63 replies to this topic

[BurgersNFries]

There are multiple threads floating around on the subject. Thought I'd put links to them in one place. They are in no particular order. Feel free to add links to existing notes or post your own uses.

EDIT: after moving to the new message board, some of the links in this initial post no longer exist, so I removed the broken links)


http://discussion.ev...es-of-evernote/

http://www.andrewcma... ... note-uses/

[BurgersNFries]

And let's say, at age 54, you "find" your father's other two daughters from his first marriage whom you've never met, nor seen nor even seen photos of but you've known about & wondered about since you were 8. And you begin exchanging emails, catching up on what's happened in our lives. Evernote is a nice way to organize photos of the newly found sisters & their familes as well as keeping track of which sister is still married to her high school sweetheart & has three children & which sister is divorced & remarried & has two children, seven step children and a bunch of grandchildren from her blended family.

(It could happen...)

[jbenson2]

Half of my notes are web captures of politics over the past 2 years. It is a great reference tool when I get into a hot and heavy discussion about the current administration.

The other half is personal.
Lots of scanned stuff from my younger days, as well as stuff about the children and now the grandchildren.

I went to a wedding reception on Saturday - a 1.5 hour drive away. I scanned the hand-written invitation (names and phone numbers) and the hand-written directions into Evernote about a month ago and changed the create date to Saturday. Great reminder - I'd see it whenever I logged in. Then I marked it as a favorite on my iPod Touch so that I could see it outside of the WiFi coverage. My wife drove, and I double checked with the directions as we got closer to the reception.

[Vance]

My daughter recently had spinal surgery (all going well!) and EN was very useful in noting schedules, medicines, contacts, pictures of xrays and of a map of Children's Hospital, my mom's flight itinerary, pictures in the hospital and at Ronald McDonald House. I took a picture of the prescription labels and used them for refill information, I scanned documents as needed, etc.

[engberg]

My main non-work uses are:
Clipped/scanned recipes, which I access from Android when shopping and cooking
Notes about video games in progress (with links to web sites, screen shots, etc.)
An archival dump of my various contacts databases (in HTML form) so that I have a place of last resort for old contacts that may no longer be in my current phone

[Vance]

That contact archive is a good one. I think I will do that too.

[Metrodon]

Yup - I do contacts as well.

Keeps from clogging up my contacts on my iphone with all the people I get involved with in work.

[DangerousTinker]

My number one reason to jump into Evernote is the desire to cut my MS Outlook umbilical cord once and for all. I've been running my life on various versions of MS PocketPC/CE/WM since 2002 and see that train coming to a fiery and bloody end when WM 7 comes out.

It has become painfully obvious Google neither wants to sync Outlook tasks, nor wants to integrate To-DOs, GTD, or classic PIM's into their overall model. Therefore, with an eye toward a Froyo device by year's end, I am trying to find a plan for an MS Outlook PIM lifestyle without MS Outlook.

So, from the point of view of someone who desperately WANTS to trash MS Outlook and move to Android/Gmail, I would get all warm and mushy with an ability to easily transfer Evernote to google calendar.

[crane]

My number one reason to jump into Evernote is the desire to cut my MS Outlook umbilical cord once and for all. I've been running my life on various versions of MS PocketPC/CE/WM since 2002 and see that train coming to a fiery and bloody end when WM 7 comes out.

It has become painfully obvious Google neither wants to sync Outlook tasks, nor wants to integrate To-DOs, GTD, or classic PIM's into their overall model. Therefore, with an eye toward a Froyo device by year's end, I am trying to find a plan for an MS Outlook PIM lifestyle without MS Outlook.

So, from the point of view of someone who desperately WANTS to trash MS Outlook and move to Android/Gmail, I would get all warm and mushy with an ability to easily transfer Evernote to google calendar.

I've been using EN for years, and it's just not suitable for calendaring (or even GTD, in my opinion). I use EN more for my reference material.

