Post: #1

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I've heard raving reviews about it but I've never really gotten into using Evernote.

Who here uses Evernote? How does it make your life better?

Post: #2

I too heard the raving reviews and tried it out.

For me personally it was more finger-swiping and management than I was used to. Went back to just using the stock Note app on the iPhone.

On the other hand I probably am not their target audience. Zero of my work follows me home or onto the computer/phone. You may find more use for it and there certainly seems to be a huge following.

Post: #3

I am an Evernote Premium user. I really love it. I use it for anything. I use it with a fujitsu scansnap to scan stuff as well as the Web Clipper to clip web pages. In summary, the point of it is to replace your brain for a lot of things. You put everything in there, what you see, what you think, what you need and its easy to search later.

1. I scan all of my instruction books and warranties into it.
2. I scan all of my car maintenance + notes on service, research, etc.
3. Its great for travel. For every country I compile information into separate notebooks. For example, good data sheet? I use the evernote web-clipper and then save the pertinent information. I go on various websites, I create my own plans, I make notes on budgets. I scan tourist guides and maps and then access them later.

4. I jot down business ideas. I write goals.

And more and more. I have several notebooks, everything is really structured and organized. During conference calls I take notes instead of using a note pad.

I basically scan everything into there that's relevant, shred it and be done with it. Correspondence, important emails, notes, etc. It syncs across several computers, web browser, ipad, phone and I have everything at a moment's notice (Premium allows you to have offline note storage on your devices).

For me, along with Dropbox, its probably the most important tool I use in my daily life. I was trying it for journaling but it really wasn't the best for that, I may use DayOne (only thing holding me back is that I use an android phone).

Post: #4

i use evernote as a cloud based to-do list. when emails come through which i need to act upon i auto add it to 'actions pending' list. it's pretty good at stopping you forgetting to do stuff at work/ life.

my life is also on dropbox.

Post: #5

tried it, didn't like it. I use trello for todo lists and internet collecting (its free) and box.com + google drive over dropbox. Box.com is like dropbox with every feature you wish they'd add to dropbox.

Post: #6

I tried Evernote but didn't like it. I prefer OneNote 2013.

Post: #7

I don't like that Evernote is subscription-based (to access your own material) and requires an Internet connection. Overall, OneNote is a better product.

Post: #8

Does anyone use Evernote with the notes stored locally instead of in the cloud?

Post: #9

I use Tomboy notes because I had a linux operating system. But evernote is the undisbuted champion of free notetaking software. Now that My linux CPU went kaput (too many flaws with open source) Ill be back on Evernote.

I use it for to do lists, any kind of list you can think of ie lifestyle tools, wardrobe updates, list of all my sex partners, writing down future workouts, copies of golden articles for future references. I have over 150 notes broken down by different categories and itll only get bigger.

Im the type that had scrap paper and posts its all over the place, so I wanted it all online where i cant lose it, and organized. Perfect! Also every few months I go through everything, refreshen up on some golden knowledge like red pill wisdom that Ive collected over the years or reflecting on my goals and whether ive been taking the steps necessary to accomplish them. Keeps me on top of my game having everything organized.

Even have list of numbers and contacts in case I ever lose my email or Facebook due to some catastrophic event. Highly recommended lifestyle tool.

Post: #10

My life would be empty without Evernote.

I have stacked notebooks for all my research about different areas of life (e.g. fitness, business, game), notes from books read, ideas for blog posts and clipped articles which amount to about 2000 separate notes.

The most important part of my Evernote though are my goal setting systems - I keep my monthly review note here, as well as daily to-do lists, annual goals, daily time logging, workout recording, journals, motivational content and decision-making tools.

My system is pretty expansive now and my life simply wouldn't work without logging my work time into Evernote and using it to achieve my goals. Evernote really is what you make of it though.

If you'd like to start organising your life using it, I'd start by strategically planning your goals e.g. what you want to achieve in your lifetime. Then create another note for what you want to achieve in the next 12 months. Then quarterly, then monthly. Finally break it down into habits or tasks you'll do on a day-to-day basis to make sure you achieve those monthly goals, and update the goals as necessary. Any insights, progress made or things learnt, add to a monthly review note where you can track your progress. Good luck.

Post: #11

(11-19-2013 01:56 PM)Valentine Wrote:  My life would be empty without Evernote.

I have stacked notebooks for all my research about different areas of life (e.g. fitness, business, game), notes from books read, ideas for blog posts and clipped articles which amount to about 2000 separate notes.

