After starting out on a strong note this morning by stumbling upon the above video, I spent the next two hours fruitlessly searching the internet searching for tips about how to organize my Evernote account to help me run my life. I found posts from GTD (Get Things Done) wizards such as this one and this one, but neither one provided me with the magic key to organization that would fit my life.
I gave up on finding the answer "out there" and fiddled around with Evernote's stack and notebook feature until I started to carve out some areas of my life that could use some housekeeping. Then, feeling inspired, I added some other areas of my life that don't necessarily need cleaning up, but would benefit from some attention and creativity. This is what I ended up with:
I purposely did NOT include school in this set up because I've set up a separate account at work, and I'm going to investigate educational uses later in the week.
As I was setting up the folders, I could envision all the useful things that could go into them: milestones and notes for each child, parenting tips, lists for those ideas I come up with and then forget, journal entries to keep track of important events, a custom made recipe book for all those great ideas I find in food blogs, etc.
I plan to spend the rest of the week populating my new system. I'm going to focus on the travel folder so I can start researching those trips my husband and I daydream about. I love the thought of filling those folders up with pictures and descriptions of where we want to go with the kids someday.
I'm thrilled by the flexibility of Evernote to add almost anything I can think of: you can upload files, scanned documents, photos, web clips, emails, notes you type in, voice notes, etc. Even though I have the Evernote App on my iPad, what I really wished for today was an iPhone so I could add ideas and photos on the go.
Between Evernote and Google Calendar, I just might be turning into a VFP (Very Functional Person).
References
AndrewEvernote. (2009, August 18). Evernote to the Rescue [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNE0R3rEe5Q
Hyatt, M. (2011, May 2). How to organize Evernote for maximum efficiency [web log post]. Retrieved from http://michaelhyatt.com/how-to-organize-evernote-for-maximum-efficiency.html
Naslund, A. (n.d.). Getting organized with evernote [web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.brasstackthinking.com/2010/06/getting-organized-with-evernote/
I dream of being a VFP!! I don't have Evernote as one of my tools and I am beginning to think I missed a really good one! I think I will have to add it to my list of things to explore after the course is done!! You got me hooked when you mentioned the travel folder:)
ReplyDeleteI am exploring Evernote above and beyond the inquiry tools I chose, because it seems so powerful, and was excited to see how you categorized your life, so to speak! I starred your post so I can return to it when I get some time and create those nifty Evernote folders you made. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteJoclyn
Thank you again for this post, too. I really liked that you showed your organizational scheme. I'm finding myself having the big debate: tags vs. notebooks. Why did you decide on notebooks?
ReplyDeleteI see that folders are good because they force you to categorize your notes and make them organized. Notebooks are also good for sharing purposes. Isn't it true that in Evernote, you can't share by tags or by search?
On the other hand, isn't it true that a note can be in only one notebook (unless you manually copy it to another one)? I am afraid that it'll be harder to search with many notebooks. Then again, maybe it's possible to search through all your notebooks?
Sorry for all the questions -- I just found your posts to be helpful and be very similar to what I'm trying to figure out.
Hi again! I used notebooks because I like the visual organization they create...I can clearly see the different chunks of my life. I also tag certain notes, especially recipes. I can't say 100%, but I don't think you can share by tags or search. To be honest, I've only shared occasionally from Evernote and I do it by emailing the note. I share much more frequently from Diigo when I find an interesting resource that I think other teachers would appreciate.
ReplyDeleteI think because I've organized all my notebooks in Evernote, I haven't done much searching in it because I know where to find things. I see your point, though, that if I started adding volumes of information, tagging becomes more important. It doesn't matter how many notebooks you have, though, when you search your tags, it searches all your notebooks.
I hope this helps to clarify... I'm pretty excited that another teacher-librarian found my blog, so thanks for your comments. I hope to hear back from you.