The Memory Machine – Work Smarter With Evernote!

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evernote

I recently realised that I am in love. In the past, I have fallen in love with many people, I have been obsessed with hundreds of movie stars, musicians, Kings and Queens,  phones, animals, shoes, cloth designs, houses, fasts food, and Apple both the fruit and the company. I have loved money, languages, cultures and jets. But…

is it possible to fall in love with a software? If so, I have. I wished I was in love with Phil Libin but that was not the case, am in love with the elephants brain; am deeply in love with Evernote.

Am not a computer fan so I found it really hard to believe that am in love with Evernote. Before today, I did almost everything with my pen and paper from making my sleep schedule, to eating plans, shopping, house work, studies, video and work plan and I became a “paper monster“. A week ago, I was about making plans for the coming week and I realised that I had left all my pens at a friends place. That left me frustrated and i decided to seek solace in the internet. I went to Pinboard/Trends where I had a “second meeting” with Evernote.
My first meeting with Evernote like many others in my Business Application class was on 09/10/12. It never meant much to me at first and i never really cared about using it. As  I ran into the pen  problems last week, I decided to give Evernote a try. In a recent lifehacker, Evernote came top with a total of 37% of the vote defeating the four other top note taking Applications including the pen and paper, Microsoft OneNote, Springpad and Simplenote. So i realised that Evernote is a program of world wide recognition.

Who uses Evernote?

I was happy to find out that am not the only lover. After speaking with Marie Luzia in the library, I realised that her daily activities were also organised in the Super Elephant brain called Evernote- which as she told me is a symbol of wisdom in the Chinese culture. According to the TNW Evernote is currently growing at a rate of  1.2 million users a month, an average 40,000 users per day.  This external brain is widely popular in Japan where 22 books have been published about it. Anybody can use Evernote. Interestingly enough, while the priest uses Evernote to compose his sermons, another uses it to keep track of his sins. Teachers use Evernote to make assignments while students use Evernote to do their assignments. Managers use Evernote to keep track of inventories while the customers use Evernote to keep record of what they buy from companies. A husband uses Evernote to keep records of the birthdays of his wife and his kids, and a wife uses Evernote to store things which she has to tell her husband before he goes to bed. A tourist uses Evernote to create trip plans and photo while journals and journalists write stories using Evernote. I also got to know about the Livescribe and also that it is possible to use Evernote on these electronic pens.

Work Smarter -12 Ways to Improve 2013 using Evernote.

Did you have trouble accomplishing your mission and task in 2012? It was not easy for me especially being in a new semester and having a lot of assignments and work to do. Well if you still have a problem with organisations, here is a solution that could clear all your discomforting problems. Alexandra Samuel a blogger for Harvard Business Review  lays out 12 ways on how you could make a better year by using Evernote.

  • January
    Focus on your top goals for the year. Write down from your heart what you will like to achieve in this year. Put important task in separate notebooks so that you can easily add notes to the side of each task.
  • February
    Get a notebook that sums up what you have been able to accomplish as a company or as a team or as an individual. In one notebook make a summery of the things you are already done with and you may add pictures or animations to what you have accomplished if it will make you feel better.
  • March
    Write down what you have been able to achieve and make snap shots of what you have trouble doing. Do research on the internet on what you had trouble doing. Ask for help from friends and relatives, teachers, bosses and other resourceful people whom you know can help you get to your goal. Note that in the first two months, one must try to work alone to see what you can do on your own.
  • April
    If you are following this plan as a company, File your taxes in record time by storing all receipts to one Evernote notebook. But as a student, should make a list of all you have spent in the first three month and make a fresh list for planned spending.
  • May
    Getting more sociable. In this month try to attend the conferences that come up or join social networks. As a company this month can be used to make screen shots of any awards you have received. As a student, this month can be used to makes notes on all the most important things you have learnt which you never knew of in previous years.
  • June
    Make a quick summery of what you have been able to achieve. This is done by looking through the past notebooks
  • July
    Make note of what you have able to do and what you have left.
  • August
    This is the compiling stage. Here it is involved in making a personal guide notebook of travel plans, party plans and other extra sport or fun activity. Also, write down possible solutions and methods to achieve  to is still to be achieved.
  • September
    In this month it is important to make a short term plan on what you have left to do. Since it is time when schools normally resume as a student, one can make plans for the coming activities of the school term (how to separate school work from extra curricular activities).  As a family, one can make plans on how to make time for family, work and extra activities.
  • October
    Starting again… This month is involved with making new notes for new clients and friends. But also make notebooks for new task and assignments that you made in September. And finally, share the notebooks with your friends.
  • November
    Make notes on recent achievements and on how you have made progress in the months of September and October. As a company, it is time for performance management. According to Alexandra, it is time to make notes on performances, make notes on important past conversations and to write down points that which is still to be deliberated on.
  • December
    Celebrate for you have come to the end of the year. Look at what you had written down in January and see how much of it you have achieved. A list that seemed to be a wish list in January will be an accomplishment list in December. Access your methods of achieving each goal, with the strategies and consequences of each action.

The above step by step approach was propounded by Alexandra Samuel and that is just one way of making a yearly plan using Evernote. But considering that there “Different strokes for different folks“, what applies to Alex may not apply to you my dear reader. Melanie Pinola is one user who does not see reason why many people are over rating the importance of Evernote. Not everyone is patient enough to use the 12 months steps and not everyone has the same needs and quest this year 2013.
So, if using these steps is too complex for you, and you cant find any other way to organise your work, you can always rely on the traditional method of  the paper and pen every morning when you wake up to organise your day.

Thanks for reading and leave your comments below.

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