Total, Relaxed Organization, The Blog

Evernote is a universal note-capturing and organizing system. It is now free and—surprise!—gaining popularity. Their 3.0 Web version was recently released for public beta. (You need an invitation to beta test it, ask me for an invite if you need one.)

So what can you do with it? While Evernote can be used for GTD, its GTD support is very basic—just a notch above the lowest possible support to qualify as GTD-compatible in our GTD Software Comparison Table. However, it does allow multiple tags/contexts per item and syncs on a wide range of platforms (Web, Windows, Mac, and WinMobile capture-only, with more platforms coming). It also supports read-only public sharing of “notebooks,” and custom searches can be saved. No dates or priorities are supported. Because it lacks any kind of task prioritization, it can’t be used for labor-reducing GTD extensions like Total, Relaxed Organization (TRO) or Total Workday Control.

Who should use Evernote? Because of the limited task management support, I recommend this tool for people needing only basic GTD (not many tasks or projects), or for TROers and power-GTDers needing a fast, searchable way to grab resource items. For the latter, use Evernote only to manage online notes and reference material, not as a second task list. (You’re only one person, you have only one timeline, have only one calendar; your task list is an extension of that calendar.)

Evernote Corp. says that they’re moving to a free/premium version approach. The exact mix of free and paid features hasn’t been determined yet. I’m betting you’ll see advertising as part of the free model in the not-too-distant future. Still, it’s a good, free tool for capturing and managing resource information for your tasks and projects.