Tech I Use: EverNote

EverNote is one of those "less is more" tools that combines a simple idea with a few thoughtful features wrapped in a great looking interface. It's probably the best and easiest-to-adapt-to note-taking tool for the computer I've ever used. Other note-taking software titles have been too difficult to navigate or too flexible in their organization that the hierarchy gets too deep. Before Jim Walton at Church Tech Matters turned me on to EverNote, I had come full-circle back to the lo-tech, but very trusty spiral notebook.

EverNote is like the spiral notebook in that it's a never-ending "tape" of one-time notes. You type something and it's automatically timestamped and saved. After a comfortable pause in typing, another blank note is generated awaiting your input. Combined with a simple convention of titling notes, the search function is especially powerful as it groups together the notes that match your criteria as you type. The program runs in the background and with the push of a couple of "hotkeys" from within any program, EverNote instantly generates a new blank note. There are even one-click toolbar plugins for Internet Explorer and Firefox that capture whatever you select from a website right into a new note.

There's much more to EverNote, but if you're into journaling the activities in your work and life, I can't recommend it enough. The best part about EverNote is that 90% of it's full functionality is absolutely FREE.