Now that you’ve learned to create templates in Evernote for both Windows and Mac, it’s time to incorporate the templates into your GTD workflow.

In GTD, a project is defined as “any outcome you’re committed to achieving that will take more than one action step to complete”. I’ve created an Evernote note template that I use to plan each and every project that I take on. The template is based on the “Five Phases of Project Planning” (see Getting Things Done Chapter 3), and it looks like this:

If you want a copy of this template, simply paste the following code into your favourite text-editor and save it as a .enex file.

Use the information from the previous two posts to easily import the template back into Evernote.

Before continuing, I suggest you re-read Chapter 3 of Getting Things Done—”Getting Projects Creatively Under Way: The Five Phases of Project Planning”. David Allen describes how to tackle projects much better than I can.

Now that you’re familiar with the process, I’ll use a simple example to illustrate my GTD project workflow. Let’s say I need to plan a dinner to celebrate my girlfriend’s birthday. The first thing I do is open up Evernote and press the Windows key + t to import my GTD Project Note Template into my Inbox. I open the note and fill in the project name: “Birthday Celebration Dinner”. Next, I fill in the Purpose/Principles: “To socialize and celebrate with friends”. Then I fill in the Outcome: “Sitting in the restaurant with my girlfriend and our closest friends eating some great food”. Once that’s out of the way, I take a minute or two and write down everything I can possibly think of about the project in the Brainstorming section. When my mind is clear, I decide on the Next Action and fill in that section of the template. The Next Action will most likely have a context associated with it. If it does, I’ll tag the note with the appropriate context tag (i.e. @Calls, @Computer, @Waiting For). Unlike single next actions that are stored in the ‘Next’ notebook, next actions for Projects do not need the @Action tag.

Once the template is filled in, I move it into the *Projects List notebook. I also create a new notebook in the ’3. Projects’ notebook stack and give it the name of the project.

I can use this new notebook to store any information I collect along the way (project support materials). For example, I could use it to store restaurant reviews, directions, a guest list, gift ideas, phone numbers, etc.

I can access all of my projects and get a quick overview of all the next actions using the *Projects List saved search. The project template note will also show up in the context tag saved search that it is associated with.

During the course of the project, I continually update the next action and its context. I also add new information to the brainstorming section whenever a new idea pops into my head.

Once the outcome has been achieved, I go through the project notebook that was created and archive/delete the notes as I see fit. Once all the notes are processed, I delete the notebook and delete the project template note as well.

That wraps up the basics of my Getting Things Done with Evernote system. The process is a little hard to explain on paper, but, with a little practice, it is quite easy to implement. In time, you should be able to build a GTD system you can trust where all the information is easily accessible from your computer or your mobile device. When that happens, you can free your mind to focus on the things you truly value.

Click the link below to download a few sample files that may help you get started:

GTD_Evernote Templates

 

In the last post I discussed how to create note templates in Evernote for Windows. Now let’s discuss how to do it on a Mac. Again, I want to give credit to Stephen Millard of Thought Asylum. Many of these ideas were taken from his blog, so I recommend reading his posts on the subject first.

The first step is the same as it was for Evernote for Windows. You need to create the note template and export it as a file in ENEX format (.enex) using the ‘Export Notes to Archive…’ option in the file menu. I recommend creating an ‘Evernote Templates’ folder inside your Documents folder and saving the template file there. Open the template file in your favourite text editor and delete the ‘created’ and ‘updated’ tags and all the numbers/text between those tags (see previous post for more details). Once that’s finished, save and close the template file.

Now it’s time to create an AppleScript. Open the AppleScript Editor and paste in the following code:

You’ll need to change the path to the template file to match your needs, and, if you want, you can change the notebook into which the template file is imported as well. Once that is finished, create a folder named ‘Evernote’ in the following directory: /Library/Scripts. You’ll know you’re in the right directory if you see other folders such as ‘ColorSync’, ‘Folder Actions’, ‘iChat’, etc. there. Save the AppleScript in the /Library/Scripts/Evernote folder that you just created. Before you exit the AppleScript Editor, open ‘Preferences…’ and, under the ‘General’ tab,  make sure the ‘Show Script menu in menu bar’ option is checked. A little paper-scroll icon should now appear in your menu bar. Close the AppleScript Editor.

