HeyMalc

This has been affecting me for over 6 months on IOS. Notes taking ages to load. New note taking 20 seconds to display. I can report that, instead of downloading all notebooks, but selecting my 2 main ones make the New Note request instant. Note display still very laggy. Malc

Hi - my thing with EN is: "Keep It Simple". Recurring appointments are very much Outlook territory for me. I don't want a second solution for these: Outlook does the job well. Malc

After crashing a few times on iOS, by next day it seemed back to normal again. I see they have a new version which I'm just upgrading to. Thanks for the new version, Evernote team Malc

EN started crashing on my iPhone 7 Plus the other day. Now it crashes every time. Restarted phone - same result. I deleted the app and reinstalled. Opened app OK, created a note, hung for 30 seconds then crashed. Hmmh. I'm feeling I want to downgrade. Malc

I'm sure your system is working for you: and you are open to change and will no doubt find changes that suit you! Yes, you are right: I am well in the habit of deleting the existing When tag LAST! After you've deleted it first and then have to hunt around for about 20 times, you get the hang if what order to do things in! haha. It's the same when changing Notebooks: if you are checking the To do Notebook and want to change some tags as well as changing the NB to Filing, you change the NB LAST. Still, that's only a habit (or two).... One reason I like ONE To do NB is that I can search all my To dos by clicking that To do NB, then adding my extra tags I am filtering on. Whereas if using multiple NBS I have to Ctrl click on each one, then click on the extra tags I want to filter on. Of course if you don't do that, it's not an issue. But I do that fairly often.

Surely, it takes a click to save in a particular Notebook, whereas if everything goes to To do NB that's one fewer clicks... Also I like a lot - having everything that needs sorting out in the To do NB. It's either a To do that needs a When tag: or a filed item that needs possible tagging plus moving to Filing NB. I think this is a Plus. Cheers:) Malc

Hi MRU - First, I have (happily) not had a problem with tags synching. It's always worked hundred percent. That's not to say Evernote has always worked hundred percent: once I had to ask them transfer the whole caboodle to a completely new Evernote account - new email addy and everything – which they did, to get things working again. But that's the only issue I've ever had. As far as changing tags, you are right. To change a tag – for example from today to tomorrow (or in the secret weapon, from now to next) means you have to remove one tag and add another. On the iPhone this takes around five or six clicks. It's doable. But, ideally, I prefer to save this sort of fiddling about for when I'm on my computer. It's easier when on a computer: it's doable when on a device. So, it all depends on how often you are on your computer. In any case, it's still easier than any other system I've ever found. Malc

Yes - I like that! On IOS if you keep the respective names short, you can see about 6 Tags and 6 Shortcuts on the Home Screen, if you select "Show Detail" in the options. Also, I hadn't found in EN documentation that you could create a Shortcut to a Saved Search. Being able to get to a bunch of Tags / Shortcuts /Saved Searches from the Home Screen is a good benefit. Thanks. M .

Interesting. I haven't much use for shortcuts yet but I'll keep it in mind as you find it useful. .

Hi >What is the difference in your ToDo notebook versus the Actions Pending I am talking about? It seems they are the same, you just call it Todo versus Actions Pending or Inbox. Yes, it sounds the same. However, it contains my current To dos - and that's all. So if I click on Today (= 1-Now) I can see all my Today tasks, without having to select a Notebook too, or a saved search, because once my Today task has been done, I remove the today tag. It seems that TSW doesn't do this - he just (in the vids at least) moves a completed 1-Now task to Completed, leaving the 1-Now tag on it. That means he cannot, in the future, click JUST on 1-Now to see current 1-Now tasks, which, with my system, I can, saving clicks, which I like to do. You can see that from this image from Video 8, 1:30 attached. He has 75 tasks tagged !-Now and some of these are in Action Pending, and some in Completed. So clicking on just the 1-Now tag in TSW is not helpful as it shows you 75 notes (see image) whereas if I click on my Today tag, I see just the 6-10 tasks I want to be aware of (and hopefully complete) today. >It's the default notebook where everything goes first then processed out from there. No, my To dos don't have to be "processed out", because they are already in the right place. This saves a step compared to adding them to an Inbox Notebook. >I see what you are doing with Filing - I think - it's where you move your action item/note to after applying appropriate tags... No, Filing is my digital filing, separate from my To dos. This filing might have a What tag, for example, if it's source material for a particular project. If not, I prefer not to tag Filing if at all possible: but sometimes it needs a tag to help me find it again. Moving it to a Completed NB is fine it that suits you. But I'd delete the When tag for the above reason. It also depends how many Notebooks you have. If you make extensive use of Notebooks then you'd probably find yourself doing extra clicks in some of your searching/filtering. Whereas with my system, using just To-do and Filing, I can just do 1 click - on "Notes" - then do any filtering on all Notes. I hope I am being clear. My goal is always to save myself clicks. I spend so much time using Evernote, that I might repeat a particular operation 20 or more times a day. So saving 1 click in that operation is a real time-saver, and that's my goal. Good luck! Malc

