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How to Organize Evernote for Maximum Efficiency

I have been using Evernote for months. However, I have not really taken time to explore the depth of this incredible program until just recently. I have mainly just used it for a place to store meeting notes and an occasional web clipping.

Files in a Horizontal Filing Cabinet - Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/STEVECOLEccs, Image #11346887

However, thanks to Brett Kelly’s very helpful e-book, Evernote Essentials, the Evernote user forum, and a little experimentation, I have begun to see the incredible power of this digital repository. So much so, then I am committed to going paperless in my new office setup.

It all begins by establishing a solid organizational structure. Evernote doesn’t require one, but, based on my personal experience you won’t realize the full power of this tool without one. You need to give some thought to how you want to structure your notebooks, “stacks,” and tags.

If you are just getting started with Evernote, I suggest that you buy Brett Kelly’s remarkably practical e-book, Evernote Essentials, Second Edition. It is worth setting aside a couple hours to work through this brief, 95-page book. It will save you DAYS of learning Evernote on your own.

First, let’s define some terms:

  • Notebooks: These are collections of individual notes. Theoretically, you could just have one notebook and dump everything into it. But most people will want to establish different notebooks for different “areas of focus.”
  • Stacks: These are collections of notebooks. For example, you could have a stack called “Work” that has separate notebooks for each client, project, or area of responsibility.
  • Tags: These are attributes that you can apply to any individual note. You can then view all notes with a specific tag, regardless of which notebook it resides in. This provides for the ultimate in filing flexibility, though it can be confusing at times. (I still get confused about whether something should be a notebook or a tag.)

I tend to think of stacks and notebooks as a vertical (or hierarchical) way of organizing, and tags as a horizontal (or lateral) way of organizing. To use the metaphor of a filing cabinet, think of stacks as individual drawers, notebooks as the files within the drawers, and tags as a way of identifying common attributes regardless of what folder or drawer the note is in.

For example, you might “tag” a piece of paper within a folder by printing invoices on yellow paper. With Evernote, it’s much more simple, because each note can have multiple tags. So, for example, I have some notes in my Receipts notebook that are tagged “tax deductible” and others that are tagged “reimbursable.”

Perhaps my current structure—which is still a work in process—will serve as an example. Here are my stacks and notebooks. Bear with me. The list is a little long.

Evernote stacks and notebooks

I created this list by first asking myself, “What are my primary areas of focus?” The highest level stacks or notebooks are that list. Note that “!Inbox” is my default notebook. This is where I put random items until I know exactly where I should file them. (The exclamation point ensures that this notebook is first in the sorted list.)

Note that I had to divide Work into several stacks, all with the prefix “Work.” This is simply because Evernote doesn’t currently allow the nesting of stacks. (Note to Evernote developers: please consider this as a feature request.)

Here are my current tags:

Evernote tags

It is tempting to tag every note with a several tags. However, I broke myself of that habit once I realized that Evernote indexes every word in every note. So if you have a great quote on “purpose,” for example, you don’t need to tag the note with “purpose,” so long as the word appears in the note. This only adds more clutter. The key is to remember that less is more.

Once you get your basic structure, the fun really begins. (Okay, maybe this is a stretch.) I hope to post soon on how I get stuff into Evernote. This is where the versatility of the tool really shines.

Questions: How do you organize Evernote? Where do you see that I could improve my organization? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Posted on May 2, 2011

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=763523310 Julie Gumm

    My husband is a paper junkie and he stumbled across your posts. I’ve been trying to get him to print less stuff for years. I’ve been a beginner user of Evernote for a few months but your posts have inspired us both.

    I had to laugh last night though when he asked “Did you see his post where he showed his notebooks and tags?” I said “No.” He said “Here, I printed it out.” 

    Definitely some retraining still to do :-)

  • http://chrispalle.com chrispalle

    Thanks for sharing, Michael. I’ve become a huge evernote fan over the last year. I have a question about your methodology, though.
    The list of notebooks and stacks: That seems really lengthy. Almost reminds me of my list of labels in gMail which I have a hard time managing. How do you keep up with everything?

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  • Ben Komanapalli

    Thank you so much for this! Have been using Evernote for a long time but just learnt about ‘stacks’! very helpful!

