The story of Evernote begins with two words: “Remember Everything.” Born from the idea of software as an extension of the human brain, this mission gave us a long-term roadmap and guided our decision making. It led to a product that helps you capture and organize information from just about any source, whether that’s taking notes, clipping web pages, scanning documents, or forwarding emails into Evernote.
But as millions of customers like you have embraced Evernote's larger vision, you have shown us that “Remember Everything” is no longer enough. Remembering is just one part of handling a daily flood of information. You also have priorities to manage, actions to complete, and decisions to make. An extension of the brain should help you with all of those things.
That’s why increasingly we’ve been talking about Evernote as a means to remember everything… and accomplish anything. Because Evernote is moving beyond simply remembering to help you get through your day, achieve meaningful results, and accomplish what’s most important.
Today, we are giving you early access to a new feature: Tasks. With Tasks, Evernote expands into a world that merges content with actions, supports both remembering and accomplishing, and gives you more control over your day and your life.
Adding Tasks to Evernote is a major change in scope, but it should be no surprise. After all, over 40% of you already rely on Evernote to keep track of to-dos, remind you when to get things done, and manage your workload. And many more of you have told us you’d contemplate using Evernote for task management if only we had better support for it. For a long time, you’ve had to come up with your own inventive ways to represent your process in Evernote. It’s time for a better way.
We believe magic happens when we bring notes and tasks together because the full context for most of your tasks already lives within your Evernote content. We could have approached task management as a separate problem best solved with a bolt-on task manager. But your notes generate your tasks. Your tasks generate your notes. So whether it's the notes you took at a recent meeting, the PDF of that proposal you're evaluating, or the whiteboard image of your last brainstorming session, we think the tighter the integration between notes and tasks, the less friction you have to deal with in your workflow.
Merging notes and tasks makes sense because it makes your existing notes even more valuable, and sits naturally within the world of Evernote. It means you can jot down an idea for a future action without breaking your concentration for even a moment—and without losing track of that task later. It means your next brainstorming session can build on the decisions and creativity of the last one. And it means you won't miss your next deadline, because Evernote will remind you when the work is due and present the relevant notes to you.
Tasks in Early Access is a huge step forward on our journey toward accomplishing anything with Evernote, but it is only one of a set of steps still unfolding. Each step will make it easier for our users to manage a world of growing complexity. Each will make it easier for our users to bring together the various strands that form the foundation of a modern digital life.
Only a few short months ago, we took the first of these steps when we launched Home, a more efficient path to access and navigate your most relevant content. With today’s introduction of Tasks in Early Access, Home comes into tighter focus. Imagine Home as a dashboard that encompasses not just your content, but your plans and actions as well. We are already working to make that a reality with a set of improvements that bring Home and Tasks together, making Home an ever better way to start your day in Evernote.
This is all made possible by the stronger, more flexible foundation and completely rebuilt apps that we have invested in over the last two years, and that we continue working to refine. Over the weeks and months ahead, we’ll rely on your collective voice to help us see which areas of Tasks resonate most and which still need work while continuing to fix bugs, improve core application performance, and move the rest of the product ahead.
We have always known that it is not Evernote itself that matters; it is what you do with our product that matters—whether that's running your own business, keeping up a hobby, or trying to create a better world. Your vision, whatever it is, is uniquely yours. Here at Evernote, our vision remains unchanged: to be your external brain, a partner in your process. Our mission is to help you remember everything and accomplish anything. Today’s introduction of Tasks in Early Access is a big step forward for all of us.