How I Use Evernote - Part 1

I have been thinking of doing some posts on Evernote for a year or so.  With some encouragement from my AO friends, I decided now was the time.  I'm not sure how many parts there will be, but I won't drag it out longer than necessary, promise! Here is Part 1- Introduction. 

I am a fan of being highly-organized.  I do not always succeed at keeping things that way, but its an on-going goal of mine.  Everything in its place and a place for everything.  When Grandma says that, she was thinking about the scissors, clothes and papers, but these days, there is more to organize, and much of that is digital.  Enter Evernote.

Evernote is a free, multi-platform application that performs as a place to capture all things digital, or anything you can make digital by scanning or photographing.  I learned about it through reading free eBooks and following Mystie at Simplified Organization.  She's a homeschooling mom and had traveled this road just ahead of me, so I gleaned what I could from her, then made it my own.  After I had been using these methods a couple of years, Mystie came out with a series about Homeschooling with Evernote.  I picked up a few more tidbits that way, and do recommend you read through those posts for more ideas.

To start with, set up your free Evernote account and install the app on the devices you find useful.   There are several levels beyond Basic (free) now, but you don't need to pay to get a lot of use out of this program. We are almost entirely a Mac/Apple family, so I have Evernote (EN) on my Mac desktop, iPad and iPhone, and all 3 are on the same account. I have most of my Notebooks synced, but you don't have to use it that way.  This keeps all my information available, no matter where I am - even if I don't have any of my devices, I can login to a browser anywhere for access.  I don't use it often from my iPad, but there are times that comes in handy.  I use it most often from my desktop, and secondly from my phone, mainly when importing photos or looking at my book lists while shopping.

Next, learn the basics.  Here are some good places to start, some already mentioned above.

Ebooks
Evernote Unleashed (free on Kindle, have not read)
Evernote GTD (Getting Things Done) for Kindle

Blog series
GTD at Home for Moms series
Use Evernote for Homeschool Planning

Finally, start utilizing it in several ways and get in the habit of entering information and looking there for information.  Once you are at this stage, you will start seeing new possibilities of how EN can work for different aspects of your life.

Tentative plan for this Evernote series

Part 2: Homeschool planning and resources
Part 3: Homeschool record-keeping and exams
Part 4: Household and other uses