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Yes, indeed. Stacks are a wonderful way to group notebooks.

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  • Ronhbridges

    Very helpful. Thanks !!!

  • http://BrentFielder.com Brent Fielder

    Is Evernote replacing your computer files (on HD) or an addition to them?  I am struggling trying to figure out what I should save to a folder on my Hard Drive and what I should put into evernote.

    • Anonymous

      If  it is in Evernote, then it is saved.  Does NOT need to be on the hard drive too. 

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      I don’t duplicate my file structure in Evernote. I only include frequently accessed files, like my life plan, household budgets, etc.

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    Somebody
    has tested http://clicktoapp.com with Evernote??

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  • Anonymous

    I tried to use Evernote before, but I think I dived into it, thinking it was too much like Springpad. I’m going to try again from the ground up! Thanks for your guides! I am currently clipping all your guides into EN at the moment to read and better organize myself!

    Thanks a ton!

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  • John Grenier

    My question is about how to file away a “Completed Job” with other completed item and not see it in All Notes.  My guess is that it is simple.

    Thanks John

  • Ashley Smith

    Thanks fo the hepful tips and info. Please check out a similar article ===> Evernote Essentials: 3 Reasons Why You Need It http://bit.ly/rH1FtS. Thanks in advance :)

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  • Norman

    While the EverNote search feature is a very good tool, one can use multiple tags within a note to filter/organize their view of the data. Only recently I have begun to use prefixes on my tags to categorize and organize projects and key activities. 

    FYI: I found that EverNote sorts common symbols in following order: ! # * . @ _
    Being part of a sales team, I use the “period” (.) prefix for customer accounts (examples: .ACME, .MICROSOFT, etc. ) which allows me to readily sift through mountains of material. 

    As most of my work is repetitive types of activity, I like to use “pound” (#) for the type of activity (e.g.#workshop, #meeting, #poc, #admin, #learn, etc.) which allows me to work a chunk of calendar time on like-minded activities.

    Lastly, I use the “bang” (!) character to indicate time-and-focus for time-sensitive rather than more for just reference. Note the use of double-bang character ensures that select tags are at the top of the pile.
    !!ASAP = Primary project/activity (A-List)
    !!THISWEEK = Secondary project/activity (B-List)
    !RADAR = Flag places project/activity within my peripheral as ongoing and active
    !INACTIVE = Flag project/activity as currently inactive (e.g. project completed, delayed, other)

    Those persons using a 43-folders time management approach might also make use of the ! prefix as follows:
    !JUNE = allows use of re-occurring annual events: taxes, spring planting, booking summer cottages, etc. 
    !2012-06 = allows use of time-specific period that could extend beyond the 12 month window.
    !2012-Q2 = permits organization of activities for those persons that are sales-focused.

    Those that follow the Getting Things Done (GTD) time management approach,  could use the @ symbol for location specific activites (e.g. @Desk, @Office, @Home, @Car, etc.) however introducing another tier of tags it might make the system unpractical.

    Finally, the process has to be easy to use and relevant to how you work, so keep it simple.

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Thanks for such a well thought out comment!

  • Angela WR

    Wow, this is great! I have started to separate-out the business/organizing time from the actual writing/research time.  So, learning to use Evernote can be used in that block of time without me feeling that I should be writing. 

  • Rob Hall

    I am still not ready to give up on THINGS in place of Evernote. Please push me over!?

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Things and Evernote are two different animals. Things is a task manager. Evernote is a repository for information. I use Nozbe for task management and Evernote for storing information. They even sync with each other.

      • Rob Hall

        Thanks Michael. That is helpful. I’ll look into Nozbe. I wonder if Things and Evernote sync???

        • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

          I don’t think so, but I am not sure.

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  • Maggie

    Michael, what a true blessing this post is.  I didn’t find your list overwhelming, but rather exactly what I needed to jump start my organization of EN.  Thank you for the details.  

