Evernote added a new feature yesterday—Evernote Reminders. You can read the official blog post here. At the moment, Reminders is only available on Mac, iOS, and the Web, but we can expect it on Windows and Android in the near future. I’ve only been using Reminders for a few hours now, so I’m not exactly sure how I will integrate this new feature into my GTD system. Here are a few ideas I’ve come up with so far:

• “Tickler” File – A “Tickler” File is an incubation tool that is used to manage non-actionable items that may need an action in the future. Presently, in addition to the calendar setup described here, I have a “Tickler” calendar that I use to keep track of information that may be useful on a certain date. I was never too keen about this setup. Adding non-actionable items to my calendar, for some reason, just didn’t feel “right”. Consequently, I deleted this calendar and replaced it with a new “Tickler” Evernote notebook.

• Project Template Note – In my post about GTD Projects, I describe how I create a new notebook in the ‘Projects’ notebook stack for each new project. The Project Template Note, which is based on the “Five Phases of Project Planning” is then placed inside this notebook. During the course of the project, however, the project’s notebook may fill up with support materials, and it can often take a while to find the Template Note. To fix this problem, add a Reminder to the Project Template Note (but do not add a date), and the Template Note will always appear above the note list when you access the project’s notebook.

I would love to hear what you, the readers, think of this great new feature. If you have any great ideas/use cases, please leave a comment below.

 

Back in October, when My Simple Curiosity was featured on Lifehacker, several commenters were interested in using templates with Evernote for Android. At the time, I offered up a few crude workarounds, but I was unable to find any apps in the market with the desired functionality. That is, until I discovered Note Creator. Here is a short description of the app straight from the Google Play Store: “Note Creator allows you to create notes in your Evernote account from a range of templates, and make your own templates from existing note layouts or from scratch”. It sounds perfect, right? Unfortunately, the app didn’t work as expected on my device (possibly because I was running one of the latest CyanogenMod nightlies). Nevertheless, I decided to contact the developer to ask a few questions and request some features. He was very quick to respond and open to my suggestions, and earlier this month he released a completely overhauled version of the app, which now works great on my device.

To help you get started with Note Creator, I’ll walk you though an example which uses my Evernote GTD Project note template previously seen in this post.

Step 1: Download and Install Note Creator

Note Creator is a free Android app. Download Note Creator from Google Play.

Step 2: Create Template

Although the note we ultimately create from our template will look just like the notes created on Windows and Mac, Note Creator templates require special XML-style tags to function correctly. As a result, we’ll need to modify the original template to match the proper format.

I’ll provide a link at the bottom of this post where you can download the Note Creator GTD Project template shown above. Import this note into your Evernote account for safekeeping. More information on how to create your own templates can be found on the Note Creator website.

Step 3: Link Note Creator to Your Evernote Account

The first time you open Note Creator, the app will request access to your Evernote account. Fill in the required information and authorize access. Once you’re signed in, you’ll be taken to the main activity screen.

Step 4: Add a Template (aka Note Creator)

To add a Note Creator, click the + at the top of the screen and select the ‘My Account’ tab. The app will list all the notes in your Evernote account that match the default search criteria “intitle:template”. The note you imported earlier should appear in this list (if it doesn’t, use the search box at the top of the screen to find it). When you click on the note, the app will ask you to give the Note Creator a unqiue name.

The name you choose is important since the title of every note created from this template will be the same as the chosen name. This behaviour is a bit unfortunate; however, the developer is working on an update which will allow you define the name of each note you create. Click ‘OK’ to add the Note Creator. The app will take you back to the main activity screen, and you should see your Note Creator listed there.

Step 5: Create an Evernote note

Now that your Note Creator is set up, it’s time to use it to create a new Evernote note. The UI here is a bit tricky. If you click on the Note Creator, you will see a pop-up menu with three options listed—Create, Clear, and Delete. At this point, we don’t want to do any of these three options. Instead, click on the > at the far right of the Note Creator. The app will take you to a different activity screen where you can fill in the Note Creator’s text entry fields.

