GTD and Evernote

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Fredjclaus

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I found the subject of GTD when I was looking for a better way to stay organized. I'm currently half way through the book and have been watching youtube and other media about how people are using the GTD system. I found this one website called "The Secret Weapon" which shows you in video form how to set up Evernote for the GTD system. It would be nice to hear how you all are doing it in evernote though.

The one issue I come up with is the tags. When I create a note in evernote I tag it by when with who (if there is a who) and where. That way when I'm at a particular location I can just search for the where tag and see what I have listed there. I love the system, but I seem to be doing something wrong here.

When I complete a task I move it to my "Completed" notebook but then when I search for a tag again, it shows me all the Pending Actions, as well as all the completed actions. Now I have three questions;

1. When you complete a task, does the GTD system say to move it to "Completed" or just delete the task? I got the evernote set up from the Secret Weapon website.

2. If you do move it to the completed notebook is there a way to only show the tags that are not complete? Or do you just strip the tags when you are done?

3. Can someone who uses Evernote give me a rundown of how they use their system? I understand how to set it up, but what do you do afterwards?
 
When I posted this message, I had not seen the guides yet. Money is tight for my family right now so the $48.00 a month is a bit steep for me to pay. I did however sign up the for free trial so I could see what you were talking about. Thanks for the link. I've looked at the guide and found that the way this guide discusses it, is much easier than the way I was doing it.
 
Fredjclaus said:
I was referring to the GTD Connect. I did find the link she sent and saw all the set up guides for sale individually.
Click to expand...

You were asking for the GTD/Evernote guidance. The official guide costs $10. In Poland we've got a proverb: "You don't have to buy a brewery to drink a beer." ;-)
 
I agree Tes. My problem was that I went from the book to the forum. I didn't bother to investigate first. After I posted the question I found all this cool stuff.
 
Fredjclaus said:
When I complete a task I move it to my "Completed" notebook but then when I search for a tag again, it shows me all the Pending Actions, as well as all the completed actions. Now I have three questions;

1. When you complete a task, does the GTD system say to move it to "Completed" or just delete the task? I got the evernote set up from the Secret Weapon website.

2. If you do move it to the completed notebook is there a way to only show the tags that are not complete? Or do you just strip the tags when you are done?

3. Can someone who uses Evernote give me a rundown of how they use their system? I understand how to set it up, but what do you do afterwards?
Click to expand...

The official GTD/Evernote guide recommends notebooks usage for the GTD lists organization. Tags seem to be a dangerous feature for GTD and is used only for topic, or area of life or time of review labelling.

I like the idea of tagging actions "by when with who (if there is a who) and where." It's so orthogonal. But the global nature of Evernote tags make it difficult to combine tagging with "notebooking" items.

If you need to keep the actions in Evernote when they are done you may add the "todo" tag to every item and remove it when it's done.

You can delete the item completely if you don't feel the need to keep it in Evernote.

David Allen would say: "do what you need to free your mind from thinking about this note in Evernote (saved or deleted). ;-)
 
Thanks Tes, I have been reading up and watching some getting started webinars about setting up Evernote, and at this point have totally abandoned the "Secret Weapon" thinking and have set up my Evernote the way the GTD setup guide says to do it with notebooks. Tags were hard because when I would move them to a "Completed folder, they still showed up when I searched for the tags. Since I am on my iphone and ipad most of the time, it was too difficult to remove tags when I completed the task. I like the GTD idea of just deleting the task when it's completed. That way the clutter is minimized and I am more organized.
Thanks for the assistance, I really appreciate it.
 
A bit late, but just in case it's helpful:

I use the tags for GTD contexts (@Home, @Online, @Phone, @Store, etc) and keywords (Recipe, Dessert, Cookies, etc.), as needed.

My system is similar to the one in the official GTD guide (notebooks as my lists, with names like "1-Inbox, 2-Next, 3-Projects, 4-Waiting For" (the numbers are to help with sorting). I also put the context tags in my shortcuts along with the folders so that I can see all of the @Computer next actions at one click.

When I complete a task, I just delete it.

If you have an iPhone, one of the really helpful things with Evernote is to set up a contact named "Ever Note" with your personalized Evernote email address so that you can tell Siri "Email Ever Note" and then dictate a short note to yourself like "Buy ingredients for chocolate chip cookies at the store".

Ron
 
I am not a huge fan of The Secret Weapon, myself - I find it too convoluted and for me I had to be in a prime mental state to use it. But for future reference, in case you need this later on, you can create Saved Searches for your queries and have it exclude items not in a specific notebook.

An example - to find everything you can act on with the tag "home" you create a saved search of: tag:home notebook:"Next Actions" or whatever your setup includes. Then you can set up that search for each of your contexts and stick it in your Shortcuts for easy access.
 
I've never understood why they call it the "secret" weapon. If it's on the internet then it's certainly not a secret. Anything on the internet using the word secret sounds a lot like click-bait to me.
 
I have used practically all of the available tools on the market. I have tried many times to use Evernote as the "one to rule them all" application, but in it's current state I think most people find it too unwieldy to use. It's not "unusable" but there are better choices. I do love Evernote, however it is an ideal "Reference Material" tool, not necessarily the best next actions tool.

If you are looking for a tool that will help manage all aspects, I recommend Nozbe- it works on all platforms. If you are a Mac user, OmniFocus is quite good but a bit daunting to learn and master.
 
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