How I Use Evernote as a Task Manager (kinda GTD)

[HandsofManos 1]

I thought I would share how I have been using EN as a task manager, maybe get some feedback from the community on how to improve my process.

 

 

I have about two dozen notebooks that I am slowly clearing out, replacing with tags and moving into the !Cabinet folder. I've just gotten tired of trying to sift through so many notebooks.

 

The !Inbox notebook is set as my default notebook and is where I send everything that I can't process immediately.

 

An example of my workflow: if I get an actionable email in outlook, I'll click the "Add to Evernote 5" button and assign it an @work tag and a tag for whomever the action is related to. (I'm not sure how helpful that is, as almost always the email/note  itself has the persons name in it and I have yet to sort the tags by person.) Then I select which notebook to send it to. If I'm not sure, and I'm just trying to clear out my outlook inbox, I'll just send it to my EN inbox. If its easily identifiable as an action that I need to perform I'll send it to the 1-Next Action notebook, or if its something someone else needs to do I'll, send it to the 2-Waiting notebook. 

 

The Soon notebook is for items that I need to complete but aren't a high priority or an upcoming event, that is more than a week away. I always add reminders to these notes for about a week out, or two days before the  event and usually end up moving them to the next action notebook when the reminder hits.

 

Think on It is for items that I'm not sure how to complete or how to process.

 

Read Later is self explanatory and Agenda is used to track regular meeting notes.

 

Purchases hasn't seen a lot of use, but a few times I've needed to keep track of the ridiculously convoluted purchasing process here at work, and I didn't want to track it in outlook.

 

Projects is where I keep our list of ongoing projects that don't have an actionable item as well as projects that have not started yet.

 

Questions, comments, and criticisms are more than welcome. Thanks for taking the time.

[Jndrfq 0]

I had the same challenge, Now I have !Inbox (Default Landing place for all notes unless i specify a rule), Archive for all the filing & Reference notes with distribution across multiple Tags. Lastly a TTD notebook for all the Tasks for defined action. Zapper can port these TTD noted as taks in Google Tasks.

 

As for Tags: I have Following Major Categories: What (most important for filing purposes), When, Where & Who (hardly use contexts these 3 as I have my TTD notebook)

 

Getting lean is beautiful !!

[chirmer 567]

I used to do the same sort of thing when I used Evernote for GTD (I've since gone to Trello because it's just too darn fun to play with). My notebooks were locations, however, where I needed to be when completing the task. I'd also set each item in each location's notebook to have a Reminder, so they'd populate a list at the top that I could simply check off. It'd be something like:

1. Inbox
2. Tickler
3. Home
4. Computer
5. Nook
6. Errand
7. Work Desk
8. Work Other

Et cetera. But I just found Evernote a bit too much work to maintain. It was fun while it lasted, though! The way having a Reminder popped the item to a simple checklist at the top, where I could get the satisfaction of clicking, a checkmark showing I'd done it forming, and then it whooshing out of the list was quite fun. 

[Cidalia73 1]

I’ve been using Evernote as a task manager. I’ve tried so many task management apps, that my head is spinning. There was always a gap. Either poor Evernote integration, requiring copying and pasting links…too many steps for me; or one would be required to pay for “premium” features like adding a note or subtask to a task.

With Evernote, I can add notes, pictures, files, links, subtasks (checklists) etc. to my heart’s content.

I already send e-mail that requires followup to Evernote.  This works particularly nicely on my smartphone with CloudMagic, which allows me to specify which notebook I want to send it to as well as tagging options.

In Evernote, I created a stack named “TASKS.” In that stack, I have the following notebooks: Tasks, Projects, Someday, Review, Completed Tasks, and my INBOX, which is my default notebook.
I make use of tags for contexts (@home, @errands, @computer @waiting…etc.).

I have a only a couple of notes which hold checklists for separate, small, unrelated tasks – Daily Rituals and Today’s List for basic, one-line todos (this one changes as I plan each day).

For the most part, however, I create each task as a separate note, only using checkboxes for subtasks. That way, I can add notes, attachments, tags, and reminders to each todo on the fly.

My main notebook – Tasks – is saved to my smartphone’s home screen, while the entire stack – TASKS – is an Evernote shortcut, of course.  When I complete a task, I clear any reminders and tags and move it to my Completed Tasks notebook.

As for the lack of recurring reminders, if it’s something of minor importance, I will add it to an ongoing, frequently checked checklist” if need be; otherwise, important recurring reminders just go in my Calendar.

At the moment, I’m using Sunrise Calendar, which has excellent integration with Evernote reminders. Together with CloudMagic E-mail app on my smartphone (with great EN sync), everything works together smoothly.

It’s working well for me. 

[mruseless 15]

I've been using EN for task management for a couple years now, more or less. I started out using the "The Secret Weapon" system (http://www.thesecretweapon.org/), since I'm a long time GTD user. But I found it too slow to tag everything. So now I use Notebooks for priorities and only tag a couple types of things like client names. Everny task is a separate note. My notebooks are _Inbox, 1-Today, 2-Next, 3-Later, 4-Someday, and 5-Waiting. I try to do a full review of all items once every week, but in reality it ends up being every couple weeks.

 

One of the main reasons I use notebooks instead of tags is that it's much faster to move a note from one category to another, especially on my iPhone. No tagging and untagging, I just drop it into a different category. Having each task as a separate note also allows me to add details, email content, pics, or whatever to an individual task. If a task grows into more of a project with multiple notes, I sometimes create a separate notebook for that project. Otherwise, if I can keep all the details and subtasks in a single note, I do it that way (I sometimes use checkboxes for subtasks)

[Jeff Pinkham 2]

I use a similar structure.

However I have my GTD Notebook as Notebook Stack, 

this allows me to have one more level of notebook

For example under the NEXT, I have Notebooks for Context as illustrated in attached file.

I use tags to identify projects

[Rich Bucky 4]

I use a similar structure.

However I have my GTD Notebook as Notebook Stack, 

this allows me to have one more level of notebook

For example under the NEXT, I have Notebooks for Context as illustrated in attached file.

I use tags to identify projects

I think that lots of us use the same structure.