Advanced Evernote with M.O.M.

Building on our Introduction to Evernote class, this video will walk through additional ideas to make Evernote a fantastic addition to your MOM program.

You’ll learn how Evernote can be an effective tool to help you move through current projects, next actions, the weekly review, and more.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

Sample Evernote Notebook of Weekly Review Materials

Advanced Evernote Chat Log

 

Advanced Evernote Webinar Notes

• Evernote is a tool that can help us thrive.

• We don’t want a jumbled mess of ideas and lists that only create more confusion. We want an organized app so it will be a useful tool for us. (1:54 – 2:28)

 

Ways to have an organized Evernote app:

(1) Notebooks (2:58 – 3:34)
-Think of these like M.O.M.’s cubby system with current project support materials. It’s just like you are filing things into a filing cabinet.

(2) Notebook Stacks (3:56 – 4:23)
-You can drag and drop one Notebook onto another. It allows you to nest Notebooks together.
-If you have a Notebook that needs a more robust system

(3) Tags (4:28 – 4:53)
-Tags are a great way to link Notebooks together that are in separate Notebook Stacks.
-This makes it easy to find multiple Notes on the same subject.

 

How to determine when and how to use Notebooks, Stacks, & Tags: (4:54 – 7:35)

• Ask yourself, how are you using Evernote and how will you go back and look for those resources?
• What would you like Evernote to be for you?
• April uses a simple set of Notebooks and puts those in stacks if needed.

 

How to Organize Evernote with M.O.M.: (8:05 – 14:53)

• Most of the basics of M.O.M., (Once a Week, On the Brain, and Off the Brain), can be included in Evernote.
• You can create a Mind Organization Stack within Evernote and include the following Notebooks:
  • Inbox – You could create a new note or take a photo as a reminder, and put it in the Inbox to process later. With advanced version of Evernote you can email it to yourself in Evernote and put it in the Inbox.
  • Weekly Review Materials – Click here for April’s Weekly Review Notebook.
  • Current Project Support Materials – Can contain notes for each of your current projects or you could list current project per month. You could include one note per project.
  • Filing Cabinet – Rather than filing it in your filing cabinet, you could take a photo and insert here. Use tags to make finding things more easily.
  • Incubation Folder – If these items have a deadline, make sure you add a reminder on your calendar.
  • Read & Review – With the Evernote Pro account you can email yourself anything you want to read later.
  • Someday Folder – Similar to Incubation folder.
  • Tickler File – You could make a Note/Notebook for each month of the year or simply tag each note with the month as you process it. You could take a photo of your paper you need to process.

 

Questions & Answers: (14:54 – 22:23)

• Evernote should not replace your email system.
• Evernote should be used as a system for ‘Off-the-Brain’ Items. You don’t want to have too many places to look so your system is effective.
• Anytime you have an email you would like to keep with current project materials that you would be referencing, you can email it to Evernote. When you email it, use @ then the name of your notebook, in the subject line, this way the email will automatically go to that Notebook. You can also use hashtag# to tag documents when you email and it will apply the tag.
• Tag items with what you would search for in the future.
• Evernote can serve you however you would like. If you prefer to use a physical system, you can use it how it works best for you.

 

How to Use Evernote for Next Actions: (22:24 – 23:17)

• You can create a shortcut to make your next actions stay at the top.
• You can put signs at the beginning to bring items higher up in a heirarchy (!, @, etc.)

 

Evernote and the Weekly Review: (23:18 – 28:11)

• Have one specific place where you check your Weekly Review Materials in Evernote.
• As you do your weekly review, consider if Evernote is like your filing cabinet or is Evernote an essential part of your weekly review?
• Scannable is an app that is helpful for making a digital copies of your papers.
• Evernote helps us reduce the papers that we file.
• You can share a note by right-clicking to copy to share a link. If you want to share a Notebook you can click on “Publish Notebook” and allow others to edit or only view a Notebook. (Similar to sharing a Google Doc.)
• During your weekly review, you can take photos of the papers in your stack and file them digitally.

 

Evernote & Paper Planners: (28:12 – 31:38)

• You can still use a paper planner, but still access the benefits of Evernote.
• April uses a two-page Franklin Covey Planner. The left side has her tasks for the day and the right side has notes that she will take during a meeting, agenda items, and quick reminders throughout the day.
• April writes things down in her planner and then at the end of the day and transfers it to Evernote by taking a photo of it and tagging it appropriately.
• Evernote can scan your handwriting and then April can search her notes by key words.
• You can use check boxes to check next actions off as you get them done.
• Check boxes are nice if you want a record of what you have done, if not you can just delete the item.
• When you know you can photograph anything and save it in your digital planner, then you don’t have to store pages and pages.

