How to view last accessed notes?

[Ha Truong 2]

I have a lot of notes so far after 3 years of using. And I want to archive notes that I dont access much, e.g. notes I havent opened for last two years. How can I find those notes? Please help.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

I don't think there's any search syntax or way of finding/ isolating notes you haven't simply opened within the last 2 years. But you can find notes that haven't been updated/ created within the last 2 years.

 

In "All notes", you can sort your note list by "date updated". On Web and desktop you can also reverse the sort order to give you the oldest first. I'm sure you know this one already.

 

Also... from this page I found some search syntax you might want to try out:

 

updated:[datetime] - will match any note that has a 'updated' timestamp that is equal to, or more recent than, the provided datetime.

created:[datetime] - will match any note that has a 'created' timestamp that is equal to, or more recent than, the provided datetime.

 

Date format: yyyyMMdd

 

Also, you can search for:

• updated:day-730 (this gives you all notes updated within the last 2 years)
• created:day-730 (this gives you all noted created within the last 2 years)

A suggestion:

• any: created:day-730 updated:day-730
  • This will give all notes, both created and/or updated, within the last 2 years

 

You will then be able to differentiate between those and all other notes that have neither been updated nor created in the last 2 years (and either tag/ move them).

 

I know - this still doesn't help to give you notes that have been accessed but neither created nor modified in some form within the last 2 years... because a note you created 3 years ago, but haven't modified since then might be accessed quite often for reference purposes.

 

Haha! My big brainwave idea would be to always modify any note you access (at least a space + backspace)   ... but of course this would not be worth the hassle... plus it would skew your actual "date updated" results.

 

Now that I think about it - not for the sake of archiving - I might much prefer a "date accessed" sorting option as my default list view - at least most of the time. How difficult would it be for Evernote to do that, at least on desktop, since they already show us the last few notes accessed on mobile clients' home screens? I find that highly useful. "Date accessed" would naturally include dates updated and created.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

Also... I'm kind of curious as to what you'd imagine the benefits of "archiving" long-time un-accessed notes  would be. Of course, Evernote can't truly archive anything... unless you're talking about deleting those notes or exporting them.

 

If you were to tag them as "archived", you would have to remember to exclude that tag in a search in "all notes"... or if you moved them to an "archived" notebook, you'd have to exclude that notebook from your search in "all notes" or else search from another all-purpose inbox notebook, which would mean you've set your Evernote up to be a tag-based system. I could speculate endlessly... but I am sincerely interested in knowing, according to your use case, what the benefits thereof would be. I have 20,000 odd notes in my account, and rarely do any of them get in the way of what I'm looking for or even give me the feeling that my account is cluttered. 

[Ha Truong 2]

Thanks for your detail explanation, really helpful.  

 

The reason I would like to archive is to avoid messy notes that always appear when I search. And Archive here means export and delete those notes in Evernote.  

[gazumped 11,656]

Thanks for your detail explanation, really helpful.

 

The reason I would like to archive is to avoid messy notes that always appear when I search. And Archive here means export and delete those notes in Evernote.  

 

To have the best of several worlds,  it might be a good idea to open a second free account and share notebooks between your two accounts.  Archive notes that you're reasonably sure are no longer required into that second account and delete them from the primary database.  They're easily searched and reinstated if you make any mistakes,  but out of the way of random searches.

 

I find that 'smart' note titles,  occasional keywords in notes and minimal tagging usually enable me to avoid unwanted hits in searches - it's inevitable that once you get over a certain number of notes you'll spend time curating the contents of your database so that searches are easy and quick!

[Frank.dg 1,385]

I must admit that for many notes that I access on occasion or even frequently, Evernote has trained me well - to unconsciously always search for a specific key word (based on past false positives) and perhaps choose from suggestions and recent searches in the search bar (I don't really set up saved searches). I also rely, in part, on a couple of temporary shortcuts, most frequently accessed notebooks in a stack bubbled to the top of my notebook list (including a "well-structured" and logical layout of my stacks and notebooks in general), sorting by date updated, search syntax like "intitle:", keywords I am sure are in the document, occasionally setting reminders for notes that I need to access a little further down the road, tags for specific sets of ideas squirreled away...

 

I also glance at related notes from time to time and pay attention to Google simultaneous search results more often than not... and also related notes when clipping from the web clipper. Besides that, when sorting my default inbox once in a blue moon, I make some hard-and-fast decisions, curating and deleting stuff that, at second glance, would not be useful.

 

Sometimes I give a little thought as to how important a certain note might be at the time of clipping to Evernote, and include something in the title that occurs to me at the time of note creation as being my first go-to keyword/ phrase that I may default to in the future (usually very accurate, since we're creatures of gut-feel and habit - and to some degree you've got to trust in your sanity  ). 

 

... and the list goes on. I'm not one for curating on a large scale. And somehow, just like most users, the landscape of my searches and the pathways I choose of getting to my notes - being a mashup of some uniquely conditioned and  trained habits over time - I find what I need with little to no head scratching. And now that I think about it, relying solely on the search bar would just not cut it. That's the beauty of a tailor-made database, built from the ground up and unconsciously adapting to it (and it to me), a day at a time. Sounds cheesy, but Evernote and I understand one another... I think   

 

My advice (to some) would be to get familiar with some search syntax and other Evernote features, one small step at a time... then stick with the tools that do it for you.

[Ha Truong 2]

To have the best of several worlds,  it might be a good idea to open a second free account and share notebooks between your two accounts.  Archive notes that you're reasonably sure are no longer required into that second account and delete them from the primary database.  They're easily searched and reinstated if you make any mistakes,  but out of the way of random searches.

 

It doesn't work, because once I delete them from the primary database, notes in the secondary database are deleted as well.

[Frank.dg 1,385]

 

To have the best of several worlds,  it might be a good idea to open a second free account and share notebooks between your two accounts.  Archive notes that you're reasonably sure are no longer required into that second account and delete them from the primary database.  They're easily searched and reinstated if you make any mistakes,  but out of the way of random searches.

 

It doesn't work, because once I delete them from the primary database, notes in the secondary database are deleted as well.

 

 

I think this would involve exporting what you want to archive (.ENEX file) and importing into a new account. If you were to join those newly imported notebooks (from your original account)... if deleted from the original account, they would remain in the backup account (you'd be "un-joining" them). That's the idea, I think. That would be the best of at least 2 worlds Gazumped was talking about. A direct joining of a notebook from the secondary account would present the issue you just raised... unless you moved or copied notes from the shared notebook(s), as Jefito mentioned and what Gazumped alluded to.

[jefito 5,589]

Well sure, deleting notes in a shared notebook will delete them from any view on that notebook (whether it's from the account that the notebook belongs to or any account that it's been shared to). If you want them to persist, but not be viewable from the primary account, then you should move or copy the note from the shared notebook to one in the secondary notebook (possibly a notebook that's not shared to the primary notebook). I'm pretty sure that that's more or less what Frank gazumped meant in his suggestion.

 

Edit: oops, originally gave credit for the quote in the post I replied to as Frank's, not gazumped's, so I fixed that. Sorry, gaz (but nice work by both of you)!