Nav Bar

Home Project Gallery Contact About Facebook Google+ Pinterest Twitter Bloglovin' Image Map

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Evernote Review (Part 3)

Part 3: How I use Evernote Professionally


In Part 1, I reviewed what Evernote is and why you should use it.  In Part 2, I reviewed how I use it on a day to day basis for personal note taking. Next we will review how I professionally use it and some of the ideas I am currently implementing in my professional use of Evernote. I will also provide some links to how other professionals use Evernote.

image courtesy of evernote.com

Project Notebooks

I create a notebook for each project. I start off with a note listing out team members with contact info (attach pictures/scans of business cards). I am an engineer, so my projects are swayed by what City/County/Jurisdiction the project is in. I create a note that lists out all of the jurisdictions that the project will need to be tailored to and any contacts for that jurisdiction. A note for some of the basic project info and site info. As the project starts, many of the notes are broad sweeping. As the project moves from schematic to more detailed, the notes also become more detailed. Research notes. Meeting notes. A note on a specific topic with summaries of phone conversations, emails, meetings. Phone log. Task list. Project schedule.

I love grabbing pdfs and pictures from email attachments and dropping them into notes. I also tag the notes based on topic. For instance, if I have an email that has some critical coordination information in it, I drop that info into a note and tag it "coordination." I can then search based on project (notebook) and with the tag coordination. If I get some info from a jurisdiction, then I tag it with the jurisdictions name. This allows me to search for that note based on the jurisdiction without having to remember which project I got that information for.

General Notebook

I have started taking notes about products, jurisdictions and other things that I might learn along the way and like to recall at a later date. I am an engineer and there is always something to learn and keep track of in my field. I have a file with loose leaf paper and a notebook with my chicken scratch notes collecting everything I have learned in the past 4 years of my career. Unfortunately, searching through that can be tedious and think of all the things that I may have forgotten to put in my file? Evernote makes it so easy to store information! I will have to one day scan all my files and get it into Evernote.

I try to tag my notes with the key topic. For instance, if I get some information about gas construction from Puget Sound Energy, I tag it PSE. When I do a search for all PSE tags, I'll get information from my main notebook plus some coordination information from specific project notebooks.
Evernote Hello
Use Evernote Hello to keep track of business cards
and people. (image courtesy of evernote.com)

Business Cards

I save contact info and business cards to my Evernote. I do it the old school method, but now that Evernote Hello is available on Android, I might start using it to snap pictures of business cards. In my line of work, there is a ton of coordination between team members and interaction with others outside of your firm. Business cards get dealt out at meetings. I try to stay updated with outlook at work, but it would be handy to start a notebook of contacts. Take a snap shot of a business card, create a note, list out what projects they work on and what role they provided, what firm they work for (or have worked for?), etc. Add tags for the projects they are working on and what role they provided. Evernote eventually makes photos searchable, so you will be able to fully search through your notebook of business cards. I have a hard time remembering people's names, so I might take some personal notes about each person so that I can better recall personal details better during conversations.

Evernote Blog: Tips and Stories

I think I have mentioned the Evernote Blog several times in the previous entries. I just love reading these articles on how other professionals use Evernote in their day to day professional and personal life. Here are some that I found interesting:

Conclusion

This wraps up a three part series reviewing Evernote. Check out my follow up post on Evernote Flaws and my IFTTT Review. Here is a list of other bloggers that offer ideas on how to use Evernote:

How do you use Evernote (or a competitor note taking app) for professional use? Post your thoughts in the comments below!

5 comments:

  1. You've provided some great insight here. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Girl.

    Thank you for your review.
    A friend of mine told me about Evernote, and since the last time I used it was a long time ago I was still skeptical about what he said. However your review really helps me to see what can be done with it (better insight). By the way, your review is really well written - writing style is not heavy, well structured and to the point.
    The only thing (if I may give some constructive criticism) is that you do not give too many bad points or disadvantages to Evernote - not in comparison with other products, but as a whole.
    And as I did not read for how long you had been using it, the review *may* seem biased.

    So it is now about three months on since you wrote the review, with hindsight what are the 3 major flaws or pain points you would like to change about Evernote, and let us say on the 3 aspects you described: features, personal use and work use?


    Kind regards,


    Another nrd from Brussels.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you so much for this comment! You really are spot on. It is a biased article. I wrote this early in my experience with Evernote which also coincided with when I decided I wanted to start blogging. I have been drafting up what my three cons are. I'm going to try posting a follow up article addressing this. I'll reply with the link once it is posted. Thank you, again, for this great comment!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Nrd from Brussels,
    I posted a reply to your comment here: http://ngnrdgrl.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/evernote-flaws/
    Thank you again for the great feedback!
    Sincerely,
    Bethany the ngnrdgrl

    ReplyDelete