Software developers are confronted every day with a great deal of information to remember. New technologies, keyboard shortcuts, requirements for software, and best practices to follow. At a certain point, many of us reach a limit on what we can hold in our heads. Evernote’s free tier provides you with an ‘external brain’, a place to dump learnings, articles, information, and keyboard shortcuts or commands you want to remember. Because it’s cloud based, it’s always there when you need it. Some good candidates for notes in Evernote include:
- Commands you occasionally need to remember but often forget
- Best practices for the language you’re programming in
- Diagrams of how the system or product you’re working on fits together
- Photos of whiteboard sketches and retrospective notes
- Articles you want to read later
- Screencasts and tech talks you want to watch
- Notes on things you want to learn one day