I used to have a near-photographic memory, and it’s one of the main things I miss from my younger days. I rarely had to write down anything and spelling bees were a snap. Then, around my early twenties, I started to forget. Little things here and there evaporated quietly and mysteriously, and I started to delve into all sorts of organizational and productivity systems. I tried the Franklin, the David Allen method, you name it. Nothing really stuck. Eventually, I settled on the age-old and simple written to-do list.
Nowadays, I’m pretty much a doddering amnesiac and can’t remember anything to save my life. Plus I keep losing my paper to-do lists. It seems that lately, my days fill up with more and more appointments and meetings and a plethora of to-dos that I’m constantly tracking. On the one hand, I work hard at being conscious of keeping busyness for busyness’ sake at bay, but on the other hand, there are non-negotiable events and actions that I just can’t offload. In other words, I need a lot of help in the productivity and organization department.
Enter Evernote. It’s mind-blowingly awesome, and I’m barely utilizing its infinite capabilities. Much like the assertion that humans purportedly only use about 3% of their brain, I’m probably only using about 0.5% of Evernote’s functionalities. I had been using ToDoist and to a lesser degree TeuxDeux for the past year, but when I heard that Uppercase Magazine basically produces their entire publication using Evernote, well, I had to find out what that was all about.
The best part is that it’s free! I’ve only been using it for about two months, and it’s definitely increased my productivity level. I’m not going to go into the nitty gritty of its features since there are about a million tutorials/books/youtube videos out there, and I’m barely scratching the proverbial epidermis as far as the app goes, but I thought I would post a snapshot of how I currenly use Evernote. I’m curious to see how my usage will evolve over the months. I’d also love to hear how other folks are using it or what other go-to productivity tools are out there.
The basic structure of Evernote is based on “notebooks”. I have about twenty notebooks for various needs, but through trial and error, I learned that I only use about five regularly, which I place in a “Shortcuts” section to the left, where it’s black.
In the screenshot, I have my “to do” notebook selected, and the middle panel shows all the content in the notebook. So the middle section corresponds to pages in your notebook.
The far right panel shows the content of each page, and in this case, you can see my to do list for Tuesday, 5/20/14. This was my actual list from yesterday. On days when I don’t complete something, I move the unfinished item to a future date, usually the next day. I found that I enjoy doing this manually rather than the automatic function of other to-do list apps like ToDoist. Every Sunday, I plan for the week ahead and combined with my calendar on my ipad, it’s become an indispensable tool.
My “to do” notebook is the one that has revolutionized my life, but I also have notebooks for planning blog posts, ideas for my book, weekly dinner menus and illustration projects. I have a “big picture” notebook for farfetched notions and big goals.
It has handy features that allow you to record audio reminders (e.g. I could record myself saying “don’t forget laundry detergent” in my to-do notebook), take screenshots from websites/blogs, add images, etc. And everything is searchable, which is very cool but for me, it’s the checkboxes that got me hooked.
I just utterly love this app (I’m not affiliated in any way, by the way). It feels seamless with the way my mind works, and it’s pure genius that I can keep everything in one place. The one beef I have is that the syncing doesn’t work all the time for my various devices, but it makes a valiant effort.
I want to learn more to become a better user, but for now, I’m already making major strides in the productivity department. What about you? Do you use Evernote or something like it? What do you think of it?
I’ve heard so many good things about Evernote. I’m glad you posted a review here. I would like to start utilizing it as, like you, things mysteriously disappear from my tiny mommy-atrophied brain at an alarming rate.
I’ve had the app on my phone for quit some time (similar to many fitness apps) and never used it. You’ve given me some inspiration to start trying to get a little more organized, so thank you!
It’s a wonderful app and I ignored it for a long time before I realized how useful it is, Alana! Now I check it all the time!
I love evernote! I use it for my studying, recipes and much more but a fab feature allows you to use your phone to take pictures and store the images. I use this feature to catalogue all of my sewing patterns and add notes and photos when I use the pattern. You can also send links via email which has proved to be really useful for me.
What a great idea with sewing patterns, Julia, I love it! I have to give that a try!! Thanks for the ideas and tips 🙂
Evernote is awesome! However I do love Trello as well, so now I can’t decide one over the other… I like the blog zenhabits.net, loads of posts on simplifying and productivity.
I haven’t heard of Trello and now I’m curious to try it. I’ve peeked at Zenhabits before, but I hadn’t seen the productivity tips so I’ll definitely check those out. Thanks, Nienke!
Goodness- I had no idea that such things existed! Here I am with my yellow legal pad holding my various to-do lists. My husband did finally convince me to give up my paper calendar for a shared calendar feature on our phones, so I guess that’s progress!
I’ve tried a number of to-do list apps, and so far, this one has been the best fit for me – I still like to write my lists on paper too, but I now love that I have a centralized place for my never-ending errands. Worth a try, I think, Elizabeth!
I tried Evernote years ago… was not impressed by its performance then. (I think I just had network issues, but there was slowness and lack of sync.) I use “Out of Milk” – very simple functionality (checklists) and the google calendar. I might give Evernote a second look, it has been a while.
There’s still a little bit of hiccups with the syncing, but all in all, it’s been a great app for me, June! I downloaded Out of Milk and I like its simplicity. I can see it being great for grocery lists! What I love about Evernote is that I often collect images, research websites/blogs and it’s really easy to compile the information and then later search for the mish mash of things I amass. It’s also been handy for creating drafts for blog posts, keeping contact information, etc. etc. I love it, as you can tell 🙂
I’m pretty non-techy, for better or for worse, but my husband is a HUGE fan of Evernote. Perhaps to the point of not being able to work without it. Happy you found something that is working for you so well!
Evernote rocks! I love hearing about other people using it too. I bet he actually knows how to use it a lot better than I do though 🙂
just signed up. i keep buying planners and end up never using them. i use my calendar on my iPhone/imac which is helpful but really need a place to put to do lists, etc. hoping i can stick with it as it seems pretty nifty so far! thanks for sharing 🙂
Oh, me too, Vanessa! I love paper planners and have a weakness for pretty ones, but they rarely work for me. It took me a while to get the hang of Evernote (because I’m a dunce with stuff like that) but after a few youtube videos, I was good to go and now I check it daily and thrive on seeing what I accomplished each day (okay, so some days I’m disappointed by how much I didn’t get done, but the more I use it, the more productive I feel).