3M, the makers of the original Post-it® notes, has one such solution on their website. Apple also includes a digital sticky note application with its Mac OS X operating system, appropriately called “Stickies.” However, none of the solutions I have tried or seen match the flexibility, mobility, and usability of Google Voice.

So, how does Google Voice get used as a digital sticky note solution? They are, after all, seemingly unrelated. Well, Google Voice provides wonderful integration with Google’s mail service, Gmail. These two services combined will give you access to a great platform to store your notes, search your notes, and forward your notes to where you need them. Best of all, both of these services are free. (At the time of this writing, you will need an invitation to use Google Voice, but it should open up in the near future.)

The first thing you need to do is set up your Google Voice account to handle this task. By itself, Google Voice is up for the task, but you can make a few adjustments to your account settings to get the maximum flexibility. Log in to your Google Voice account and click the Settings link at the top of the page (you will be on the Phones tab). Click on the Voicemail & SMS tab. Look for the section labeled as SMS Forwarding. In that section, check the box to forward your SMS messages to your Gmail account.

Before I go on with this post, I would like to address some possible questions. You might be asking yourself, “Why not just use the notepad app on my phone?” or, “Why not just text message myself?” or, “Why not just e-mail myself?” Those are all good questions, and they most certainly will work, but, here are my responses: not every phone allows you to search your notes (if you have a lot of notes, it is tedious to look through all of your notes to find what you are looking for); text messaging poses the same issues; and you may not always have access to your e-mail (you may not always be sitting at a computer or have broadband access on your mobile phone). So, setting up Google Voice and Gmail together allows you to solve those issues.

Now you need to go to your Gmail and make sure all is well. Send a text message to your Google Voice number and watch as the text message goes not only to your inbox, but also back to your phone, if you have that feature enabled. The message also resides in your Google Voice account. Now you are ready to utilize the power of Gmail with these notes you are sending to yourself.

1. Create a new label and name it something like My Notes. Use whatever name you wish to use to identify your notes. For this tutorial, I will use My Notes.
2. Create a new filter to catch all of the notes you send to yourself and apply the label, My Notes, to it.
   1. In your Gmail inbox, copy the subject line of the test note you just sent yourself. (Hihglight the subject with the mouse and press Ctrl+c on the keyboard)
   2. Click on the Settings link at the top of the page.
   3. Click on the Filters tab.
   4. Below the list of filters, click the “Create a new filter” link.
   5. In the Subject field, paste the subject you copied. (Press Ctrl+v on the keyboard.)
   6. Click the Next Step button.
   7. Click the Apply Label checkbox and choose the My Notes label from the list. (You may also choose to apply any of the other options to this filter.)
   8. Click the Create Label button to finish creating the filter.

Now, when you send yourself a note to your Google Voice number, it will forward to your Gmail inbox and then apply the My Notes label to the message. Then you can utilize a great feature of Gmail and archive your notes. With your notes archived, they will not clutter your inbox. Plus, you have the option to search your notes (this can also be done in your Google Voice account) or filter your notes by displaying all messages with the My Notes label. Of course, when you’re finished with the note and no longer need it, you can simply delete it—which doesn’t fill your trash can with wads of paper.

So, how is all of this helpful? Well, no matter where you are, you can make a note for yourself and you will have a very handy means of organizing your notes. Even if you do not have network service on your phone, you can still attempt to send the message, and when service returns, the message will go out to Google Voice. You will still have the note on your phone. I suppose if you do not have a phone, or access to a computer, you might be out of luck.

Now, if that doesn’t impress you, I suppose you could do a 1-up on the text notes: send yourself a voice note—with a transcription. This is also an option available in Google Voice. Let’s say you’re in a situation where you do not have access to your mobile phone and, behold, a normal land-line phone is at hand. You can still send yourself a digital note. Unfortunately, you will not be able to use the phone number(s) tied to your Google Voice account because Google Voice will assume you are calling to check your voicemail.

Log in to your Google Voice account and click the Settings link at the top of the page. Click on the Voicemail & SMS tab. Look for the section labeled as Voicemail Notifications. In that section, check the box to e-mail your voicemail messages to your Gmail account. Next, look for the section labeled as Voicemail Transcripts. In that section, check the box to have Google Voice transcribe your voicemail. (I will admit that the transcriptions are a little flaky, if not funny. It’s not 100% accurate and you will get some odd transcriptions. However, you will also get the audio recording as a backup.) Finally, call your Google Voice number and leave yourself a message. It will be forwarded to your Gmail inbox and apply the necessary label, if you set up the filter to handle your voicemail messages.

There you have it: the ultimate solution for digital note-taking (at least, in my opinion). You can now save yourself some money and help the environment by ditching those obsolete paper-and-pen notes. Not only will you have a better system for organizing your notes, with virtually no clutter, but you will also be able to search and filter your notes to easily find the one you want when you want it. I have recently converted to this note-taking system and, despite a little work to get it started, it has made that aspect of my life easier.

I know this isn’t the only digital sticky note solution, but it’s the one I use and it works perfectly for me. What digital sticky note solution do you use? Feel free to post it in the comment section below.