As someone who was once an Evernote Certified Consultant, I’m always excited to tell people how Evernote can help them get organized, so in this post, I want to give all you newbies out there a few good reasons why you might want to give this note-taking option a try! This is just a quick introduction because the app can do so much, but it’ll give you the overview you need in order to see if it’s for you! Let’s get started!
What’s Evernote?
Evernote is one of the world’s most popular productivity and note-taking apps. It can help you manage personal and work projects alike by letting you capturing ideas and inspiration through notes, voice memos, files, and pictures. It digitizes your thoughts, archives them, and syncs them across all of your devices so that you always have them easily accessible. If you are looking for an app that keeps all of your notes, photos, files, and voice memos organized, this might just be the app for you.
Before I became an Evernote Certified Consultant, I had been a user for a few years and thought I knew everything the app could do. Boy, was I wrong! As I went through the Certification process (which was very in-depth and rigorous), I realized just was a powerhouse of a service it is.
Here are just a few of the tasks you can perform with Evernote:
- Create notes to store in your notebook
- Attach photos to your notes
- Attach voice memos to your notes
- Create lists
- Attach files, spreadsheets, and documents
- Share notes with family, friends, or coworkers
- Scan text from a photo
- Set reminders
- Create reusable templates
- Sync between all of your devices
- Clip, capture, and save web pages to your notes
- Add photos from cloud storage
- Search documents
- Connect with Zapier for countless API possibilities
- and much more!
Who is Evernote for?
Evernote is great for users who are used to text-heavy systems. or those who love folders rather than relational databases and tagging. It’s perfect for anyone who loves browsing over searching, and who appreciate traditional filing systems. If that sounds like you, I’d recommend you give it a try to see how you like it.
If you lean the other way, Notion is a better option.
How Can Evernote Help Me?
Let’s say you have an important meeting that you want do document in some way, so you can review your notes later. First, you can use Evernote to record all of your written notes. Keep the app (or browser, depending on device) open and type away. Evernote autosaves everything for you.
Second, you can record the meeting with a voice memo, so if there’s a lot of discussion and you don’t want to miss any of the ideas someone might have mentioned, use the dictation tool and save it to your notebook.
Third, if someone has a spreadsheet or photos in the meeting you can take a photo of these and upload them to your notebook as well. Bam, everything recorded and documented without much effort.
So what does this really mean for you?
Well, it means that everything you could possibly need can be kept in one location. That’s what we call a Digital Hub, and it’s the first step towards getting organized. Having a hub makes it simple to refer back because you won’t have to go searching all over for random pieces of paper and a photo or a spreadsheet that you didn’t have in your possession to begin with.
That’s what digital organizing is all about – you not having to scramble to find answers or remember everything by heart. You’ll automatically know where things are because there’s only one option. And imagine, if, after the meeting, your coworker asks if you can send along any notes you took, you not only have them already organized, but you can share them directly from Evernote.
I’m a Perfect Pinnable!
Project Management Made Easy
Many different types of people use Evernote to organize their projects, but I especially enjoy helping family historians use it for theirs. Anyone who has access to a smartphone, tablet, or computer can use Evernote, so it’s a very accessible and user-friendly place to start.
For family history, Evernote is great for writing your memoir, for taking notes while on a research trip, and for recording voice memos about old photographs. It can also be great for creating profiles of the people you’re researching. Those are just a few scenarios, and I’m sure you can think of more. For any type of project you start, you want to have some place to take notes and document so that you can stay on track, stay organized, keep focused and stay updated as needed.
How To Get Started with Evernote
Evernote is very user-friendly, making it easy for anyone to learn. Here’s how to get started:
- Sign-up for an Evernote account with your email and password
- Create a note by clicking on the “New Note” button
- Add a title
- Start typing your notes (you can change text, size, styles, etc.)
- Add an audio recording or photo, by clicking on the button that looks like a paperclip up at the top of the page
- Add other files by dragging them over from your desktop.
Need more help? Here’s Evernote’s official help as well as an unofficial guide to help you get started!
The Cost
Evernote has a few different plans, and you can compare the features on their site, but we always recommend starting with their free version, and then upgrading to their premium plan if you like it. It’s only a few dollars a month for one person to have access to a lot of great features, so if you become a daily user, it’s definitely worth the splurge.
They also have a business version, which is great for teams, but not for the novice. That type of account comes with a business dashboard for admins, unlimited workspaces, and generous upload limits.
Devices Compatible With Evernote
Evernote is cloud-based and cross-platform, but if you’re not sure exactly what that means, here’s a list of devices you can use Evernote with (as of the date on this post):
- Microsoft Windows
- MacOS
- Android
- IOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch)
- Windows Mobile
- Windows Phone
- WebOS
- Maemo
- BlackBerry (including BlackBerry Playbook)
- Google Wave
- Symbian S60 (Beta/5th Edition)
Keep in mind that even if your device isn’t listed, you can still access Evernote through a browser, such as Firefox or Chrome.
Ready to Take Better Notes?
We hope this short post helped you get an overview of why Evernote is so handy!
If you need help understanding more regarding digital hubs or what type of system to implement, my course Systems 2 Scale might be for you!
If you’re already an Evernote fan, we’d love to know – What do you use it for, and what is your favorite feature?
