24 replies to this topic

[black.rhino]

Hello, Ive been working on a photo guide of how I use Evernote for GTD. Let me know what you think. Make sure to see the PDF for am overview of the parts, and below for how I use it. I find this system to be easy, intuitive, and simple, and I like the lack of punctuation in the saved searches

Collect:
Everything goes into the Inbox

Process/Organize:
Every actionable item goes into Workflow.
Projects are tagged with !Project, and an Area of Focus tag
Next actions are tagged with a context
Waiting items, someday/maybe tagged accordingly

Every non-actionable item goes into Reference.
Items are tagged with either an Area of Focus, or an Interest tag
This is really nice because I can select an area of focus, choose workflow and see my related projects, or choose reference and see my material for that AoF.

Project support gets its own tag, and so does Calendar support. General Reference saved search contains all the reference items besides the support files, easily viewed A-Z or filtered by Area of Focus.

Review
The weekly review process is easily done by selecting workflow and organizing by tags, or just selecting all the related tags for the different levels.

Do
Do it...

Attached Files

•  Evernote Guide.pdf   92.98K   1145 downloads

[black.rhino]

Please let me know any questions or suggestions. I'm still debating making a seperate notebook for support files...OR doing a total overhaul and using notebooks for areas of focus and tags for reference or workflow. Adding the support notebook under reference might be nice since they are hierarchical. Thoughts?

[gtuckerkellogg]

I do something extremely similar, except I've been tracking the actions themselves in a different app (AppiGo's ToDo), and using Evernote for all the support work. So my workflow runs from !inbox to !support to reference, even though my action lists are kept elsehwere. But I'm thinking of moving entirely to Evernote, along the lines of what you describe.

I prefer several aspects of our systems (yours and mine) to Dan Gold's system. Our systems share a tag for Area of Focus. This is, to me, a critical feature. Appigo's ToDo also allows tagging, and the only tags I have in the AppiGo ToDo app are AoF tags, so I can retain the same focus in both ToDo and Evernote. Also, our systems make use of the organizing categories, and keep notebooks for reference.

My ambivalence about 100% Evernote versus a mixed system stems from my need for different features. In weekly review, the Areas of Focus are very useful, and both apps can support filtering accordingly. But AoF tags are also useful when getting things done. If I am trying to focus on my work, and sitting at the computer, I find it really useful to filter actions on both _work and @computer (my AoF tags have a leading underscore). I need to set up a large number of saved searches for all the different filters that make sense to me within Evernote, whereas these combined filters are better supported in the ToDo app. On the other hand, I much prefer project level support in Evernote.

Note links are HUGELY useful for the mixed setup I use now.

[davidward]

I used to have Area of Focus tags but I found something that worked better for me. I pre-pend my tags based on area of focus. So, if my business is abc, tags for that area of focus are abc-blog, abc-ideas, abc-training, and so on. This allows me to organize and filter as needed by AofF. It also lets me organize tags for easier browsing and, of course, eliminated the extra AofF tag.

I do all GTD in Evernote now. The only thing I miss is calendar integration but I post note links in gCal and this works well enough (for now).

David

[simongale]

A month ago I bought Daniel Gold's e book on using Evernote for GTD (For a bargain five English pounds) http://dangoldesq.wordpress.com/ and it has really helped me with my task management. It also helped me understand GTD more which I think in the long run will be more key. As well as being a good book he also responded quickly and helpfully to the questions I emailed him. I recommend it whole heartedly.

[danielegold]

Simon - Sorry I'm just seeing this now, but I wanted to thank you so much for the kind words! I hope you liked the 2nd edition just as much (if not more!)!! Cheers!

[!Dave]

Recently while setting up Evernote for GTD, I frequently read of the importance to keep it simple. I also found Daniel Gold's "Evernote: Unofficial Guide 2^nd Ed." and various blog posts regarding EN's tag sort order helpful. My main challenge was to settle on symbols for my tags than sorted the same way on my iPad, iPhone, and MacBook -- no easy task, given that they sort differently on the different devices.

As I’m still an EN newbie, my system remains a work in progress. Here my current line up of notebooks and tags. I invite your review and comments.
_____

Notebooks: only 2

!Inbox The symbol-prefix "!" allows this notebook to appear ahead of GTD. !Inbox is my default. If I have GTD as my only notebook, any new note would disappear from view when I assign the first tag to it. With !Inbox as my default notebook, I can assign appropriate tags, make needed edits, and then drag note to the GTD notebook.

