(Archived) Interface for Automatically Adding Tasks to To-Do List?

[acgummad 2]

I use Evernote for work to keep track of project meeting notes. Keeping track of notes and to-dos for multiple projects gets ugly at times, and I would love to have a way to mark certain lines in my notes that allow Evernote to automatically add those lines to a to-do list. Right now, whenever I lead or attend a project status meeting, I make notes in a specific Evernote folder for that project, and then I have to either open another note in Evernote or another app to duplicate that note into a to-do list to keep track of, specifically, those items that I need to follow up on. This is a redundant step, and one that really annoys me. I really need a way to mark certain lines in my Evernote notes that allow them to automatically get added to related to-do lists - either in Evernote or by way of a UI into another app - so that I don't have to spend time duplicating to-dos. Anyone know if this type of functionality exists in Evernote, what app could help with my situation, or a work-around that's really brilliant?

[peterfmartin 221]

No, this doesn't exist. Search the forum on to-do lists to see past discussions on this subject. Zendone may work for you. It's still in limited-release beta, but when (on the advice of another forum user) I emailed the zendone crew, they sent me an invite within the hour, so if you want the invite right away, try that out.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

EN does not strive to be a to do/task manager. They have stated they are leaving that task to third party developers. If you have an iDevice, the app Egretlist interfaces with Evernote & allows you to create checklists & mark items off the list.

[acgummad 2]

BurgersNFries - what a remarkably unhelpful response.

Peter - thanks for your reply.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

BurgersNFries - what a remarkably unhelpful response.

I answered your question. You're welcome.

[dv5ENUF 1]

(A new, ~clearer, version of my reply.)

acgummad, Re: your comment: "I would love to have a way to mark certain lines in my notes that allow Evernote to automatically add those lines to a to-do list." .

-->How I use Evernote as a To--Do List, Task Manager: [*1]

1) Insert the curser at the beginning of any line in an Evernote Note > then right click > choose "To Do" > choose "Insert Checkbox". Evernote will insert a checkbox.

2) Notes containing these checkboxes (sometimes referred to as 'To Do' notes) can later be called up by typing variations of the todo: operator in the Evernote search field. Three Examples:

To show all notes containing checkboxes that are not checked: todo:false

To show all notes containing checkboxes that are checked: todo:true

To show all notes containing checkboxes that are either checked or not checked: todo:*

3) This operator can also be used with other search operators to perform more specific searches of your 'To Do' notes. For example, if you wanted to see all of your undone To-Do items in your Tasks notebook, you could find those by issuing this search: notebook:Tasks todo:false. Or, just highlight your Task notebook and use this search: todo:false .

4) Use the Checkboxes with the Evernote [Note >"Copy Note Link"] and [Format > "Hyperlink ..."] features, and -->you have your Evernote To--Do List, Task Manager!

David

[*1] Using text copied from Evernote Help, with my annotations. (assumed OK with Phil and Stephan).

[Cory 0]

^{A couple of features I would like to see included in Evernote are as follows.}

^{A reminder. Specifically for mobile users. WOuld like to be reminder of a Note/Event I may have noted. Instead of having to}

^{create a separate note in a calendar it would be nice if this app could do it.}

^{Expiry. It would also be nice if we could set an expiry data on a note. Like if I know I will not need the data any longer after}

^{a certain date it would be nice to have it auto purged to keep my db clean. Not to mention free up space on the server.}

^{If anybody knows if those features are available or how I can integrate them into my note keeping let me know.}

^{I currently use Evernote on my PC, Iphone and BB Playbook.}

^Thanks

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

EN has stated several times in the past that the only other field/functionality that will be added with respect to tasks/to do's is a due date. There may be many third party apps that utilize this field, once it's been added. Before you ask, EN does not publish ETAs.

Since this is posted in the Windows section, you may want to take a look at a Windows only app called TuskTools.

You may also find this thread helpful.

[jbenson2 2,149]

^{Expiry. It would also be nice if we could set an expiry data on a note. Like if I know I will not need the data any longer after}

^{a certain date it would be nice to have it auto purged to keep my db clean. Not to mention free up space on the server.}

Autodelete is not available. I don't think Evernote will implement it - after all their main theme is to remember everything - a 2nd brain.

Most text notes take up very little space.

And even though the information might not be helpful today, it might be useful in the future.

For instance, how much did that flight cost? In Minneapolis, did I depart from the Lindberg Terminal or the Humphrey Terminal? What was the name of the fellow at that meeting in Los Angeles last year?