Fill in all the entries. To add ideas to the ‘Brainstorming’ section, click on the word “Brainstorming” (instead of the >) and select ‘Add’ from the menu that pops up. Enter your idea, then click the <NC button in the top-left corner of the screen to go back to the previous screen where you can add more ideas. Once you are finished filling in the template, click the button that has the arrow going into the box to create the note in Evernote. Select ‘Clear’ when it asks you if you’d like to ‘Keep content?’, that way your Note Creator is ready for the next use. You should receive an alert that says “Note Created” to let you know your note was created successfully.

You may want to adjust the ‘Note Creation’ settings, which can be found in the Settings menu (click the wrench/screwdriver button in the main activity screen to access the Settings menu). I have it set to put notes in my default notebook instead of the same notebook as the template.

Here is a picture of the finished product:

Once the note is in Evernote, you can fix the title, add the appropriate tags, and create the specific Project notebook that it belongs in (for more info, see here).

With that, you’re now ready to create GTD Projects on the fly with your Android device when you don’t have access to your laptop or desktop PC. If anyone has another method that they would like to share, or a different app that they would like to suggest, please do so in the comments below.

Click here to download a copy of the GTD Project Template for use with Note Creator.

 

In a previous post, I described how to create note templates using Evernote for Windows. A few readers have expressed interest in having the template open in a new window similar to how you can open an empty note in a new window using the Ctrl-Alt-N keyboard shortcut.

I’ve developed a simple workaround. It’s not as elegant as the original method for several reasons:

• Instead of importing an Evernote note, the workaround simply pastes the contents of a .txt file into an empty note.
• The new note is created inside the notebook you currently have highlighted, not in the default or specified notebook

That said, here are the steps you’ll want to follow to get the workaround up and running. I’m going to leave out most of the details as they are similar to the details in the previous post on templates (if you haven’t already read that post, I suggest you do so before continuing).

1. Create the Template File

Copy and paste the note content from your template into a .txt file. Save the .txt file in the same folder as your other Evernote templates.

2. Create the Windows Batch File

Here is the batch file you’ll need. Replace the generic information with your own info:

@echo off
 
:CONFIGURATION
Set EvernoteLocation="C:\Program Files (x86)\Evernote\Evernote"
 
:START
cd %EvernoteLocation%
Evernote /newNote
clip < "C:\Users\Your Windows Username Here\Documents\Evernote Templates\Sample Template.txt"
 
:CLEAN-UP
cls
exit

3. Create the AHK Script

Here is the AHK code. If you already have an existing AHK script, simply paste in the following lines of code:

; Ctrl-Alt-t -> Open Template File in New Evernote Window
^!t::
  Run "C:\Users\Your Windows Username Here\Documents\Evernote Templates\Batch File From Step 2.bat"
  sleep 1000
  Send ^v
Return

I used Ctrl-Alt-t as the hot key in this example. You can update the AHK script to use any hot key that you would like to use. For more information, see here.

That’s it. As always, please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions.

 

In previous posts, I’ve explained how to implement a GTD system using Evernote. This implementation, however, is missing two key elements—your calendar and email.

Calendar

Your calendar is a very important part of the GTD workflow. Every action that has to happen at a specific time or on a specific day should go on your calendar (do not add these to your Next Actions lists in Evernote). I use Google Calendar to keep track of these reminders because it’s free, it’s easy to keep your data in sync across all your platforms and devices (I use Business Calendar on my Android phone), and as you’ll see below, it has many useful features.

Google Calendar allows you to create multiple calendars to help organize the different parts of your life. Each calendar can have a different colour and a different set of default reminders/notifications. You’ll need to set up two primary calendars:

1. Appointments – actions that have to happen at a specific time or on a specific day (if you are a Google+ user, I recommend renaming your default calendar to Appointments because Google+ Events are automatically added to your default calendar).
2. Deadlines – actions that have to be finished by a specific date, but can happen at any time/day up until that date.