GTD The notebook where all my post-inbox workflow takes place.
_____

Tags: 4 symbol-prefixes that sort the same way on each device and function like folders, except that a given note can appear in multiple folders:

! for my Priorities
" for my Projects
@ for my Contexts
no symbol-prefix for my Filing Cabinet and everything that I store inside of it. No symbol-prefix allows my Filing Cabinet to appear at the bottom of the list of tags.
_____

!

My priorities are !!MIT (for Most Important Tasks), !!Today, !Next (for Next Actions), !Someday (I dropped /Maybe), !Tickler, !WF (for Waiting For).

Each priority stands alone, i.e., it doesn’t nest inside a parent tag.

!! allows the two top priorities to appear at the top.

!Tickler is my tickle file and began as a separate notebook until I found it an unnecessary complication. The title for each note tagged with !Tickler begins with the date I want to be tickled, formatted as YYMMDD which allows them to be sorted with today’s items appearing at the top. I do not use tags such as !Soon or !This Week, because !Tickler serves that purpose for me.
_____

"
All projects (e.g., "1Actions, "Talks, "Photo Book) are nested inside the parent tag "Projects.

A someday/maybe project (e.g. “Paint house) nests inside !Someday and not inside "Projects.

I really wanted to use # as the prefix for my projects, but it sorts differently on my different devices.
_____

@

All contexts (e.g., @Work, @Errands, @Phone) nest inside the parent tag @Contexts.
_____

no symbol-prefix

Designates my filing cabinet with a parent tag Filing Cabinet (a metaphor that works for me better than References, which many others use).

Tags such as Books To Read, Gift Ideas, Lists, and User Manuals nest inside Filing Cabinet, just like a real metal filing cabinet.

Again, without a symbol-prefix, my filing cabinet and its contents appear at bottom of my list of tags, and the contents are alphabetized just like the real thing.
_____

Following David Allen’s GTD advice of buying a good label maker, I bought one and put it to use even with Evernote. With a clear label cartridge, I print out and stick to the margins around my MacBook screen some of Evernote commands that I need to remember:

- the syntax for the email subject line that directs to appropriate tags the email sent to Evernote. However, although I think this is a cool EN feature, but I might stop doing this. Associates who don’t know Evernote often complain about the strange code I add to the subject line, thinking I’m into voodoo Oh well. Besides, I often enter the syntax wrong and then wonder where my message went inside of of EN.

- key stroke commands.
_____

Saved Searches

For now, I stopped using saved searches. As an EN newbie, I’ve fiddled with symbol-prefixes and ruined every saved search. However, when I am confident that the above system will continue, I’ll then develop saved searches for my daily GTD needs.

[jrandall39]

My simple GTD workflow in Evernote is a little different.

I have a notebook for projects in each of my areas of focus--Business Projects, Household Projects, Volunteer Projects, etc. I also have a notebook called *INBOX and one called *NOTES.

I have three groups of tags: *Contexts, *Subjects, and Project-Related

• My context tags are the traditional GTD contexts: @Calls, @Delegated, @Errands, @Home, @Office, @Someday/Maybe, @WaitingFor
• Subject tags include things like Recipe, Presentation, Technology, Bookkeeping
• Project-related tags include: Completed Project, Current Project, Suspended Project

I have one Evernote note per project. I keep all of my project-related tasks and notes in the body of the Evernote note. I date/time-stamp everything I add to the Evernote note and put the most recent entry at the top of the Evernote note. The first line of the Evernote note for a project is always: NEXT ACTION: [task].

I tag the project's Evernote note with the applicable context tag for the current next action. For example, if the Next Action is "Call Jim to confirm tee-time," I apply the tag: @Calls. When the call is done and the Next Action becomes "Put clubs in trunk of car," I remove the tag: @Calls and apply the tag: @Home.

When I want to get things done in a particular context--@Home, for example--I simply conduct a search for notes in all notebooks with the tag: @Home. That brings up various project-specific Evernote notes, each with a next action needing to be done @Home. As I work the list, I update both the Next Action and the context tag for each project.

For most projects, I see no need to take time outlining all of that project's steps. Rather, I tend to jot down only major deliverables/milestones and the Next Action. If any Next Action must be done on a certain day, I enter that Next Action on my calendar, either as an all day event (if time of day doesn't matter) or as an appointment in a specific time-slot. When I complete it, I update that project's Evernote note.

When I take notes during a phone call or a conversation related to a specific project, I create a new Evernote note in my *INBOX (because it's quicker than finding the project's Evernote note) and jot down some notes. Later in the day when I'm processing notes in my *INBOX, I copy and paste the note into the project's Evernote note with an appropriate date/time-stamp and delete the one in my *INBOX.

