Hi reader, I hope you are doing well and stay healthy.
In the initial of this year, most of us are forced to work remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. You might be not fully ready for being a remote worker and are still learning the new workflow to adapt to your daily job.
No matter the change of your workflow, you, as an Evernote lover, still rely on this awesome note-taking tool to get your things done.
I am going to share 5 tips to boost your Evernote productivity.
1. Well defined notebook structure
Evernote is our digital notebook and can also be our second brain. Think about one thing. If you use more organized ways to help you memorize the history, the subjects you are gonna have exam, so do Evernote note. Having a well defined notebook structure can definitely help you take the note efficiently.
How?
Just follow these steps:
Step 1: Define the top level Notebooks
Think about the purpose of each notebook in higher level. The reason is Evernote has stack feature. It means you can define the child-notebook is belong to a parent-notebook.
Thus, the name of the parent notebook might be Cooking, Traveling, Work, etc..
Step 2: Add the two digits prefix on the name of parent notebook
Let's say you have created Cooking, Traveling, Work notebooks. Add the number prefix to sort and prioritize each notebooks.
The notebook name will become:
├── 01_Cooking
├── 02_Traveling
└── 03_Work
Step 3: Add the child-notebook to the stack
This point would be straightforward. But, remember also putting the number prefix. I'd recommend to add three digit prefix for child-notebook.
It would become:
├── 01_Cooking
│ ├── 001_Bread
│ └── 002_Bread
├── 02_Traveling
│ ├── 001_USA
│ └── 002_Germany
└── 03_Work
├── 001_Meeting note
└── 002_1:1
With this structure, it's way easier to search the previous note. Also, you can quickly find out the proper notebook to put the new note
2. Draft the note first
As a remote worker, the boundary of work and life become vague. It might be not that good, but it can also be beneficial. It's fine that you might keep thinking about your work in the free time. But more importantly is to draft down your idea when you really come to something. But remember, it's your spare time. You don't need to write a formal document. Opening your Evernote and qucikly writing down some bullet points are enough.
And don't be afraid to be sloppy, notes are where you store drafts, right? They don't need to be always formal
Get into this habit! Evernote is very convenient and fast to use on all devices, so this action can be easily completed, but it requires you to practice repeatedly until it becomes a reflex action.
3. Utilize Link
The advantage of digitalization is that the content can be rearranged at any time, unlike the paper content that is limited when written. When using Evernote, it is also important to arrange notes at any time.
But this does not require you to spend a lot of time to sort out, you just need to adjust flexibly according to the real needs. And utlize Note Link feature in Evernote.
Thus, when I'm planning a trip. I am used to cutting all kinds of travel information into Evernote. Before the trip, I will link all the clip information in another compiled note.
4. Tag is your friend
Evernote has another great feature called tag. Tag can help you mark your notes across different notebooks.
There are bunch of ways to use tag. Personally, I consider tag as action items.
To prevent to mess
up tags, I restrict myself to create the templated tag.
What does it mean? In my Evernote, I only have these tags:
- 0_MEMORIZE
- Goal in
- Future plan
- Achievement in
In this way, if I'd like to know what I've been done in 201908, I just search Goal in 201908 and all notes come up.
5. Memorize after writing down
Evernote can be your second brain and store memories about your actions. But for the important content, like your domain knowledge. You still need to memorize them.
Don't let the Evernote, your second brain, become a information trash can. Take some time to pick up your note from time to time.
As a senior Evernote user, I am still loving it. It's simple to use compared to other note taking tools. Hope my tips can help you boost your Evernote productivity in this harsh time.
