Evernote Raises $10 Million From Investors - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Evernote Raises $10 Million From Investors - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

I have been using Evernote for a few weeks, and am amazed by its functionality, and by the powerful ways creative people have found to use it. The article linked above describes some of them, as well as giving some company history. I thought at first that it was just an online notepad, but it can be used for everything from a basic GTD system to a detailed inventory control system.

I have to admit that I am using the free version, and only because my Blackberry doesn't have an easy way to wirelessly sync between the built-in notepad app and an app that I can use on my laptop, particularly with a web-based one, preferably a Google-based one. The free version works fine for me.

Even if Outlook could handle pictures and other file formats, I wouldn't t want to sync with Outlook because I went beyond it years ago. It was a great program for the 1980s and early 1990s, but its architecture makes it a boat anchor on productivity, today. Besides, you need a full-time IT department to keep it working correctly, and even if I had a full-time IT department, I wouldn't have the clout to get them to hang around my office to keep my Outlook working right. Outlook is great if you're a high level exec at a big company. If you're a free lancer, a small business person, or someone who doesn't report directly to a high level exec, then you'd better look at alternatives that you can manage on your own.

As for using the built-in software that came with my Blackberry, the thought of going through the hassle of tethering the BB with a cable and using the clunky sync software that came with it is more than I want to deal with. I want less hassle in life, not more. If I had the proverbial nickel for every hour I have spent waiting while my hand-held synced with my laptop over the last twenty years, I could retire early. I don't want to have to sit around my office and fool with this stuff when I could be out the door at the end of the day, or maybe off to a meeting during work hours.

I also use Remember the Milk, which has an excellent wireless sync system with the BB task manager, but RTM is a task manager not a note organizer. It won't do things like keep track of digital photos of my favorite meals, etc. It's great when the task falls outside of email.

As for my real GTD system, I use GTDInbox, and I love it so much that I am helping them with their marketing and the roll-out as they move into a revenue-generating company, after four years of development. I spend most of my life in email, so being able to use it to track and manage my projects and tasks without leaving email, and without keeping a separate task manager in sync with my email is invaluable. It saves me hours every week. Truthfully, it probably saves me a day every week, when I look at how long I used to have to spend on my weekly reviews. Now, I get them done in under an hour.

To see that Evernote has received capital from a major VC firm really confirms my intuition that they are onto something great. We all have a million things to keep track of, and a lot of the time we need to make up our categories as we go.

Bottom Line: If you're not using Evernote, then give it a try. I think you'll be very pleased.