Evernote Productivity Tips for Lawyers
You may have already heard of Evernote--it's a popular note-taking app for smartphones. What you might not know is that it's also a powerful productivity software that can help you with in your legal practice. Here are several ways how.
Catalogue all your research
Legal work involves a lot of research. You have to investigate about precedents, primary and secondary authorities, regulations, statutes, and various other details applicable to your case that may vary depending on jurisdiction. Thanks to the advent of high-speed mobile internet, this information is readily available when the situation calls for it.
For all our technological advancements, however, using all this information can be a bit unwieldy because everything is fragmented. Some, for instance, are stored in your laptop, while others are in a legal database (e.g. the AustLII website). Every time you need to read something, you have to open a different device or program.
But if you catalogue all your research in Evernote, you can access the info on all your devices at any time. Remember: the more you put in Evernote, the more helpful it becomes. You can use Evernote on your PC to browse photos of evidence you took using your phone. Using your tablet, you can read legal articles saved from your PC--even when you're out of the office.
Scan your travel receipts
Whether you're part of a law firm or have your own solo practice, your expenses for work-related travel can be claimed as tax deductibles. Because of this, it would be a good idea to store your travel-related receipts in Evernote, especially whenever you attend depositions, hearings, arbitrations, conferences, and all sorts of networking events in other parts of the country.
Simply open the Evernote app on your phone, tap the "+" symbol on the bottom right side of the screen, click the camera icon, select the Document tab, and then take the photo. If you wish to scan a large quantity of receipts, consider using a desktop scanner. Take note that there are models which come with Evernote integration, meaning it automatically adds scanned documents into Evernote.
For further ease of use, try companion apps like Receiptmate, which can store scanned receipts in Evernote and then automatically add them up.
Save every calling card
By itself, the ability to save calling card information by scanning the physical card makes Evernote Premium worthwhile. It makes adding contacts so much easier. The process is similar with how you scan your travel receipts (see above); but instead of selecting the Document option, click the one that says "Business Card".
Next, simply position your camera over the calling card. If you're using an iOS device, it will automatically detect and scan the card. Android devices require you to tap the green circle to shoot.
After scanning, Evernote reads information from the card and displays it. If you're logged in LinkedIn, email addresses in the card that are associated with a LinkedIn profile will show additional information about the calling card owner. When you save the card, Evernote will give you the option to add it to the phone's contacts.
Install the Evernote Web Clipper
The Web Clipper lets you conveniently save images, articles, and text from your internet browser straight into Evernote. So if you find a helpful legal article or wish to save the contact details of a networking event, simply click Evernote's elephant icon on the browser, and then choose between:
- Saving the entire page.
- Taking a screenshot.
- Saving a bookmark.
Once you've saved the selected image, article, or text, you can access it from any other device with Evernote installed. The Evernote Web Clipper is available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Opera.
Annotate with Skitch
Skitch is a useful app used for editing, annotating, and sharing screenshots. It lets you add text and shapes to maps, photos, webpages, and PDFs, and then share it with others. What makes Skitch valuable is that it's integrated with Evernote. When you edit or annotate on Skitch, you can save it afterwards in an Evernote notebook.
For instance, if you wish to point out which stipulation in a PDF contract you find questionable, you can mark it on Skitch, save it on Evernote, and then share it with your colleagues and client. All of this is easily done in a minute or two.
Tag each note to make searching easy
What makes Evernote particularly valuable as a repository of information is its tagging feature, which makes searching for saved notes so much easier. As a result, make sure that you always tag each note you create.
Connect notes with note links
Here's a helpful secret: you can access specific Evernote notes from other programs. This is done by creating note links, which are a lot like hyperlinks, except they lead to Evernote notes. Once you click the note link, the Evernote app opens, along with the specific note.
Here's how you create note links: right-click (or tap and hold in touchscreen devices) on any Evernote note, and then select Copy Note Link (or Copy Link) from the contextual menu. After copying the note link onto the clipboard, you can paste it in pretty much anywhere.
You can post note links in word processors, spreadsheets, presentation programs, email clients, note-taking software, calendar programs, and a host of other applications.
Share notes with your colleagues
Evernote comes with sharing tools that let you show your notebooks and notes to your colleagues. This makes collaboration on projects possible even when you or your partners are not at the office--provided you have internet access, of course. Sharing options include the following:
- You can share notes through Evernote's Work Chat feature or whatever other instant messenger. The latter works by sending note links to your colleague.
- You can send notes directly through Evernote's built-in email.
- Finally, there's the social media option, where you can post note links on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. You need to connect these channels with your Evernote beforehand, however.
All of these options can be accessed by right-clicking (or tapping and holding) the specific note, then selecting the corresponding sharing option.
