An emailed invite to review a new product ended with the line, “I’m sure the readers of Residential Systems would be interested.” However, I wasn’t convinced, as the product was Rocketbook’s Everlast forever notebook, which lets you write in a notebook as you would normally, but then allows you to quickly save your notes digitally in pre-determined locations, then erase the pages and start again. Not exactly a help in solving those client networking issues or filling up your quiet times with new business.
This is not a slam against the Everlast or any of Rocektbook’s other projects — which feature a line of notebooks that are reusable in clever ways. But I didn’t specifically see how the Everlast would have an impact on how custom installers run their businesses. Nevertheless, if they were still interested, I replied, I would be happy to give it a run through.
So I’ve been using the Everlast for about a month now, and I have to confess that I am enjoying it. I am a note taker — I always have been and show no signs of giving it up. I have stacks of old notebooks (well, it is now down to one solid stack, as I had to get rid of my older ones for space considerations) that I use for reference only occasionally, but they are there when I need them.
The Everlast takes care of quite a few problems with that lifestyle. For one, the whole space conundrum — now it is one notebook, used over and over. Also, I used to have to dig through my notebooks to find the information I needed. I usually did pretty good with that, having some sense of where it would lie, but with the Everlast the notes are stored in my Google Drive (as per my choice), so I can find notes really easily.
They way it works is fairly simple. There are a series of seven symbols at the bottom of each page in the Everlast. You assign those symbols to whatever destination you want — I have two of them slated for different folders in my Google Drive and another that delivers the notes to an email address. I can add other options as I need them.
You write your notes using a Pilot Frixion erasable pen (which is included) and check off the icon on the bottom where you want the digitized note sent. Then you scan the page with the Rocketbook app, and it goes wherever your checked icon tells it to. The default filename is the date and time, but you can easily rename it. You can scan multiple pages into one file if needed, and there is also OCR functionality if you write somewhat neatly.
As you may remember, Residential Systems was bought by a new parent company in April. With new bosses come new systems that I had to learn. For the last month I’ve been taking those instructional notes in the Everlast and saving them to a folder named “Instructions” in my Drive. It has already come in handy a couple of times. And it was very easy to use.
Sure, you could just scan your notebook pages and drag them to a folder, but the Everlast greatly simplifies the process and makes your notes easy to organize.
In thinking about CI shops, I asked the company if they ever do customized form books where you can have a different form on each page, each with a different digital destination. They do not, but they have heard of users customizing the pages themselves for similar uses.
If you are a compulsive note taker like myself, the Everlast can give you a better way of organizing your notes and saving some of your better doodles.
Find out more about the Rocketbook Everlast at getrocketbook.com.