If you're trying to find a non MS way and you're big user of Outlook (as I was), might I recommend something like PocketInformant. I started using it a few weeks ago and I'm hooked. My only calendar is Google Calendar. My preferred Todo/GTD tool is Toodledo (I use ToodleAir for quick entry of tasks, and I was a big user of Toodledo's own iphone app.) Pocket Informant just marries the two together - I can see my google calendar *and* my toodledo tasks in the same place. Plus, it's got a very fast sync. Bonus - I can see tasks on my calendar, which is what I was really missing from the newer version of Outlook.

[Vance]

I agree with Crane that you might not want to look to EN to be fully integrated with your Google world. It is the storage cabinet that can sit on your Android phone and be accessible anywhere, while your Google calendar, docs, to-do's, etc, all get managed very well by Google itself.

Along that line, there is a useful little app called GTasks which syncs with your Google Tasks on your Android phone.

[DangerousTinker]

Quickly understood that EN wasn't a To-Do replacement, but could work well as a tickler file. Also realized EN was a database and not a calendar but being able to assign an EN for followup on a calendar could streamline PIM.

Thanks Crane & Vance for the input.

I had run into PocketInformant quite a few years ago and at the time it didn't do anything that activesync and Windows CE did. It looks like an interesting option from a stand-alone perspective and I'm off to research what it can sync with as soon as I hit 'Submit.' Nirvana is a beta app centered around GTD, but still looks a little limited. I may also give Remember the Milk another look, but after RTM sync completely wiped out 2yrs of Outlook task data I still don't have a warm fuzzy for RTM. Google Tasks are so crippled in what they can do and seem to be something that some guy in the Gmail department developed in an afternoon just to say Google supports tasks: no tags, no groupings/priorities, no time alloted, no recurring, etc., etc. Web-based apps aren't ideal: seems a little silly to wait 15 seconds for data to load everytime on an application you want to use to increase productivity. Nozbe targets the iFanboys, so that's out. ACT! would be ok if it worked and played well with others.

What makes EN so appealing as a catch-all storage receptable is also what I'm trying to find in a next-generation to-do manager: The ability to flag anything in life for followup, next action, or new project. A perfectly viable option would be to use EN's "mail" feature to mail tasks into PIM's that support emailed tasks such as RTM and Nirvana. However, that has to be done one task at a time because EN will simply send an email with the subject "9 notes from Evernote" if you try and send a batch.

[BurgersNFries]

Evernote serves as a nice repository for those articles from the AAA magazine of places I'd like to go or articles about local landmarks.

[Don Reba]

I draw as a hobby. One of my uses for Evernote is a sketchbook: I often make quick drawings with stylus on my phone.

I frequently use Evernote for TODOs, especially shopping lists, checking off items as I go through the store.

Before I go to an unfamiliar place, I save maps and directions to Evernote.

[engberg]

My most frequent uses for Evernote are:

1) One "My ToDo" note with my list of things I need to work on with no hard date to finish. One line per item with a space between them, and I just delete lines that I've finished.

2) Storing little snippets of SQL code and complicated command-line operations that I need to copy/paste regularly. (E.g. "show me the backlog of images to be OCR'ed, broken down by user privilege level and file type.")

3) Recipes clipped from the web. If I try it once and my wife makes faces at it, it goes into the Trash. When I use Evernote on my phone, it's usually to access these while shopping or cooking.

4) Notes and hyperlinks for "research" on video games I'm playing.

I also have random "archival" notes with information that I rarely access (e.g. a note with the start date of each employee that reports to me so I know when they're up for annual review). But these are the things that I do with Evernote at least once every week or two.

[jefito]

3) Recipes clipped from the web. If I try it once and my wife makes faces at it, it goes into the Trash. When I use Evernote on my phone, it's usually to access these while shopping or cooking.

But really, how many recipes for cumin waffles does one man need? (actually , I clip recipes too)

My main uses:
* For work:
- Each week I make a new desk diary note, which contains daily records of tasks (they're usually bug ticket #'s and descriptions) I've work on. This all feeds an online timesheet that we submit on Mondays, and once all supervisors have approved, I clip the timesheet and append it to the desk diary note. If there note cloning were ever added to Evernote, this would be the place where I'd use it the most.

- Each separate large-scale project that I work on typically runs on a 2-week deliverable cycle (it's 'agilistic'!), and we have weekly meetings that track each gen's goals (again, usually tied to bug ticket numbers). I keep a
single note for the project that tracks the weekly meetings, progress, what have you.