Hey there - I like simple. And my system, developed over 3 years (since realising I could use EN for time management - thanks braintoniq) is simple. So here you go: - I have 2 Notebooks, where almost all the notes I add during the day, go. - My default NB is To-do - I have a saved search I call the "Tidy Up Filter" - which is essential for my simple system. - I find "Actions Pending" to be a red herring - it creates extra work and I don't see a single benefit. - I rarely use "Completed". It's extra work. I almost always delete, or move to Filing. - I don't have "Inbox" because - you've guessed it - it's extra work. I use the To-do NB, plus running the Tidy Up Filter regularly - one-click. When I add a note, the default NB is To-do. - If adding Filing directly to EN, I add it correctly to the Filing NB - If adding Filing via an app/utility, if it lets me easily add tags, I do that. (Eg Outlook Add to Evernote button, browser Add to Evernote button) - If adding Filing via a utility that doesn't easily let me add tags (eg via email to my EN email address) I ("incorrectly") let it go to To-Do for later tidying up. (Quicker for me than learning the email syntax as I don't use it that often, plus it avoids the inevitable mistakes.) I can be certain that these notes will get picked up by my Tidy Up Filter later, for tagging/moving to Filing NB. - If hurriedly adding a To do to the To-do NB (eg I am in a meeting and it would be rude to take too much time), I don't both tagging it because I KNOW the Tidy Up Filter will pick it up later as it doesn't have a When tag. Once a day, twice a day, when on a bus, when in a queue, at my Daily Review, when on Hold on the phone, etc, etc, I run the Tidy Up Filter on my computer, or on my phone and tidy up the notes. This is my "ongoing housekeeping task" which keeps my system tidy. **Tidy Up Filter (TUF)** This filters out: "All notes in the To-do NB without a When tag". (To create the TUF, each of your When tags has to be listed separately in the syntax. Just do it manually, then save it as a search. This saves search will then be synched to your devices so you do it on a device in one click.) This filter takes advantage of my "rule" that: "Every Note in the To-do NB MUST have a When tag." Using my system, if a Note in the To-do NB has NOT got a When tag, there are only two possibilities: it either: - Needs a When tag (and maybe other tags), or - It needs moving to the Filing NB (and maybe other tags added) Job done. No-one has been able to convince me that I need either an Actions Pending NB, and Inbox, or that I need to move all Completed to dos to a Complete Notebook. I suggest all of these are red herrings, and I recommend having just a To-do Notebook, a Filing Notebook, and a Tidy Up Filter. I have modified this system many, many, many times to strip out unnecessary layers of work and I suggest the average person does not need to be any more complicated than this. (If you are a lawyer like Daniel Gold, or David Ward, maybe you do need more complexity. That's not most of us.) I own 2 businesses including a $500k health business with 6 staff. I have 7-8 projects on the go at any one time. I get 150 emails a day. I am treasurer of one organisation I belong to, and Social Subcommittee Chair of another. I see my 3 daughters at least once a week, and my partner and I have 4 or 5 holidays or mini-holidays a year. I have what can only be called a "busy" social life. The system I describe manages all this brilliantly, using only what I regard as being essential: a computer, Evernote, a smart phone and Outlook for PC. I welcome comments because they may help me improve my system. Fire away! I hope this post helps someone , my greatest wish being that it strips away the complexity which it's tempting to add when using Evernote, but which adds to the time management burden, rather than making the whole process slicker. As I said, I like "simple". Malc

