I <3 Evernote. There, I said it. Like all great loves I wasn’t quite sure at first – but I quickly found feature after feature after feature that won me over. For those that don’t know what Evernote is, it’s a way to “remember everything”, or “Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer, phone or device you use. For free.” That sounds kind of daunting, but I’ve broken it down into 5 reasons why every artist should <3 Evernote in hopes of simplifying the usefulness.
- Simplify creative process This blog post was written with assistance from Evernote, as I had the spark of an idea in the midst of doing other things. What did I do? I went over to my “Blog Posts” notebook and jotted down a note – saying:
I saved it for later reference and left it alone until I had time to sit down and actually write the blog post. As you can see, I tend to not worry about spell-check in my Evernote notes as (usually), they’re for my reference only. It’s a huge help when I’m struck by inspiration as I’m walking down the street or on a conference call, and it allows me to come back to the idea when I have time – without forgetting the idea itself. - Collaboration – they got that! Amber Naslund recently wrote about using Evernote over on Brass Tack Thinking and did a wonderful job of spelling out exactly how Evernote can help you get organized. If Amber and I wanted to collaborate, using Evernote to do so would be as simple as going into the notebook settings and putting in her email address. It’s a 3-click process.
- Removing the chains I travel a decent amount for my job and often find myself writing blog posts or answering emails from my phone, computer, or iPad. Some combination of these devices are with me at all times, and I’ve been known to work from places like bars, restaurants, coffee shops, airport gates, parks, co-working spaces, planes, trains, automobiles… you get the picture. Evernote syncs with every single one of my devices and allows me to keep my notes, all my notes, on me at all times. That’s critical to my life as I’m so rarely in one place for an extended period of time – not unlike a touring musician.
- Connecting the dots I sometimes think of Evernote as a digital supply of post-its. I can jot down an idea, put it into the appropriate notebook (food, blog posts to read, blog posts to write, work stuff, etc) and leave it sitting there for however long I want. Sometimes I’ll shuffle through the notes and see patterns – combining this note with that one over there to form a more complete thought, or help flesh out a topic. I used to use post-its for this exact use, but now that I’ve made the transition to Evernote it’s even easier to see the logic behind my thoughts and rearrange as necessary.
- Media neutrality It took me a bit to get used to the fact that I could clip a website and save it to Evernote instead of bookmarking it, but once I did I didn’t look back. I’ve saved blog posts, recipes, images I like, audio clips, video clips using my built-in laptop camera – you name it. Evernote is extremely flexible and integrates with scanners, printers, Twitter services, to-do lists – really, the list is extensive. If you wonder if you can save it to Evernote the answer is generally yes, and they don’t seem to care if it’s a song, a photo, or some written words that you want to remember.
I’m curious if anyone else is as into Evernote as I am. Do you use it? What has your experience been like?