Why have more than 2 notebook?

[gmwerk 2]

Hi there,

 

after years of using a nested notebook environment i finally switched to a 2 notebook + hierarchical tags setup - i have to thanks this forum for the precious help in the understanding and the procedures to achieve this, especially thanks to user burgernfries.

 

Now i have a question for you: i tried to analyze my EN workpath and at the moment i think i can use as few as 2 notebook: 

 

@Inbox

cabinet

 

In "@inbox" i clip, mail, wrote, take pics ... etc - then i process the information adding relevant tags and move the note to "cabinet". 

 

Can it be as simple as that? Am i missing something?

I would like to receive suggestion on how many / which notebook do you enlightened poweruser have - so that maybe i can learn something more.

 

Thank you very much!

Best,

Giovanni 

[Frank.dg 1,385]

Hi Giovanni,

It seems like you have done your homework… And possibly you've read Michael Hyatt's blog post on the same topic.

Your inbox to cabinet workflow after processing is a systematic and logical one. You can easily stick to just those two... However, for other use cases, you may need additional notebooks:

If you want to share a group of notes with others, you'll need to share a discrete notebook.

If you want to have a select group of notes which you can access when offline on mobile device, and you don't want to download all of your notes, you're going to need to create a notebook or two for "offline notebooks".

If you're going to use the Windows client's import folder feature, you may need a specialized notebook or two for that purpose.

I rely on my iOS clients quite a lot, so I am not able to move over fully to at tag-based system... Since you cannot nest tags on iOS, or view them as such. If you're on Android, no worries there.

Depending on your needs, it may or may not be necessary to create a couple of additional notebooks… But for your basic workflow, the setup you've described is a good one.

Take your system for a spin and give it a good working over… From there you can tweak it whenever necessary.

[gmwerk 2]

Hi Frank thank you for your reply

 

Yes i did my homework finally

 

I read a lot about this, thanks to this precious forum... I like Hyatt model, but still i don't get the "reference" tag stack he use...

I can't imagine something who can not be described with " who,when,where,what, how " tag - what's your thought on this? Im pretty sure there's something im missing

Thank you for the suggestions you bring me.

 

Yes the share notebook is something i have to add for sure- probably as a stack in which every notebook title is the person im sharing with i guess.

I'm syncing everything to mobile, so this is not an issue for me. The important folder can be worked around with a tag "important" i think, even if im not using win client.

 

iOS nested visualization is a big thing we would need to have upgraded, but i'm trying to survive this since i think the radical tag only-based system is the most powerful - even if with this limitation on iOS.

 

Thank you again, greetings from Italy!

 

 

 

 

Hi Giovanni,

It seems like you have done your homework… And possibly you've read Michael Hyatt's blog post on the same topic.

Your inbox to cabinet workflow after processing is a systematic and logical one. You can easily stick to just those two... However, for other use cases, you may need additional notebooks:

If you want to share a group of notes with others, you'll need to share a discrete notebook.

If you want to have a select group of notes which you can access when offline on mobile device, and you don't want to download all of your notes, you're going to need to create a notebook or two for "offline notebooks".

If you going to use the Windows client's important folder feature, you may need a specialized notebook or two for that purpose.

I rely on my iOS clients quite a lot, so I am not able to move over fully to at tag-based system... Since you cannot nest tags on iOS, or view them as such. If you're on Android, no worries there.

Depending on your needs, it may or may not be necessary to create a couple of additional notebooks… But for your basic workflow, the setup you've described is a good one.

Take your system for a spin and give it a good working over… From there you can tweak it whenever necessary.

[DutchPete 247]

Another split between notebooks you might need is 1 for synched notes and 1 for local notes. The latter is usually for personal/confidential notes that you don't want anyone to see. Synched notes can be seen by EN staff, if they really wanted to.

[chirmer 567]

What I love about having a tag-based system versus notebook based is you can move notes around different notebooks for different situations (a project comes up, offline access, sharing, etc.) and how you find your notes doesn't change. The tagging structure sits on top of the notebook one, so you could have notebooks named "Potato," "Blue," and "Eskimo" and it wouldn't matter. I think that's pretty neat!

