How to Achieve Low-cost, Comprehensive, Multi-platform Information Capture

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Every day, we face a variety of information from diverse sources, different contexts, and in numerous forms. It might be an article on Quora, a comment on Twitter, a piece of advice from your boss, an excerpt from a Kindle book, a subway poster, a snippet of music from a podcast, a thought that pops into your head, and so on.

So, can you manage to capture any piece of valuable information, regardless of its form, type, or medium, quickly and cost-effectively, and transform it into your own knowledge asset?

Indeed, with the advancement of technology, information organization is becoming less critical because powerful search capabilities enable us to easily locate information collected even without any categorization. Therefore, for novices in information management, the most cost-effective skill is the “information capture ability.”

What is Information Capture?

First, let’s clarify a concept: what exactly is information capture?

  1. Information capture is not collection, not forwarding, not commenting.
    I’ve noticed that many people habitually save or forward valuable articles to group chats or social circles, creating an illusion that “I already possess it.” In fact, you must realize that the information you’ve tagged for collection is no different from the information scattered across the internet.

If collection, likes, forwarding, and commenting don’t count as information capture, then what does? Here are some essential criteria for your reference:

  • Regardless of where the information comes from, it can be aggregated and categorized.
  • Supplementary information can be added to the main body of information, such as tagging, adding links, or modifying formatting.
  • This information is incorporated into a predefined processing flow, rather than being left untouched for years.
  • Due to your capture and subsequent processing and categorization, the information becomes easier to retrieve.

The capture mentioned here is the premise for subsequent information processing, classification, retrieval, output, and internalization.

Key Points in Information Capture

Information collection is often overlooked because many people underestimate the technical aspect of simply storing information. In contrast, this step involves numerous scenarios and tools, and the difference between doing it and not doing it isn’t immediately apparent, making it a potential pitfall in information management.

  1. Information capture is the most cost-sensitive stage in information management

When I share offline, I love to ask participants a question: If you see a valuable article on WeChat and want to save it to your computer, how would you do it?
Many people operate this way: First, they send it to themselves on WeChat, then open the article on their computer, copy and paste the full text, create a new Word document, paste, save, and rename. The whole process takes about half a minute, and occasionally longer if there are formatting or image loss issues.
In fact, it doesn’t have to be so troublesome. With the right method, the whole process takes only 1 second, improving efficiency by dozens of times.
Some might argue, it doesn’t save that much time, even if I copy and paste 10 articles a day, it only takes 10 more minutes than you, it’s not a big deal, right?
Yes, 10 minutes a day may not seem like much, but you’re overlooking a key point in information capture and a significant feature of this stage: high sensitivity to cost. When your information capture cost is high, a considerable portion of valuable information may be left uncollected simply because you find it “a bit troublesome.”

  1. The quality of information capture determines the difficulty of subsequent processing and retrieval
    Besides the time difference, the completion level in information capture also varies, with different levels determining the cost of the next editing process.
    For example, if you attend a

fantastic lecture and save the 1-hour recording directly to your computer hard drive, this process might be cheaper and faster than taking notes or using voice-to-text services during the lecture. However, you cannot directly search the audio content or quickly review key points later. If you want to share it with others, you can only give a rough idea, like telling a friend, “There’s a point about ‘inner boundaries’ towards the end of the audio, you can listen to it,” which is a poor experience.

  1. Information capture requires a complete system
    Information capture is a daunting task. The topics, contents, carriers, and types of information you encounter every day vary greatly. Therefore, it’s not a minor issue that can be solved with a principle and a few methods. Instead, it requires a thorough approach for each scenario. Moreover, due to the significant differences between different types of information, the tools for capturing and storing them are also different.
    As a module of information management, this part has no end to iterative optimization. With the advancement of technology, more efficient ways of information capture will emerge. For example, Apple’s newly launched Shortcuts App allows you to quickly trigger information capture systems using voice commands, and more and more tools are making information capture simpler and more convenient.

Deconstructing Solutions for Information Capture

In the following, I will introduce to you, one by one, the types of information you may encounter in work, study, and daily life, along with the methods to capture them as quickly as possible. This will involve different types of information and matching tools at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Each of these tools has been carefully selected by me, and they are generally top-tier productivity tools.

Physical Books

How can we capture essential information from reading physical books into our system? There are several schools of thought in the market right now. Some suggest writing notes on tags and then sticking them on the book. Others propose printing a table and filling it in after about 30 minutes of reading. Some use highlighters of various colors, or simply underline the text. Regardless of the method, it’s hard to skip a step: typing the text into a computer. After painstakingly reading a book, we have to flip through it page by page and type out all the important content, which isn’t the best experience.

Thankfully, with the development of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology, there are now mature tools to help you with this previously tedious task and enhance your reading experience. Many OCR-supporting apps allow you to simply capture the text of a physical book by taking a photo and adjusting the scanning range. With continuous iteration of OCR technology, the user experience is getting better and better.

Kindle E-books

. Recommended: Clippings.io

. Mac: Kindle for Mac

. Mac: Klib

. Win: Kindle Mate

Nowadays, I rely more and more on the Kindle for reading e-books. Its portability, coupled with its built-in highlighting and note-taking functions, make reading more accessible. What surprises me is that many people, although they highlight text while reading, don’t know how to save their marked clippings, which means they’re essentially abandoning their hard work when it’s time to reap the rewards.

That’s why I’m going to recommend a few tools to help you export the highlighted content and notes from your Kindle.

Firstly, I recommend a web service called Clippings.io. This is a free service that can help you organize and export your notes, and supports exporting files in various formats.

Additionally, if you’re a Mac user looking for a better experience, you can try Klib. If you’re a Windows user, give Kindle Mate a shot - it also provides a feature to create Anki flashcards.

