(Archived) Lifehacker on Evernote

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

http://lifehacker.com/5989980/ive-been-using-evernote-all-wrong-heres-why-its-actually-amazing

[gazumped 11,664]

Nice to see that the penny drops with everyone.. eventually!  Good catch BnF!

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Nice to see that the penny drops with everyone.. eventually!  Good catch BnF!

 

 

Yeah, I thought it was kind of neat from a different POV about "I finally get it."  I always find the "why should I use Evernote?" posts goofy.  This is not solely related to EN.  IMO, you try an app & if it doesn't work for you, then don't use it.  I almost never try to convince someone they should use a particular app.  (Banking, backup, AV & anti malware being the exceptions.)  So I'm not going to try to convince someone they should use Evernote.  If it clicks, it clicks & if it doesn't, it doesn't.  I have to say this actually is how I came to EN.  I was overwhelmed with trying to keep ideas for various projects organized.  I found only two options in early 2008.  Evernote (in it's initial stages of the service app rather than the Windows only/payware app) and OneNote.  At that time, OneNote was the one I went with & which I still use but not nearly as much as I use EN - not even close.  But a few months later, I had a need to organize/archive my emails & remembered Evernote.  So I started using EN as an email archive tool.  A few months later, I migrated from my beloved Palm TX PDA to an iPhone.  Evernote was the clear choice for saving all those notes that had been residing on my PDA.  I'm of the opinion that a majority of people who check out EN & leave will eventually return.  Probably based upon my own experience.  And Whitson's.  ;-) 

 

(OTOH, when I first tested EN the service - when it was in beta), they still had that stupid (IMO & sorry!) tape view which I loathed...)

[gazumped 11,664]

Same here actually.. I tried Evernote a while ago but found it too 'simple' in that it seemed just to be a place to archive information and I couldn't see how it would alter my then practice of using a personal wiki to hold some information,  and a public one for shared data. 

 

However I know that you can't judge software properly unless you try and use it for real,  so I started slowly,  and gradually added more information.  Then I worked out how good the search options were,  and how easy it was to add stuff from all sorts of sources - wikis need a keyboard!

 

As I get more into this I find Evernote suits my way of working - it doesn't have a prescriptive set of menus that I 'have' to learn and follow;  it helps me save all sorts of input and triage it later.  I tend to change working practices depending on the job I'm doing,  and Evernote is flexible enough to cope with anything I threw at it so far.

 

Mind you I still think Wikis have some enviable features like note transclusion...

[gbarry 2,658]

I take a slightly similar tact when describing what Evernote is good for to people who ask (which is fairly often when people figure out what I do).

 

Basically, I say that Evernote occupies this "sweet spot" for things that I want to remember.  There's always stuff that you want to remember, but just isn't up there with the really, really important stuff that requires work to remember.  The kind of stuff that occupies this sweet spot includes my Employer ID number for my dental plan.  Or my bike tire sizes.  Or that one restaurant I've been meaning to go to.  This is all stuff that I find valid and important to remember to enjoy life and create some efficiencies, but not so important that I want to commit to remembering it.  Whenever anything crosses my brain that occupies that space, I stuff it into Evernote.

 

This is my main use.  I have some stricter usecases for it that involve business, some personal projects, donation receipts, stuff like that.  But mostly it's for storing stuff that belongs in that sweet spot, that middle ground that occupies the space between need-to-remember and passing fancy.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I take a slightly similar tact when describing what Evernote is good for to people who ask (which is fairly often when people figure out what I do).

 

Basically, I say that Evernote occupies this "sweet spot" for things that I want to remember.  There's always stuff that you want to remember, but just isn't up there with the really, really important stuff that requires work to remember.  The kind of stuff that occupies this sweet spot includes my Employer ID number for my dental plan.  Or my bike tire sizes.  Or that one restaurant I've been meaning to go to.  This is all stuff that I find valid and important to remember to enjoy life and create some efficiencies, but not so important that I want to commit to remembering it.  Whenever anything crosses my brain that occupies that space, I stuff it into Evernote.

