7 Use Cases for Highly Effective Evernote Users
Evernote, for those who don’t know, is a magnificent application. It synchronizes your notes to any Mac, PC, iPhone and Windows Mobile, or you can use the web interface. And it recognizes handwriting or printed text in images. I’ve used it actively since July, and I’d like to share my experiences with it.
I loathe excessive paper. The only paper I use is my Moleskine notebook for note-taking, sketching and brainstorming, I still enjoy books in dead-tree format, and there are some meetings where paper is inevitable. Other than that, Evernote has made me free from paper. Or rather, liberated from paper.
Here’s my most important use cases for Evernote:
1. Business card and paper inbox
Whenever someone gives me a business card, I take a picture of it on my iPhone (with the Griffin Clarifi, that is), upload it with Evernote, then give it back.
Evernote’s image recognition gives me a searchable database of business cards. Way better than crumbling them up in my pockets. And it’s simple to add them to my contacts later.
Incoming paper that can’t be made into a task or needs archiving of some sort immediately gets “scanned” in batches with my digital camera, then added to Evernote. The physical version gets thrown away.
I’m risking some trouble with warranty receipts and tax papers since I throw them away as well, but you don’t have to. Less paper is still better than it used to be!
2. Capturing creativity
Your group just did a creativity barf all over the whiteboard. How do you save it? Easy. Snap some pictures, upload to Evernote, and you have a searchable repository of it. Or snap your own sketches and add them to a shared notebook which you can conveniently pass on to a friend or colleague for collaboration.
3. Writing tool
I remember writing a press release this fall when I was elected to a position. I outlined the press release on the bus home on my iPhone using Evernote, I wrote half the actual content with the Mac client, went out again and wrote the last half on the bus, added an image at my destination using the web interface, and then emailed it (still via Evernote) to the recipients.
Evernote allows you to continue your work, especially writing, while on the road. It might not be incredibly efficient on the iPhone, but it’s a mini work environment with all the information that you could ever need. In front of my Macbook, it’s as good as anything else for writing.
4. Nutrition
Being a nutrition nazi, I need to carry simple 5-minute recipes that can be used anywhere. I also use it to store facts, research, supplement tracking, and calorie counting for some basic meals (in my case to make sure I get enough).
5. Goal tracking
I track my personal mission statement and my goals in Evernote. Within ten seconds I know what I’ve decided to do and how far I’ve come in doing it. This blog has five months and sixteen days to get initially successful, by the way, defined as “over 1000 subscribers”.
My exercise log goes there as well. I managed 133kg in leg press, high intensity resistance training, in June 2008. A bit more than a month later, I did 165. How’s that for motivation.
In this sense, Evernote improves life quality. Reading my mission statement when I’m on the road and a bit down gets me up and running again. And I’ve stored Seneca’s Moral Epistles, which really puts me in the mood for mental performance.
6. Planning and journaling
My day-to-day tasks live in Remember the Milk. My weekly and monthly project planning, however, lives in Evernote. So does my journal, where I write down anything I want to remember. Like the pride I felt when this blog earned its first few cents.
7. Book indexes and note archiving
When I read non-fiction books, I create keyword indices. This way, I can review any book I’ve read in about a minute, and I know where to go back if I forgot anything. Typing these into Evernote makes them searchable and accessible anywhere.
I usually archive my notebooks once a week or so, digging up any action item or ideas that I might have overlooked. My ever-growing stack of Moleskine notebooks is nostalgic for sure, but I won’t lose anything if my place burns down.
Read my Evernoted notes on The Now Habit here.
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I use it for a bunch of other things too. Web clips, memorable quotes, brainstorming ideas, collaboration, usernames and passwords, et cetera.
Evernote is a tool that, when used right, can supercharge your productivity. It can be the framework for all your information, and you won’t have to worry about forgetting anything again. No one is paying me to say this: Evernote is the Moleskine of software, and it’s almost as good as cheesecake. You should use it, and you should tell all your friends to do the same. It makes the world a bit better.
Do you have any more tips for Evernote? Please leave a comment!
Great article (I followed the Evernote twitter to this). I’ve also recently fully invested in Evernote, once you make the commitment it’s awesome!
I find keeping separate notebooks for major categories (like a book I’m writing, or the new office we’re building) is great for storing ideas, colors, receipts, etc.
by Amber
on 17. Feb, 2009
I’m super happy with Evernote myself. All my personal stuff goes in and is sync’d and I store a ton of work info in a non-sync’d folder. In fact, I have all my email forwarded to my Evernote account just to have everything centralized. I’m just now playing with the encryption feature for password storage.
