Evernote – Sometimes Paper Keeps You Sane

Imagine quitting your really great job for a decade-old writing project you haven’t been able to finish while working full time. And you must finish. You can’t explain why. It must be done. It doesn’t matter that there are people who think you’re crazy.

Then, imagine you finally find a way to corral the multitude of notes you have in paper form, digital files, emails, and Word documents. You spend months logging them into this cool application called Evernote, which resides on your laptop, in the Cloud, and even syncs with your phone. Nifty.

One morning, you crank up Evernote, and instead of showing the 445 notes it should, it shows a mere 176. What goes through your mind? (This is a good reason not to have a gun.) And yes, this is what happened to me this morning with my notes on the William E. Dimorier biography. Thankfully, I found them by discovering that I was only looking at the ones I had entered in March.

As you might guess, I’m not an Evernote aficionado, and I could certainly use some more training in the product, but I’m too busy to stop my research and read about it.

For me, this brings up images of a fictional worker named Faber, who must produce 100 widgets by midnight, or his pay will be docked. He knows that in the store room lays some parts that would make the tool he’s using much more effective, but it would take some time for assembly. Faber says, “I can’t stop working. I have a quota to meet.” Of course, if Faber stopped and took the time to make the tool whole, he might still meet his quota by midnight and the next day, produce a better product in even less time. .

Yes, I need to learn more about Evernote.

So, as I said, I found my “missing notes,” and I’ve backed them up yet again, but you know what? I decided to print them on paper. Why? Because if for some reason Evernote crashes, the Internet goes away, the power grid goes down, or the Russians invade, I will have my notes in physical form (barring all the maladies that can happen to paper). Now, mind you: Evernote is not made for printing. I know that much.

I went through more than 445 sheets of paper, because each note prints on its own page, and some notes span more than one page, but I will feel better. I had to replace an ink cartridge, but I will feel better. I will have to compare each printed page to the actual Evernote electronic note, because the headings don’t appear on the printed page (now I know to duplicate the heading to the note itself), but I will feel better. Oh, and that stack of paper is going to be added to the seven binders of materials I’ve accumulated on this project. But I will feel better.

Thank goodness. I’m almost done with this project. Seriously. In the scheme of things, the actual writing will be a breeze. . .

By the way, if you are an Evernote aficionado, I would love to hear from you. . .

Overview of the Dimorier Project