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Notes self-delete function suggestion


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Hello everybody. Wouldn't it be useful to add a self-delete function to a note? This means one could set an expiration date on which a note would self-delete and dissappear from the notes section. An example would be a plane ticket which you want to store in Evernote until you fly but after that it is no longer useful.

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Evernote have said a couple of times that they won't ever programmatically make changes to our notes, so although you can never say never I doubt very much whether this will every happen.

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Also, since storage isn't limited, there's little imperative to delete anything immediately. If it hangs around a bit longer it doesn't count against any quota.

One thing to consider is to use tags effectively. I had a recent trip to baltimore and used the tag "baltimore 0414" on anything related to that trip. This makes deleting easy if I wished to delete it since I can just display all notes tagged that way and delete!

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A couple thoughts - it's an interesting suggestion, but :

 

1.) Evernote Support would undoubtedly receive an increase in requests from users asking for help in retrieving auto-deleted notes.

 

2.) I find the outdated information can be useful in unexpected occasions. For instance, I lived in England for a couple years and the taxing authorities (IRS and HM Revenue and Customs) each year wanted to know what days I lived in England, the USA, and other locations. The scanned airline tickets were powerful information to prove where I was. Even the more mundane out of date info in Evernote can be useful - digging up past vacation location info, or even stuff like the name of a restaurant in another city or country. I seldom delete anything from Evernote.

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Well actually when I said "delete" I didn't mean to say the note would be deleted. It would go to a folder - whatever the name - where it would stay forever. This self-delete function is about getting old notes out of the way from the folders you use regularly. Let's change the name and call it "self-archive" function. Is this any better?

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Well actually when I said "delete" I didn't mean to say the note would be deleted. It would go to a folder - whatever the name - where it would stay forever. This self-delete function is about getting old notes out of the way from the folders you use regularly. Let's change the name and call it "self-archive" function. Is this any better?

 

Yes, much better.

 

However, I empty my trash notebook daily, so that would not be a good location for me.

 

I think a variation of ScottLougheed's original suggestion using a dedicated tag would be a very good solution.

 

Create a notebook called Completed.

Tag your time-sensitive notes with gtd (getting things done).

Then once a week or so, run a saved search for

 

tag:gtd -notebook:completed

 

This will find all potential archivable notes that have not been moved to the completed notebook.

Select the ones need to be moved (ctrl click and then mass move the selected notes all at once).

 

Eventually you might find that it is easier just to keep them in the original notebook and not bother moving them at all.

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Thanks for the tip but it requires a number of operations (tagging, searching, selecting and moving). It would be much easier if this were done automatically by Evernote based on the expiration date associated with each note

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Thanks for the tip but it requires a number of operations (tagging, searching, selecting and moving). It would be much easier if this were done automatically by Evernote based on the expiration date associated with each note

 

As you have found out, there is no "expiration date" field to allow auto-delete or auto-reposition of notes, so you will either use a work-around today or wait for a possible upgrade sometime in the future. Occasionally an Evernote employee drops in to this user-forum and might see your suggestion. So keep your fingers crossed and someday this might become a reality... or it might not.

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Thanks for the tip but it requires a number of operations (tagging, searching, selecting and moving). It would be much easier if this were done automatically by Evernote based on the expiration date associated with each note

 

I think you'd experience systemic difficulties with even a simple system such as you propose.  The first problem: how does the user handle Notes that don't have a specific expiration date, but that s/he knows s/he doesn't want to keep un-archived forever?  Second: how to review Notes before they are archived, or, alternatively, group for review Notes that have been archived in the last {variable} number of days?  Third:  you just created the need for a global search parameter: include/exclude archived Notes?

 

I can't see any auto-archiving system working well — the relationship users have with information is too fluid.  "I forgot that trip was business write-off; why isn't the receipt in my receipts Notebook?"

