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Actually using Evernote


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So i got evernote this past week. I'm really enjoying it. It is ridiculous how many things you can use it for. And there in lies the problem. There are so many things that Evernote can be used for I am having issues getting started. I have a job with minimal projects. Most of which i can't really upload anything to the cloud. My employer is crazy strict about security. And at home i just have notes here and there. i thought if i got evernote i would start taking more notes because it is so easy to do. but i find that after i did a brain dump i'm really not using it at all.

how long did it take for you to get into a groove of using evernote on a daily basis? and what and how to do you impliment it in your daily lives?

i've read the blog that says i use mine for marketing, i use mine for school, i use mine for my law firm. thats great but i'm not a marketing associate, nor am i a student or lawyer. i don't write for blogs or any of that.

i want to know what the average user who just love to retain information uses it for. and how...oh and HOW DO YOU USE AUDIO NOTES? i can't seem to find a situation where i need to dictate something. i want to use them i just don't really see how i would need to

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how long did it take for you to get into a groove of using evernote on a daily basis? and what and how to do you impliment it in your daily lives?

Start out slow & taper on. I first trialed EN2 (a Windows only payware app that is no longer sold) and hated it. Went with Onenote for my needs, at that time.

~Six months later, I needed a tool for archiving emails & remembered EN. By this time, they had moved to the EN service, which was perfect for that. Then about 8 months later, I migrated to an iPhone from a Palm TX. I needed something to replace my info repository on my desktop & Palm to my desktop & iPhone. I tried EN & became hooked. (That was June 2009.)

I also use it for work and would find it would cramp my style if my employer said I couldn't use it for work. (However, I'm often privy to sensitive info such as social security/EIN numbers for several hundred people & I do NOT put those into anything in EN, unless they are encrypted.)

i've read the blog that says i use mine for marketing, i use mine for school, i use mine for my law firm. thats great but i'm not a marketing associate, nor am i a student or lawyer. i don't write for blogs or any of that.

i want to know what the average user who just love to retain information uses it for. and how...oh and HOW DO YOU USE AUDIO NOTES? i can't seem to find a situation where i need to dictate something. i want to use them i just don't really see how i would need to

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=17399

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thanks BnF

i think i just expected to be dumping everything into en right of the bat. i'll try to ease into it. and find ways it helps me vs what other ppl do.

however i still want to know who uses the audio notes and for what situations. i still can't figure out when you'd use them

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Audio notes are good for when you don't want to type. Voice memos, if you will. I don't usually use EN audio notes b/c it takes too many taps on my iPhone. But I do use Jott that does a similar function. If I'm driving & think of something, of course, I don't want to type it out on my phone. So I have Jott set up to be a speed dial on my phone. Jott interfaces with Evernote & I simply speak the note. Jott also transcribes the audio to text & then sends it to my EN account. Very cool.

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i'm trying to think of ways that i can use EN to its full potential.

I have a "personal" notebook stack. under that i have my notebook, a journal, and tasks,

then i have a projects stack. under that i have only 1 project right now

and i have a vacations stack. under that i have 1 vacation right now

i think i like this set up the best. just trying to think of things to put in them

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  • 1 month later...

I too am looking for better ways to integrate EN into my lifestyle. So far it seems to fit reasonably well, now that I have a smartphone to capture things on the go.

I've got stacks for things that are important to me: writing, design, tech, games. I've got a Capture Tool stack full of things that I want to look into some day, either read or watch or play. Each of these stacks has sub-notebooks: say character names, blog ideas and story ideas in the writing stack, Tickle File in my design stack, and so on.

I also have a Memories stack, and in that I have books for each event I'd want to remember about.

I can provide a screen shot of my notebook list if you want :(

So far I am not keeping EVERYTHING in there, but that's because I haven't had time to put everything in there :)

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I never really understood all the posts about coming up with ideas for how to use Evernote. If you're trying to think of things to use it for, then I would argue you don't really need it. I mean, I understand where everyone is coming from (I was one of them), but in the end it wastes more time looking for uses.

I have a horrible memory and as a result I need a place to consolidate ideas/articles/to do items. Evernote works great for those peices of information that I have nowhere else to store but don't want to lose track of.

I realize everyone is different and we'll all use EN in different ways. I just don't really understand why we go looking for ways to use it. You don't go out and buy a truck and then say "cool, now...what can I carry in it?". You buy a truck because you have lots of things to carry and you need some cargo space.

