Evernote and GTD Simple Setup Tutorial

[@BawBeeCee]

I read GTD and have been using Evernotes for a little over a year. Your tutorial managed to put the two together perfectly. Thank you.

[@WalidChaar]

Thank you! Just 18 Minutes watching your video gets me a much better understanding of Evernote and GTD.

[@stevecox4552]

I have read five books on Evernote/GTD and this is without a doubt the fastest way to set up notebooks and tags to SIMPLIFY Evernote using GTD principles. I opened my Evernote file on Windows, minimized, then minimized this video and followed step by step "cleaning house" on my already set up Evernote system..........Absolutely AMAZING. I had previously created notebooks for everything in my life (work and home) from soup to nuts. It was so horrible that it was only marginally better than my paper file system which I converted to digital information within Evernote. This has put me back in control like no other book or advice. Thanks Jim !!!! And Thanks is not enough!! Steve Cox

[@mkbm71]

Fantastic! I am an organised person at heart but have been drowning.Especially the use of symbols prior to tags is going to change my life!! Finally I will be able to manage my extensive photo library and zillions of projects effectively! THANK YOU!!

[@jadecp5ari]

Now that's a very useful setting for Evernote and GTD! Now it's clear to me how to use tags and notebooks efficiently. On my first try with Evernote, I set up so many notebooks and tags, that in the end I got a redundancy situation, and couldn't decide where to store the notes, and my searches were kinda pointless. Thanks for the video !!

[@forjazznjava]

This is simply one of the most useful videos on productively using Evernote. It's better than the majority of videos on the subject, including the ones made by Evernote itself. Thank you.

[@CarlosBrand]

I have been looking for Evernote's video tutorials and definitely this is the most simple and useful application setting up I found..thanks a lot for share this :)

[@urgotera]

I've been looking for a way on how to implement GTD in Evernote. Strangely, I stumbled on this very informative and simple to apply GTD in Evernote! Great job.... Thank you very much.

[@TimFahlberg]

This was fantastically helpful - thank you so much. I paused the video as I watched it, created a set of folders and tags/subtags as you recommended, and now feel like I have great, workable system. I'll use and then share it with the teachers and students I work with. THANKS AGAIN! - Tim

[@nervousflower]

Definitely the best Evernote and GTD video I've seen so far. I am new to both and it's making my head spin around trying to figure out how to implement a system into my life, and at the same time learn a new tech tool... you made it so simple. Thank you for sharing your system! ... of course now I have to actually implement it, LOL we'll see how that goes!

[@BryanHume]

Extremely helpful. Been integrating this into my life lately and love seeing everyone's structures.

[@axemanaxeman]

Very nice explanation that's clear to understand. I used this as a basis to create my GTD infrastructure hooked it up with my iPhone. Watching this video I got my personal implementation of GTD up and running with in few hours. Thanks Jim! This helped me a lot!!!

[@jdanoliver]

fantastic advice! Just read the book and was hoping to find a succinct description of its practical implementation. This is perfect! Thank you

[@k8neville]

very good intro -- I am new to both Evernote and GTD, and it's nice to see how well they can work together, especially for those of us who are online a lot

[@DaveMcKeown2014]

This was so helpful!! I have a much better sense of how to use Evernote, and can better implement the GTD principles I've been working at for 18 months. Thanks so much!

[@DaylightRobberyCA]

I'm just breaking into the GTD world, and I'm liking this implementation of GTD/Evernote, and my setup is starting to mirror this rather nicely/closely. Thanks Jim! Top notch!

[@GaraksApprentice]

Oh man, I've been using Evernote tags all wrong! Thanks for the excellent tutorial. I'm definitely going to clean house and set this up as part of my "getting started with GTD" sessions. It's so simple, yet so powerful, and I never would have come up with it on my own.

[@angiecandelaria5141]

Perfect straight forward video! very informative but not too wordy. Thank you!

[@raughger]

THANK YOU, Jim. You just made sense for me of how to apply the GTD concepts to Evernote.

[@steveyinasia]

Thanks Jim...I just simplified my entire Evernote structure, starting with yours....things are so much clearer now

[@mikeyo1234]

OK, so you are brilliant! I can't believe how good this is. Evernote has gone from being OK and confusing to amazing and essential within 1 hour of playing with this system. The two changes I made however: 1. Prefix 'where contexts' with the @ symbol (makes more sense to me) 2. I've added a 'who' tag which contains all the people in my life. I prefix people tags with : (colon)

[@Yangtaonewage]

Very helpful and simple system implementing the GTD methodology. And it still works very well today!

