The annotations feature in Java has changed the landscape of enterprise Java development. Framework developers have been creating and consuming framework-specific annotations to simplify their frameworks. Application developers should be able to take the same route of using their own annotations. Yet, we don't use such techniques during everyday development. The reason is complexity in processing annotations. Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) provides a simple way to process annotations. Developers can create their own annotations and mark programming elements with them. Aspects can write selection logic based on those annotations. Many developers who previously may have shied away from AOP due to concerns about the complexity in writing pointcuts and the fear of unexpected selection, now look at it favorably once they understand how annotations simplify AOP. In this session, we explore how AOP can simplify consume custom annotations in everyday development. The examples will cover a wide range of domains including auditing, monitoring, caching, security, concurrency control, transaction management, and policy enforcement.