At school I liked a tidy pencil case and took more than a little pride in having books neatly stacked in my bag. I got annoyed when brand new jotters and pads were scratched. A pretty scary primary school kid.

Fastforward slightly to a young freelance photographer making his way and I recall a time when everything was printed out and chucked in a manilla folder (further fuelling my silent hatred for filing cabinets). Such actions were/are plodding and dull, with no latitude to fine-tune to your personal taste.

No more. Business life is now wonderfully digital and I am convinced Evernote was designed for me and me alone - the fact that millions of others use it every day must be a profitable bonus for the programmers. At the risk of coming across like a teenage girl on WhatsApp - I really couldn't get through a day without using it...

The key here is simplicity, because let's face it none of us have the time to faff.

In the office we have our entire client filing system on Evernote. To the extent that if I'm abroad I can instantly call up any invoice or doc relevant to any client. I can then resend it, annotate, or simply react to an email with info plucked from their contact history. This info is synced across smartphone, tablet, laptop and desktop.

Just a few years ago a filing system this powerful would have meant commissioning a specialist firm to create a bespoke software package. Assume a budget of tens of thousands even for a small business.

Try it, it's genius, and for lower usage users it's absolutely free!. Get a feel for the system via this video - or read this excellent New York Times overview