Different Uses for Evernote

At 13,000 notes, I like to think I’m a big user of Evernote. From meeting notes and travel receipts to manuals and quotes, I keep a lot in Evernote.

And there are a lot of conventional ways that you see Evernote being used - packing lists, research, household item photos, journaling, and many others. But I want to share a few ways I use Evernote that I haven’t see elsewhere on the web.

Social Media Logging

I have a handful of rules in IFTTT that automatically create notes in Evernote when a new post, favorite, or like happens on social media. I’m often wanting to go back to something I saw on Vimeo or Instagram and can’t find it. If I favorited a photo in Instagram, I know that it’s easier to find it in Evernote than to go searching the depths of the Instagram feed.

It’s also nice to have a log of all your updates that you can quickly reference. I have a saved search (any: tag:”twitterx” tag: “tumblrx” tag:”linkedinx” tag:”instagramx” tag:”youtubex” tag:”vimeox” tag:”facebookx”) that I can sort by created date and see my recent activity across all social media sites. I just need a way to add Pinterest and Google Plus and I’ll be set.

Evernote categories: twitterx, tumblrx, linkedinx, instagramx, vimeox, youtubex, facebookx

Presentations

I’m not talking about research or random ideas for presentations here. I’m talking about the presentations themselves. PowerPoint can create decent presentations and Keynote does a fair job as well. But the clean view of an Evernote presentation is tough to beat.

I treat a single note as a slide and create a master with links to each note in the presentation. I’ve always been terrible at sticking to a script. I like to feel my way through it and this allows me to skip around within the presentation.

Evernote categories: presentationx, wipx (I remove wipx after I’ve presented it.)

Article History

I’ve written about this one in the past, but you can automatically save articles you’ve read in Evernote through Pocket. I read a life-altering article about how to cuddle with a puppy and now I can’t find it. Creating a history of articles you’ve read ensures that you’ll never forget how to cuddle puppies.

Evernote categories: articlex

Kudos

You need to start this one! Any time someone praises something I’ve done or thanks me for helping them, I add it to Evernote. You never know when a bad day will come along and you need a pick-me-up.

Evernote categories: kudox

Rating Databases

This is similar to what a lot of people use Evernote for, but I add a twist to it. I collect pictures of scotch bottles, wine bottles, bags of coffee, and even restaurant signs. But I make sure I write a few notes about the item and tag it with a rating. That allows me to do a search like “restaurantx excellentx Atlanta” to find excellent restaurants I’ve been to in Atlanta.

Evernote categories: bunch of databases with “x” on the end, terriblex, averagex, goodx, excellentx

I should note that I’ve been using Evernote less than I used to. I’ve found myself shifting over to plain text files and pdfs for general writing and quick captures, but these are some things that I’m continuing to keep in Evernote.