If you google Evernote you will be flooded with articles and blog posts about it. This is by now means the way to use Evernote, it is just my way of using it. And it will most likely change.
I started from creating a bunch of notebooks. Since I wanted to keep everything in Evernote I have quite a spread of different topics here.
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| Some of my Evernote notebooks. The arrow points to a notebook stack including two notebooks. |
My current notebooks are:
0. Default Inbox - this is the default notebook where things go before being sorted. If I don't have the time, or if I'm just sending something to Evernote (e.g. through email - yes, you can send emails to your Evernote!) it will go here. I will move it from here later and put it in an appropriate notebook.
1. Lab Journal - this is a place where I will keep track of my everyday work. I'm going to attempt being fairly paperless and not having a physical notebook - I will instead use my iPad to make notes.
2. Meetings - notes from meetings, as well as agendas for future meetings go in here. This includes meetings with my supervisors, but also meetings with any other group of people, e.g. a journal club or admin meetings.
3. PhD Advice & Resources - this is where I put links and notes on anything that might make my PhD journey easier. It might be articles on academic workflows, courses worth doing, productivity tips, software worth checking out, thesis writing advice etc.
3. PhD Concepts & Definitions, Ideas & Notes - this title is pretty self explanatory I think!
3. Programming (stack):
- Code Bits - I would like to put useful pieces of code in here. I found that while using R and LaTeX I would sometimes encounter a problem, then do a fair bit of research and find a neat way of solving the issue. Then 8 months later I'd have no clue how I sorted it out… I had no place to put such bits of information and would end up having to dig through my old pieces of work in order to find out how I did something.
- Web Archives & Resources - pretty self explanatory, things related to programming that are not bits of code!
4. Conferences
4. Travel - I wasn't sure whether to split those two or just keep them as one folder, but then I thought that I might want to keep other information on conferences, not necessarily strictly related to travel. So there are two folders for now.
7. Blogs (stack):
- About Blogging - where I keep generic information related to the activity.
- Blog Ideas & Drafts - some bloggers write their blog posts in Evernote. I'm not sure I will do that, but I think it might be useful for storing ideas and resources. For instance, if I read an article and it gives me an idea for a post, I can not only jot the idea down, but can send the article to Evernote too, so that it's kept there for reference.
Food & Drink (stack):
- Baking, Cooking, Wine, Basics & Resources - those 4 notebooks should be pretty self explanatory. I keep my favourite recipes there. It's pretty handy - I just took some photos of my mum's cookbook when I went home, which saved me having to copy out things by hand. I can also copy things sent by friends or found on the web into there. And when I go shopping and want to check what I need for lasagne I can get access to the ingredients on my phone.
House - I live in a shared house, so anything relating to the house, like bills or inventory, goes here. I can easily email the information to my housemates from Evernote too, or I could share the notes or even the whole folder with them.
Manuals & Documentation - I want to try to be fairly paperless, so any manuals, timetables, schedules etc. go here.
Other Interests & Cabinet - I have quite a range of interests and I didn't want to create a whole bunch of folders, so everything else that doesn't fit into the folders above goes in here. This can be things like good articles on organising your wardrobe, blog posts on sexism, article on diseases in pet parrots or a business card of this awesome rock climber I met on my last trip.
Wish List & Gift Ideas - what it says on the tin!
Note: numbers in front of some of the notebooks above are there to force the notebooks to appear in certain order (the most wanted ones on top).