New school year, new you, with Evernote. That’s what we’re talking about today.

So you want this college year to be a good one, and you’re looking for ideas, right? That’s probably what brought you here. Tip number one would be to show up for class. But right behind it would be having a good set of notes. That’s the bridge between what happened in class and what’s going to happen on the test.

I’ve written on this subject before. Four years ago, I wrote this post geared toward college students. Much has happened in the Evernote world since then, and it’s time for an update. My most-watched video of all time also relates to preparing for exams.

Let’s see if we can use Evernote to make that easier. For decades, if there are 100 students in that lecture hall, there are 100 people each trying to trap the material the professor is presenting. But what if two people could work together?

Suppose you and a friend are taking the same class. Instead of you both maintaining your own pencil-and-paper notebook, let’s look at what life could be like.

Life in the Lecture Hall With Evernote

You both have an Evernote account. One of you creates a notebook for the course. Right-click on the title and share the notebook with your friend. Give your friend rights to edit. Before the lecture begins, create a new note. Everything related to that lecture is going to go in that note. Since the notebook is shared, the new note is visible to both people.

As one person enters information, it shows up for the other person. This is known as real-time editing. I have a video for you on this concept. If you miss something, hopefully your friend gets it. If you like, you could tag team. You take notes for a while as your friend listens, and then switch up. If the lecture includes lots of visuals, as one person takes notes, the other person can pull out their phone and snap a picture. You can then insert that image into the Evernote note. Is there a Google Slides presentation the professor is making available? No reason for you both to handle it. One of you pastes the link into the note, and you’re good. Is the deck in PowerPoint? One of you can download and drag it into the body of the note. Are you given a PDF? Drag it into the body of the note. You can view that PDF as a full page. No need to double-click to open it. Scroll from page to page if the PDF is multi-page.

Realize the only caveat is that you are going to need an Internet connection in order for the information to sync. Also realize that while I’m talking about doing this with two people, you could do it with more. Another benefit is that if one person has to miss class, getting the notes is a breeze.

Next Comes the Most Important Part

The most important part comes later in the day. Think of the notes you took as a draft. Your success on the test rests heavily on your ability to clean up those notes on the same day as the lecture. If something in the lecture wasn’t clear, look it up in the text, do a Google search, or ask ChatGPT a question. Realize you can put your heads together. Cleaning up one person’s notes automatically cleans up the notes for the other.

Most forgetting happens within the first day. So by interacting with these lecture notes later in the same day, you’re doing two important things. You’re moving more of the material into long-term memory. When it’s time to study for the test, you won’t have to spend as much time studying. Secondly, you have better notes, and that makes your studying more efficient.

Flashcards? It’s Easy With Collapsible Headers

Do you like to use flashcards when you study? Evernote has a neat feature called “collapsible headers.” Here’s how it will help you make flashcards.

Type in or copy and paste the question. Hit <enter> to create a new paragraph and key in or paste the answer. Again, hit <enter> to begin the next question.

Next, click on the first question and turn it into a header. Evernote allows three header sizes.

Click on the question, click the heading-level menu at the top of the note. Choose a header size. A small header will be fine. Evernote has a neat set of slash commands. As a keyboard shortcut, hit the forward slash, the one that occupies the same key as the question mark, followed by “3.” The entire question now becomes an “H3” or “small” header. Continue turning each question into a header.

Now the fun begins. Click the three dots in the upper-right corner of the note. Choose “Collapsible sections.” Choose “Collapse all.”

Your answers are now hidden! You see only questions. Quiz yourself or your friend. To display the answer, click the arrow point to the left of the question. That header expands, and you see the answer.

AI Audio Transcription

Evernote continues to innovate. The latest is rolling out as I am creating this video. We’ve always had the ability to make an audio recording of a lecture. Decades ago, students could take a cassette tape recorder to class. In recent times, we all have voice recorders on our mobile devices. While that does give you a way to review the lecture, it takes an hour to re-listen to an hour of lecture, so it’s not very efficient. But what if you could record that lesson on your phone and have it transcribe the voice to text? You can edit the text. Options for doing that are already available. Otter.ai is a prime example.

As I am making this recording, Evernote is rolling out something similar. In Evernote, you have the ability to take a voice recording within a note. I’ve been using Evernote since around 2012, and that capability has always been there.

What’s new is that AI will now transcribe that audio to text. Now, you can copy and paste parts of the lecture, bold or highlight parts and just the text however you wish in order to have a good set of study notes. Evernote AI Edit feature also gives you the ability to highlight any section of the notes and get a summary. On that AI Edit menu is also the option to translate. So, if your native language differs from the language the professor is speaking, you can record and then translate the transcription into another language.

Since the audio transcription feature is new, I’m not sure what the limits are as to the length of the audio you can transcribe. For a full lecture, you might need to record half and then start a new recording.

Setting Up the Right Notebooks and Stacks

Now let’s talk about the overall organization of your college experience in Evernote. I would start by creating a notebook for each class. Title the notebook with the name of the class. To keep those notebooks together, create what’s called a “Stack” and name that stack with the name of the semester. Move all of your notebooks to that stack.

Decide who you will share each notebook with. You will use their email addresses, so be sure you know what address they used to create their Evernote accounts. The shared notebooks will show up in their notebook list. Each person would create their own stack and move the appropriate notebooks to their stack.

Does the professor have a page on the university’s website? Does that page contain contact information such as the professor’s email address, phone number, the location of the office, and perhaps office hours? Use the Evernote Web Clipper to put that information in Evernote in the notebook for that class. It’s also in the notebook for those with whom you have shared the notebook. Are you given a syllabus? There’s another note.

When the next semester begins, create a notebook for each of those courses and put them in a stack.

What’s the Cost

Now let’s talk about money. If your main priority is to have free software, Evernote’s not your best bet. Many people bristle at the thought of having to pay for a service. We have been conditioned that everything is free because for so long, it was. That has changed. The trend is for freemium programs that are gradually reducing what their free plan offers. It’s the reality of keeping the lights on.

Of course, as a college student, you’re used to paying. One textbook can easily cost you more than a year of Evernote. My suggestion is when a relative or friend of the family is asking what they can get you as a gift for the new year, ask for something that’s going to help you every day, not only with classes but in every area of life long after you walk across the stage and get that diploma.

Invest in Yourself and Your Future

We live in an information age, and the question is, “How do you keep up with your information?” Folders inside folders inside folders, isn’t it. This is not your grandfather’s filing cabinet. Your challenge isn’t finding a document. Your challenge is finding that precise piece of information buried in the middle of a note, possibly buried on page 5 of a PDF inside a document.

Invest in yourself. There is a free plan, but think of it as a starter plan. You’re limited to two devices. Logically, the best choices would be Evernote Web and the Evernote app on your phone. With a paid plan, you can have Evernote Web, the Evernote desktop software, on your phone, on your tablet, and on any other device you have.

At present, you’re limited to creating 50 notes and one notebook. Notice I said “creating.” If you have a friend who has a free account, you can still share notebooks, and you can be the one who creates notebooks. From there, your friend can help edit those notes. And, maybe your friend will see the value of Evernote and wind up being a subscriber.

When the new school year begins, begin it with tools that will help you be successful now and in the future.

Life is too short and time too precious to waste one more day. If you are someone who stumbled upon this site for the first time, let me help you take a major step forward right now. When you join my email list, I’ll give you two free gifts. The first will get your desk clean. The second will put everything you have to do in one place. Plus, each week you’ll hear from me with nuts & bolts tools and strategies to make life easier and more productive. You’re one click away from making it happen.