Productivity tips

Set up a Table of Contents Note

A feature that can help you find what you are looking for in Evernote is the table of contents. Essentially, it is a note that contains an organized list of links to other notes. To create a table of contents note, create a note and give it a relevant title. Next, you can select the notes you want to include in the table of contents. Copy the internal links and paste them into your new table of contents note. The use cases for a table of contents note are limitless. For example, it could be useful to create an index for the agendas to regular meetings. As a I writer, I keep an archive of articles I have written in Evernote. Each article is a separate note, but they are all organized in a table of contents note. I only need to review one note to see an index of all the articles I have written.

Search Inside A Note

If you know you are in the correct note, but you want to quickly find a word within the note, use the keyboard shortcutCmd + Shift + F on Mac and Ctrl + Shift + F on Windows. You can also use this command to replace one or all instances of the word in your note.

Boolean Search

For Evernote Professional and Teams users, you can do a Boolean search. Boolean uses AND, OR, NOT, and ( ) operators to combine or exclude keywords in a search. For example, typing “coffee AND tea” in the search bar will show only notes that contain both words, while typing “coffee OR tea” will show notes that contain either word. Learn more about Boolean search from the Evernote YouTube channel.

Filtered Search

When you execute a search that generates too many results, you can narrow your search using filters. Click on the funnel icon above the search results. You will have the option to filter your search by tags, notebooks, creation date and more.

Keyboard Shortcuts Make Search Even Faster

You can speed up your search even more by learning keyboard shortcuts. To access a search dialog box from anywhere in the application, type Cmd + J on Mac or Ctrl + Q on Windows. If you have never used keyboard shortcuts before, you will wonder why you waited so long to try it. Go here for a full list of keyboard shortcuts in Evernote for Windows, Mac, or iOS.

Search Bar

The simplest way to execute a search is Evernote search bar. It is easily accessible on desktop, web, and mobile no matter where you are in the app. Tap on the magnifying glass icon, type in a few key words, and your search results are seconds away.

Evernote Calendar

Evernote has created an integration with Google calendar that allows you to view your calendar from within the app. The calendar is displayed as a widget on Home dashboard. Once the calendar is linked you can view the events in the calendar widget in timeline or list views.

Evernote Tasks

There are many ways that people have attempted to convert Evernote into a task manager over the years. Evernote paid attention, and now the feature is baked in the application. With the launch of the Tasks feature, Evernote has made it possible to move seamlessly between your to-dos and the information you need to get the job done.

Evernote Home

Evernote Home is designed to combine your most relevant and useful information in a single place. It uses widgets to create a productivity dashboard. From Home, you have quick access to the information you need the most. In the Personal, Professional, and Teams accounts, you have the ability to place up to 12 widgets on the Home Dashboard. Free Evernote accounts have a notes widget, a scratch pad widget, and a recently captured widget. Personal, Professional, and Teams accounts have additional widget options (including Tasks and Calendar), as well as the ability to customize the way Home looks. Home helps you organize Evernote using widgets. Home is so well done that it might fundamentally change how you use Evernote. Some will prefer it compared to using the sidebar to navigate their Evernote account. Home is the default screen when you open the application on your desktop, mobile device, or browser. As you navigate the app, you can return Home at anytime using the Home button at the top of the sidebar navigation.

Find the actual URL from shortened URL

When on the internet we come across a shortened URL multiple times. Those bit.ly URL mostly. We cannot really know what is behind that masked URL unless we click it. But there is a trick to unmask the URL right from your terminal.

curl -kIs -w "%{redirect_url}\n" -o /dev/null  <url_here>Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Replace the <url_here> portion with your shortened URL. This requires you to be connected to internet. Simple explanation about how this works is. curl follows the redirects right from terminal until it gets 200 OK. You have to understand HTTP protocol to grasp a understanding on HTTP Status codes.