Even mundane stuff like restaurants or food you had could be interesting.

p.s. if you want a reminder to delete items manually on a specific date, you could add into the note something like this:

#201301 - then run a search for it and find all notes you want to delete in January 2013

[JMichaelTX 4,118]

Another option/work-around is to create a Outlook Calendar item (with reminder) manually, and then paste in the Evernote Note link.

[Mariazquill 0]

Oh, I was so excited to see an Evernote update! I was SURE that "reminders" would be part of it. I was not even hoping for pie in the sky integration with Google calendar.

I'm so crushed!

I've tried Tusk, I've tried Zen Done. They are just too complicated to make things more simple. I just want my blooming note to pop-up and remind me its there!!

Boohoo

Maria :wacko:

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Excluding the ever elusive due date field, EN is not going to be adding anything else with respect to reminders. If you need such a thing, you should use a true reminder app (which EN is not) such as Toodledo, Remember the Milk, etc.

[jbenson2 2,149]

I tried beta Tusk Tools Calendar and was not impressed with the support.

If you use Evernote, you are going to have to accept the fact that the program is written to store stuff that has already happened.

It is not strong on stuff that will happen in the future. They've been working on a due date for the past 3 years.

Either it is more difficult than they expected or it is not a priority item. My guess it is the latter.

There are some work-arounds for reminders that require more effort (with some unintended consequences).

• Use the to-do checkboxes
  
• Add the actual task / appointment due date at the beginning of the title and run date code searches for future stuff.
  
• My preference is to jail-break the Created Date and change it to the Due Date.
  

[evb 30]

There is an additional offer for EN/ToDo-functionality:

zendone.com (beta phase)

Strong integration with EN, following the GTD-system, lots of functions. Seems cool.

Regards from downtown Munich (right now submerged due to a thunderstorm), EvB.

[jbenson2 2,149]

zendone.com looks nice, but keep in mind it is only in a private beta status.

You have to submit a request to be invited into their private beta process.

[gazumped 12,049]

Looks like Zendone will take almost anyone up on a request for access - they took me! First reaction - there's a lot to get to grips with here, which is a bit of a problem for something I would rely on to get me to the right place at the right time, with the right information for a given meeting. And as JB2 notes, it's private beta so not immune to whims and fancies of its own as well as me mistyping something critical.

I'm currently using Meshin Recall, Outlook, Google Calendar and Evernote to stay up to date and it's working fairly well for me...

Google Calendar has an app that syncs with Outlook

Meshin Recall is an Android calendar app that syncs with GoogeCal, and will link diary entries with Evernote notes.

Net result: I can enter a date in Outlook / Recall / GoogleCal and it will be rippled across all three and accessible from both desktop and mobile

And for belt and braces cover I also set the creation date of any future meeting note to that meeting date and prefix it with "aaa-<date>-<postcode(zipcode)> AND use "<date>+<postcode(zipcode)>" as the tag for that meeting.

In Evernote I sort my notes by created date and scroll down a little, and I can see my new entries and my next few days' commitment!

My bespoke tag is partly overkill and partly rather smart, because it is unique to that meeting, and easily worked out from most related documents, so I don't have to remember what to tag reminders and papers and agendas so it all stays together...

It maybe all sounds a bit horrible, but it's pretty transparent for me..

[jbenson2 2,149]

I signed up for Zendone, but backed out as soon as I saw I had to share my full Evernote access with Zendone.

It might be legit, but why take the risk. Here is what stopped me.

Do you authorize zendone.com to access your account for up to 365 days, with permissions to:

• Create notes, notebooks and tags
  
• Update notes, notebooks and tags
  

[Mariazquill 0]

OK, Original poster here.

This is what I'm trying to do, I'm thinking maybe day of the week tags might take care of it:

I'm a home educator, I'd like to create mini curricula by week that is very timely with what we are doing. For instance, Yesterday we saw a Titanic exhibit.

Maybe Monday I'll have the pictures of the titanic survivor pictures we took come up, along with a couple of stories of the survivors

Tuesday some stories about the victims, maybe an article about the Irish immgration to the U.S.

Wednesday something about the animals that now live on the titanic

Thursday something about how to read Morse code, maybe a link to a Morse code game.

Friday, a writing prompt

So, you see, I'd like not to dump all this information at one time. However, just a todo list program will not supply the supplies needed to learn. I'd have to start digging around to give him the videos, pictures, stories...

