Name: Gini Dietrich Profession: CEO of Arment Dietrich, a non-traditional marketing firm; author of spinsucks.com, founder of Spin Sucks Pro Location: Chicago Website http://www.armentdietrich.com/ Blog: Spin Sucks Facebook: Arment Dietrich Twitter: @ginidietrich

Bio

Gini Dietrich is the CEO of Arment Dietrich, a marketing firm that helps companies use digital media for business growth. She is the author behind Spin Sucks, a marketing/advertising blog that has received accolades from Social Media Examiner and AdAge. Gini is a frequent speaker and keynoter on topics related to technology and communication.

Evernote, Everywhere

• Mac (at home)
• Two Windows PCs (at work)
• iPhone
• iPad
• Trunk Apps: Egretlist to create tasks in my iPhone/iPad and save to Evernote

I use Evernote for…

Evernote is my hourly sidekick. I take meeting notes in Evernote, create my to-do lists, build presentations, jot down ideas, capture photos or images, and save files. Anyone who runs their own company knows you have to be a big multi-tasker. Evernote gives me the freedom to capture information on the fly, wherever I happen to be working from–at my office, at home, on a plane, or even at the gym.

As a communications professional, I create a lot of content. A lot of the time, it’s content that I have to share with my team or clients. Whether it’s a strategic plan, notes from a conference, prep for a talk, or a PowerPoint presentation, I’m able to save everything into Evernote and review it whenever I have a free moment. I also don’t have to worry about saving files to computers or thumb drives–all of my files go with me wherever I go, regardless of the device I’m on.

Here are some of my organization tips:

• I create specific notebooks for different aspects of my life and work. I have over a dozen notebooks including ones for each Arment Dietrich client, as well as notebooks for keeping track of people I meet on the road.
• I tag my notes: some of my most-used tags include client, task list, speeches, and people.
• I like to check things off my list so I installed Egretlist on my iPhone and iPad. Egretlist allows me to create tasks when I’m on the go and sync them with Evernote.
• I use shared notebooks to share files with my team: Shared notebooks are so much faster than going back and forth on email. We can have a productive brainstorm all on our own time and I’m able to provide feedback and see updates to shared notebooks immediately as they’re made.

In the past, I would create a list of things to take with me when I left the office. If I forgot notes or a file, I wouldn’t be able to have a productive meeting. If I spontaneously decided to work from home, I didn’t have access to my task lists. Since upgrading to Evernote Premium, I have become much more productive because I’m able to attach and search for any type of file  and pull it up when I need.

Evernote is constantly helping me evolve the way that I work and stay organized. I’m always finding new features and discovering ways to implement it into my work and life.

Favorite Feature:

When I figured out I could create task lists and have Evernote find the boxes I hadn’t yet checked, I was seriously hooked. I’m a checker offer so I love having the box feature! It’s an addiction. [You can create checkboxes in Evernote for Windows, Mac and the web.]

Achieving a New Kind of Work/Life Balance

As any busy working professional can relate, I’m always looking to squeeze just a little bit more time out of the day. For many of us, that means juggling a delicate work/life balance. Evernote has helped me not feel so tied to my desk at the office, and also be able to organize my life away from the office. I’ve been using it to create my grocery list and power through my shopping after a busy work day. Evernote also plays a key role in helping me stay fit – at home and on the road. When I’m at the gym, Evernote helps me manage stats from from cycling, which is especially helpful when I am traveling. I use Evernote to take pictures of the stats on the bike at the end of a workout, helping me keep up with my fitness goals, even when work gets crazy.