Note Taking for Virtually Everything

If you’ve been following me for a little while, you might have noticed a recurring mention of elephants.  Yes, I like elephants.  Now what does that have to do with anything I would share with you? Well, when I was browsing various smart phone apps, I saw an elephant.  When I decided to find out more, I discovered Evernote and started using it.

I’m a slightly skeptical consumer, so after creating an account (free) with Evernote, I only used it on my phone and via the Internet.  I put off downloading the desktop version and used Evernote for only limited things.  Yet, I loved how I could use my phone to make notes, copy webpages, and bookmark sites, while waiting for my appointment to start.  I also had the grocery list and other task lists always accessible – since my phone is always with me.

Of course, I asked my husband if he’d heard of it – and he hadn’t, but he checked it out and uses it regularly.  More than me of late.  He even decided on the premium service, quite reasonable at $45 a year (or $5 a month) with some nice additional benefits.  I’m considering upgrading eventually too.  One of the features he uses and appreciates is how Evernote gives you an e-mail address so that you can just e-mail notes into your account.

They also offer the ability to share your notebooks or just notes with others.  This is one of the first things I read about – a parent of a special needs child using Evernote to coordinate information between the doctor’s office and school, by having an account where certain people were given permission to access and modify (when appropriate) all the notes related to the care of her child.  I might need to start sharing Evernote notebooks with clients on the various research I do for them!

I appreciate the layers of potential organization with Evernote, as you can create notebooks to gather like items together and that you can create tags as well for each item you add.  Although I’ve not needed to try it out, Evernote says that everything is searchable, so if you’re struggling to find something you could probably find it even if you only remembered some obscure word.

I’ve been a bit frustrated, as one of my shopping lists has become problematic – in that it doesn’t want to load properly – on any of the devices.  I just need to delete and make a new note.  I’ve heard of problems with formatting issues between devices.  Yet, I believe that Evernote will work to resolve any issues.  The range of how to access Evernote is quite impressive; just about any device now has a platform to access it – and it syncs once you have an Internet connection again.  There are some limitations with some devices – like my smart phone and Evernote don’t always work well without Internet or modifying notes on the iPad, again without Internet can be problematic.

I’m excited to explore Evernote even more, and especially since I’ve finally downloaded the desktop version for my computer.  From what I’ve seen the benefits far outweigh the few struggles they have and the improvements come regularly.  There are so many possibilities and ways to have Evernote work to benefit you – as an individual, to fit your needs.  This is the ultimate goal for anything you use.