How Evernote Can Change the Way You Live

By Allison Wu 2010.4.15

---------------------------------------

1.Sometimes we just can't get rid of scratch papers and crazy ideas drawn on the white boards...

When it comes to research notes, it's actually really hard to keep all your records, ideas organized. "Organized" means not only sorted by days or any classifications but also means "Easy-to-find", that is, "Searchable". I believe that when you can't find the idea, you lost that idea. Therefore, I've been looking for the best way to organize my notes.

I've always kept a hard copy (often in those lab notebook which does not allow tearing the pages down...) about my experiments. However, although it seems organized, it's actually hard to find things or ideas you want when you accumulated a big pile of them. Not to mention using this method to keep track of your random ideas. I also tried to type them into computers and use softwares like Endnote or Zotero to organize them but it really doesn't work out very well.

Even though typing into a computer is neat and certainly makes note easy to find, there are always occasions that you have to discuss with your lab mates on a scratch paper or on the white board. You have to admit it's inevitable and sometimes when we do, it's really hard to organize these hand-written stuffs since you probably already have 80% of your notes typed in a computer but now you just don't know how to deal with this 20% of your notes. Now I don't have to worry about it. Take a picture of the white board or scratch papers and save them as notes into Evernote and probably add some keywords or just let Evernote recognize those hand-written texts. Now you have your rest 20% of notes searchable and you never lose your ideas again.

2. No more heavy travel books and piles of maps, and papers when traveling....

I like to travel and plan the trips all by myself. However, this sometimes means that I have to bring a lot of travel books, maps, hotel information, train schedule, printouts of webpages...,etc. It sometimes is really a mess especially when you're out in an unfamiliar place having no clue on where you are and got a lot of things on your hand....

Now I can organize traveling information this way with Evernote and I can travel with much lighter luggage and with any piece of information at hand in 2 seconds:

• When I surf the web for traveling information, I just have to "clip" them to my Evernote notebook.
• When I come across maps, either PDF or JPEG files, I just save them in Evernote. What if it's a hard copy? No problem! Just take a picture of them and save them in Evernote. However, when the language of the map is not English. You probably have to add some keywords to make it more easy to find since right now Evernote can yet recognize either Japanese or Chinese or any Asian language in image or PDF.
• When I make a reservation for hotel or train, there is always a confirmation e-mail sent to my e-mail box. This kind of information is so important that I used to have several copies of them at different places when I travel. Now I can forward it to Evernote e-mail box and save them in Evernote directly or I can just use the web clip trick again if I'm using e-mail account like gmail.
• What if there's some information on a travel book that I think is really useful? It happens but it really is a pain in the ass when you simply want a couple of pages out of a big travel book. I always have to either go copy them or just take them and most of the time I end up taking at least 3~4 travel books at a time. However, taking travel books sometimes not just increase your luggage weight, but also annoys you when you're standing on the crossroad and you can't find the information you need to decide which way to go!! Now with Evernote. Same trick! Take a picture or just scan the pages and save them in Evernote. Not only can you save your luggage space for your souvenirs but also can reach any information in 2 seconds. Then, I never have to bother whether to take several big travel books. I probably only have to take zero or one travel book that has the most information I need.

3. Still tagging photos by hand?

During orientation, conferences, we always have to meet a lot of strangers with their name tags! Sometimes there are so many strangers that it's really hard to keep track of each one of them. Now instead of looking at the photograph and being unable to recall the name, just have every stranger you met takes a photo with their name tag and the Evernote will recognize the text in the name tag and tag these strangers for you!

4. Recipes all at hand!

When you go to supermarket and you suddenly think of one recipe and you don't remember some of the ingredients, just use your Smartphone or iPod touch to use Evernote to find your recipe! Now you never have to "make a guess" on what to buy. Just find it!

5. Have you ever standed before a poster just to keep a note of a piece of performance/Semninar information you're interested?

Yeah, I've done that but most of the time I always ended up missing that scratch paper and forgot about that performance and feel so regretful when I found that I missed that performance/seminar next time I passed by that poster. Now with the same easy trick. I take a snapshot of that poster and save it to Evernote. Let Evernote recognize the date and information and make it searchable for you!

When you accept Evernote, you would really find that Evernote makes many things so easy that you no longer have to worry about how to organize them. Just dump them to Evernote. Make some editing or not. Every piece of information is at hand. You never lose your idea or miss a seminar/performance again or can't find the particular map you need when you travel.