How to Use Evernote for GTD

Use Evernote with the Getting Things Done method.

Evernote is a powerful note-taking program and you can use the Getting Things Done method with the software to increase your productivity. To get started, focus on setting up a simple GTD task flow to help you keep organized and achieve your goals. Once you master a simple GTD method, you can later introduce new folders, tags and Evernote stacks to fine-tune your task flow.

Instructions

1. Double-click the "Evernote" icon on your desktop to launch the note-taking application.

2. Right-click the "Notebooks" section from the left-hand column. Click the "Create Notebook" option from the menu. To start, you'll be creating five new notebooks that resemble the standard GTD stages. The notebooks you'll create are Inbox, Next Actions, Projects, Notes/Reference and Someday/Maybe.

3. Create five more notebooks, titled "@Agendas," "@Computer," "@Home," "@Read/Review" and "@Work."

4. Create new notes by clicking the "New Note" button at the top of the Evernote program window. Each note is filed first in the Inbox and then later moved to the most appropriate notebook for its GTD task flow. For example, if you saw an interesting article you wanted to read later on, you'd save it into the Inbox, and then move it to the @Read/Review notebook. When you make time to read saved articles, you'll open the @Read/Review notebook and see what you have to read.

Tips & Warnings

• You can also use Evernote tags to better organize and search for notes and information later on. However, stick to the task flow process to get the best productivity results possible.

References

• Darren Crawford: My Simple GTD & Evernote Combo
• David Allen Company: About GTD
• Productivity 101: Evernote and GTD