The Secret Weapon = evernote + email + getting things done

Gladys Beñan - Your Leading Edge Virtual Professional 1

The Secret Weapon (TSW) is
a technique which combines
Evernote and “Getting
Things Done” GTD to help
organize your tasks.

This tutorial makes use
of Evernote, Yahoo mail,
and GTD Technique.

1. Install Evernote for
Desktop.

Go to https://evernote.com/

Scroll down to the bottom of
the Evernote page. Find and
click “Download”.

If it won’t download instantly,
click here.

While downloading…

When pop-up box opens, click
“Run”.

While preparing to install…

While installing…

Once this box opens, click
“Finish” to finalize installation.

“Evernote” desktop version
opens.

2. Prepping Evernote for
TSW.

Click “File”.

When drop-down menu opens,
click “New Notebook”.

A box opens, which asks for
a new notebook name.

Type “Cabinet” and click “OK”.

The name of new notebook is
now “Cabinet”.

Now, look for your default
notebook which was
generated when you
created the Evernote
account.

It will usually be titled “First
Notebook”.

“Right click” on your default
notebook to reveal a
dropdown.

Click “Rename”.

Rename it to “Actions
Pending”.

Right click on “Actions
Pending” for dropdown menu
to appear and click “Add
Stack”.

Then, click on “New stack”.

At this point. A new
“Notebook Stack” is
created.

Right click on “Notebook
Stack”.

to open these options. Click
“Rename”.

Change the name to “Tasks”.

Right click on Tasks and click
“Create Notebook in Tasks”.

A box will open for a new
notebook name.

Type “Completed” and click
“OK”.

Now we have a notebook for
the tasks we need to do and
another for tasks completed.

We now need a way to
sort our tasks by using
labels.

Click on “Pending Actions”.

Then, click “New Notebook”.

A box will open where you will
be able to create a new note.

Place cursor in the title field.

Give it the title of “First note”.

Click “Add tag”.

Add the tags:
.What,.When, .Where,
.Who, .Active Projects,
and .Inactive Projects

Type “.What” and press
“Enter Key” .

Proceed in adding the said
tags.

When all are added, it will
look like this.

These tags represent
the broad categories of
task groupings.

Now let’s proceed in
adding tags for “When
concepts”.

Add the tags: !Daily, 1-
Now, 2-Next, 3-Soon, 4-
Later, 5-Someday, and
6-Waiting .

This is how it looks when
we’ve added the when tags.

You can view all tags you’ve
added by clicking “Tags”.

Then let’s add tags for
the who context. For
example let’s add: Ann,
Mark, Glenn, Cathy.

If you’re running out of space,
click on the arrow down icon
then click “add tag”

A box will open. Type the tag
then click “OK”.

You also have the
option to add a 2nd note
where you can add
more tags.

Click “+New Note”.

A note will open.

Give it the title “2nd note”.

We can proceed in
adding the tags for
where context: @Home,
@Town, @Work.

Click “Add tag”.

Add the tags for where
context.

Now let’s add tags for
what context:
Marketing, Distribution,
and Sales.

Click on “Add tag”.

Add the what tags.

Next step in prepping
evernote for TSW is
organizing tags.

On the tags menu

for example, we can put “Active
Projects” under “What”.

Do that by clicking and
holding “Active Projects”, than
put it on top of “What”.

This is what it looks like.

Also transfer “Inactive Projects”
under “What”.

To look like this.

Next step is putting out
time context tags under
“When”.

Transfer “Daily” under “When”.

Do the same for “1-
Now,2-Next, 3-Soon, 4-
Later, 5-Someday, 6-
Waiting.

Put these when context tags
under “When”.

It will look like this.

Next step is to move
the where context tags
under “When”.

Put @Home, @Town, and
@Work under “Where”

It will end up looking like this.

Now, transfer the who context
tags under “Who”.

It will look like this.

Proceed with transferring
the remaining tags under
the appropriate broad
concept tag.

Put Distribution, Marketing,
and Sales under “What”.

To look like this.

At this point, the structure
we created are groups
under other groups or
sub-groups under groups.

We also have the option
to “collapse” or

expand the groupings by
clicking on the “Arrows” on the
left of the tags.

3. Managing the Email
Inbox.

Let’s begin by sending
emails to Evernote.

On your Evernote account
click “Tools”.

When options open, click
“Account Info”.

When account info opens,
there you will see the
“Evernote Email Address”.

To make it easier for you
to send emails to
Evernote, save the
“Evernote Email Address”
to your “Contacts”.

For this example I used Yahoo
Mail. Click “New Contact”.

Right click and then click
“Copy”.

Go back to Yahoo Mail and
paste to email field.

Click “Save”.

Evernote Email Address is now
saved to “Contacts”.

Any email you send to
that email address will
automatically be saved as
a note in your Evernote
account.

Tip: Before sending an
email to Evernote, you can
send it directly to a
notebook by adding a
prefix to the title.

For example, you want to
forward this email to Evernote
but want it to go to the
notebook “Travel”.

Add @Travel to the beginning
of the title, then press “Send”.

Note: In Outlook you can send
emails by batches by using this
button.

Note: Evernote Basic
Plan only allows you to
forward 5 emails
maximum.

To maximixe use of The
Secret Weapon
subscribe to “Premium
Plan”.

If you use Yahoo Mail or
Gmail you have to open
the message one by
one.

Let’s say that we will forward
some emails from Yahoo. Click
on one of the emails.

Click the “Forward” icon.

A box for forwarding will open
with a blank “To” field.

Type the Evernote email
address.

Click “Send”.

Send more emails to
Evernote.

Once you have sent all
that you want, open
Evernote desktop.

If the emails do not appear in
Evernote

click “Sync” for Evernote to
refresh and so the emails will
appear.

Note: Emails automatically
appear under “Actions Pending”,
default notebook.

We can now add tags to the
emails.

Add tag by dragging the email
to the chosen tag.

Do the “Tagging
Procedure” to the
emails.

Tagging is successful if you see
the tag on the email.

The default view is “Snippet”.

You may change the view by
clicking the “Grid” icon and
“Top List”.

Top List view looks like this.It
shows more details.

Top list also allows you to
see the tags instantly.

You can also merge
notes of similar title,
deadline or context.

Merging notes before
tagging will enable you
to add the same tags to
them.

Highlight notes to be
merged by using “ctrl+click”.

Right click and select “Merge
Notes”.

Items which do not require
action, can be moved to
“Cabinet”.

After tagging, we can
now proceed to sorting
or emails.

Click on “Tags”.

It will arrange the notes
according to “When context”
from 1 to 6 or priority with
time.

Note: The 6-Waiting tag
can be added to emails
that need a response
from someone else.

4. Doing Tasks
According to Priority
and Emptying the
Inbox.

On Evernote, click “Actions
Pending”.

Then click “Daily”.

This is to prioritize tasks
that need to be done
today.

Answer Daily tasks in
your email and transfer
them to a folder for
items that are
“Completed”.

After Daily, filter on to the
next, Do the tasks and reply to
the email.

Repeat the same until all
the notes, and tasks are
done and marked as
completed both in
Evernote and email.

To put note under
“Completed” in
Evernote.

On the note, click here.

A drop-down menu opens
and select “Completed”.

Now that the status is changed
to “Completed”

It is now categorized under
“Tasks: Completed”.

You have just finished a
detailed tutorial of The
Secret Weapon. Now,
customize and practice it
for a more efficient you.

The Secret Weapon = evernote + email + getting things done

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