How Evernote Has Changed My Daily Life

When Que released My Evernote, I have to admit – I really didn’t even know what Evernote was. I had to do some research to figure out how to effectively pitch it to my media folks and bloggers. Well, let me tell you – I unearthed a goldmine!

I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty organized person but I didn’t know organized until I found my new BFF, Evernote. I’m still working through our book to uncover all the gems the application offers, but here are the ways I have used it:

· Plan a vacation to Kauai, Hawaii (yes, you should be jealous but that’s an entirely different blog post), I wanted to find every type of activity from going to a luau to horseback riding to kayaking. There is a wealth of information on the Internet from a bazillion different sources, but keeping it all straight was not going to be an easy task. Enter Evernote. I created a Kauai notebook and then created other stacked notebooks to keep it all organized, then added tags to the activities with the best prices, times and locations. I even added our flight, car and house info. Everything is right there at my fingertips. You’re going to Kauai and want to get my info? Well, I can give that to you via Evernote’s sharing feature.

· I’m constantly looking for that perfect babysitter who is always available and loves spending time with my kids. I have the single most organized notebook of potential babysitters, put together by proximity to our house, age of the sitter, whether they’ll be in our town or attending college in another place, my kids’ feedback, and the list goes on. I could charge people to access these files if they live in my city. Links to their emails, phone numbers? All right there in my folders.

·  Keeping my accounts, user names and passwords straight. You hear all the time that you should change your passwords regularly, not use the same ones for different accounts, etc. This is difficult, likely for everyone who has a busy life. Evernote can encrypt text so only you can see it. How handy is that? You can store passwords, stay organized, and no one has access but you (you will have to remember the encryption password though).

·Of course, I’ve started using it for work. I’m a publicist, so I start putting my plans together before a book is ever published. I regularly track news stories, blogs, and social media and if I see something that would be a good tie-in, or someone who would appreciate hearing about our products, I file that info away in Evernote. I have a file for pre-pub activity, another one for right when a book comes out, and have started keeping files of the results my work has generated so I can easily pull it for a report. If I get a mention in a print publication, I can take a photo or scan it, and add it to my notebook.

If you haven’t discovered Evernote yet, there’s no better time than the present. Pick up a copy of My Evernote while you’re at it, and make the most of this awesome tool.