My Evernote is the save to, share to, go to, add to, scan to, and search for, of my Blog, Business, and personal life. I know some of you who already use Evernote might be miffed over the recent changes. Most of us are not good with change, to begin with. So I wanted to weigh in with some great reasons why I use Evernote, and why I chose to up-level my account from the Free plan to the paid Premium plan.
Let's Start With The ABC's
At it's most basic, Evernote is a glorified notebook that does so much more than just hold notes. But we start with notes. They hold files, text , images, and audio. Notebooks hold as many notes as you want and give you a way to categorize your notes. Stacks hold notebooks together and you can add as many notebooks to a stack as you want. Tags allow you to better define your notes.
How easy it will be for you to use Evernote is directly related to how well you organize your system. Since our brains all work differently the organization of your Evernote will be what works best for you and not the next person.
Begin With A System
I recommend that you set up 4 or 5 notebooks before you begin saving anything. My first ones were Blog, Business, Projects, and To-Do. Choose titles in line with your type of work, they can be renamed later, and any notes within them can always be moved to other notebooks later. When you sign up your account comes with a couple of notebooks already named , one of which is a default, and if you set nothing up, into which all your notes will be saved. The consideration given early on to how you intend to use your system will pay off the more you use it.
While notes can only reside in one notebook, they can have as many tags as you want to describe them. Tags, although they are not necessary, can help with searching.
Evernote Pricing
The Basic plan is 100% free, you get 60MB per month, and can sync across 2 devices.
The Plus plan is $34.99/year, you get 1GB per month, and can sync across all devices.
The Premium plan is $69.99/year, you get 10GB per month, and can sync across all devices.
The Business plan is $120/year/per person
Things You Can Do With Evernote
Save anything that you can upload. Photos, Files, PDFs
Share notes and/or notebooks with others
Scan files to your notebooks, scan and digitise business cards
Search within files, images, and notes
Forward emails into Evernote
Add passcode lock on mobile apps
A Peek Into How I Use Evernote
I began using the free plan 6 months ago to make and save my to do lists. Soon after I found it to be the perfect medium to compose my blog posts with its auto-save feature. Once I move the post to my website and publish it with its photos and links, I then upload the finished product to my Completed Posts notebook. Now if my website is lost or hacked I have a backup. (I learned this the hard way with the loss of my posts on my previous website). I also have my website pages uploaded to my Site Setup notebook for the same reason. Of course, I use the Web Clipper to save whole articles or just screen shots from the web. I began a journal and while I can't draw worth beans, I can add photos of my day as a reminder.
Now let me tell you why with the new changes I didn't ditch my Evernote. First off I had 3 connected devices so I would have had to scale back to 2 to continue with the free plan. But this was not going to be a problem for me as I was ready to drop one from my active devices anyway. Instead, I chose to go with the Premium plan because in the last 6 months as I had expanded the uses of my account there were some features I wanted. The ability to access my notebooks off-line being at the top of that list, followed by the ability to browse the history of my notes, and lastly to be able to forward emails into my account.
Now there are so many things you can do with Evernote and I have only scratched the surface here. Afte all, I am still learning myself. But I'd like to know if you're not using Evernote what's stopping you?
Leave me a comment if you agree or disagree or just want to chat and don't forget to share with your friends.