March 12th, 2013Top StoryI've Been Using Evernote All Wrong. Here's Why It's Actually AmazingBy Whitson Gordon
Any time we talk about Evernote, a good number of you say the same thing: you've tried it time and time again, but you could never really "get into it." I was in the same camp, but after reading the other side's experiences in this article and its comments, I decided to give it another shot. If you're like I was and haven't yet experienced the greatness of Evernote, here are some things you should try. The More You Add, the More Useful Evernote BecomesLet's start with the most important trick: In order to see why everyone likes Evernote, it's important to take advantage of everything it has to offer (rather than use it as just another note taker). Reader ppdd says it best:
So, if you want to give Evernote another shot, try putting everything in it that you want to hang onto. The more you add, the more useful Evernote becomes. Here are a few examples of what you could do. Use the Web ClipperI always thought Evernote's web clipper extension was pointless. If I needed to reference articles for later, I'd just save them in my browser's bookmarks folder or drag them to my desktop. However, that didn't allow me to make notes on an article, or save it with other related notes on that project. Evernote solved that problem perfectly. Test Case: Buying a New GrillI just moved into a new apartment, and I need to buy a new grill. After a bit of searching, I found a few I liked but wasn't ready to buy. I used the Web Clipper to throw its product page into a note under a new notebook, entitled "Wish List." Now when I come into some extra money, I can open up Evernote and see my top picks at the top of my "Wish List" notebook.
Don't Be Afraid to Create Lots of Notes and NotebooksI always tried to keep my notes to a minimum, so I didn't get buried under an endless amount of notes that I could never filter through. Evernote is better than this, though: it manages a multitude of notes easily thanks to notebooks, tags, and note links (see below). I found that most of my "notes" should have, in fact, been "notebooks," allowing me to store larger volumes of information with better organization. Test Case: Troubleshooting a Finicky PCI have a home server that I love, but always seems to give me problems, so it's a "work in progress." Back in the day, I used to keep track of this project in one note, jotting down lines from log files, troubleshooting commands I wanted to run, links to research I wanted to do, and more, all jumbled together in one big block of text. Even with some subheadings and formatting, it was still very difficult to navigate. Now, I have an entire notebook dedicated to my home server. Right now, it has three notes:
Because I saved each article with the Web Clipper, I have the entire text of the article and the source link right there, plus any highlights and notes I've made in each. This is light years better for me than just pasting the links to each article, or trying to write everything down myself into one giant note. Plus, by creating an entire notebook, each note functions as an item in a to-do list, which makes finishing the project much easier. The bottom line: Don't be afraid to create a ton of different notebooks and a ton of different notes. Evernote equips you with the ability to easily handle thousands of notes, and what seems overwhelming will soon feel like the best organizational scheme you've ever had. Bonus Tip: Create a notebook called _INBOX, right-click on it, and make it your default notebook. That way, any new notes you send to Evernote show up in this inbox, at the top of your list of notebooks, ready for you to funnel into one of your other notebooks. Sift Through Notes with Saved Searches and TagsUsing tags always felt like a waste of time to me: tagging every note seemed like a chore, and serves the same purpose that filing notes into notebooks does. However, tags can be useful if you have notes that you think could fit into multiple notebooks—or are on the same subject—without getting overwhelming. You don't need to tag every note you have, and you only need a few really important ones. It basically makes your archive easier to search through with Evernote's advanced search operators. You can even then save those searches by clicking the little arrow next to the search bar, and pressing the magnifying glass. Test Case: Filter Out Family MembersOur own Walter Glenn uses tags, albeit sparingly, to keep track of things across multiple notebooks. Both he and weblog Nerd Gap, for example, recommend creating a tag for each member of your family. That way, if you have notes across different notebooks that apply to someone besides you, it's easy to find them through a simple search. Nerd Gap explains:
Again, don't go overboard—Walter notes that tags are only really useful if you have a few that you really remember and use—but they can be a godsend once you start amassing thousands of notes. Check out Nerd Gap's introduction to tags and search for more ideas on how to use these features. Use Note Links to Jump Between Related StuffOnce you have more notes and notebooks than you know what to do with, Evernote can linking everything together so you don't have to search high and low for contextual information. Right-click on one of your notes and choose "Copy Note Link." Then, paste that link into another note for quick access later. Test Case: Researching This ArticleWhen I write a long article (like this one), I create a notebook for that article. Then, I create a text note with a basic outline of how I want the article to look, with all its subheadings. As I research, I clip all relevant web articles to that notebook, highlighting all the important parts and cutting out the irrelevant stuff. Then, I'll copy each note's individual link, paste it in the article outline, and I'll have a general skeleton of what that article's going to look like, using just the stuff I've saved in Evernote. Walter notes that often, if he has a ton of notes in a notebook, he'll just create a "Table of Contents" note at the top, where he can dump links to all the notes in that notebook, organized however he sees fit. This can be particularly helpful if Evernote's sorting options don't really fit your needs.
Other Things You Can Put In EvernoteWe've talked a little bit about what you can store in Evernote, and I've given some examples above. But again: the more you put in, the more useful it becomes. Anything you need to save, put it in Evernote and see how it works. For example, you could use it to store:
...and of course, anything else you can possibly think of. Is this approach for everyone? Of course not. In fact, our own former Editor Adam Pash found the "everything bucket" model too limiting for him (and he he advocates Simplenote instead). Like most things, it depends on the kind of work you do and how your brain wants to organize that information. Sometimes, you just need a simple app with a bunch of text notes. Evernote can do that if you want—that's part of its beauty—but it isn't what makes Evernote special. If you've tried it over and over again and can't understand what the fuss is all about, focus its more specific features like notebooks, note links, and the web clipper. You might finally find the organizational nirvana you've been looking for.  |
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