[@Impact602]

Great video with many great tips for using Evernote with GTD. Thanks for the great work and sharing it.

[@thunter1995]

Great Job Jim. Thanks for sharing your ideas on using Evernote and GTD. I learned alot from this.

[@MariaCarabin]

Jim this was a fantastic base for me! I tweaked it to suit my needs and situation! I have an iMac and Evernote 5 on it so it looks very different from your Windows Evernote in this video but after figuring out how to make tags and sub tags (drag-and drop a tag on another) I could make it work np. Thx for being of service!

[@RickBigsby]

Nice & clean, easy to follow setup and implementation of GTD and Evernote. A Peanut Butter and Chocolate moment ~ Thanks for sharing!

[@DIY-Investors]

Really useful video Jim. Thanks for sharing your ideas. I've just started using evernote this year but only just starting to link the GTD priciples with it. I like the simplicity of your system. regards, Mick.

[@srpixler]

Thanks a million! I think you have linked to great resources together in a way that is very useful! Thanks!

[@194kearney]

Your video is awsome, easy to understand, great instructions to get started.

[@PR10Tony]

Nice video. A lot of actionable productivity tips on using Evernote.

[@mopnola]

This really spoke to me! Wish I had seen this 3 months ago .

[@mopnola]

PS This is going straight to my Evernote reference notebook!

[@sandorhatvany7152]

I've been using this a few months now (thanks so much Jim). Here's my feedback on it: - WHAT TO DO WITH COMPLETED ITEMS- If it's an action, I get rid of the tags (so the item no longer sits in Next Actions, Someday/Maybe etc.), and I put it in a notebook I created called "zCOMPLETED ITEMS" (z so it shows up under the other notebooks). I have never yet checked this notebook, so I'm still not sure it's worth it, but I'm the kind of guy who doesn't like to throw this information away! One day, it might prove very useful. - WHAT TO DO WITH STUFF WHEN YOU'RE WAITING ON SOMEONE- I found my 'next actions' in particular was getting filled with stuff languishing there because I was waiting on someone. I decided to create a whole new notebook (alongside my COLLECTION BUCKET, GETTING THINGS DONE, REFERENCE MATERIALS and zCOMPLETED ITEMS notebooks) called I'M WAITING ON SOMEONE. This means you keep your actions folders for just that.... action! - I use Siri a lot. I can add something to my collection bucket but just saying "Email Evernote, subject [whatever action/ reminder you want to add]"... it does then prompt me for what the email should say which is unnecessary... I just say 'blank' or whatever. Still, very useful for adding something when you're on the go. Overall it's been working well for me. My Referencing materials are a little messy, but I think that's me rather than the system. Big thanks to Jim and Getting things Done for all this.

[@adrianparafianowicz802]

Still working perfectly fine for you or you made some improvements? Thank you

[@SandorHatvany]

@@adrianparafianowicz802 Yup! Still using it pretty much exactly like this. Though now Evernote is better integrated with Siri which is nice. :)

[@thedarrenator]

Thank you so much. I like your way of implementing Evernote within GTD. I've tried it but didn't have a good enough setup. I like your notebooks and tags system. I will try it.

[@RobbGorringe]

Great Notebook Set-up. Simplicity rocks.

[@GTDNext-app]

This is a good tutorial. The problem I have with using Evernote for GTD is that you don't have any kind of auto promotion of your next actions. In GTDnext when you finish and check off an action the "next action" for that particular project is automatically placed on your "next" list. When you don't have a function like this what happens is you constantly have to go back to a much larger list of actions to pick what you will do next.

[@SarettoRain]

Great video. I was thinking to use evernote to apply GTD method. Your set up looks effective and easy to use. I think I will use it until I find something more personilized. Thank you!

[@spookie1979]

Thanks a lot for the great Video! It helped me a lot to get started with GTD and Evernote.

[@TheMomtrepreneur]

this is great!! thanks for simplifying the GTD-->Notes process!

[@RobertSpiller]

Thanks for this video...I've done this close to what your saying here..and it's helping me tremendously.

[@jimscano]

Thanks Robert!

[@fortheweekend1]

liked very much , explained so clearly, will help me very much thank you

[@MotivateCommunity]

Jim, I love a part two on this!! Please mate, be awesome if you can answer the quesitons and go a bit deeper

[@houston5627]

Thanks, very well illustrated.

[@sundijo]

Thanks for sharing this. Excited to get started.

[@calisongbird]

Awesome!! Thank you. This may have sold me on Evernote.

[@JTAstro]

Great info, thanks for sharing the video! Much more powerful than what I was trying to implement!