I thought I could make a note with note links to the other notes with content, then have the main note pop up on a specific day.

Ideas? Tags?

Thanks,

Maria

[jbenson2 2,149]

Evernote is not a to-do program, but here is what I would do as a work around.

Create 6 notes for the pending topics and add to the notes as needed. Structure the notes with the date of the class (yyyymmdd) followed by the overall topic and the sub topic.

20120619 Tue - Titanic Exhibit

20120625 Mon - Titanic Survivors

20120626 Tue - Titanic victims, Irish imigrants

20120627 Wed - Titanic animals on board

20120628 Thu - Titanic morse code

20120629 Fri - Titanic writing project

I would change the Created Date to reflect the expected date of each course.

I would also add a Titanic tag to each of these notes.

In each note include a to-do checkbox

In each note, you would also include more detail pertaining to the note's topic, including links to Wikipedia and other relevant web sites.

Evernote does not have a pop-up feature. To see all the unfinished Titantic projects, run a search for

intitle:Titanic todo:false

or

tag:Titanic todo:false

And all of the not-completed courses will show up in chronological order. (if you maintain the default sort method using the Created Date column)

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

OK, Original poster here.

This is what I'm trying to do, I'm thinking maybe day of the week tags might take care of it:

I'm a home educator, I'd like to create mini curricula by week that is very timely with what we are doing. For instance, Yesterday we saw a Titanic exhibit.

Maybe Monday I'll have the pictures of the titanic survivor pictures we took come up, along with a couple of stories of the survivors

Tuesday some stories about the victims, maybe an article about the Irish immgration to the U.S.

Wednesday something about the animals that now live on the titanic

Thursday something about how to read Morse code, maybe a link to a Morse code game.

Friday, a writing prompt

So, you see, I'd like not to dump all this information at one time. However, just a todo list program will not supply the supplies needed to learn. I'd have to start digging around to give him the videos, pictures, stories...

I thought I could make a note with note links to the other notes with content, then have the main note pop up on a specific day.

Ideas? Tags?

Thanks,

Maria

I use temporary notebooks all the time. IE, if something is a hot topic for me today, I'll create a new notebook for it. When the task/project is complete, I'll create a tag, assign the tag to all the notes, dump the notes into a more broad notebook & delete the notebook or rename it for something else. So what I would suggest trying is have five notebooks, Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/etc. If you wanted to plan two weeks out, you could even date them and rename them as needed. IE 20120618, 20120619, etc.

Drop all the notes for that day into that notebook. At the end of the day, you can transfer notes for items that you may not have had time to cover to another day's notebook & archive the rest, if you choose to archive. IE, you could add a line at the top of the note something like "covered on 6/18/12" & move it to a notebook named 'archive'.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

Basically what jbenson said. However, I would have:

120619 history class 01 titanic exhibit

120620 history class 02 titanic survivors

I would create one for every class session. I would then drag them into one "index" note, which would form links to each of them.This would be the syllabus. I keep a journal for every day, and I postdate these, so I might have a journal like this:

120621 journal thursday

This would tell me which lesson to do, and might have a link to the class index note. Why do it this way? The journal is kept separate from the classes, so the class exists independently for future use. For more, see

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmayo/evernote-organization.html

[Rodney 2]

I use things like BaseCamp and To Do apps and Outlook for reminders and I use Evernote for everything else.

You would appeal to a massive market if I could right click on a note and set a reminder.

[jbenson2 2,149]

Even though the Due Date column release has been mentioned several times by Evernote staff in this forum over the past 3 years, I doubt that it will be seen anytime soon. Either the function is no longer a priority or it is too difficult to code across the multiple platforms..

Here are two work arounds I use:.

Change the created date to the date you want to do the task. (my preferred method)

or

Right click on the note in the Note List and copy the note link

Paste the link into a new note - add some supporting text if needed.

Change the created date of the new note to the date you want to do the task.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I use things like BaseCamp and To Do apps and Outlook for reminders and I use Evernote for everything else.

You would appeal to a massive market if I could right click on a note and set a reminder.

Evernote already appeals to a massive market. They've also stated they intend to add a due date, but that's as far as they intend to go wrt task management & will leave that up to third parties, such as TuskTools.