However, both of these tools require payment. I suggest trying Clippings.io first, as it can meet basic needs. If you find yourself needing these tools more frequently, then consider investing in a professional tool.
P.s. The latest version of Kindle for Mac also supports note exporting.

Web Browsers

. Evernote Web Clipper

While mobile browsing is increasingly convenient, there are still many reading scenarios that need to be completed on a computer, especially for in-depth topic research that requires reading dozens or even hundreds of articles at once. Much like the earlier issues, capturing web content quickly is a problem that needs solving.

Let’s formally introduce one of the core tools of our information management course: Evernote. We will continue to introduce its powerful features in the coming sessions. This session will mainly introduce Evernote’s extraordinary information capture capability.

You can search for Evernote Web Clipper on Google and then download the clipper extension that matches your browser. After a simple installation and login process, whenever you come across valuable articles, just click the clipper, and the article will be automatically saved. Moreover, the content is saved directly to your local device, so even if the online link becomes invalid, the content in Evernote won’t be lost.

The Web Clipper has a wide range of clipping options, supporting webpage text, ad removal, screenshots, etc. It can be seen as a lower-tier version of the reading mode and image annotation plugin, ranking in the top 5 must-have browser extensions.

Of course, besides using the Web Clipper, don’t forget to try the simple method of copying and pasting. A reminder here is that almost all information management tools offer two forms of pasting: paste or paste and match destination formatting. In most cases, the latter is recommended to maintain stylistic consistency. An exception might be when the original webpage format is more clear and visually appealing than the simplified version.

WeChat Articles

. Forward to My Evernote

WeChat is likely one of the apps we spend the most time on in our daily work and life. Many people’s main source of information comes from WeChat, so how can we quickly store articles from WeChat and highlight, comment, and organize the content? The answer is still Evernote. Saving an article from WeChat can be done in a flash - just one second.

Not only is it quick, but among all similar tools, Evernote provides the best clipping experience. As demonstrated in the video, it not only saves the article title and full text, but all images and formats remain intact. It also saves the clipping date, time, and link, and will automatically attach a “WeChat” tag. Notably, Evernote’s WeChat clipper can save not only articles but also chat records, images, and files, making it incredibly convenient.

The setup process is simple. Register an Evernote account, search and follow the “My Evernote” account on WeChat, bind the account as instructed, and then whenever you want to save an article, just click on the top right corner and tap the Evernote icon. All steps, including saving, renaming, and sending, are automatically completed by the system in the background.

Ideas and Bon Mots

. Beginner: Evernote
. Advanced: Task management tools (OmniFocus, Todoist)

Recording inspiration is something I value immensely and have invested a lot of energy into finding ways to do it better. Here are the solutions I recommend at this stage.
Beginner Solution: Evernote
Evernote has continuously optimized its information input experience over the years. You can quickly record a piece of content using the notification bar widget or iOS’s 3D Touch.

Advanced Solution: Task Management Tools
Though Evernote continually improves its user experience, using it for quick information input on mobile devices can feel a bit heavy, especially when the content to input is very simple - maybe just a sentence or a word. In these cases, creating a new note for storage doesn’t seem appropriate.
On the other hand, we’ll be introducing GTD (Getting Things Done) later, and you’ll be recording many temporary tasks in the inbox of your task management tool, like “submit meeting minutes before 3 pm on Wednesday” or “buy a birthday gift for my father before Friday”. These scenarios are very similar to when we record inspirations or bon mots. In fact, according to GTD, “any thought that comes to mind, regardless of whether it’s actionable, should be recorded in the inbox first”. So, in essence, inspirations should fall into this category.

Using task management tools to record inspiration and then spending time to filter and organize them into notes is also a good method, and it’s the one I personally use.

Diary

. Beginner: Evernote
. Advanced: Day One

So many thoughts and emotions, self-pity in tough times, grand aspirations in times of success, can’t be turned into articles or easily shared with others. A diary is the perfect medium for this information.
I used OneNote for 3 years of diary writing, then Evernote for 5 years, and finally switched to Day One. I chose Day One because it provides an unparalleled experience for the simple act of diary writing, with its pleasing Markdown formatting, rich browsing options, automatic environment information capture, and thoughtful “This Day In History” feature, among others.
Writing in a diary helps you remember more of the little details of life and understand yourself better. Opening Day One, years of time seem to unroll like a painting before us, sometimes even making us exclaim: life is truly lived.

Final Words

Lately, the topic of “storage” comes up frequently. In most cases, it’s about house storage, item storage. However, information also needs to be stored. The content we’ve covered today is somewhat like a list of “Recommended Information Storage Tools”.
We mentioned Evernote a lot in this session. Indeed, this tool plays a very significant role in the information management system we are about to build. It’s our top recommendation as an “Information Storage Tool”. Its functions are powerful and diverse: it can be an information management tool, a knowledge management tool, a second brain, a lightweight writing tool, and so on.
I suggest you take a gradual approach:

  1. In the beginning, try to use Evernote for all information input and management. Let Evernote serve as the absolute center for information and knowledge management - you can store everything in Evernote.
  2. In the medium term, use tools like Drafts, Shortcut, OmniFocus, etc., to increase the efficiency of information collection.
  3. In the long term, when you have a more precise understanding of your information, delegate specific types of information, like writing, passwords, diaries, tasks, etc., to more specialized apps, such as Ulysses,1Password, Day One.

I’ve learned this process the hard way, stumbling and taking the long road to get here. So, I recommend that you don’t start using all the tools mentioned above at once. You can just use Evernote, but as time accumulates, gradually transition to more professional tools.
Let each tool do what they do best, instead of being ALL IN ONE. This is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from using productivity tools over the years. I hope you too can enjoy the little confirmations and big surprises each tool brings.