Evernote

So thanks to a twitter conversation with @crashtest_mummy I’m writing to tell you all why I love Evernote. This is not a sponsored post or anything, it’s ‘merely’ a post about some software that changed how I kept my details on me. If you want the overview on Evernote, then their website will tell you what you need to know. Put simply, Evernote is a cloud-based note taking system with some pretty awesome integrations.

 

However, this post is more about how I use Evernote.

 

I was forever starting little notepad files. These were of idea, sayings, things that should be in a comedy sketch… anything you can think of. Except organising files like that into a lot of folders on your hard drive is tiresome and means that you don’t have them with you when you want to add to them if you’re out. In comes Evernote.

 

I run two blogs – this one (obviously) and a travel blog, www.suitcasescribbles.com. Each blog is in a ‘stack’, which is a group of notebooks. For example:

 

The titles are fairly clear, but I’ll go into more detail anyway.

 

SS Blog Posts is where I keep of my blog posts. I tag them with ‘Unposted’, ‘Ready’, ‘Posted’ and a few other things, to help me keep track of what is on my website and what is ready to post.

 

SS Business contains a variety of things – articles clipped using the Evernote Web Clipper (eg How to Create a Media Kit), a list of tweets with short links of my posts (so if I want to repost/schedule posts, I can just copy & paste the details), a list of companies I would like to approach to work with, an outline of my goals for the blog, details of my domain name and so on.

 

SS Guest Posts contains clips of, links to and copies of articles I’ve posted on other travel bloggers websites.

 

SS Website Backup is where I clip my own website as a backup.

 

You’ll notice from the screenshot that some of the folders are a little low on content – that’s mostly my laziness showing through… not a comment on Evernote being time consuming. Though I also feel like I can blame my husband’s computer for dying – now we have to share my laptop 🙁

 

For another example, you can look at part of how I track my business, Nutshell Training and Consulting:

 

Nutshell – Consulting covers clients details, as well as key concepts and tips for each client.

 

Nutshell – Course Materials is where I keep my drafts of the courses I offer (and plan to offer). The final copy of a course is made in Open Office and stored in Dropbox (another useful tool).

 

Nutshell – Courses contains client details and tracks correspondence from those undergoing my courses.

 

Nutshell – Editing tracks editing jobs, payments, and contact details. Editing work itself is undertaken in the software appropriate for the task.

 

Nutshell – Plans & Finances is where I keep notes on strategic direction, clip articles about new taxation laws, save my marketing plans and so on.

 

Nutshell – Research is a self explanatory one. I most clip articles and type myself notes in this notebook. Like any good business, you need to be on the top of your game in order to provide the best service possible. Having a background in Anthropology & research I am obsessed with making sure I am up to date. Evernote keeps my research organised.

 

Nutshell – Services is where I keep track of the performance of the services I offer, as well as ideas about new ones I can provide.

 

Nutshell – Writing tracks my writing jobs. Writing is usually undertaken in a word processing package so that it is ready and formatted for the client. However, if it is a non-urgent or large job, I like to keep it in Evernote so that I can work on it as I get the inspiration.

 

Once again, some these folders don’t have a lot of notes (because Nutshell is a new business), but they are set up so that when I grow as expected, I have everything at my fingertips.

 

This is just a brief overview of the way I use Evernote – in total I have 454 notes in 27 notebooks. This post only covers 12 of my notebooks. I think Evernote is a brilliant piece of software, especially for those with online businesses of some form.

 

And yes, I wrote this post in Evernote 🙂