Evernote, Do I Need It?
Evernote is a note taking app that captures and prioritises your thoughts, so nothing falls through the gaps…. Thats an interesting statement from Evernote. They offer a free basic version so I’m going to sign myself up and give you a detailed review on how it works and whether it u work for you in your business.
EVERNOTE – Do I Need It?
Evernote says that it helps people focus on what matters the most to them. Its tough to try and wade through all the stuff in our heads at times, and harder still to focus on the most important. Evernote says it can clear this fog and give you the focus to be more productive, so lets see what they say they can do.
Dashboard
Evernote had a dashboard where you can access all your various notes, diary, news clips, meeting notes, projects and to-do lists. You won’t lose anything and with the evernote app saved in your bookmarks, easy to access. Nothing fancy about it, its a simple design but intuitive.
Evernote have a short tutorial at the start out, to show you where everything is located.
Diary
Evernote offers a weekly diary section that can be filled in with anything you have scheduled. You can add whatever note you want, giving each one a colour code. The diary template (one of many) offers many different parameters such as the colour, the size of each collumn.
Templates
Evernote offers dozens of templates to give a start off with almost any type of writing you might want to create. From the weekly diary to goal tracking to menu planning to plan building. Each new note you start, the templates are offered so you can easily find and choose the right one.
Notebook - To Do
A great To Do List, that you can schedule things you want to remember without specifically scheduling a day. I like these sort of lists as it means I can take the lists out of my head and reliably know I will be not forget them !
Add Attachments
You can add any attachment to your notes/meeting plans/ projects. In the top right corner drop down menu, you can choose attachment and this allows you to access your files on your computer and attach in the usual way. A great tool for those putting together meetings where other material is required.
Evernote Clipper
The evernote clipper is a useful tool that I will certainly use. It is an app that you add to your browser that allows you to take ‘clips’ of information you later want to refer to or read again. I find things all the time and end up with a dozen tabs open in my attempt to not lose key informatoin I want to keep. This allows you to take a page clip or a section clip and send it to your Evernote dashboard where they are listed and easily accessible.
Photo Diarise
Imagine you are in a store with an advertising up for a new product release that is riht up your street and want to remember it. Take a photo of it from Evernote. you can add a reminder of the date which will be added to your Evernote diary. You will also be able to search for any word you used in theat reminder to find it again.
Access From Anywhere - Device Sync
With the app on your phone or tablet, you are able to to access your Evernote app to add notes, clips, whatever you want. It will all appear on your dashboard when you next log onto your computer. This also allows you to work offline by accessing your Evernote details.
Evernote Reconises Your Handwriting
Evernote can find words in photos or documents that have been scanned and stored in Evernote, so no piece of information is lost to you. I have a habit of taking photos of things I want to remember to check out or to use, but then when I go to look for them, can’t find them. This will allow you to find those snippets of informatio quickly and easily.
Evernote And Google
Evernote and Google can talk to each other. Evernote gives you a secret email address so you can store things from gmail into Evernote and email things from Evernote to your contacts. This allows cross referencing and storing of all your important data onto Evernote.
PRICING AND WHAT YOU GET IN EACH PLAN
I think for most of us, the basic plan would work fine. These are the monthly prices, you can pay yearly if you want and this works out cheaper.
Conclusion
Evernote is a versatile time/schedule/workload management tool that offers three plans – basic, which is free, premium and business. They also offer a student plan that is 50% off the premium plan.
Evernote offers easy to use tools that can be used on computer, tablet and mobile so a straightforward access to all material across all platforms. The everclip facility is particulary interesting in that they can be accessed off line (in premium) so handy if you commute to work and those pesky tube tunnels drops signal. Also useful is the scanner it offers and PDF facility, so covering all bases for document versatility.
The price for Evernote is competitive with other similar tools on the internet. The use of this tool as part of an online business has distinct advantages if you are into using online material instead of hard copy diaries and notebooks. It keeps everything in one place and somewhere that isn’t going to lose the data or you forget where you put the info you are wanting to work on!
I like it and will be using the free version in particular the storage of articles and clips. I often have several tabs open with different things I want to go back to have a look at but worry that I’ll forget. This way I can clip it and know where it is for me to read later, Definitely worth a try anyway!
When I come across articles and tips online I usually capture the URL and save it in my notes software, either on my mobile or my laptop. When I just started doing this it was easy to recall what I wanted. Now I have so much stuff saved, I have begun to create folders on my laptop to keep me organized. It is still far from idea.
