originally posted on www.stopthinksocial.com on November 2nd 2010

Being involved in more and more projects both in my professional and personal life, I’m always looking for new ways that I can be better organised and more productive.

A few years ago I discovered a tool called Evernote, which is a piece of software designed for note-taking and archiving of content that you come across when you are on the Internet.

Over time my use of Evernote has evolved from being a basic bookmarking tool, where I can store and reference interesting content I’ve found on the Internet, to being a tool that helps me manage my day to day activities across multiple platforms (e.g. multiple Windows PCs, an iPad, an Android Phone, and an iPod Touch).

Before reading on, please take a few minutes to watch this video which gives an excellent overview of the capabilities of Evernote.

5 WAYS TO ORGANISE YOUR LIFE USING
EVERNOTE

Here are some examples of how I use Evernote in practical situations today:

1. Shopping - making comparisons
   Last week my wife and I were shopping for a wooden floor for one of the rooms in the house.  In the past, similar shopping excursions involved going to a few different shops, taking down notes on several pieces of paper and then sitting down later in the week trying to decide which option to go with.  By the time we sat down together we both had forgotten what the product looked like.
   
   This time however Evernote came to the rescue.  Using the Evernote App on my Android Phone, I was able to take a picture of the floors that we liked in each shop and create a note with all the relevant information (e.g. shop name, price, estimated time till the floor was in stock etc….). Later in the week, when we sat down to make our choice, we opened Evernote on our home PC and had all the information we needed, including a photo of all the floors.
   
   
2. Projects - storing reading material
   As I mentioned in my opening gambit, I have many different projects happening at the same time in both my professional and personal life.  Each morning, before everyone else in the house awakens, I spend some time on Google Reader, Twitter and Facebook, to see if I can find any interesting information.  My goal is to skim content that I don’t really have the time to sit down and read in detail.
   
   Here Evernote is really helpful.  In my Evernote account I have a separate notebook for each project that I’m working on and if I come across something that is relevant for a particular project I’ll clip it to the project notebook.  Later, when I’m actually doing work on a particular project, I can open the relevant Evernote notebook and have the reading material I collected to hand.
   
   
3. Mobile Dictaphone - remembering that good idea
   There’s nothing more annoying than having a good idea and not having a pen and paper to hand to write it down.  This often happens to me when I’m out walking.  In the past, unless I remember the idea by the time I get back to my desk, it’s gone.
   
   However with Evernote on my Android Phone, this is a thing of the past.  When I’m out and about I always have my phone with me and now when I get an idea I simply open the Evernote App and create a voice note.  This note can then be added to one of my project notebooks which can be used later when the time comes for me to focus on that particular project.
   
   
4. Content Backup - storing important content
   Evernote has a free service as well as a Premium paid for service.  In the free service I can upload up to 40MB a month though is limited to a certain number of file types.  However if I go Premium and pay £3 a month (or £28 a year), I can upload 500MB a month with no restrictions on the file types.  With this excellent service, even on the free service, I can use Evernote as a backup service for all my important files.  In addition it allows me to access these files from all the different equipment that has Evernote software - laptop, phone, iPad etc.
   
   
5. Organise paperwork - taking snapshots of store receipts, invoices and bills
   One of my aims is to have an office that is as paperless as possible.  These days quite a few companies give you the option to receive online copies of your bills, invoices and receipts. Unfortunately not all do.
   
   One practical use of Evernote is that it’s a great place to store and organise all my paperwork.  I can get these items into the Evernote repository, either by taking a photo with my phone camera and using the Evernote App, or by using my desktop scanner and Evernote on my PC.  Evernote is a great place to store these as they can be easily searched for and retrieved if needed in the future.

However, there is one minor criticism that I do have of Evernote, which centres on using the tool for collaborating with others.  As a user of the free service you can share your notebooks publicly, for anyone to view and edit.  However if you want to share it with an individual or small number of individuals then you need to pay up for the Evernote Premium account.  This is just a minor criticism as £28 a year is not a lot and I guess Evernote are entitled to bringing in some cash from their users for an excellent service.

So, what do you think about the ways in which I use Evernote?  Do you do use it in a similar way?  What other ways do you use Evernote?  I’d be interested in hearing your feedback via the comments.