For Windows 7 users, click the start button and type “OneNote.” Look for the purple icon. Here are two quick and easy ways to see if you have OneNote.

(Anybody can get the mobile app for free on the app store. If you are on an E1 plan, you can use OneNote’s web application. So, do you or don’t you have OneNote? If you have Microsoft Office 365 with an E3 plan from 3Points, you have the OneNote desktop version. However, the productivity gain that comes from organizing your notes in one central spot might surprise you.

Why? Like anyone else, small business owners are busy. Now, while you’re tossing out your secret stash of scratch paper (you’re so green, saving all those photocopies gone bad!), prepare for one more shocking bit of news: you may already have OneNote and not even know it …Ī full 35 percent of 3Points’ clients use Microsoft Office 365, yet only 2 to 5 percent embrace OneNote, which comes standard with the software. For those writing procedures, company policy, books or any long document, OneNote “automatically highlights changes and lists authors of new material” (eHow). Microsoft’s OneNote is wholly collaborative. Just email pages to clients and colleagues. And, unlike paper, sharing your ideas online is easy. Your notes are searchable, too, which makes the little-pieces-of-paper problem disappear. Write your note down once (the Microsoft stylus could become your new favorite “pen”) and OneNote updates all your devices instantly. Examples of tabs might be weekly to-dos, meeting notes, the big project, personal stuff, goals, book project, journal, trips, favorite quotes, kids, or shopping list.

Available for Android, Windows and Apple iOS devices, the cloud-based app offers up digital “notebooks” or tabs defined by how you think and what’s important to you. When it comes to random writings, the game changer is called OneNote from Microsoft. How are you going to do the to-dos IF YOU CAN’T FIND THEM? Is there a black hole for socks and notes? Where’s the scribble outlining the new process, the inspiring quote, the to-do list for tomorrow? Panic. And where are the brochure changes? You can see the electric blue sticky note in your mind, but you just can’t find it. It lists three things for the big meeting. Where did that little piece of paper go? You know the one.

Onenote sticky notes online