9 Evernote Best Practices

Evernote is the one software program that exists today that is as flexible and unique as the people who use it. Some consider this program to be a simple note-taking services. Others look at is as the most effective way to stay organized. Many look at it as a platform that will let them achieve archiving tasks. The bottom line is this: Evernote is all of the above and so much more.

Users can save and store virtually anything into Evernote. When they do, it becomes a more useful tool. Therefore the more someone uses it, the better the program becomes. It is accessible on virtually any platform made today, including mobile devices, and it can even be used on smartwatches and drawing apps.

Are you ready to get the most out of Evernote today? Then here are some of the best practices to consider using so that you can have smarter searching and the peace of mind that comes with knowing your information can be found in just a moment.

1. Go Premium

If you are using the free version of Evernote, then you’ve only got 60 MB of upload capacity per month. You’ve also got to be online to experience its functionality. By going premium, you’ll upgrade to 1 GB of data uploads per month and get some highly useful features, like searching for data inside a PDF. The dual monitor mode for presentations is also particularly useful.

2. Take Advantage of Web Capture

You could be taking screen shots with your PC or Mac, or you could be taking useful clips from the pages you visit on the internet with Evernote. You can gather anything you see online, whether it’s just a section of a page or the entire page itself. Once the information is gathered, you can put in arrows, comments, or highlight sections that would require you to graphically edit a photograph to accomplish if you were taking a traditional screen shot.

3. Make Your Email Work For You

Evernote will provide you with a private email address that you can use to store specific data. This is especially useful for small business owners who may get receipts, purchase orders, or other data that they need to store in their email. Instead of printing out hard copies or having a massive number of folders, just send yourself an email to Evernote. You can even tag the emails like on social media to make them easier to find in search.

4. Merge Your Notes Together With One Click

Taking a lot of notes is a good thing, but putting all of your notes together into one concise form is sometimes a better thing. You can do this in Evernote by just selecting multiple notes at the same time. The option to do something with them will automatically population. Merge them together into one form and then you can either email them or save them as an attachment for later.

5. Take Advantage Of The Text Clipping Features

How many times have you tried to read an article online only to be stuck with dozens of ads, pop-ups, survey requests, flashing GIFs, and other internet nonsense? Evernote eliminates all of this with their read-it later services so that all you see is the text that you want to read. With the Premium upgrade, you can even have Evernote read you the content if you don’t have time to read it on your own.

6. Set Reminders

If you set a number of reminders for yourself within Evernote, then you’ll be able to help the program become more intuitive about your needs. There’s a drop down calendar at the upper right of the screen or you can access it through your desktop interface. This way you’ll always have a reminder, especially if you use Evernote across multiple platforms, and won’t have to worry as much about that one thing you’ve kept forgetting.

7. Keep Your Work More Secure

One of the best features that Evernote has which should be used as a best practice is their two-step verification. Go into the account settings to activate it. When you do, you’ll be able to make sure that your information and research is a lot more difficult to hack. It will also work with authentication apps like Google Authenticator. You’ll get a code and this must be entered along with your password.

8. Save Notes No Matter Where You Might Be

Evernote has an app called If This, Then That which is pretty amazing. It ties in with a number of the other services that Evernote provides so that it can be used for almost anything. You can look at your flagged email messages, get reminders from your iPhone, or even go back over all of your favorited tweets from the day. It works with your RSS feeds, lets you create a diary from your Facebook chats, and pretty much anything else you can think up with your imagination. If you have a lot of data, then dump it into this app and you can search it whenever you want.

9. Go Paperless

You don’t have to invest the $500 that is required for an Evernote branded scanner to take advantage of a paper-free environment. All you need is a scanner that supports a direct connection to Evernote and many of those are in the $100 range. If you don’t want to deal with the problems of a scanner, then Shoeboxed will do the scanning work for you if you mail them the documents that you want put into Evernote – for an added cost, of course.

Evernote is one of the best ways to keep life organized today. If you feel like you are drowning in paperwork and are forgetting some of your to-do list every day, then now is the time to convert to Evernote and follow these best practices. When you do, you’ll find that modern life isn’t as hard as it seems to be.