TruthBegins

I started using Evernote just over three months ago, and I have found it to be incredibly useful.  Previously, I had been using Microsoft’s OneNote for most of my note-taking, or simply relying upon pen(cil) and paper when not in front of a PC; however, I often found myself frustrated by having notes scattered amongst multiple places.  Evernote offers a sound solution to this problem by providing a useful note-taking tool that synchronizes your notes across multiple platforms (work laptop, home PC, Blackberry, iPhone, Palm Pre, etc.) and provides a single, searchable interface to find any entered information. You can even search for text within screenshots or images.  Think of it as a "virtual notebook" that you will always have access to provided you have Internet access.

Check out Evernote at www.evernote.com for full details.

In addition routine note-taking, I’ve also found Evernote to be useful as a productivity enhancer, particularly when coupled with this article detailing nine lists that everyone should keep updated in order to maximize personal performance: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/9-lists-to-keep-updated-and-keep-handy.html

I recommend customizing those lists to fit your individual needs.  For instance, I spend quite a bit of my time investigating different technology arenas, so I’ve added a new list to my Evernote called "Tech Tasks" that enables me to quickly jot down ideas on new technology developments that I can follow-up on later.  Additionally, I created a new note called “Blog Ideas” to capture those moments of inspiration for future blog postings that will later find their way here to TruthBegins.com.  For this on-the-fly note-taking, I cannot overstate the importance of utilizing the mobile-phone based Evernote application, not that you need any refreshers on my passion for the Palm Pre!

Overall, I highly recommend checking out the Evernote program.  It takes a bit of discipline to get acclimated to using an online note-taking tool, but if you start using the desktop client and the phone-based add-ons, the tool becomes very powerful.  And it’s free, so there’s nothing to lose.