On Laywerist today there is a nice short post by Tim Baran that you might want to check out, called “Use Evernote to Streamline Processes and Increase Productivty.”   

Evernote is an excellent tool for organizing your electronic workspace.  I’ve been using it for about 6 months now, ever since Robin Meadow mentioned it at one of my CLE programs on “Tech Tools for your Appellate Practice.”  I have a couple hundred notes on there – everything from my frequent flyer numbers to wine and champagne lists to my travel plans.  

There are two reasons I find Evernote a fantastic tool:

1. You can “tag” each entry into categories, so you can quickly find what you are looking for, unlike the Outlook “notes” tool; and,
2. It automatically syncs between all of my devices – ipad, laptop, droid.  So even if I have forgotten to add that flight to my droid calendar, or forgotten to manually sync my laptop and droid, I still have access to my travel plans via evernote.

So what does this have to do with public speaking?  

Evernote is also an excellent way to capture quotes, statistics, stories and other information you find interesting and think might be useful for future presentations.

I have multiple tags to catalogue speaking resources I come across on a daily basis:

• quotes
• stats
• opening statement stories
• closing argument stories
• oral argument stories
• cle stories
• general speaking stories
• rhetorical tecnique samples – repetition
• rhetorical technique samples – antithesis
• rhetorical technique samples – metaphors
• rhetorical technique samples – analogies

and so on…

Whenever I come across something while reading, or surfing the web, or I hear a great metaphor on the radio or in a political speech, or someone tells me a story after one of my presentations, I add it to evernote. Evernote even has a tool to make cutting and pasting web pages really easy.

In the past, I often neglected to save the quote thinking I would remember it later, or I have emailed it to myself and it has gotten lost in the fray. Now I can save quotes, samples and other great examples of what I teach, tag them while saving them, and they are there any time I want them, regardless of which tech device I have handy.

This is a powerful tool!  

If you do any public speaking, CLEs, or are in court a lot, you should check it out and start your own files/notes on evernote for future speaking use.