 

But yes, I'm like you - I have an Inbox notebook and a Reference notebook where most of my stuff resides. I use other notebooks for sharing and offline access, but still access my notes by tag and search, so my notebook setup is irrelevant, really. I have no issues doing this via mobile (it's actually nice because it's alphabetical, so when I'm looking for my "Recipe" tag I just tap the R and whoosh, I'm there!). 

[C6REW 416]

Hi Giovanni,

 

I have: 

 

43 Personal Notebooks under 4 main headings

 

57 Business Notebooks under 6 main headings

 

15 Shared Notebook - not mine - under 2 main headings

 

Total of approx 20,000 Notes which are mine.

 

I find using Notebooks for headings and Sub-Notebooks a very easy and useful way of working Evernote for me. I will continuously add and remove Notebooks as necessary. So for example all Notes relating to a car I have just sold are now in an Archive Notebook.

 

There are a number of problems with Tags in the Business version so it became a necessity to make sure Notebooks worked. 

 

Regards

 

Chris

[gmwerk 2]

Hi Chirmer, Dutchpete, Chris

thank you

 

@dutchpete

Im keeping sensible material in a encrypted files vault on a separate application (lastpass) so if evernote employee really want to, they can come and see my grocery list freely

 

@Chirmer

do you use a nested or plan tags system? what do you think of the "who,where,when,what,how "approach to nest tags?

 

@Chris

I had a similar setup until yesterday but i cannot see (at the moment maybe) what cannot be achieved thru tags instead of notebooks.  

I mean, i dont see the cons in tags system - but i dont want to start a flame here

[Frank.dg 1,385]

 

I read a lot about this, thanks to this precious forum... I like Hyatt model, but still i don't get the "reference" tag stack he use...

 

I can't imagine something who can not be described with " who,when,where,what, how " tag - what's your thought on this?

 

The important folder can be worked around with a tag "important" i think, even if im not using win client.

 

1. "Reference" relates to the GTD system. You'll have to look into that...
2. You need to come up with your own flavor... use Michael Hyatt's template as inspiration. Pick and choose what makes sense to you.
3. You need to research more on "Import Folders" for Windows. Nothing to do with tags.

[gmwerk 2]

 

 

I read a lot about this, thanks to this precious forum... I like Hyatt model, but still i don't get the "reference" tag stack he use...

 

I can't imagine something who can not be described with " who,when,where,what, how " tag - what's your thought on this?

 

The important folder can be worked around with a tag "important" i think, even if im not using win client.

 

1. "Reference" relates to the GTD system. You'll have to look into that...
2. You need to come up with your own flavor... use Michael Hyatt's template as inspiration. Pick and choose what makes sense to you.
3. You need to research more on "Import Folders" for Windows. Nothing to do with tags.

 

1. i know some GTD but imho "reference" is again a tag, not a notebook?

2. But on something there's no flavoring imho - think like nailing a nail... so im looking for you powerusers to show me the best practice (finding great inspiration on your nice website too, thanks!)

3. LoL sorry i misread import thinking was importANT (automatically thought it was italian-style abbreviation) - im lucky enough not to have to deal with a win client so i didnt even know of existance of this folder

 

thanks!

[Frank.dg 1,385]

 

1. i know some GTD but imho "reference" is again a tag, not a notebook?

2. But on something there's no flavoring imho - think like nailing a nail... so im looking for you powerusers to show me the best practice (finding great inspiration on your nice website too, thanks!)

3. LoL sorry i misread import thinking was importANT (automatically thought it was italian-style abbreviation) - im lucky enough not to have to deal with a win client so i didnt even know of existance of this folder

 

thanks!

 

 

1. Exactly. Remember that you chose to substitute notebooks with tags? Reference material is non-actionable material... take a look at this GTD chart (and do some actual GTD research to clear some things up):

• http://cdn-media-2.lifehack.org/wp-content/files/2007/02/20070206-gtd-workflow.gif

2. Once you understand the "Reference" material tag context, which in turn brought you to make the following comment, "I can't imagine something who can not be described with " who,when,where,what, how " tag - what's your thought on this?"... you'll understand that when I say "You need to come up with your own flavor... use Michael Hyatt's template as inspiration. Pick and choose what makes sense to you", you can choose to go with 'who, when, where, what, etc" or not. If you're not going to adopt GTD (or if you don't fully understand GTD) then go with whatever productivity system you desire. Michael Hyatt's setup draws on GTD influences... which you may want to take or leave.