- Each task that has a large enough scale typically gets its own note where I can work up overall design, research, code references & snippets, and other considerations.

- I clip web research for tasks I am working on, as well as other development related articles.

* Personal:
- I clip articles for things I'm interested in: recipes, bicycling (mainly exercises and bike repair information), hand percussion, travel, personal finance, consumer goods research, and of course coffee. I have a long-term goal of transcribing all all of my hand-written rhythm arrangements to Evernote, but that's going to be a work in progress for some time. I know I could scan them in, if I had a scanner (and maybe I'll do that eventually), but I like the idea of having text versions.

- I also tend to clip order confirmations.

~Jeff

[BurgersNFries]

3) Recipes clipped from the web. If I try it once and my wife makes faces at it, it goes into the Trash. When I use Evernote on my phone, it's usually to access these while shopping or cooking.

FWIW, I keep track of recipes that get the thumbs down from Mr. Fries. No need in making that mistake twice.

I also tend to clip order confirmations.

I do too, as well as online payment confirmations for credit cards, auto insurance, auto license renewal, property taxes, etc.

Back to the topic of food... If I order take away from a new (or new to us) restaurant, I take a screen cap of what I ordered & how everyone liked it. If we like that place & want to order again, I know either what to get or what not to get.

Fonts...I love using EN for FONTS! I've made our Christmas cards for the past ~14 years. Although I save the final files, it's disappointing to move to a new computer, install the program to make the card, load in an old card file & get the message that the font is not on your computer & another one will be used instead. In recent years, I scan a hard copy of the card & make a note about what font was used & even include the font (in a zip file) in the same note, so I don't have to find it on the internet & download it again. I know this is a very minor deal in my life. But if I was trying to make a living doing something along this line, it would be a lifesaver.

[BurgersNFries]

My iPhone has been dropped one too many times. It has a crack in the back & the email notifications sound funny. :shock:

Going to move to an iPhone 4 in week or two. But, I jailbreak. So I'm making notes (in Evernote) about jailbreaking an iPhone 4 & getting everything organized. Hopefully, the transaction will be a smooth one.

#1 on my list is to backup old iPhone & then restore old iPhone to factory settings (un-jailbroken) before heading off to the Apple store.

[brasmi]

I use a small number of notebooks:

1) Keizer: I am a city councilor, so everything related to my official duties goes into this notebook. Staff reports, research, select emails, etc.
2) College: This is my only notebook stack, with the top level labeled College, and sub-notebooks for each individual class I'm currently enrolled in. Once the class is completed, the notes get tagged and dumped into the Personal notebook. This has been extremely helpful in keeping me organized.
3) Work: Self-explanatory, everything I get related to work goes here.
4) Personal: everything else, including Christmas shopping list, kids records, auto info, bills, receipts, letters, personal written correspondance from Evernote executives, etc.
5) Unsorted: this is my default folder, both for emailing notes to EN and importing from the desktop. Then once a day I title/date/tag and throw into the correct notebook.

I use several hundred tags. I'd love to have an auto-tag feature some day.

[pwwroa]

I scan my Christmas cards, birthday cards and postcards from friends that travel to Evernote and have the same tags as I just wrote. Just a nice way to keep old cards without having to really keep them.

[pwwroa]

My number one reason to jump into Evernote is the desire to cut my MS Outlook umbilical cord once and for all. I've been running my life on various versions of MS PocketPC/CE/WM since 2002 and see that train coming to a fiery and bloody end when WM 7 comes out.

It has become painfully obvious Google neither wants to sync Outlook tasks, nor wants to integrate To-DOs, GTD, or classic PIM's into their overall model. Therefore, with an eye toward a Froyo device by year's end, I am trying to find a plan for an MS Outlook PIM lifestyle without MS Outlook.

So, from the point of view of someone who desperately WANTS to trash MS Outlook and move to Android/Gmail, I would get all warm and mushy with an ability to easily transfer Evernote to google calendar.

Why not try this out http://www.snapcal.net/en/ it is listed in the Evernote Trunk. Looks like it might be a calendar solution.