I don’t even remember what life was like before Evernote.  It was my first productivity app I ever signed up for, and it’s been with me from the beginning of my business journey. I still use it daily for both my workflow and personal life as well.

This last week I have been thinking about the progression of my business and how what literally started out as a creative itch to play around in photoshop has now turned into a full fledged business going on 5 + years that involves not only design but project management, social media, blogging, writing a newsletter, finances, content creation, goal planning, product creation, sales funnels, communication skills,and the list goes on and on. These are skills I never even knew I needed and some days it feels near impossible to keep it all straight. I couldn’t keep it organized without a partner in crime like Evernote, so I am excited to share some of my favorite features and how I integrate Evernote into my daily workflow.

1 – BRAIN DUMP

I know this is kind of a given, but really, if you’re a small business owner, you know the amount of information that is constantly thrown at you on a daily basis. Last year I noticed my productivity taking a nose dive. I was losing the battle of major scatterbrain. As a mom with 2 kiddos and short windows to accomplish a full days of work, I need to utilize my time in every way possible. If my brain is stacked full of ideas and thoughts, I can’t be productive unless I get them out and on paper ( aka Evernote ). Using Evernote frees up my mental hard drive and allows me to get my productivity and creative juices flowing. If you are wasting time trying to keep everything straight you’re losing money. Time management is something I have been taking more seriously, and it’s important to have the right tools on your side to make that happen.

2 – EVERNOTE ON THE GO

One thing I use daily is their phone app. It’s so easy to use to quickly snap lunch receipts, track mileage, jot blog post ideas, scan handwritten notes, and become paper free. I can access anything I need on the go and search any notes I have saved. It’s genius and saved my buns more times than I can count.

3 – COLLABORATE WITH A TEAM

As a small studio, we often collaborate with other developers or brand designers, so having a central spot to stay organized is vital. I love that I can have all client notes, thoughts, project updates, checklists and attachments in Evernote. I also make sure to sync all our Dropbox and Google Drive folders within the app to keep everything connected and organized.

4 – EVERNOTE WEB CLIPPER

I really love web clipper for Evernote because it makes it so easy to file any website,  email, screenshot, inspiration, ect. I come across that I want to save for later. I browse the internet for ideas every day, so when I come across something good that inspires me I use web clipper and it’s as easy as that.

One of my favorite features is when I screenshot with Evernote, a variety of tools popup that allow me to comment, draw, scribble, whatever my heart desires, on that note so that I can highlight an aspect I like and communicate easily and effectively with the rest of my team.

5 – EVERNOTE BUSINESS TEMPLATES

A recent addition, Evernote now has some basic business templates that come in handy.

One of my favorite’s is the Meeting Notes template. During client phone calls I use to just use the notes app on my mac, but then didn’t know where to save that information to stay organized. Now I simply save the template to a notebook when I am signed in, and and jot down my notes from our meeting, and then save it in a notebook so it’s easy to reference. Also love this Project Budget template and this Business Trip Checklist.

All this and I feel like I am really just starting to learn the potential of Evernote. If you aren’t using it yet you need to include it as part of your workflow like yesterday.

In partnership with Evernote. All opinions are my own.