Now it’s time to test out the script. Click on the paper-scroll icon in the menu bar. Mouse over the Evernote folder and click on the note template script you just created. The note template should appear inside the notebook you specified.

You can create as many templates/scripts as you’d like, and you can launch them all directly from the menu bar.

Stay tuned for Part 3 where I’ll explain how to integrate the Evernote template system into your GTD workflow.

 

I’ve been promising this post for a while now, but before we get down to the nitty-gritty, we need to learn how to create note templates in Evernote for Windows (The process is different if you’re on a Mac. I’ll cover note templates in Evernote for Mac in the next post…stay tuned). I stole most of my ideas from Stephen Millard over at Thought Asylum, so I recommend checking out his posts on Evernote at some point.

In order for the template system to work, you’ll need to download and install a few things first:

1. A text editor – I recommend Notepad++. You can download it here.
2. AutoHotKey – AHK is really simple to use. For a quick overview, read through this Lifehacker article.

The text editor is used to edit the Evernote template and to create a batch file. AHK is used to create a keyboard shortcut that automatically imports your template into your default notebook.

Once the two programs are installed, open Evernote and create a new note. Add any title, tags, and note content that you want, and when you’re satisfied choose the ‘Export…’ option from the File Menu.

Select ‘Export as a file in ENEX format (.enex)’ and click the ‘Export’ button.

Give the file a name and save it somewhere where you’ll be able to find it. I recommend creating an ‘Evernote Templates’ folder in ‘My Documents’ and saving the file there.

Find the file in Windows Explorer and open it with Notepad++ (or your text editor of choice). Near the end of the file, after the closing ‘content tag’ (looks like this: </content>) there should be a set of ‘created tags’ with some numbers/text in between. For example:

<created>20120219T195257Z</created>

Delete both tags and the text/numbers between them. There may also be ‘updated tags’ (<updated></updated>). Delete these also along with the numbers/text between them. Save and close the template file.

This step ensures that when you import your template file back into Evernote it will have the proper creation date. If you skip this step, the note’s creation date will always be the date you first exported the template.

Now let’s create the batch file. Using your text editor, you want to create a file that looks something like this:

The ‘ENScriptLocation’ is the folder on your computer where the Evernote.exe file is located. Change the location if necessary. To Find ‘EvernoteDatabase’, in Evernote, select ‘Options’ from the Tools Menu and click ‘Open Database Folder’. A new Windows Explorer window should open. Find the file that has your Evernote username ending in .exb (in my case, simplecuriosity.exb) Hold down the ‘Shift’ button on your keyboard, and right-click the file with your mouse. You should see an option to ‘Copy as path’. Select this option and paste the path you just copied into the batch file after ‘EvernoteDatabase=’. Now, open the Evernote Templates folder you created earlier and copy the path to your template file. Paste this path into the batch file after ‘TemplateFile=’. If you want to change which notebook the template will be imported into, change “1. Inbox” to the name of a different notebook. Once you are all finished, save the file in the Evernote Templates folder. Give the file the same name as the exported template file, but make sure it ends in .bat (i.e. ‘Sample Template.bat’).

That may have been a bit confusing. If you have any questions, leave a comment below.

Now let’s turn to AutoHotKey. If you are already familiar with AHK you can simply add the 2 lines of code below to your existing AHK script. If you are a new user, however, you’ll need to lay a bit of groundwork first. I won’t go into too much detail, so if you are confused or want to learn more, you can find the AHK quick-start tutorial here. To create a new AHK script:

1. Right-click an empty spot on your desktop or in any folder.
2. In the menu that appears, select ‘New’ –> ‘AutoHotKey Script’.
3. Name the file ‘Main AHK Script.ahk’.