 

Here's my 2¢ recommendation:  create a Tag called "Archive" (or, if you're fancy, "Deprecated").  Apply it whenever you see an "expired" Note.  Periodically sweep up all your Notes tagged "Archive" and move them to a Notebook called "Archive".

 

My $1 recommendation:

 - stop using the word "folder".  It has no meaning in the Evernote UI.

 - use "delete" to mean "delete".  Use "archive" to mean "archive".  (Yes, I'm picky about diction — but I'm 1/100th as picky as the programs you use.  Sloppy diction on a forum such as this wastes poster's time, which, freely proffered, is wasted without cost; sloppy diction using software endangers your data.)

 - separate your _Viewing Containers_ from your _Storage Containers_.  

  • In Evernote, this is best done by using Notebooks as Storage Containers, and Saved Searches as Viewing Containers.
  • Store your Notes in Notebooks.  Retrieve them and group them for use in Saved Searches.  
  • Tag them with this structure in mind.

If you set Evernote up this way, your cruft is, in essence, auto-archived — your database is an archive.  Notes you don't want to see don't show up because they don't meet the requirements of your currently used Saved Searches.

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The trash notebook, for example. I wouldn't really like to have another notebook as I keep my count as low as possible at all times. 

 

Imho, a no-good, deplorable, third-rate, tinpot recommendation (imagine here a cartoon pugilist emoticon with which I wished to insure the playful interpretation of my exaggeratio).  

 

No Trash container should ever be used for storage.  Trash containers should be emptied at the end of every work session, for this simple, time-saving reason: if you don't empty your Trash when it's fresh, you have to review it before you empty it in order to make sure that the things in it are trash.  Any other workflow destroys the meaning of "Trash" and _puts stones in your flow_.  If an item is Trash, put it in the Trash and empty the Trash before you clock out or turn in.  If it isn't Trash, and you must relocate it, put it somewhere else.

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I think a variation of ScottLougheed's original suggestion using a dedicated tag would be a very good solution.

Create a notebook called Completed.

Tag your time-sensitive notes with gtd (getting things done).

Then once a week or so, run a saved search for

tag:gtd -notebook:completed

This will find all potential archivable notes that have not been moved to the completed notebook.

This will not work. You cannot exclude a notebook from a search.

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  • 4 months later...

I'm in for an "expiration date" field that you can set and then search on. My use case is the those sites that send you a discount code or email about a limited time deal that you store Evernote for safe keeping. You can then create a saved search for tagged notes ( for discounts, I use "deal" ) whose expiration date is before "today" . That would make them simple to find and do with as you please.

 

Specifically for me, I would delete them, but someone else might move them into another folder. That works for me as I put new notes in "Inbox", processed notes in "Main", non-active data in "Archive", and  obsolete data in "Trash" :)

 

Edit: I forgot to note that what I do now is to put an reminder on "deal" notes that matches the expiration date of the deal/coupon/discount code. The reminder reminds me to delete the expired note.  

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Edit: I forgot to note that what I do now is to put an reminder on "deal" notes that matches the expiration date of the deal/coupon/discount code. The reminder reminds me to delete the expired note.  

That's what I would suggest, and seems a good use of reminders... :)

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  • 1 year later...
  • 7 months later...

It sure seems to me like everyone is over-complicating this. I would love a feature like this as well. It's pretty simple.

You crate a category called "shopping lists". Everything in "Shopping lists" gets deleted if it's over a set age, say 2 weeks. I know there's no quota, but my notes are a mess because I have a lot of ***** that I only needed temporarily.

I have no idea who uses Evernote to store their only copy of their Birth Certificate(As someone mentioned being a downside in another thread if all of their Birth Certificates got automatically deleted) or other critical documents, so that concern confuses me. But like i said, just some auto-clean feature, and you can add tags, make it a specific notebook, whatever. I don't care about "unlimited storage" when I have to hunt and search to figure out what to throw out and what not to...

But yeah, even an expiration date would be nice, but something automatic, based on tags would be ideal.

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