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Evernote: This Paralegal?s Best (and Smarter) Friend

By Lynne DeVenny

Or, You Too Can Be an "Awesome-ness Machine"

In my humble opinion, one of the most indispensable free apps in the cloud (even edging out Dropbox) is Evernote (http://www.evernote.com/). Evernote?s home page says, ?Remember everything. Capture anything. Access anywhere. Find things fast.? I can?t say it any better.

Life before Evernote involved forgetting more than I remembered, searching for notes and ideas jotted down on Post-its, scrap paper and multiple notebooks or saved on various computers, and having no central location to look for information I wanted to refer to later.

Now I can access Evernote from anywhere, and I no longer have to worry about keeping up with information that?s important to me, especially professionally. You can save notes, documents, articles, photos and website URLs (and websites themselves), and easily search for your notes later by notebook, text search or tags. You can also email notes to your account.

Here?s a sampling of the information I keep in Evernote, organized in virtual notebooks or categories:

• Blog ideas and book planning
• CLE notes
• Research
• Software and specialty area how-tos
• Technology resources
• Listserv postings I may want to refer to later
• Notes from paralegal association executive committee meetings
• Tax deductions
• Paralegal certification information

I even have a notebook called A Virtual Pad of Paper (which is first since it starts with A) that I use for miscellaneous notes that don?t fall under any other category. One of the most valuable aspects of this cloud app is that you don?t lose key information if your computer dies. Also, instead of keeping notes on a work computer, which you may lose if you take another job, Evernote goes where you go.

Here are some articles discussing how other legal professionals use Evernote (I got some great new ideas):

• Some Great Online Notetaking Tools (The Lawyers Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies)
• Using Evernote in Your Law Practice (Legal Practice Pro
• Evernote for Lawyers (Indolawreport)
• Life in ?The Cloud?: Evernote (The MacLawyer)
• Evernote As CRM (Law Practice Matters)
• Tech Tool Review (Law Practice Today)

This video is a little goofy ? but it?s not a bad introduction to Evernote:

If you're using Evernote in your professional life, I'd love to hear what you use it for.

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on September 01, 2010 (boomark / email).