TAGGING ORGANIZATION REQUEST

[ALLCAPSALLTHETIME 0]

HI EVERYONE. THIS SEEMS LIKE A PRETTY BASIC AND COMMON QUESTION BUT I COULDN'T FIND MUCH GUIDANCE ON THIS VIA GOOGLE OR IN THE FORUM.

I'M REORGANIZING EVERNOTE TO BE MORE TAG-BASED INSTEAD OF NOTEBOOK-BASED. FOR MANY NOTES THIS IS QUITE EASY BUT MANY NOTES ARE ONE-OFF, MISCELLANEOUS NOTES THAT ARE HARDER TO CATEGORIZE.

FOR EXAMPLE:

I AM CURRENTLY TRAVELING AROUND THE WORLD AND HAD A STACK NAMED "TRAVEL" WITH NOTEBOOKS FOR 1. COUNTRY-SPECIFIC IDEAS (WHERE I HAD A SEPARATE NOTE FOR EACH COUNTRY), 2. MAPS, ETC. THEN THERE WAS A CATCH-ALL NOTEBOOK NAMED "NOTES" IN WHICH I'D PUT MISC. THINGS LIKE A LIST OF SOUTH AMERICAN BUDGET AIRLINES, VISA INFO, MY INITIAL BACKPACK LIST, ETC.

WHAT ARE BEST PRACTICES TO CATEGORIZE THESE ONE-OFF ITEMS? HAVING A SUB-TAG UNDER MY .TRAVEL TAG NAMED "NOTES" SURE DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT. BUT JUST CATEGORIZING IT SOLELY UNDER THE .TRAVEL TAG DOESN'T SEEM OPTIMAL EITHER.

BOTTOM-LINE QUESTION IS, HOW DO YOU CATEGORIZE YOUR ONE-OFF NOTES?

AND GETTING A STEP DEEPER, WHAT IF IT'S NOT RELATED TO ANYTHING ELSE? LIKE, HOW WOULD YOU TAG A NOTE FOR BOOKS TO READ WHEN YOU HAVE ZERO OTHER NOTES ABOUT BOOKS TO READ?

THANK YOU!

P.S. SORRY ABOUT MY USERNAME I REGRET IT ALREADY.

[gazumped 11,652]

Hi.  I don't mind the name,  but you could try soft-pedaling the shouty text in your next post..

Best advice (IMHO) on tags is 'start simple' - and remember there's a really good search function backing you up.  Dump all the airlines you like in separate notes,  and when you need one,  just search for 'airline'.  If the word is not in the company name,  then add it to your note.  Likewise with your one book choice - just add 'book'.  Concentrate on generic names for the areas of interest that you're covering with each note.  When you search 'airline' and get a list of 20 or more,  then maybe you need to add a sub-tag for the country(ies) they cover,  or whether or not you used them / liked them.

[freyja313 46]

I kinda had a similar problem. I went through and cleaned up a bunch of my tags and found quite a few tags that only had one or two notes associated with them. Wherever possible, I would try to figure out if there was another, already existing tag I could put the one-off notes under or I would sometimes combine tags and then use my note naming convention to sort of do "fake" sub-tagging or categorization. So here's an example...

I used to have tags for "Hair", "Nails", "Makeup", etc. I combined all of those into "Beauty & Cosmetics". Within that tag, most of my notes (but not all - depends on my needs) follow a standard naming convention:

HAIR - Color - Red

HAIR - Color - Purple

HAIR - Color - Whatever blah blah blah

HAIR - Cuts - Stacked Bob

HAIR - Cuts - Pixie

HAIR - Salon - Salon Name 1 

HAIR - Salon - Salon Name 2

NAILS - Whatever blah blah blah

Now I can easy peasy click on the "Beauty & Cosmetics" tag and then search intitle:hair to find all the hair-related notes or whatever I'm looking for. 

 

I also follow quite a few business/online/whatever personalities so rather than having a tags for "Person 1", "Person 2", etc.I have one tag for "Mentors" and again use my naming convention:

Mentor Person 1 - How to Be Awesome Blog Post

Mentor Person 1 - Super Cool Blog Post

Mentor Person 2 - Inspirational Article

Mentor Person 2 - Whatever blah blah blah

I then also tag these notes based on the general subject using general tags like "Business", "Personal Growth", "Inspiration", etc.

 

And one more that's relevant to your inquiry...examples of my "Travel" tag note names:

MEXICO - Resort Name - Blah Blah Blah

MEXICO - Travel Tips

MEXICO - Maps

ST. LUCIA - Resort Name - Blah Blah Blah

VEGAS - Show Info 

VEGAS - Hotel Map

VEGAS - 201601 Trip (Itinerary, travel info, things to pack, things to do while there, notes about the trip, memories, etc. Each of these could be broken into separate notes but I don't usually have a ton of info for each individual trip so for me it works to have one note for each individual trip. YMMV!)

CRUISE - Holland America - 90 Day Dream Cruise

SEATTLE - Parking Info

SEATTLE - 2015 Bumbershoot 

TRAVELZOO - Galapagos Deal 

TRAVELZOO - Iceland Getaway

AIRLINE - Alaska Air Double Miles Promotion

And again, notes are further tagged with tags that I also use for all my other notes: "Discounts", "Money", "Memories", "Travel", "Dreams", "Reward Programs", "Tips & Tricks", "Business Cards". 

 

I try to review my tags once or twice a year and see if I can ditch any tags that have five or less notes associated with them.

 

Hope this helps!

[DTLow 5,736]

On July 2, 2016 at 11:17 AM, ALLCAPSALLTHETIME said:

BOTTOM-LINE QUESTION IS, HOW DO YOU CATEGORIZE YOUR ONE-OFF NOTES?

I have various parent tags, for example .Travel
I would just use that tag

It seems a clutter to use a tag for a one-of situation
What would be the purpose - as per @gazumped - you can always locate the note using a search

btw   Use of all caps is considered bad form in internet discussions