Evernote: Your Brain Will Thank You
Imagine, if you will, your very own Google. A place where all of your personal documents, notes, grocery lists, ingenious ideas, bookmarked websites and photos can live. A central hub that houses all of the information you'd like to save and come back to whenever you please. A search engine / filing cabinet / photo album / cookbook / note-taking / work-collaborating / cool-stuff-saving powerhouse.
Well friends, it's real, it's awesome, and it can all be yours: Evernote.
"Evernote is a way to capture all your experiences and access them from anywhere. Type a note, store documents, record audio, capture a photograph or any other moment you want to remember. Evernote saves and synchronizes your digital life across all your devices." —Evernote.com
I like to think of Evernote as a backup for your brain and their tagline pretty much says it all: "Remember everything." Record text, photo, or audio notes on any device, then have them available anywhere, anytime. Imagine never forgetting that great idea you had while relaxing on the beach. Keep a shared grocery list with your significant other. Clip ideas from the web for your latest project. Store all your old Microsoft Word documents and be able to search through them easily to find what you need.
Evernote has allowed me to become paperless and, if we're being honest, way less forgetful. The scenario of leaving an important piece of mail or notebook at home or at the office doesn't exist for me anymore — it's all in Evernote. When I need to keep receipts for a business trip, I snap a photo of the receipt, then throw it away. When I have to share some ideas with my team at work, it goes into our shared notebook in Evernote.
Here's how it works: You create "notebooks" that you then fill with "notes." Each notebook allows you to fill it with text, photos, audio notes, clippings from the web and more. Like notebooks on a shelf, you can organize your notebooks by category. Taking a trip? Curating ideas for work? Planning a wedding? Create a new notebook for each event or project in your life.
But don't worry, you don't have to stay too organized. Evernote's best feature is the search functionality. It allows you to search through text, documents you've uploaded, and photos. Photos are then scanned for text and when you search for a word in Evernote, any photo that has that word somewhere in it will show up. It's very powerful. You'll find yourself taking pictures of everything and searching for it later.
Simply stated, I could not imagine my life without Evernote at this point. Evernote gets me. Having an index of my personal and business life with the ability to search for information anytime, anywhere is amazing.
Oh and one last thing — Evernote is free.
I'd love to know how Evernote changes your life! Get in touch with comments or questions @jayeagleson or [email protected].
Jay Eagleson is the founder of the creative and marketing company, Eighty6. www.theEighty6.com
5 Real World Evernote Uses:
Vacation - Planning a trip? Create a new notebook and send all your information for your trip to one place. Flight, hotel, car rental, and itinerary will all be stored together and accessible throughout your trip.
Workouts - Keep track of your workouts and bring in new exercise ideas that you see online by clipping them from the web to your workout notebook.
Instruction Manuals & Warranties - Photos & PDFs are all readable and searchable within Evernote. You’ll never wonder where that manual or warranty info for your new flat screen is ever again.
Direct Mail - Ever get something in the mail and it sits on your desk for a month? Snap a photo into Evernote and find it when you need it.
Receipts - Do you have a drawer full of receipts at home or at your office? Stop making a mess and just snap a photo of each receipt you have into Evernote. You can find them anytime with a quick search.
5 Evernote Features:
Shared Notebooks - Shared notebooks are a great way to share information with a team of people, your friends or your significant other. Everyone contributes, and all the information lives in one place for reference.
Notes - Forget all the other note taking apps on your phone. By using Evernote to log notes, you’ll have an easy time finding them later.
Photos of Text - Take a photo with Evernote of anything with text. Evernote will read the text, even if it’s handwritten and allow you to search for it later. It makes bills, tickets, sticky notes and more all searchable for you to find later.
Emails - Forward emails to your personalized Evernote email address. Those emails will live in Evernote for your future use.
Webpage Clipper - Save great things you see on the web to your Evernote account right from your web browser.