 

This is my main use.  I have some stricter usecases for it that involve business, some personal projects, donation receipts, stuff like that.  But mostly it's for storing stuff that belongs in that sweet spot, that middle ground that occupies the space between need-to-remember and passing fancy.

That's great. But IMO, that's why some people blow EN off as a fluff app. Sure, it's great for stuff like that. In fact, it's amazing for stuff like that. And I have a LOT of stuff like that in my EN. A lot. But I also use it for more important things. I *always* use it as an audit trail for work. Since I have such a bad memory, I can easily go back & see why I did something or confirm that I did something a certain way. I keep code in EN as well as file layouts, data flows, manuals and/or scans of often used pages from manuals, IP addresses of various servers, etc.

Or for personal business. In fact, it was very cool about an hour ago b/c I was able to quickly (as in under two minutes) find some critical information from July 2011 regarding costs that were included on the settlement statement for a home we bought in July 2011. I have to tell you, it felt really, really, REALLY good when I was able to provide that info so quickly. ;-). Although EN is nifty for saving wine labels, it's so much more than that. At least for me.

[gazumped 11,664]

I'll endorse the memory thing - being "of a certain age" I tend to be a little absent-minded.  Not quite to the level of forgetting why I'm in the room after I get through the door,  but definitely to the potential detriment of business and personal performance.  My usual story is that all my little grey cells are fully engaged with the huge portfolio of knowledge that I've picked up over the years and don't have any spare capacity for new things.  I'd guess the age and the alcohol haven't helped either..

 

So.  I'm a little precious about keeping notes of things,  getting directions to meetings,  logging when and where they happen,  and keeping receipts and mileages.  I had the unhappy experience having to start a legal dispute a year or so ago,  and committed all my notes,  documents and meetings and the package of stuff that might have wound up in court to its own notebook.

 

I've looked up things like what type of car wiper blade to buy in the middle of a big store,  and I've carried my seat details to the theatre.  Evernote is central to my life and work (heard something like that before somewhere) - and far from being a dunce at the memory stakes I'm known as the guy who can always find stuff - even if I need an internet connection first.

[TechBarber 100]

A lot of the people in my "circles" blow it off because there is a minor learning curve involved. If they're on the fence to begin with, the moment you start talking about "notebooks" and "tags" (tags especially), you've lost them.

It seems to me the general EN user is more tech savvy and inherently more patient than the average Joe. That's not to say EN is overly difficult...it's just a little too involved for some of today's inpatient people.

I'm trying to spread the word as best I can. Some people jump on board right away but others still maintain the "but I can just take a picture in the photo app" or "what's wrong with emailing it to myself routine". As I mentioned above, these are the less patient, less technically inclined friends.

Not sure what it is about today's audience, but unless something takes 10 seconds to understand people are gone. Patience is a dying virtue.

[jefito 5,589]

The funny thing is that notebooks, notes, and tags are not so foreign as they may seem to be. Notebooks and notes have real-world analogues that most people understand and map pretty well. Tags are just labels, and can be considered to be like adjectives that we can apply to a note. But the important thing is that you don't *need* to worry about notebooks and tags to use Evernote. Just use one notebook and no tags. If, at some point, it becomes onerous to find your stuff, that's when notebooks and tags can come in handy. And, as with any organizational scheme, it really helps if at that point, you stop and have a little think about it before you proceed.

[gazumped 11,664]

My reason for hesitation was purely attention-span related;  I opened the (windows) client,  looked at the screen,  typed a few words,  saw it was a word-processor-style interface,  added a note and left.  I didn't have anything specific to save,  had no need then for remote (ie phone) data entry,  and pretty much had a phobia for anything 'wasting' my time [unlike of course posting to highly relevant and necessary fora-ums] by requiring any sort of learning curve before providing a return.

 

"If it works don't fix it" is pretty much the mantra for everyone these days - and if you don't feel the need for an external memory,  or have something else doing that job already,  why make the effort?

 

I do promote Evernote (almost to the "Oh no,  not you again" stage) but simply ask people to try it out for a week with something small - recipes, a diary, browser links - and leave them to find the benefit.  It usually works.