Evernote is one of those programs that is weird to get the hang of, but once you do, it will change your life. The secret is to use it for everything. If you use it only for this or that, it will never really make sense for you.  I’ve been using it for 5+ years and let me tell you, I hyperventilate a little bit without it. It’s the VERY FIRST THING I load onto a new computer. Over a better browser, over mail, over a calendar. The very first thing.   

It took me a while to really hone my method - I tried various things and then discarded them like outgrown shoes. Occasionally I’d abandon it for something newer and shinier, but I always come back.  And in the last two years, I’ve discovered a groove that is absolutely life changing.  I hope that something here will resonate with you and make your life easier. Here’s how I use it. 

1. Put EVERYTHING in it.  You cannot overuse Evernote.

• My daughter is at a swim meet. I open a note and call it “Waterford Swim Meet”. It auto tags the date and location. I jot down which events she’s in. I take a photograph of the program.  I take a handful of photos of her at the meet (terrible photos, I’m far far away) and one of the score board with her time on it when she broke a personal record.  All go in the note.  As she swims, I jot down her times for each race.   On the way out, I throw away the program (no more, “where should I put this, maybe I’ll make a scrapbook someday”) and can tell her what she placed, what her times were. I tag the note with three tags: “Leslie”, “8th grade” & “swim”.
• I just acquired a microwave for over the stove. I open a note and call it “Microwave”. I take a photo of the sticker with the model and serial number. I do a quick google search for that model + manual, download the manual and add it to the note. Finally, I photograph the receipt and add it to the note.  Done.  I throw away box, manual & receipt, knowing I’ll always have them if I need them.
• I’m at Supercuts with my son and I open a note and title it “Boy haircut”. In it I jot down which blade he likes for the sides and the top.  We stop at the shoe store and buy sneakers. I take a quick photo of the label on the box. I label it shoes and tag it with his name.
• I’m at the doctor with my daughter. I open a note and label it “Dr Adams”. I jot down her height and weight, prescriptions and anything else valuable (shots, tests, etc).  I tag it “Leslie” “Dr”.  Later when the bill and the EOB from the insurance company come in, I attach those to this entry.

2. Tag with three things: Who, When, What

• You can get (and I have) crazy elaborate with tags but I’ve found that in order for them to be most useful, you only need those three pieces of info. The’ve never failed me. Who? What? When? I don’t always use tags and I don’t always use them all. But all my tags are one or more of those items. 

3. Search here first

• I get a phone call during rehearsal and the daughter says the director doesn’t want her to wear boots on stage, she needs flats, can I get her some black ones real quick? I head to Old Navy, pull up Evernote and search “shoes” and boom, there I’ve got her most recent size.
• I’m filling out paperwork at the high school info night and need to know when a tetanus shot was. I pull up EN and search “tetanus” and get three entries - one for each of us. I grab the one tagged with the right kid, look at the date, and there you go.
• I’m at Lowe’s and shopping for the little bulb in the microwave that illuminates the stovetop. Holy moly, there’s like a million sizes, what? I pull open EN, search for “microwave” and right there on my phone, boom, owners manual for my microwave that I can search through and find the secret code for the right bulb.
• I’m talking to another swim mom about how the kids qualify for certain events and she tells me the time cut off. I pull out EN to see what my child got in that event with a 5 second search of “swim” and “50 back”.  There’s my answer.
• I’m on the phone with student loan people and they need to know my AGI from line whatever in my taxes last year. Open EN, search for “Taxes” choose the right one and 20 seconds later, I have my answer.
• I’m trying to find a new recipe for couscous and remember that I saw one in the magazine at the drs office a month ago. I open EN and search for “couscous” and there it is. I took a picture of it and EN found the word IN THE PHOTO.
• What’s the name of that orthopedist I saw one time in Myrtle Beach? Open up EN and search for “orth” because I can never spell that word. Luckily, I only get hits for him and Collin’s orthodontist so we’re all good. I simply took a photo of his business card and then threw it away.
• I’m talking to a friend who’s visiting Galveston and can’t remember the name of the pirate that we found who is buried there. Open EN, search for “pirate” and it finds the photograph of my kids standing next to the monument from the word “pirate’ engraved in the marble.

Evernote has replaced my recipe book, my filing cabinet and my filofax. It’s replaced 3 boxes of kid memorabilia in the garage.  If I want a timeline, I put “leslie” 1st grade” and automagically I have samples of her work, her art, her schedule, her report cards, name and numbers of her teachers and photos of her…all in a neat timeline. 

