Desperate to get more organized with my schedule

[estevancarlos 30]

I imagine my question may invite a deluge of advice. I find and suspect that productivity often involves personal preferences and style. Here I go though: I need help getting organized.

I need assistance with specific things and I'd like to know how to best use Evernote for these purposes. I am an adjunct professor teaching at three institutions. I still sometimes freelance outside of that. Each institution has their own calendar and deadlines. Each contact me through a separate email address (which is a nightmare). I struggle the most with scheduling.

I understand most features in Evernote. I may not fully know how to use their reminder system in a way that is effective. I'd like advice and suggestions. Here are some key questions:

• If you integrate Evernote with Google Calendar, what is your productivity workflow? Do you just manually enter details in a calendar or do you have any app integration?
• Do you use Evernote with Microsoft ToDo? If so how do you use it together?
• Any suggestions on how to create a reminder system with notifications? I need reminders for my schedule.
• Any suggestions on using Evernote with Amazon Echo?

Overall I am looking for a system that allows me to use Evernote more effectively (if possible) and a way to create notifications and reminders for the scheduled things I need to be aware of.

[DTLow 5,736]

38 minutes ago, estevancarlos said:

If you integrate Evernote with Google Calendar, what is your productivity workflow? Do you just manually enter details in a calendar or do you have any app integration?

I'm an Apple Calendar user, and I have to deal with additional calendars, some in paper form
I manually copy entries into my Apple Calendar

For EN > Calendar integration, I have an applescript copying event notes from EN to the calendar

Each morning I prepare my daily journal/dashboard note, which ensures I review each calendar
The screenshot is a sample from my template; I copy/paste clippings from each calendar

>>Any suggestions on how to create a reminder system with notifications? I need reminders for my schedule.

All my data is stored in EN so I customize it for task management
I use
     - tags to identify actionable notes (!Actionable-Goal/Project/Task) 
     - tags to identify project id's to tie all project notes together
     - tags to identify priority                   (!ActionablePriority-Important/Urgent)
     - the reminder feature to identify active tasks, due dates, completion status
I generate various task lists with search criteria
I generate a task overview list using applescript and a spreadsheet

[gazumped 11,664]

Hi - Difficult to be specific about organizational systems since,  as you say,  they're often highly individualised to the person employing them.  The basics (IMHO) are:

1. Don't be afraid to try something that seems like a good idea - you can always change the process or the details later
2. Don't be afraid to junk something that's not working or details that you don't understand
3. Once you find a system that seems to work,  stick with it unless and until it fails you badly - you'll waste endless time chasing perfection that could have been used for actual work!

From your comments above I'd suggest:

1. create a separate Stack for each client institution you deal with and use notebooks within each stack for specific projects / courses or assignments.  Notes in each notebook can deal with the specifics of development and delivery.
2. auto forward any emails from the individual institutions to an 'inbox' in that stack and review it daily to tag and respond as necessary.
3. Filterize can help you move notes around and automatically 'file' notes into the correct notebook based on tags or keywords -or email addresses.
4. Cronofy can link specifically tagged notes with Google calendar so that you always have an overview of commitments
5. Filterize can also generate automatically updated tables of content so that (forinstance) all uncomplete tasks in the planning stage for all clients can be listed on one ToC in due date order.  You can use these ToC 'Dashboards' to see:  what tasks and commitments are due today / undone from previous days / coming up shortly.
6. I don't now use any proprietary 'to-do' systems - the above basically is my own system which (apart from several external apps) works without having to search in more than one place.
7. One final suggestion:  look at Workflowy - it's much more than an 'outliner' and has a very quick and comprehensive search feature.  That's now where I save a lot of boiler plate information like the links I'll add below,  plus some reminders for myself about how to use my own classification systems which have gotten a bit complex lately...

• https://filterize.net/
• https://www.cronofy.com/
• https://workflowy.com/

Good Luck!

 

  

[CalS 5,280]

2 hours ago, estevancarlos said:

Each institution has their own calendar and deadlines. Each contact me through a separate email address (which is a nightmare). I struggle the most with scheduling.

eM Client is an email client that enables a consolidated inbox and calendar.  I'm sure there are other apps available to pick from to try to gain some control on your inbox(es).

[PinkElephant 8,103]

@estevancarlos Very pragmatic questions, thank you for posting.

Have you heard about the GTD method, by David Allen ? I think his view on „Getting Things Done“ is still a very good starting point to optimize your personal setup and workflows. This is especially true in a situation where you have to serve several masters (jobs, projects, tasks etc.).

You can find more about it here:     https://gettingthingsdone.com

They have a booklet about how to setup EN to support their method.

Personally I have decided to set up my GTD using Things 3, a task manager only available for Mac and iOS. I am completely in the Apple ecosystem, so no answers to questions about Google or Amazon widgets and gadgets (two companies I try to avoid, together with Facebook, because I see their data hoarding habits as a deep violation of my privacy).

I think that GTD methodology would serve you very well, because it brings all the loose ends and multiple inboxes together in one consolidated approach to your personal productivity. The technical tools to apply it are less important than reviewing your situation and creating the right general flow of information. This can and should be done on a sheet of paper first.

 

[estevancarlos 30]

51 minutes ago, CalS said:

eM Client is an email client that enables a consolidated inbox and calendar.  I'm sure there are other apps available to pick from to try to gain some control on your inbox(es).

Yeah I eventually found eM Client which solved that issue. Now if I can only convince these places to stop emailing me so much. Some of them make it impossible to create filters.

[Gazebo 41]

The Secret Weapon set up https://thesecretweapon.org/the-secret-weapon-manifesto/setting-up-the-secret-weapon/amp/

uses GTD and Evernote tags to create a system that I have used with minor tweaks since 2015. 
 

worth looking at.

[CalS 5,280]

5 hours ago, estevancarlos said:

Yeah I eventually found eM Client which solved that issue. Now if I can only convince these places to stop emailing me so much. Some of them make it impossible to create filters.

It is a pain if you can't differentiate the good from the bad via the name or something in the title.  You could move anything from the domain(s) to a folder upon arrival and periodically clear the folder, inbox number 2 so to speak.  Though that would hide any of the important ones.  No easy answers for this issue.  Just have to pick the process which is best for you.  🤷‍♂️