Evernote: A reflection

At work I've been pretty busy, and have gone through a few ad hoc capturing tools. First it was the steno notebook. Followed by the hipster pda. That worked pretty well except when I forgot it or inevitably lost it, it would wreck havoc on the rest of my day since half my brain was in there. The last time I left it at home, I decided to look for alternatives.

Enter Evernote. Now the reason I had not originally gone this route was for the following reasons:

• The pen and paper is cheap
• No batteries required
• Easier to draw things on it.
• Using pen and paper is just more of a classic way to capture things.

I also had some hestation in not using Evernote including:

• Information is not stored on my server (privacy issues)
• Batteries *are* required
• Something new to learn
• Something new to spend money on (yes Evernote is free but I ended up spending money on it anyhow).

I still wish I could store Evernote stuff on my server, but that aside, using Evernote over the hipster PDA has been a great success. I recently found my disassembled hipster PDA, noticing I hadn't written in it in months. I can't say I really miss it. A few additional benefits I've found with Evernote.

• It provides an easily syncable space you can use to capture notes, photos, or voice notes (great if you're on the go and have an idea).
• Very hard to lose your notes as it syncs with your phone, and your laptop. Also accessible via a web interface.

I have to say it really has made my life better. That's not something I'd typically say about the latest new shiny thing. To anyone who's been on the fence about Evernote, I'd say it's worth a try.