Shiny Toys
Many years ago, at Austin’s popular independent bookstore, BookPeople, I had the opportunity to hear author Ramit Sethi speak about app chasing. This is when a shiny new app appears on the digital scene, promising to take us to new heights. We jump right in, sign up for the app, use it for a while, and to jump after a while to the next shiny new app. In the end we’ve collected a lot of apps and wasted a lot of time.
Sethi’s description hits home. This past year alone, I have tried at least a dozen note-taking apps, each one promising to bring me closer to that coveted goal of a “second brain.” (If you aren’t familiar with the term “second brain,” check out productivity guru Tiago Forte’s book, Building a Second Brain, where Forte describes the ideal of having “an external, centralized, digital repository for the things you learn and the resources from which they come.”) Imagine the productivity potential with information like that at your fingertips.
The Quest for the Perfect Note-Taking App: A Plethora of Options
Before I tell you about what I’ve found to be the optimal note-taking app, let me tell you about my journey to get here. I’ve been an Evernote user off and on since 2010, but in the years since then, I have also tried Microsoft OneNote, Roam Research, Logseq, Google Keep, Obsidian, Amplenote, Notion, Simplenote, and more analog notebooks than I can count.
Some of these apps are very popular. Many people use Microsoft’s powerful OneNote, especially those who are already in the Microsoft ecosystem. However, the product is segmented with its different versions, the Mac version is lacking, and the interface is ugly. Yes, aesthetics matter to me; I like pretty apps.
Notion is another app that is wildly popular—and for good reason. It offers a multitude of features, though some would argue too many. I looked seriously at it a few weeks ago, even spending a few hours building a template and having a call with a Notion expert. In the end, though, it’s Evernote that I return to; it just works better for what I want.
The Evolution of Evernote
Evernote has gone through a series of changes over the last several years, with some predicting its demise. However, that hasn’t happened. Purchased by the Italian company Bending Spoons, Evernote has been releasing steady updates and making progress.
Some have expressed upset over its increase in price, but it costs money to develop an effective, reliable service. For me, I’ll accept a price increase if a service or product is useful.
Also, Evernote offers a range of pricing and plans depending on your needs:
Free: A very limited free plan, but it will let you take a look at it.
Personal ($129.99 a year): 10,000 notes, 1,000 notebooks, 10gb uploads a month and a max note size of 220mb
Professional ($169.99 a year): 20gb monthly uploads and AI edit and AI-powered search
Teams ($249.99 a year): Great for multiple users and centralized user management
Why I Use Evernote
Web clipping is extremely useful. While OneNote has a web clipper, it is not nearly as useful as the one that Evernote has. With the Webclipper extension, I can clip an entire webpage or a segment of it, and it allows me to put it into the notebook of my choice and add any relevant tags. Evernote provides several options, including clipping the article, entire page, bookmark, or screenshot of the page. Plus, when adding to your notes, you can choose between various formats. Below is an example of what Webclipper looks like:
The organization in Evernote aligns with the way my brain works. It organizes information as notes inside of notebooks. You can even group notebooks together in stacks. For example, you might create a stack for “Tax Research,” which contains notebooks for Real Estate, Collections, etc. With this powerful feature, Evernote becomes, in essence, my “second brain,” as I have hundreds of notebooks within reach. Many times, I’ve been out or traveling and needed to look something up, and I was able to find the information quickly.
Managing incoming information from emails can sometimes be daunting, but this is where Evernote is handy. If there is information in an email I know I will need to refer back to, I forward the email to Evernote, indicate which notebook the information belongs in, add any appropriate tags, and I’m done.
Evernote's search function is powerful thanks to its use of optical character recognition (OCR). This enables Evernote to search scanned images, documents, PDFs, and notes (including handwritten notes).
Evernote is cross-platform. While I am a Mac user, Evernote works just as well with Windows. The mobile apps work across Android and iOS. You can even use the web browser version if needed.
Finally, Evernote is reliable and syncs quickly. Once I add a new note, it is synced instantly and available on all of my other devices. Other note-taking apps either had slow syncing or would routinely have errors.
Use Cases
Let’s discuss some use cases outside of clipping web pages and dropping PDFs or notes into notebooks. Those are basic, although useful, ways of using Evernote.
Tax Research
I’ve mentioned in previous articles that I am a subscriber to Tom’s Inner Circle. We meet weekly during tax season (every other week outside of tax season) and discuss tax issues and questions.This has been invaluable to advancing my knowledge and practice. Like any engaged learner, I understand the value of keeping and reviewing the information. In our sessions, we are provided with a recording of our meetings, and I copy those into a note in Evernote, adding my own notes and the transcription of the video. If a question about a topic arises later, with Evernote I can search for anything we have discussed, and I can review any relevant notes, transcriptions, and videos. Evernote has allowed me to create a valuable library: I have materials from two years’ worth of Inner Circle sessions.
I also use the Webclipper when I’m researching a matter on Taxnotes, TheTaxBook, or various sites from a Google search. You never know where you are going to find something useful that you may want to refer back to. (I have even saved some social media posts for future reference).
Purge the Paper
I hate paper; I really do. It piles up on my desk, it can get lost, and it just feels so 1980. When I get mail that I may need to review again, I drop it in my scanner, immediately put it into Evernote, and add it to the appropriate notebook. I also use the mobile app to scan documents directly into Evernote, which is great when traveling.
Note: While I use the scanner for legal documents, I do not use this feature for client information. The only other mail that doesn’t go into Evernote is cards. I’m old school in the sense that I really love cards and handwritten notes, and I have a box that I keep those in. I have thought about adding those to Evernote as a digital backup.
Interested in Learning More?
At the end of the day, efficiency is what matters, and Evernote has become the “second brain” I need.
Interested in a video series showing how I process information with Evernote? Questions about Evernote and note-taking? Let me know below.
Earlier this year I completed the Certified Real Estate Tax Strategist (CRETS™) certification. I highly recommend this program. The next sign up begins on May 15th.
I will be teaching a class at NATP Taxposium in July on “Digital Assets Demystified”.
I feel like we’ve been on a parallel path of notetaking apps. I also committed to Apple Notes for about a year. But I too have kept coming back to Evernote. I still reminisce about the very “database” look of it circa 2014, but I understand why they’ve made a lot of the changes they have over the years. What about project/task apps? Are you planning an article on that? Because that’s been a similar story (trying multiple options over the years) for me.