Evernote workshop in Berlin

Yesterday evening, I attended a very good workshop at hub:raum Berlin about basic and advanced features of Evernote. I started to use it a while ago, but without continuity and as my projects diversify - especially the blogging ones - I felt the need to find out a good alternative to a multiplicity of files, dossiers, hand written notes and notebooks. 

In a different blog post, I covered exclusively the features that are, in my opinion, recommended for academics. I will try to focus right now on other features that are useful for a variety of domains and professional profiles. 

Have things done faster

Evernote, multi-awarded program for its features and product design, is available in three versions: free, business (5 EUR/month) and premium (10 EUR/month). Its main headquarters are in Zurich, with offices in the US, Asia and the Middle East. Its main aim is to facilitate the bridge between information and the user and in a world overwhelmed by information this is what we need very often, regardless of your domain of activity. And yes, it goes very well with the daily chores, as you can set up a list of priorities to share with your partner/children/parents etc. The status is automatically updated once the checklist is done, saving time - as you don't need to ask every 2 hours the status - and money - you don't need to call or waste your working time checking it. Do you want to set up a party together with your friends? Or maybe your wedding? Evernote can help you too, with the Memory options, extended planning capacity and coordination possibilities. However, there are some limitations right now, as the bigger the team the higher the risk to encounter various 'conflicts' while attempting to work and edit various documents shared.

'Organization' is the name of the game and I am more than pleased to find out the variety of options turning around this magic word: you can create files around various tags that might help you to easily find them later with the help of the Search option - that also covers .PDF and .excel docs. Further on, the files can be organized up to their priority status, around a large array of tags, describing both the priority status as well as the main topics covered. The latter may be very helpful when one needs to search for specific terms later on.

Another good option that I intend to use frequently is that allowing to save articles of interest for a later lecture. The reading can be done later although you are connected to the Internet. Right now, I do have a long list of bookmarked items on my computer, but it goes very slowly and very often I have no idea what I saved. With the help of the tag, Evernote makes possible a better management of the material. The texts can not only be saved, but also annotated, and it suits academics very well. The Skitch app, that can be downloaded from Evernote's website, gives even more options of editing and annotation of pictures.

Save your hand written notes

Another app allows the photographic transfer of hand written notes. The document saved like this can be annotated. The integration of the document may last more than usual, 15-20 minutes. The scanning of business cards can create a repertoire of contacts easy to access. Gone are the days of the time spent searching chaotically about certain contacts for hours!

With the help of the Skitch app, that can be downloaded from their website, pictures and other visual docs can be annotated and modified. When you are planning events with visual content, some direct insights of this kind are very useful. 

Once you set up your account, you creates an e-mail where you can forward some of mails and check their status. 

A new option available that I am interested to test in detail is the Presentation/Meeting, that as for now, helps to organize the notes and creates docs that can be accessed and saved by different persons. I am interested though in the format of the docs too, for instance. 

The Evernote workshop only made me curious to see what's new and how can I improve my time management in the next weeks and months. I already know people using it regularly for research or various planning options and I am sure that there are some interesting opportunities for my writing and blogging projects.