[Hussein 23]

Hey Rodney,

I have created a web app for Evernote called KustomNote. You might want to check it out. Beside mainly having the capability to create and use publicly shared note templates, It allows you to set a reminder on creating a note. You enter an email (any email - it sends a link to the note on Evernote so if that person can access it its fine) and you pick a date-time for the reminder. That's all and its free.

Hope this helps.

[jbenson2 2,149]

Hey Rodney,

I have created a web app for Evernote called KustomNote. You might want to check it out. Beside mainly having the capability to create and use publicly shared note templates, It allows you to set a reminder on creating a note. You enter an email (any email - it sends a link to the note on Evernote so if that person can access it its fine) and you pick a date-time for the reminder. That's all and its free.

Hope this helps.

Well Done! A super professional video walk-thru with an entertaining puppet. I especially enjoyed the final comment:

"It's what Evernote was intended to be, only better."

You've got my vote when Devcup starts.

July 6th 9am PDT

to

July 23rd 5pm PDT

[Hussein 23]

Hey Rodney,

I have created a web app for Evernote called KustomNote. You might want to check it out. Beside mainly having the capability to create and use publicly shared note templates, It allows you to set a reminder on creating a note. You enter an email (any email - it sends a link to the note on Evernote so if that person can access it its fine) and you pick a date-time for the reminder. That's all and its free.

Hope this helps.

Well Done! A super professional video walk-thru with an entertaining puppet. I especially enjoyed the final comment:

"It's what Evernote was intended to be, only better."

You've got my vote when Devcup starts.

July 6th 9am PDT

to

July 23rd 5pm PDT

Thanks so much jbenson2.. I really really appreciate it : )

[FactMan 196]

Very impressive! Can you edit notes that are already in EN? I want to be able to see it, touch it, feel it in all it's glory!

[rfour 0]

As a work around, I copy a note link to a calendar date & time in Outlook.

[EdH 1,670]

Hey Rodney,

I have created a web app for Evernote called KustomNote. You might want to check it out. Beside mainly having the capability to create and use publicly shared note templates, It allows you to set a reminder on creating a note. You enter an email (any email - it sends a link to the note on Evernote so if that person can access it its fine) and you pick a date-time for the reminder. That's all and its free.

Hope this helps.

Oh my.... this is very cool. I'm gonna have to play with this over the weekend.

[unitseven 9]

Kustomnote looks great. A little slow at some points but looks like you'll be getting my vote…

[Fermin 2]

Please we need this natively implemented in EN. Would do so much good...

[Pattyben 1]

Thanks so much. Like the puppet.

[dlu 628]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[edahani 0]

Hey Rodney,

I have created a web app for Evernote called KustomNote. You might want to check it out. Beside mainly having the capability to create and use publicly shared note templates, It allows you to set a reminder on creating a note. You enter an email (any email - it sends a link to the note on Evernote so if that person can access it its fine) and you pick a date-time for the reminder. That's all and its free.

Hope this helps.

Hi Hussein, good job with the KustomNote! Love it at first sight

Just wonder:

1. is there any app for iPhone and Mac? Instead of going to the web.

2. can we create stacks like Evernote? I just found all my EN's notes all over the place. Would like to organize them.

Hope to see more cool features coming soon!

[JeffreyC 66]

I want to +1 the "Due Date" column.

I think I picked up from the thread that EN doesn't want to focus on Task Management, and that's understandable. But, a Due Date column (or maybe some generic date column, would be very handy. I currently modify the Created Date to do this, but, would prefer to maintain that column for it's real purpose and history.

This new column needs to be update-able on mobile platforms.

I can't use an add-in on the web as I use the Windows and Android versions.

Thanks as always for the great product.

[jbenson2 2,149]

FYI - the "official" Evernote Due Date forum discussion can be found at

http://discussion.ev...date-attribute/

It is sort of buried in the Lifestyles section, but enough people know about it to stretch the comments to over 9 pages.

It is still ranked as a hot topic with the users. Can't say the same for the developers.

[Rodney 2]

Thanks, can everyone comment on that thread to show their interest.

I appreciate there are plug ins and extra tools but this should be core functionality if you want to keep me as a user.

[Wildcard 0]

I was just telling a friend about Evernote and this was my only complaint. Calendar notifications are overkill. I'm currently using Reminders on my iPhone (iOS6), but if I had a similar function available in Evernote for when I make to-do lists or just want to follow up on a note, it would be MUCH more efficient. I'm using Evernote more and more now, but if it had reminders available, I'd probably use it EVERY day.