Poweruser-tips for Evernote

For those that use Evernote a lot - particularly at work - here are a bunch of useful ways that you could use Evernote. I use it to keep notes, organize documents, manage tasks, online storage and to stay productive in general.<

Tags
Give every subject, place and person a tag. People start with @, common subjects with #. Emails you find important should be forwarded to the evernote email address. You then tag them with the correct subject, people, meetings. Meeting notes should also get ID'ed and tagged. To check if all your notes are tagged correctly, regularly use a "No Tag" saved search (-tag:**) to do some housekeeping.

Auto Import Folders
Set up a folder on your hard-disk that uses the Auto-Add function. It works wonders. Any report you come across or gets sent to you, can be saved there - and then automatically appears in your Evernote.

Evernote Portable
Setup a thumb drive that with PortableApps, and a portable version of Evernote. This really comes in handy when you are changing computers often.

Bookmarks
Use the Evernote clipper to save work related bookmarks, as you can then expand on the note. For example, if you clip a link, you can then add your thoughts to the note and forward it to a colleague. Unlike delicious or other bookmark websites, this way you are less likely to lose a bookmark with Evernote, and more likely to tag it properly.

Process: Weekly Sheet (screenshot)
I try and spend 15mins on Monday morning getting to grips with the week - meetings, projects and outputs. For every week I create a new weekly note with the Monday date. I then list all the major tasks I expect to attack that week. I use that sheet for the week and every day add new tasks, meeting notes or any thoughts or ideas to this note. I use the downloaded flash version of David Seah's excellent Emergent Task Timer to record time spent on different things. At the end of the day I screengrab the timer screen and merge the note with the week note.

Process: saving reports (screenshot)
I do a lot of research and read quite a few reports. Usually if I've found the document on the internet, I'll clip the accompanying description or press release and merge the notes. I'll then save the report (do it after you clip so the press release is above the report in the merge) to my Auto Import folder. If its something I need to read I'll add a ToDo tag, or put a list of check boxes in it if I am looking for something in the report. I have two saved searches that find these ToDos, one for the unticked check box, the other for Tag:ToDo. All the notes that I take from the report are added to the note with the report - and any clipped web pages (for example, press on the report).

Process: Project sheets
When I'm working on a large project, it will get its own tag. However, if is a confined project it will only have a Project Sheet. This sits in my Today folder (Inbox) if it is active. Any notes, emails or documents are saved and merged into the Project Sheet. If the note gets too long, I break them in two where the project requires. If its longer than that, it gets a tag!