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In this article, I present a brief overview of how I use EverNote 2.2.1 to manage the stuff in my life.

I have two main EverNote databases (“ENbases”) — one for my office and one for everything else — and I keep them completely separate… Due to FERPA restrictions on student data leaving my office (I work in a college at a local university), I do not intermingle office and everything else at all.

OFFICE:
For my office, we decided that it would be useful to maintain a list of CONTACTS (phone, email, or in-person) so that we formally document our relationship with individuals. We wanted to record notes, comments, impressions, etc about individuals in a non-official, secure, private way (ie: not associated with the student’s official application packet, etc). This contact list also enables gathering of statistics about the workload (as a side note, during a typical three-month period, I recorded nearly 1500 contacts).

I started to develop a database for our office, but decided to see what was already available out there so I didn’t have to re-invent the wheel. I searched for “phone log” and various other terms and stumbled upon the Wired article that says that EverNote is “del.icio.us for your life”. Since I am an avid del.icio.us user, I understood this statement, and I started to explore EverNote. Within a few hours of playing with the free version, I purchased the PLUS version. I am so glad I did.

The ENbase for my office uses a slightly customized template (thanks Crane!) to record notes about conversations I have with prospective students and their families. If I receive a voicemail message, I record the name, telephone number, and brief notes from the caller’s message. Adding a template to the note list automatically assigns the “To Do” and “Phone Message” category. This way, I can quickly glance at my To Do category to see what’s on my plate, and using the category intersection panel, see only phone messages. Once I return the call, I check the Done box and add a “status” category (such as “Talked with caller”, “Left message”, “No answer”, or “Bad number”, etc) so I know the outcome of the call. The template also features a text box where I can make notes about our conversation for later reference. I can search EverNote by name, email, and phone number and have, at a glance, the most current information about the student’s relationship with the college. Additionally, I use my office ENbase to record policy changes, directives, things my boss said, and other work-related materials, and more.

EVERYTHING ELSE:
My everything else ENbase is the more interesting, and certainly the more varied, of these two databases. It contains aspects of my personal life organized into categories and sub-categories (and sub-sub-categories, etc, as necessary).

I like to keep the top-level as clear as possible, so I have a category called “Personal” (a throwback to the time before I split office & personal ENbases, though if I were to do it all again, I would probably keep the Personal category because it keeps things tidy) under which I keep the bulk of my sub-categories.

Continue reading How I use EverNote — it's del.icio.us for my life!