If we’re going to be talking about Back to School solutions one solution that I absolutely feel compelled to tell you about is Evernote. If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know that I am both a massive fan and an Affiliate for Evernote. Having used it for many years, I just feel that it is the most useful tool for writing and taking notes that I have come across. Certainly, if you want to be able to refer back to your notes and you have messy handwriting, Evernote is an excellent tool for keeping your thoughts in order.
WARNING LEGAL STUFF: I am an affiliate of Evernote. You can click the link on the right-hand side of this page, and if you sign up there (which I recommend you do) I will receive a (VERY SMALL) commission.
Did I take care of the Legal stuff? Yes? Great. As I was thinking about all this “Back to school” stuff it occurred to me that Evernote is actually a great little tool for students. As I mentioned before in Tuesday’s post (Hyperlink), one of the banes of my existence, when I was in school, was carrying around different notebooks for my various classes. It drove me crazy knowing that if I happen to have four classes that day (in post-secondary I should mention) and I would have to carry around four different notebooks. When I was done with those classes, I would also have notebooks just lying around taking up space. Evernote, for this, is a game changer for students.
1) Multiple Different Notebooks – This seems like an obvious one to start with, but it needs to be said all the same. The different filing levels that you can use in Evernote allow for no ending amounts of organization which will make your school career that much more comfortable. You can have “notes” for each of your different classes, and then “Notebooks” for each year. Alternatively, you can have a notebook for each class with your class notes in one Evernote note, project notes in another. The last level of organization is the Stacks where you can stack multiple notebooks into one category. This is also useful if you want to put multiple notebooks together. A great example of this is if you want all your “First-year” notes and notebooks in one place you can stack them in one place.
2) Slack Interface – Slack, for those of you who don’t know, is a communication board where members of different forums can discuss various different subjects. For the students, I would imagine you can create a slack board for a class and chat with other students and your professors. Also because there is Evernote interface you can easily share your notes with others. I’ll be perfectly honest, as of this posting I am only starting to dabble in Slack, so I’m by no means an expert. It’s free to join, and if it proves to be a useful method of communication, I may start a Jason Love Files message board for you to post questions and to get answers for Organizing your Digital life.
3) Available on Any Device – Ever go to class and forget your notebook? Not so much with Evernote because you can get Evernote on any device. This means that if you get to class and you find that you forgot your laptop or notebook, then you can still take class notes on your phone. I have started using my own phone for writing things down in my Evernote recently, and I found that not only is the interface exactly the same (which makes transferring between devices easier) but also I noticed that the cloud updates itself really fast. This means that when you’re writing your notes down on your phone in class, it will update on your computer by the time you get back to your dorm. You just need to be prepared to look like your texting in class.
The last thing that I’ll say about Evernote is that it’s a great tool because it’s got a free version. I like that you don’t instantly have to pay to get it. Indeed, that’s how I got started. I will say this, the 90-ish dollars a year that Evernote Premium costs are inconsequential when it comes to how well organized you’ll be.
Have you ever used Evernote before? Would you consider using it now?
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