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Friday Favourites

Friday Favourites: Google Keep

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I didn’t plan for my Friday Favourites to be exclusively about apps, but as it seems to have gone in that direction, I decided to talk about an app that I find really helpful for organisation and productivity

I first downloaded Google Keep as an alternative to the default note-taking app, Memo, on my old Samsung Galaxy SII, as I wanted something a bit more flexible, that would allow me to make lists to check off. Since then, they’ve added one useful update after another.

One of my favourite things about it is that you can save notes in several different formats. As well as straightforward text and lists, you can also draw, add photos, and record voice/sound notes. You can pin notes so that they always appear at the top. It has the Archive function, like Gmail, so you can remove old notes from the main view without deleting them, just in case you need them later.

Google Keep can be opened in-browser as well as in-app, so I frequently use it to make notes when I’m out-and-about that I will then look at and make use of on my PC.

Here are three of my most frequent uses for Google Keep:

1. To-buy lists

I tend not to use it for to-do lists, as I prefer paper systems for those. But it is really useful for quickly making a shopping list or keeping track of things I need to buy.

2. Transferring a single photo from my phone to my computer to put in a blog post

I add a photo note, hit sync, open up Google Keep in my browser, and there it is.

3. Notes on writing projects

I’ve been using Google Keep to write scenes for novels and short stories for years. If inspiration strikes at an awkward moment, I can quickly type up the scene on my phone, and then later copy paste it from Keep into the main document I’m using for that project.

I also used it when I was working on my Planning Your Work Wardrobe ecourse – both for preliminary notes and for longer pieces of text. One day I was on the bus when suddenly I knew exactly what I wanted to write on the course landing page. I opened up Google Keep so that I could save that perfect copy before I forgot it, and then I could easily refine and polish it later on my PC.

Above you can see a pinned photo that I used for the cover photo on a Facebook event for #drinkYA (a YA fiction social/networking event I co-host), a note to remind me about a short story I want to write, and two to-do lists. One of the lists is for today – I can check everything off now and archive it – and the other is a note of things to do to promote my ecourse. There’s also a reminder to look for a ‘bad lip reading’ Star Wars YouTube video my colleague told me about!

I’ve tried quite a few of the different note-taking apps out there, but the reliability and features of Google Keep have made it my favourite. Do you use Google Keep, or do you prefer a different app? Let me know! I’m pretty attached to it, but if there’s something better out there, I’m open to giving it a try!

Friday Favourites: Yummly

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Last week, I wrote about why I love Pinterest. But for one particular area of interest, there’s an app/website I love more.

Yummly is a recipe app/website and I think anyone who cooks and wants to try different recipes should try it. The search is just fantastic. It trumps Pinterest, in my view, because not only does it let you search for ingredients, but it also lets you exclude them. It will also filter for tastes (sweet, savoury, spicy, etc), diets (eg. vegetarian, vegan), nutritional preferences (low carb, low fat, etc), allergies, cuisines, and time.

If, for instance, I fancy salmon for dinner, I can search for only recipes that don’t have onion (which gives me cramps), or mayonnaise (which my partner hates). I love spicy food, so I can set my taste preference to spicy. I try to only eat meat a couple of times a week, so I frequently use it to search for only vegetarian recipes.

If I don’t want to make a recipe right now, but would like to save it for later, I can just click the ‘Yum’ button to add it to My Yums – which can be organised into different collections. I only wish you could search within your Yums – I’ve only saved 62, but it’s already a pain to scroll through, and if you use the main search, it doesn’t show Yums first, or let you filter for them which would be helpful.

I’ve just discovered that you can set disliked ingredients in the preferences, too, so I’ve banned brussels sprouts, avocado, and mayonnaise from darkening my results ever again! I’ve left in onion, as it’s easy to just leave out, or switch for sweet peppers. You can also set dietary preferences and allergies. You can also pick favourite cuisines, or it can guess them from your Yums – it’s definitely got me pegged with its suggestions of Chinese, Indian, Italian, Mexican, and Thai.

It also learns my tastes, so it frequently suggests recipes without my having to start a search.

But the best part is that although you need to click through to the website the recipe is hosted on in order to read the directions, the ingredients list is listed on Yummly, and if you use the metric system, it’s already done the conversion for you! You can switch from US to Metric at the click/tap of a button. It also shows how many people have Yummed the recipe, nutritional info, and reviews.

Now, so that this isn’t just a Yummly love-in, here are some of my favourite recipes found using it:

Lentil & sweet potato curry – this makes a LOT of food! I make it once for dinner and then use the leftovers for lunch on three days!
Spicy Pan-Fried Salmon – this is gorgeous, even if you use a quarter of the amount of sugar as I do!

How do you find recipes? Any favourites to share?