I am absolutely in love with Evernote! And you will be, too, after you start using it. But it can be a little daunting to start. So here is where you begin.
Create an account on Evernote.com
If you just want to try it out for a while, just do the free version. As you feel fall deeper in love, you can upgrade to the monthly or annual plan.
Next, if you plan to use it on your desktop (which I highly recommend), install it. Also install it on your phone and tablet. I believe you automatically have a web sign-in version.
Now you’re ready to start using it.
First 3 Steps to Getting Started with Evernote
1.) Make a New Notebook. Call it something pretty generic, like your name. Mine is “Auto-Import”. Almost everything I put in EN starts out there. Make this your Default Notebook. As you email, scan or clip things to EN, it will automatically go in there and you can decide on a specific notebook later.
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1B.) Make some more Notebooks based on broad categories of your life, like Business, Hobbies, Recipes, Workout, Mom’s Birthday Party. “Books to Read” or “Movies to See” are popular; make a Notebook for a project you might be doing, “Sales Presentation” or “Website”. Be sure to keep the “sync” checked.
2.) Remember, each individual piece of information is a Note. Get 5 items into EN.
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Keeping it simple, click New Note and type something up
–grocery list
–write a blog post article
–room measurements, paint colors
–snippets of info you always seem to have to look up (keyboard shortcuts?)
–make 1 note for each book you want to read, or movie you want to see
–if you want a bit more of a challenge, do some scanning. I suggest making an EVERNOTE folder on your computer and have your scanner automatically put things for EN in there. Then go back and send it to EN. (There’s a lot more to this, but I’ll cover that later. This is enough for now.)
–take-out menus
–magazine article you want to save (business or personal)
–receipts (paper ones scanned in)
–digital receipts (email to your EN account) (challenge + for emailing to EN)
3.) Now assign each of the notes to a notebook. You can do this by either dragging and dropping the note into the correct notebook, or you can select a notebook from the dropdown menu at the right of the note. I have some notes that just don’t seem to have a notebook that makes sense and it’s not worth making a notebook for what might be only one note, so I made a “Miscellaneous” notebook just to get things out of my auto-import notebook.
Feedback Loop
After you’re finished with this, be sure to come back and tell me how it went. I’m always looking for new ways that EN is cool.
Never heard of this, but will have to check it out – sounds interesting.
Dropping by from UBC.
Another great article, Vickie!
I’ve heard of Evernote, but haven’t ever tried it. I occasionally use Microsoft Office’s Onenote which is a similar tool. Are you familiar with it? If so, how do you think it compares to Evernote? (idea for a blog comparing the two???)
Thanks for the great info!
Alise
Alise, I have heard of Onenote but never used it. Yes, I believe it’s similar, but I don’t know about its functionality and ability to sync with all devices. Springpad is another similar app. That one I’ve seen a very good demo on and it does seem a bit more flexible. But I’m already so invested in EN, I’ll never change.
If you’ve used Onenote, I bet we could do a “Shoot-out” style post together. Just know up front, Evernote is better. (j/k)
Vickie
Thanks for the explanation. I have a friend who is wild about it but I hadn’t taken the time to use it yet. I appreciate.
The dark, dark background doesn’t show up the words: name/email/website for the comment. I highlighted so I could see which came first…
Thanks for letting me know, Sue. Sometimes I miss things like that because I’m always logged in and it shows up differently for me. I have my programer working on it (hubby), so it should be fixed shortly.
Give Evernote a try. You’ll love the flexibility of what you can save, how you can input it, and how you can access it at a later time.
Vickie