I am finally developing an actual system to store all of my “stuff”. That’s emails, random thoughts, to do lists, grocery lists, project organizer, attachment bucket. You name it and I put it in Evernote. I have preached this message before.
I just saw an announcement that Evernote Premium allows me to attach or embed files (MS, pdf etc) as thumbnails in my notes. This is awesome. Something I have been wanting for some time.
So the catch? Premium costs money, Basic is free. How much?
Drum roll…. Evernote Premium is $5/month, $45/annual. Not a bad deal at all.
I feel like I am doing my part by supporting a product that I have been using successfully for months. Why should it be free? It shouldn’t.
Ok, now that I have plugged Evernote.. Here is my wish list.
I want an output button from SnagIt to Evernote. I can’t seem to get the hang of the “Clipper”.
I want markup capability in Evernote, similar to SnagIt. I want to be able to highlight, circle, draw arrows etc to stuff that I clip. Currently, I do all of this in SnagIt and then save to Evernote. The problem is, sometimes I want to edit them.
Third, creating a to-do list or numbered list of tasks needs some work. I want it to work more like Word. Currently, it is more like Notepad.
So, now that I am a paying customer….. are you listening?
I am always looking for tools to make my life more efficient. Efficiency, I have found, is in the eyes of the beholder. But, for me, I have been looking for a digital way to capture ideas, organize thoughts, create lists and to-do lists. I have a mixed match system of word documents, notepad files, physical post-its, emails to self, electronic post-its, tasks in Outlook, a physical notebook (small and large), a GTD folder. The list is endless. I have looked at tools like One Note and Mind Manager – each I am sure are fantastic, but I just couldn’t grasp how to use them. I found that I was spending more time dinking with my new system than gaining any efficiency.
In my mind, my life was too complicated to find a single tool or system that can satisfy my needs. So, I gave in to a physical notebook. One of the guy’s on our team refers to it as “my little green book”. Not sure why I find that funny, I just do. I carry this beast everywhere, jotting notes in different colors, filled with a variety of note taking systems so I can come back and refer to them later. The thought is that in the evenings, I can then quickly extract this info and then enter it into yet another system. Confused yet? Me too.
I stumbled upon Evernote. Stealing from their website…..
Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.
Always one to love a video explanation, check out the above from the Evernote folks. You are probably getting the idea that it is a “web site grabbing” tool? I use it as so much more than that. Primarily, I use it as a list creation and to-do list tool.
But, above all, what I love the most about Evernote is that I can access it from multiple locations –> local application on my laptop, via the web from any machine or my phone. They are all synched at all times. It gives me the best of all worlds.
A couple of things to note of Evernote as a company. They are gaining a ton of points with me as a customer. They have — a blog, post to Twitter, have a Facebook fan page and have one of the better forums I have ever used. One of the moderators, Engberg, consistently responds quickly to posts.
I am looking forward to future releases. There are certainly things that could be added, but for now, I’m sold.
A mechanical engineer that is obsessed with technology. I am the Product Manager for CFdesign and work in a virtual office in Philadelphia, PA USA. Outside of technology, I am an avid Liverpool FC supporter and a massive phan of the band PHISH.