Tech Tools for Small Busines

Tech Tools for Small Business

A Deep Dive into Microsoft OneNote

Micah Brown, Contributing Writer

In writing my article on tools for small business for the last issue of No Cilantro, Please, I came across OneNote by Microsoft. Although it’s come standard on every computer I’ve owned since it came out, I’ve only poked at it a couple of times myself, trying to figure out how to get it to work for me in a variety of ways.

Being an Inattentive ADHD-type who also has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), trying to find tools that work best for me has always been a passion of mine. This particular app is popular for both professional and personal organization, so I wanted to dig a little deeper into it.

I became so fascinated by the dedication to this small piece of software that I noticed in various online communities. The more I learned about it, the more intrigued I became about finding a way to work it into my own routines.

Right off the bat, I can see why so many people are such fans of OneNote, ranging from Mac users like myself to Windows users. There are even people who use it exclusively on their phones.

What is OneNote?

OneNote, is as it sounds: a piece of software that is primarily used as a way to keep notes, jot down thoughts, and collaborate with people from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. The basic interface of OneNote provides the user with a list of their open notebooks, and within each notebook are sections that can be broken down further into pages. Each page can be a collection of different inputs, from photos to text to handwriting to web-snippets. It’s a catchall that can then be used to take all this information and organize it into something cohesive.

Perhaps one of the most striking things I discovered in speaking with users is how differently people use this tool.

Organize Multiple Projects

I spoke with Ian Graham, a Master’s candidate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology who uses OneNote to organize his professional and educational lives. While pursuing a Master’s degree, Graham also manages the tech department of his company. It is critical for him to keep his work and educational projects separate, but close at hand with one cohesive system.

Collaboration

Perhaps the most frequently touted response when asked about some of the most useful features was commentary on the collaboration feature, especially within teams whose members are sometimes separated by continents and oceans. Being able to have a localized base of operations where people can share their notes, mark off items on their task list that others can see and respond to, I have been informed, is incredibly useful and has helped to contain miscommunications and provide a more accurate view of the overall project status.

If you have more than one project going, you could have separate notebooks shared with separate groups of people in order to better track the progress of both.

Another OneNote fan I spoke with, Jessica Hussiere, talked about her love of Check-Lists within a collaboration. Being able to see others checking things off their to-do list allowes her to keep up with her part of the projects more easily. Instead of needing to send an email to ask if something had been completed, she could just check the Notebook section for that project and find out.

Flexibility

Perhaps the one thing that attracts me so heavily toward OneNote is its flexibility. As somebody who has tried to do a Bullet Journal, attempted to use Omni-Focus, and has dabbled in a variety of other Organization type software titles, having the ability to turn any notebook into what you need it to be is liberating.

My personal experience with OneNote during this adventure has been a positive one. That’s not to say that it’s flawless, but I’ve managed to put together a variety of notebooks for both my professional and personal lives.