I've learned something new. I'm a pathetic blogger. I see so many of my genealogy colleagues with fabulous blog posts coming out daily, and I think..."wow, I love reading their posts!" They're all connected to update with links on their facebook, twitter and linked in accounts and websites. I'm not there yet. I'm not sure that I'll ever be a completely comfortable modern media person. I still write in my journal, by hand.

So as I reflect back to when I started this blog, and what I wanted to learn, I ask whether I've achieved non-luddite status. I realize that I don't want to achieve status in any way. I like not being hip to the latest social media, and not being constantly connected. I'm still just trying to sort through all the ads I get in my email mailbox when I order something online from a new company. (Sometimes, I don't even realize I'm signing up "to receive special offers." Every day, come on... how much did your sales change since yesterday.)

But I have found several new business helps and one fun new app that I use daily. The first one that I've discovered is called Klok (http://www.getklok.com/). I was looking for an easy time tracking program that I could use for my client research, so I would be able to track the time spent researching and writing. I could then total the billable hours and enter them into my financial management software. This is easy to use, easy to add projects and turn the timing on and off. I can even change the entries if I find I got distracted and forgot to turn it off when I finished my work. It allows me to see how many billable hours I've gotten in for a week, and on which projects. There's a new mobile app that I may try, especially since I'm often out doing research at a repository, and may forget to turn it on on the laptop. I entered non-billable hour activities as well, and if I used it religiously, I'd see where my time was going, playing Mahjong and reading Facebook (and deleting those emails from my inbox). Still working on the using it religiously part. More soon.

The other one I've been using is Evernote (https://evernote.com/). I had heard at previous conferences people talking about how Evernote was such a great tool, and learned a bit about it. I had to give up on my previous software, ByGones, since I couldn't find it on my hard drive. Please don't ask about that. Anyway, Evernote is really great and in my next post, I'll tell you why I like it, and what I do with it.

If you check out that, I'll tell you about my fun one!