9 Comments
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Vitali's avatar

Thanks Jon, I've just finishing "vaporising" 100 odd labels that I have been accumulating / hoarding since 2015 EEEK! Very liberating & cathartic. During this process I was wondering why I assigned such frothy tags? Possibly early onset Diogenes syndrome.

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Jon Tromans's avatar

Always good to have a clear out. One of the other problems I have with tags is that you kind of need to remember the tags you've got so you know what tag to use. For me this would just make things too complicated.

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Michael G's avatar

I'm a tagger, and it's one of my favorite features of Evernote. I like the one-to-many organizational structure of tags, rather than the one-to-one nature of notebooks. I use two notebooks: one with notes that I'd like to be downloaded for offline use - and then everything else. I otherwise don't have much use for notebooks, personally.

It is true, though, that sometimes my tag system can get unwieldy. I will occasionally cull or merge my tags if I find they are not serving me.

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Jon Tromans's avatar

I like the idea of having a good clear out every now and then. I remove notebooks and tags that I don't use every few months.

Good to keep things in order!

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Andrew's avatar

Maybe I need to revisit tasks in EN. I'm waiting for ToDoist to allow multiple profiles so I can cleanly and completely separate personal & work tasks. For now I use Apple Reminders for personal tasks & ToDoist for Work stuff (and EN for capturing everything else). Would be nice to have it all in one app!

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Mark's avatar

Everyone should have a system for organizing their information and then develop their use of EN in a way that best matches what they're trying to accomplish. I'm a tagger, but I wouldn't say they are better than notebooks without qualification.

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Jon Tromans's avatar

Totally agree. The line gets drawn for me when the system starts hindering the productivity. I try to revisit my workflows every 6 months to see if I can simplify things.

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Andrew's avatar

TOTALLY agree with you on the tags in EN. Much easier for me to have a meaningful title and a folder structure that keeps things organized.

I DO use tags in ToDoist to organize my tasks (I can’t get into using tasks in EN). But that’s only around 200 items vs the thousands I manage in EN. Just found your blog today & I’m looking forward to reading more!

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Jon Tromans's avatar

Thinking about it I used tags in Todoist as well, but no too many. Usually to prioritise things how I wanted. I moved all my tasks over to Evernote when the recurring feature was launched. Never looked back.

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