Eight Evernote Notebooks Everyone Should Have

I have switched around a dozen times between various online storage tools over the years.

Three services now meet 99% of my needs:

1. Things 3 for managing my tasks
2. Google Drive for document repository
3. Evernote for capturing and organizing everything

A while ago, I was considering leaving Evernote. Nonetheless, Evernote is developing a masterpiece under Ian Small's leadership.

It has been a tough five years for Evernote, the world's most popular note-taking app, both structurally and in terms of the team.

However, the company has been making innovative upgrades and enhancements since 2020 to solidify its role as the leading note-taking service.

What makes me love Evernote?

I started using Evernote in 2008, initiated with a blank slate, played with it and got to know a little about it. There was a period during which I did not use this at all, but I came back to it recently.

I became enamored with Evernote as I read various blogs, watched a few youtube videos, and understood the vision from its founder Stepan Pachikov.

I organize my life into several notebooks, each containing tens of thousands of notes.

I have adopted Evernote to organize my goals, keep track of my important data, and preserve articles I want to read later.

Once I figured out how to organize my information efficiently, I realized the power of the Evernote system and how I could manage and track just about everything.

There are seven notebooks you should check out in Evernote.

These seven must-have notebooks in Evernote are the building blocks I use to organize my essential information.

You can store just about anything in Evernote, so feel free to add to this list indefinitely.

1. Big Picture Planning

I am a pretty ambitious guy, so I have many ideas, plans, and dreams about the future.

I used to store these ideas on scraps of paper and then toss them out.

Now, I keep a notebook in Evernote called "2021 Goals & Ideas" that includes a list of my most significant projects for the year, my daily rituals, and ideas for future projects to work on in the years to come.

2. Brainstorming Sessions

No matter what line of work you are in or what goals you currently have, nearly every new idea requires a brainstorming session to get your creative juices flowing.

I record my notes from my brainstorms into a new note in my "Brainstorming" notebook.

Soon after, I transfer any tasks to Things 3 (my task manager) and copy other vital ideas to the relevant project notebook in Evernote.

3. Articles to Read Later

As a part of my weekly review process from Tiago Forte, I read all of the newsletters and articles I have captured throughout the previous seven days.

I have a notebook called "Inbox," where all of my new articles reside. I use the Evernote Web Clipper in Chrome to quickly transfer articles into Evernote to read them later.

I also subscribe to newsletters with my Evernote email address (which you can find in your Evernote Account Settings). I receive my newsletters in Evernote's Inbox, which happens to be my default notebook.

4. Meeting Notes

I always use Evernote to take notes. Even in offline mode, you can easily take meeting notes in Evernote on your iPad, synchronize the data when you get into a Wi-Fi zone, and process the new information later.

Just be sure to create a reminder in your task management system to process all of your notes, identify essential tasks, and disregard everything else.

Taking notes does not mean much if you do not read them later (I know this from years of wasted note-taking).

5. Past Accomplishments.

One of the first notebooks I created in Evernote was a list of my most significant accomplishments in the last year.

I wanted a place to remember all of the things I did well to review the list and remind myself that I was still on track to be a high achiever. I recommend you create a new note for each year of your life going back as far as you can remember.

Record all of the great things you accomplished, trips you went on, new experiences that changed your life, or any other significant personal victory.

You will be surprised how a list like this can boost your self-esteem and provide some needed perspective to set new goals for the future.

6. Templates.

I frequently receive emails from different people that look and sound identical. So, I created a notebook with email templates, and I use them as frameworks to design each response.

This same technique can work with writing a new blog post, starting a new project, or any other repetitive task where a template can save you time and mental energy from re-inventing the wheel.

7. Personal Records

My notes contain essential information I only look at once a year, such as records of my medical history, addresses of homes I have lived in, employment histories, books to read, and even critical financial data.

The process requires a bit of trust with the Evernote system. I do make sure that all my data is stored between Evernote and Google Drive.

Final Thoughts.

There are hundreds and thousands of apps that are available these days that can bring productivity and efficiency. It's easy to spend time browsing all of them and stay unproductive. But, the key is to use our prudence in the selection, adopt a workflow and trust the system.

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