Evernote GTD How To
The following 15 minute setup enables you to use Evernote as a frictionless GTD list application. Easy entry, no multiple notebooks required. Works with you, not against you.
The setup features:
- notebook independent setup: enter and use to do notes anywhere, anytime
- Project List
- list aggregating all next actions
- @ context lists
- Waiting For
- Someday/Maybe
- 5 “time required” levels & lists
- done/audit list
- toggle checkbox (/tag) to move items on/off the Someday/Maybe list
The description is for the Windows desktop client, Evernote 3.1, but works anywhere Evernote does. The setup works equally well in Evernote 3.5 Beta. It, however, has no counts shown next to the saved searches: Evernote 3.1 gives a clear at-a-glance view of where you have how many open items.
How It Works
You tag Evernote To Do items — those are the ones where you insert a checkbox — with your context(s) and (optional) a time estimate (5, 15, 30,45 or 60 minutes).
Saved Searches make these items show up on your @ context list(s), on your Project list when tagged with @project, on Someday/Maybe when tagged with sd — and on one of your time lists if you added that info as a tag.
Saved Searches without items are automatically greyed out. Lists that do have items show how many items are on them: you can see your runway at a glance.
Thanks to Evernote’s multi-tagging, one or more items can be moved from NA to Someday/Maybe simply by checking or unchecked a tag’s checkbox.
Setting Up Your Saved Searches
Evernote’s Saved Searches are the heart of the system: they are what generates our various lists for us. Here is my list but you can do this any which way you need it.
@ MIT
Mind the [space] between the @ and MIT: this is so it sorts to the top of the list, before the other @ contexts.
Search: todo:false tag:@mit -tag:sd
We’re looking for to do items that haven’t been checked off (todo:false), which include the tag for this context but do not have the someday tag.[3]
@ Projects
Again, a [space] after the @ to have this sort to the top of the list.
Search: todo:false tag:@project -tag:sd
@ Waiting For
[space] after the @ to have this on top.
Search: todo:false tag:@wf
No need to negate someday items as @Waiting For’s never are, right?
Like someday the tag is shorthanded to @wf for waiting for.
@All Next Actions
To have a complete list for your perusal.
Search: todo:false tag:@* -tag:sd -tag:@project -tag:@wf
Get all @ context items unless they’re someday items, projects or waiting for.
You might have other @ contexts you don’t want to see on your list of NA’s. Simply add each one as -tag:@yourcontext.[4]
Projects are negated as in this setup, they too can have contexts (more later).
@context
These are your context lists. One search per context.
Search: todo:false tag:@context -tag:@sd -tag:@project
In general your @ tag will match your @ search — but it doesn’t have to. Examples in my setup: @Waiting For (search) aggregates @wf tag; @Computer (search) aggregates @pc tag. Why? Faster, easier to type.
__Someday
Two underscores to have this sort immediately after the @ lists but before the _ lists (1 underscore) that I use for some dedicated projects.
I prefer to drop the Maybe in GTD’s base Someday/Maybe list.
Search: todo:false tag:sd
__What Was Done
I like checking off things, I love using the checkboxes in Evernote — and so I don’t delete completed items.
Search: todo:true
Time Lists
I use 5 broad time levels for next actions: 5, 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes. Each has a list.
I’ll give the search for the 5 minute items; for the other times you simply recreate this search but change the time tag.
Search: todo:false tag:5 -tag:sd
No need to negate projects as those aren’t actionable items and thus don’t have a time required tag assigned to them.
Untagged Notes
In general my notes have at least one tag but especially for distinguishing between braindump items and processed projects, next actions, etc. it’s important our items have their tags.
Search: -tag:*
Important: if you don’t tag your notes in general, the above obviously wouldn’t be useful. In that case, change it to:
Search: todo:false -tag:*
Untimed Actions
Being able to pick actions based on time/energy level is not just handy: it helps tremendously at determining how booked you are.
For this to work, each NA needs a time tag, obviously, so here we check if a note misses that.
Search: todo:false tag:@* -tag:@project -tag:@wf -tag:5 -tag:15 -tag:30 -tag:45 -tag:60
Using Evernote for GTD
You get an item on your desk or think of something. CTRL + ALT + N brings up a new note in Evernote. CTRL + SHIFT + C to get the checkbox. Add your item.
