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About this lesson

Another way of organizing your Evernote by using tags.

Quick reference

Topic

Organizing Evernote Using Tags.

When to use

As discussed earlier, Evernote doesn’t have a rigid built-in structure for organizing your information.  One way of organizing your Evernote is by Notebooks (we looked at it in the previous lesson).  Another—by tags.

Instructions

I mentioned it in the previous lesson, but it bears repeating.  You don’t have to choose between Notebooks and tags to organize your Evernote.  In fact, most people use both.  However, to make things easier for yourself, I suggest you pick one primary method.  It will make it easier for you to maintain and prevent Evernote from becoming your information graveyard.

You can use tags in addition to Notebooks as a way to organize the Notes.  Or you can rely solely on tags to organize your Notes.

At first, tags might *seem* less logical and a less visually appealing way of organizing Evernote, but ultimately they give you much more flexibility because you can:

  • Nest tags one under another and go several levels deep (whereas with Notebooks you can only go one level deep)
  • Have an unlimited number of tags (whereas the number of Notebooks is finite—250 for your personal account and 5000 for a business account)
  • Tag one note with several tags (whereas you can put a Note into only one Notebook)

When using tags as the primary way of organizing your Evernote:

1.Decide how your tagging structure will help you reflect and organize in a logical order the kinds of information you are storing in Evernote.

2.Refer to the Organizing Tags and Tagging Strategies lessons for examples.  When creating your structure use your logic to help your future self quickly find information.

3.Map out and keep your tagging structure handy to prevent yourself from creating different variations of the same tag, e.g. singular and plural forms of the same noun.

4.Don’t go too crazy with tags—remember that when you search for something, Evernote searches the body of the note as well.

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  • 00:04 As discussed earlier, Evernote doesn't have a rigid built-in structure for
  • 00:09 organizing your information.
  • 00:12 One way of organizing your Evernote is by notebooks.
  • 00:16 We looked at it in the previous lesson, another one, by tags.
  • 00:19 And this is what we're going to discuss in this lesson.
  • 00:24 I mentioned this in the previous lesson, but it bears repeating.
  • 00:28 You don't have to choose between log books and tags to organize your Evernote.
  • 00:33 But I do suggest you pick one primary method, so it's easier for you
  • 00:39 to maintain your Evernote and prevent it from becoming your information graveyard.
  • 00:45 So, you can use tags in addition to new books as a way to organize your Evernote.
  • 00:52 But you can rely solely on tags to do that.
  • 00:57 And I know at first it might seem less logical and
  • 01:02 even less visually appealing to organize your Evernote by tags.
  • 01:08 But ultimately, tags give you much more flexibility than notebooks,
  • 01:13 because of the following our features.
  • 01:16 One, you can list tags one under another and go several levels deep.
  • 01:23 You remember that with netbooks you can not create stacks within stacks,
  • 01:27 so you can go just one level deep.
  • 01:32 Two, you can have an unlimited number of tags versus 250 notebooks for
  • 01:38 your personal account, or 5,000 for a business account.
  • 01:43 And three, you can't tag one note with several tags,
  • 01:49 but you can save a note only in one notebook, and
  • 01:54 I find that when we tag a a note with several tags,
  • 01:59 it's as if we allow it to live in several places at once, which is pretty cool.
  • 02:04 So, see for yourself.
  • 02:07 Pick the method that feel feel more comfortable, more logical
  • 02:13 to you because, ultimately it will be you who will be maintaining that structures,
  • 02:18 so it's important that, you go with the way that feels more comfortable to you.
  • 02:24 If it's going to be tags take a look at your existing tags and
  • 02:28 see how you can group them.
  • 02:30 What categories make sense.
  • 02:33 How you can create that hierarchy, so
  • 02:37 that it's easy for you to find what you're looking for?
  • 02:42 We covered a number of tagging strategies in the previous lessons, so
  • 02:46 take a look at those examples too.
  • 02:49 And lastly, don't go too crazy with tags.
  • 02:52 Remember that when you search for
  • 02:54 something, Evernote searches the body of the note as well.
  • 02:58 So you don't need to add all these tags, but you do have to be strategic,
  • 03:03 and you do need to make things easier for
  • 03:07 your future self to find something that you will be looking for.
  • 03:11 So make sure that you create that structure and follow it.
  • 03:16 Forward lets show in the beginning, when you get used to it.
  • 03:20 But then, it will become second nature, and
  • 03:22 Evernote will become your external brain.

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