Great blog!
by El Ponderado
on 17. Feb, 2009
I tried taking photos of business cards with my iPhone 3G while at a conference last week in Orlando. Complete FAIL. Same thing with several PowerPoint slides. I was hoping for Evernote to make all of the images text-searchable, but they were all too blurry to read. I couldn’t take photos of laptop displays, either. I could read the monitor, but photos of the displays came out as a single white block. So, I’m pretty unhappy with the iPhone camera, but I’d like to still try to make Evernote useful.
by Michael
on 17. Feb, 2009
@Amber, @Ponderado: Thanks for the comments! I’ve found that the more in Evernote, the better. You don’t even have to work to archive it, just search – but I prefer keeping my mail in Gmail, as it’s far superior when it comes to finding information quickly.
@Michael: The Griffin Clarifi, which is linked to in the article, makes it a breeze. Unless it’s a business card from a designer, they tend to put everything in 4pt fonts. Anyway, I use my real camera (a DSLR, which is overkill, a compact would do fine) to put most papers into Evernote. The iPhone is just convenient on the run. A compact camera would be even better and probably worth the space it takes up.
by Chris
on 17. Feb, 2009
ths is the first time i send a reply to a blog and the reason is because i share your enthusiasm for evernote. one of your last lines “No one is paying me”…etc got me sold and subscribed to you.
apart from that, what you essentially said was also very good, new tips. i’ve seen some evernote tips and it’s always fun to read through them, but most of them kind of repeat. yours had a few new tips for me so, thank you!
cheers
by Ragnar
on 17. Feb, 2009
@Ragnar: Thank you the comment, and for subscribing. Much appreciated
by Chris
on 17. Feb, 2009
Good article. I am an evernote fanatic now. I am a premium subscriber. The best way i find to describe evernote is “My Brain, with a search bar”
I keep everything on my evernote. Since i have an HTC Touch Pro, and a Lenovo Tablet PC, I can create and viewing my ideas/notes anywhere and everywhere.
by Cassetti
on 17. Feb, 2009
This post inspired me to takes photo’s of the cards in my wallet. As a backup, but I can also leave some cards at home. Less clutter == more effective. Yes!
by Thimo Jansen
on 17. Feb, 2009
Hello,
i use Evernote for my overall tasks management – my general system is based on David Allen´s “Getting Things Done GTD”.
In addition is use it as my project book (based on Barbara Sher´s Scanner approach )
cheers
by martin
on 17. Feb, 2009
Thanks for the comments and further tips. @Thimo, happy to inspire!
by Chris
on 18. Feb, 2009
I use Evernote primarily for webclips. I love the Firefox add-on for that purpose. Beyond that, I have never felt like I can really adapt to using it the way you and most other Evernoters do. I don’t get a lot of business cards in my daily work. And I don’t write very much down on paper, or so I thought. I just looked down and saw a cluster of post-it notes I’ve been scribbling on and referring to for the last 8 months or so… maybe I should rethink how I use Evernote.
by Stephen
on 19. Feb, 2009
[...] leave a comment » A writer blogging about workflow. It’s all about ideas. [From 7 Use Cases for Highly Effective Evernote Users — Clever With Words] [...]
by what people blog about « Weblogs and Wikis Daybook
on 19. Feb, 2009
I’m having fun with the combination of Evernote and my Fujitsu Scansnap s300. My camera phone hasn’t been too useful with Evernote–blurry photos–so Scansnap is doing the trick for me.
Brooks Duncan explains how to set up one-touch scanning from Scansnap to Evernote here: http://www.documentsnap.com/scansnap-evernote-chocolate-peanut-butter/
by Roy Jacobsen
on 19. Feb, 2009
[...] Lately I’ve been rethinking my data collection system. I think a better solution for me involves more effective use of Evernote. The Clever with Words blog has some great Evernote tips. [...]
by Evernote Tips at MacSparky
on 21. Feb, 2009
I really want to like Evernote but there are two things about it that stop me flat in my tracks from using it. It is by far the best at what it does, and the multi-platform sync capabilities (between Mac, iPhone and Windows) is really the icing on the cake! But without the ability to encrypt my personal and business data en masse as it is stored in the Evernote cloud (as opposed to the ability to encrypt individual bits of text within a memo) I cannot in all good conscience entrust my data to them. With back-end encryption I could easily overlook the other (admittedly more functional) flaw: the lack of subfolders. Subfolders would allow for greater flexibility and organization as opposed to a nearly flat hierarchy of data.