[F2] [TAB] [TAB] to get to the line where you can enter your contexts. Let’s say this a 5 minute email for work: @work, @email, 5. Done.
Don’t want to do this item soon enough? Then it’s a someday in GTD so tag it as such: sd. With one tag, the sd, the item is taken off all the action lists and moved to someday.
When the time comes to review your lists you might want to take a whole bunch of NA’s off the table; maybe it’s a long weekend or vacation is coming up. Or maybe you want to move a bunch of someday’s back to the Next Action lists, right?
Select the items, CTRL + SHIFT + T to bring up the tag list box. Click the column with the checkboxes to have all assigned tags sort to the top of the list.
Now you can simply check or uncheck the someday tag to instantly move all your selected items to or from the someday list.
Don’t want to tag your items as they come in? No problem: don’t. Simply come back later, click your untagged items search and do it then.
Evernote GTD FAQ
Why Do Someday Items Have Contexts?
In a previous version someday was made up of all todo items that had no tags. So, to move NA’s back to someday I had to remove all tags. Then add them again when moving them back to NA. Big waste of time.
In the current setup items can be moved back and forth based simply on the sd tag.
Meanwhile I’ve found the presence of tags to be very helpful during review. I can select the someday list and search for all @project’s or for @work related items.
Nowadays, when going through untagged GTD items, I take a moment and assign the proper contexts and time as I would when setting them as NA.
Why Can Projects Have Contexts?
Again, during review it’s handy to be able to look at home projects or all work projects. By having (already) set tags on them I can zoom in on very specific areas.
How Do You Handle Start/Due Data Actions?
Date-specific actions go on the calendar. Not just because that’s how GTD defines it (dated items are on your “hard landscape”) but because it’s practical.
I use Google Calendar (setup with multiple colored calendars for ease of use; holidays, daughter stuff, my stuff, work stuff, etc.).
Depending on what’s sane to do, details are in the calendar item (“Call Joe re. coffee @ 1234″) or in the note in Evernote.
Example of a calendar item? Some of my @wf’s are for specific dates: by this or that date I should nudge the person. That @wf is in my system ([ ] Joe re. if he ordered coffee -- call by this or that date) and to make sure I don’t see that item only when I review that list, it’s on the calendar with a reminder.
Recurrence is essentially a repetitive hard landscape item, so most of my regularly recurring items go on my calendar. Often with one or more reminders/heads-up’s.
Less specific recurrence or reminders may go into my 12 months (+ some people specific) tickler file; the 43 folders thing is overkill for me.
Other items might just be ones that I need over and over again. Reusable items, essentially. The note on the left is an example of such a reusable item. As I was changing my morning routine I used this checklist to keep on track.
As I prepare my next day every evening, I would simply uncheck the items and … use it again the next day :) But I can just as easily keep it in the “someday” list and copy & paste a new note from it: whatever works best for you.
At the base an @project note is simply a stake in the ground to remind me; oh yeah, I have a project going on. From there it is as the need prescribes.
Here are 3 typical project notes (data is made up largely so…)
In the first case I map out several NA’s. Usually when the time comes to put one or all of them on an Next Actions list, I copy & paste the to do line in a new note. Clean look at my NA’s and I have the track record in the project note.
How do I tie those next actions back to the project? Well, sometimes I just wing it and claim that “I know”. But usually I will write out the action so as a standalone note — it still makes perfect sense. In GTD it’s never “check finances”, it’s “check the finances of client XYZ”
Second note has no next actions but is a good example of the project note acting as a placeholder for project related info. Who is the account manager I need to contact for this? How many hours are assigned to the project? What’s the deadline? That deadline upon writing it there would immediately be added to my Google Calendar — with 2-3 reminders. See: How Do You Handle Start/Due Data Actions.
There’s a PDF in there too. Some files like that get added and most are removed when I’m done with the project. I use PersonalBrain to link and map files to clients and projects. Google Desktop or Copernic or any other desktop search works well too.
The last example is a project with just some bulletpoints; stuff I’m tossing around. The project doesn’t show on my project list though: it has the sd tag :)
My @ List Doesn’t Sort Correct!
When you create/rename a saved search it doesn’t get sorted at the right place. Exit the application, start it again and the list is sorted.
This Seems a Little Complex
The description is 1200+ words. Like describing how to make coffee step by step, it all come across as very daunting and involved… but really isn’t :)
XYZ Isn’t “Pure” GTD?
