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(Archived) Evernote - getting better as a task manager


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Dear Evernote,

 

I've been using Evernote for about 1 year now and it gets better ad better. Lately I've standardised on Evernote for task management too.

The recent addition of shortcuts is great as it allows you to save GTD type priority lists so they are instantly accessible.

One thing I notice which would help Evernote overcome a weakness vs other apps is that when adding timing related tags...they are not mutually exclusive. If you time related tags could only be one status or a other, it would avoid the need to go and remove the previous tag.

 

For example if i have something tagged '3-Someday' and want to upgrade it to '1-Now' i also have to ensure I remove the first tag. (This would be unnecessary if when changing a time-related tag, the application would only allow a note to have one status or the other). This would make screen views cleaner and saved searches easier/clearer too.

 

This would reduce the admin for changing a tasks priority and really help Evernote be a great task manager as well as note taking app.

 

Regards

John

 

 

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I don't know that Evernote has any ambition to be a task manager...

 

It might just be a simple matter of word semantics (task manager vs. due date vs. to-do list vs. calendar integration vs. reminder), but Evernote has certainly been heading in the direction of a task manager for several years. Perhaps not a pure 100% died-in-the-wool task manager program, but mighty close.

 

Here are a few recent quotes.

April 2012 - Based on the Community Chat between Phil, Dave & Andrew.

Quote from Phil Libin - CEO of Evernote:

"We're putting in a lot of work on reminders / due dates / to-do lists. Aiming for a release this year, but don't have the specifics nailed down yet."

and

"To-do lists, due dates, reminders, etc. will be in the main Evernote app since that's core productivity functionality.  We may also come out with individual, light-weight apps, to experiment with creative UX ideas, but not at the expense of keeping those features out of the main apps."

 

December 2012 at LeWeb;

 

Phil Liben said they were planning to make the "To Do / Calendar Integration / Reminder" feature as a separate app, but they decided to incorporate it in Evernote as a core feature.

 

 

And for the Evernote Windows client users, who hope that the pending reminders feature might eventually fill the Due Date / Task shoes requested by so many users:

The classic Essay on Man by Alexander Pope in 1734

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast"

 

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I was riffing off a statement by PL which ran along the lines of "We don't want to be just another task manager"..  and since there's been no serious movement in the direction of actually being a task manager...

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December 2012 at LeWeb;

 

Phil Liben said they were planning to make the "To Do / Calendar Integration / Reminder" feature as a separate app, but they decided to incorporate it in Evernote as a core feature.

Thanks JB.  I've been wondering if Phil's "Do" app was ever going to materialize.  Looks like reminders is it.

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For example if i have something tagged '3-Someday' and want to upgrade it to '1-Now' i also have to ensure I remove the first tag. (This would be unnecessary if when changing a time-related tag, the application would only allow a note to have one status or the other). This would make screen views cleaner and saved searches easier/clearer too.

 

Perhaps you've considered it, but wouldn't the scenario you described be catered for by placing the different tasks in different folders?   Just change the drop down and pick the folder for "1-Now".  If you create a stack which includes all your task folders you can still view them collectively (if that's what you want)
 
 
edit: folders?  I think I meant Notebooks.  Next thing I'll be calling them directories !
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I really hope we can get reminders within a note - as in, The main note would be my school assignment - research paper. I'd make my outline there, and then all of the sub-tasks (docs to overview, make an outline, rough draft, etc...) would have their own reminders for when I wanted to complete them.

I love putting the check-box into notes, but the next step would be to tie that check-box to a reminder! So when I finished putting together an outline, I could check off the box to finish the reminder!

Also, some integration with another task manager like anyDO would rock!

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There may be something in the pipeline - Evernote don't want to offer "just" another to-do handler (said Phil Libin a while ago) and what we've seen so far seem to be the trial stages of something more.  On the other hand Evernote do like add-ons that extend its functionality (see Trunk) so maybe we're waiting for someone else to take advantage of the database / search / date functions and perform the magic.

 

(Always wanted to say this in a post)

 

Only Time Will Tell.

 

;)

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so maybe we're waiting for someone else to take advantage of the database / search / date functions and perform the magic.

 

 

I agree.

 

Over the past 3 years as I kept inquiring about the status of the Due Date field, software developers from two different companies contacted me. They mentioned their desire for the release of the field to the general public so that they could enhance their programs with links to Evernote.

O.T.W.T.

 

Search Code 47ER92

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  • 1 month later...

I love putting the check-box into notes, but the next step would be to tie that check-box to a reminder! So when I finished putting together an outline, I could check off the box to finish the reminder!

Also, some integration with another task manager like anyDO would rock!

 

To our knowledge, there were two task apps on iOS that provided two-way sync with Evernote checkboxes and the items associated (TrackMyTask and Egretlist).  Egretlist is no more and TrackMyTask still exists and still being developed.

 

We built TaskClone to send tasks from Evernote checkboxes to your favorite task app.  We now supported 40+ task apps including Any.do.  TaskClone is discussed more fully in the third party app forum.

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Whether for task management, general note 'workflow' or other reason....  mutually exclusive tag groups are very very handy and do not denote a 'Task manager' or 'To-do' app.  The feature is heavily used in apps like Mind Manager (Mindjet) for categorisation of nodes (like notes) in a given map.

 

A good way to implement this would be to enable a 'mutually exclusive' option to a tag group in the tag hierarchy.   Once you add one of those tags another from the same list is removed.  If you make a tag group exclusive and there are already multiples assigned to a note then a sensible warning with those notes listed with the option to choose a one of the tags would be handy.  If not just take the first one in the list and warn that some have been removed. 

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For example if i have something tagged '3-Someday' and want to upgrade it to '1-Now' i also have to ensure I remove the first tag. (This would be unnecessary if when changing a time-related tag, the application would only allow a note to have one status or the other). This would make screen views cleaner and saved searches easier/clearer too.

 

Perhaps you've considered it, but wouldn't the scenario you described be catered for by placing the different tasks in different folders?   Just change the drop down and pick the folder for "1-Now".  If you create a stack which includes all your task folders you can still view them collectively (if that's what you want)
 
 
edit: folders?  I think I meant Notebooks.  Next thing I'll be calling them directories !

 

 

 

This is precisely what I did in my implementation of The Secret Weapon ( http://www.thesecretweapon.org ). I changed the .When tags to notebooks in a stack titled "Action Pending". Works like a charm, and it is so much slicker when I need to move something up or down the priority/time chain. Hope this helps!

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