Arguably, if you have a brain, you need Evernote. We’ve all got the one in the cranium that works really well, but truthfully, it tends to fail us in many ways when it comes to recalling the details. That’s why you need an external brain; a place where all the other stuff you work on in life, from Salesforce to sandcastles and formulas to fondue go. That’s Evernote.

Evernote is a web service that securely stores your memories and gives you immediate recall of them from anywhere, and at any time. Capture a picture or audio from your phone, a clipping from your browser, a file from our computer or a an email you receive. Once you capture it, it automatically syncs between your phone, the web, and any computer you want. And search is a snap. Even text in images, documents and handwritten notes are made searchable automatically. Search using words, tags, or even by location. It’s right there anytime you need it.

So how does this help the Salesforce administrator or developer? You’ve got a lot on your plate to work with. Release notes, writing formulas, creating validation rules, outlining workflows and approval processes, taking screenshots, gathering documentation, writing Apex classes, creating SOQL statements, reading blogs, remembering tips from friends on Twitter, the Salesforce Community site or the Force.com Developer forums. Where do you store all those memories?

You could use notepads, printouts, text files, Post-It Notes, cocktail napkins, Google Docs, emails to yourself, shared drives, your arm, stone tablets, file cabinets, CD-ROMs, bookmarks, MS Office documents, the deep-dark corners of your laptop bag or just your cranium. The trouble is, where do you look when the thing you thought was so obvious you’d never forget it isn’t where you thought it would be. Can you find it on your phone, your Mac, your Android tablet, your iPad or your Mom’s PC? If you put it in Evernote, you could, and you’d have just one place to search, anytime, anywhere.

Need to email that thing to your boss, a coworker, your wife or your lawyer? You’re just a couple of clicks away from sending it privately. Need to preview that PDF on your iPhone? You can do it. Need to print a note from your iPad or iPhone? You can do it.

What do I put in Evernote?

• Formulas – That crazy formula I made way back when will always be with me, no matter where I work in the future.
• Tips I learn from smart bloggers – When I see something I may EVER want to look at again, I read it, clip it, and know it’s there if I ever want to look at it again or share it.
• Release notes – I used to have folders where I stored them, but now I put all of them in a notebook in Evernote and they’re completely searchable as well. On top of that, I’ve shared the notebook publicly so anyone who wants to can link my notebook to their Evernote account. It doesn’t take up any of their monthly upload limits and it’s always available to them.
• Old versions of files – Just the other day I was discussing an issue with the Apex Data Loader on Twitter and someone asked if I had an older version of the Apex Data Loader that I could share with them. I gathered all the ones I had (versions 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, and 21) and put them into a shared notebook on Evernote so now anyone can grab them when they want.
• Press releases – I have a rule setup in Google Apps Gmail that whenever a press release from Salesforce is delivered to my Inbox, it immediately gets forwarded to Evernote so I have a full archive of all press releases at hand.
• Writing documents – I can start writing via the web interface at work, continue it on my iPhone, and later finish it on my laptop at home. It’s syncs automatically and effortlessly.
• Whiteboards – When we have a meeting that leads to a wall full of diagrams, ideas, flows, tasks, and inspiration, I snap a picture of it with my phone and put it right in Evernote.
• Business Cards – As soon as I receive a business card from someone, I take a picture of it, put it in Evernote with some details about the person and I’ve got it forever.
• Presentations – When I see a slide I like at a local Salesforce user group meeting from one of my fellow user group members or from a vendor, I take a picture of the slide and throw it in Evernote. Since I used my phone to take the picture, Evernote even knows the location of where I was when I took that picture using the GPS data.
• Dreamforce – I start a notebook for Dreamforce that includes all my travel details, information on where my friends are staying in San Francisco, the restaurants I want to try while I’m there, reminders of things I have to do while I’m there, and anything else I could possibly want to know, reference, show my friends, or think about while I’m at Dreamforce.
• Offline reading – Individual notes and entire notebooks can be taken offline and stored locally on your phone and iPad to read on the plane, away from the Internet, or on the beach. The desktop version of Evernote is completely available offline so you don’t need the Internet unless you want to sync.

So how does it work? Evernote has a web clipper that works in almost every browser on the planet. It lets you clip a word, picture or even the whole page with just a click. Tag it if you want to. Put a description if you want to, and you’re done. Not only is the part of the webpage you wanted saved in Evernote, the URL of the page you got it from is saved as well so you never have to wonder where you clipped something from. On your phone, take a picture, record some audio, type some text and hit Save. In your email, forward a message to the unique address Evernote assigns you and that email is immediately in Evernote. Drag files from your desktop to the Evernote icon and they’re added. Have a flatbed scanner? Scan in your handwritten notes, agendas, and meeting handouts to have them at hand forever.

How much can I store? If you’re a Free user, you can upload 60 MB per month of whatever you want. If you’re a Premium user, you get to add up to 1 GB per month. Suppose you want to add a bunch of notes in one month, pay $5 to go Premium for that month, add a gig of stuff, then go back to Free. All your stuff is still there for you to access. The other great thing is, your space is cumulative so as compared to some web services that offer you 2 GB of synced storage and that’s it, the possible size of your Evernote storage is constantly growing.

So how do you get started? Creating an account with Evernote is free and always will be. Phil Libin, their CEO is known for saying, “We want you to keep your memories forever in Evernote for Free. If you someday decide you want to pay us a little money once in awhile for using the service, that’s great, but we’re not going to ask you to.”

How does Evernote make money? According to Phil Libin, their business model was built with a goal of 1% conversion to Premium accounts would equal break even financially. What they find though is that the longer people use Evernote, the more likely they are to go Premium and their conversion rates are anywhere from 5% to even more than 12% when people have used Evernote for more than a year.

What about security? Evernote uses SSL encryption for all user authentication and data transfer. Your data is your data. When you use a desktop version of Evernote, your data is stored on that machine and you always have access to it, whether you’re connected to the Internet or not. There are also import and export mechanisms built into Evernote desktop that allow you to move your memories.

Does Evernote have a following? Their user growth has been stunning. I started with Evernote when it was still in beta back in March of 2008. They now have more than 7 million registered users and the number of days between each million is now less than 50.

So what’s stopping you? You’ve got a brain. You use it a lot. Make use of an external brain with Evernote. You’ll be amazed at how much it will transform everything you need to remember. Administration and development on Salesforce will never be the same when you know where to go, to get all the bits and pieces you’ve collected that make you smarter.

To learn more about Evernote, check out their website. To get started, create your account today. If you’re already a user just log in.