[@gjonesii]

Appreciate the very useful ideas. Thanks

[@jbmohan]

Simple and sweet video

[@Enviromylk]

Brilliant tute!! You've been a great help!

[@caroleargo]

Thanks for the tips. How do you incorporate people? Have a tag called 'People' and there names under that? It's also great that the new Evernote 5.5 has reminders and dates...

[@mikeyo1234]

I also added a 'recurring / common tasks' Notebook and tag. This is where I place common tasks that have a nice breakdown of steps that I need to go through each time. These can be thought of as templates.

[@MeditateDC]

this is really well done, isn't it? As he does not seem to be replying, I would guess that "waiting" (without a context ":") under Context is just a typo-type mis-placement and does belong under "GTD" (Allen's "Status").

[@peregrinofamily]

Excellent Video. The best on Evernote by far. I'll just move the "waiting" from Context of Where into !GTD, if I remember correctly the GTD book. Other than that, perfect!

[@oceanz4]

Thank you for mentioning this. It is just what I need.

[@TomislavIvanFlis]

Thank you very much for a great video! I learned so much.

[@FEEDbigJAKE]

Excellent Video.... You changed my view on Tags

[@charlessteyer]

Clear and concise; nice! Thanks

[@RolfKater]

Thank you. Simple and concise. The only thing that I don't understand is how you deal with a note that has been done. Delete it (and lose the history) or reclassify (how)?

[@mindaugaskaleininkas3803]

Rolf Kater I would like to also find this out...

[@xPrincessBridget]

Rolf Kater I'm just getting into GTD stuff, but I was watching "TheSecretWeapon" videos which is similar to this, and I believe they made a completed folder to put finished things in, rather than deleting. So I suppose you could just add a Completed folder next to GTD and References. I'm still learning this stuff, but it's got me intrigued!

[@sandorhatvany7152]

Rolf Kater Hi Rolf, I just posted this: - WHAT TO DO WITH COMPLETED ITEMS- If it's an action, I get rid of the tags (so the item no longer sits in Next Actions, Someday/Maybe etc.), and I put it in a notebook I created called "zCOMPLETED ITEMS" (z so it shows up under the other notebooks). I have never yet checked this notebook, so I'm still not sure it's worth it, but I'm the kind of guy who doesn't like to throw this information away! One day, it might prove very useful.

[@taniasteenkamp150]

thanks Jim! Very, very helpful!

[@michcard1957]

Thanks Jim. Nice video.

[@kicksboxes]

Thanks for this video. I'm a big fan of Evernote and GTD, and you've given great direction on how to integrate these two powerful tools. If you use Evernote for all your daily 'inbox' needs, do you think you'll need to upgrade to premium Evernote (paid) service? ... I guess I'll find out!

[@michcard1957]

I personally delete minor actions but keep track of key actions. For that : I have added a tag "Done" to the group "!GTD" When the action is done I do the following : - add tag "done" - add a text comment e.g. "mail rcvd 25.09 15:03" (helps finding it later) - remove tag "today" or "next action" or "someday" search by project tag will show all actions (todo + done). Add in the search field the string "-tag:done" (exclude tag done) and then only todo tasks appear within that same project

[@WayneScott36]

I plan my to do list at the beginning of the week. I summarize on Tues. & Thurs. I use GTD' methodology and another app. Thanks for your interest, 2btanacious. Stay tuned Travel Man

[@LorenEdwardSimpson]

Very helpful tool for implementing GTD...Question for you: What do you do with the "Today" tagged GTD items once you actually do them. Do you have another part of this to archive your work? Do you just delete them. Can't imagine that as sometimes a record is either helpful / necessary. Would love a followup tutorial on how you use this for the Review & Do steps of GTD

[@5starsmoh]

EN has been very clear about security. "your data belong to you, and thus only you can see that, except in you share them". My bet is, once it reaches EN server you are pretty much safe. Also you can always encrypt any info within a note or the whole note if you want.

[@johnbuckley528]

Great ideas fro production.

[@GRFiallos]

Great ideas! Thank you

[@farhadmalikli]

Another question is about completion process. What do you do with tags when you complete the taks/project?

[@thecrowler2840]

+Farhad Malikli I either remove them or move them to references

[@kaylarevae]

Thank you for this! It was very helpful.

[@kennyboy1953]

Great vid, have you updated this with the new reminders features?

[@5starsmoh]

You create under "GTD" two sub notebooks "action pending" and "completed". Active task stay in "AP" and the done ones are moved to the completed notebook.

