How many times have you looked around and realized you had notes written on every type of surface. Sticky notes, pads of paper, on the back of an envelope, on something you shouldn't have... The day I discovered Evernote is the day that really changed the game for me and my family. It is a program that truly understands the mobile person/family and keeping them organized. So let me share 5 ways that Evernote can change your personal, family or business dynamic too.
How many times have you been at the store and thought, how much of XYZ do we have and you pick one up just in case to get home and see you have three. Okay well, what about when your spouse is going by the grocery store and he/she calls you at work and says, honey do we have XYZ at home? You are thinking, I have no idea?!?!? Well, my husband and I now use Evernote to keep track of both our grocery and stockpile list. It is great!
At any time we are at the store we can pull it up on our mobile device and add it. It is also great for those moments when you are out and remember you need this or that...you can just open it and add it right there. This has changed the game!
So I am a big proponent of the home management binder, but the one problem I always had was trying to keep the info updated in the binder...and everyone having the info handy when it was needed. Well, low and behold Evernote resolved that issue for us. We now have it electronic in this system.
I have a "note" that lists all of our information from light bulb brands/sizes to the air conditioner man's number and rates. Again, it is all there and can be shared with the necessary people. Just yesterday my husband called to ask me the sizes of our filters. Unfortunately, it wasn't in Evernote, but it is now!
A feature of Evernote I love is the Outlook email capture feature. Now, I'm not sure if this is a feature in all email systems or even email on your mobile device, but I have this plugin on my work computer.
So, as I work, if I get an email with an action item attached to it I can either just add it to an Action - To Call list I have set up or I can capture that email, removing the info I don't need from it and just save the action that way. This has allowed me to reduce my email box size as well as millions of trees.
Now yes, you could do this in your mail system, but if you choose to do that make sure your notes/tasks are available offline when you aren't on your computer. As you guys know I like to batch my work, so knowing I'm working on a project to knock out XYZ and can just tunnel vision into that makes me very happy and Evernote allows me to do just that.
This is another great feature that allows you to take pieces of a webpage and save it as well. This is helpful for those projects you work on where you need the website visual so you know what to do or to reference for a short period and then you can get rid of it. You really don't want to save it in your favorites but you don't want to lose it either.
I maintain a number of lists with this system as well. Book reading order list, list of vendors I like to use for my business, list of items I need to research, Sizes of my In-Laws, etc. The other great thing is that you can set reminders for your "notes" too. There is a checklist bullet that allows you to check things off as you complete them as well.
As you can see, the ability to create notes and lists on the fly and sync them through all of your devices is something that has changed our world. Something I didn't even mention is the fact that you can tag your notes for easy retrieval, but it also has a great generic search and the fact that you can share your notes with others or just print them. I encourage you to give it a try, it is free so what will you lose.
Make sure to share what you think about it and if you have used it for other purposes I'd love to hear that too. Until next time, happy organizing!
I hope you found some useful information in this post. If you did, please consider letting me know.
Reflect to Perfect: The Power of Retrospectives in Project Success
Project Management 101: Tips for Beginners & Professional Growth
Comments Click here to add your comment/question