The most important part of my Evernote though are my goal setting systems - I keep my monthly review note here, as well as daily to-do lists, annual goals, daily time logging, workout recording, journals, motivational content and decision-making tools.

My system is pretty expansive now and my life simply wouldn't work without logging my work time into Evernote and using it to achieve my goals. Evernote really is what you make of it though.

If you'd like to start organising your life using it, I'd start by strategically planning your goals e.g. what you want to achieve in your lifetime. Then create another note for what you want to achieve in the next 12 months. Then quarterly, then monthly. Finally break it down into habits or tasks you'll do on a day-to-day basis to make sure you achieve those monthly goals, and update the goals as necessary. Any insights, progress made or things learnt, add to a monthly review note where you can track your progress. Good luck.

Why can't this be done on google docs or something like that?

Post: #12

Bumping this old thread. I'm interested in Evernote because my organization sucks.

It's 2015 -

-who is a long time Evernote user
-who used it and quit
-has it gotten better
-is it still the powerhouse everyone claims

Post: #13

I'm trying it out right now.

I sort of like the idea but I'm worrying that they might shut down one day or stop updating the software because of whoknowshat.

That would be pretty shitty once you have half your life outsourced to that thing.


Reasonable doubt or irrational fear?

Post: #14

3 year premium user.

None of these apps have magical features that the others couldn't copy. However Evernote is a very well designed product and has continued to improve and develop companion apps. One of which, Scannable, is invaluable. I prefer to write and take notes by hand, Scannable sharpens and enhances a picture of handwritten notes. It's actually not even a requirement to be an Evernote user to have this app. I do the same with notes made on a whiteboard, etc.

Their notebooks allows you to do something similar and will index handwriting so it's searchable.

To the poster above, it's highly unlikely Evernote would stop updating the product or shut down. The company has raised ~$300 million and will most likely go public in the next few years by all indications.

Post: #15

delete

Post: #16

ive used it for the last 2 years

the best thing is the syncing to all your devices

on the free tier but would happily pay if evernote stopped the free tier

Post: #17

Here is an excellent article on a way to organize Evernote for creative work:
https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2015/12/1...workflows/

The main takeaway is to avoid the use of lots of tags (it's very easy to search), and focus on quality notes. Author says that obviously notes will have different levels of quality (eg. you save a receipt into Evernote that you might only ever access once again in your life VS a note you review and modify once a week).

The suggestion is to build layers into notes: let's say you read a book on Kindle and highlight all the interesting sections. Then you use something like clippings.io to transfer your highlights into an Evernote note. Then you go through it and bold the most relevant highlights. Then later you go through it again and use Evernote's yellow highlighter to mark "the best" of the bolded sections. Now you have 3 layers, the last of which will be quickest to scan in the future, to decide if you need to dig deeper into the note. A fourth layer could be if you add some personal notations or links of your own.

It's a long article, containing lots of reasoning and explanation, so I'll just copy the most actionable section here...

***
What we’re talking about here is putting a lot more thought into the design of each individual note. It is about making individual notes the most prominent actors, like discrete atoms that can be assembled into any form.

Design is always about balancing priorities — in this case: comprehensiveness and compression.

Compression values condensing big ideas into small packages. We gain tremendous value in condensing the Bible (and even whole religions) into the rule of thumb “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Consuming highly compressed ideas is inherently rewarding, because we can feel that each word is rich with substance. It also helps us conserve our precious attention by eliminating the “fluff”.

Comprehensiveness values knowing all the facts. It is the voice in your head that says “Prove it.” It wants more data, and examples, and cited sources. It is the fear that you’ll remember the main point, but forget why it matters. It helps us not let anything fall through the cracks, but also drives us toward packrat insanity.

The way to balance these competing priorities is to:

Progressively summarize the most important points of a source in small stages (compression), and…
Preserve each of these stages in layers that can be peeled back on demand (comprehensiveness).
Basically, you need to be able to quickly assimilate the main points of a source to evaluate its relevance to the task at hand, while simultaneously preserving the ability to quickly “go deeper” into the source if you judge it to be highly relevant.

But even this “going deeper” must be staged, because you want to avoid creating a black-or-white, all-or-nothing choice between reading just a few key points, or having to go back and re-read the entire original source.

This is the problem with popular articles summarizing the “actionable tips” from influential books. Without the ability to selectively explore the context of a given piece of advice, it means nothing.

