Blogging can take a long time. The writing process doesn’t always come quickly. When that happens, WordPress has a tendency to time out before I’m finished. Evernote is the solution. It also makes it fun. Even while working away all day on the computer, inspiration can come at any moment. That’s where Evernote comes in handy. Of course, Evernote is open all day, so when inspiration hits, it’s easy to jump over, start a new note and write type it up. Just Command (Alt) + Tab over to Evernote, type it up, then Command+Tab back to what you were doing. At other times, it may not be a new thought that is the inspiration, but an additional piece to a previously written note. Again, a quite two-click and you’re back in Evernote, adding to some previously entered brilliance. As you find elements that are relevant to a post, just put them in the article or as a note in that notebook.
For Example
My notebook is called Blog Posts. Within that, each post is a note. That can also be graphics, like screenshots, images, videos or a list of resource links. Whenever I have an idea for a blog post, I hop over to EN, write out the title along with whatever related content that is in my head. Then I just go back to what I was doing; like a digital notepad. I like to make a Note for each post title. That way, later, when I’m looking for a blog post topic, I scan the Notes list and see all the topics and decide which one I’d like to write more on.
Also as I’m working, I save screenshots (or graphics) for a specific post; there are a couple ways to tie it to the post. I can tag it, or I can copy and paste the image from its note to my article. Whatever works best at that particular moment.
Evernote is Not a Word Processor
Something you should be VERY aware of here. I would not recommend Evernote for writing long, long documents, like a book or report, or anything that would require specific formatting. One of the biggest shortcomings, and greatest complaints about EN, is its word processing and styles. It has very limited functions, and sometimes adds spacing in such a way that I swear is a bug. And you can’t easily remedy it. It also isn’t necessarily easy to find another place further down the document, like cutting and pasting whole sections. I suppose you could keep Resources for a book in a Note or Notebook, or just typing things up quickly. But I would copy it out of EN when it came time for formatting, page numbering, and foot/endnoting.
Feedback Loop
So give EN a try for your blogging. It may not be right for your final draft, but for simple writing of your post, doing research, or collecting data, it can’t be beat. Do you use Evernote for blogging? How do you use it differently than I do?