New to evernote! How do you handle small tasks/errands?

[Haldo 1]

Hi all,

Brand new to using evernote (despite having an account since 2015). In an effort to seriously get my sh*t together and start organising my life I'm jumping into Evernote and excited to get started. 

I love the layout of Evernote but I am wondering what is the best way to process small 'one off' tasks or errands? I am following Tiago Fortes PARA methadology, so I have my 4 distinct areas set up (PROJECTS, AREAS, RESOURCES, ARCHIVES). (more info The PARA Method: The Simple System for Organizing Your Digital Life in Seconds (fortelabs.com)

I want to keep my evernote fairly well organised and not become cluttered. As I am also attempting to use it as a task manager (previously was using Microsoft to do) I am conscious I don't want a bunch of random notes with single 'to do's' (e.g. buy milk, call mum, etc.)

What's the best way to go about this? Open to any suggestions. I have a notepad called 'errands' and was thinking of creating a single note for each month (e.g. 'April errands') and capturing all single small tasks here and then at the end of each month, archive this note and create a new one for each month). See screenshot example attached. 

Bit overwhelmed with initial set up and finding tasks a little confusing in how best to use them within evernotes 'note centric' system. 

Thanks all.

David. 

[gazumped 11,703]

Depending on how many tasks and errands you have,  I'd suggest keeping a 'parent' note for each one - for instance (pun not intended) "Visit Parents" and including a table with one line of cells for each visit date.  Anything you need to do can go into one cell with multiple lines.  All you need to do is set a task or a reminder for the  date of the visit.  You could keep all of these notes in one notebook or tag them 'parent' or some such to get quick access.

Since you also have the option of note links,  you can link from a parent note to any other subtask or activity that requires it.

Probably the best way to work out the most effective system is to set something up and use it to see if it works.  If you're happy with the result - fine.  If not,  then you now have some real-world experience to identify any gaps in your process and change things around as necessary.

[bmcl26 500]

5 hours ago, Haldo said:

Hi all,

Brand new to using evernote (despite having an account since 2015). In an effort to seriously get my sh*t together and start organising my life I'm jumping into Evernote and excited to get started. 

I love the layout of Evernote but I am wondering what is the best way to process small 'one off' tasks or errands? I am following Tiago Fortes PARA methadology, so I have my 4 distinct areas set up (PROJECTS, AREAS, RESOURCES, ARCHIVES). (more info The PARA Method: The Simple System for Organizing Your Digital Life in Seconds (fortelabs.com)

I want to keep my evernote fairly well organised and not become cluttered. As I am also attempting to use it as a task manager (previously was using Microsoft to do) I am conscious I don't want a bunch of random notes with single 'to do's' (e.g. buy milk, call mum, etc.)

What's the best way to go about this? Open to any suggestions. I have a notepad called 'errands' and was thinking of creating a single note for each month (e.g. 'April errands') and capturing all single small tasks here and then at the end of each month, archive this note and create a new one for each month). See screenshot example attached. 

Bit overwhelmed with initial set up and finding tasks a little confusing in how best to use them within evernotes 'note centric' system. 

Thanks all.

David. 

I've developed a hybrid approach to managing tasks. If a task is a simple reminder without any specific connection to a particular topic, I'll create it and store it in the Default Note, which I've named "My Tasks". However, if a task is related to a specific project or note, I'll store it in the relevant note. This allows me to access all the necessary information when the reminder comes up. The great thing about being able to view tasks by time and date is that they'll always be visible in the Task View or Widget in the correct order.

[Haldo 1]

Thans for the responses. @bmcl26 doesn't this mean your default notepad eventually just becomes cluttered with completed tasks? I use my default notebook as my 'inbox' where i quickly capture notes and tasks. But i'd like to regularly process and clear everything in there as part of my review and get it to inbox zero once i've organised everything in there into there respective areas/notepads. Maybe i'm being a bit OCD but i'd like my default notepad to always be a temporary holding area which gets cleared out on a regular basis.

[Haldo 1]

@gazumped That's an interesting idea, that would certainly help group things together a bit better and save me having lots of individual notes for every little task. Thanks for the suggestion. Test and learn for sure! Sure i'll figure something out but those are useful starting points. 👍

[bmcl26 500]

47 minutes ago, Haldo said:

Thans for the responses. @bmcl26 doesn't this mean your default notepad eventually just becomes cluttered with completed tasks?

It's possible that it does, but since I never have a reason to access it, it doesn't worry me.