When I do my weekly planning, I review each of my Area-of-Focus notebooks:

• First I search on the tag: Current Project and review the Evernote note for each of the projects that come up, asking myself if the latest project info is there, if the current Next Action is correct, and if I'm still committed to the project.
• Then, still in the same area of focus notebook, I search on the tag: Suspended Project and review the Evernote notes for the suspended projects that come up, asking myself if any of them should be re-activated now.
• Lastly, still in the same area of focus notebook, I search on the tag: @Someday/Maybe and review the Evernote notes that come up, asking myself if any of them should become new active projects.

Over the years, I've created many short Evernote notes that are unrelated to any project. I create them in my *INBOX, apply one or more subject tags and then move these Evernote notes to the *NOTES notebook. Using this system and Evernote on my iPhone, iPad, and computers, I seldom take notes on paper anymore. Everything's in Evernote.

[anjoschu]

Just a curious question: for some 4 or 5 years I've been coming across @call as a standard example for a GTD context. And in the beginning I even (tried to) apply it. But as to now I have never, even once, actually been able to make use of the @call context. Telephones have been ubiquitous for thirty/fourty years and you can (try to) call anyone at any time. It's not like you have to wait for a "transatlantic line reservation" or your office's "telephone room" to be available.

Of course you're supposed to adapt the whole thing to your own needs and circumstances, and I've done so and consequently dropped the @call context.

But specifically the @call context strikes me as something atavistic. Like some sort of self-propagating urban myth that lives on by being used as an example of something.

[May]

I don't use call context, heck, I rarely call people by phone LOL!
I just have a context for certain people. I check the context whenever I'm already talking with the person and it doesn't matter if I talk with them by phone, or skype or face to face and etc.

[johnwin]

@anjoschu The @calls context is one of mindset, not locality.

I use it a lot - maybe because I hate using the phone and have to force myself to do so.

The idea is to block off time to attend to calls in batches. This allows uninterrupted work periods where I do not use the phone at all and then concentrated times where I shift in to 'calls' mode and attend to 4 or 5 all together and then return to my @office or @home physical context.

It's all there in the GTD book: Of course if you have no need for it or a different workflow then that is fine.

[!Dave]

I don't use @Calls; instead, I find @Phone has a truer ring I have notes that remind me to contact people, which I need to do someway/somehow. So I tag them sometimes with a variety of contexts, including, @Phone @Email @Write.

[anjoschu]

Thanks for your responses about @calls. For me, there's no special mindset required for calls. I do however use certain contact/agenda contexts for a few key people. And for tasks where I need silence and ease of mind, I have specific context. So it seems I've got the @calls area well covered, maybe even without being aware of it.

[Ronald]

I'm using TSW, The Secret Weapon now for a couple of weeks as an integration of GTD and Evernote.

Google for "The Secret Weapon", there's a website with a couple of very instructive and very helpfull short video's.

And ... it's free of charge :-)

[jrandall39]

I have a notebook for projects in each of my areas of focus--Business Projects, Household Projects, Volunteer Projects, etc. I also have a notebook called *INBOX and one called *NOTES.

I have three groups of tags: *Contexts, *Subjects, and Project-Related

• My context tags are the traditional GTD contexts: @Calls, @Delegated, @Errands, @Home, @Office, @Someday/Maybe, @WaitingFor
• Subject tags include things like Recipe, Presentation, Technology, Bookkeeping
• Project-related tags include: Completed Project, Current Project, Suspended Project

UPDATE: In my quest to streamline my system as much as possible, a couple of months ago I made the following modification after reading about how others are implementing GTD using Evernote. It is working quite well.

All along, I had been tagging notes with an area-of-focus tag so, in fact, the area-of-focus notebooks were superfluous. Therefore, I moved all of the notes in my area-of-focus notebooks into the notebook: NOTES and deleted those area-of-focus notebooks. Now I have just two notebooks: INBOX and NOTES.

I renamed project-related tag names to: Completed Project, Active Project, and Inactive Project

So, for each of my projects there are at least two tags: (1) an area-of-focus subject tag and (2) a project tag (completed, active, or inactive). Active projects each have a next action (NA) context tag too.

To aid in my review/weekly planning process, I created saved searches in each of my areas of focus for:

• Active Project
• Inactive Project
• Someday/Maybe

I have five areas of focus, so I have 15 saved searches.

Just a small tweak, but having only one notebook besides INBOX streamlines ever so slightly the decision of in which notebook to file a recently added note.

