EvernoteWelcome to the age of cloud computing. This means that data files can be stored online rather than traditionally on your laptop or desktop. This allows you to access it via your laptop, any computer with web browser, or your peripheral device (in my case- the iPhone). The benefit is that you don't have multiple copies of outdated files floating around. The updated files get sync'd to the web and all your platforms as soon as access is available.
I have never been a a huge fan of organizers because it ended up being more work to keep things organized in that system or structure. This was true until four months ago when I started using Evernote. I use this FREE application almost on a daily basis.
It's a simple concept which is great in its simplicity. Here is my set-up. I use Evernote in primarily 2 locations: laptop and iPhone.
Laptop
- My Macintosh has the desktop version of Evernote. In the left column, there are a list of tags which I attach to some of my Notes. You can search by tags if needed. The middle column has the titles of all my "Notes". The right column displays the contents of the highlighted note.
- The most common note that I access is my To-Do list. Now I can check it on the go or on the laptop. It's always synchronized up.
- I have the UCSF Yellow Shuttle schedule for me to get to conference and back.
- A great feature of the Firefox browser is that it has a free Evernote extension which allows you to "clip" anything on the screen you'd like. It automatically imports the current website's content directly into a new Evernote note. Just click the Elephant icon in the menu bar (red arrow in image above). For example, this has been invaluable in recording the monthly ED schedule at work. Our schedules are posted through Tangiers (a web scheduling program) and it's hard to download it into a nicely formatted PDF. Here's how the schedule looks on Evernote with just one click of the button.
iPhone
- On my iPhone, I now can access everything that I just wrote on my laptop. It works similar to the desktop version.
- One unique option that's not available for Evernote on the desktop is the GPS feature of the iPhone. If you create a note on the iPhone, it will automatically capture information about where you made the note. So, I've heard of people taking a picture of their car at the airport long-term parking lot. If you hit "info", it'll show you where you created the note on a map! It's a sure-fire way to not lose your car in a large parking lot (reminds me of a Seinfeld episode).
As an example of the GPS feature, I took an iPhone photo of a sketch yesterday on my office wall. In the Note Info page, you can see that it gives my location as San Francisco, which you can see on the map as a red dot.
