Evernote: An Organizing Tool That Can Help Boost Productivity

 Recently I have become familiar with the app Evernote. The Evernote app allows users to store, organize, and collaborate almost anything. Similiar to Dropbox, Evernote allows you to upload and store different files and have the ability to access them anywhere through devices with the app. You have access to all of your work at home anywhere, as long as theres internet. Evernote even has a mobile phone app that allows you to upload pictures, videos, notes, etc, and then access them on your PC. It's a great app to have if your constantly on the go or if you need help staying organized.

   After reading an article about Evernote I was able to really utilize the app. One tip was about replacing your PowerPoints with Presentation mode from Evernote. Although it is only available through the Premium version and costs $5/month, Presentation mode has way more of a variety than PowerPoint and would be way more appealing to viewers in my opinion. For certain people it could be a wise investment. Another tip was sending emails to Evernote, this can help organize your inbox between spam and the important stuff or people. I really never run into this problem because I have 5 different emails but again for certain people it can help. For the user who creates and upload thousands of notes Evernote allows for a search engine to pinpoint exactly which note your searching for. Evernote is all about organizing by consolidating, the app allows you to merge certain notes that maybe be different but will be used in the context of a project for you. Merging the notes can really help consolidating your work and keeping everything neat and organized. Another great ability of Evernote is webclipper. Webclipper allows you to save articles, pictures and notes from the internet right to your evernote account. The app has become popular between educators such as college professors and highschool teachers.


      Evernote has a third part connection with Sunrise, an app that combines your calendars from Facebook, Your PC, etc to form a well organized version of them all. This aspect helps with consolidating and enabling more productivity. Like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple and Dropbox; Evernote also has two step verification to keep your file extra secure. Enabling this feature is a good way of keeping your stuff safe. Evernote also uses IFTTT (if this then that) to enable streams from different accounts. Stream Twitter posts onto your Evernote and again search through them with Evernotes search engine. This helps eliminate the time scrolling through posts so you can re-read old and missed tweets. I am a person that is impacted by the visual aspect of things. Evernotes ability to add pictures to reminders can really help visual learners like myself remember things. "This being Evernote you can of course attach notes and reminders to your snaps as well, so you can create a fairly complex to do list that matches the way you work best. You can use tags to sort tasks out into urgent and non-urgent, for example, or into separate buckets for entries related to work and entries related to your personal life."

 I found the hangout chat with Adam Taylor informational as well as entertaining. He made a great point when he said to follow the lists of professionals you are following. I originally was just following a bunch of organizations on twitter with occupational therapy or actual occupational therapists accounts and some of them post informational tweets but most of the time its conversations between other people. I started looking through their lists and they were a lot more helpful. I am currently talking to a therapist through Twitters DM. I eventually want to have a hangout with them. Overall I found Adam's advice helpful and I agree with him that Twitter is a great tool to make connections. I liked his comment about how using twitter just to follow celebrities is for losers lol.

Chapter 3 of UTW discussed presentation tools and how they have evolved from less appealing slides on PowerPoint to more eye catching and resourceful presentations such as Prezi. Another presentation networking tool is SlideShare, you can embed different links on your feed or blog and customize presentations however you desire. Many educators have familiarized themselves with these applications because it enhances learning. Presentations can really affect learning in a positive way, especially when the presentation is resourceful as well as captivating to the audience.