 

How Reminders Work in Evernote: (31:39 – 34:01)

• You can set a reminder in Evernote if you’d like. You can schedule the day and time and move it to another day/time if necessary.
• You can have Evernote send you a digest email in the morning if you have scheduled reminders.

 

Advanced Options: (34:02 – 38:40)

• April recommends reading Brett Kelly’s Evernote Essentials book. He recommends:
  • Using symbols to keep things in particular order. Such as !, #, ., etc. For example, Michael Hyatt uses a period so he can put his goals in a certain order.
  • Utilize Skitch (take a photo and add notes on top) and Penultimate (handwrite on an iPad). For example, you receive a medical bill and take a photo of it. You can then make a note on the image to share with the Dr.’s office to show them an item on the bill that is not correct.
  • Learn more about Skitch here and Penultimate here.
  • Search using “any:” plus the word you are looking for, and the search results will include any tag or note that contains that word.

• Check out Ron’s Evernote Tips. This is a shared Evernote Notebook you can save and use to learn more about Evernote.

 

Creative Ways to Use Evernote: (38:41 – 53:00)

• Use Evernote to track a certain topic. i.e. April uses Evernote to track her children’s piano progress as she teaches them.
• Take a photo of a paper you’ll need in the future. i.e. April took a photo of her son’s school supply list and then pulled it up in Evernote three months later when it was time to purchase the supplies
• You can save audio. The audio in Evernote is not the best quality, so instead you can use your phone’s audio app and then email that voice memo to Evernote.
• You could take a photo of something you might like to do someday, (i.e. a business card for a service you might need, a brochure for a location to visit, etc.).
• Create a wishlist for your children when you are at the store and they want something that you can’t buy that day. Take a photo of your child with the item they want and tag it in their own notebook to save ideas for birthday, Christmas, etc.
• Create a Wondering List of questions that your kids have, but you can’t answer in the moment. It can create a great journal item, but also something to do on a road trip, etc.
• Store notes from a phone call, conference, etc. by taking a photo of the notes.
• When reading a book, you can create a note with the book title and then add audio notes, dictate favorite photos of book pages, etc to collectively store all of your thoughts from the book.
• Create a Travel Stack, then make a notebook for each trip you take. Make that Notebook your default Notebook while traveling so you can quickly add notes, photos, journal entries, etc. Everything is ready for you to easily transfer to a photo book about your travels.
• Take a photo of your children’s drawings.
• When you create a Notebook, you can make it local or synced. If you are going to keep a lot of things you may want to upgrade.
• You can use Evernote to track your progress on goals. i.e. April uses a note to with check boxes to track how many servings of vegetables she’s eaten that day, etc. One note per year, but copy and paste for the next day so you can use it as a daily tracking record.
• You can create templates.
• You can use Web Clipper to save articles/text from the Internet and then save then in the appropriate Notebook.
• You could subscribe to emails (like Newsletters, etc.) with your Evernote email address.

 

How do we back up our notes? (53:02 – 53:33)

• Go to “File” then “Export” and export your entire Evernote data to Dropbox or an external hard drive.

 

Questions & Answers: (53:36 – 1:04:45)

• You can create a copy of someone else’s shared Notebook and then make it your own.
• Right-click on notebook to make it a shortcut.
• You can use geo-tag a notebook so you know where you were when you created a certain notes. You will need to make sure the location services are turned on for Evernote.
• April organizes her notebooks alphabetically, and then notes are organized with most recent at the top down to the oldest.
• When April journals she uses a separate note for each journal entry.
• April has a spiritual journal to keep track of scripture study notes, articles, etc.
• You can create a family history notebook and include audio files interviewing relatives, etc.
• There are many 3rd party apps that work well with Evernote. i.e. The Secret Weapon, IQTell
• Your computer and your phone can sync, so it makes it nice when you are on the go.
• How you use Evernote depends on your style.
• You will learn the most by testing Evernote out. If it is overwhelming and not helpful, you can stick to your physical system.
• Make sure you have your M.O.M. System set up first, then you can see how/if you want to implement Evernote into your system.

About April Perry

April Perry is the wife to her best friend, Eric, and mother to Alia, Grace, Ethan, and Spencer. In addition to the work she does within her family, she hopes to strengthen others through her projects at Power of Moms and LearnDoBecome.April's "Why" is this: To architect a life of excellence--centered on family and moving upward towards God--with a beautiful balance of spiritual, mental, and physical development that enables others to do the same.