The following is a guest post from regular contributor, Sharon at Mom of 6.
Spring is in the air! And with so many of us getting together with family this weekend to celebrate the Easter holiday, I imagine that some of us will spend a little time reminiscing about family vacations from the past, and perhaps even making some tentative vacation plans with family for this coming summer! I know in my house we’ve sure been talking about it this week!
Last spring I shared with you a post on How to Use Evernote to Organize Your Vacation Plans that focused on using Evernote as the place to put all of your reservation information, itinerary details, etc. But one of my favorite ways to use Evernote is as a tool to gather together ideas of places to go, where to stay, and things to do- when I am in the early planning stages of a family vacation. And the cool part is that you can easily share an Evernote notebook with your spouse, kids, in-laws- whomever will be planning and enjoying this vacation with you! And you each can contribute to the notebook- so it is easy to gather everyone’s ideas into one place and then create your vacation itinerary!
First Things First….What is Evernote?
Simply put- Evernote is a notes-taking, notes-saving application that allows you to create new notes by typing them, clipping them from a website or an email, adding a photo, recording a voice message, even saving a PDF file. Each of these items can be created as a note in Evernote and then your notes can be organized into folders just as you would notes written on paper and placed into a filing cabinet at home. Carley Knobloch from Digitwirl shared this video here on OrgJunkie a while back that does a great job explaining all that Evernote can do for you.
Oh and did I mention that Evernote is FREE! Evernote is available for desktops as well as mobile devices like smartphones and tablets- and the best part is that all of your information “syncs to the cloud” so it is available to you anywhere at anytime! Let me show you how I use Evernote in the vacation planning stages:
Use the Web Clipper to Grab Ideas!
Share Your Notebooks With Family Members
Ready to to Hit the Road?
I am super passionate about family travel. I think that we learn so much by experiencing new places and adventures outside of our backyard. When kids see a mountain range for the first time, dip their toes into the salty ocean, ride on a horse, see a bison, stand next to a waterfall- all of these things just open up their whole world! They learn to marvel at and appreciate nature’s beauty, they are inspired to explore, take on a challenge, overcome a fear. Travel changes us.
There are lots of family travel sites out there… but none that I have found that have focused exclusively on the family road trip. So this week I launched my new project…. Great Family Road Trips– a site dedicated to ideas and itineraries to inspire you to hit the road with your family. Each week I will share with you itineraries for multi-day road trips you can take throughout the United States (and someday I hope to cover Canada too!). I will cover destinations that I hope will inspire you to want to explore, tips for planning and packing, and reviews of gear, apps, and gadgets to help your road trip run smoothly. If you get a chance, I would really love it if you could stop by Great Family Road Trips and say “hi”!
If you get a chance, I hope you’ll stop by to see me at Momof6 – a place where I write about organizing your home, using a family calendar, creating household routines, hosting at-home birthday parties, and holding a DIY summer camp! You can also find me over on GreatFamilyRoadTrips– where I share ideas and itineraries to inspire you to hit the road!
Linking up: Your Homebased Mom, Skip to My Lou, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Home Stories A to Z, Thirty Handmade Days, House of Rose, Six Sisters Stuff
Mridu at Life is Organized says
I’m a HUGE Evernote fan and use it all the time. I’ve even transitioned lots of clients to it. As you mentioned, one of the best features is “sharing.” I encourage people to share to-do lists with sitters, grocery lists with hubbies and birthday lists with grandparents. Thanks for this overview!! I love how you’re using it for vacays. 🙂
Sharon at Momof6 says
There are so many ways to use Evernote! I love your idea about using with to share birthday lists with the grandparents- I haven’t tried that yet! Thanks Mridu!
Ann says
I use Evernote for a lot of things; but I keep forgetting about the web clipper. I see it up in the little menu bar, so I just need to be more conscious about using it. Thanks for the reminder.
Sharon at Momof6 says
The web clipper is so handy- it really takes Evernote to a new level of easy-peasy!