why evernote rocksWhen Google Wave first came out, I have to admit that the geek inside me was pretty stoked. Creating notebook-like files in the cloud which could be shared by everyone you know and having the ability to embed documents, photos and so on into was pretty rad. Of course, the Wave didn’t hold on for long but something even cooler came along. And that is Evernote.

Evernote is a software/app that you can take virtually anywhere with you and it allows you to store all the random ideas, information and thought processes that you are probably keeping in 10 (or more) different locations right now.

Wait. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. I mean the notebook in your purse, the notepad by your computer, the sheets of paper by the bed, the email drafts you started to yourself, the Tasks in Outlook, the files all over your hard drive and so on. I’m all for writing things down right then so you can remember them later (because life is usually moving to fast to remember those things on your own) but if you have those notes all over the place, how are you ever really going to do something useful with them?

So what’s so cool about Evernote?

1. It’s a perfect solution for saving recipes, projects, important documents and things of that nature.

You have the ability to create as many notebooks as you like (although I’d love to be able to create sub-notebooks for this case) which means you can either create a notebook for each type of recipe you have, or just throw them all in one notebook and make the most of the awesome built-in search feature. And each note can have as many attachments as you want, which open up right there in the note so you don’t have a bunch of extra clicks.

One of my goals for the coming year(s) is to scan good stuff from the magazines I have (which I look at once and then stick in a bookshelf) so I can actually access it when I need it. Because honestly, when you remember that you saw some really smart office decor idea in a magazine a while back, do you really want to go dig through a pile of magazines (ie hundreds or thousands of pages) to find what you liked. I think not. Read more about how I save my recipes to Evernote.

2. So let me mention the search feature again because it rocks. It is super easy to find stuff for multiple reasons. One, you can tag every Note with whatever relevant words you want. And it will search the titles too. But here’s were it gets even cooler…

3. Evernote has a text recognition feature. So if you are a fan of whiteboards, you can just snap a photo of it in your phone or your camera, attach it to a Note in Evernote and you’re good to go. No typing it all out or anything like (unless your handwriting is total chicken scratch — but you will still see the image anyway). This feature also works in PDFs as well as scanned documents or magazines, books, etc.

4. It syncs automatically to the cloud. This is one of the things I love the most about Evernote — because I am just in love with cloud computing in general. Being able to sync your notes without having to think about it so you never lose a note again is brilliant. Because I don’t really want to discuss the number of times I have had a computer crash on me and therefore lost a bunch of information. It’s never fun and sometimes it can be downright devastating. If you prefer, you can also choose to have files saved locally as well — which will allow you to access them offline as well.

5. You can use it across multiple devices. There are currently versions of Evernote for your PC, Mac, Android, iPad, iPhone, Blackberry and anything else relevant. The Blackberry version has been a bit buggy so far and isn’t nearly as nice as say, the iPad  version (few things are) but it still gets the job done. And there is also a web version so you can access your Notes from a friend’s house or on the go. This is really cool if you are using it for recipes or projects, because you’ll have your shopping list ready to go right in your phone.

6. It works in multiple languages. Because I speak both English and German, I have magazines in both languages that I scan things out of, and a lot of our important documents are in multiple languages as well. But you can tell Evernote which languages it should recognize in your Notes and it will adjust its search to correspond to what you are looking for. It stops short of making translations for you, though.

7. It’s free. Yes there is a paid version, but if you are not using Evernote for business, the free version will definitely be sufficient. The features are not limited in any way in the free version, aside from the fact that you can’t share your notes with other people.

8. It saves time. I currently share my account with my husband and, because we are business partners, it really allows us to right down relevant and important things as we go about our days (separately) but still be on the same page later on. It saves us both time because we don’t have to recap everything again — just go read the updates in the Notes. And since it’s on multiple platforms, you only need to write it down once but can still access it everywhere. And you’ll need a whole lot less scrap paper around you.

9. To Do list features make it easier to stay on top of employees and assess where we stand on projects. You can actually put in check boxes and check things off your list as you go. We did this with our packing lists for our Florida vacation (I’d usually do this on a piece of paper that I have to carry around the house) and it was very practical.

10. Frees up your brain. I’ve no doubt that you have a lot going on every day and Evernote is really practical for those times whe you need to purge a bunch of information from your head so you can focus on more important things. I use it in my phone when I go to PTA meetings and my husband uses it when he goes to company presentations. Yes, people in my daughter’s pre-school do look at me a bit weird in Germany for taking notes in my phone but if they knew what I was doing, they would be jealous.

By the way, Evernote is also great for sharing things around the world since you can select what you want to share (when you get the Premium account). So when I convince my mother-in-law to pay for the service, I’ll be able to access all the hundreds of recipes and projects she’s already scanned into her computer (and added to Evernote thanks to my advice) which will open up a whole new world of cooking.

So the moral of this story is, go download Evernote for at least one device right now. It’s going to change your life for the better.