How to Use Evernote to Organize Your Writing
I am a note-taker. A list-maker. Always have been.
If you’re anything like me, you have handwritten reminder notes scattered over your desk, the living room, the kitchen, and stuck inside the pages of books. You also have typed notes lurking in every corner of your hard drive–some years old, forgotten, never to resurface.
Recently, I found my writing commitments–blogging, novel, short stories–were starting to overwhelm me with ‘to do,’ and ‘don’t forget,’ and ‘write this one day’ notes.
Something had to be done.
Conveniently, just before I hit the brink of insanity, I was introduced to a program called Evernote, which you can download free for Windows, Mac, and handheld devices. It helps you keep track of practically everything you’ll need to organize for your writing (and the rest of your life too).
The program allows you to create a number of virtual notebooks, each if which hold individual notes. To suit my needs, I’ve arranged my notebooks under the headings:
- Blogging
- Fiction
- Interviews
- Research
Within each notebook, I’ve started notes on:
- To do: Housekeeping items for my blog, technical issues to sort, links to add, emails to answer
- Blog posts: An ever-growing list of any and every idea I have for blog posts
- Novels: Notes for my work-in-progress; brilliant thoughts to add to my manuscript; logic holes to consider
- Stories: Ideas for future novels or short stories
- Craft: Any new tips I find on the craft of writing
- eBooks: Ideas and resources for eBooks I might write one day
- Interviews: Names and sites of potential interviewees, and interview questions
- Research: Topics I need to research for my work-in-progress, or for blogging
- Interesting: News items or interesting facts I come across that could potentially be turned into stories or articles
- Books: Those I want to read, and those that have had a great influence on my writing
You can rearrange notes whenever you like, and tag them for easy identification.
One of my favourite features is the toolbar icon which allows you to send a webpage (or selected text from within it) to your Evernote, instantly.
Since I started using this program, I’ve found myself more organized and less stressed. I like having the knowledge that all my writing thoughts are compiled in the same place, and won’t end up in the stacks of paper or computer files that have disappeared through the years.
Do you have a favourite program for organizing your writing? How do you feel about the move away from manual note taking, in favour of digital note taking?
To learn more, check out some cool tutorial videos on how you can make the most of Evernote.
Photos courtesy of DeaPeaJay, Insomnia, whatleydude
Suzannah Windsor Freeman writes and teaches in Canada and Australia (but never at the same time). Pop over to Write It Sideways for more great writing tips, or follow her on Twitter.
Sounds like some interesting technology. The video on the website is a little confusing about what the product actually does, but it looks like it might have potential.
Thanks for the review.
Wow, sounds super useful! I’m definitely going to give that a look and test it out.
Awesome, thanks for sharing. I will def check it out. I so need something better than google docs and TextEdit!
I think you should also check MacJournal if you want something more like a “dedicated” journaling app to organize your writing
I’m checking this out right now. Haven’t heard of it. Thanks!
I use Evernote in my daily basis to collect and store many artcles from the web and perfectly works well. Never thought before to use this app just like what you did. Very interesting :)
Thanks! @Eric @Jamie Hope it turns out to be helpful.
I live and breathe Evernote and Windows Live Writer.
I use a combination of tools to get the job done.
1. A small moleskin notebook & pen on me at all times.
2. Evernote apps for PC, iPod Touch and Android Phone.
3. Google Alerts for the topics I’m researching.
4. Bit.ly for converting links for websites/research/statistics.
5. Ping.fm to post to all of my social profiles at once.
6. Windows Live Writer for composition and saving drafts.
7. Zemanta plugin for Firefox and Windows Live Writer for depth.
8. FireFTP for Firefox to upload and link to any files for articles.
9. HootSuite so I can schedule and post in advance.
If you would like to know more, my name above should link to my article on my blog: Best Tools & Workflow for Social Networking.
