Can I limit a search to only 1 result?

[johnkpaul 1]

I'd like to search within the evernote mac interface for only one result, sorted by created date. I already have a saved search with everything I want, except the limiting to one result.

 

Everything that I google for is about rate limits to the search API, which isn't what I'm asking about. If "limit" is the wrong word to search for within the evernote jargon, please let me know and I can google from there.

 

Thank you!

[gazumped 11,667]

If more than one note matches your search criteria,  you'll get as many results as there are matches.  There's no option to get just one of ten results.  The only work around would be for that entry to be unique - use a unique code word or tag,  or know that only one note was taken on that day and search for a specific day.  In Evernote's world the date search has to be "find every note taken since <the day you want to start> but then exclude every note taken since <the day after your start day>"

[johnkpaul 1]

Ah I see. For right now, I'm getting away with forcing myself to look at one at a time, but I wish there was a way to do that from within the interface.

 

Thank you for your help, gazumped!

[DutchPete 247]

Basically, the more you want it narrowed down, the more detailed your search query would need to be if you don't want to use a unique code word or tag. So, at the extreme, if you knew the content of the note word for word & were to put that in your search query you would get that 1 note you are looking for. As that is not practical, the best way is the way Gazumped mentioned. It works well, but you would need to know when you create that note that you were going look for it specifically in the future in order to decide to assign that unique code or tag.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

If you could somehow limit your search result to one by hitting an "I feel lucky" button... how would Evernote know which result is the most ideal/ correct out of multiple? Perhaps I don't get the question 

 

If there's one specific note you refer to often, of course, you know you can create a shortcut. Also, if you know the title of a specific unique note, you could search:

 

intitle:"A banana a day"

 

... The title of the note may or may not be unique. If not, make it unique. Then create a saved search if you need to.

 

I'm curious... could you let us in on your use case. That might help us to understand a bit better what you're hoping to achieve. Specifically why you need to find a specific note sorted by Created date... I mean... If you got just one search result, why would you need any sorting criteria, whether by Title, Date Updated, Date Created, etc?

[johnkpaul 1]

Yeah, that's not actually the use case here. I should have explained myself better. It's not that I want it to show one particular note all the time. It's that I'd like to be forced to go through one particular saved search exactly one item at a time.

 

I have a list of tasks that I have a tendency to jump around in. It would be very advantageous for me to force myself to handle the first one first, and then move onto the second one. 

 

If I see all of this list at once, I never actually make it though. 

 

I can enforce this through more will power, but I was hoping that there was an equivalent to SELECT * FROM notes SORT BY created_date LIMIT 1.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

Aaah! So you're looking at tasks...

 

Have you tried the Reminders list? That was built to group tasks together. There are many ways you can limit what you're looking at. If, for example, you create a notebook (as part of a Kanban sort of setup) such as "Working on"... you could drag and drop your tasks from a "Today" notebook to the "Working on" notebook, within the Reminders list itself. That way, when you're looking at the Reminders list for the "Working on" notebook, you only get one task staring you in the face.

 

A simpler approach might be to give only one out of all tasks in any context a reminder. Just that task will appear in the Reminders list. You can also sort by date (As a Reminders list option)... but unfortunately Evernote is not going to give you one result at a time. You might want to try a simpler to-do app like "Carrot".

 

 

EDIT: You might want to take a look at this post to see if there is anything you can glean about the Reminders list that suits what you're trying to focus on:

 

http://www.productivitymashup.com/blog/2014/10/16/kanban-calendar-evernote-series-2-of-5

 

The concept of Kanban in General is pretty cool. It helps you to limit your "Work in progress" while at the same time seeing the bigger picture. 

[johnkpaul 1]

I haven't tried that, but I will now. Thank you!