Hello everyone!
In today’s video I will be talking about how I have been using Evernote lately to completely
revamp the way I regard productivity, my to-do lists and general organization.
I also want to thank Skillshare for partnering with me to help me deliver this video today.
Actually, I learned most of the things I will be talking about here in a couple of Skillshare
classes solely dedicated to using Evernote to improve your productivity.
Skillshare is an online learning community with more than 20,000 classes in dozens of
categories, including productivity, motivation and note taking skills.
Premium Membership gives you unlimited access to high quality classes from experts working
in their fields, so you can improve your skills, unlock new opportunities, and do the work
you love.
Skillshare is also more affordable than most learning platforms out there: an annual subscription
is less than $10 a month.
Also, the first five hundred people to click the link in the description box below will
get their first two months of unlimited classes for free and I will be listing the classes
on Evernote that I watched in the description box so you can get started in mastering Evernote.
As most of you know, I have been on a journey to slowly transition from paper to digital
notes, planning and bullet journaling.
This journey started when I became aware of the clutter and waste of paper that my love
for stationery was causing in my home.
Besides, I wanted to broaden the scope of tools I have to also include more portable,
inexpensive and environmentally friendly ways to be productive and organized.
I still use paper, but I am now much more aware of the products I buy and if I actually
need them in my life instead of just buying them for the sake of collecting stationery
and office supplies.
Although I was able to make a smooth transition from a planner to an incredible productivity
tool in my digital calendar, one thing I was missing was the ability to keep all of my
notes in the same place, like I would do with a typical bullet journal.
I have been using Evernote since I was a teenager but it was only during this transition phase
that I actually started to love it and understand its potential.
Before I go on talking about this particular app, I have to make a disclaimer regarding
why I actually use it.
I currently have a Macbook Pro, an iPad and an Android phone.
Unfortunately, because I am not fully into the Apple ecosystem yet, the notes app is
almost useless, because it does not synch with my phone.
As such, as long as I have my current phone, I had to find a third-party alternative that
could synchronize between macOs, iOs and Android seamlessly and since I was already familiar
with Evernote, I decided to give it a go one more time.
Evernote has the advantage of having a great free version.
I am actually paying for the plus version because I enjoy having the app synchronized
between three devices and all of my notes available offline, but I have been using the
free version for years and it offers all the features that the paid version does that I
actually need.
The paid versions offer more in terms of formal note taking abilities, like the ability to
annotate pdfs and create presentations, increased monthly uploads and notes sizes, but for lists
and basic note taking I think that the free version goes a long way.
Basically, I categorize notes in Evernote by creating separate notebooks for different
purposes.
My current notebooks are for brainstorming, ideas, notes and to-dos, recipes, snippets
and YouTube related stuff.
My brainstorming notebook is mainly composed of handwritten notes using my iPad and apple
pencil because I prefer to mind map while brainstorming.
This is also where I jot down notes during meetings or skype calls.
All of your notebooks can be separately shared with other people who also use Evernote, so
it’s a great place to store documents and notes on the go when you are working on a
group project.
Of course, you have other great options like Google Drive or Google Docs as well as Dropbox
to share files and editable documents, so it ends up depending on your personal preference.
Evernote is a powerful but very minimalistic editor and organization app.
It does not allow for tons of customization in terms of color or file managing so it can
definitely displease some people who have very thorough or complex organization systems.
I like its simplicity to keep very simple lists, just as the ones I am going to show
you in a bit, but I also would never be able to use it as a note taking app, a document
editor app or as my general filing system.
In bullet journal style, I like to keep a few lists with me at all-times, so I am able
to check off things on my day-to-day life.
For instance in my “notes and to-do notebook” I have a general list called “stuff to restock”
that acts as a main shopping list and is shared between two people.
I divide the items I usually buy for my home in categories and as soon as something runs
out, I check the box next to the item.
This immediately synchronizes with all my devices and all the people sharing this particular
notebook, so I can keep track of everything I need to buy as soon as I go shopping for
groceries without keeping physical lists.
As soon as I buy those items, I remove the check marks and I start with a blank slate.
Other less used lists that I keep in this particular notebook include lists of documents
to read for my Master’s Thesis, a very rough draft of my YouTube plan for the next 6 months,
a bucket list, a main packing check-list, lists of books I want to read, my 25 Before
25 list and so on.
Having all of these stored in all my devices makes it very handy to keep on track with
my goals.
For instance, you can configure your Evernote app in your computer as a startup program
to launch whenever you turn on your computer.
I tend to use keep it open all times to stay accountable for my project checklists.
If you are asking where I keep my daily to-do lists and scheduled events, you should check
out my calendar blocking video, where I talk about how I started using this technique to
block the time in my calendar to dedicate all my attention to a specific task.
I have been using this system for almost four months and it has been a life saviour.
For that, I will leave a link in the description box as well as in the upper right corner of
your screen.
Evernote also helps you organize your notes, independently of storing them in specific
notebooks, by allowing you to use tags.
These work pretty much in the same way as tags work in social media.
Basically, for each note you create, you are able to insert a couple of different keywords
that represent its content, even if you feel like they should be scattered between different
notebooks.
Searching for those tabs again to find that content becomes much easier.
For instance, in my tags list, I have the word YouTube.
When I click it, Evernote lists all the notes identified under the YouTube tag.
Some of these notes are stored in my brainstorm notebook, others in my ideas notebook and
others in my to-dos.
It’s a clever little way to make sure you stay on track with different topics while
also keeping a very flexible management system.
Finally, I want to mention the Evernote extension that allows you to quickly jot down notes
while you are working on your computer, doing some research, etc.
It has four modes: you can either right a note manually, clip full screen, clip a specific
window on the computer or record audio.
Independently of the mode you choose, the result will be saved in a note that you can
then re-name, re-tag and reorganize in the notebook of your choice.
This function can come really in handy if you are conducting heavy research on your
computer, watching video lessons or simply annotating documents.
And this is all for today’s video!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s tutorial and I will see you next week with more tips
on productivity and organization.
Bye!