Additionally, this tweak helped me overcome a bad habit of looking at NAs by context in one area-of-focus more often than looking at them across all areas of focus. Sure, by searching for a NA context tag in "All Notebooks," it was easy to search across all areas of focus, but I had a tendency to search for a context tag in a particular area-of-focus notebook. By doing this, I was not balancing responsibilities in all my areas of focus. Eliminating those area-of-focus notebooks all but eliminated the tendency--now, I seldom add that second area-of-focus tag when I do a NA context tag search.

[Roué]

I wanted to go down to a single notebook, since everything in my implementation receives at least one tag I created a saved search called "INBOX" with the following criteria: -tag:*

In the morning when I do my quick daily review I just click on the INBOX link I dragged to my shortcut bar, process the accumulated notes and off I go. I wanted originally to auto-tag new notes with "inbox" but there seemed no way to do it. In the end I am liking how it worked out

[mpc_janssen]

My simple GTD workflow in Evernote is a little different.

I have a notebook for projects in each of my areas of focus--Business Projects, Household Projects, Volunteer Projects, etc. I also have a notebook called *INBOX and one called *NOTES.

I have three groups of tags: *Contexts, *Subjects, and Project-Related

• My context tags are the traditional GTD contexts: @Calls, @Delegated, @Errands, @Home, @Office, @Someday/Maybe, @WaitingFor
• Subject tags include things like Recipe, Presentation, Technology, Bookkeeping
• Project-related tags include: Completed Project, Current Project, Suspended Project

I have one Evernote note per project. I keep all of my project-related tasks and notes in the body of the Evernote note. I date/time-stamp everything I add to the Evernote note and put the most recent entry at the top of the Evernote note. The first line of the Evernote note for a project is always: NEXT ACTION: [task].

I tag the project's Evernote note with the applicable context tag for the current next action. For example, if the Next Action is "Call Jim to confirm tee-time," I apply the tag: @Calls. When the call is done and the Next Action becomes "Put clubs in trunk of car," I remove the tag: @Calls and apply the tag: @Home.

When I want to get things done in a particular context--@Home, for example--I simply conduct a search for notes in all notebooks with the tag: @Home. That brings up various project-specific Evernote notes, each with a next action needing to be done @Home. As I work the list, I update both the Next Action and the context tag for each project.

For most projects, I see no need to take time outlining all of that project's steps. Rather, I tend to jot down only major deliverables/milestones and the Next Action. If any Next Action must be done on a certain day, I enter that Next Action on my calendar, either as an all day event (if time of day doesn't matter) or as an appointment in a specific time-slot. When I complete it, I update that project's Evernote note.

When I take notes during a phone call or a conversation related to a specific project, I create a new Evernote note in my *INBOX (because it's quicker than finding the project's Evernote note) and jot down some notes. Later in the day when I'm processing notes in my *INBOX, I copy and paste the note into the project's Evernote note with an appropriate date/time-stamp and delete the one in my *INBOX.

When I do my weekly planning, I review each of my Area-of-Focus notebooks:

• First I search on the tag: Current Project and review the Evernote note for each of the projects that come up, asking myself if the latest project info is there, if the current Next Action is correct, and if I'm still committed to the project.
• Then, still in the same area of focus notebook, I search on the tag: Suspended Project and review the Evernote notes for the suspended projects that come up, asking myself if any of them should be re-activated now.
• Lastly, still in the same area of focus notebook, I search on the tag: @Someday/Maybe and review the Evernote notes that come up, asking myself if any of them should become new active projects.

Over the years, I've created many short Evernote notes that are unrelated to any project. I create them in my *INBOX, apply one or more subject tags and then move these Evernote notes to the *NOTES notebook. Using this system and Evernote on my iPhone, iPad, and computers, I seldom take notes on paper anymore. Everything's in Evernote.

This is so simple it never occured to me . Having everything in one spot including history is great. I will definitely try this out.

[gatorbrit]

I gave up using EN for GTD after the Ipad app and iphone app were so messed up with the new versions. I really need to be able to access my GTD system from all platforms. The new Ipad app pretty much prevented this.

I'm using RTM right now, but I am always hopeful that the EN IOS developers will redeem themselves.

Griping aside, when I was using EN for GTD, I had a good success with this setup.
http://discussion.ev..._20#entry156624

[Karol_1978]

Hi there!

I'm Karol, the CEO of OneMln, the developer of www.everdo.it GTD in Evernote can not be more simple :-)

I'd really appreciate your feedback :-)

Best regards,

Karol

[gatorbrit]

Hi there!

I'm Karol, the CEO of OneMln, the developer of www.everdo.it GTD in Evernote can not be more simple :-)

I'd really appreciate your feedback :-)

Best regards,

Karol

Right now you just seem to have a website. Is there something that we can give feedback on?