    I see that you also file by year/month/day.  I do that with my business expenses and I add the amount and expense type but this is on my PC.  I haven’t yet visited the process in EN.  It makes creating my expense sheet easy as it has them organized by date incurred.  Woot woot!I just started using EN a couple of months ago and am thrilled whenever I find something truly useful to do with it.  The last AHA I had was when I realized I no longer had to print the detail sheets whenever I take buyers out to look at homes (I’m a Realtor).  I now save the sheets to Evernote when I am working on my laptop and tag them with the buyer’s last name and the house address, then I throw it into my “Showings” notebook.  When I am out with the buyer, I can just pull up the pdf in EN on my Droid and look at all the details.  In trying to use EN a little more each day I opened it up today when my daughter’s teacher called to discuss her class progress.  After making all my notes, I realized that I did not have a notebook for either of my kids.  I then looked at my notebooks and realized they were not organized visually in a way that made sense.  I knew I needed stacks but didn’t know that EN had that feature.  That’s how I found your post.  I googled “can you create a notebook inside a notebook in Evernote.”  It didn’t occur to me that it would be called something else.  Stacks makes sense!

    Thank you again for the great post.  And your blog as well.  I am also a Christian and it was a delight to end up on your blog.  Why is it surprising that Christians are normal people who can be witty, techy, geeky, funny?  I’m on Council at church and the last surprise I had there was when I found out that a lovely lady at church is a prison guard.  It put her in a new light for me. LOL  I need to stop drawing boxes around people.

    I’ve signed up for blog updates and look forward to more reading.  Hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving!

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Thanks, Maggie. I appreciate your kind words and your experience with EN!

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  • AJ

    Very nice!
    Thanks,
    AJ

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  • Ryan

    Do you use Evernote as an archive too? For example, you scan all of your receipts into Evernote, is that where they stay?

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Yep, exactly. Anything I want to find later goes into Evernote.

  • MJ

    Michael, great blog!  I found you looking for some info on getting Kindle notes over to EN, so thanks for that tutorial too.

    I’m a in the process of integrating a lot of my personal organization into EN. 

    I am stumped on one thing, and see that you have figured it out.  HOW do
    you organize by date?  I have my “inbox” with the dates like you do, in
    the title of the post.  My posts do not sort in numerical order, and
    I’m stumped as to why.

    Your notes are sorted 2012.01.02, 2012.02.11, 2012.11.22, etc.  My notes are sorted 2012.01.11, 2012.01.02, 2012.11.22,etc. 

    Can you help? 

    Thanks,
    MJ

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      You can change how the notes are sorted. At the top of the column, click the column header. You should get a drop-down that gives you several options. It looks like this. Thanks.

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  • http://www.Appculture.net DM Cook

    Wow, stumbled on this again and I like it just as much this time too.
    You really put a lot of thought into how Evernote works. I love it too, but I’m still really annoyed about its interface design– see http://appculture.net/evernote-the-best-note-taking-app/ …. Wish they spent more time honing the core features– searching, filing, etc. — instead of just letting the user spend all their time organizing things. What do you think?

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      I’m happy with it. The more I use it … the more I use it.

  • Allannyland

    Thanx – very helpful and to the point.

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  • Michelle Smith

    I really appreciated reading this article because it is similar to how I use Evernote.  I have a loooong list of Notebooks and very rarely use Tags.  If I can’t find it in a Notebook, I use the search feature. 

    My reason for this is because I don’t just use Evernote for storage, I use it for brainstorming ideas for my doctoral classes.  If all of my notes for a particular class/subject are in one place, I can begin to read through various notes and articles to find common themes. 

    I use a default notebook as my sorting station.  Everything goes there first and then about once a week I go through and sort the individual notes into Notebooks.  It takes a little time but also helps me decide what to keep or trash. 

    Thanks again! 

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  • Justin

    Hey Michael, great stuff.  Will definitely check out your other posts, I’ve seen a couple others already.  EN’s truly an app of a new paradigm we’re moving into.

    Question – I’m trying to help someone else out by showing them my list of tags (in hierarchical/nested order), and you seem to have been able to get some kind of screen clipping of the left-side Notebooks/Tags pane (in order to list your notebooks), which seems like it was taller than the app window itself would’ve been.  How’d you do that??

    • http://michaelhyatt.com Michael Hyatt

      Yes, SnagIt is the screen capture tool I use daily. Love it!

  • Justin

    Hey, Michael – you know, I figured it out, so nevermind (discovered SnagIt!  very cool)  Thanks again for all the great posts!!

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