How I Use Evernote to Keep Track of Stuff

 

It has become an increasingly busy world, hasn’t it? Seems like there’s never enough time to get to everything I want to do, and remembering everything I want to remember is nearly impossible. Technology has helped, and although I still love the feel of a pencil and paper for certain things, it’s just not feasible to pull off the interstate to scribble down a thought that won’t last till I get stopped.

Several years ago, Mike Smith of The Mike Tech Show podcast, mentioned Evernote. He didn’t just “mention” it, he raved about it. He spoke so highly of it that I checked it out for myself.

You know those moments that make you say, “My life forever changed from that moment”? That was one of those moments.

What Evernote Is
Evernote is “note taking software.”

But wait–there’s more! Let me explain what Evernote is by talking about how I use it.

I have an Evernote account online; that’s where it all begins. Evernote offers two levels of service, Free, and Premium. Right now I’m using the Free service, but I do see myself moving to Premium soon. You’ll find plenty to love in the Free version, though. You start out with one notebook. You add notes. You edit notes. You delete notes. Simple enough. Here’s where it starts to get useful: being online, it’s accessible just about anywhere.

But wait–there’s more! Evernote has client programs to run on your computer. This is useful when you don’t have an internet connection. Yes, there are times when there is no internet connection. You download the client and install it, you sign in with your account credentials that you created at the website, and everything you put into the website synchronizes with your computer.

But wait–there’s more! I also have Evernote on my Nook Color. It isn’t always appropriate or convenient to haul out my laptop, so it’s nice having all that material available there too.

But wait–there’s more! Yes! On my phone. Evernote has a mobile version for every smartphone platform. Your Evernote data, though, is accessible on the phone only when there is a data connection, with the free version. The premium service offers full offline access on the mobile device.

Here’s a rundown on how I use it:
I have created three notebooks within Evernote that I use. One is general-use, one is for this blog, and one is for my other blog, www.southernfriedyanqui.com. Additionally, Evernote created one for Skitch, which is an app that Evernote bought a while ago; it’s screenshot software. (Okay, it does a lot more, but I haven’t had a chance to explore that fully yet, so I’ll just stay on Evernote for now.) Your screen captures go into your Skitch notebook in Evernote.

Obviously, all the stuff I want to blog about goes into notes in those notebooks. I also have the birthdays in each month so that I can see who I need to remember next month.  It can be used for a grocery list, but I have a better app for that which I have shared with my family. I have a note with my husbands prescriptions in it. Anything you know you will want to remember later.

But wait–there’s more!  In addition to typing stuff into evernote, you can email stuff into evernote, you can speak stuff into evernote, you can take a picture and put it into evernote, and you can move stuff from Pocket (formerly Read It Later) into Evernote. You can enable location services to help you remember some things better; sometimes your cryptic notes only make sense in the context in which you took them.

There are several sort options so you can view the notes by date added, date modified, or title, and there are different ways to view your notes.

I know several people who use Evernote Premium, and they have the ability to share notebooks with other people, in addition to having some that don’t get shared. This would be a low-cost option for working with a virtual assistant–or maybe an onsite assistant.  You could share notebooks with your family, or with your creative collaboration team.

This is a tool that, for the price,  I can’t recommend highly enough. The free version client is not ad-supported or malware supported. I guess the Premium version supports the free version, and I bet there are a ton of features in the Premium version that I haven’t even touched on. If you are looking for something to organize your thoughts, give Evernote a try.