How did you discover Evernote?
Today's offering was going to be much more exciting as I've been playing with something for a few hours now, and wow! But I've got to hold off for a few days before I can write about it! Secrets!
So, I thought we'd have a chat about when we found Evernote.
I go back to around 2008 when my BlackBerry Curve finally gave up and the Bold 9000 had just been released. Out of all the phones I've owned this was the best. The keyboard, the screen, the way it fit into your pocket without acting like a splint. I loved this phone and I still have it AND it still works.
When I booted it up for the first time, I remember seeing this little green elephant on the home screen. I had no idea what it was and even when I clicked it (with the rollerball mouse type thing) I didn't really understand what it was about.
It took me sometime but eventually I took a look, created my first Evernote account and got started. Then I stopped.
I'm not sure if Evernote was a little before it's time for me but back in 2008, we weren't used to syncing stuff on multiple devices. The need was not really there.
It probably took me until 2012 until I started using it properly and capturing more and more information.
In 2016 I left! I felt the product was getting left behind. The app was, in my opinion, old fashioned and other software was coming up with more modern ways to take notes, sync and keep me productive.
I started using OneNote for notes and Todoist for tasks. Both these apps seemed more functional and they got updated much more often. I had paragraph headings in OneNote and not in Evernote. Certain features were on Mac and others on Windows and nothing was consistent.
Moving to 2020 and the release of Evernote version 10, I took another look and was quite impressed. The app seemed more modern, I had paragraph headings and I loved the formatting shortcuts that sped up note creation.
When they added tasks and more importantly, recurring tasks I moved everything over and I haven't looked back. It's the productivity tool I've always wanted. Tasks, notes, events in one place and Evernote Home is the first thing I look at every day.
So that's my story. What's yours? How did you find Evernote?
Next week's issue will be more exciting!
Have a great weekend
All the best
Jon
Discovered it way back in April of 2008 and I don't even remember why or how. I just know when the App Store was launched it was one of my favorite apps and I was an evangelist. I used to listen to the Evernote podcast religiously and was very active in the community. After a very long hiatus (for many reasons), I am back checking things out. Discovered your substack and I am now a subscriber. Thanks for all you do!
I purchased Evernote around 2017 for PDF editor feature at the time but didn't really use it for taking notes till somewhere around 2018ish. I was working on a very niche project, Data collection for CNC machines (mazak's), when it all clicked and how critical it was to write things down and document. since then I been religiously taking notes for my projects. I wish I could integrate the home dashboard but haven't successfully found a way to make it part of my workflow.