(Archived) Quick Note Taking (i.e. Not Using the Full App To Take Notes)

[Noah Slater 1]

I use three versions of Evernote:

* Desktop (OS X)

* Mobile (iOS)

* Web

They are all great. But they are all too slow for me when I want to take a very quick note.

Sometimes, I'll have a flash of inspiration, and I just want to hit a key combo, write it down, and get back to what I was doing.

I don't want to have to open an app, wait for it to start up, sync, click a "New Note" button, and then wait for that window to open, and then to type, and then to close the application again. (I know that doesn't sound like much, but it's enough to make the process feel slow and clunky when I am in a rush, and just want to dump something into Evernote and get on with what I was doing.)

(It doesn't help that I am still on an iPhone 4. The whole phone is quite slow. Waiting for Evernote to open and sync it's changes — both before and after I have taken a note — takes a very long time.)

I have found myself actually using the OS X Notes.app to take quick notes. I can hit CMD+SPACE, type "Notes", take a note, and then hit CMD+Q very fast. The only downside to this is that Notes.app is terrible for loosing notes! (Seriously!) And also, I end up with hundreds of notes in Notes.app, and my Evernote inbox is usually just web clips. Until I do a manual consolidation.

So, what I would really like is some super simple way to just bung a note into Evernote as quickly as possible. Fire and forget. The web clipper is the perfect interface really, except obviously, it is focused on clipping from a web page. Imagine it with the option to just type some stuff, and click "Save" and be done with it, and not have it be anything to do with the current page. Or imagine if the OS X Evernote menu bar had an option to take a "Quick Entry Note" that just popped up a mini note taking window you could dismiss once you were done. Even better if that had a keyboard shortcut so I could do something like CMD+SHIFT+E to take a note.

Is there anything like this already? I have looked, and I have found nothing.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

Hi. Welcome to the forums!

(1) OSX: Control+Command+N https://support.evernote.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=587&hitOffset=158+88+39+29+28+20+5+4&docID=24206

(2) iOS: Fastever http://blog.evernote...-fastever-snap/

(3) Web: I don't know of anything particularly fast, but if you are on the desktop already, I'd just use #1.

[Metrodon 2,188]

If you are on any reasonably modern computer there really is no need to start the app, then quit it every time you use it. If you use Evernote a lot, then leave it running all the time..

[megsaint 441]

My favorite iOS app for taking quick notes and sending them to Evernote (or a whole bunch of other apps) is Drafts. The interface is beautiful, it works with TextExpander and, if you have it on both your iPhone and iPad, it syncs.

[ithinkimalion 0]

I second both Drafts and FastEvernote. Solve that problem.

[Noah Slater 1]

Thanks, I'll check those out.

I run an 11" MBA, and it's a few years old now, so Evernote is a bit big to keep running. My computer has troubles just playing films half the time. Heh. Some sort of quick entry in the task bar thing would be super handy.

[forever-evernote 29]

Thanks for the suggestion! Noted.