How I Use Evernote as a Blogger 1

I installed Evernote on my PC for the first time nearly a year ago, but never really got around to using it until the first of this year. I’d played around in it a bit, but thought that it was just another organizational tool that would add to my time spent using organizational tools. Honestly, I’ve never found a to-do list, calendar or brainstorming application that satisfactorily replaced my post-it notes. If my desktop and the edges of my monitor aren’t covered in yellow, I feel lost. Or so it was until I really dug into Evernote.

One Saturday I decided that it was time to figure out exactly why everyone (bloggers and techies and coders…oh my!) raved about the blank-noted, many-featured beast. It took me about five blog posts (from Lifehacker,Blogging Tips and many more) before I found myself having multiple “ahas!” I followed along with some of the “how I do it” tutorial-type posts and started making sense out of all those features that had baffled me before. Turns out, Evernote is user-friendly and extremely easy to set up. Once I figured it out, Evernote became the first application I open when I reboot my PC.

It took me a few weeks of working with Evernote to figure out the best system – for me – for using tags, searches, notebooks and all the other organizational tools. But now that it’s all set up I have no idea how I got anything done before I had Evernote around to organize it all for me. Seriously, it’s that good. As a blogger, I’ve found that Evernote makes almost every other tool I was using unnecessary: text editors are for code only now, bookmarks are history and spreadsheets full of ideas I’ll never look at again are all gone. In this post, I’m going to introduce you to the system I use to make Evernote work the best for me. I’ll try to go in some sort of hierarchical order so my organization makes sense.

1. Idea File

   If you read this blog regularly, you know that I am a huge fan of keeping an idea file. I think every blogger should have at least one place where they record all their thoughts (I write for several blogs so I keep one for each blog) so they never lose what could be a brilliant idea. Evernote works great for this task. With the tag function, I can keep all my ideas in one place and view them, merging notes for similar ideas. I use the idea as the Title and then simply tag it “idea file” and later use the tag section to review my ideas.
   
   Seeing a list of ideas is helpful, but what makes Evernote the best way (I’ve found) to keep an idea file is that you can store all the info you want within the note(s) you create. Once I begin to flesh out an idea, I change the tag on the note to that idea. Then I begin adding to that note or adding other notes with the same tag. With webclips, notes and brainstorms all in one place, it is super-easy to organize your thoughts and get a post ready to go. If you haven’t tried this yet, see how it makes you feel about writer’s block. For me, it has almost completely alleviated any frustration or stress caused by worrying that I won’t have anything interesting to post about. I’ve found that by using Evernote to organize my ideas, I often end up with a rough draft of my post before I’ve even really begun writing.

2. Big Projects

I keep a separate notebook for each of my big projects. These are generally blogs. Within each of these notebooks I use tags to keep track of post topics, important passwords (although I use Roboform for this as well, it never hurts to be redundant), ideas and design information. With everything in one place, I no longer waste time hunting for a clean copy of my Wordpress sidebar or trying to track down my Adsense ids. It’s all there.

I have developed a completely different system for projects that I am just starting. I create a new notebook and then use the tags to number steps. It works like a to-do list and keeps me laser-focused on each step in order. Also, I can save all the information I need for each step within the note – making sure I don’t forget ideas or lose track of code I want to use. This is one of my favorite uses for Evernote. With everything for each step right in front of me I feel really on top of things and don’t get overwhelmed.

3. Research

Evernote + Chrome = Webclip Bliss! Using the Evernote extension for Google Chrome, I can search notes and add webclips directly from my browser. This is a huge time-saver for me. Instead of eight thousand post-it notes with scribbled URLs and cryptic notes scattered across my monitors, I have a note (plus my notes) for each webclip. Then, once I start fleshing out an idea, I can merge various notes. This whole system is infinitely cleaner than my old write-it-wherever-and-hope-to-find-it-later non-method.

4. Writing Posts

   Since I started blogging three-plus years ago, I have used Notepad++ to write my blog posts. It doesn’t mess with my code, it’s lightweight and it’s free. However, when I started using Evernote steadily I noticed that I was writing parts of my post within Evernote itself. After awhile, I’d almost abandoned Notepad++ in favor of merging notes that held various pieces of a post. In fact, by the time I realized what I was doing, I was simply copying and pasting chunks of posts that were already written within Evernote. Once I saw this, I ditched the text editor for post-writing; I use it now just for code-writing.
   
   As I mentioned before, with Evernote’s tagging feature I create several notes using the same tags until I’m ready to write about a topic. Then I go through the notes, merging them and consolidating the information. Within the single note I end up with, I write my blog post. All my information is right there and, since I use webclipping, I can even pull direct quotes from a page without having to revisit it. One of the coolest things about the merging feature is that when you merge notes, a new section for each note is created, including the original title you used for the note and the URL. So when you merge, you don’t lose any information.
   

5. Working in the Cloud

I am a big fan of desktop applications. I know that most cloud apps are just as good and, information-wise, many are better. However, I just can’t get used to working out of a browser all the time. The problem with this is that I do use my smart phone to save information. If I have an idea or find an article I like, I’ll email it to myself. This creates more work for me because I either have to deal with the information twice (at least) or I end up just deleting it because I’ve got too much else going on. Evernote is extremely flexible when it comes to working in the cloud and integrating it into my information management system was painless.

With Evernote’s online features, not only is your information all safe and backed-up online, you can access it from any browser. There are also mobile Evernote apps for just about any smart phone out there. I have a Blackberry Storm and the Evernote mobile app lets me view or send text, photos, audio or video. This is directly synchronized with the fully functional online Evernote and my desktop client. I can literally access all my important information anywhere I am. The apps are all streamlined and easy to learn; picking them up was automatic and didn’t feel like the usual chore of integrating a new system or application.

I know now that I really wasn’t very organized before I started using Evernote. Though I felt like I had things working pretty well, I see now that my information management system was severely lopsided – plenty of information, not enough management. I would recommend Evernote to anyone who uses a computer, and especially if you use the internet, to do anything. It is the easiest way I’ve found to keep my important ideas close and organize the thousands of words I read and write each week.