[C6REW 416]

Hi Giovanni,

 

No worries, we each use Evernote as best we can for our own purposes.

 

As I mentioned there are some issues with Tags in Business so it was an easy solution for me to use limited Notebooks under Sub Notebooks. 

 

Not sure I would change back when Business Tags is sorted as it works well.

 

Best regards

 

Chris

[gazumped 11,664]

Everything has already been said,  I think - I have 18 notebooks and nearly 20,000 notes,  with 90% of those in one notebook.  The rest are:

• note templates
• shared out
• a subset of current notes for my 'phone (these are 'offline searchable' on the mobile)
• a show reel of completed project work to dazzle prospective clients
• local notebooks for confidential stuff
• temporary work-in-progress collections of notes for current projects

[gmwerk 2]

Frank sorry i said notebook by mistake!

I wanted to say that "references" are for me logically inside the "what" (or who, when, how and so on) tag family. Can something be a reference without being everything else that falls into the W categories? i cant imagine what this could be, and this is what i'd like to know. It's not about GTD, I cant see why Hyatt want to keep an ambiguous tag for something should be a sub-tag in my narrow vision - or maybe it's just untidy

 

- btw i dont use EN as a todo/gtd software finding pocket informant better for my use on this tasks

 

Thanks again for your contribution and sorry for the mistake

 

 

 

 

 

1. Exactly. Remember that you chose to substitute notebooks with tags? Reference material is non-actionable material... take a look at this GTD chart (and do some actual GTD research to clear some things up):

• http://cdn-media-2.lifehack.org/wp-content/files/2007/02/20070206-gtd-workflow.gif

2. Once you understand the "Reference" material tag context, which in turn brought you to make the following comment, "I can't imagine something who can not be described with " who,when,where,what, how " tag - what's your thought on this?"... you'll understand that when I say "You need to come up with your own flavor... use Michael Hyatt's template as inspiration. Pick and choose what makes sense to you", you can choose to go with 'who, when, where, what, etc" or not. If you're not going to adopt GTD (or if you don't fully understand GTD) then go with whatever productivity system you desire. Michael Hyatt's setup draws on GTD influences... which you may want to take or leave.

 

 

 

 

[Frank.dg 1,385]

Since Michael Hyatt is a GTD proponent... and you had a number of questions about his setup (You called it untidy)... and can't see his reasoning, you might really want to read the GTD book to understand it all. BTW, GTD is not synonymous with just to-do's, as you implied. It's way more than that. I'm not a huge GTD fan myself, but I do know it inside and out. 

 

I'm not trying to be difficult here... but I think we're going in circles. If you don't understand the very basics of GTD, then you're not going to get to the bottom of your own questions or the attempt others make at trying to answer your questions.

 

Anyways, GTD aside, I think more important here than the particular tag hierarchy Michael employed is the fact that you can create your own system/ hierarchy that reflects the way you prefer to organize stuff... within a tag-based setup - which it seems you have a good grasp of. 

[gmwerk 2]

Frank i have read the GTD books, seems i can't explain my question - sorry.

However you dont have to reply for him, mine is a open question to everyone wants to contribute on a Evernote user perspective.

 

I've opened this thread to see how other organize their hierarchy - i already know i can create my own tag-based system...

And this is about EN not about what you or me understand about GTD 

 

 

 

Since Michael Hyatt is a GTD proponent... and you had a number of questions about his setup (You called it untidy)... and can't see his reasoning, you might really want to read the GTD book to understand it all. BTW, GTD is not synonymous with just to-do's, as you implied. It's way more than that. I'm not a huge GTD fan myself, but I do know it inside and out. 

 

I'm not trying to be difficult here... but I think we're going in circles. If you don't understand the very basics of GTD, then you're not going to get to the bottom of your own questions or the attempt others make at trying to answer your questions.

 

Anyways, GTD aside, I think more important here than the particular tag hierarchy Michael employed is the fact that you can create your own system/ hierarchy that reflects the way you prefer to organize stuff... within a tag-based setup.