Most notes will fall somewhere on a spectrum of relevance, and you want to be able to calibrate the corresponding time you spend “loading” them.

This layering turns a note from a dense, impenetrable jungle into a rocky landscape.

Sometimes you want to do a high-elevation flyover, seeing only the tallest peaks. Other times you want to explore the middle ranges by helicopter, perhaps identifying stories or juicy factoids to illustrate a point. And sometimes, you want to parachute in and hack your way through the underbrush, poring over each source and following every rabbit trail.

Designing your note in easily uncoverable layers is like giving yourself a digital map of the terrain that can be zoomed in or out to any level of detail you need. You’re creating an environment in which your “radar” — your semi-conscious, rapid scanning ability to recognize complex patterns and non-obvious connections intuitively — works to maximum effect.

Ther are a few key qualities that make this system both useful and feasible:

1. Non-universal
This system is very purposefully not universal. The last thing you want to do is put every single note through multiple layers of compression. That is a terrible waste of attention.

Instead, customize the level of compression based on how intuitively resonant the source is with your work. I would guess my personal breakdown, with about 2,300 notes, is approximately:

layer of compression (saving any notes on the source): 50%
layers (bolding the best parts): 25%
layers (highlighting the very best parts): 20%
layers or more (restating the ideas in my own words, applying them to my own context, creating summary outlines, etc.): 5% or less
In general, avoid the temptation to apply the same system everywhere. Not everything needs to scale.

2. Pattern-matching
Our brains far outperform any supercomputer in finding and identifying patterns. You could say our minds are optimized for pattern recognition, which is why we do it quickly and effortlessly.

The note-taking system we create should enable this type of thinking by exposing semantic triggers, not fight against it by burying the most important points in a massive wall o’ text.

[author inserts an image of text from a webpage, with a bolded and yellow highlighted section, and a url to the original article at the bottom]

See how that one phrase jumps out at you, even at this zoomed out elevation?

It will likewise jump out at me if, 6 months from now, I come across this note and need to judge whether it’s worth reading in 5 seconds or less. If the keywords in this highlighted phrase match the pattern of the problem I’m working on, I will start by reading the paragraph in which it’s found. If it still matches, I’ll read the rest of the note. If this ends up being a critical piece of the puzzle I’m solving, I’ll click the link and revisit the whole piece. The attention I’m willing to spend has to be justified upfront.
***

Post: #18

I've been using a combination of wordpress, google docs/drive, and just saving files for holding onto my ideas. I briefly gave Evernote a try, but I didn't see all the functionality because apparently I didn't explore it in any depth.

Thanks for the pointers Drazen and TooFineAPoint. I'll give it another go.

Post: #19

(12-29-2015 09:17 PM)TooFineAPoint Wrote:  Here is an excellent article on a way to organize Evernote for creative work:
https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2015/12/1...workflows/

The suggestion is to build layers into notes: let's say you read a book on Kindle and highlight all the interesting sections. Then you use something like clippings.io to transfer your highlights into an Evernote note. Then you go through it and bold the most relevant highlights. Then later you go through it again and use Evernote's yellow highlighter to mark "the best" of the bolded sections. Now you have 3 layers, the last of which will be quickest to scan in the future, to decide if you need to dig deeper into the note. A fourth layer could be if you add some personal notations or links of your own.

Thanks for that. It's a fantastic article. I like the way it shows how creativity can be achieved through using a system. That system being one that allows the efficient curation and synthesis of disparate sources into a new 'original' work.

It's something that I've been working on myself. The article was very helpful.

Post: #20

I'm a big fan of one note. In it I have notebooks for work, gym and personal life. Organizing it is key though, and I'm working on doing that. I find it easier to use due to in built compatibility with M$ products. Interfaces flawlessly with office and windows. Only downside is I can't access my password protected notes on Android, but I can on iOS.

Post: #21

Does evernote or onenote or anything else index the PDFs that the fujitsu creates for full text searching of them? Right now I have my scan-n-shreds on my local computer and that's the only way I can search.

Post: #22

Great time for this thread to be bumped.

I'm currently working through Getting Things Done, and it's illuminating how to use Evernote more effectively.

I'll follow up with a post about my productivity systems once I get them finalized.

Post: #23

So far, it's a lot easier to use across platforms than the google doc files (Android/Linux/Windows).

It's helping organizing my planning. Will keep it up and see where it goes.