Oh :)
Wellll….
The geek in me wants to point you to GTD coach Keylly Forrister’s It’s not about the lists:
There’s a comfort zone I found works for me and my lists where I have as few lists as I can get by with, but as many as I think I need to slice and dice my stuff in a way that makes it manageable. And, they change from time to time, if for no other reason than to just change the look to get me excited about them again. [...]
An easy way to figure out which context lists you need is to look at the people, places and tools you need to do your work, personally and professionally. That will serve as a good starting point.
…but…
xkcd
What now?
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- See Purpose Your Day: Most Important Task (MIT). I usually have 2-3 MIT’s that I picked the night before [↩]
- Yeah, I know his might not be pure GTD. So? [↩]
- I use sd as a shorthand tag for someday to make manual tag entry faster. The system needs to be as frictionless as possible [↩]
- For example, I don’t want to see my @read’s mixed in with my general NA’s, so my @All Next Actions search looks like
todo:false tag:@* -tag:sd -tag:@project -tag:@wf -tag:@read[↩]
September 27th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Nice setup, Ruud. Very nicely described, too.
September 27th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Thanks Bruce. It works really smooth. No resistance or pushback from the setup.
September 28th, 2009 at 9:07 am
[...] Evernote application, you’ll want to check out Ruud Hein’s description of how he implements GTD with Evernote. An excellent [...]
September 28th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I can’t get it to sort right.
September 28th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Great article, but can you expand a little on how you use projects?
How are you tying next actions together into a project?
September 28th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
You are right Ruud, it does look a bit daunting but like you say I’m sure it’s going to be a lot more simple when I actually do it now. Many thanks.
September 28th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
@Mike — see the newly added my list doesn’t sort correct. Hope that helps
@Lee can you expand a bit on your question?
September 28th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Ruud, I see how to create the project lists saved search and that adding @project to a note tags it as a project.
If you create a note tagged as @project, do you just insert all action items for that project in the body of the note each with a checkbox?
Or, is there a way you tie individual notes into a project? I don’t see a sample project in your post so I’m just not sure how you use projects.
September 28th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
very good way of doing it. but still feel this aint meant for this in the first place.
September 29th, 2009 at 4:39 am
Excellent article! I’m currently using Outlook and the TROGbar from Priacta.com for my GTD system along with Evernote as my Reference System. I’ve been considering switching it all to Evernote.
I recently completed the Total, Relaxed Organization training from Priacta.com and liked their expansion of Categories (in Outlook) that could be used as additional Tags in Evernote. Areas of Focus are in parenthesis, (Work), (Family), (Personal). This makes it easy to filter your list to view only Family related items on a weekend, without regard to context.
Also, people contexts are prefaced with 1 instead of “@” to distinguish between a “place” and a person. I use this a lot to capture items to discuss with my wife and daughter. I don’t want to see them in any kind of an “@” filtered list, so using the “1″ prefix allows me to keep them out of sight until needed.
September 29th, 2009 at 8:05 am
@Lee thanks for the question. See How Do You Use Projects?
September 29th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Nice article, could you give some advise or “translation” to use those keyboard shortcuts with Mac OS?
Cheers!
September 29th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
[...] Ruud Hein » Evernote GTD How To (tags: evernote gtd ruud) [...]
September 30th, 2009 at 9:48 am
[...] Hein seems to have a great primer on how to do this. Tags: Evernote, GTD Category: Uncategorized | Comment (RSS) [...]
September 30th, 2009 at 10:55 am
@Cheve I think it’s CTRL CMD N on the Mac for new note. Others I wouldn’t know but maybe this list of Evernote keyboard shortcuts and hotkeys is helpful.
October 2nd, 2009 at 1:51 am
[...] Hein beschrijft op zijn blog hoe hij in Evernote zijn GTD setup heeft gemaakt. Ongeacht hoeveel notebooks je in Evernote hebt, met zijn 15 minuten setup kun je [...]
October 3rd, 2009 at 12:40 pm
[...] of posts about how he uses Evernote for GTD. Today I ran into a great article by Ruud Hein on Evernote and GTD. The article has some extensive tips for advanced users, some of the search tips I immediately [...]