You can create additional calendars if you desire. For instance, I have a School calendar to keep track of my class schedule. If you work irregular hours, you may want to have a Work calendar. If you need to share a calendar with someone else, Google Calendar has sharing features as well. These additional calendars will essentially be sub-calendars of the two primary calendars listed above, but by giving them a different colour and a different set of default reminders it may be easier for you to stay organized.

To create a new calendar, click the drop-down arrow next to “My calendars” and select “Create new calendar”.

You can change the colour of each calendar by clicking the drop-down arrow next to the calendar’s name.

You can access the calendar’s settings from this menu as well. The settings screen has a “Notifications” tab where you can set the default “Event reminders” for your calendar.

For both my Appointments and Deadline calendars, I have the default Event reminders set to “Email 1 day”. You’ll soon see that these email reminders will be used to create a Next Actions list inside of Gmail. For my School calendar, the reminder is set to “SMS 1 hour”. You can change the Event reminder for any individual event on any calendar when the event is first created or anytime thereafter (or add multiple reminders). This feature can serve as a “tickler” function. For example, if your taxes are due on April 30 (put this on your Deadline calendar), you may want to add an email reminder for 4 weeks in advance to jog your memory.

Now that your calendars are set up, let’s tackle email integration.

Email

Managing email is a challenging task and best practices are very dependent on an individual’s unique situation. That said, instead of providing a step-by-step guide on how to integrate your email into your GTD workflow, I am going to share with you some Gmail tips and tricks that I use to stay productive and organized.

Processing Email

First of all, if you haven’t already done so, create an @ACTION label, an @WAITING FOR label, and an @SUPPORT MATERIALS label as described in the GTD book. Give each of these labels a different colour. I treat my Gmail Inbox like any other GTD In-basket and process the emails accordingly.

If an email is actionable and will take less than 2 minutes to reply to, reply to it now. If it will take longer than 2 minutes, you can either:

1. Delegate it – label the email @WAITING FOR, forward it to someone else, and archive it.
2. Defer it to your Calendar – label the email @SUPPORT MATERIALS, archive it, and create the appropriate entry on your calendar (make a note in the event description to see @SUPPORT MATERIALS).
3. Defer it to Next Actions – label the email @ACTION and archive it.

If the email is actionable and relates to a multi-step Project:

1. Create a new Project in Evernote.
2. Forward a copy of any email that supports your actions and thinking about your Project to Evernote using your incoming Evernote email address (I created a contact for Evernote to facilitate this process). Move the copy of the email from your Evernote Inbox to the appropriate Project notebook.
3. Apply a label (optional) and archive it.

If the email is not actionable, apply a label (optional) and archive it for reference. Gmail provides so much free space (10 GB) that I rarely delete an email unless I am certain that it will never be useful.

The labels I use for Reference and Someday/Maybe emails mimic the tags I use in Evernote. Gmail’s search feature, however, is so good that labels for archived emails aren’t really necessary.

Multiple Inboxes

Although Multiple inboxes is still one of the Gmail Labs, I feel it is Gmail’s most useful feature. I don’t use the Priority Inbox or Importance Markers because I feel that the Multiple inboxes lab combined with the appropriate labels and filters is much more powerful. For more information on how to enable this feature, see this post.

Here is a picture of my settings:

This set-up creates two additional inboxes below your default Gmail Inbox that act as Next Actions and Waiting For lists.

Filters

Here is a description of two filters that I find particularly useful:

Calendar Notifications – Earlier, I described how to set up Event reminders for your Appointments and Deadlines calendars. The default that I chose was “Email 1 Day”. Instead of having these emails clutter my inbox, I created a filter so they skip the inbox and end up directly on my Next Actions list (your “ticklers” are added to this list as well).

@WAITING FOR – When you email someone to make a request or delegate an action, you’ll want to apply the @WAITING FOR label. I use a filter that automatically adds the @WAITING FOR label to any outgoing email that contains 3 consecutive underscores (feel free to change the trigger). Simply type 3 consecutive underscores at the bottom of any email message you send and it will automatically end up on your Waiting For list.

