Your Educator Guide for Making the Most of Google Keep

I do not know about you, but I am a single of individuals people who likes to keep structured. So I have methods that assistance me get items performed. Whether or not it is prepping a pair of months of podcast episodes all at after (so I really don’t have to scramble every week) or developing site submit photos with a template (so I really do not have to rethink it for every new put up), I am dedicated to saving as considerably time, and power as feasible and staying arranged aids out a ton.

In this submit, I choose you via 1 of my beloved equipment, Google Continue to keep, and eight motives why I totally adore it.

This web site publish is a modified version of the transcript to a past episode of the Quick EdTech Podcast. It’s a very little much more conversational than how I generally produce — for the reason that this is taken from the transcript of a beloved podcast episode. Somewhat hear than read through? Click right here or push play underneath.

What particularly is Google Maintain? 

Google Continue to keep is an organizational software from Google that enables you to maintain notes and lists organized. You can use it for totally free, and if you by now have a Google or Gmail account, you’re fantastic to go. You can also obtain Google Preserve from the world-wide-web at preserve.google.com or obtain it as an application. I also have the iOS app on my Apple iphone and use it on the world-wide-web. 

Students can use Google Hold, also. It is a terrific tool to introduce for productivity, self-directed understanding, and task administration. Beneath you’ll come across a checklist of eight reasons why I really like Google Retain!

Established up to-do lists

I enjoy how Google Keep lets you to established up to-do lists. I create lists with motion objects, and Google Preserve allows you develop a checklist all in a person subject matter to develop several to-do lists, insert titles to them, and be all within a topic. Now I am a paper planner and an on line lover of organizational issues. I could not live without having my Google calendar. It’s all shade-coded, and it’s a favourite. And I love my paper planner, where by I can sit down every single week and have a snapshot of my massive crucial matters and an overview of my day.

With Google Maintain, you can produce lists with checkboxes suitable future to them and put all of your objects there within your to-do record. You can rearrange or reorder the products, and prioritize them, far too. You can make a to-do listing with 5 items or fifteen matters within just that a person checklist.

Brainstorm with the be aware-getting characteristic

In addition to the to-do list, you can build notes only for brainstorming. Having the take note selection here provides me a house where by I can do a “brain dump” or just set a full bunch of tips collectively in a person place and come back again to it later on.

Instead of a observe with checkboxes, this kind of observe can only serve as a put to jotdown a handful of tips. If my notice gets ridiculous prolonged, I can transform it into a Google doc, and that way, I can include much more to it or reorganize some of the information if wanted. 

On-the-go with the mobile application

I adore the Google Maintain mobile application and how it syncs immediately to the desktop or world wide web browser version. This means that if I’m at my laptop or computer and go to the web-site, I can put in everything I want. And then, when I open it up on my telephone, it syncs up automatically. If I add one thing to my phone’s Maintain app, it will pop up on the world-wide-web.

You could uncover that applying the cell application is fantastic for your workflow. When it comes to generating information, I are likely to expend more time on my notebook than my telephone. I know that if I am someplace, I could will need to reference the list I designed, or I may possibly have an idea of some thing I want to incorporate a notice to my Keep. This way I can do it right from my cellular phone, no subject exactly where I am. 

The cell application also performs offline. So if you have bad connectivity, or maybe you put your phone on plane method, it’ll update as soon as you get back again on to your community. 

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Use the site solution

In my Uncomplicated EdTech Podcast episode with Martine Brown, we talked about Google Continue to keep as a single of her most loved resources. She shared a favourite Google Retain tip — use the site alternative inside of Google Hold. This way, it reminds her that she has items on her to-do checklist to check out off when she gets household or comes at perform. I believed was a great idea to include to our list nowadays. There are a lot of tasks that can only get accomplished at a unique locale so this is a different way to make certain you don’t neglect.

Colour-coding

You can colour-code your to-do lists in Google Hold. Colour-coding in Google Hold is rather intuitive. When you have them color-coded, it’s just like having shade-coded sticky notes. You can set up whatsoever procedure will work for you.

For illustration, if you hold factors structured for unique lecture rooms, you might currently have anything “period four” as purple. Or all the things for math is orange. So if you have notes or to-do lists that go along with a thing like that, you can use your exact same color coding. It presents you loads of selections right in just Google Continue to keep. And of course, when you go from the website to cellular, all those colors travel with you. 

Rearrangeable

The notes and lists you make in Google Continue to keep are moveable. So you can rearrange the notes on your screen. You can even pin a person or two to the prime if there’s something that you do not want to overlook about or want prime of thoughts. I enjoy this alternative due to the fact I’m typically in grid see in which I get a visible snapshot in Google Continue to keep. Then I can shift points all-around to prioritize them or group them.

Having the notes rearrangeable is especially handy if you are on the world wide web, and you’ve obtained a lot taking place on your display screen. This way, you can see a bunch of notes in your just one see at the very same time and make guaranteed they are all in the “right” place. If you’re on the cell app where your display is scaled-down, you never want anything to be at the bottom when it truly should be pinned to the leading. So getting that as rearrangeable is superb. 

Invite collaborators into your notes

Like a Google Doc, you can invite collaborators into your notes that will demonstrate up on their Preserve. This is an excellent approach from an educator’s point of view for the reason that if you are working with a team member, you can see every other’s to-do listing and the place you’re at with one thing that you are operating on collectively. So not only can teacher groups use Google Retain to collaborate, but students can also use this instrument in the course of a team job to handle aims. 

Google Retain is an superb introduction to a lot more sturdy task management equipment like Asana or Trello. It is fantastic for collaborative arranging confront-to-experience in classroom options and remote settings when you could be significantly away from another person else or working asynchronously. In addition, you can preserve track of all people in your group via this shared area.  

Suppose you are helping a scholar with an independent research or a much more customized pathway for something they’re doing the job on. You may encourage them to use Google Retain to make notes of factors they want to get treatment of, and then just share that note with you to test in with their development and know what sort of particular observe-up to supply.

Replicate notes

In Google Maintain, you can make a duplicate of any notes or lists, comparable to earning a copy of a Google Doc. Do you have to-do lists you go by way of just about every 7 days? You can replicate them. If you are like me, there could possibly be quite a few issues you do every Friday to close out the week. I check out my finest to have a several factors entire at the end of the working day on Friday afternoons. For illustration, I have my e-newsletter ready to go out for Monday. And I open up up my Twitter messages to make positive there is no just one that I’ve neglected to answer to in my Twitter inbox.

You can create a be aware in Google Continue to keep that you use as a template. Every week you can copy that template and insert anything at all more that is certain to that week. I really like making use of templates in distinctive tools and Google Retain allows you to this, far too.

So these are my 8 reasons why I like Google Hold. I hope this provides you a cause to test out Google Hold if it is new for you or anything new to check out out. And if you attempt just one of these strategies, share it with me on Instagram or Twitter, tag me in a submit @ClassTechTips or deliver me a DM to permit me know how it is likely.