Last week, we shared tips about getting ideas out of your head and organized. In that post, we stressed the importance of being consistent with where you keep these notes. Some people prefer to have them physically written down, others prefer to have them stored on electronic devices.

For those of you who fall in the electronic note taking category, this is your post! (Or even if you’re in the first category- this post just might change your mind). There are tons of apps out there for notes, with as many or as little extra features as you would like. I’m only going to talk about 4 of the apps I’ve found that offer their own unique twists on the note-taking process that are also totally free.

Evernote: Arguably the most popular note taking app. You can download it on all your devices, that way the notes you take on your PC will be with you on your phone if you’re on the go. Free for 60 MB of uploads per month. If you want to upload more, save emails, have offline access, it does cost a bit of money. There is also a business plan (also paid) which aims to improve collaboration within a business. For a smaller company it might not make a lot of sense, but there are a lot of different people attached to a project, it seems like a useful and convenient way to stay organized.

Things that are cool: You can search through text and images, and easily share notes with others. The website has a pretty incredible blog/testimonial section, and this story about Nisha Harish using Evernote to help write a book about her experience in the Marathon des Sables caught my interest.

This was just the sample page after sign-in, and I already felt overwhelmed

This was just the sample page after sign-in, and I already felt overwhelmed

OneNote (Microsoft): Another app that’s available for free, and on desktop and mobile devices. It also comes with similar cloud-access so you can get your information wherever you are. The interface reminds me of Excel, with different tabs for different sections. From the perspective of a girl who breaks a sweat at the mere mention of spreadsheets, this isn’t how I want to keep track of my notes. Then I actually logged in and tested it out (clearly nothing serious) and it was actually pretty awesome.

Things that are cool: It’s very straightforward and easy to use. You have all the basic options, like drawing notes, writing, sharing, adding pictures-without it being overly complex. Easy to navigate, both in terms of writing a note and accessing it later on.

I had a little fun testing this one out...

I had a little fun testing this one out…



Google Keep: A free Google app that is a more organized version of the Stickies program that Macs have (which I totally loved in my tween-hood). Like Evernote and OneNote, you can share your notes with other people. You can also sync your notes with your other Google apps, add location based reminders (with the help of Google maps). As someone who already uses Google apps AND enjoys the visual organization, this is the app that gets my vote. (Unfortunately, I’m a physical note person).

Things that are cool: As mentioned earlier, I really like the interface on Google Keep. It’s more friendly for visually inclined individuals. You can enable dictation (which the other apps don’t have) and can easily move it to a Google doc for further editing/sharing.

googlekeep

Simplenote: A slight step up above the Note app on your phone- it’s text only and doesn’t let you add any attachments or images, or share with others. However, it does have a cool restore history feature, so if you accidentally delete something you can easily get it back. (Note does not have this, trust me.) You can also tag notes, share the note URL, and invite others to edit. In other words, it has a lot of the same features as the other apps but with a simpler interface.

Things that are cool: It’s pretty minimalist, so if you’re the type of person who JUST wants to jot things down without dealing with annoying extra features, this is your app. The ability to retrieve older notes is a nice safety feature, too.

simplenote

These are just four of the MANY apps you can download for note taking, but they’re a) popular and b) free, so if you’re in the market for organizing notes in a digital way, you’ll probably be able to find something that will get the job done.

June is note month! Stay tuned for more posts about note taking and keeping, and remember to check out other posts as well:

Take Note: Tips on Having (and Keeping) Your Ideas



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