Hi Suzannah,
I’m Josh from Springpad (http://springpadit.com). Springpad is a free web application to quickly and easily save anything you want to remember – notes, gift ideas, recipes, restaurants you want to go to, books to read, to-do lists, favorite articles, etc. This is similar to Evernote, but our platform is optimized to help you stay organized by placing your stuff in categories as opposed to Evernote’s “blank notebook.” We’ll also enhance your stuff with directions, reviews, coupons, and other helpful info. For example, if you add a restaurant you want to try, we’ll automatically add in links to Yelp, Zagats, Citysearch and Open Table, along with a Google Map for directions. If you save a product you’re interested in, we’ll automatically add in links to Amazon, show you price comparisons from Pricegrabber, and reviews from relevant sites. We also offer the ability to easily create lists, reminders, events, etc, and if you like to plan blog posts (right up your alley!), we’ve got a special app just for that in the apps section of Springpad.
Would love your feedback if you get a chance to check us out! (jgrossman AT springpartners.com)
Cheers,
Josh
Here’s some more info about us:
http://www.40tech.com/2010/04/20/springpad-vs-evernote-it-might-be-better
Thanks for this post! I recently downloaded Evernote, but am having a hard time figuring out how to use it – and just getting in the habit. Yours sounds like a great strategy. I’m tired of being the Sticky Note Queen. And those forgotten typewritten lists of To Dos buried in my hard drive sure brought up a smile of recognition. I’m going to commit myself to learning Evernote! The first step is saving this blog post and the comments in an Evernote notebook!
Might take a look at some of these other apps mentioned in comments too.
Thanks again!
I signed up for Evernote a while back, but never got around to actually using it–at the time, I was lacking internet and I thought I could use it while offline. Now that I’ve got regular access to internet, I might go ahead and try it out. :-)
Thanks a lot for sharing this. I have heard a lot of good things about Evernote, but I haven’t tried it. Now, reading your thoughts, I’ve decided to download it and give it a try.
It seems like an awesome application that I can use on my MacBook and on my iPhone.
I downloaded Evernote for iPad a long time ago but have never used it because it’s not as intuitive as other apps I have. Does anyone know of an easy tutorial, video or something that can show you the abc’s of this app. I hear a lot about Evernote but I’m dissappointed it’s not as easy to learn as other apps.
I downloaded Evernote a long time ago and started using it, but then stopped. I’m going to try to use it again, though.
Right now, I use Google Docs in much the same way as listed above. I also like that I can collaborate with people using this tool.
As a marketing and design guru, once I have an approval from a client to create his website, I upload copy, pictures, and instructions to my evernote account. My graphic designers go to work creating the website, domain, seo analytics, etc., before I leave the clients business.
I no longer spend the day at a clients only to have a bunch of files that need to be worked. By the time I get to my office, the pre-work (domain registration, hosting, picture post-work, etc) has been completed or begun. Even the website design is nearing completion.
You want a things to do program get THINGS. You want a workflow starter long before you get back to the office, get Evernote.
Yes, there are times when a website can be built within the day because of Evernote linking the info with the designers waiting in the wings to start the project.
Only problem is the client wanting to know why he paid me $4K for one days worth of work! Competence costs money
I recently started using Evernote and its “free” storage space is severely limited. I have over 4000 pics on my iphone and have used only half the iphone capacity. I uploaded 166 pics from the iphone to Evernote, used 99% of Evernote upload capacity and recieved a warning notice that Evernote utilization would be restricted until the next cycle. From a practical standpoint Evernotes data restriction allows only 2% utilization of my iphones capacity per month. With this strict data limitation, it is more functional to use my iphone, ipad, and laptops and “Forget Evernote”.
I do EVERYTHING with Evernote. Yes, there is a “free” version, but the paid version is only $5/month or $45/year! Evernote immediately syncs with all of my computers and devices (I have a LOT of them), and I don’t use anywhere near the monthly allotment.
I keep all of my pics, music, etc. in Dropbox, which is also very inexpensive and immediately syncs everywhere.
Between the two, I have access to everything I need at all times.
Hi guys,
Interesting article, we’ve thought at the same problems that writers (might) have when we’ve developed a platform especially for you (shelfster.com). When you have time, please take a look and see if it can help you. Feedback (good or bad) would be very much appreciated.
Thanks
i would recommend http://clicktoapp.com