October 3rd, 2009 at 3:08 pm
[...] Evernote GTD How To – Ruud Hein Via de lifehacking.nl site een voor mij nieuwe blog ontdekking. Ruud Hein legt op zijn blog haarfijn uit hoe je het productiviteits systeem GTD binnen Evernote kunt toepassen. Het is een ‘15 minutes setup’, maar dat is de investering meer dan waard. Veel meer [...]
October 11th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
[...] second link is a link to a nice post on how to set up Evernote as a GTD system in 15 minutes. It is no secret that Evernote is a tool I use and love although I do not use it as a GTD system. [...]
October 17th, 2009 at 11:06 am
[...] via Ruud Hein » Evernote GTD How To. [...]
November 30th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Hi,
I am a new when it comes to GTD curretntly just looking for suloution and I have found your blog describing evernote set up. I appreciate this very much. I am afraid I dont understand the article very much. I am NOT blaming the author of course !
So here is the problem. You wrote:Evernote’s Saved Searches are the heart of the system. This much I understand :-) I created similar list as you did. @ MIT ….etc. Now comes the enigma. What is this code that follows every search for. Eg: for @ MIT is:Search: todo:false tag:@mit -tag:sd
I dont know how to use it where to write it what to do with this code. I am not a programer. Just a user. I appreciate your help.
Regards
Ludek
December 4th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
That’s a search which you can save. For more info about saved searches see here and here
January 8th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Looks good – will try, but have problems with the tag:@* which does not seem to work on the latest build of the Win 3.5 version (3.5.0.1129)… that is, it does not accept the use of * as a wild card.
January 21st, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Thanks for the well written article! I was trying to apply GTD using evernote and what ended up getting in the way for me was the use of notebooks. I support your decision to do without the notebooks.
I am, however, choosing to have a Reference notebook. I enjoy ebooks (many are technical programming books) and store them in Evernote now, rather than DropBox.
I think your system holds true to the GTD philosophy about not making lists nor getting out of hand with taxonomy of your tasks.
March 13th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Great post. Not too complicated.
I waited a couple of weeks before commenting here. Got it all setup now and has been working well for me.
I only discovered Evernote ~2 months ago (AMAZING piece of software). But like most, I naively went for the multiple notebook approach.
Saved searches have been working nicely for me now.
Also the time estimate tag is a great idea. I also use “Simple Timer” addon for Firefox to actually measure the amount of time it takes me to do stuff.
Works well, as often something which I thought would take 30mins, actually takes 12 mins. Maybe I’m just uber-efficient ;)
Greets from UK
March 18th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
For a while I’ve noted the estimated and actual time in the title of the note, like this: “10|25|R&D web capture software”
Gave me some insight in how I estimated certain tasks vs. what they really consumed time-wise
June 2nd, 2010 at 3:15 am
Hello, Ruud, and congratulations for this kind of tutorial.
Am I missing something, or should I suppose that there is no connection between Evernote and gCalendar? I mean, do you set “by hand” your events on Google Calendar, or do you set them automatically by any kind of connection with, setting in, plugin in Evernote?
Thank you in advance.
June 4th, 2010 at 3:39 am
I like the article and am working on giving this a try. One issue I am having though is the search syntax “tag:@*” is not working for me. For example: The Next Action search “todo:false tag:@* -tag:sd -tag:@project -tag:@wf” gives me an error when I try to create it. Error message is “Saved Search query contains non-existent items” I have narrowed it down to the the “tag:@*” search. Any ideas?
Thanks
June 4th, 2010 at 9:33 am
@Vincent There’s no connection between Evernote & Google Calendar. They’re just different tools. I place “hard landscape” items on the Google Calendar the same way you would otherwise have done on a paper calendar.
@Jon I tried this in 3.1, 3.5 (both Windows clients) and Evernote web but still works. Make sure to type the search vs. copy & paste. Good way to work too is to hit All Notes, then type a partial search in the searchbox to confirm something comes up.
June 5th, 2010 at 11:47 am
Rudd,
Ok, I got it working, but it seems weird. No matter what I do, I get the same error, unless I use a capital T for Tag:@* If I use lowercase t, I get the error. I am running version 3.5.4.2343 (85292). Oh well, seems like a bug.. but at least I can work around it. Thanks for the quick response by the way!
June 12th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Terrific setup – thanks for sharing. I had same issue as @Jon with lowercase “t” versus “T” to get Tag:@* working.
Also, I assume for generic lists (great quotes, travel packing, etc.) you use some sort of a @lists tag.
