15 Under-Used Evernote Features to Supercharge Your Productivity

Since we introduced our Calendar Connector to the Evernote App Center, it's safe to say we've become more than a little obsessed with seeing what other people have done to supercharge their Evernote productivity.Here are our top under-used Evernote features from around the web. Enjoy!

Go paper-free

Do the paperless challenge

Created by @jamietr, the Evernote Paperless Challenge checklist is a downloadable PDF that offers a step-by-step guide and even an example diagram to demonstrate how you can ditch paper for a streamlined digital life.

We've found it works best with the 'touch it once' rule: when you pick paper up, particularly mail, deal with it straight away instead of putting it in a pile to deal with later.

Ditch loyalty cards

Is your wallet or purse always stuffed with a million reward cards from various stores? If so, simply snap a photo of the front and back, making sure the barcode is clear, and leave the cards at home. Simply present the photo on your device for the assistant to scan, and you're good to go. Eliminate scrabbling through endless cards trying to find the right one, or stretching your wallet beyond capacity.

Digitize business cards and receipts

Similarly to loyalty cards, you can photograph your business cards in the same way and then recycle the hard copy. The iOS Evernote app Scannable even has a specific mode for doing this, or you can download CamScanner (iOS and Android) that does the same thing. Not only does it save paper, but it means you have access to all the business cards and useful receipts you've collected on the go. You can even use it to make take-out menus searchable, since images are transformed into searchable text.

Transform Kindle highlights

This is a great tip we picked up from 30 ways to use Evernote to improve your life. Simply log in to kindle.amazon.com and at the top of the page choose 'Your Highlights'.You can then see all the highlights you've made in anything you've read on a Kindle or via the Kindle app. Then use the Evernote Web Clipper to automatically transfer your highlighted notes into Evernote. It's great for any kind of research, and saves you a lot of typing.

Use keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts make everything faster and easier, and Evernote is no exception to this. If you find yourself using it on a big screen regularly, it's worth knowing how to speed up your use. We love this list for Mac and Windows from Make Tech Easier.

Email to Evernote

Evernote gives you a private email address which you can forward emails to and instantly have them appear as notes. Go to your 'Account Info' to find out what yours is. The email's subject line will become the note name, and you can also add @notebook (send it to a specific notebook), !date (add as reminder), and #tag (to find it again later). You can even add emails to existing notes by using a + at the end of the subject line.We recommend keeping this to personal use by forwarding emails on yourself for extra control. Alternatively you could limit it to selected colleagues or family members by trusting them with your Evernote address.

Combine notes

If you're anything like us, you create new notes which end up overlapping with others in some way. To cut down on the number of notes you have and find things more easily, you can merge them using any desktop version of Evernote.

Select at least two notes with Shift + click, and they will turn into a pleasing graphical pile. Then you can email, save attachments, move or merge them as you wish. It's worth noting that they will all have the title of the first note you selected and that you can't access notes individually in side apps (like Skitch or Food) after you've merged them in Evernote.

Password-protect sensitive text

We love that Evernote has 2 factor authentication, but for another layer of protection you can also password protect sensitive text within notes. To do this, highlight the text you want to protect, right-click and choose the 'Encrypt Selected Text' option. You can also search 'Notes with encryption' to find them again easily.

Use Clearly to strip formatting

Evernote Clearly is a great way to ensure distraction-free reading and cut down on load times and data usage. Simply add a web page you want to read and run it through Clearly to have all adverts, images, and extra formatting removed. Then you can either read it or save it to Evernote for later. It's a great way to remove annoying pagination from articles.

Create audio notes

Text isn't always the best option, so if you're not a fan of typing, you're interviewing someone, or you need to go hands free, create an audio note instead. You can create audio notes from your desktop, but it's much better on mobile. When you're creating a new note, simply click the microphone icon to start. Your recording will be stored on Evernote as a .m4a, which you can then play back, download or share.

Build presentations in seconds

Ditch the additional software and save yourself a lot of work by turning your notes into a surprisingly attractive presentation, Evernote style.

For a step-by-step guide on how to do this, take a look at this Evernote article: How do I use presentation mode to present notes?

Map your notes visually

Mohio Map transforms your notes into stunning maps, ideal if you're a visual person or want to incorporate diagrams into your presentations. There are free and premium accounts available, and they tie into other services too, making Mohio one to check out.

Perform advanced searches

Following on from our keyboard shortcuts tip, another insanely useful tip is to learn all the advanced search options available to you through Evernote. You can search in all kinds of ways, from searching based on when a note was most recently modified to even the latitude and longitude of its creation.For a complete list, check out the text and video details here: Using Evernote's advanced search syntax.

Track your progress with people

Use tags to group information and keep track of where you are with people at the same time. So, for example, you could group company information with meeting/interview notes and reminders, and keep it all updated so you know your progress and what was said last. This works in a range of situations, for example for job interviews, industry events, networking opportunities, building marketing relationships, contacting investors, and just generally remembering to keep up with the people you need to.

Turn your reminders into calendar events

Evernote's reminder feature is great, but you can still miss out because you've forgotten to add the details to your calendar or update any changes in Evernote. By connecting your Evernote account to your Outlook.com, Exchange, iCloud or Google Calendar with our Calendar Connector, reminders can be automatically added to your calendar. And from your calendar, you can change the you can change the time, alter the name of the note, or remove the reminder by deleting the event. Simple.

Have we missed any good tips? How do you use Evernote to be more productive? Drop us a tweet @cronofy and let us know!