- Michael Bolt
My productivity apps – Evernote
Evernote
To give testament to the note immediately above, this is a tool I used for many years but resisted the urge to commit fully and as a result didn’t have the best experience. I revisited Evernote about a year ago after seeing a colleague use it properly, committed fully to it and haven’t looked back. Evernote is packed with features but in essence is a very simple system to use. Once you have created your Notebooks (think of these as folders for your ideas, projects or just general subjects – I even have one for shopping lists – keeps my wife happy!) you can file Notes, set reminders for ongoing Tasks or To-Do’s which work across your web-login and mobile devices so you’re never missing anything you need to do or have set to remind you of. The voice record and photo features are all useful additions but I personally don’t use these that often. The main feature I use regularly is the Web Clipper which is a browser extension allowing you to easily clip web pages for later or to store research for projects. Another feature I use heavily is the Email Dropbox that gives you the ability to email an item to one of your notebooks. If I receive something that I may want to check later I’ll email it to my Evernote, safe in the knowledge it’s going to be available across all my other devices and in the cloud too through any web browser. For me, using Evernote for the last 12 months has been a revelation especially with the search feature that for my needs has just worked flawlessly – you can always search by ‘tag’ but I find the standard search so effective I rarely have to bother. It’s always at hand and more importantly reminds me of the tasks I need to do when I need to do them, regardless of where I am. In a world with so many options that often make the whole process of making things easier do the exact opposite, Evernote just seems to cover all the bases simply and efficiently. Ofcourse, for the personal touch you could also use an actual live PA or for the ultimate – combine both.