All that being said, I will continue to follow the development of Evernote closely and as soon as they add that back-end encryption I’ll be right there to sign up and sing their praises!
by Jeff
on 21. Feb, 2009
OK, Chris… you’ve convinced me. I installed Evernote on my Mac but never used it. I’ll install it on my iPhone. I promise to give it a try. Also, I’ll subscribe to your blog to help you reach your goal. Keep the good words coming.
DaveP
Massachusetts
by DaveP
on 22. Feb, 2009
I am just getting used to Evernote, and I can see myself truly buying into it. I am curious how you have various notebooks set up and what your general org structure is for it. I think once I have a good structure set up, I might have more comfort with applying Evernote to my daily life.
Thanks for a great site, and I just added you to my RSS feeder based on this post!
by Danny
on 22. Feb, 2009
@Jeff: I agree about the encryption. It should be possible on a notebook level. But I think Evernote is going to implement something like it, at least for premium users, in the near future.
@DaveP: Thanks for subscribing! I’ll try my best to make it worthwhile.
@Danny: Same to you. And when it comes to my organisation of Evernote: It almost deserves an article in itself. But it doesn’t have to be advanced. I’ve grown my notebooks organically, as I see fit over time. Just remember: It’s not about archiving. Don’t waste time filing notes when you can search. Try to keep away from abbreviating words and keeping in mind some keywords to mention in your note so it’s easier to find later. That way the search function will give you what you need.
I don’t use tags, by the way. Never saw the need – yet. Use them if it works for you though.
by Chris
on 22. Feb, 2009
Regarding pics being too blurry taken with the iPhone…if you use Griffin’s Clarify, that’s great. Here’s another tip for folks with the first gen iPhone or who just like the case they have for their 3G iPhone. If you have a Target pharmacy nearby, they give out a little 2″ x 2″ square magnifier to help you read labels on prescription bottles. It’s called ClearRx. My cousin works for an eye doc and checked the magnification on it…it’s a whopping 9.25x (most reading glasses, for example, are in the 1.5-2.5 range). Anyway, you just hold the magnifier in front of the lens and snap the photo. It makes bar codes readable so you can transmit them to sites like Snappr, etc. I’ve scanned membership cards that way so I don’t even have to carry those anymore…they just scan them off my iPhone at the store.
Hope that helps some of you. It works really well. Evernote rocks!
by macpug
on 26. Feb, 2009
I use Evernote with Pelotonics. When doing this, tags make a ton of sense. I take voice notes when out and about and then assign them as tasks or creates messages within Pelotonics from those notes. I tag every remote note I take as either “Task” or “Message” so that I can easily isolate those notes when I am viewing them in Pelotonics.
Cool stuff!
by Troy Malone
on 26. Feb, 2009
I always thought the simpler the tool, the more effective.
I use it to capture and mark up saved LinkedIn profiles.
Quite nifty. Keep up the good work.
by Daren
on 26. Feb, 2009
@Troy, @Daren, thanks for the tips! I haven’t used Pelotonics before, but I’ll be sure to check it out.
by Chris
on 26. Feb, 2009
I am using EN since October 2005 and mainly for webclips. All my favourite topics can be found there, eg. software tips, marketing information, seo, recipes, and research on the book projects I’m working on. Also I tried to use it as a journaling tool, which works quite well but because of the security issues (mentioned above, no notebook encryption) I now found another tool to do so. I even copy Shakespeare’s sonnets into it, which I receive daily from http://www.dailylit.com . I never came round to use it for my planning, though, being a paper aficionado in that area.
by Birgit
on 12. Mar, 2009
I know this is a somewhat old article, but it showed up in a Google search I did just now.
Anyway, EverNote *does* allow subcategories, at least in the Windows-based 2.2.1 version I use. I never take the time to tag; the category I place it in is what counts. In Options, make sure you enable “Assign selected categories to new notes” so your new notes will go into the current category, instead of Uncategorized.
I have hierarchies like:
Work -> (client name) -> (client’s customer’s name) -> (notes)
Personal -> Entertainment -> Movies -> (notes about movies I should see)
Technical -> PHP -> (code snippets)
Technical -> PHP -> Libraries -> (notes)
To create a sub category, just right-click on the name of the category in the tree view, and choose “New category in (category)”.
I really disliked the 3.x web-based version when I tried it and it did not fit me at all.
by Jim
on 15. Jun, 2009
[...] gerade dabei sind. Christoffer Torris Olsen erklärt, was man alles mit Evernote anfangen können: 7 Use Cases for Highly Effective Evernote Users. Zum [...]
by ToolBlog » 7 Dinge, die Sie mit Evernote tun können
on 29. Jun, 2009