Next, wondering what “best practices” folks use with EN for agendas? Perhaps some sort of an @ag_ tag?
Finally, anyone else frustrated by lack of checkbox creation on iPad version of EN? Anyone know when such feature will be implemented? Otherwise, I need to “post-process” every note created on iPad and use some sort of “temporary flag” such as “@@” and replace them with checkboxes back on the PC.
Thanks much.
June 15th, 2010 at 11:33 am
@Anthony I do have a “list” tag but don’t really use it. For most part my lists are found back by using good, descriptive titles so they’re easy to get to.
For agenda I’ve used @name_of_person : @anthony for example
The iPad/iPod/iPhone lack of checkboxes has to do with the editor that is available to Evernote through those devices. EN can’t implement it for Apple.
July 31st, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Ruud,
I’ve been searching for a system like this and I’m testing this out with high hopes. One question I don’t have a good answer for is projects have many parts – how do you handle these?
For instance I have client X; there are 5 projects; so if I make these 5 separate projects that solves one part, but when a project has lots of moving parts and the details and status change fast, how granular do you go in tracking?
My problem is that my projects can be untouched for a week or three and I totally forget where I am, but I don’t necessarily know when that week or three begins.
August 13th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
If you have projects that get parked regularly, I’d make a “parked” tag, like Someday/Maybe. Then I’d use the project’s entry to make notes on where I left off. Basically I’m using the project note there as an email to myself. When I do my weekly review and I see that parked project, I want to be given as much relevant information to access what to do when and if.
Clear notes to yourself (“call Robert to check if the wireframes are done” vs. “call Robert”) + Weekly Review = can’t go wrong :)
ps: use what you have to. Maybe you’re more comfortable keeping projects in front of you visually, using MindManager or similar.
August 17th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
[...] Ruud Hein: Evernote GTD How to [...]
August 18th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Hi Ruud, do you use the @* tag for each next action note?
thanks for your answer,
August 18th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Bram? Sounds Dutch :)
The @* is a wild card search. The asterisks means “anything” in such a search. So searching for @* will find anything that starts with @.
August 19th, 2010 at 4:05 am
Dutch indeed Ruud. I fixed it. How do you get the tagbox in EN 3.5? is there a quick key for that?
August 19th, 2010 at 4:28 am
Hi Ruud, for the projectlist would you not take out the “to do” box filter. Then you would get all projects tagged with @project. With the following search: Search: todo:false tag:@project -tag:sd
You get only projects which have a to-dox box.
Please advice what would we more useful. thanks!
August 25th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Great post! I’ve just set this up and have started using it and find that in general it works quite well. I have been using Evernote for a few months now and love it. I’ve also been looking for an independent task management system that isn’t tied to Outlook, something that I can access on my home Mac or my work PC or my iPhone and you have developed a brilliant one using Evernote! Thanks for sharing.
A tip for iPhone users: You cannot create check boxes in the iPhone version of Evernote, so I purchased the FastEver app which is a great way to VERY QUICKLY add next actions to Evernote on the go.
The only part of your setup that isn’t working for me is the lack of start/end dates. Almost everything I do has some sort of due date, and I find the constant reminders of a calendar interrupt my workflow and usually don’t work for me (have to stop what I am doing and decide what to do on that task that I am being reminded of which is usually to ask to be reminded again which leads to lost time). Any suggestions? The @MIT sorta gets to this, but not quite. I realize this goes against your philosophy, however, from the standpoint of creating this flexible system, what do you suggest?
August 26th, 2010 at 6:10 am
@Bram You can hit [F3] to get to tagging. I usually do [F2] to rename the title of the note, then [tab] [tab] to go to tags.
Re. the @Projects and To Do checkboxes: reason I have it setup like that is that some project note entries will have a list of subprojects or next actions in them. Sometimes when these are done as standalone next actions I delete them from the note but for projects I need to track, I check the [] in the project note itself too. This way I can see “I did A and B, now I have to do C”. Once all checkboxes are done … the project is finished and will (automatically) no longer show up in the searches.
@Jeracah You can either use the Created and Updated/Modified dates (you can set each one manually) although these are unreliable as they can change (back). Advantage is that you can use all date search functionality… Another option would be to [tab] to the Author field and use that. Enter your dates as yy-mm-dd so they sort correctly, put EN in List View and you can sort by that column by clicking on the column header.