curated list of the best msot helpful resources for 1) searching 2) finding your notes/info 3) and other basics

[evernotehard 2]

goal: when you have you find something specific within your many notes

problem: and you dont remember where you put this specific thing in your many many notes

overall problem: this is call the infamous searching problem that plague many current softwares after all these years and decades

 

how other things do it

- when you google something non-exact, the results are based on relevance

- when you wiki, well that's only about factual types of notes/info and it doesnt even work that well, unless you memorised everything (in which case you then dont need a info/note saving software or a computer to memorise for you)

- when you youtube, oh... oh f!#&# that s*(U$% that's a f($%)$ mess of a site hahahahhah

 

the solution is much more targeted search

i dunno of anything atm that has good targeted search

- one way someone said is to 'keyword/tag within your note'

- such as

_universe

- and you search exactly _universe to find that specific section/info

- this is basically 'creating a keyword/tag/special word'

- downside is you have to remember many 'special words' since you'd need many of them

- many other limits/prblems such as you copy/paste to share or anything cos those 'tags/keywords' are in the way

- find-replace could also f)($*%_ it up accidentally, and that would completely mess up the entire 'decent/ok/meh' way of searching for -- 'specific things' within your many mnay info/notes'

- but i guess you typically would do exact find-replace so that one wont be a problem (onenote has no good find-replace, dunno if evern has find-replace across all notes)

as already said at top, the problem is many many notes/info (and dunno what the good solutions are)

 

1. what are the most helpful specific blog page or video to learn something basic like this to help find your info?

2. and what other most helpful resource are there to learn basics that would be helpful?

 

experienced users would know of good sources since they watch/read them to keep learning and growing and making things better (like evern does... ?)

, so please link to a specific video or page so i can review it and see if it's good or helpful

 

[DTLow 5,736]

14 hours ago, evernotehard said:

- when you google something non-exact, the results are based on relevance

Google Search is superb at fuzzy logic
Evernote text search is very exact; Google seems to use a synonym dictionary

>>and what other most helpful resource are there to learn basics that would be helpful?

Evernote Search Documentation     Evernote Search Grammar 

Evernote's search feaure is an excellent resource for finding "lost" notes.

[evernotehard 2]

g is a ton more than that 1 thing, it's a lot of things, it's not one of the top 2-5 companies by many factors/metrics/standards/datapoints/etc. in this entire universe for nothing

anyhow solutions & most helpful needed such as something to learn that basic thing of

_universe

as a highly limited workaround to this grand problem of search -- and finding your info

[gazumped 11,652]

I agree that finding the 'right' note amongst many others is a difficult task.  There is no one-size-fits-all solution (IMHO).  I 'grew' my current processes from experience with my own data store,  and I find that a standard title format,  experenced use of Evernote's search grammar,  and some continuing curation will solve any issues for me.  (By continued curation I mean editing titles,  keywords and editing / adding tags where necessary.)

It is (again, IMHO) a learning curve;  you'll learn by doing,  not by designing the ideal scheme from scratch.

Experience has taught me that most givernment and commercial agencies with whom I deal have an ID number for me,  which they tend to quote whenever they write to me,  and I quote back in responses.  So to find any transactions with Joe's Tool Supply,  all I need to do is search my customer number.  I can qualify that search with dates,  or transaction amounts,  or keywords like "hammer" to zone in on particular transactions.

If I've been doing research on Quarks,  I'd search for anything I might have clipped including that word: then reading through those clips I might do some extra searches for 'gluon' and other related words.  (I use Google for some searches and have the Evernote feature turned on that returns results from my notes as well as the internet.  That allows Google to sprinkle some of its search magic into the mix).

If I identify notes that related to a particular report I'm writing,  I might tag the notes with something related to the report so I know where I used the information.  If Google shows me pages or updates I haven't seen before,  I can clip / re-clip the content.

It's entirely possible that I have notes which should be included but aren't being found:  I can't do anything about that.  I know - again from experience - that on occasion,  such searches have turned up connections which are quite surprising and include subjects that I hadn't previously considered...  serendipity works for me. 

[TK0047 422]

4 hours ago, gazumped said:

It is (again, IMHO) a learning curve;  you'll learn by doing,  not by designing the ideal scheme from scratch

Great way of putting it. My notes evolve everyday as I learn from my needs which also change over time. But being self-aware of how you look for things and what works for you is the key. Next time you are capturing things, you can keep that in mind and create it accordingly.

12 hours ago, evernotehard said:

problem: and you dont remember where you put this specific thing in your many many notes

One of the strategies I've come across was to think as your future-self. Meaning, think about yourself 2 years (or more) later and you are trying to search for something that you wouldn't remember exact wording you used. So try to approach it from different angles and use different wording.

