Amidst the hustle and bustle of the day-to-day grind, you might find yourself musing about how much easier life would be with the help of a personal assistant. You know, someone to record and organize everything you need so desperately to remember. Well, the wonderful application Evernote has got you covered. And we’re willing to bet that the beloved personal digital assistant will be a true lifesaver while you work on your next presentation. Here’s how.
Collect Every Thought
The essence of Evernote– and what its name aptly relates– is that it is a collection of all the notes you ever take. Make a quick note to remember to pick up milk, create a to-do list for the upcoming week, drag and drop anything from the web, or copy and paste from anywhere. There are very few restrictions on what you can save to Evernote. Save video and audio from the web, or audio and video you’ve created; save photos you’ve taken or found on the web; use the web clipper extension to take a specific screenshot of what you want to save–– the possibilities are really endless.
And one of the neatest things about Evernote is how it caters to pen and paper lovers. Save your handwritten notes by taking a photo of the page and uploading it to Evernote. The app will fix the lighting and straighten the image for you, and poof, there it is, your handwritten scribble uploaded to all your electronic devices. Like magic.
So as you begin to do research for a presentation, use Evernote to save all your findings conveniently in one spot. Forget carting around stacks on stacks of unorganized information. Make research easy on yourself, and access all your notes in one program, across all of your devices.
Organize and Harmonize Ideas
When you’re ready to take a good, long look at all the thoughts you’ve gathered over time, Evernote’s ready to help you out. Create notebooks for different topics (think titles like “Vacation Ideas,” or “First Section of Preso”), and organize your collected notes accordingly.
Maybe while working on a specific presentation, you want to create a notebook for the project and file all your notes in there. Or maybe you want to create a notebook for each section of your presentation, and file your collected notes that way. Regardless, find the best way to organize all your notes, and get started looking at your research as a whole.
This notebook-style organization is also very helpful if you’re working with friends and colleagues on a presentation. With all your research available in one place, it’s easy to collaborate with others and agree upon an organization for the ideas you want to include in your presentation.
Excellent Accessibility
One of the most convenient features of Evernote is that it’s free (up to a certain point) and available across multiple platforms, so it’s available on Mac and PC, Android and iPhone, etc. It also synchronizes instantly between devices, so you can access your notes wherever– computer, tablet, smartphone, web– which can be extremely helpful for the presenter. Access notes for your upcoming presentation on the train to your venue, or pull up an outline of your presentation on a tablet to help you stay focused.
Also, one of our favorite features of Evernote is how easy it is to search through all your notes. Search a keyword and it’ll pull up all instances of it in your notes, including in your handwritten notes! Think of how convenient this could be in a Q&A situation where someone asks a specific question, and you need to come up with a quick answer. Search the keyword in Evernote and see what comes up! The possibilities are endless.