Hi JG [- been away for a while :| ] I'm gonna disagree with some - I don't have an "Inbox" Notebook in EN because that approach takes more time to manage. For me everything defaults to my To do Notebook. The reason that saves me time is that half the stuff I send to EN is actually a To do: so it will be in the right place already - I don't have to move it. So for my method to be better, I need to easily be able to identify anything sent to To-Do which is, actually, filing, and move it to Filing (and possibly tag it). This is easy - once or twice a day I run a filter (it's a saved search) to pull up: "All items in the To-do Notebook which don't have a When tag". I call it my "Tidy Up Filter", or TUF. Then I know that each one of these filtered notes has either: - To be given a When (and perhaps other) tag, or - To be moved to Filing (and possibly tagged). I wouldn't want to send everything to an Inbox Notebook and then have to move every single item out. That's just more work. If it somehow pleases a person to see the Inbox NB get emptied, or if they find it improves their compliance in some way, and *makes* them do it regularly, then that's a personal thing and by by all means do it. But if efficiency is your goal, I think you'll find, as I do, that to be more efficient having the To-Do Notebook as default is quicker and it works out simpler too. Best, Malc

I think you are over-complicating it! To find all Notes tagged @Calls, simply click on the @Calls tag in the left pane. No search necessary - EN's built in filtering does the job in one click. Similarly, to filter by more than one tag - eg to find all Notes in the Filing Notebook (if you've got one of those) tagged with the tag "Project xyz", click the Filing Notebook, press Ctrl, and click the second tag, Project xyz. Then you are filtering by 2 tags - without having to create a saved search. This works with any number of tags if using a computer. Only if this starts becoming cumbersome, and you are doing that search regularly, is it worth creating a saved search. (Also, you can't select mulitiple tags currently, on a device, so you saved searches can help there.) As you use it more, this will all fall into place. Cheers Malc

TSW is IMO a great approach to GTD on Evernote. Many of the other approaches mentioned here to GTD on Evernote look promising, too. But, be warned. Evernote has many bugs/annoyances that can interfere with "delightful processing" and a smooth GTD experience. Search results are inconsistent, especially (but not exclusively) on phones/tablets in offline mode. The editor flakes out with formatting a lot. Rarely, notes disappear. Lately, EN has been rolling out new features which are interesting but not essential, meanwhile ignoring these long-standing bugs (all reported). Worse, lately they've starting removing a few useful features (especially from widgets) with no warning and no apparent way to get the missing features back! WMMV. OK - I've got input here. Basically, Evernote has tried to get too big for its boots lately in my opinion. When I use Evernote I don't want to edit spreadsheets, I don't want to see Word documents, I certainly don't want to see PDF documents. I also don't want to scan my images for words, or do anything else complicated. It's perhaps admirable that Evernote is trying to do all that stuff. But in my view it's a complete waste of time. All I want from Evernote is a text editor. A little bit of formatting is fine. Check boxes – I don't need. OCR I don't need. Your handling of PDFs is pants. I don't need it. Just keep giving me simple notes, with simple formatting – a little bit of bold or italic – and tags. That's really all I want from you. If I want a Word document I'll use word. If I want a spreadsheet, I'll use Excel. If I want a PDF, I'll use Adobe reader. Stop trying to get complicated and keep it simple. Simple is good. That's how Evernote works best, and at that level it is the best ever. If you look at Evernote corporate news lately, they are having to regroup. Basically they have tried to overstretch themselves and are having to re-trench. If that means they stop being so clever and stick to the basics, that gets my vote. Malc

Hi JG Wow - this thread has suddenly got enlivened - cool! To see my Today tasks is ridiculously easy - all I do is click on Today and there are my today tags. http://screencast.com/t/JMD6Fkbxx It's crazy easy! Not like old school time management systems... I hope that helps Malc