Because Evernote lives in the cloud, it doesn’t matter if my phone breaks or my house burns down, I’ll always have access. And I’ll always be able to find what I need quickly and not have a home cluttered with “I better not throw this away”.  It’s absolutely priceless.

My major project this year is getting all my photos digitized, rightsized and organized. I’d like to make photo books of each year of our lives but first, I have to figure out where to put them.

My requirements:

• Nested folders. This is not negotiable - it’s how I think. I want to be able to have a folder that has each year, and inside that folders with months and inside that events.
• Full sized downloads. Don’t give me a gimpy copy if I want to re-download it. And batches, please. Don’t make me click one at a time. They are MY photos.
• Mobile accessibility
• Price
• Tags are nice, but not a deal breaker.

I’m looking at Picasa, Flickr & Shutterfly initially, but may add more.

I love Facebook. I was an early adopter, pretty much as soon as they opened it up to regular people without an .edu email address back in 2007. I’d been eyeing the platform even before that. I saw it’s potential as a tool to keep up with the people I cared about and today, six years later, that’s still what I love.

Yes, I understand that companies are mining my likes and tags for advertising. I don’t have a problem with that. When I buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks, part of my money goes to advertising and I don’t have a problem with that, either. Advertising doesn’t drive my choices, good products do. So if I say “Loved my tasty Carmel Macchiato this morning on my way to work.” and Starbucks uses that to sell them to other people, ok then.

I’ve never understood the various privacy crisis’s that get posted all over regularly. I set all my posts and activities to “Friends Only” when I signed up, and I’ve never had to change it. I don’t post for the public and “friends of friends” don’t get to see my stuff.   When I sign up for a service that wants to connect with Facebook, I consider if it’s something I’d like a record of and almost always set the toggle to “Only Me”.  This way, if a service I use tries to post on FB without my knowledge, no one else can see it and when I notice, I can simply delete it.

Sometimes, I allow other apps to post for me - if it shares something about me that I want you to know, I’ll let it go. Spotify, Runkeeper, Tumblr.  I enjoy reading what you post on them, so I’m happy to join the conversation. I’ve discovered many new artists that I enjoy by seeing what my friends are listening to. I am constantly shamed into running when I see Jeanne’s “Map My Run” posts.   If someone posting from an app that drives me crazy, a simple click removes it, and a hover/unsubscribe (from the app, not the person) ensures I never see it again. I also only “friend” people who are actually friends. I discard friend requests from aquaintances all the time!  If you aren’t someone I would go out to coffee with, you aren’t seeing this!  People who freak out are the ones who a) haven’t spent the time to understand how it works or b) have everything set to public. I’m neither, and you shouldn’t be either.

Lately, the common complaint has been that it’s a medium for “self-promotion”, and how that’s arrogant and somehow a part of something that’s wrong with our culture. I vehemently disagree on that one. I have friends from all over the world, thanks to my penchant for moving & my involvement in gaming. I have far-flung family. And I would never be able to keep these relationships without Facebook.  I LOVE knowing that Jan & Nathan bought a bar in Oregon and that Jen broke her leg at Tahoe and that Sam started a new church in Washington and that Justin is doing an art thing in Tulsa. I adore the constant music references from my Jef in San Antonio and pictures of Glenda’s grand baby in Houston or which golf course my Dad played today.  My character is strengthened and challenged by having reasonable, intelligent debates with people I respect on issues we don’t agree on. Gun control, theology, poverty & social services, parenting styles - I get to have great discussions about these things with others who are passionate and thoughtful without them devolving into name calling. Where else in the public sphere do you get to do that?  These are all things that I would miss without Facebook.

I don’t look at any of these things as self-promotions. These lovely people are simply putting themselves out there to participate in the human conversation, as am I. It brings us together. My frustration with “customer service” is eased when I share it and hear similar stories from others. My joy is increased when I cheer for my son online and others chime in.

This did not happen by accident. I am ruthless about culling people out of my feed who don’t contribute to the conversation. If the only time you post is to promote your business/album/bible verse of the day, then you aren’t on my list. Sorry. I’m not saying that’s wrong, not at all.  But that’s not how I choose to use Facebook, so I’ve organized it that way.

If all you see is promotion and product endorsements and games, then you ought to spend a little time tweaking things to make it more of a joy and less of an irritation.  And please, stop telling me that’s it’s awful. If it’s awful for you, it’s your fault. Either fix it, or stop using it.