6 Baby Steps to Get Started with Evernote

6 Baby Steps to Get Started with Evernote

I’m not sure if you are like me, but I have found that over the years, starting and keeping up with new habits has become more and more difficult. Be it lifting weights, reading more good books or trying out new ways to get organized, I need a bit of a push to try something in a small way, see that it works and then (and only then) can I jump in! Sound familiar? So come with me and we’ll take some baby steps with Evernote.

What is Evernote?
In my words, Evernote is a free tool (on your computer, iPhone, iPad, etc.) that can help you save time and/or money by getting you easily ‘Buttoned Up.’ My uses of Evernote can be broken down into three actions.

1. Capture things

2. Organize them

3. Easily find them when you need to

I have found that the more I use Evernote, the more ways I find to easily incorporate it into my life. I took one baby step, then another, then another, and so on…. Here is my challenge for you: try one or two of the suggestions I have below on how to get started using it. I promise you that if you give it a try, you will want more and more.

My List of Evernote Baby Steps (in no particular order)

1. Keep track of your kids schedule and school stuff – Take a photo or scan in their information and Evernote will make it searchable. Next time you need to find the baseball schedule, you can easily pull it up on your phone or computer. You can use separate notebooks for each kid to make it even easier.

2. Make a list of all of your household contacts – I have one that includes our handyman, our painter, the washer repairman, the exterminator, etc. Once you have this list made, you won’t need to worry about remembering the heater repairman’s name, just search for the word heater and find it in a second.

3. Keep a standard grocery list handy – I have a standard grocery list of the things I need most weeks (e.g. milk, yogurt, oranges). I pull it up each time I shop and it is a handy reminder so I don’t forget anything. Note: this is one of my most frequent uses for Evernote

4. Remember things you often forget – Snap a picture and store it in Evernote. It might be where you parked your car, your hotel room number or, if you are like me, a picture of what two buttons I need to push on our complicated TV to make it work. Tag it and then find it when you need to with ease.

5. Organize recipes with Evernote – Very easy to do and helpful for shopping, searching, etc… A great resource for how to do this is the following post: Organize recipes with Evernote.

6. Store information you want to be able to easily find – I scan in (or take pictures) of those paper things I want to be able to find easily. A couple of examples are paper invitations and my husband’s travel schedule. Evernote makes them handy and so easy to find on my iPhone.

So those are my baby steps. I started with these things and just keep finding ways to use Evernote to get me organized. Last week, I used it to keep track of my expenses and receipts on a trip. Who knows what will come next. Give it a try. You will see that it is easy (not at all a chore) and it will help you successfully get sanely organized. Let me know how it goes and other baby step ideas you have for me!

We welcome your thoughts! Please comment with your ideas and questions!