Are You Drowning in Information?

Do you ever wonder how to keep up with the barrage of information thrown at you daily? Where do you save the great idea you found on Facebook? What about the great blog post you read about keeping your clients happy? Where did you put those meeting notes from last week? Where is the phone number for the conference call, and don’t forget the pesky nine digit PIN? Where do you store all this information in a way you can find it when you need it?

We live in a digital world now. I love it! Some people still love their paper calendars, folders, highlighters, and sticky notes. I use all of them on a rare occasion!

Three years ago, I purchased my first iPad and, not long after, an iPhone. Since then, I keep all my important documents, information, and calendar on them. I love the syncing feature between the two devices! If you have an Android device, you are able to use this app as well, but it may look a little different on the Android device.

My Favorite App

Evernote is Ever-Awesome used with the Dolphin Browser on your devices.

Evernote is a cloud (internet) program to save information and will sync on all your devices. There is a paid version and a free version. The paid version is $45 for the year, or you can pay $5 monthly. It is worth every penny and more to help organize mass amounts of information.

Watch these videos to learn some tricks you can do in Evernote.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/GdLgpRGssac[/youtube]Evernote for Computer

[youtube]http://youtu.be/HNED7Yt0JJA[/youtube]Evernote for iOS devices

I use Evernote how I formerly used a file cabinet. There is a notebook (a.k.a. “folder”) and tags to organize all of my information.

Evernote revolutionized the way I keep up with information. I had notebooks, folders, and a gazillion folders in my web browser to keep up with all the information in my life. I am a writer and speaker. I do research on the computer and find information everywhere!

Then, I realized I could organize my personal information on Evernote as well! I can keep up with all my receipts for business and personal purchases. I have a notebook for all of my personal bills; I email or scan in the bill each month and mark it paid. No need to clean out folders in my file cabinet every six months. If I ever need to reference a document, I just type in the powerful search box and all the notes with that word or company name will come up. I can tag similar items or put them all in the same notebook.

Evernote lets you customize the set-up that works best for you. This is what makes Evernote so awesome!

Things You Can Do In Evernote:

a)    You can forward emails into Evernote to save and organize. I use Evernote to keep up with important emails. Every Evernote account has an email address associated with it. You can find it under → Tools → Account Info (watch the video to learn more). Then, simply save this email address in your contacts. You can forward any email you want to save directly to Evernote by sending it to your Evernote email address.

I forward all the email receipts when I make a purchase to Evernote. For personal receipts, I tag them “Receipts 2014.” If it is a business expense, I tag it “2014 Taxes,” “Office Expense,” and “The Daily GPS Receipts 2014.” You can use as many tags as you want for each note.

I can take a picture of or scan in receipts I do not get by email. Next year, when it is time to put my information together for my taxes, I have all my documentation in a central place already organized by category.

You can email anything into Evernote!

b)    You can “Clip” web pages (the full page or a section) into Evernote.

Go to www.Evernote.com. Search for “Web Clipper” to download for your browser.

Instead of having a gazillion folders in my browser, I now put all those websites into Evernote. I can search for them by name in the search box, even if all I remember is something on the page. The powerful search box in Evernote will pull up every note you have with whatever word you searched for.

The best part is all the links on the web page are live in Evernote, meaning if you click on a link on the saved page, it will take you back out to the Internet to view the link. Shazam!

This was profound for me! Now when I do research, I save all the websites, and I can search for the information in Evernote when I need it! I can keep all kinds of different information for the same project together: emails, web research, and Master Task List for each project.

When I find a great quote on Twitter, I can email it to Evernote. When I find a great blog post on Facebook, I can “Clip” it to Evernote.

If I am on my phone or on my iPad, I use an app called Dolphin (a FREE app; see the video below about the Dolphin app). I can copy links from Facebook, Twitter, or the Safari browser and put it in the Dolphin Browser. Dolphin will then give me the option to save it to Evernote.

(NOTE: You sign into your Evernote account in the Dolphin app to be able to save notes to your Evernote account. You only do this once in the set-up, not every time you want to save a note.)

c)    You can drag and drop INTO AND FROM Evernote. Pictures and files can be dropped into a note in Evernote. You can click on a picture and drop it into a Facebook post or into a folder onto your computer.

d)    Evernote allows you to save all forms of documents: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Pages, Numbers, or Keynote. If you open the document from Evernote, make changes, then hit “save”—NOT ”save as,” and close the document. The changes you made will be stored in Evernote.

These are just a few of the things you do can in Evernote. You can find many videos on YouTube to help you as well. Happy Organizing! No more notebooks necessary! No more folders on your browsers or even in your email. You can organize it all in one place! Evernote is EverAwesome!

[youtube]http://youtu.be/wDVFFGgU6jA[/youtube] Learn more about the Dolphin Browser to “Clip” Websites to Evernote on your iPad or iPhone.

Joyce Glass is a writer, speaker, and lover of God’s word even more than chocolate! Her desire is to encourage you to walk closer to God. Dig deeper in your faith. Pray in earnest daily for God to teach you His ways, and serve Him right where you live and work now. She is the author of  iNeed God – daily downloads for your heart.  A 90 day journey closer to God! You can connect with Joyce online. Connect with Joyce on her blog, Facebook, Google+, or Twitter.