Gmail recently added a feature that allows you to label messages before you send them, so if you don’t want to use the 3 underscore method, you can apply the @WAITING FOR label directly to the message.

That concludes calendar and email integration. I want to emphasize that everyone’s situation is unique, so don’t feel like you have to follow the suggestions in this post to a T. The primary goal is to develop a GTD system that you can trust, and hopefully the information I presented here will help you reach that goal. If you use a different calendar and/or email client, hopefully you can adapt some of the tips/tricks to work for you. As always, if you have any questions, please leave a comment below or contact me via Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.

 

Back in November, I purchased my first Android device—the Samsung Galaxy S II (named best smartphone at the 2012 GSMA Mobile Awards). The Galaxy S II supports NFC, and I recently decided to take advantage of this feature. I ordered some cheap NFC Tags from here (check out their Twitter page for some good deals), and they arrived in the mail this week.

I decided to use the NFC Tags to change my phone’s settings based on where I am. For example, I put an NFC Tag in my car which turns on GPS, Bluetooth, Auto Rotation, disables the Keyguard and Screen Timeout, and launches my Music App. I have one at home that enables WiFi, disables the Keyguard, and maximizes the Ringer Volume.

Setting up the NFC Tags to work with your smartphone is fairly simple. Here’s what you’ll need:

• An Android device that supports NFC
• NFC Tags. I ordered both Mifare Classic 1k and Mifare Ultralight C Tags. I find that the Classic 1K Tags work a bit better.
• NFC Task Launcher
• Tasker
• Secure Settings Plug-in

Once you’ve purchased, downloaded, and installed the 3 apps from the Android market you are ready to go.

Tasker is a very powerful app, but we won’t be doing anything too complicated with it. Open Tasker and select the “Tasks” tab at the top of the screen. Click on the “+” at the bottom to create a new Task. I have the following 5 Tasks:

Give the Task a name, then click the “+” to add an Action. You should see a list of Action Categories. Browse through the various categories to see what Actions may be useful for you. You may need to use the Secure Settings Plug-in to toggle the GPS (found under Plugin Category).

Here are all the Actions for my 5 Tasks:

1. Car Enter

2. Car Exit

3. Home

4. Away

5. Sleep

You can click on the “Play” button at the bottom right corner of the “Task Edit” window to test that the Task is working as desired. Once your are satisfied with your Task, close Tasker and open NFC Task Launcher.

NFC Task Launcher will be used to write the Tasks onto the NFC Tag. Watch this video for a brief overview on how to use it. The first thing we need to do is create a task. Click “Create Task” –> “Add New Action” –> “Tasker Task”. Click on the magnifying glass and select one of the Tasker Tasks you created earlier. Click the “+” button at the top right of the screen, then click “Save Tag” from the context menu. If you only want one Task on the NFC Tag, click “Write Tag” and hold your phone over the NFC Tag. The Task should be added to the Tag within a few seconds. As long as you don’t click the lock tag checkbox, you can write over a Tag as many times as you want. Repeat this process for all the Tasker Tasks you created.

NFC Task Launcher also allows you to put 2 Tasks on a single NFC Tag. From the main menu, select “Create Profile”. Select 2 different Tags/Tasks (from the Tags you saved earlier) as the first and second Tasks and click “Write Tag” to add the 2 Tasks to your NFC Tag.

Now, when you scan the NFC Tag once it will run the first Task. If you scan the same NFC Tag again, the second Task will run. Take, for example, the NFC Tag in my car. The first time I scan the Tag, it activates all my “car” settings. When I’m exiting my car, I can scan the Tag again to deactivate the “car” settings and prepare my phone for regular use.

If you are an Evernote user, another cool feature of NFC is the ability to open an Evernote note with the touch of your mobile device. You’ll need to install the free app Touchanote. Open Evernote and find the note you want the NFC Tag to open. From the note’s context menu, select “Share” and scroll down until you find Touchanote. Touchanote will launch. Click on “Write to Tag”, and the app will add the Evernote note to the NFC Tag. Now, each time you touch the Tag with your phone, that particular Evernote note will open. Now I just need to find a way to incorporate this feature into my GTD system.

