Update (September 24, 2018):
There’s a new way to find, manage, and use note templates in Evernote. Visit our template gallery to browse pre-made templates you can add to your Evernote account.
With the end of the year fast approaching, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with wrapping up projects, work, and travel, all while planning for the holidays. Evernote to the rescue.
On October 12 and November 9, Evernote hosted two live events designed to help people power through the holidays without stress. We brought together a few Evernote Certified Consultants and some of our top in-house productivity experts for a fun and informative evening of tips and tricks for surviving the holiday season using Evernote. More than 150 lucky ticket holders joined us for these sold-out events. But it’s available on demand for other Evernote enthusiasts around the world.
Templates for success
Almost everyone loves the holiday season, but the complexity of it can be a little overwhelming. The same might be said for those new to Evernote, or for those who use it for only one or two tasks. From business applications to manage an end-of-year business audit to holiday productivity guides, our guests shared expertise and wisdom to help Evernote customers stay on top of the chaos. Attendees received a special set of note templates, which make organizing even easier. There’s nothing to design, lay out, or arrange. Just import a template to Evernote, fill it in like a form, and watch your stress level drop.
We emailed the speakers’ templates to each attendee, and the response was so terrific we decided to share them with everyone. To use any of the templates mentioned in this article, click the appropriate link and then click “Join notebook.” The entire shared notebook will be added to your Evernote account. You can then copy the individual notes into your personal notebooks where you can edit them to suit your needs. Want to know more about using Evernote templates? Check out How to Save Time With Templates on the Evernote website.
Meet the guests (and their Evernote templates)
As a professional Evernote consultant, Katie Santos of Absolute Center spent years helping clients optimize business success. She presented two templates to help small businesses ensure that their office is ready for the new year, and to help shut down the office for the holidays. Katie recommends capturing all your tasks in one long note, and then separating the list into items you need to do right away, things you can delegate, and items you can do later.
Katie’s Pro Tip: “Convert those three lists into three separate notes, and attach checkboxes and reminders to each task list. Let Evernote remind you—and the people you’ve delegated tasks to—when they’re due.”
Get Katie’s small business templates »
Frank Gerber of BlueShift Partners has plenty of tricks up his sleeve for making year ’round travel as painless as possible. Because he lives in California’s Bay Area, he’s always asked: ‘Where are some great places to go in San Francisco? Where should I eat?’ To help his friends navigate the almost endless choices of a San Francisco visit, Frank wrote a guide to San Francisco and shared it as a public notebook. By sharing it, he’s giving his friends an insider’s guide right on their devices. And when he finds a new treasure, he updates the notebook once, and the changes go out to everyone. For Frank, Evernote was the perfect application to share suggestions with friends and family quickly. Since he loves to travel, he created travel and hosting templates to help make traveling and visiting a breeze.
Get Frank’s San Francisco Bay Area guide »
Get Frank’s travel templates »
Frank’s Pro Tip: “Credit cards often come with travel benefits that you don’t remember you have. Create a note for each credit card you carry and list all the perks you get with each one. If you review those before you go on a trip, you can save a lot of money.”
SiNing Chan, Evernote’s Senior Technical Writer, sees Evernote as an invaluable organizational tool for everyone, regardless of productivity style. “What’s more important to you?” she asked audiences. “Maximizing your time, or maximizing your energy?” Knowing your productivity style can help you enjoy a more stress-free holiday. For ‘time-maximizers,’ she recommends using Evernote for planning holiday projects such as holiday cards and gifts. SiNing also created reusable templates to stay organized throughout the year and to do a bit of planning before the holidays. Not only that, but SiNing provided templates for on-the-job productivity, including a task tracker and a place to organize blog posts.
Get SiNing’s productivity templates »
SiNing’s Pro Tip: Set aside time daily to check in with yourself. Use Evernote to keep responses to daily reflection questions such as: How are you feeling today? Are you moving closer or further away from the goals you’ve chosen for yourself? Keep track of how you’re doing with this Daily Re-Charge template.
Evernote’s Engineering Manager, Kathryn Kohler, shared how anyone can appear as if they have organization superpowers with Evernote. She uses Evernote as a repository for everything that comes into her head. “Set it and forget it,” she said. “Everything goes in there.” Kathryn uses this system to stay informed during her one-on-one meetings with her team. To her, it’s too stressful to try to remember everything you said and did and promised. “Write everything down in Evernote, and then later you can go back and see what you promised.” It’s a technique that she uses with her husband, too. “If there’s a disagreement, I can just pull up my phone and say, ‘no, on this date, I said this and you said you’d do that’,” she said with a laugh.
Kathryn’s Pro Tip: Keeping track of all all the things I need to remember inside of Evernote has allowed me to organize a sea of information. But it’s important to make sure you keep all the components of each task small and digestible.”
Looking for even more templates? Talented Evernote experts have shared templates for everything from business forms to wardrobe management to personal development, and Evernote also provides a starter kit of templates to help you get the most from your Evernote account.
Need an Evernote Certified Consultant?
Get in touch with an Evernote Certified Consultant to learn how your business can benefit from personal guidance using Evernote. With more than 400 consultants worldwide, it’s convenient and easy to find the right consultant for you.
Want to become an Evernote Certified Consultant?
Are you a business or productivity consultant? Become an Evernote Certified Consultant: Learn how you can apply.
Don’t miss out on future Evernote events! Be sure to bookmark the Evernote Event Calendar.
