Three Steps to Getting Started with Evernote

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.

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.

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.