a delightful presentation by @laughtercrystal

1. #ever123 :
How To Use Evernote
to Totally Transform Organize Your Life
a delightful presentation by @laughtercrystal

2. Prologue
Evernote
&
@laughtercrystal:
a love story

3. Like all modern romances,
this one started with an app:
An Annotation App.

4. Skitch!
Skitch was incredibly intuitive, so I followed their brand.
Shortly thereafter, they hooked up with Evernote,
and I immediately knew that this was
the start of a beautiful friendship.

5. Evernote

6. Evernote to the Rescue!
http://bit.ly/everRescue a video introduction

7. I was born in 1983
That puts me right at the beginning of “Gen Y.”
I think technology should be able to do anything!

8. How do we NOT KNOW
How can we NOT KNOW where sharks go in the winter?
if Nessie exists?
I had questions.
How have we NOT BEEN
How can Windows NOT SEARCH to the bottom of the Mariana Trench?*
within my Excel Spreadsheets? *Pre-James Cameron’s tweet**
**Also pre-Twitter

9. Evernote is what I was looking for.

10. Evernote is for everybody!
It’ll work with any pre-established productivity/organization
systems you may already follow...

11. ...or no system at all!

12. Two fundamentals of Evernote:
Input/Output Collect/Select
Add/Search File/Find
Deposit/Withdrawal Gather/Retrieve

13. Two fundamentals of Evernote:
1. Putting stuff in via many methods
2. Quickly finding exactly what you want
aha!

14. Adding stuff to Evernote:
- Email
- Text (SMS)
- Tweet (@myEN)
- Evernote Desktop Application (Mac, Windows)
- Evernote Mobile App (iPhone, Android)
- Website (evernote.com)
- Web clipper (Browser extension/bookmarklet)
- ifttt recipe (ifttt.com/evernote)
- etc. (trunk.evernote.com)
Pro Tip: Create an easy-to-remember email account that
auto-forwards to your evernote email (which has lots of
numbers), in case you’re ever without your saved contacts.

15. Adding stuff to Evernote:
Accumulative storage is unlimited*—
only new uploads count towards your monthly limit
Evernote Basic: 60MB.
Evernote Premium: 1G
Evernote Basic Evernote Premium
Pro Tip: When nearing month's end
with a large upload allowance left,
take advantage by uploading reference
material, add photos to recipes, etc.
* Okay, there are limits, but they're REALLY high.

16. Finding stuff in Evernote
The search function is what makes Evernote amazing!
- All text (obviously)
- Tags, Notebooks, etc.
- Even searches text in photos/PDFs!
I knew it was possible!

17. Finding stuff in Evernote
Have faith in the search—
don’t go crazy with the tags!
Anything that is a word in your note is already searchable
as a keyword, so a tag would be superfluous.
No need to tag all the things!

18. The Three Levels of Organizers
Chances are, you fall into one of three categories:
- Level One Organizer
- Level Two Organizer
- Level Three Organizer (aka “Monica”)
Which one are you?

19. Level One Organizer
“It is while trying to get everything straight in my head
that I get confused.”
― Mary Virginia Micka

20. Level One Organizer
You hate organizing,
you don’t have time for organizing,
and the only reason you ever even consider
doing anything about organizing
is because your disorganization
is causing big problems
for your work or your life in general.

21. Level One Organizer
Evernote behavior:
Dump everything in, one notebook, no tags
- All your info is available on all your devices
- All stuff can be instantly searched and retrieved
- No confusing keyword/tag/notebook hierarchy

22. Level Two Organizer
You’ve got to think of the big things
while you’re doing small things,
so that all the small things go in the right direction.
—Alvin Toffler

23. Level Two Organizer
You have one of these at home:
You probably have to hunt around a bit when you are looking
for something important, but at least you know that it’s there,
and if you start from one end go all the way back,
you’ll eventually stumble upon whatever label
jogs your memory to say,
“Oh, that’s totally the file I’d have put my
dog rabies vaccination certificate in!”
And you’re almost always right.

