(Archived) Need advice on how to store speaking event notes

[Michael Hyatt 17]

I think I am still going through a paradigm shift with Evernote. I am moving from my formerly hierarchical file structure to a more flat file structure with tags. Here's where I need some advise.

I am a speaker. I travel extensively for my speaking engagements. With each engagement, I will have:

• 
  [*:2v7hoifl]Notes from Pre-Event Call with Sponsor
  [*:2v7hoifl]Correspondance with Sponsor (mostly email)
  [*:2v7hoifl]Speaking Contract (PDF)
  [*:2v7hoifl]Speech Outline
  [*:2v7hoifl]Copy of Payments and Reimbursements Received (PDF)
  [*:2v7hoifl]Speaking Details (PDF)
  [*:2v7hoifl]Invoice for Expenses
  [*:2v7hoifl]Receipts
  

I need to be able to get to all these items for a single engagement easily. It seems like I have two options:

• 
  [*:2v7hoifl]Create a separate notebook for each engagement, with all of my individual notes collected into a stack.
  [*:2v7hoifl]Create a separate notebook for all engagements and use tags to distinguish each event. In other words, a specific event could be tagged with three tags, “speaking,” “2011.05.06.” and “Catalyst, Dallas.”
  

Which approach is best? Am I missing another approach? What naming convention should I use on the individual note titles?

Thanks in advance for your advise!

[tomnagle1 0]

Michael,

Keep it as simple as possible. Don't over-organize; that's the beauty of tags and contextual search (searching within the note for things)

I'd use one tag for the speaking event in said city. You could use the date or the date and some modifier for speaking events, such as SE_2011_06_22_Dallas, for "speaking engagement on June 22, 2011 in Dallas." Or whatever you want. When you start to type in the tag, it will begin to autocomplete. Easy to find info on anyone event. One tag for everything for that event.

You could generate snippets for the tags in TextExpander.

Good luck.

[Michael Hyatt 17]

Thanks. That is helpful.

[inkedmn 8]

Here's how I'd do it:

Create a stack called "Speaking" (or whatever would be most meaningful)

For each of your active engagements, create a notebook with the date of the engagement and the city: 2011-05-18 Dallas

Create an "Past Engagements" notebook in your "Speaking" stack. Whenever you completely wrap up an engagement, tag all of the notes in the notebook for that engagement with the name of the notebook, then move it to "Past Engagements". So, if you had 25 notes in your 2011-05-18 Dallas notebook, you'd tag them all with "2011-05-18 Dallas", then move them into Past Engagements.

You could get a great deal crazier with it if you so chose, but that's how I'd start, anyway.

Good luck

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I think Brett's idea is a good one. I use a similar method for my current "hot topics" b/c notebooks are not set in stone. Keep one or more notebooks for hot topics. Makes it easier to quickly dump notes into it w/o having to apply all the necessary tags. When done, tag notes appropriately & move them to the appropriate notebook. Delete the now empty notebook.

I'd also use tags (or notebooks) for contracts and one for invoices so you can quickly pull up all contracts or invoices.

[gregrittler 0]

I agree with inked man.

I love tags after I'm done a project but tagging things as you go has never worked for me. I own my own company and have lots of different projects/engagementsevents to be a part of. If I try to tag things on the fly I inevitably forget to tag things correctly.

So I follow a very similar methodology: use notebooks and stacks for keeping current items organized by event,project, etc. and then tag them when I "archive" them and put them into my general notebooks.

Greg

Who is Greg Rittler? http://b01.us/greg

[Michael Hyatt 17]

Thanks, guys. This is very helpful indeed!

[smaviglia 12]

Whenever you completely wrap up an engagement, tag all of the notes in the notebook for that engagement with the name of the notebook, then move it to "Past Engagements". So, if you had 25 notes in your 2011-05-18 Dallas notebook, you'd tag them all with "2011-05-18 Dallas", then move them into Past Engagements.

Rather than tag all the notes of a wrapped up engagement and move them to a "Past Engagements" notebook, why not just move the entire wrapped up engagement's notebook to the "Past Engagements" stack?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Rather than tag all the notes of a wrapped up engagement and move them to a "Past Engagements" notebook, why not just move the entire wrapped up engagement's notebook to the "Past Engagements" stack?

That's an option. But IMO, tagging is better b/c you're limited to 250 notebooks & 10,000 tags. Depending upon how many speaking engagements OP does, he may quickly use up his 250 notebooks, especially if he adds info from (currently) past engagements and/or uses notebooks for other notes such as hobbies, household information, etc.

[Michael Hyatt 17]

I was wondering what the practical limitation was on notebooks. Good points.