Get Organized in 2009! A Tool to Assist you…
Getting organized is probably on everyone’s list of things to do for 2009. I know for me, it is my #1 priority. The good new is that I have already made a jump start on getting organized using a tool called Evernote.
You would think that with all of the computers, cell phones and wireless devices that people have now, it would be easy for people to get organized. Well, I often think that these devices make it harder, and not easier, to get organized.
Why? Because of the “Information Overload” problem. These is just so much stuff happening across the Internet, Social networks, Business networks, MeetUp groups, etc. that it becomes a major task to keep track of all of this information, links, bookmarks, people, places, events and appointments. You need a big notebook to keep everything in, and it need to be with you everywhere you go.
There is an on-line tool that can assist you called Evernote and you can find it at the http://evernote.com site. Oh, did I mention that is it free?
I have tried many, many tools in the past, some free and some paid, and I have to say, I like Evernote the best. It does not do everything that you might think of, but it can keep track of everything with just a little planning on your part. Sometimes the best tool is the simplest tool and Evernote fits this nicely. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a simple application, but using it certainly is and that is what make it so effective to use.
Recently, I converted my desktop from using the dreaded Microsoft Vista to using a Mac. However, all of my valuable notes were stored on the PC. I also use an iPod Touch for note taking and an iPhone for communications. Why both you ask? I tend to use the iPod Touch for music, vdeos and podcasts where my iPhone is primary used for normal communications, applications, Twitter and web surfing.
But I also use several PC’s and Mac’s as part of my Data Recovery business as well as my teaching assignments. So keeping everything synchronized across all of these devices can be a real challenge.
Evernote has been a big timesaver in this the regard. It allows me to add notes on any of my PC’s, Mac, iPhone and iPod Touch and have them all sync together aotomatically. Plus, I can access my information using standard web browsers when I am away from my home, office and classrooms.
With Evernote, I can add information and access it anywhere. And it is all in sync perfectly. I have tried many other services that perform similar functions, including MobileMe, Webex Office and others. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, and I’m not saying that they are bad. It just depends on how you use them and how you keep them updated.
Keep in mind that Evernote is a NoteBook program. It is not a contact manager, calendar or filesharing application. However, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that Evernote can be used for these things too. All you need to do is create a new notebook for each category of things that you want to keep track of and go from there. You can share notebooks across you devices and simply keep them local to one machine.
I even have a notebook for my shopping list at the grocery store, which I can update anywhere and access directly from my iPhone while shopping. Another notebook for is for my events, which is really my calendar and I can easily add or remove events to it from anywhere.
While it would be ideal to have Evernote pull events from my Google Calendar, iCal calendar, Outlook calendar and MeetUp calendar, it does not do this. I do not hold this against Evernote, since it is not designed to be a calendar application. And to be honest, I have not found a single application yet that is capable of doing this. So I add the my major events to Evernote and use other tools when it makes sense to do so. Plus, you can easily cut and paste your daily schedule into Evernote first thing in the morning, if you want everything in one place.
You may be wondering what makes Evernote so useful when there are several free services on the Internet that perform similar functions. Well, the biggest advantage, which you may not realize until you use it, is that there are client applications for Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone, iPod Touch and many other devices. This means that these applications live on your desktop and let you access your notes and synchronize them with a few clicks. You do not need to open a web browser every time that you want to jot down a note, add a contact or create an event. Keep the application open and in your system tray and you can jump to it very quickly. You can also cut and paste into it from almost every other application, including websites and graphics file.
Evernote also offers a preminum version that includes filesharing between all of your devices. This is ideal for sharing text files, code snipets, documents, spreadsheets, graphics, photos and other data. Again, you could use an application like Google Docs to accomplish the same goal, but the Evernote desktop client applications on the PC, Mac, iPhone and iPod Touch make this so easy.
Have a great 2009 and get organized!