 

Today, while thinking about the best way to handle collaborative projects, I realized I needed to make a minor change to my GTD with Evernote system (I have edited the post on Notebooks, the post on Saved Searches, and the third post on Projects to reflect the changes). It’s easy to share a particular project notebook with other Evernote users. Simply right-click and select “Share Notebook”. You will be presented with this screen:

Select “Invite individuals to access this notebook” and fill out the fields on the next screen.

If you are a Premium user you can allow other users to modify the notebook (view, create, edit, and delete notes). This situation is ideal for collaborative projects. If, however, you are not a Premium user, other users can only view the notes inside the notebook, which may or may not suit your needs. If you plan on collaborating on a lot of projects, I’d suggest you go Premium.

What was wrong with the system? Well, although the other users would have access to the Project Support Materials, they wouldn’t have access to the project template note inside the *Projects List notebook. As a result, they wouldn’t be able to see the next action, purpose, outcome, and brainstorming ideas associated with the project, which is an essential component of the project.

The solution: Tag all the project template notes with the tag “*Project”. Move all the project template notes to the individual project notebooks that they pertain to. Delete the *Projects List notebook. Now, instead of accessing your projects list from the *Projects List notebook, create a saved search that looks for any note tagged with “*Project”.

Click on this saved search anytime you need to access your projects list. Other users will now be able to view and, if you are a Premium user, modify the project template note because it is inside of the notebook you shared with them. This change should take less than 5 minutes to complete. If you have a lot of project template notes in the *Projects List notebook, create the *Project tag first. Then select all the notes in that notebook and drag and drop the *Project tag onto the notes to tag all the notes in one shot.

 

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.

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<!--?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?-->
 
<![CDATA[<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE en-note SYSTEM "http://xml.evernote.com/pub/enml2.dtd">
 
<en-note>
<div>PROJECT:</div>
 
<hr align="right"/>
 
<div>NEXT ACTION:</div>
<div>
 
<hr align="right"/>
 
</div>
<div>PURPOSE/PRINCIPLES:&nbsp;</div>
<div>
 
<hr align="right"/>
 
</div>
<div>OUTCOME:</div>
<div>
 
<hr align="right"/>
 
</div>
<div>BRAINSTORMING:</div>
<div>
<ul>
	<li>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</en-note>]]>

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  tag it ‘*Project’. Create a new notebook in the ’3. Projects’ notebook stack and give it the name of the project. Move the project template note here.

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 along with the project template note.

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 (updated 10/22/2012):

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:

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tell application "Evernote"
	activate
	import "/Users/Your OS X Username Here/Documents/Evernote Templates/Sample Template.enex" to "1. Inbox" with tags
end tell

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.

If the script doesn’t seem to be working, put the template file directly inside your Documents folder and use the following code:

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tell application "Evernote"
	activate
	import "/Users/Your OS X Username Here/Documents/Sample Template.enex" to "1. Inbox" with tags
end tell

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:

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@echo off
 
:CONFIGURATION
Set ENScriptLocation="C:\Program Files (x86)\Evernote\Evernote"
Set EvernoteDatabase="C:\Users\Your Windows Username Here\AppData\Local\Evernote\Evernote\Databases\simplecuriosity.exb"
Set TemplateFile="C:\Users\Your Windows Username Here\Documents\Evernote Templates\Sample Template.enex"
Set Notebook="1. Inbox"
 
:START
cd %ENScriptLocation%
ENScript ImportNotes /s %TemplateFile% /n %Notebook% /d %EvernoteDatabase%
 
:CLEAN-UP
cls
exit

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:

1
2

;; Windows Key + t -> Opens template file in Evernote
#t::Run "C:\Users\Your Windows Username Here\Documents\Evernote Templates\Sample Template.bat"

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 Windows Username\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.

Update – If you get the batch file and AHK script working, could you please leave a comment below. Some readers aren’t getting the expected results, and I want to verify that there isn’t a problem with the code/instructions.

 

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.