Open the script file with your text editor. Delete any text in the file and paste in the following 2 lines of code:

That’s it. Save the file and exit the text editor. You’ll want to make sure the script loads each time your computer starts. To do so, move the script file to the Windows Startup folder. In Windows 7, the Startup folder is located here:

“C:\Users\Your User Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup”

Double-click the script file to make sure it’s running (An icon should appear in the notifications area. You can pause, edit, or reload the script directly from here). Now it’s time to test out our template!

Open Evernote. Press the Windows Key + t. Voila! Your template note should appear in the ’1. Inbox’ notebook.

In the next post I’ll show you how to create templates in Evernote for Mac. The process is a lot different. After that, I’ll show you how this all relates to GTD and Projects. Cheers.

 

My Simple Curiosity now has a Google+ Brand Page. I’ll be updating the site so you can connect to the page directly from the sidebar, but for now you can check it out here.

For more information on Google+ Brand Pages see Google’s official blog post.

 

Now that we’ve built the framework of our GTD system with notebooks and tags, it’s time to make some lists. To make lists, we’ll be using Evernote’s ‘Saved Search’ feature. Saved searches are awesome. I like to think of them as folders 2.0. They allow you to group notes with similar characteristics, and a single note can appear in more than one saved search. Saved searches are easily accessible on your mobile devices, making it easy to view your lists on the go.

To create a saved search, search Evernote using keywords, notebooks, and tags, then right-click ‘Saved Searches’ –> ‘Create Saved Search…’. Enter a name for your saved search and click ‘OK’. You can also enter the saved search query manually.

In order to stay organized, you’ll want to create the following lists:

• A ‘Projects’ list
• ‘Next Actions’ lists (including context and read/review lists)
• A ‘Waiting For’ list
• A ‘Someday/Maybe’ list

These lists are the minimum requirements. You can create additional lists if you’d like.

The ‘Projects’ list is simply a replica of the ‘*Projects List’ Notebook. The saved search query should look like this: notebook:”*Projects List”. Saved searches, like tags, are arranged in alphabetical order. Place a symbol (i.e. *) in front of the name to ensure it stays near the top of the list.

Context is the primary criterion for making action choices. Thus, in addition to a comprehensive ‘Next Actions’ list, we will be making lists for each of the context tags you created in the last post. My ‘Next Actions’ list contains only single next actions, whereas my context lists contain single next actions and project next actions (a post on projects is coming soon…I promise). Here are the saved search queries:

• ‘Next Actions’ list – notebook:”2. Next” tag:@Action
• Agenda – tag:@Agenda
• At Anywhere – tag:@Anywhere
• Calls – tag:@Calls
• At Computer – tag:@Computer
• Email – tag:@Email
• Errands – tag:@Errands
• Grocery List – tag:@Grocery
• At Home – tag:@Home
• Shopping List – tag:@Shopping
• At Work – tag:@Work

If you click on any of the context saved searches you will get a list of all the next actions (single next actions and next actions associated with projects) available for that context. You can then make your next action choice based on time available, energy available, and priority.

Here are the rest of my lists and their saved search queries:

• FYI-To-Read (Read/Review) – notebook:”2. Next” tag:”FYI-To-Read” (I don’t use the ‘FYI-To-Read’ tag for projects. I only use it for articles I clip from the web and want to read later.)
• ‘Waiting For’ list – tag:”@Waiting For”
• ‘Someday/Maybe’ list – notebook:”6. Someday/Maybe”

You can also create saved searches for lists of things you would like to access quickly. For example, a ‘Books to Read’ list – notebook:”6. Someday/Maybe” tag:#Books tag:”To Read”. If you need help creating saved searches, check out this article on advanced Evernote search syntax.

