How to display random notes?

[MosesGTC 13]

Hi, 

I am wondering how, if there is a way to display random notes?

Like many users here, we have many notes, I wonder if there is a way to display random notes, so to just trigger serendipity moments:)? 

 

 

Best regards

Moses 

 

[gazumped 11,667]

Hi.  Short answer - no.  If you can find some other software to pull up a note,  the actual notes can be held in Evernote,  with the timing coming from elsewhere...  we had a discussion a while ago about "Spaced repetition" which is based on the theory that once something is learned,  we instantly begin to forget it.  Over a period of time the knowledge fades until we would have to completely relearn it.  Research appears to show that if you reinforce the orginal learned material by revision after a short period,  it will be retained for longer - though,  again,  it begins to fade.. but more slowly this time.  You might be able to create something based on the related software...

There's software to help you manage learning with this process,  and Evernote is involved to a degree - store your notes in Evernote and use external software to retrieve those notes as and when required.  

Evernote doesn't have a diary system as such,  and EN reminders are one per note,  so the repeated learning effect might be difficult to manage.

This discussion in the forums covers the subject in detail -

Wired on Peter Wozniak (who apparently invented this) - http://archive.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak

Flashcard software to help study - https://www.studyblue.com/evernote

Software designed to use the spaced repetition method
- http://help.supermemo.org/wiki/SuperMemo_Screenshot_Tour
- http://www.revunote.com -  & see revunote (Android)
- https://github.com/catgsmith/alfred-reminders

(Haven't checked these links to make sure they're all valid - they're a good basis for a web search regardless)

If you get something together,  please let us know what you choose...  good luck. 

[TK0047 422]

6 hours ago, MosesGTC said:

Hi, 

I am wondering how, if there is a way to display random notes?

Like many users here, we have many notes, I wonder if there is a way to display random notes, so to just trigger serendipity moments:)? 

 

 

Best regards

Moses 

 

I would love to have something like this too.Discovering a note that you completely forgot is fun, sometimes powerful and can lead to new ideas. I wish the notes were numbered, so at least I could generate a random number in Excel and go to that note. Even that would work.

To generate something close to this, I select ALL NOTES view and scroll to a random location to see the notes in that section. Or select different arbitrary tags from the tag view to see what it would generate. But of course, it is not as random as it could be when you are selecting the scroll location or the tags since subconsciously I would make choices without even noticing. 

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, TK0047 said:

But of course, it is not as random as it could be when you are selecting the scroll location

How about scripting to select a random note from the list.  I could do this on my Mac.
I'd use a "random thoughts" tag to limit the list to my inspirational/serendipity notes.

[TK0047 422]

3 minutes ago, DTLow said:

How about scripting to select a random note from the list.  I could do it on my Mac.
I'd use a "random thoughts" tag to limit the list to my inspirational/serendipity notes.

I would love to. But I use Windows at work. Mac is at home for personal use. Thinking about it, I should give it a try at home. I know you have shared some of your scripts in a topic before, is that one of those you shared?

[DTLow 5,736]

40 minutes ago, TK0047 said:

I would love to. But I use Windows at work. Mac is at home for personal use. Thinking about it, I should give it a try at home. I know you have shared some of your scripts in a topic before, is that one of those you shared?

Here's a script example using AppleScript

 

[CalS 5,280]

3 hours ago, TK0047 said:

I would love to have something like this too.Discovering a note that you completely forgot is fun, sometimes powerful and can lead to new ideas. I wish the notes were numbered, so at least I could generate a random number in Excel and go to that note. Even that would work.

To generate something close to this, I select ALL NOTES view and scroll to a random location to see the notes in that section. Or select different arbitrary tags from the tag view to see what it would generate. But of course, it is not as random as it could be when you are selecting the scroll location or the tags since subconsciously I would make choices without even noticing. 

Could try a -created:yyyymmdd search.  Not as random as a generator, but kinda. 

I did a -created:20150820 search and found an email from someone I have not had contact with in too long, not then exactly, but in the last year.  Interesting.  Phone call to make today!

[DTLow 5,736]

7 minutes ago, CalS said:

Could try a -created:yyyymmdd search.  Not as random as a generator, but kinda. 