I'll generally refer to times or other information. For example, if I had a discussion with someone about a topic when I was on vacation in a town, I would make a comment like "This came up during vacation in Tennessee, talking to John Doe". Again, when you create the note, you feel like you will remember what the words you have used but if you think about your future-self, you will have to leave you more clues.

I also do this when I realize I spend a lot of time looking for a note. When I finally find it, I would expand on it to use more keywords in it based on my recent search. This also gives me an idea of how I am searching. So my notes and my searches evolves constantly. 

Finally, tags are your best resources in finding information when the number of your notes grow to a level where notebook structure is definitely not enough. 

Two resources I would recommend are:

https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2015/12/11/evernote-and-the-brain-designing-creativity-workflows/?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social_media&utm_campaign=markerting_referral&utm_content=april2016

The above one is good about getting more value about your notes, not necessarily about tagging or not tagging.

https://byrslf.co/using-evernote-the-right-way-ef61f530d1ad

This one is more about tagging.

Hope these will help.

[CalS 5,280]

14 hours ago, evernotehard said:

problem: and you dont remember where you put this specific thing in your many many notes

That's why I use Evernote, I don't need to remember where I put it other than it is in Evernote.  I know I can search and find it.  As mentioned above we all design our own processes to hopefully optimize the search experience for our use cases.  Tags and text for me.

[evernotehard 2]

@TK0047

the fist link was confusing, what is about basically?

if it's about 'getting more value about your notes' - i understand how to do that tho it doesnt solve the problem

--

unsure if you were already updated on the tag-related info/content - https://discussion.evernote.com/forum/280-organization/

tho i dont understand how tagging solves this problem

 

if tags solve this problem, what is the effective tagging system for many many notes/info?

i think at the current point all we are at is this -- 'agree that finding [specific pieces of info] among [much info] is a difficult problem'

 

at this point, and at the point of my post, there needs to be -- actual -- solutions to move forward and for to be any -- actual -- progress to the specific problem stated in the main

[TK0047 422]

11 hours ago, evernotehard said:

if tags solve this problem, what is the effective tagging system for many many notes/info?

i think at the current point all we are at is this -- 'agree that finding [specific pieces of info] among [much info] is a difficult problem'

Unfortunately, there isn't a "one size fits all" solution for the tagging system. It basically is what works for you. There are best practices people can talk about but in the end, you will tweak it to how you think, what you capture and how do you want to retrieve it.

My tags will not work for someone else to a certain extent because I assign the "meaning" to my tags.

My system is about using tags for Categories basically. You do not want to be too specific otherwise it beats the purpose. But I've listened to a podcast where one was tagging their trips by City for example. If you travel a lot, I can see the benefit. Or even store names. For example, I have a RECEIPTS tag but I don't do RECEIPTS then an AMAZON tag or a WALMART tag. The store I can find by text search once I tell Evernote what "category" it is.

I also have an ELECTRONICS tag, so if I am looking for a receipt that is related to a mouse I purchased I would do a RECEIPTS + ELECTRONICS which will filter down to less notes than receipts. 

I have a LESSON LEARNED tag which I can filter even more if I add TRAVEL tag or I do a PROJECT REFERENCE add which will give me stuff related to work.

There is not a right or wrong tagging in my opinion, if it works for you who can judge that it is wrong? I recommend keeping tags as CATEGORIES since our brains use categories for a lot of associations and connections. How much detailed you get is your preference depending on the maintenance effort it will take to keep your Evernote database/notes consistent. Speaking of consistency, I think that is the biggest challenge of  tagging system...keeping things consistent. If you tag one note in a certain way, a similar note should have the same tags as well. Otherwise, your searches will lack information you are looking for. So if you did one mouse receipt, RECEIPT + ELECTRONICS but then did not do ELECTRONICS tags on a receipt for a monitor, you created an issue for you. Not a big one but system breaks when you do the search with two tags thinking it should be there. 

[CalS 5,280]

2 hours ago, TK0047 said:

There is not a right or wrong tagging in my opinion, if it works for you who can judge that it is wrong? I recommend keeping tags as CATEGORIES since our brains use categories for a lot of associations and connections. How much detailed you get is your preference depending on the maintenance effort it will take to keep your Evernote database/notes consistent. Speaking of consistency, I think that is the biggest challenge of  tagging system...keeping things consistent. If you tag one note in a certain way, a similar note should have the same tags as well. Otherwise, your searches will lack information you are looking for. So if you did one mouse receipt, RECEIPT + ELECTRONICS but then did not do ELECTRONICS tags on a receipt for a monitor, you created an issue for you. Not a big one but system breaks when you do the search with two tags thinking it should be there. 