24. Level Two Organizer
Evernote Behavior:
- Create multiple Notebooks!
- Tag stuff and things!
Pro Tip: Start small, then go big—better to
add “brain dump” searchable keywords
and phrases within your notes than to end
up with dozens of notebooks and no way
of cross-referencing between them.

25. Level Two Organizer
Separate Notebook IF:
- You’d never want to see those notes in same context
- You want to share more than one note with someone else
Pro Tip: Use short, obvious names to
make it easy to email notes quickly
using subject line codes (e.g.: “@work” You can organize notebooks into stacks
instead of “@Brown & Company).

26. Level Two Organizer
Tag IF:
- It’s not a KEYWORD—think genre!
- You will use that same tag in same context on other notes
Possible Tags:
- Action
- Movie
- Christmas
Already keywords: Pro Tip: Use short, obvious names to
- Awesome
make it easy to email notes quickly using
subject line codes (e.g.: “#movie” instead
- Die Hard of “#top movie recommendations”).

27. Level Three Organizer
Rule your mind or it will rule you.
—Horace

28. Level Three Organizer
You’re an organization junkie!
You’ve experimented with all manner of organization and
productivity methods, mantras, and philosophies, and you
probably have combined elements of many of them
into Your Own System!
Evernote is your BatBelt.

29. Level Three Organizer
Level Threes, you’re going to have the mobile app,
so take advantage of all of its features—like Page Camera!
Pro Tip: Put white pages against dark surface
to help Page Camera find the edge, or it may
crop white space until it finds text (possibly
cropping handwritten notes in margins).

30. Level Three Organizer
To the Level Threes out there, I give you this:
-tag:*
“Inbox” saved search
- Anything that hasn’t been processed/tagged yet
It ONLY works if you check it regularly! (Like, every day.)
Pro tip: If you are using Inbox, you’ll
want a “reference” tag to get things out
of your inbox that don’t necessarily
require attention or categorization, but
that you want on file if needed.

31. Evernote Everyday
The constant, unproductive preoccupation
with all the things we have to do
is the single largest consumer
of time and energy.
—Kerry Gleeson

32. Types of Notes
A note can contain:
- Text
- Hyperlinks
- Photos
- Voice notes/recordings
- Attachments (PDF, .doc, .xls, etc.)
- Checklists, numbered lists, bullet lists
*Note size limit: Basic accounts—25MB / Premium accounts—100MB

33. Searching
Just start typing!
For more advanced searches,
you can narrow your search
by adding more options.

34. Saved Searches
- Edit > Find > Save Search
- Name the search
Find saved searches by clicking in search bar
(drag to shortcut bar for one-click access!)

35. Shortcuts
Drag notes, tags, or notebooks (or saved searches!)
to Shortcuts for 1-click access

36. Sharing
Another fundamentally awesome thing about Evernote
is the ability to share select info with others.

37. Sharing
A single note:
- directions
- an interesting article
- recommended book list
Share socially, via email, or
copy the public link
How: http://bit.ly/ever1note

38. Sharing
Notebooks:
- checklists, docs, meeting notes for group projects
- passwords or product renewals for company clients
- Frequently used photos, docs, reference material
Invite collaborators via email*
*only Premium users can allow others
to edit notes in the notebook; Basic users
can only share read-only notebooks/notes.
How: http://bit.ly/ever1book

39. Fave Evernote Lifehack:
Trade bulky/elusive instruction manuals for QR codes!:
- Scan manual into Evernote
- Make QR code link to Evernote note
- Tape QR code to device!
(scanning will open note with manual!)
How: http://bit.ly/QRmanuals

40. More great resources for
Evernote organization goodness:
Official Evernote Blog:
http://bit.ly/everBlog
Darren Crawford: My Simple GTD & Evernote Combo:
http://bit.ly/DarrenGTD
31 Ninja Tricks for Making Evernote More Awesome:
http://bit.ly/everNinja
Jamie Todd Rubin: Going Paperless:
http://bit.ly/everJTR

41. Remember Everything!
There is no reason, ever, to have the same thought twice,
unless you like having that thought.
—David Allen, Getting Things Done

42. The End!
I hope you found this delightful!
— @laughtercrystal
http://laughtercrystal.com