That’s all for lists! In the next few posts I’ll look at how to manage projects. Stay tuned…

 

Yesterday, Google rolled out a new design for Google Reader. Google+ integration was also added. I recently wrote a post about customizing Google Reader’s appearance. The CSS tweaks mentioned in that post still seem to be working with the new layout. Here’s a screenshot:

 

In the last post we created notebooks; now it’s time to look at tags. There are two main categories of tags: tags for Reference Materials or Someday/Maybes and tags for Next/Action items.

Before taking an in-depth look at each of these categories, let’s talk a bit about creating and organizing tags.

There are several ways to create a new tag. In Evernote for Windows, you can simply right-click on ‘Tags’ in the left panel and select ‘Create Tag…’ or, when creating a new note, you can enter the name of the tag where it says, ‘Click to add tag…’.

Tags can be nested inside other tags, and you can create as many layers of nested tags as you want. If you create too many, however, you may end up in limbo. To nest tags, drag and drop one tag onto another.

Nesting allows you to organize your tags so they are easier to find, though it does not provide any functionality—it’s merely cosmetic.

Reference Materials & Someday/Maybe Tags:

The Reference Materials notebook is like a virtual filing cabinet to store anything you find interesting or useful. I like to organize it using two types of tags:

Primary/Category Tags (#) – These tags represent the ‘folders’ in the filing cabinet and are denoted by the # symbol. Examples: #Books, #Career, #Finance, #Food/Drink, #Health, #Movies, #Music, #Tech, #Travel. Tag names are arbitrary—feel free to use whatever symbol and names you desire.

Subset/Subcategory Tags – Many of your primary categories will have at least one subset of topics. These tags are not denoted by any special symbol. Again, tag names are arbitrary. Here are some of the tags I have nested inside #Tech:

Someday/Maybe items—things you may want to reassess in the future—are tagged in a similar manner. For example, if I find a book I would like to read, I’ll clip it into Evernote, tag it (#Books; To Read), and move it to the Someday/Maybe notebook.

Other tags that apply to Someday/Maybe items include the following:

• Future Projects
• Gift Ideas
• Wish List
• Coupon

These tags are nested under #Misc.

Next/Action Item Tags:

The Next notebook contains all of the Next-Action items, Waiting-For items, and any Read/Review materials, and the tags used for these items represent the second major category of tags used in this system.

A new note is created for each Next Action (single next actions, not next actions associated with Projects—I’ll discuss Projects in a future post), and this note is tagged @Action. Since most Next Actions require a specific location or tool, this note is also tagged with a context tag. Here a some examples of context tags that I use: @Agenda, @Anywhere, @Calls, @Computer, @Email, @Errands, @Grocery, @Home, @Shopping, @Work. I nest the context tags under the @Action tag:

Let’s look at an example. Perhaps my printer is running low on black ink. I would create a new note, give it the proper tags (@Action; @Errands), and move it to the Next notebook, as seen here:

Similarly, each Waiting-For item—things you’re waiting to get back from or get done by others—has its own note, which is tagged @Waiting For. Use context tags here as well if appropriate.

To-read items that have been clipped or scanned into Evernote are also placed in the Next notebook. I label these FYI-To-Read.

That covers everything you need to know about tags. In the next post, we’ll look at how to create lists to manage all your actionable things.

 

Now that you have Evernote installed and ready to go, I’m going to walk you through setting up the notebooks we will be using to GTD with Evernote. I will be using Evernote for Windows, but the process should be similar if you are on a Mac or the web.

When you first open Evernote, you’ll notice in the upper-left corner that you have 1 notebook already created. Rename this notebook to ‘1. Inbox’. This is your default notebook. It will serve as an in-basket, capturing self-generated input as well as any information you clip from the web, send to your Evernote email address, etc.

Next, right-click on ‘Notebooks’ and select ‘Create Notebook…’. Name this notebook, ‘2. Next’ (all of the notebooks created will be synchronized notebooks; leave the ‘make this my default notebook’ box unchecked). The ‘2. Next’ notebook will contain all of the Next-Action items, Waiting-For items, and any Read/Review materials (more on this in future posts). Note—the numbers before the notebook names are there to ensure that the notebooks stay in the proper order.

