Cutline Speaks

Get organized with Evernote

posted by Morgan on September 25, 2008

I am a firm believer that less is more, and I also feel a need to organize everything. I read books and blogs on how to be more organized to increase my productivity, and I purchase phones that allow me to manage my work and personal life in one place. But even with all these resources at my fingertips, the biggest challenge I face is organizing my bills. For example, I accumulate a lot of receipts, but I'm not sure whether to keep them or pitch them. I usually lean towards pitching them primarily because they create too many paper piles (not to mention it's not very eco-friendly). Recently, I came across a solution where I don't have to choose one way or the other. It's called Evernote, and it's an application where I can store and search information stored on my phone or my desktop. Here's how it works on my iPhone:

* I have a receipt for a dinner at Little Buddha that I don't want to lose while digging through my purse at the casino.

* I open up my Evernote application

* I take a picture of that receipt using the phone's camera

* I tag it "Las Vegas Trip Sept 08"

* The receipt is saved in my notebook

When I return home to San Francisco, and I want to check out how much damage was done, I type in "Las Vegas Trip Sept 08" and then I have all my receipts right there in one place on my phone screen (versus at the bottom of my purse, in my luggage, or in the trash). Don't worry if you don't have an iPhone, you can still take advantage of Evernote by storing information on your computer.

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