One of the quickest ways to capture project information is by creating notes via your Evernote email address. If you have an Evernote account, you have a unique address that allows you to send email, along with any attachments, directly to your account. (Evernote’s Knowledge Base explains how to find this address on your device.)
Saving key messages this way takes just a second or two and can save you a lot of time and searching when you need to find project information later.
How to save information with your Evernote email address:
- Set your most frequently used Evernote notebook as your default. (I have one for information related to client projects.)
- Whenever you send (or respond to) an email that’s key to a project, blind copy (BCC) your Evernote address.
- Optionally, if you have tags set up for clients or job/project numbers, you can add the tag to your subject line (with a pound/hash symbol in front of it, like this: #tag), and the note will be tagged in Evernote.
That’s it. If you’re already sending an email that you want to save to Evernote, just BCC your Evernote email address. If you receive a key message but don’t need to respond (or want to include attachments in your note), you can forward it to that same address.
The types of messages/information I send to Evernote via email:
- Files from clients and information about what they’re looking for.
- Product options I send a client. When they later vaguely reference “the second one” or “the pocket tee,” I can do a quick Evernote search and know exactly which product they’re talking about.
- Order confirmations I receive and customer service chat transcripts.
- Order information I send to a vendor, including client-approved PDF proofs, which I can reference when I check the finished product and when the client re-orders later.
- Any key messages about the state of the project. Looking up the most recent note about a project will tell me its status.
Messages I don’t send to Evernote:
- Meeting scheduling.
- Questions from clients (I may BCC Evernote on the answer, if it’s specific to them).
- Repeat info, or anything that doesn’t add to what I know about the project or its status.
- Witty banter.
Text messages and Google Voice
If you can forward texts to email, then you can forward a text to your Evernote email address too. For example, on my iPhone, I select a message, tap “More…”, and then press the forward arrow in the bottom right.
Google Voice has a setting to automatically send your texts and/or voicemail transcriptions to email. Add your Evernote address to archive them in Evernote.
Give it a try, and let me know if you have other Evernote tips to share or things you’d like to learn!