Evernote: The unofficial guide to capturing everything and getting things done. by Daniel Gold – Oct 2011

Evernote: The unofficial guide to capturing everything and getting things done. by Daniel Gold  ★★★★★

First off, what is it with everyone giving their books longer and longer subtitles? Just saying…

I first heard of David Gold on the Getting Things Done Virtual Study Group. He spent one our sessions giving his insight into the many uses of Evernote for implementing David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology. His enthusiasm for the topic was contagious and I bought his ebook on the spot.

The basis, of course, is Evernote, a collection application that stores all kinds of information and provides powerful ways to retrieve it across any platform instantly. I am a new-comer to Evernote, just really starting to investigate it a month or two ago. The concept intrigued me, so when I heard Gold’s descriptions of how he pushes it to do everything in his task management system, I was hooked. I have used many tools over the past thirty years. Could this finally be “the tool?” I hoped this book would be the key to understanding how to use it better.

However, I was to be disappointed. Gold’s book did not provide what I was hoping to see – detailed explanation of how to do some of the basics of task management in this rich and well featured tool. In fact, I think I got more specific ideas on how to set things up from the podcast than I did the book.

It is a short ebook, barely 40 pages. The writing is energetic, bright and in need of an editor. Gold knows his stuff, but needs to spend a little more time on explaining how things are set up. The explanations that are there could use a little spicing up, a little more organization and step-by-step instructions. Unless one is already familiar with how to do some of the tasks referred to, it is easy to get lost and confused.

I don’t doubt that Gold is going to clean the book up over time and make it into what he intends. He states the book is going to continue to evolve – something that ebooks hold as an advantage over their print cousins. I hope the feedback he receives is incorporated. He has a great start. More “how to” descriptions would help me have the courage to make the leap to Evernote. The ideas that are presented there are helpful. However, the ideas he discussed in the podcast resonated more with me. I am going to go back and listen to the recording again very soon. For me, it was better than the ebook.