Staying Organized

[Sue Clancy]

After trying out several methods for keeping all of our maintenance logs, manuals, part number, serial numbers etc. organized I think we have finally landed on something that works for us.  We tried paper notebooks and binders, Word Docs, Google Docs, spreadsheets and apps like Boating Suite but they all had their limitations. 

- Notebooks and binders being physical are never with you when you need them (like at WM) or they're on the boat when you want to research something at home
- Word Docs and Google docs are somewhat difficult to add pictures to and you can't put an existing PDF manual with them
- Spreadsheets - Difficult to add photos and no PDF support
- Boating suite App - has some good features but you are limited to the attributes they define for each area which may not be exactly what you want to keep.  There is also no way to work on entries from your computer - its IOS only.  The free version does not offer all the features.

This summer I started using Evernote and so far it is giving me everything we need.  I have long been an Evernote user for work but hadn't thought about how it might be helpful for the boat.  Evernote is a very simple cloud based notebook metaphor.  It's free and provides a desktop, web based, iPad, iPhone and Android versions as well as a web clipper add on to Chrome.

www.evernote.com

Some of the features:
- Since it's cloud based, all of your notes are available all the time on all your devices so a note I make on my computer is immediately available on my phone so it's always with you.
- Can have an email address specific to your Evernote account that you can forward emails to and they will automatically sync to your Evernote notebook.
- The web clipper allows you to clip a link, full web page or PDF to your notebook from any web page you are looking at
- Fully searchable
- Can share notes and notebooks with others


What I have done so far with Evernote:
- Created a single notebook for our boat (Summer Rush)
- Saved all the manuals available online for the boat, engine, electronics, etc. in PDF format to my Summer Rush notebook
- Created a note for logging all the parts and pieces including brands, model numbers, price, size, when it was updated or replaced and any notes associated
- Pictures - when I see a picture online or snap a picture with my phone related to the boat I can either email it to my Evernote account or clip it with the web clipper.
- Web pages - Instead of bookmarking a web page, I clip it to my Evernote account so I can easily reference it.  I can then make notes to go with it making it easier to search
- Shopping - when I am shopping for something online, I can snap pictures of the website page with the price so I can refer to it while at the store - great for price matching at West Marine.
- Checklists - I can create checklists for things like commissioning, decommissioning and sail ready that I can easily reference to make sure everything got done.

Some things I haven't done yet but plan to:
- Reminders - You can set reminders with due dates and emails sent to remind us of various maintenance tasks

I highly recommend Evernote to my fellow sailors.

Sue

[bayates]

Sue,

We use Boating Suite as the log for maintenance, logbook and expenses.  I use Evernote for reminders and keeping pictures of the boat.  Had not thought of using Evernote for everything. I like having a consistent input for all the records. I export to Excel and can print for a backup record.

[Solstice]

We have also used Evernote for about 3 years. It's single best feature is being able to upload all of the boat manuals and other helpful PDF's and have them available at all times (like boat shows). Being able to keep photo albums of boat projects is also very helpful. We still keep a Maintenance log binder on the boat, but EN is a great compliment! It's also OS agnostic so I can use on my Windows PC, iPad or Android phone....oh and it's free....

[ghebbns]

Onenote is the Microsoft equivalent to Evernote.  Personally I prefer it.  They just recently made it free so you can't beat the price.  It is available at www.onenote.com .

Greg

[KWKloeber]

Onenote is the Microsoft equivalent to Evernote.  Personally I prefer it.  They just recently made it free so you can't beat the price.  It is available at www.onenote.com .

Greg

Since they're both cloud based (yes?), what's the difference / benefit of using one of those over just having a site (say, google sites) and upload whatever files you may want to reference away from the boat/home - Word. txt, pdf, jpg, xls?

Ken

[Sue Clancy]

Ken, Google Sites is really a tool to build a website.  While that may be something you want if you were to want to share it with the world and have it nicely formatted with menus and such, these tools (Evernote and OneNote) are much simpler and really just act like an online notebook.  It's easier to add things from a variety of places and see them all together.  Google Drive has some similar features but again I think it's easier to get stuff into my Evernote notebook than to put it to Google drive especially from my phone.

[anaisdog]

i've been using evernote since I bought Pyewacket.  do you know if you can link notes together - like if I put in a note about "topside systems" that a port was leaking and all i did was open it, clean all the gunk out of there and probably should do all in the spring - is it possible to link that to be in both the note "topside systems" and "continuous todo", in the free version?  thanks

[Sue Clancy]

It is possible to link between notes.  Check out this article

https://evernote.com/contact/support/kb/#/article/23190617

[anaisdog]

thanks!!!!