Evernote for GTD - Adding 'Tags' for 'Context' to 'Tasks'

[Fiddle Thomas 0]

I am using Evernote with the GTD method. I am new to both. I also bought the GTD implementation guide for Evernote, sold by the people at GTD. Implementing the system, I found that to move a specific ‘action’  to  the respective ‘Next Actions’ notebook which I have created, I have to manually cut or copy and paste it. This is hectic and distracting. The solution I found is to add a keyword to the 'action note' that denotes its 'context' , e.g. '@Computer' and then convert that action note into an Evernote task. Now if I go to the ‘Tasks’ section on the sidebar and search for the keyword ‘@Computer’ I will get all the action notes from all the projects with that Keyword. Added benefit of this method is that even after I mark the task as complete, the task remains inside the project note as - strike through - and in the original order of the notes.

If Evernote adds the feature to add 'tag' to 'tasks', then I wouldn’t have to add the keyword and go search for them in the tasks. Just clicking on the tags I will get the tasks associated with them. If introducing 'tags' for 'tasks' is not possible, what can be done is to add a feature to filter tasks by keyword and then save the search somehow, with a custom name like ‘@Computer’.

I am a complete beginner and might be missing crucial insights. I hope Evernote implements this in the Future.

Also if it is possible, please add the feature to convert a task back to a note.

[gazumped 11,669]

Hi.  The folks who wrote the book were possibly not using the same version of Evernote that you now have,  and Evernote is highly unlikely to change or add features simply to comply with that one publication. We're mainly other users here anyway and all have our own takes on GTD.

One thing that may be useful - Tasks can be created in Notes,  and Notes can have their own tag,  plus be assigned to different notebooks and stacks.  Wherever they have been created,  tasks still show up in the left sidebar.

[PinkElephant 8,119]

The GTD document from the GTD folks is based on EN legacy for Windows. I bought it myself, some years back.

It was up to my knowledge never updated to the new clients, and furthermore does not reflect the new possibilities with EN Tasks. I don't know of any similar publication that would be updated to the current version.

You can basically apply the GTD script still - some UI elements will look different or be in other places, but the principles behind it still work.

There is a second, similar publication about how to set up GTD using Things, a full task manager. Maybe you get it yourself, tinker around a bit and find out how to merge the 2 approaches. The good about EN with tasks is that it got much easier to make notes actionable - a key to successfully using GTD.

But the book about it still remains unwritten.

[Mike P 2,643]

On 11/19/2023 at 4:41 AM, Fiddle Thomas said:

The solution I found is to add a keyword to the 'action note' that denotes its 'context' , e.g. '@Computer' and then convert that action note into an Evernote task. Now if I go to the ‘Tasks’ section on the sidebar and search for the keyword ‘@Computer’ I will get all the action notes from all the projects with that Keyword.

This solution works well and has been mentioned in many other posts. I prefer using emojis rather then words because of the visual impact but both approaches work equally well. I agree that the main problem is the lack of any sort of saved search/filter within the tasks overview. I get around this for one specific search by using an AHK script, but this would become tedious for many different searches.