There, I accomplished something yesterday that I haven’t done since I left teaching. 

Finish a certification course. 

After experimenting with several different note-taking apps over the past few months, I found that for how I work and think, Evernote is the best fit for me. Yeah, I went back to the original app that I started with back in 2010. 

Evernote is an app that I use daily and felt that I wasn’t using it as much as I could. A lot has changed with it over the years, so I took the Evernote Expert certification course to learn more about the new Evernote and its features.

When I started this course, it was more about me learning how to use Evernote more effectively for what I want to do with it. As I took the course, I learned that I do know a bit more than I believed and that sharing that knowledge with others would be something I could do. 

Yeah, the old teacher in me kicked in.

The certification course was challenging, and I learned a lot about Evernote’s features that I really hadn’t used all that much before. 

Does passing the course really mean that I am an expert with Evernote?

In my mind, it means that I have only met Evernote’s minimum standards for entry into their Expert program. I know that I still have much to learn.  

Personally, I hate to call myself an expert at anything. It isn’t that I am not confident in my abilities, what I have learned, or more importantly how much more I need to learn. It is more I want to avoid coming across as a know-it-all or appear to be an arrogant ignoramus – I hate it when other people do and are. Remaining humble is something that I believe in and work hard to be. 

Even though it’s hard to be humble, when I am perfect in every way — Just joking.

However, I do have a good understanding of how to use Evernote productively, and having completed the course shows that. I’m also aware that I could teach the basics of using Evernote to beginners and give helpful suggestions to others that will improve or tweak their workflows to be more efficient. 

The best part is that Evernote is coming out with features that I have a feeling are going to make their product even more valuable to users over the next few years.  

So, here is to continuing to learn about Evernote as it continues to grow and improve. 

Harold