That works; maybe "-created:day-nnn" to avoid having to come up with an actual date

[CalS 5,280]

44 minutes ago, DTLow said:

That works; maybe "-created:day-nnn" to avoid having to come up with an actual date

Good idea.  I used the actual date so I could see what was going on three years ago.

[Thierry G 1]

I see Forte Labs have just released a free web tool called RandomNote. I just tried it and it does exactly what it says on the tin: after connecting it to your Evernote account it displays one random note at a time. Press refresh to get a new random note. Repeat at will. https://evernote-random.glitch.me/

Background info: https://praxis.fortelabs.co/randomnote-web/

[skayser 0]

Hi Thierry,

thank you very much for posting this cool, little web-app. I just tried it ... It's super-simple and elegant and does exactly what I was looking for. Awesome!  

All the best, Sebastian

[keruchan 11]

I wish Evernote add the function internally or atleast add it as widget or something.  I was looking into incorporate the random note to let it decide what I want to eat today.   Haha

[gazumped 11,667]

7 hours ago, keruchan said:

I wish Evernote add the function internally or atleast add it as widget or something.  I was looking into incorporate the random note to let it decide what I want to eat today.   Haha

 

[JuhaniCap 0]

On 2/21/2019 at 9:09 PM, Thierry G said:

I see Forte Labs have just released a free web tool called RandomNote. I just tried it and it does exactly what it says on the tin: after connecting it to your Evernote account it displays one random note at a time. Press refresh to get a new random note. Repeat at will. https://evernote-random.glitch.me/

Background info: https://praxis.fortelabs.co/randomnote-web/

Thanks for this. Is this safe? Will they be able to see our notes?

[gazumped 11,667]

You'd need to ask Forte labs for details,  but I believe this is just a way of scheduling random views of notes directly from your own database.  The app doesn't need to view the content,  it just needs a link.  I don't use the service myself and it's not an Evernote feature.

[PinkElephant 8,117]

On 4/2/2021 at 4:23 AM, keruchan said:

…. I was looking into incorporate the random note to let it decide what I want to eat today.   ….

This is determined by the content of my fridge: Pick 3 ingredients, put them in the EN search field, choose one of the recipes from the search results.

[Mike P 2,642]

Some time ago I wrote a simple script that generates the text string needed for a search for a random 5 days of notes and copies it to the clipboard. You can then paste it into the search bar. It's in R but I'm sure the concept is transferrable to your scripting language of choice or even Excel.

library(glue)

max <- as.numeric(Sys.Date() - as.Date("2014-3-22"))
en <- sample(1:max , 1)

string <- glue("created:day-{en} -created:day-{en-5}")

writeLines(string, "clipboard")

Which generates something like:

created:day-2473 -created:day-2468

 

[Sylvio 25]

I think this is a brilliant idea, and even as a new user, this thought came to mind because I will inevitably forget about certain notes as I grow with Evernote.

As a new user, however - or starting from where you are - what you could do is just start scheduling every note you create a random date from today. Schedule for a week, a month, a year, and so that way, you'll be reminded.

I really like Evernote's powerful search, so even just a random keyword entry is bound to bring up results from notes I completely forgot about. Nevertheless, a "throwback" feature is something I'd personally love, but it's more fun than it is practical from a business standpoint, I guess, since it's not really a journaling application. I'm coming from Journey, a journaling app, and it had Instagram-like Stories for throwback of old notes and I really miss it.

An elephant may never forget, but I probably will.

[TK0047 422]

One practice I started doing is to pull up notes I created a year before, 2 years before...3,4...etc. on the same day.

created:day-365 -created:day-364

created:day-730 -created:day-729

created:day-1095 -created:day-1094

I have a shortcut for these searches so it is easy to access. It also helps me modify some of the older notes with the new tags I added. It also is a nice view of what was happening a year ago etc.

[Petsolb 55]

On 1/10/2022 at 4:38 PM, TK0047 said:

One practice I started doing is to pull up notes I created a year before, 2 years before...3,4...etc. on the same day.

created:day-365 -created:day-364

created:day-730 -created:day-729

created:day-1095 -created:day-1094

I have a shortcut for these searches so it is easy to access. It also helps me modify some of the older notes with the new tags I added. It also is a nice view of what was happening a year ago etc.

Brilliant idea, thank you for sharing! I'm going to start my mornings looking through the notes I made 5 or 10 years ago on this day.