Create another notebook called, ‘*Projects List’. Once it is created, right-click ‘*Projects List’, select ‘Add to stack’ –> ‘New stack’. Rename the newly created Notebook Stack to ‘3. Projects’. Your notebooks should now look like this:

I’m going to write an entire post on Projects, but I’ll give you a brief synopsis here. The ‘*Projects List’ notebook acts as an index and contains one note for each project that you have. This note details the project’s name, next-action, purpose, outcome, brainstorming notes, etc. For each project, I also create a new notebook (give it the name of your project) in the ‘3. Projects’ stack. These notebooks will be used to store all of the support materials that you may need as you work on your various projects. These notebooks are temporary, and they can be deleted once the project is completed.

The next notebook to create is called, ‘4. Support Materials’. Before Evernote introduced notebook stacks, I used to use this notebook to store all of my Project Support Materials. Now I simply use it to store any temporary/transient stuff (such as confirmation numbers) and any supporting information for things that aren’t projects. You may want to turn this notebook into a notebook stack and have separate notebooks within the stack for work, personal, banking, school, family, etc.

The final two notebooks to create are, ‘5. Reference Materials’ and ‘6. Someday/Maybe’.

The ‘5. Reference Materials’ notebook acts like a virtual filing cabinet. I’ll describe how it will be organized in my next post on tags.

The ‘6. Someday/Maybe’ notebook is for Someday/Maybes—things that you may want to reassess in the future.

And we’re done! Stay tuned for more posts on how to Get Things Done with Evernote.

 

In order to love to write, you need to blog about a topic that you already think about all of the time. That said, I’ve decided to write a series about how I Get Things Done with Evernote.

First things first, I’ll give credit where credit is due. The framework for my GTD system was based on a series of posts at Productivity 101 written by Dutch blogger Fokke Kooistra. His posts were exceedingly helpful as I transitioned my system from OneNote to Evernote.  I have also incorporated many of Stephen Millard’s ideas into my GTD system. Stephen is the author of a blog called Thought Asylum, and you can check out his thoughts about Evernote here.

Before we begin, I’m going to assume that you’ve read David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity at least twice. If you haven’t, I suggest you do that first.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get rolling. Head over to evernote.com and create an account. I’m a premium user, but you can accomplish everything you’ll need to do with a free account. You’ll also want to download and install a copy of Evernote on your Mac or PC. While you’re at it, you may as well install Evernote on your mobile device. Evernote is available for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, and even Palm Pre/Palm Pixi.

Lastly, you’re going to need to install the Evernote Web Clipper. I recommend using Google Chrome, but the clipper is also available for Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer.

That’s it! Stay tuned for the next post where I’ll walk you through setting up the notebooks we will be using to Get Things Done with Evernote.

 

I use Google Reader to keep up with all my favourite websites and blogs. Since I am currently looking for a new job, I have also been using Google Reader as a job search tool.  Each day, several hundred new job listings pile up inside my job search folder. Sounds great, right? One problem: It can be quite strenuous on the eyes sifting through the entire list.

In order to relieve my eye strain, I decided to seek out a way to improve the appearance of Google Reader. I thought to myself, “What if every other entry had a light grey colour like you often see in data tables?”

After a quick Google search, I came back empty-handed. A few days later, however, I came across this article on advanced CSS3 techniques, and I decided to implement a solution myself.

Here’s a snapshot of the end result:

As you can see, I’ve made a few minor changes that I feel enhance the readability and functionality of Google Reader.

What you’ll need:

1. A Google Chrome Extension to modify the site’s CSS.
   • Minimalist Google Reader or
   • Stylebot
2. The code:

Install one of the extensions, then copy and paste the code in the relevant area.

For Minimalist Google Reader, it’s on the extension’s options screen as seen here:

For Stylebot, click the css button in the omnibar, then click the ‘Edit CSS’ button:

That’s it. Feel free to make any additional CSS changes you desire. If you have any questions, please leave a comment.