Evernote looks like it has the potential of helping me not only stay organized but also act like a personal secretary in forming me that may be more important to me when I am searching for stuff. The free version looks tempting to download.
Thanks for alerting us to this tool that could come in very handy.
Edwin
You are welcome Edwin, Evernote clipper will work perfectly for you!
I’m glad to see this discussion on evernote, as it’s a tool that has a huge cult following. I feel like there is something I’m not “getting” with regards to this note taking platform though. It’s possible that the free plan just isn’t robust enough to be valuable for the notes that I clip, and I’m not sure the paid programs are going to be worth the investment.
Thanks for sharing – I appreciate the analysis / conclusion about why I might want to reconsider this popular app / service.
I think for most people, they have to really ‘buy’ into the process of using a time management tool and this does take time to do. Often we feel that the time we take to learn how to use something like this is not well spent but I would say it is. I spend so much time filching through stuff to find a file or a note I know I have. Evernote helps with this, the biggest use i feel is the snippet to take a page or section of a page to evernote for me to read later. Saves having tons of tabs open for days whilst I get round to reading things.
Thank you for your post on Evernote! I have honestly never heard of them before, but I really enjoyed your personal knowledge on the app.
I admire that you not only took the time to research about the app, but that you signed up for an account and analyzed it for yourself. I know that I can trust your experience with the app. I definitely see how beneficial of a tool this can be to help keeps myself organized.
I look forward to the positive difference I will see in my life by using Evernote. Thank you so much posting about this and educating me! I really appreciate it!
I hope you write more posts like this one, I would love to read more.
Thankyou Elise, Evernote is a great tool, I really hope that you find it useful and you have great success with it!
I swear I am the Queen of writing down reminders, phone numbers, and all kinds of things on the backs of envelopes and other pieces of paper which inevitably get lost. From what I can see, the free version would do it for me. When you mention that it recognizes your handwriting, do you mean it has optical character recognition or that it just takes a picture of the page?
Evernote has OCR technology and find words in handwritten notes, photos of white boards, Post-It® notes, and to-do lists you scan in. A pretty cool feature !
I have been using Evenote for several years – the free version – and it has been a life saver for me to remember things. Like a string on my finger. One of the things I use it for is my grocery list and it has been really helpful for that. Whenever I think of something I need, I just grab my phone and jot it down. Then, I never lose my list when I go to the store. But, it seems like it does a ton of stuff that I didn’t realize, so I am not really using it fully. Your article really inspires me to dig in and find out how to use it more. I was interested in Evernote and Google talking to each other. How exactly do you go about getting this secret email address? Is it from Evernote or Google? Where on the app can I find that? Also, is that feature available for the free version? (I hope so – seems valuable!)
If you go into settings in your app and scroll to the bottom of your account details, you will find your email address there. The connection to gmail is an add on that you do in your g suite marketplace. As far as I can see it is not extra, This is the link if you want to give it a go – https://help.evernote.com/hc/e…
That’s cool how Evernote acts as an all-in-one planner for anyone at any time. I like how the basic plan offers to use up to two devices as well. You see many basic plans with just one. I think basic is a good place to begin but the prices for this app are very friendly. I see it’s listed in British pounds, so would the prices translate just as well into American dollars?
Yes of course, its $7.99 for premium and $14.99 for business per month.
Wow🤩 this is awesome! It’s my first time hearing about this app but it won’t be a bad idea to try out especially the fact that it has various cool templates which will enhance my productivity in my new job as a secretary in a press firm.
Thank you very much for sharing this review, I love it!
Glad I could be of help!
Hello,
Interesting concept. Have you tried the paid versions? I’m just curious to know between the two. Can you show a comparison analysis on its competition? I would love to see an apples to apples comparison. How does it recognize handwriting? This makes this interesting. Is this an app or a program? You state that you can download as an app on a smartphone. I assume the PC needs a download or is this all online? Thank for sharing and providing a unique program/app for myself and others. It’s good to have choices available.
I have signed up for the paid version as you get a free 30 days to trial it before you start to pay, If you follow this link you can see the comparison charts. https://www.canva.com/pricing/
Thanks for such an informative article. I would love to know if ever note clipper can access data from an email and bout the signing up,is there any discount for someone who refers a customer. This are the questions that seeks for answers to me,anticilating the answers for clearer understanding.
Thanks.
They do offer an affiliate programme, so you will earn if you refer someone. The clipper can access information from email and store it safely for you on evernote to be used when you need it.