My point is, I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what works best in EN and what doesn't. The answer I was looking for was right under my nose all along; use it for what you need it for. :D

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. . .

i want to know what the average user who just love to retain information uses it for. and how...oh and HOW DO YOU USE AUDIO NOTES? i can't seem to find a situation where i need to dictate something. i want to use them i just don't really see how i would need to

Some very common uses for Evernote:


  • [*:2fkw38b5]Replace Browser Bookmarks/Shortcuts with Evernote

    • [*:2fkw38b5]Use to quickly capture ONLY the info of interest, and a link to the web page, for everything personal, business, projects, shopping, research, etc
      [*:2fkw38b5]Just select the text and graphics of interest on the web page and click on the Evernote clipper button.
      (you may need to install the Evernote add-on for Firefox and Chrome)

[*:2fkw38b5]Replace hand-written notes with Evernote

[*:2fkw38b5]Archive important emails

[*:2fkw38b5]Store Trip info (like Flight schedule, rental car, lodging, agenda, itinerary) for quick ref on your mobile phone/PDA.

[*:2fkw38b5]Store all your reference documents, like users/owners manuals.

Today you may be capturing/storing/recording information in a variety of methods, both manual and on your PC/Mac.

You can replace all of that with Evernote.

And it is easy/quick to find by Searching in Evernote.

If you understand how tags work, you can start using them right-away.

If not, you can add the tags later, and just do a full-text search for now.

Don't worry too much about which Notebook or tag to use.

You can easily change it later after you get some notes and become more familiar with Evernote.

I always keep Evernote open on my desktop of my PC or Mac.

Using a Global Hot key (Ctrl+Alt+N on the PC) you can quickly create a new Note and record the info.

One of the main benefits for me is I now have all this info quickly available on my iPhone when I am out and about.

Also, you can quickly create a Evernote photo or voice recording on your smartphone, or even type in a few quick notes.

Evernote will record your GPS coordinates for future ref and show it to you on a map.

Spend some time learning the Evernote keyboard shortcut keys. This will allow you to quickly create/format/enter notes.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Just dive in. The water is fine. :D

Like most things, the more you use it the easier, better it will become.

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i want to know what the average user who just love to retain information uses it for. and how...oh and HOW DO YOU USE AUDIO NOTES? i can't seem to find a situation where i need to dictate something. i want to use them i just don't really see how i would need to

I use Evernote exactly like this - constantly capturing everything I might need to remember again. I basically use it as a replacement for my memory (which has always been pretty terrible). Whatever I'm doing, wherever I am, if I think I'll ever want to refer to this thing again no matter how trivial I'll put it in Evernote. If I'm reading a magazine or a book and I like an article or a quote I'll take a photo on my phone and it goes straight in Evernote. If I'm driving and I think of an idea I want to remember I'll make a voice note and transcribe it later. If I'm browsing the web and like a page or a photo I clip it straight in. If I'm making a phone call to my internet provider about some issue I'll take notes in Evernote as I'm doing it. I must make dozens of notes every day, then I tag them appropriately and put them in a big Archive notebook.

The amount of times this has saved my ass, or I've been able to pull up something in conversation that I can't quite remember is incredible. Case in point - the other day I needed to know when I closed a particular bank account, so I searched in Evernote and found the note from a year and half ago when I called the bank, spoke to "Veena" and closed the account. No way you could do that just from memory.

I use Evernote for pretty much everything. It's awesome, I love it. :D

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I was thinking like you when I first got hooked on EN too. I think it's the tinker/tech freak/inner child in us.

Good advice in this thread. Both the practical & tactical (use cases) and the zen philosophical (solution in search of a problem).

My $0.02, just take it easy and let your increased usage happen at it's natural pace. You'll find more and more ways to make your life easier with EN as your experience (and note count) builds. So, let your needs drive your usage, not vice-versa.

Kinda like a new relationship. 8)

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My $0.02, just take it easy and let your increased usage happen at it's natural pace. You'll find more and more ways to make your life easier with EN as your experience (and note count) builds. So, let your needs drive your usage, not vice-versa. 8)

I knew I wanted to use Evernote because I'm a mental and virtual junk monkey. I want to remember everything. However, I just didn't know how to begin. So, I just started collecting it all and I realized THEN, that I could begin to see MY trends, and with these trends (the things I seemed to collect over and over) I began to organize into relevant categories/stacks. Within my stacks, I could further breakdown into notebooks. Now, over time, I still collect anything I want, and I can now organize into the places that make sense.

At first the possibilities were overwhelming, but it just sort of became what it is. I tried to also make EN into a GTD thingy, but that aspect just doesn't work for me in the constructs of EN. I use more robust apps for that where that is the specialty of that app.

I've shown this image of my layout in another, yet similar, topic. Perhaps we can have a thread dedicated to screenshots of how everyone uses their Stacks and Notebooks??

post-25868-131906072874_thumb.png

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  • 1 year later...

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