[@luiseduardopardinimachado1464]

Jim, what you use to do with and action after get it done ? After complete the task like call to someone, what is the next step you use ? I use to delete it. Thanks and congrats for the great video !

[@TheBarbKelly]

This looks like a great video. My computer just could not make it loud enough to hear clearly. Any fix? My computer was at max. volume.

[@TheSelfMadeSuccess]

Very useful! Thanks

[@leonelmartinez8922]

I just changed my Evernote to this! thanks

[@toulonc]

Thanks. Glad you skipped the Evernotes and GTD concepts. I struggle with how to process projects. Do you create a project and the add all steps of the project using tags? My real question is how to get from the current step (you just completed it and want to add the next step to today tag) to the next step and so on?

[@Oh_Cecilia]

Thanks for the great tutorial. I plan on implementing it. I have a question that has also been asked. What do you do once you complete your task? I am hoping you will answer this. I currently use Remember the Milk and want to switch completely to EN.

[@fawziachergui3375]

Well done !!!

[@jtanvic]

Like it. Thanks for the good ideas.

[@KeremPARLAKGUMUS-uc4xb]

thank you jim, i jist apply, create the skeleton for GTD. thanks

[@ShashiKumar-un3he]

Excellent ! Only one thing. How do you get reminders, especially if you want recurring rminders. Evernote does not allow recurring reminders.

[@Danman4u2]

Great stuff; is it possible to see all of my tasks in one list?

[@yifan83]

Thank you, very helpful

[@5starsmoh]

Interesting system, which is extremely similar to the secret weapon Method. But i find that they came up with a better way to manage tags, for to dos. You might check it out

[@ShootingStar187]

I have few questions : 1. We must make Next action tagged notes with their date in heading. So, when the date comes we shift it to today tag, one day before ? 2. What kind of tags do you use under tag 03 life & how do you differentiate 01 home with 03 life? I saw a tag Exercise under 01 Home but you can also put it under 03 Life 3. Do you Update items from collection box to other notebooks and tags everyday? how much time does it take to do all sort of adjustments?

[@AnnemarieOBea]

Great video... question for you. Do you use an RSS service for article collection and reading, or do you search and put all into your reference area? I noticed you had some articles in there, but wasn't sure if you moved them from an RSS reader. Clearly, question relates to how Evernote can help with ending of Google Reader.

[@IOPA3M]

thanks for a guide!

[@Housetohalfgo]

HI Jim - thanks for the video. Researching how to use Evernote in basic GTD format, but having concerns: - What does daily to do list end up looking like? Is it just one long list of “errands" - What happens if something doesn’t get done today or changes status? - What does archive tagging look like? Thanks so much

[@wprice620]

Well done. Thanks

[@delmont55]

I like the simplicity but I seem to be missing something. After you've completed something, how do you "mark it done"? Do you simply just remove whatever GTD tag you've assigned? --Or do you actually flag it as complete somewhere?

[@HOWYOUDOIN884]

nobody knows! planet in disarray!

[@karlanspavier]

You just delete the note and leave at the trash

[@janwillemholst439]

Keith Johnson bv

[@wma1965]

Great video - the best I've seen on GTD & Evernote. Any concerns about security, i.e. forwarding work e-mail to Evernote?

[@RyanSalvanera]

Thanks for the tip, Jim. If you don't mind me asking.. what falls under "03 Life" in References? Just so I have some pattern to mimic.

[@gordoncashwell325]

Helpful.. Thanks! I would like to know how to use this with a calendar. he did not mention a calendar, etc, which I think is important in this.

[@LittleLionRawr]

Thanks! really helpful!

[@tylerhmccart]

Great vid! Thank you for putting this together. Question: are you using the upgraded version on Evernote? I cannot seem to create sub-tags on my evernote account. Thanks!

[@ChrisDotsonOud]

Thanks a lot Great stuff!

[@farhadmalikli]

Could you please explain the difference between Next Action and Today? Becasuse we have tasks either we gonna do it Today or Someday. What is the need of creating Next Action subtag? Regards

[@MeditateDC]

Waiting-For continued: Perhaps the flexibility of tags puts less requirement for "Waiting-For" to be specifically under "GTD [Action Items] )as Mike and I tended toward) or under Context and lets it be searched by tag. GTD p 139 shows "Waiting" as its own ~node hanging off of "Delegate It". I will play with it.

[@ZachSmithstartdoingbusiness]

Kenneth, have you found the reminder feature to work with your Windows-based desktop version of Evernote? I'd love to chat about ways you're applying GTD with Evernote, if you'd like.

[@RenaOEMSales]

Just saved me a bunch of money

[@waasges]

best video ever. thx