Evernote is a platform to capture everything you would ever want to make a note of; from handwritten notes, e-mails, pages out of books, checklists, pictures, webpages, documents, audio notes, and pretty much anything else you can snap, write, or record. Capture anything from your life, and it will all stay in sync across all your devices. So what on earth could we do with this on the boat?
If you try to track and organize anything for your boat, you know how quickly those efforts get outdated, disorganized, and unmaintainable. Do you have a drawer that is overflowing with this stuff, or if your keen you have it all put in large binders that has little bits of paper sticking out around it? Leave all that behind with Evernote.
- Scan or take a picture of all work orders, and work progress. Need engine work or fiberglass work done? Take a snapshot of the work order, snap the before picture, the in progress pictures and then the state of the work when finished. A virtual, historical, pictorial record of all your jobs in one spot.
- E-mail notes to your Evernote account. E-mail your Evernote account tasks, pictures, or text notes as you think of them on the go.
- Inventory all serviceable items. Snap pictures of oil filters, fuel filters, batteries, flares, hoses, clamps, impellers, etc, along with noting the date serviced, and possibly the next service date. Also use text notes, or audio notes do describe what you need, and web clippings of replacement parts with prices for comparison.
- Pictures of all of your boating services business cards and letterheads. Whenever you get service done, or foresee the use of someone, snap a shot of the business card, letterhead, magazine ad, or signage, along with a note on what you used them for or will use them for.
- Track all your fuel usage and expenses. At the fuel dock? Take a snapshot of the receipt, throw it away, then save it to Evernote with more pics or text of the volume on the fuel meter, and the hours on the engines.
- Save trip logs with pictures. Out on the weekend or on an extended vacation? Log your trips to Evernote with the trip specifics and snapshots of the trip. Record your engine hours along with it.
- Winterization/Spring Checklists. Create checklists for all your winterization tasks for each part of your boat. The checklist feature even has an actual checkbox to check when the item is complete. What I have done in my winterization checklist is I have taken pictures of the off season storage procedure pages right out of my manuals for my A/C, engines, genny, etc. I have also attached web clippings from web sites and forum threads that have useful information and things to keep in mind when doing my winterization.
- Catalog your next boat purchase research. Thinking of upgrading the boat? I know you are, you're a boater. Whether you or online and saving web clippings or pages to Evernote of the boats you like, or you are out and about looking around the boat yard and snapping pictures and taking notes, you have all that information in one place and easily accessible. Saving audio notes is a great feature in this scenario. Save an audio note of your conversation with a broker (without him knowing of course), or record yourself doing a walk around of a boat while you talk about likes and dislikes.
- Catalog service recall information. Every boat, engine and parts can have a series of recalls, service procedure adjustments, and different parts for those recalls. Keep these items in one place, noting what has been done one your boat, attach service bulletin pdfs along with it, and you will have your complete recall history online for your reference or for a potential buyer to look at to see how well you maintain your vessel.
- Text searching on everything. Above and beyond the benefit of going paperless, there is the added benefit of having a searchable archive of all your notes. That's right, not only text notes, but Evernote will even index text in images, PDFs, or other documents. Imagine searching for all notes with the name of your marina, then it will quickly show you all the images or scans of work orders or receipts with your marina's name in it. That's pretty sweet if you ask me.
Whether on or off the boat, remember everything.