Well put.  I try to have tags that are short, easy to remember, and general in nature as well.  A Receipt tag, a Statement tag, a Pc.Stuff tag, a Companyname tag (be it bank, brokerage, utility, insurance), a =Personlastname tag (= as a prefix to aid in search and lookups), etc.  I created the bulk of my tags in the first couple of years and maybe add 5 to 10 a year now. 

What the more generic tags let you do is to focus a search set and then use text search if need be.  A search for tag:statement tag:companyname gets to a manageable set quickly as does tag:receipt printer.  FWIW.

[evernotehard 2]

since 2 comments are about tags,

what are the most effective 1-3 solutions for tags that are very good?

• https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/112831-whats-the-methods-ways-systems-of-tagging-that-has-actively-been-updated-within-the-last-6-months-need-link/
• tag-related https://discussion.evernote.com/forum/280-organization/

[TK0047 422]

On 4/17/2018 at 7:01 PM, evernotehard said:

since 2 comments are about tags,

what are the most effective 1-3 solutions for tags that are very good?

• https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/112831-whats-the-methods-ways-systems-of-tagging-that-has-actively-been-updated-within-the-last-6-months-need-link/
• tag-related https://discussion.evernote.com/forum/280-organization/

Most effective solution for creating your tag system is understanding how your brain categories things and what is your natural thinking method when you look for things?

When you are looking for a document, how do you categorize it in your head? Is it correspondence? Is it a bill, invoice, statement? What are the words you think of?

If you had your itinerary saved, how would you look for it in the future? Tag it, TRAVEL, TICKET, FLIGHT, CITY NAME, DELTA AIRLINES...?? There is not a right answer, it is what works for you when you retrieve things. So the most effective way is to think about how you "CATEGORIZE" things in your head and align your tagging with that. 

[jefito 5,589]

On 4/17/2018 at 7:01 PM, evernotehard said:

since 2 comments are about tags,

what are the most effective 1-3 solutions for tags that are very good?

It doesn't work that way. My "most effective solutions" might not be effective for you.

Instead, if you describe what you're trying to do, then you'll get suggestions as to how to go about it.

[DTLow 5,736]

On 2018-04-17 at 4:01 PM, evernotehard said:

what are the most effective 1-3 solutions for tags that are very good?

I use the tag feature extensively

1. My recomendation is to not create tags on the fly.  Have a standard set of tags that you reference.
   The Win/Mac platforms provide a tag hierarchy feature for organizing tags.
    
2. I also prefix my tagnames to group them;
   for example, instead of red/green/blue, I use colour-red/colour-green/colour-blue
    
3. I use multiple tags instead of a comination tag;
   for example instead of tag: Insurance-Boat, I use two two tags Insurance and Boat

[CalS 5,280]

On 4/17/2018 at 4:01 PM, evernotehard said:

what are the most effective 1-3 solutions for tags that are very good?

There is one solution for you.  Some thoughts re tags:

1. As few as possible
2. As short a name as possible
3. Have meaning to you and therefore easy to remember
4. Use prefixes for frequently used tags related to people or projects or the like to make it easier to add tags to notes
5. Don't fret, it is easy to make changes if/when you morph your thinking 

 

[s2sailor 2,184]

 

On 4/17/2018 at 7:01 PM, evernotehard said:

what are the most effective 1-3 solutions for tags that are very good?

Another thought is to maybe not over think this and recognize that your organizational strategy and usage of Evernote will likely change over time.  I take a pretty unstructured approach to search and mainly use keywords to dig out what I need.  I have probably <50 tags and <10 notebooks and will occasionally add in a tag or notebook to refine the search but I don't do it enough to where I feel I need to spend more time fine tuning my tags, but if you are the type person that wants search to spit out the one note that you are looking for then you will need to plan your organization style very carefully.

[CalS 5,280]

3 minutes ago, s2sailor said:

but if you are the type person that wants search to spit out the one note that you are looking for then you will need to plan your organization style very carefully.

or perhaps modify your thinking a mite and be happy with a list of 10 notes of which the target is 1.  

[s2sailor 2,184]

2 minutes ago, CalS said:

or perhaps modify your thinking a mite and be happy with a list of 10 notes of which the target is 1.

Or that .  Personally, I'm ok with a list of around 50 to scroll through to find what I want.  More than that and I'll add keywords or a tag or notebook to further reduce.

[CalS 5,280]

9 minutes ago, s2sailor said:

Or that .  Personally, I'm ok with a list of around 50 to scroll through to find what I want.  More than that and I'll add keywords or a tag or notebook to further reduce.

Yeah, my actual target is no more than 40.  That's a few less than the number of note titles I can view in side list view without scrolling.  10 was just for emphasis, tough to drag someone from 1 to 40.