Live with Less: Evernote

Photo credit.

I used to be addicted to sticky notes. There I said it and I am sure I am not alone.

I had stacks of them in every color and would stick them to the back of my phone with to-do lists on them. I would use a pink sticky for Boho things, a yellow one for personal things, a blue one for work things, you get the idea. I would have a whole rainbow of notes hanging off my phone case at all times.

Then selfies became a thing and I had to find a new place for my notes so they wouldn’t end up in all my pics (such a first world problem, I know). I started carrying cute notebooks of various portable sizes, but instead of writing my to-do lists on the book pages, I would still write them on sticky notes and then stick those to each page. I just could not break the sticky note habit!!

That is until I decided that I needed to lighten the load in my bag. I was carrying around too much stuff and the notebooks were weighing me down! I moved towards keeping notes IN my phone, in an effort to live with less and stop carrying around so much stuff (not to mention losing important notes to myself). I started using the Notes app that came preloaded on my iPhone. It was ok, but not easy to search or edit. When I used it for to-dos, once a task was complete, I couldn’t cross it off like I did on my stickies. I had to completely delete it from the note, which just does not feel as good. I like to look at my list at the end of the day and feel good about all the scribbled out items. You know?

Then I discovered Evernote. At first, I used Evernote as a separate place to keep notes when I was on a journaling kick. At the end of each day I would type out a few things that happened and something I was thankful for as an exercise in gratitude. I liked how I could search through Evernote way easier than searching through the regular Notes app.

A few weeks ago, I finally upgraded all my apps and realized Evernote had added all these fancy features including the most wonderful thing ever….the checklist! Now every day I make myself an Evernote list and check the box of every task I accomplish through the day. I love a check marked list. I love a list in general which is why I dedicated last week to lists and still can’t seem to stop writing about them.

Another thing I love about the Evernote app is, I can schedule myself reminders for future things and don’t have to keep them on a list for a week. So next week, when I need to remind Evan about something on the calendar, I can set up a reminder that will automatically be emailed to me in the morning. That way I can add it to that day’s list and don’t have to look at it for a whole week.

I am sure there are a million features of the Evernote app that I am not using just yet, but it is so nice to have all my lists and notes in one place, reminders for things that would have been a whole separate sticky note, a place to journal that is always with me, and no more stickies all over the place!

If anyone out there has good Evernote tips, I would love to know them! Using this handy app is just one way I have tried to use the resources I have to learn to live with less!

Do you have an app that you use to minimize the clutter of notes and reminders everywhere?