3 Ways to Use Evernote in Youth Ministry

I am a huge fan of Evernote. What is it? Think if you could have one place to empty your thoughts, capture ideas and store files, and it was all searchable. That’s Evernote. You can forward emails to it, take notes in it, store photos, make voice recordings, save PDF’s and more. Evernote syncs between your smart phone, tablet, computer and is backed up in the cloud.

Here are just a few ways I use Evernote in my daily youth ministry:

1. Receipts – When I pay for something and get a receipt I will take a photo and store it in Evernote. I tag it with something like “receipt” and “personal” or “youth”. That way if I lose the actual slip, I still have a copy stored. I go ahead and email these to my financial secretary so they are backed up in several locations.

At the end of  the month I can quickly search for the tags “receipt” and “youth” and it will show me all of those receipts. Check out my updated post (Evernote for Youth Ministry: Receipts)

2. Web Ideas – Evernote has a web clipping feature which is great for capturing ideas from websites. If I read another youth blog I really like, I can quickly clip the site and tag it “read later”. If I read an article I could use for a future youth message, I clip it and tag it with “message idea”.

3. Youth Messages – When I write a Wednesday night message I do so in Evernote. I can begin composing it from my laptop, but then add ideas to it from my ipad while sitting in a coffee shop. When it comes time to present, I know the message is backed up and available from many different sources. In addition, all my messages are saved in one location for quick reference in the future.

My knowledge and use of evernote increases every day. As I use it more, I’ll share with you what I learn. And I would ask that you do the same.

How do you use Evernote in your youth ministry?

What other programs or apps do you use?