I use
Evernote a lot - particularly at work. I use it to keep notes, organize documents, manage time and tasks, as cloud storage and to stay productive. Here are a bunch of ways that I use Evernote that others might find useful.
Tags
Every subject, place and person has a tag. People start with @, common subjects with #. Emails I find important get forwarded to the evernote email address. I then tag them with the correct people and subjects. Same goes for meetings - and meeting notes also get ID'ed and tagged. Quite often I'll use a "No Tag" saved search (-tag:**) to do some housekeeping.
Auto Import Folders
I have a folder set up on my C drive that uses the Auto-Add function. Its really good. Any report I come across or gets sent to me gets saved on there - and then appears in my Evernote.
Bookmarks
I use the Evernote clipper to save work related bookmarks - because I can then expand on the note. For example, if I clip a link I can then add my thoughts to the note and forward it to a colleague. Unlike delicious or other bookmark websites, I am less likely to lose a bookmark with Evernote, and more likely to tag it properly.
Evernote Portable
I have a thumb drive that I keep some
PortableApps on, and a portable version of Evernote. It comes in really handy when hot-desking.
Linux
At home and on my EeePC I run Ubuntu Linux. Evernote 3.1 runs okay in Wine - its good for keeping an offline "Sync" copy. I've recently found that Chrome and Chromium run Evernote Web quite nicely and now keep a pinned tab up at all times.
Process: Weekly Sheet (above)
I try and spend 15mins on Monday morning getting to grips with the week - meetings, projects and outputs. For every week I create a new weekly note with the Monday date. I then list all the major tasks I expect to attack that week. I use that sheet for the week and every day add new tasks, meeting notes or any thoughts or ideas to this note. I use the downloaded flash version of
David Seah's excellent
Emergent Task Timer to record time spent on different things. At the end of the day I screengrab the timer screen and merge the note with the week note.
Process: saving reports (above)
I do a lot of research and read quite a few reports. Usually if I've found the document on the internet, I'll clip the accompanying description or press release and merge the notes. I'll then save the report (do it after you clip so the press release is above the report in the merge) to my Auto Import folder. If its something I need to read I'll add a ToDo tag, or put a list of check boxes in it if I am looking for something in the report. I have two saved searches that find these ToDos, one for the unticked check box, the other for Tag:ToDo. All the notes that I take from the report are added to the note with the report - and any clipped web pages (for example, press on the report).
Process: Project sheets
When I'm working on a large project, it will get its own tag. However, if is a confined project it will only have a Project Sheet. This sits in my Today folder (Inbox) if it is active. Any notes, emails or documents are saved and merged into the Project Sheet. If the note gets too long, I break them in two where the project requires. If its longer than that, it gets a tag!
