My favorite tool for organizing my life is Evernote.  On today’s episode I want to introduce you to this great cloud service and let you know how you can begin to organize your life, and for free.

Evernote is a cloud storage service which stores and indexes your digital files.  Think of it as a giant bucket in the cloud.  You upload web clips, or photos, or bills or other documents, and you have them available on any computer, and mobile device you own.

The strength is in the indexing.  Depending on the level of service you purchase, you can search by file names, tags, and notebooks.  If you save a photo that has text in it, you can also search by text in the photo.

So I basically scan all of my important files, I use a Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner for PC and Mac (PA03656-B005), not cheap but hands down the best desktop document scanner, and automatically scan those notes into Evernote.  Then, if that is all I do, I can search for the notes later on by typing words in the text.   If I want to get more organized, I give names to the files.  If I want to get even more customized, I give the notes a tag.  So for example, lets say I am remodeling the living room.  I create a tag called “livingroom remodel” and then I start gathering notes.  In the store I might take a photo of molding and maybe the price tag.  Then I tag the photos with my Evernote tag Livingroom Remodel.  Maybe I see some great ideas on line.  Right from the browser I use the Evernote clipping tool to save the portion of the webpage I want and tag it with Livingroom Remodel.  Lets say I get a business card from a contractor, I take a picture of the card or scan it and tag it.  Lets say I buy some paint for the remodel, I take a photo of the paint sticker so I can recall the color in years to come and I scan or snap a photo of the receipt and tag it also.  Now if I do this, in the future, I just look for the tag Livingroom Remodel. and all of the notes that had to do with this project come up.  I also throw away my receipts, clips, notes, because everything is in Evernote and my project clutter goes away.  I also have my business emails forward to Evernote so I can save all of those in one spot.  I have also scanned my legal documents.  Once I was at an event with my step son.  He needed an ID to get in but forgot his wallet.  I remembered I had scanned his Driver's License at one point and called it up on my phone in about 60 seconds.  Crisis averted, they let him in.  I have lists of medications, tags for my trips, places reminders, store my favorite recipes, keep medical records and prescription info, have a photo of my printer cartridges so I know what to buy, clip web pages to read later, Make task lists with the built in task list maker,