I’ve been an Evernote user for years. While I couldn’t tell you my exact sign-up date (I’ve had a couple different accounts), I found a screenshot on my iPhone this morning from November 2013 and I’ll be darned if that big elephant isn’t there front and centre. It’s situated with a lot of apps I still use (Tweetbot, Pocket) and a few I don’t or aren’t with us anymore (Flickr, Mailbox).
I’ve gone back and forth a few times on Evernote. More than a few times actually. Depending on the time of year or my mood I’ll think it’s too costly or I’ll ask myself I really NEED it when I can save files to my Mac and jot notes in Apple Notes or Obsidian or Craft or - whatever. But I…
Keep.
Coming.
Back.
I won’t deny their transition to v10 was premature. They definitely decided one day that it was time to flip the switch and it wasn’t ready; not by a long shot. For me personally, the early issues in v10 were slow performance and the inability to drag notes to tags and/or notebooks. It was also quite obviously just displaying a webpage within a Mac/Windows pane which I didn’t love. I realize that’s basically what it is now, but they’ve improved the look and feel a lot. Anyway, v10 marks one of those times where I left the app.
In the time I was away from Evernote though, I just couldn’t get my workflow running as efficiently as I had once had it under the protection of the elephant. I’d be at work on my Windows PC and during a break I’d look up a place to stay on a summer vacation. Wanting to save it for later I’d think “I’ll just clip this to Evernote – oh yeah, I’m not using it right now, uhhh…save webpage to PDF? I guess. Email myself a link for later? Put it into Apple Notes on the web?”. None of the solutions were as quick or as elegant (in my opinion), and so I would begin the journey (or is it annual cycle?) of trying new apps.
I can hear everyone yelling right now - “Devonthink!”. “Joplin!”. “Craft!”. “Notion!”. “Obsidian!”.
I’ve tried all of those and they just don’t jive with my way of thinking, with the exception of maybe Obsidian for my personal thoughts. I just don’t find it to be as robust at storing screen shots, photos, quick sketches, – there’s no email in to Obsidian etc. I could write a compendium about this, but in the interest in staying on topic, I’ll just say nothing checked as many boxes (for me) as Evernote.
I then purchased an M1 Mac mini about 8 months ago, and when I saw Evernote had an M1 version of their app, I downloaded it. I told myself it wasn’t going to suck me in but I knew the moment I downloaded it, it was because a part of me wanted back in.
I was thoroughly impressed. Import folders are back, the app is fast, I actually really like their design and how you can save notes to both tags AND notebooks. It really impressed me. On top of that, the sync still worked flawlessly for me as it always had, even though I know some people report issues with this. I had far more issues with sync while on Apple Notes for a time.
I then saw a video by Tiago Forte about using a second brain and how he uses Evernote as his app of choice. When I saw his tour of how he has Evernote setup I began to think - this is how I see things, this is how I like my data set up. I subsequently discovered I’m a “Librarian” – a great fit for Evernote. In this journey of on/off throughout my tenure with Evernote and note taking apps in general, I’ve realized a few things:
- As I mentioned above, I’m a Librarian
- While I do use Obsidian for some idea generation, I personally don’t find “back linking” to be all that useful. I can feel your virtual tomatoes being hurled at me now.
- I’m going to use the app that works the best for me, not the one that all the cool kids on the playground have chosen as their cool app of the moment. Does Evernote deserve some of the criticism? Absolutely. But it’s become cool to hate on them, and when I silence all the voices out there and listen to my own voice, it’s Evernote for me.
So what makes it click the most for me?
It has to be its versatility in getting information ingested. If my wife emails me something and says “please don’t lose this”, I can simply forward it on to Evernote. In fact, we’ve got to the point where she’ll email me with the first line being simply - “please Evernote this”. If I’m online and I get an order confirmation number or I want to save a web page, I can do this easily with Evernote - whether I’m on my Mac, Windows, or my phone. I can take screen shots of just a section of the page, an entire page, or article view. And once I’ve piled things into Evernote from all manner of mediums out there, I can organize it with tags and notebooks in a way that my way of thinking jives with perfectly.
So if I were in your shoes OP, I’d try Evernote. Purchase an annual subscription and start using it full time. You’ll know quickly if it meets your criteria or not and if it doesn’t, they have a 60-day return policy (with annual sub). I know because I just used it a few months ago.
tldr; Evernote deserved some criticism on the transition to v10, but its working well now and I have no issues. With new apps like Obsidian and Craft becoming the new hot topic, Evernote has kind of been forgotten in the tech community. It seems like its even cool to hate on them, but for me, it’s still the king and you should give it a try.