Apps are taking over the workplace. You’ve got your work email and calendar, your company chat tool, maybe even a security product to help you log into said apps and tools.
It’s causing app overload—and more than a little frustration.
To unpack this trend, we partnered with data analytics firm YouGov for a U.S. survey, and found that:
- 83 percent of respondents use 1-4 devices daily.
- 65 percent use up to 9 different apps every day.
- Nearly 1 in 4 said they use their apps either equally between personal and professional use, or more on the professional side.
- Over 60 percent reported feeling ‘somewhat’ or ‘very frustrated’ when they cannot find something they need related to apps and the internet.
You probably feel this in your own life as well. You’ve got projects, deliverables, notes, and conversations happening all over the place. Your team might spend as much time managing the process, switching between tools, and hunting down info as you do actually doing the job.
All of this can take a toll. Because success isn’t just about what your team does; it’s also about how you do it.
When it comes to workflows, it’s all about streamlining how you get things done while still fitting your team’s working style and the tools you already use. This is why it’s important to look for tools that play well together.
The good news is that with Spaces, the new Evernote Business feature, and a few pretty handy integrations, you can connect the apps you already use and build a workflow that works for your team.
Start a free trial of Evernote Business »
Here are five ways you can use Evernote Business to get the most out of your apps at work:
1) Slack
By connecting Evernote to Slack, you can save important conversations or pull up relevant notes to tie together your communication, ideas, and work. Whether it’s saving Slack chats to Evernote or bringing up your notes right in Slack, you can avoid all of that copy and pasting and app switching stuff that slows you down.
For example, you could clip an entire conversation about a project from Slack, saving it as a note in Evernote that can then be pinned to your team’s space. Bringing the two tools together helps you take a step out of your workflow, making it easier to access and share your ideas from one place.
Learn more about using Evernote for Slack »
2) Google Drive
If your company uses the Google Drive suite, you can keep the files you create in context alongside your notes and ideas in Evernote. Drop docs, slides, and sheets right into notes in your team’s space. For example, you could add the slide deck and budget spreadsheet you went over at a meeting to the note containing all your action items and whiteboard brainstorms.
With Spaces, you can add important files to a note and pin it in your team’s space so it’s always handy. You can also use the ‘What’s new’ feature to see recently added documents. What’s more is that Google Drive files automatically update in Evernote, so you don’t have to worry about having the latest version. By using the two tools together, you can track projects from ideation to iteration, even if it doesn’t neatly fit into a single document.
See how to attach Google Drive files to notes »
3) Salesforce
If you work in sales, then you probably spend a lot of time entering data or collecting information. Not to mention the fact that you’re having conversations, sending out emails, taking notes, and collecting business cards. It’s a lot to stay on top of. All of your bookings, pipeline information lives in Salesforce, but Evernote Business is where the textures and details of your relationships can come alive. If you’re already using Salesforce to close deals, connect it with Evernote Business so your CRM data and notes work together, forming a complete picture of a prospect.
It’s also helpful for keeping everyone on the same page. For example, you could set up a space in Evernote Business just for leads, creating a new notebook for each prospect. With Spaces ‘What’s New’ feature, you can track your sales team’s recent activity or meetings. Also use the ‘Pinned Notes’ feature to quickly access key information.
This helps at all stages of the sales pipeline. For example, when you meet new contacts, you can scan their business cards and save their information in Evernote—so you always have it with you. Before a big meeting, do your homework by clipping websites with corporate news and saving research to your prospect’s notebook. Use Evernote to take notes or record audio during any sales conversations so you can remember what you discussed.
Then link the notes to your Salesforce records, making historical information on sales opportunities centralized, searchable, and accessible in Salesforce. The best part? You can edits notes right within Salesforce and have them update automatically in Evernote.
Learn more about Evernote for Salesforce »
4) Outlook
Email is a big part of any workplace. And we spend a lot of time in our inboxes, whether it’s responding to new messages or trying to dig up that email from last year.
Emails usually get lost, buried in a never-ending stream of conversation. And they are totally separate from the tools you are using to create and organize the documents, notes, and projects you are all emailing about. By connecting Evernote to Outlook, you can hang onto important emails and easily share your notes.
Save Outlook emails and attachments to Evernote, placing them in the right notebook with relevant tags or additional remarks. The emails will then appear as editable notes in your Evernote account. This is particularly handy for those weekly report or status update emails. Just create an ‘Updates’ notebook in your team’s space and save the report emails there.
You can also attach your notes from Evernote to an email. With this Outlook add-in, your notes are a click away and easy to share, so there’s no need to switch tools to pull up what you need.
Evernote for Outlook is available for users of Outlook.com and Office 365 users using Outlook 2013, Outlook 2016 and Outlook on the web.
Learn more about using Evernote for Outlook »
5) Add a little automation
The apps listed above are just a start. If you want to use integrations to take your workflow to the next level, consider using IFTTT or Zapier to connect Evernote with even more apps.
